Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions said the following in his opening statment regarding the nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court:

[A]s you have already seen, our confirmation process is not a pretty site. Time and again, you will have your legal positions, your predecisional memoranda -- even as a young lawyer -- distorted or taken out of context.

These attacks are driven most often by outside groups. They will dig through the many complex cases that you have dealt with in an effort to criticize your record. They will produce on cue the most dire warnings that civil liberties in America will be lost forever if you're confirmed as a federal judge.

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This is the week that will make Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions (R-AL), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, a Republican star. Here is the man that is the very embodiment of the Republican Party that emerged out of the Civil Rights Movement, the anti-everybody not a white male party. He is what the Republican Party is today - a reactionary, resentful, paranoid, white Southern male.

In the Sotomayor hearings, I will be watching for two things - (1) will Democratic Senators try to fight and win the framing wars on right wing judicial activism? (Sotmayor's confirmation is a foregone conclusion imo.); (2) Will Republicans allow (and Democrats encourage) the GOP image to be cemented as the party against women, Latinos, African Americans, Asians and "Others" - refighting "The Lost Cause"? The NYTimes provides a list of "experts" who point to other things to "look for":

Thousands showed up in Denver today to register to audition for American Idol. By 7am, the line extended 1/4 mile around the stadium. The process continues through Tuesday, when those selected today and Monday will get to sing for the judges.

I wonder how many of them have read the release (pdf)they must sign before going on. Or, in the case of the younger aspirants, if their parents have read and understand it. Why do these reality shows get away with these one-sided contracts filled with legalese only a legal expert could decipher? Compare it to their FAQ's for auditioning, and the Rules, which are in plain English.

What happened where you are today? This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Former police officer Clyde Ray Spencer spent 20 years in prison after his kids claimed he sexually molested them and he pleaded no contest to the charges. On Friday, at a court hearing, the kids, now adults, said the abuse never happened.

What persuaded them at first that it did happen and why did it take them so long to retract the claims?

Matthew, now 33, was 9 years old at the time. He told a judge he made the allegation after months of insistent questioning by now-retired Clark County sheriff's detective Sharon Krause just so she would leave him alone.

Tetz, 30, said she doesn't remember what she told Krause back in 1985, but she remembers Krause buying her ice cream. She said that when she finally read the police reports she was "absolutely sure" the abuse never happened. "I would have remembered something that graphic, that violent," Tetz said.

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The ACLU hits the highlights of the Inspector General's unclassified report (pdf) on the Bush administration's warrantless electronic surveillance program.

• The White House asked the CIA to prepare independent “threat assessments” to determine whether the surveillance program was necessary, but then told the CIA to add a paragraph to the end of each threat assessment stating that terrorists possessed the intent and capability to stage terrorist attacks within the United States (p. 7);

• Many officials, agents and analysts believe that “most PSP (Presidential Surveillance Program) leads were determined not to have any connection to terrorism,” and that “the mere possibility of the leads producing useful information” justified the program (p. 32), directly contradicting previous statements that the program was critical;

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As a follow-up yesterday's post on the Newsweek article suggesting Attorney General Eric Holder may conduct an investigation of Bush torture policies, I'd like to point you to Glenn Greenwald today. He points out that the sources floating this trial balloon also indicate:

[T]he investigation will only target "rogue" CIA interrogators who exceeded the limits of what John Yoo authorized, and would not include high-level policy makers who authorized the torture tactics and implemented America's torture regime.

In other words, as Greenwald writes, it would be Abu Ghraib redux. Tim F. at Balloon Juice makes a similar point.

Frank Rich has an interesting, but ultimately shortsighted and wrongfully aimed column today:

Sarah Palin and Al Sharpton don’t ordinarily have much in common, but they achieved a rare harmonic convergence at Michael Jackson’s memorial service. . . . Sharpton told the singer’s children it was their daddy’s adversaries, not their daddy, who were “strange,” he was channeling the pugnacious argument the Alaska governor had made the week before. . . . Sharpton’s bashing of Jackson’s naysayers received the biggest ovation of the entire show. . . . Th[e] overwhelming majority [of the GOP] isn’t just the “base” of the Republican Party that liberals and conservatives alike tend to ghettoize as a rump backwater minority. It is the party, or pretty much what remains of it in the Barack Obama era.

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It's dinnertime here and we're under another severe thunderstorm watch. Do I take a chance on barbecuing steaks or order in? Saigon soft shell crabs sound pretty good.

What are you all doing tonight?

The New York Times reports on a covert program planned by the CIA that Dick Cheney ordered be kept secret.

The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney, the agency’s director, Leon E. Panetta, has told the Senate and House intelligence committees, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday.

....Mr. Panetta, who ended the program when he first learned of its existence from subordinates on June 23, briefed the two intelligence committees about it in separate closed sessions the next day.

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Newsweek has a long feature article on Attorney General Eric Holder.

Four knowledgeable sources tell NEWSWEEK that he is now leaning toward appointing a prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration's brutal interrogation practices, something the president has been reluctant to do. While no final decision has been made, an announcement could come in a matter of weeks, say these sources, who decline to be identified discussing a sensitive law-enforcement matter.

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How's your weekend shaping up? I have work to do.

This is an Open Thread.

The Washington Post reports on the release of the Unclassified Inspector General report on warrantless wiretapping (and other forms of electronic surveillance). [The unclassified report is here.(pdf)]

Today's report, prepared by five inspectors general from government intelligence agencies, was mandated by Congress in legislation last year that updated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to accommodate new technologies. The bulk of the review remains highly classified.

...The inspectors general from the Departments of Justice and Defense, as well as the CIA, the NSA and the office of the Director of National Intelligence, said they reviewed thousands of documents and interviewed more than 200 people in connection with the report, including Bush era officials John Negroponte, who served as director of national intelligence, National Security Agency Director Michael V. Hayden, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

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