Happy 5th blogiversary to Skippy the Bush Kangaroo. Skippy has made me smile with his unique writing voice all that time.

His blogiversary post reads like a Who's Who of the liberal blogosphere, so go on over and read it and check out the many blogs mentioned.

Congrats, Skippy, you've been a great blogosphere friend . I wish you many more great blogging years and hope you hit that 2 million mark soon.

In other blogging news, Heretik is doing a great job with Mike's Blog Roundup at Crooks and Liars. For those interested in the mechanics of blogging (such as the change-over of many individual blogs to group blogs and the concept of short head vs. long tail blogs) Chris Bowers explains all at the new blog Open Left in a post he titles, New Establishment Rising? The End Of the Flat Blogosphere

Arianna writes that Democrats can't wait for GOP'ers to defect to act to end the war.

Let's make this an open thread.

The House Judiciary Committee has announced the list of witnesses for Wednesday's hearing on "The Use and Misuse of Presidential Clemency Power for Executive Branch Officials.

Via TP Muckraker and Sentencing Law & Policy:

• Ambassador Joseph Wilson
• Roger Adams, US Department of Justice Pardon Attorney
• Douglas A. Berman, William B. Saxbe Designated Professor of Law, Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University
• Tom Cochran, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Middle District of North Carolina (Attorney for [sic] Vincent Rita, Rita v. US)
• David Rifkin, partner, Baker & Hostetler LLP, former Justice Department official during the Reagan and Bush Sr. administrations.

TP Muckraker quotes Rep. John Conyers on the purpose of the hearing:

"Congress must now look into presidential authority to grant clemency, and how such power may be abused. Taken to its extreme, and possibly in the case of the Libby clemency, the use of such authority could completely circumvent the law enforcement process and prevent credible efforts to investigate wrongdoing in the executive branch."

While I'm pleased Joe Wilson and Prof. Berman, who writes the excellent Sentencing Law & Policy blog are going to be witnesses, I'm concerned that the committee will not be hearing from anyone involved in the Libby commutation process.

There was no clemency petition, the Pardon Attorney was kept out of the loop and I just don't see how these witnesses will shed any light on whether Bush's motive for granting the clemency was proper or improper.

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Say hello to Matt Stoller, Chris Bowers and Mike Lux' new blog, Open Left.

It already has a thumbs up from Digby and Jane Hamsher.

What's it about? Matt Stoller explains here.

Mostly, its "trying to bring progressive activists and professionals from 'inside' and 'outside' the political establishment into regular, thoughtful, and active connection with one another."

I'm all for that, go on over and check it out.

Between Live Earth and blogging, I barely left the computer or the house all weekend. So, you're on your own today. This space is for you.

If you want to see me discuss politics with The Hotline's Blogometer's Conn Carroll, take a look here. - btd

Yesterday, President George Bush turned 61. The Dalai Lama turned 73.

Bush celebrated by going to Camp David.

Via Moderate Voice, Craig Johnston says:

“Two men born on the same day, George Bush and the Dalai Lama.

“One who forgoes all thoughts of self to set the Wheel of the Dharma in motion, dedicates his existence to saving all life from suffering.

“The other, seemingly ethically mute to thoughts of peace and the fortunes of mankind; acts as an axis around which evil conspires.

Karma. Hopefully, what goes around comes around.

[Animated graphic here.]

The ACLU responds to the Sixth Circuit's dismissal of its lawsuit over the NSA warrantless electronic monitoring program.

The decision is here (pdf.)

Big Tent Democrat weighs in here. Also check out Think Progress.

I'm busy day-jobbing today.

What are you reading and thinking about today? (Please remember to put any urls in html format because long ones skew the site.)

This brings us to the second enquiry; which is . . . [i]f he has a right, and that right has been violated, do the laws of his country afford him a remedy?

The very essence of civil liberty certainly consists in the right of every individual to claim the protection of the laws, whenever he receives an injury. One of the first duties of government is to afford that protection. The government of the United States has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men. It will certainly cease to deserve this high appellation, if the laws furnish no remedy for the violation of a vested legal right.

-Marbury v. Madison

One of the great ironies of the seminal case Marbury v. Madison is that it provided no remedy to the party, Marbury, whose vested right was deemed by the Court to be violated. Chief Justice Marshall struck down a law passed by Congress which purported to give jursidiction to the Supreme Court over actions such as Marbury's, ruling that the law was unconstitutional.

Today, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit, dismissed the ACLU's case against the National Security Agency, which sought the enjoining of the NSA's warrantless surveillance program. The Sixth Circuit ruled that the ACLU lacked standing and thus dismissed the case. More.

The Sundance Channel is airing Gimme Shelter tonight. In the clip above, Jagger is dressed up as Uncle Sam.

In December of 1969, four months after Woodstock, the Rolling Stones and Jefferson Airplane gave a free concert in Northern California, east of Oakland at Altamont Speedway. About 300,000 people came, and the organizers put Hell's Angels in charge of security around the stage. Armed with pool cues and knifes, Angels spent the concert beating up spectators, killing at least one. The film intercuts performances, violence, Grace Slick and Mick Jagger's attempts to cool things down, close-ups of young listeners (dancing, drugged, or suffering Angel shock), and a look at the Stones later as they watch concert footage and reflect on what happened.

War, Children, is just a shot away.

Given our President's stunning disregard for the rule of law this week, and that it's the Fourth of July, I'm wondering what thoughts you all have on patriotism and liberty and on how this Administration has driven a stake in the heart of both.

For opposing the war, we're called unpatriotic. Our civil liberties have been disregarded by everything from the NSA warrantless monitoring program to no-fly lists, the Real I.D. Act and federal immigration raids on workplaces.

Scooter Libby, convicted of lying and obstructing justice at a trial conducted openly and with full due process, who was sentenced in accordance with, not outside the law, has been given a get-out-of jail-free card based on cronyism at best and fear that if he talked, he'd sell out others in the corrupt administration, at worst.

So, what are you celebrating today? And if you haven't read it in a while, here's the Declaration of Independence.

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Tell us about a post you read that you particularly liked today.

I really enjoyed this one from Matt Yglesias:

I guess I'm glad that after relentlessly propagandizing on Scooter Libby's behalf, Fred Hiatt has decided that commuting the entirely of Libby's sentence was the wrong thing to do, but I would have traded that small concession to reality for them not making reference to Libby's "long and distinguished record of public service." What record? What distinction? As best I can tell, Libby has done exactly two things in government service -- he's worked for Paul Wolfowitz and he's worked for Dick Cheney.

. . . Hilariously, of Libby's two patrons Wolfowitz is the less embarrassing one. . . .

There's a record of service here, but it's not distinguished. Indeed, at 11-12 years it's not even all that long. Joe Wilson had a long career of distinguished service. Valerie Plame had a long career of distinguished service. Libby had a medium length career that mostly lacked distinction and involved the occasional -- but extremely accute -- lapse into catastrophe, before he found himself resigning because he'd been caught breaking the law.

Heh. Tell us about the piece you enjoyed the most today.

Amidst all the Scooter Libby reactions flying around the blogosphere comes the very sad news that Jim Capozzola of The Rittenhouse Review has died.

Susie at Suburban Guerilla and Skippy have beautiful tributes to him. Avedon Carol at Sideshow has more. Check the comments at Susie's place where many other bloggers have chimed in with their surprise and their sadness.

I don't know how he died, but Susie says he was taken off life support last night.

Jim won a most-deserved early Koufax blogging award for best writing for his post, Al Gore and the Alpha Girls. Check it out if you didn't know Jim or even if you did, just to remember him.

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