Although gymnast Nastia Liukin has been a good sport about tying -- and then, thanks to mathematical minutiae, losing to China's He Kexin in the Olympic uneven bars final -- the Internatioal Olympic Committee ought to be more vigilant.  If doping is considered cheating -- because it unfairly enhances performance -- then why is lying about one's age not considered cheating by the International Olympics Committee?  After all, in other sports, falsifying age has been a disqualifier.

How ironic.  I wrote a diary yesterday that spent quite a while on the Rec. List (thank you, Kossacks) about my experience of extreme illegality in applying for a job within the Justice Department.  
http://www.dailykos.com/...

Yesterday, coincidentally, Attorney General Michael Mukasey told the American Bar Association that job applicants who were rejected by the Justice Department because of improper political considerations will be urged to apply for open positions.  I will do that today as a test case because I don't take Mukasey at his word.  Please let me know of any openings you see that fit my resume.

I have a piece in this week's Legal Times on the Justice Department's report about its own illegal hiring practices.  In the diary, I quote from a "smoking gun" letter, http://pdfserver.amlaw.com/..., in which my application for a counsel position in the Justice Department was sent to the White House for vetting--by the infamous Kyle Sampson, whose office requested my voter registration card.  (Sampson later followed Alberto Gonzales from the White House to the Justice Department, where Gonzales wreaked havoc as Attorney General and Sampson did his bidding as chief of staff.)

The Washington Post reports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can seize

any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form,

including hard drives, flash drives, cellphones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes. http://www.washingtonpost.com/...  Not only can the government now sieze your laptops, cellphones and other digital devices--sometimes for months--they can also sieze

all papers and other written documentation . . . [including] written materials commonly referred to as "pocket trash" or "pocket litter."

This policy applies to even U.S. citizens entering their own country!

Yesterday, the House voted 424 to 1 to ban lead and phthalates from items like bathtub rubber duckies that end up in kids' mouths.  But the other significant part of this bill, which is completely overlooked by the MSM, is that it provides landmark whistleblower protection to 20 million workers who report product safety concerns.  This foreshadows three weeks coming up in September during which there will be opportunities to get a vote on reforms to the Whistleblower Protection Act, which desperately needs safeguards like those in the wonderful consumer protection bill.  For anyone who has been through the whistleblower wringer, you know why this is so desperately needed.  And if not, I'll tell you after the jump.

Yesterday the ACLU released three more torture memos by the Justice Department, which it obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. http://www.aclu.org/...  One of the memos is basically lawyers for Bu$hCo telling the CIA that it could legally use waterboarding (simulated drowning) to interrogate al Qaeda suspects, as long as the CIA acted "in good faith."  For the non-lawyers out there, this is a transparent (even despite the heavy redaction) attempt to immunize the CIA against having their officials prosecuted for torture.

Whatever you think of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy , the fact the the House Armed Services personnel subcommittee even had Elaine Donnelly testify yesterday on this subject is patently offensive.  

When she says, "We're talking about real consequences for real people," she should have considered that 65,000 gay men and lesbians serve in the armed forces and protect her.  While she rages about the lesbian menace taking pictures of other women in the shower, and the likelihood of

forced intimacy

her ignorance speaks for itself, and for the fact that Congress would invite someone like her to testify on an important substantive policy issue.

UPDATE: The "debate," which started at 11:30am, IS back up and you can watch it here: http://www.c-span.org/...

If we're going down, I'm going down fighting.  This new FISA secret surveillance bill has been haggled behind closed doors (a red flag),l but today the Senate holds final debate on it--a remarkable and appalling turnabout for a once-moribund measure that would have been unthinkable in 2005 when Bush's secret spying program was exposed.

IF ANY OF THE AMENDMENTS PASS, THE BILL MUST RETURN TO THE HOUSE OR BE RECONCILED, RATHER THAN GOING STRAIGHT TO BUSH FOR SIGNING.

Over the weekend, the Washington Post (yes, I still read it--keep your enemies closer) did a piece on the popularity of celebrity passport records, http://www.washingtonpost.com/...How many of you can honestly say that you wouldn't sneak-a-peek?  Now imagine, for those of you who would hesitate, how many more of you would do so if it were legal?  Since FISA arguments based on logic are falling on deaf ears, I thought I'd share some real-life experience, including my own.

As evidenced by today's Washington Post lead editorial on "FISA Follies," http://www.washingtonpost.com/..., we in the blogosphere have certainly touched a nerve.  This was also apparent to me when I called a Congressman yesterday and was told that if I was a blogger, I had to speak with someone other than a staffer . . . who then promptly transferred me to the dead end of voice mail.

Today's Washington Post has a front-page, above-the-fold article on the backlog of 900+ qui tam (False Claims Act) cases alleging fraud against the government.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/...  I know about this first hand because for the past two years, before joining the Government Accountability Project, all I did was bring Iraq reconstruction fraud cases.

These Senators were poised to vote on the FISA bill last week but, as we suspected, most of them have not formed an opinion on it. Many had not even read it.  The bad news is that they were going to vote on a bill they had not even reviewed. The good news is that there are minds that can still be changed and time in which to do it. Here's where you come in.  Last week's under-the-radar desperation advocacy--courtesy of Kossacks, "Strange Bedfellows," and an assortment of other bloggers, libertarians and liberals--put the horrendous FISA bill on hold until after the July 4th recess. That was a huge victory, but it will be an empty one if last week's desperation advocacy doesn't become a steady and loud drumbeat against this bill.

Very interesting: These Senators were poised to vote on the FISA bill last week, but most of them have not formed an opinion on it! The bad news is that they were going to vote on a bill they had not even read.  The good news is that there are minds that can still be changed.  Last week's under-the-radar desperation advocacy--courtesy of "Strange Bedfellows," Daily Kos, and an assortment of other leftist bloggers, libertarians and liberals--put the dasterdly FISA bill on hold until after the July 4th recess.  But more than ever, last week's desperation advocacy needs to become a steady and loud drumbeat against this bill.  I urge voter revulsion as part of my "Protect the Fourth on the Fourth" mission. This is not just a rant.  This is a call to action.  Tell your Senators that you won't be contributing to or voting for anyone who's willing to sell out our constitutional rights, and ask how they'll vote on the bill and its amendments (described very briefly below).  LET ME KNOW WHAT THEY SAY AND I'LL POST IT!

Something historic happed late yesterday, yet there is no mention of it in the front section of today's Washington Post.

After a hard-fought battle this week, WE (the liberals, the bloggers, the libertarians) stopped the horrendous new FISA law from secret and swift enactment.  After the House rammed it through, with no debate and with many not even reading it, enough people leaned on their Senators to think twice about a law that would expand already-broad secret surveillance and retroactively immunize telephone companies for spying on their customers without a warrant.

Apparently, the FISA delay victory was eclipsed by the Supreme Court's deeply disturbing handgun ruling, but it still deserves some ink.

GREAT JOB Kossacks, "Strange Bedfellows," and everyone out there who said, No!

A number of libertarians and leftist bloggers have been fighting around the clock to prevent the Senate from voting on the FISA bill that the House cowardly passed, which would provide retroactive immunity to AT&T, Verizon and other telcoms that allowed the Bush administration to spy on their customers' calls, and would further expand the already-broadened FISA law.

Senate and House leaders agreed on surveillance legislation that would provide telecom amnesty and even greater eavesdropping power than is already out there, in horse trading White House agreement to Dem's demands in a war spending bill.  Bismark was right.  It's like watching sausage being made.  

Yesterday's Supreme Court decision sounds the death knell for the black hole otherwise known as Guantánamo  Bay.  Thank you, Supreme Court!  So I will try to boil down the 70-page opinion into its most important holdings. . .

Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a full hearing on "Improving Detainee Policy: Handline Terrorism Detainees within the American Justice System."  Thanks to a fellow Kossack, I was able to submit written testimony for the record.  It probably won't get any press play, but it's the first time in this 7-year-old saga that I've officially given my story to Congress.  In it, I offer a 2-pronged prescription for trying terrorist suspects in American civilian courts.