What in the world is going on? The New York Times reports that the Iraqis are sitting on $79 Billion in unspent cash. So while they are sitting on cash, the U.S. has gone into debt to the tune of $48 Billion to fund Iraqi reconstruction projects.

Here's what Carl Levin had to say about this

“The Iraqi government now has tens of billions of dollars at its disposal to fund large scale reconstruction projects,” said Mr. Levin, who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, in the statement. “It is inexcusable for U.S. taxpayers to continue to foot the bill for projects the Iraqis are fully capable of funding themselves. We should not be paying for Iraqi projects, while Iraqi oil revenues continue to pile up in the bank,” Mr. Levin said.

The Department of Defense announced today that three more Guantanamo detainees have been released. We don't know their names but one was sent to Afghanistan, another to the UAE, and the third to Qatar. These are three more of the five hundred prisoners who Donald rumsfeld labelled as the "worst of the worst" who have been released from Guantanamo without charges. According to DoD there are 265 left to go.

This announcement is good news for these prisoners but what is really remarkable is the language used by DoD in making the announcement. First, there is this,

These detainees were determined to be eligible for transfer following a comprehensive series of review processes.

The Ninth Circuit issued an unpublished decision in the case U.S. v Gilbert on July 15 holding that the recent Supreme Court Second Amendment case does not give people the right to own automatic weapons and sawed off rifles. The court stated

The Supreme Court’s recent decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. _ (2008), holding that the Second Amendment protects a limited individual right to possess a firearm–unconnected with service in a militia–does not alter our conclusion.  Under Heller, individuals still do not have the right to possess machineguns or short-barreled rifles, as Gilbert did, and convicted felons, such as Gilbert, do not have the right to possess any firearms.  Id., Slip. Op. at 27.

Since the Supreme Court decided the Heller case there has been much speculation regarding the scope of the ruling. Would this open the flood gates to unrestricted ownership of handguns and permit the ownership other types of weapons, like assault rifles. The Ninth Circuit opinion says that it does not.

Today, the Supreme Court issued a decision in District of Columbia v Heller striking down the District of Columbia ban on hand gun ownership. Contrary to what some may think, the world has not been turned on its head, except that a rallying cry for the NRA and other forces that have used gun control as a wedge issue against Democrats for decades has been partially neutered.

The Court held that the second amendment right to bear arms is an individual, not just a collective right associated with having a state militia. But, it is still a limited right and is not totally disconnected from the concept of a militia. The court basically held that at the time of the founding the weapons that people had for personal protection are the same weapons they brought to their service in the militia. It is those weapons that the court says are covered by the Amendment.

(There have been several other diaries announcing the decision. I'm posting this with several excerpts in order to provide my take on it.)

The House passed FISA bill is bad legislation for many reasons, but these are the five biggest problems I see.

Politically Unnecessary

When addressing a bill with so many substantive issues I hate to start out with the politics of the matter but in this case it seems necessary. There can be no doubt the Democrats who support this bill do so in the belief that their support will protect them from charges they are soft on terrorism. That belief is misplaced. In the upcoming election the only card the Republicans have to play is the fear card. Every Democrat will have to face the "soft on terrorism" charge irrespective of how they vote on this or any other piece of legislation. Why? Because the fear card is premised on a lie, and that lie will be repeated over and over again.

I wrote this back in February in an effort to cool some of the tempers here at DKos and encourage all to keep this nomination process in perspective. Well, the inevitable day I wrote about has finally come. I am encouraged that many are adjusting to the new reality and looking forward to the fight ahead of us. But some of us haven't quite made it there yet. For all of you, please consider this.

Breaking-Obama Endorses Clinton

When the time comes, the headline will probably read "Clinton Endorses Obama" since he seems well on his way to securing the nomination, but either way the loser will endorse the winner.

That will happen because both of them want to see a Democrat elected to the White House. Both of them believe that another Republican President would continue the disastrous policies of the Bush Administration, or make them worse. They both want to see the American ship of state righted. Finally, they both are Democrats who will work for the party's candidate and work to get as many Democrats elected to Congress as possible

The New York Times hit a home run when it exposed Bush's mendacity on Jim Webb's GI bill causing Bush to squeal like a stuck pig. It all started with this New York Times editorial which nails Bush's opposition to Webb's bill with some biting but all to accurate commentary.

He is wrong, but at least he is consistent. Having saddled the military with a botched, unwinnable war, having squandered soldiers’ lives and failed them in so many ways, the commander in chief now resists giving the troops a chance at better futures out of uniform. He does this on the ground that the bill is too generous and may discourage re-enlistment, further weakening the military he has done so much to break.

Go to this link or look below for a picture of Phoenix with its chute deployed as it descends to the Martian surface. It was taken by one of the Mars orbiters.

This is truly a first. There has never been a picture taken of a vehicle landing on another planet. The Phoenix lander promises many great discoveries, but for emotional impact it'll have a tough time topping this.

I don't know how to load the picture, which is why I linked to the site. If anyone knows how to do that please let me know. Update. With the help of mbyarob the picture is now posted.

I know this is not the usual subject for DKos, but this really is worth sharing.

Ever since McCain and Clinton proposed and Obama opposed a Gas Tax Holiday, a proposal to repeal the 18.4 cent Federal tax on gasoline for the summer months, there has been near universal condemnation of the idea from a policy standpoint. There is another aspect though that is arguably worse. If enacted, the "holiday" would become a political football in the general election and runs the risk of becoming a permanent vacation.

Before getting into that, here is a little discussion of the policy debate. It can be skipped by those who have been following this issue closely..

Yesterday, Monday April 28, 2008, the man who used to be the Chief Prosecutor at Guantanamo  gave sworn testimony that puts the lie to the farce of the of the Military Commissions AcT (MCA) proceedings being used to try alleged terrorists. Col. Morris Davis told the tribunal hearing the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan that

Defense Department general counsel William J. Haynes II, who announced his retirement in February, once bristled at the suggestion that some defendants could be acquitted, an outcome that Davis said would give the process added legitimacy.

"He said, 'We can't have acquittals,' " Davis said under questioning from Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brian Mizer, the military counsel who represents Hamdan. " 'We've been holding these guys for years. How can we explain acquittals? We have to have convictions.' "

(Note, there is no transcript available at this time.)

"It's times like this I realize the duality of war," he said. "The guys upstairs are shooting at people, and we're trying to figure out how to shove poop down a hole."

That statement from Lt. Adam Bowen encapsulated not only the plight of his platoon hunkered down in Sadr City but also the entire U.S. endeavor in the Iraq fiasco.

In an announcement to faculty and students Christopher Edley, Jr. , Dean of the Boalt Hall School of Law at Berkeley said that in his personal opinion the actions of tenured professor Jon Yoo do not rise to the standard that would warrant Yoo's dismissal.

That is not to say that Edley is an apologist for Yoo. In fact, some of his comments are striking. Edley writes,

There are important questions about the content of the Yoo memoranda, about tortured definitions of "torture," about how he and his colleagues conceived their role as lawyers, and about whether and when the Commander in Chief is subject to domestic statutes and international law.

Lawyers for Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri have requested the Fourth Circuit consider the Yoo memorandum in its deliberations on al-Marri's pending appeal. Specifically the lawyers argue that al-Marri was designated an illegal enemy combatant based on the erroneous legal advice contained in the Yoo memorandum and that if the Circuit Court upholds his detention it will be doing so on the basis of advice that even the Department of Justice has rejected.

This developnent is discussed in this Washington Post article and in Scotusblog.com.

John Yoo's damage to our Constitution and the nation it created is even worse than we thought. We now discover that in 2001 he told BushCo that they were free to violate the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. This little part of that quaint document says,

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

This was first diaried by skisb and then by mspicata, but since those posts slipped beneath the waves I felt the need to keep the subject up on the board.

The D.C. Court of Appeals has disbarred Irving Lewis (Scooter) Libby. At least there is a tiny bit of accountability.

One of my least favorite people, Henry Kissinger, finds a truffle now and again. In an interview with Bloomberg he appeared to repudiate the current BushCo policy of no direct negotiations with Iran. In doing so he seems to be siding with most of the Democratic candidates, particularly Obama, who took some heat on this issue a couple of months ago. Before going further, please be clear that I am not praising Kissinger. This man has done more than his share to sully the reputation of the United States as a result of his inability to focus on our real interests. But, even he can stumble on a truth.

In response to a question Kissinger said,

``One should be prepared to negotiate, and I think we should be prepared to negotiate about Iran,'' Kissinger, who brokered the end of the 1973 Yom Kippur war and peace talks with the North Vietnamese, said yesterday in an interview with Bloomberg Television. Asked whether he meant the US should hold direct talks, Kissinger, 84, responded: ``Yes, I think we should.''

this one, but Jimstaro's must read Winter Soldier diary.

Just hours after BushCo officials McConnell and Mukasey told the world that our lives, heck, our very mortal souls, were in danger from the expiration of the so-called Protect America Act, they recanted. According to Reuters

The Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a joint statement saying wiretaps will resume under the current law "at least for now."

"Although our private partners are cooperating for the time being, they have expressed understandable misgivings about doing so in light of the ongoing uncertainty and have indicated they may well discontinue cooperation if the uncertainty persists," the statement said.