The Daily Muck

“Polling…showed public confidence in the judicial system increasing from 6% to 25%.” No, that’s not the Gonzales bounce; those confidence levels, a measure of Iraqi sentiment, were provided by the Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction as signs of progress. Now, Iraqis are only twice as likely to prefer their fate be determined by a coin toss rather than by a jury of their peers. (ABC’s The Blotter)

I guess we shouldn’t be surprised. Back when Alberto Gonzales was Attorney General, he oversaw the investigation by the Inspector General into leaked information about warrantless wiretapping that spawned the now-infamous New York Times‘ article. But several witnesses in that investigation were also witness against Gonzales in an investigation into the legality of the wiretapping program itself (an investigation that Bush curtailed last year). Gonzales took no apparent steps to recuse himself. (Huffington Post)

Carol Lam speaks! The former U.S. Attorney has ended a notable silence to speak with her alma mater about the firestorm surrounding her very public firing this past December. (Stanford Lawyer)

Think Progress reports that three days after Tam Tran, the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, was featured in a USA Today article about “children caught in the immigration crossfire,” federal officers entered her home in the middle of the night and arrested her family (which has been in the U.S for almost twenty years and have been in constant communication with immigration officials about their immigration status as refugees). Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), chair of the immigration subcommitee, “equated the family’s arrest to “witness intimidation” “because Tam “testified before Lofgren’s panel earlier this spring.” (Think Progress)

James Golden, the State Department contractor in charge of the $592 million embassy in Iraq, has been banned from Iraq. Nonetheless, he “continues to oversee the construction of the embassy in Baghdad; to be the liaison with the contractor, Kuwait-based First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting Co.; and to supervise other projects for the State Department’s Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO) bureau.” The project has been marred by huge construction flaws, poor workmanship, delays, and now a criminal probe, in addition to Henry Waxman’s investigation. (McClatchy)

In its most detailed brief to date, the U.S. government defended its proclaimed right to hold a U.S. citizen in isolated military detention without charges (for four years) and subject that citizen to harsh interrogation techniques. The Justice Department’s motion was filed this week in the Padilla case in South Carolina. (Christian Science Monitor)

Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) is taking a page from the White House playbook. Yesterday, one of Lewis’ aides announced on the House floor (via a clerk) that he would ignore a grand jury subpoena for his testimony and documents, citing that “the ad testificandum aspect of that subpoena is not consistent with the rights and privileges of the House.” (Politico)

The Republican political machine in Alaska is well oiled. Today, when the Alaska legislature returns to work today, it will review a state oil tax that is at the crux of federal investigations into representative Don Young (R-AK) and senator Ted Stevens (R-AK). Oil politics have also led to charges against three former Republican state representatives and the former CEO of Veco. (Seattle Time)

It’s Tammany Hall for the 21st century! Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) has found a goldmine of campaign donations in New York’s Chinatown, a place where dishwashers and waiters with no public address and questionable legal status can afford to make donations from $500 to $2300. Many of those interviewed donated at the request of their local community organization, which has developed a relationship with the junior senator. Some have also suggested that their donations were less than voluntary. (LA Times)

Screeners at major airports failed to discover fake bombs (sent through as tests) over 60% of the time last year. LA International Airport alone let through a staggering 75% of test bombs. (USA TODAY)