The Daily Muck

A group of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, many who have been held for seven years as enemy combatants, have pleaded with the Supreme Court that any further delay in the appeals about their detention (filed under the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005) would be “unconscionable.” The Bush administration, however, is seeking to delay or derail the appeals process because it believes that due process will “impose extraordinary compliance burdens” and pose a “serious threat to national security.” (New York Times)

The CIA now admits that when the U.S. government assured Great Britain and the American press that the U.S. had not used British territory for refueling planes that were transporting alleged terrorists to secret overseas prisons, it made an “administrative error.” Prime Minister Gordon Brown seems to be accepting the “mistakes were made” argument, yet Brown shares “the disappointment that everybody has” about the use of Diego Gracia in the U.S.’s “extraordinary rendition” program. (AP)

Despite the fact that Pakistani President Musharraf was routed in the recent elections, President Bush believes that Musharraf should continue to play a role in the new government and that the new government should not reinstate the judges that the former president dismissed last year. Bush’s position has caused friction with his own Department of State and diplomats fear that it could provoke turmoil in Pakistan. (McClatchy )

At the same time that John McCain’s connection with the Alcalde & Fay lobbyist Vicki Iseman became a great concern to his staffers eight years ago, McCain became a “dedicated sponsor of bills to deregulate the cruise and passenger ship industries.” Coincidently, International Council of Cruise Lines paid Alcalde & Fay a fee of $990,600 that year, and on the February night that McCain and Iseman took on a Paxson jet from Florida to Washington, the reformer and the lobbyist were returning from the home of cruise-line executive who was raising campaign cash for the “straight talk express.” (Salon)

Bernie Kerik showed up in court yesterday with the attorney that the presiding judge had ordered removed from the case last month, to ask for more time to assemble a new legal team. Kerik’s present attorney cannot represent Kerik because he may be called as a witness for the prosecution. (Daily News)

Donors to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign have become concerned about mismanagement and excessive spending with the release of her latest campaign finance report. Hotel rooms at the Bellagio in Vegas cost $25,000 and payments to consultants for the month of January reached $5 million. Communications Director Howard Wolfson, who earned nearly $267,000 in January, claims that “fees and payments are in line with industry standards.” (New York Times)

Republican leaders in Congress are hoping to allay their colleagues’ fears about the FBI’s investigation into financial “irregularities” at the National Republican Congressional Committee. Though there is no evidence at this time that funds are missing from the NRCC, representative John Kline (R-MN), who chairs the NRCC’s management subcommittee, concedes “It’s disconcerting to learn that there are ‘irregularities’ — I think that is the word we’re using.” (Washington Post)

Court documents have revealed that Michael Kamburowksi, a GOP lobbyist who was a vice president of Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform from 1995 to 2000, “had no legal right to live or work in the U.S.” when Norquist’s organization hired him in 1995. Kamburowski, an Australian, came to the U.S. for an internship in 1995 on a tourist visa and had not obtained a green card when he began work later that year. (San Francisco Chronicle)

After the whistle-blower website Wikileaks.org – but not its mirror sites around the world – was shut down by a court order after a bank sued Wikileak’s domain name registrar, journalist Dan Tynan referred to the bank’s strategy as “so mind-bogglingly stupid, you have to wonder if these guys need help getting their pants on each morning.” In an interview with Newsweek, Tynan discusses the case. (Newsweek)