Our First Monday series, put together in conjunction with the Alliance For Justice, will have a very special guest next Monday: Scott Horton, the NY lawyer who writes for Harpers, will be here at 3 pm ET/noon PT to chat live. Scott's superb work on the Siegelman case, the long-term effects of politicization of the Department of Justice and the continuing ripples from the USAtty firings and other issues

A Monday tra la through the news spin cycle: I'm with Aravosis -- some public comment on the Bush Administration's plan to yank counterterrorism funding from police, fire and rescue departments would be a good thing. Howie raises some excellent points on war profiteering and the Bush Administration that are worth asking over and over until there are solid, public answers to them....

The best disinfectant for government corruption and bad acts is a healthy dose of sunshine. To that end, I say to Attorney General Mukasey -- release the transcripts: More evidence that new Attorney General Michael Mukasey is running a more transparent and inclusive shop than his predecessors John Ashcroft and, especially, Alberto Gonzales:

dday catches an intriguing bit in an interview with J.William Leonard, the head of the National Archives' Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), which deals with classified documents from the executive branch. To wit:...Up until 2002, OVP was just like any other agency. Subsequent to that, they stopped reporting to us…At first, I took that to be, 'we're too busy.' Then we routinely attempted to do a review of the OVP and

A fire broke out this morning in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (the EEOB), which sits adjacent to the WH and houses a number of key executive branch offices...Coincidentally, I'm sure, Addington (as Cheney's proxy) is in the news -- again -- this morning as one of four WH lawyers who allegedly were involved in discussions about the destruction of those CIA interrogation tapes....

Well what have we here. Dubya granted 29 pardons today, and poor Scooter was not among them. I can see Mr. and Mrs. Scooter sitting at home tonight, ice cubes clinking as they wave their highball glasses with abandon and curse the ungrateful Bushies who don't understand that Scooter is a great man, a true patriot and an American hero whose loyalty they have never repaid in kind. Oh well, it'll still be a more cheerful scene than the Conrad Black house.

Despite what the Associated Press is saying, Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation of the CIA leak case -- and the Office of Special Counsel -- are still open.

When Scooter got his commutation from the President, he kept his appeal going -- which effectively gave him the right to take the fifth if Congress asked him to testify. But it looks like Scooter is giving up the ghost:Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is dropping his appeal in the CIA leak case, his attorney said Monday.

It's a good thing we have supercomputers nowadays, because otherwise there'd be no way on earth the White House could keep pace with the revelations of its lies. Now on top of the Iran NIE, and CIA torture tapes (see Emptywheel about that), there's this Plame news in the Providence Journal:

Marcy Wheeler is reporting that Henry Waxman is asking Patrick Fitzgerald for documents relevant to the outing of Valerie Plame -- and he wants Michael Mukasey's help in getting them. It looks like Waxman took the advice of looseheadprop and was very specific about making his request for "documents relating to any interviews outside the presence of the grand jury" (which include Bush, Cheney, Card, Hadley, Rove, Bartlett and McClellan).