Pelosi, Reid to announce new push to end Iraq war
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) are expected tomorrow to  announce a new coordinated effort to force votes in July to end the Iraq war, according to Democratic insiders.

Secret trials for terrorists, says US judge
A TOP-RANKING US judge has stunned a conference of Australian judges and barristers in Chicago by advocating secret trials for terrorists, more surveillance of Muslim populations across North America and an end to counter-terrorism efforts being “hog-tied” by the US constitution. Judge Richard Posner, a supposedly liberal-leaning jurist regarded by many as a future US Supreme Court candidate, said traditional concepts of criminal justice were inadequate to deal with the terrorist threat and the US had “over-invested” in them.
Liberal?  Not hardly.  Judge Posner advocated lawlessness in his book about the 2000 Bush v. Gore decision.  He said that because he believed the Florida Supreme Court was wrong to rule on its own state’s election laws, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, though wrong, formed a kind of “rough justice” by granting George Bush the presidency.  Breaking the law to right a perceived wrong is something this judge and law professor admires.  Tell him what you think at his blog.

Dems denounce court desegregation ruling
WASHINGTON – A historically diverse field of Democratic presidential candidates — a woman, a black, an Hispanic and five whites — denounced an hours-old Supreme Court affirmative action ruling Thursday night and said the nation’s slow march to racial unity is far from over.
Damn it, Democrats, you helped form this court.  Don’t come crying to me, now. You actually believed Roberts’ and Alito’s lies.  Or pretended to.  I don’t know which is worse.

United States Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Manufacturer in Landmark Retail Case: Leegin Creative Leather Products, …
MENLO PARK, Calif.—-In a long-awaited decision, the U.S. Supreme Court today overruled a nearly 100-year precedent that prohibits manufacturers from maintaining retail prices for their products.

Legal Memo Confirms White House Led Effort To Target And Remove U.S. Attorneys
[Solicitor General Paul] Clement reviewed the documents that the Congress subpoenaed. In his letter, Clement reveals … the White House was deeply involved in selectively targeting attorneys for removal. These documents presumably reveal the motives of the White House in purging the U.S. attorneys. Now Clement is working to ensure those documents never become public.

Bush won’t supply subpoenaed documents
WASHINGTON – President Bush, in a constitutional showdown with Congress, claimed executive privilege Thursday and rejected demands for White House documents and testimony about the firing of U.S. attorneys.

Turley: Avoid Bush’s Executive Privilege Claim By Investigating NSA Program As A Crime
[Wednesday] night on MSNBC’s Countdown, George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley claimed that Congress may be able to “get around the executive privilege in court” by saying “we are investigating a potential crime.” Turley said this was possible because warrantless wiretapping is “a federal crime” that “the president has ordered hundreds of people do.”
Click through to watch the video.

Waxman, White House Strike Deal on Security Officers’ Testimony
Thursday, June 28 It’s been one subpoena-crazy day, what with the White House refusing to comply with congressional demands for information about nine fired U.S. attorneys. But there’s at least one set of subpoenas that won’t be issued today. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) has been able to come to terms with the White House about the deepening White House Security Office scandal.

House defeats bid to defund Cheney’s VP office
The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday narrowly defeated a Democratic amendment to deny funds to operate Vice President Dick Cheney’s office next year in a feud over his handling of classified documents.
Doesn’t matter.  They made their point.

Senate rejects Bush immigration plan
WASHINGTON – Hours after a massive immigration bill collapsed in the Senate, lawmakers and lobbyists began seeking ways to pass bits and pieces of the measure important to their constituents.

Inmate growth jumped in 2006
WASHINGTON – Prisons and jails added more than 42,000 inmates last year, the largest increase since 2000.

More former Doolittle aides contacted in federal probe
WASHINGTON – Federal prosecutors have recently contacted as many as a half dozen former aides to Rep. John Doolittle, seeking information from them in their investigation of the Roseville Republican’s association with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, The Bee has learned.

DoD: More Concerned with Appropriations than Appropriate Medical Care for Soldiers
So what happens if you develop a software system that enables Army physicians in Iraq to seamlessly track medical information on a wounded soldier through the Army’s medical system and into the Veterans Affairs medical system? And what if that software solved the problems that plagued Walter Reed Army Hospital and its treatment of wounded veterans? And what if you developed it on the cheap? And what if your software was lauded by the highest of the higher-ups in the Army and VA? Answer: You get transferred to the equivalent of “bureacratic Siberia.”

Despite Cancer Risk, Rumsfeld Rammed NutraSweet Through FDA in 1980s; New Study Appears to Confirm Cancer Connection
A study by a team of Italian scientists reportedly concludes that there is a link between the sweetner aspartame, which is sold under the brand NutraSweet, and cancer… According to Amy Goodman of Democracy Now: “[Aspartame] was approved in the early 1980s after intense lobbying efforts by Donald Rumsfeld when he worked as CEO for the pharmaceutical company GD Searle. Rumsfeld is said to have engineered the firing of [Jere Goyan] the FDA commissioner who had held up aspartame’s release following studies showing possible links to brain cancer.”

Obama: Impeachment is not acceptable
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama laid out list of political shortcomings he sees in the Bush administration but said he opposes impeachment for either the president or vice president.
That’s as good a reason as any not to make him the Democratic nominee.

NYC Power Outage Snarls Traffic, Trains
A brief power outage darkened a large swath of Manhattan and the Bronx on Wednesday, knocking out traffic lights, cutting subway service and forcing the evacuation of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on one of the hottest days of the year.
Repeat after me: privatization is a good thing, privatization is a good thing…