An employment, consumer fraud and civil rights lawyer from Piedmont is the latest addition to a bipartisan commission that recommends nominations for federal judgeships.

U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., has announced her appointment of Jack Wing Lee, 56, to the Parsky Commission’s Northern District Panel. The Parsky Commission was created in 2001 as senators Boxer and Dianne Feinstein struck a deal with the Bush Administration for input in recommending nominations. It’s comprised of four six-member subcommittees -– one for each of the state’s judicial districts — and each subcommittee has one member selected by Boxer, one by Feinstein and one jointly by both Senators, while the other three members are named by Gerald Parsky, a Los Angeles investor and major GOP mover and shaker who has held appointments in every Republican administration since Nixon’s.

“I am very pleased that Jack has agreed to take on this important responsibility of helping select highly-qualified, moderate judicial candidates for the federal bench,” Boxer said in her news release. “I am confident that Jack will bring the experience of his long and diverse career to the process. I also want to thank Michael Ohleyer for his fine service on the Parsky Commission these past several years.”

Lee replaces Ohleyer, a San Francisco attorney.

Lee is a partner at San Francisco’s Minami Tamaki LLP; earlier, he worked on complex class-action civil rights cases with Saperstein & Seligman in Oakland. Earlier yet, he was an attorney for the nonprofit Asian Law Caucus; the San Francisco Public Defenders Office; and regional attorney for the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, where he worked on discrimination and desegregation issues in the school system. He has been active with various legal and Asian community organizations, and chaired the City of Oakland Civil Service Commission from 1992 to 1996; he graduated Phi Betta Kappa from the University of California, Berkeley in 1973 and earned his law degree from the UC Hastings Law School in 1976.

Federal judges are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate to lifetime terms on the bench.

The U.S. Supreme Court today upheld Indiana’s voter identification law, finding states can require photo identification without violating voters’ rights, thus validating Republican-inspired voter ID laws. Per the Washington Post, critics say the 6-3 ruling disenfranchises those least likely to have driver’s licenses or passports: the poor, elderly, disabled and city dwellers.

More than 20 states have some form of voter ID law, but Indiana’s is the strictest. This case’s record contained no evidence that the type of polling-place impersonation fraud this law was meant to pre-empt has ever occurred in Indiana, but those who wanted the law stricken had trouble identifying specific voters whose ballots were not counted because of it.

Here’s what Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, has to say about it:

“Today’s Supreme Court decision reminds us that the struggle for civil rights continues and the right to vote is still under threat.

“This decision is a big blow to all Americans -especially the poor, the elderly, and individuals with disabilities who will face tremendous obstacles in exercising the fundamental right to vote.

“Frankly, the continued push for these photo-identification laws is not at all about the integrity of the electoral process – but rather part of a tradition of voter suppression that must end.

“I am committed to defending the right to vote for every American and I will work with my colleagues to strengthen and preserve our electoral process.”

Comments from Pelosi, Feinstein et al, after the jump… Read the rest of this entry »

U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey will address the Commonwealth Club of California at noon tomorrow in San Francisco’s Intercontinental Hotel on “how he has made public confidence in government a priority, and highlight the Justice Department’s success in investigating and prosecuting public corruption.”

But color U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., underwhelmed with Mukasey’s dedication to rooting out public corruption. She sent him a letter today asking him to explain the decision made earlier this month to disband and eliminate the public-corruption unit in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Los Angeles; she worries whether pending and future cases of public corruption will be rigorously pursued given the reassignment of 17 lawyers away from this unit.

Of course, y’all could go ask Mukasey yourselves tomorrow. Tickets are available here; they’re $15 for club members or $30 for nonmembers, but premium seats in the first few rows costs $45 for members or $65 for nonmembers. The hotel is at 888 Howard St., and check-in starts at 11:15 a.m.; attendees will be subject to search, no bags or packages allowed.

UPDATE @ 1:35 P.M. THURSDAY: You can read Mukasey’s remarks as prepared for delivery here, on the Justice Department’s Web site. “Let me be clear: Politics has no role in the investigation or prosecution of political corruption or any other criminal offense, and I have seen absolutely no evidence of any such impropriety in my time at the Department, and would not tolerate it.”

Read the complete text of Feinstein’s letter, after the jump… Read the rest of this entry »

Antiwar groups are organizing events all over the country — including here in the Bay Area — this Wednesday, March 19 to mark the Iraq war’s fifth anniversary.

In San Francisco, protesters organized by Direct Action to Stop the War will gather at 7:30 a.m. at Market and Sansome streets before fanning out to offices of various government officials — including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. — and corporations profiting from the war — including Bechtel, Chevron, the Carlyle Group and URS Corp. — for entrance blockades and office sit-ins.

“We want San Franciscans to stop and think about the damage that our government has done to the people of Iraq, and also in Afghanistan,” Direct Action organizer Michael B. Reagan said in a news release. “Five years of war and destruction is far more than any people should have to bear, and we need to hold accountable the government leaders and corporations that have let this go on for way too long – or even want it to continue because they’re making a killing off the war.”

And then the San Francisco A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition plans a 5 to 8 p.m. march and rally in San Francisco’s Civic Center.

Among other Bay Area antiwar events scheduled for Wednesday, in chronological order:

…two steps forward, one step back.

SCAAP stands for State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, the federal government’s reimbursement to state and local governments for the costs of incarcerating undocumented criminal aliens. The office of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., sent out a news release about half an hour ago noting the Senate today had unanimously approved her budget amendment increasing SCAAP’s budget authority for FY 2009 to $950 million.

“State and local governments bear the burden of incarcerating undocumented criminal aliens, and SCAAP is the only means of reimbursing these costs,” she said in the release. “This is a federal responsibility, and the federal government should not shortchange state and local governments. This would be patently unfair, because it penalizes state and local governments for the failure of federal immigration policy. This amendment will provide much-needed relief to state and local governments.”

Actually, no, it probably won’t — it never does.

President Bush’s FY 2009 budget requested no funding for SCAAP — just as in past years. The Senate Budget Committee voted $417 million for the program, but SCAAP is authorized at $950 million for each of the fiscal years 2008 through 2011, so Feinstein’s amendment aims to restore $533 million to the program.

But Congress dances the SCAAP tango every year. The President proposes not to fund it at all. Then some money is restored, then all of it — and then, invariably, it’s pared back by about half. Congress approved $250 million for it in 2003; $296.8 million for 2004; $301 million for 2005; $405 million for 2006; $399 million for 2007; and $410 million for 2008, with governors including Arnold Schwarzenegger — whose state usually gets about 40 percent of the total allocation, but pays out more than $700 million a year to incarcerate illegal immigrant felons — calling for full funding each year and never, ever getting it.

And so, on to the House of Representatives… cha, cha, cha!

This just in from the office of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.:

Congress today approved legislation by U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Chuck Hagel (R-NE), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) that would require the CIA to follow the Army Field Manual’s rules on interrogations.

The legislation, which now goes to the President, will establish uniform standards on interrogation of detainees for all parts of the U.S. government. It prohibits waterboarding and other forms of coercive interrogation techniques.

“Today, the Senate stood tall and declared in a strong voice that the United States will not engage in torture,” Senator Feinstein said. “This is an historic moment, and I strongly urge the President to sign it into law. This legislation will require the CIA to follow the Army Field Manual’s protocols on interrogations. It will help restore America’s credibility abroad by establishing a single, uniform standard for the interrogation of detainees in our custody. No longer will the United States allow actions by its intelligence services which clash so sharply with the very ideals upon which this nation was founded. This legislation ensures that the United States will follow the law – the Geneva Conventions, the Conventions Against Torture, and the Detainee Treatment Act. Only by living up to our principles can we regain credibility in the eyes of the world. The President should sign this bill into law.”

[snip]

The measure was included as an amendment to the Intelligence Authorization bill, which was approved today by the Senate.

The provision reads:

“No individual in the custody or under the effective control of an element of the intelligence community or instrumentality thereof, regardless of nationality or physical location, shall be subject to any treatment or technique of interrogation not authorized by the United States Army Field Manual on Human Intelligence Collector Operations.”

It specifically requires the CIA and all other U.S. intelligence agencies to follow the Army Field Manual’s protocols on interrogations.

The Army Field Manual specifically prohibits eight interrogation techniques:
· Forcing a detainee to be naked, perform sexual acts, pose in sexual manner;
· Placing hoods or sacks over the head of a detainee, duct tape over the eyes;
· Beatings, electric shock, burns or other forms of physical pain;
· Waterboarding;
· Use of military working dogs;
· Introducing hypothermia or heat injury;
· Conducting mock executions; and
· Depriving detainee of necessary food, water, or medical care.

The Army Field Manual allows 19 interrogation approaches, mainly based on psychological techniques, such as making a detainee believe that cooperation will shorten the length of a war and therefore save his country.

Just yesterday at the Berkeley protests regarding U.S. Marine Corps recruiting in Berkeley, I heard Rabbi Michael Lerner — founder of the Tikkun community and cofounder of the Network of Spiritual Progressives — list Feinstein among lawmakers who enable the war by failing to stand up to the Bush Administration, in her case by voting to confirm Michael Mukasey as Attorney General despite his refusal to explicitly characterize waterboarding as torture. (Go see here how some protestors heckled Feinstein for this back in November.)

But it seems Feinstein found a way to act on the issue, after all.

U.S. Senate Rules and Administration Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., today introduced a bill to regulate robocalls, those rather annoying automated telephone calls which clog voters’ voice mail bins before every election.

Concerns have been raised about abuses of this technology, including calls being received late into the night; callers receiving 10, 20 or even 30 calls a night; and callers using misleading information.

The bill would:
· Ban calls to any person between 9 a.m. and 8 a.m;
· Ban more than two calls per organization to the same telephone number per day;
· Require disclosure at the call’s start of the identity of the group making the call;
· Require the caller to identify the call as pre-recorded;
· Ban the calling organization from blocking their “caller identification” number;
· Empower the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) to file civil fines against violators; and
· Let individuals to sue to stop the abusive calls.

These prohibitions wouldn’t apply to live volunteer, “in person” phone banks. The bill would be effective 30 days prior to a primary and 60 days prior to a general election.

“During this primary season, we have heard stories about people being called over and over again, at all hours of the day and night. I believe we need sensible guidelines in place,” Feinstein said in a news release. “Something must be done about the worst of these calls. The bill that we have introduced today does not ban robocalls. It merely provides a reasonable framework. It’s a sensible solution that will protect American families from being inundated by calls through the day and night.”

Commercial calls are already limited by the Federal Trade Commission’s “Do Not Call” list, with millions of individuals subscribing, but political calls were specifically exempted from that list.

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated, and the news releases are flying…

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, who has known Bhutto for many years and met with her a few months ago during her last visit to Washington before her return to Pakistan:

“Today, the world has witnessed a tragedy in Pakistan. This was a cowardly attack by extremist elements. Madam Bhutto was a stalwart of moderation, a force for democratic values, and a personal friend. I express my sincere condolences to her family, to her many friends, and to the people of Pakistan for the loss of one of their daughters.

“This atrocious attack should compel the United States to renew our commitment to the people of Pakistan and to the voices of moderation. Although one of those voices has been prematurely silenced today, it is up to all of us to make sure that those who have perpetrated this hideous act are brought to justice, and that those who continue to spew the venomous, hate-filled rhetoric of extremism are vanquished.”

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.:

“I met Benazir Bhutto when she was Prime Minister and came to this country, and the women of the Senate organized a breakfast with her. She was a brave woman who had the courage to return to Pakistan in the face of death threats, and she survived a previous attack on her life just two months ago. My heart and thoughts go out to her family and to the people of Pakistan, and I condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms. This indeed is a very difficult and tragic moment. My hope and prayer is that the Pakistani people will pull together, and allow the country to proceed on its road to democracy.”

Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.:

“I am shocked and saddened by the death of Benazir Bhutto in this terrorist atrocity. She was a respected and resilient advocate for the democratic aspirations of the Pakistani people. We join with them in mourning her loss, and stand with them in their quest for democracy and against the terrorists who threaten the common security of the world.”

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney:

“We are still learning the details of today’s tragic events in Pakistan, but this is a stark reminder that America must not only stay on high alert, but remain actively engaged across the globe. Pakistan has long been a key part in the war against extremism and radical jihadists. For those who think Iraq is the sole front in the War on Terror, one must look no further than what has happened today. America must show its commitment to stand with all moderate forces across the Islamic world and together face the defining challenge of our generation – the struggle against violent, radical jihadists.

“At this difficult time, our thoughts and prayers go to the family of Benazir Bhutto, and to all the people of Pakistan who are fighting against extremist forces that would commit such heinous acts as the whole world has witnessed today.”

Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio:

“This is a very dangerous moment for the world. Prime Minister Bhutto represented the forces of reform and the hope for an end to repression in a troubled region, and her death is a major loss to those efforts.

“This terrible tragedy also underscores the need for the United States to adopt a new foreign policy toward the entire region because our current policy is all wrong. Our interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan has opened wide the doors of repression and violence. At this very moment, we should be working with leaders of the region to convene a meeting at the highest levels to begin a new effort towards stabilization and peace.

“The United States must take a new direction in Pakistan and throughout the region. I met her several times, both in Washington and New York. She was deeply and genuinely dedicated to Pakistan. This is a tragic loss.”

Pressure to get the California Democratic Party’s executive board to censure U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., at its meeting this weekend got a lot heavier today as online organizing giant MoveOn.org joined the effort.

Netroots and grassroots activists organized by the Courage Campaign are urging passage of a resolution censuring Feinstein for her pivotal votes for Michael Mukasey as U.S. Attorney General and Leslie Southwick as a federal judge. A version of the censure resolution, included below the jump, will be submitted for the consideration of the California Democratic Party Executive Board at its meeting November 16-18 in Anaheim.

In an email to over 500,000 members in California, MoveOn.org Wes Boyd of Berkeley said:

“Only 29% of Californians — and just 9% of California Democrats — approve of the president, but Senator Feinstein has sided with him on key issues.”

“When Senator Feinstein sides with President Bush and the Republicans on key issues like these, she not only goes against what a majority of her constituents want–she gives cover to other Democrats too, making it harder for Congress to make progress on the critical issues that so many voters care about.”

“Senator Feinstein isn’t up for election again until 2012, but we can’t afford another 5 years of this. She needs to hear from Californians that she needs to start siding with them–not George Bush.”

“A censure from the California Democratic Party is the strongest way to send that message.”

More after the jump… Read the rest of this entry »

Any U.S. Senator will get unhappy visitors now and again, but Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has had a tough couple of days.

Everyone knew she would take heat for announcing Friday that she’ll give former judge Michael Mukasey a crucial Democratic vote in the Judiciary Committee for his confirmation as Attorney General. (Read her rationale for the vote here.) Sure enough, CodePink protestors went to Feinstein’s home in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights on Sunday with a simulated waterboarding device so people could try it out and decide for themselves whether or not the interrogation technique amounts to torture. Several Democrats including Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., refused to support Mukasey’s confirmation after he wouldn’t definitively say during his confirmation hearings that waterboarding is torture.

Feinstein was in D.C. on Sunday… and so were other CODEPINK activists (including co-founder Medea Benjamin of San Francisco) who enacted a live waterboarding demonstration for Feinstein as she entered CNN’s studios there:

At about 4 p.m. today, children ages 2 to 16 will arrive at Feinstein’s San Francisco office (as well as the Los Angeles office of Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.) to invite the Senators to their homes to experience Thanksgiving on $1 a meal — the amount most Food Stamp recipients can afford.

Sent by the California Association of Food Banks, the kids are urging lawmakers to support full funding for the Food Stamp program in the 2007 Farm Bill (H.R. 2419), which reaches the Senate floor today and will set the program’s budget for the next five years. Though the Senate recently made a move to increase funding for the Food Stamp program by $1 billion over 5 years, neither of California’s Senators have guaranteed that they would vote “yes” on a funding increase. About 2 million Californians, or about 5.5 percent of the state’s population, rely on Food Stamps; about 80 percent of those households include children.

The kids will bring home-baked pumpkin “pie charts” depicting the percentage of a modest Thanksgiving meal that the current average Food Stamp benefit of $1.09 per person per meal can purchase (8.9%). Although the minimum monthly benefit has remained frozen at just $10 since the Food Stamp program’s inception in 1977, the price of a Thanksgiving meal for a California family of four has risen by more than 300 percent.

At least the activists aren’t planning to waterboard the kids in her office’s lobby.