It's good news that unpaid bloggers are included in this compromise, but since I don't know the details, I don't know if this would have kept Judy Miller out of jail:

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, leading Senate Democrats and a coalition of news organizations have reached tentative agreement on legislation providing greater protections against the fining or imprisonment of reporters who refuse to identify confidential sources.

Under the deal, made public Friday, federal judges could quash subpoenas demanding testimony or information from reporters if the judges determined that the public interest in news gathering outweighed the need to uncover the source of a leak, including, in some circumstances, unauthorized disclosure of classified government information.

Protection under the so-called shield law would also be extended to unpaid bloggers engaged in gathering and disseminating news.

A version of shield legislation was approved by the House in March. But a similar bill has stalled in the Senate, and its prospects appeared to dim significantly in September when the administration, responding to apprehension expressed by intelligence agencies and prosecutors, took a harder line with regard to cases in which the government could claim national security concerns.

With the new agreement, however, the White House has now moderated that position.

[...]The leading proponents of the legislation, Senators Charles E. Schumer of New York and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, both Democrats, expressed confidence that the compromise would move quickly through the Senate.

“We still get most of our information from investigative journalists,” Mr. Specter said. “If you can’t protect sources, there is a lot of public corruption and private malfeasance that will go undetected and unpunished.”

Really, it gets harder all the time to tell the Democrats from the Republicans, doesn't it?

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill Thursday that would renew portions of the USA Patriot Act in an effort to address administration concerns about protecting terrorism investigations.

But several Democrats and civil liberties advocates said the legislation would do little to strengthen privacy protections. And some Republicans said the bill, despite amendments worked out with the administration, would still unduly burden investigators.

By a vote of 11 to 8, the committee sent to the Senate floor a measure that would extend until 2013 three surveillance provisions set to expire Dec. 31. They would allow investigators to use roving wiretaps to monitor suspects who may switch cellphone numbers, to obtain business records of national security targets, and to track "lone wolves" who may be acting alone on behalf of foreign powers or terrorist groups.

The bill would also slightly tighten the legal standard for the FBI's issuing of administration subpoenas known as national security letters (NSLs), which allow the bureau to obtain phone, credit and other personal records, and which the Justice Department inspector general has said are subject to "serious misuse."

Oh, I feel much better now, knowing it will be "slightly" more difficult for the feds to abuse constitutional rights.

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Jerrold Nadler on Countdown discussing what will be done if Karl Rove again refuses to honor subpoenas and appear before Congress.

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Rachel Maddow talks to Michael Isikoff about Rove's newest assertions of executive privilege and Bush trying to give him preemptive immunity from having to respond to Congressional subpoenas. For more on the subject you can read Isikoff's article at Newsweek here.

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Keith talks to Rep. Jerrold Nadler about Rove's claims of executive privilege and what the process will be if he again refuses to appear before Congress, this time with a new Attorney General's office to enforce contempt charges.

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Keith talks to John Dean about Karl Rove's recent subpeona to appear before the House Judiciary Committee. Dean feels that it's likely Rove will get little help from the Obama administration in supporting his claims of executive privilege. He also cites the ongoing court cases involving Harriet Miers and Josh Bolton and notes that in the past the courts have only protected ex-Presidents and not their advisors when claims of executive privilege have been made. He feels it's likely all of them will eventually end up being forced to testify before Congress and hopes that under the Obama administration we will return to following the rule of law.

I just want a non-Photoshopped version of this if he refuses to show up this time.

CNN:

Former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and President Bush's current Chief of Staff Josh Bolten do not have to cooperate -- at least this year -- with a congressional committee investigating the firings of U.S. Attorneys, a three-judge federal appeals panel in Washington ruled Monday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said as a practical matter, the case cannot be resolved before the current session of Congress ends, so a new Congress will have to decide whether to pursue the matter.

In June, Democrats controlling the House Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena to Miers seeking to compel her to produce documents and to appear before the committee to testify about the firings of nine federal prosecutors.

The committee also issued a subpoena to Bolten to produce documents.

Both fought the subpoenas, and District Court Judge John Bates ruled Miers and Bolten must honor the congressional demands.

The appeals court reversed that ruling.

"The present dispute is of potentially great significance for the balance of power between the Legislative and Executive Branches. But the Committee recognizes that even if expedited, this will not be fully and finally resolved by the Judicial Branch ... before the 110th Congress ends on January 3, 2009," the ruling said.

Bush League Justice strikes again.