• The Supreme Court strikes down the Bush Administration’s plan to try Guantanamo detainees before military commissions, as violative of both U.S. law and the Geneva Conventions. [NYT, WSJ, USAT, WP]
• The Court’s ruling places constitutional limits on Bush’s use of executive power in the war on terror and raises questions concerning how the Guantanamo Bay detainees’ cases should now be handled. Republicans are hoping to craft a legislative fix. [WP, NYT, LAT]
• As midterm elections approach, Senate Republicans are trying to figure out how to move forward on immigration reform and reach a compromise with their colleagues in the House. [WP]
• The House Republicans’ aggressive stance on immigration may harm Bush’s effort to improve the GOP’s standing with Latino voters. [WP]
• The House passes a resolution condemning the media’s recent disclosure of the Administration’s bank records surveillance program. [NYT]
• The laptop computer stolen from a Veteran Affairs employee has been recovered; personal information of veterans and military personnel apparently not accessed. [WP, NYT]
• Senate leaders will schedule a vote on proposed legislation that would relax Bush’s restrictions on stem cell research; Bush has promised to veto it if passed. [WP]
• NSA database of domestic telephone calls contains gaps; cooperation of telecommunications companies may have been less extensive than originally reported. [USAT]

• Yes! There is a God! Er, um — that stuff is gross, he’s so perverted. [AP]

• Bush was irked that Prime Minister Rasmussen seemed unaware of the “puff, puff, pass” rule. [Extreme Mortman]

• The Maryland House of Delegates: one good headlock away from greatness. [eBay]

• Even the cherished sirens of eternal paradise end their w4m ads with, “no fatties.” [SFGate]

• Only “the one” can save the internet. To find her you must ask, “Who is the boss?” [The DC Universe]

Have you purchased a used computer recently? If so, you could be in possession of stolen personal information for millions of U.S. veterans and active-duty military personnel. The Post reports:

Montgomery County police released a description yesterday of the stolen laptop and its external hard drive because they said it may have been purchased by someone who does not realize the value of its content. “It could have shown up at a yard sale or a secondhand store,” police spokeswoman Lucille Baur said. “This is a time of the year when parents may be buying computers for kids going to college in the fall.”

Montgomery County police are offering a $50,000 reward for information that allows authorities to recover the laptop. The computer is a Hewlett-Packard model zv5360us and the external hard drive is an HP External Personal Media Drive.

After the jump, an open letter to the VA, from a Wonkette reader and veteran whose personal information was stolen.

Here’s the email, from our justifiably infuriated correspondent:

I guess that this is old news, and probably no one cares, but identity theft can takes litterally years for someone to dig out of. The VA has potentially set 26 million veterans up for this and then sent us all letters saying “the Department of Veterans Affairs is asking all veterans to be extra vigilant and to carefully monitor bank statements blah blah blah.”

I am so appalled by this VA information debacle that I don’t even no where to start complaining. I have written to my congressmen in the past but I get the opinion that they aren’t all that interested. Anyway here is word for word my letter to the VA.

“You may contact me via email but you have lost your damned mind if you think that I am going to give you anymore addresses and phone numbers to lose.

I gave 8 years of my life to the us military, five on active duty, two and a half overseas and one in Iraq. You chose to keep hundreds of pages of information on me the least that you could do is to keep track of it. Then you have the audacity to tell me to keep an eye out for identity theft and put the responsibility on me to compensate for your ineptitude.

They have a phrase for the kind of gross stupidity that you folks practice its called “criminal negligence”. At least civilian companies have the good sense to make money selling my information. You and your a**-clown employees just lost it. Don’t bother to respond as I am aware that you have no intention of correcting any of your shortcomings.

Bravo to the VA taking care of the American Veteran!!”

Data Theft Affected Most in Military [WP]

• The Washington Wire’s sense of humor isn’t dead after all; it’s just very badly burned. [WSJ]

• Seems like the righteous application of blog-pressure got Garrett to confirm his leap out of the FishBowl. Now the question is: Who can fill his shoes, er, his baseball cap? [Fishbowl DC; Big Head Rob]

• Telecom companies and internet service providers, blah blah, web content producers and users, blah, this whole net neutrality thing was totally boring — until we started reading the comments to Mike McCurry’s latest post. [HuffPo]

• The two-month-old janitors’ strike at the University of Miami has ended. Reports that Donna Shalala caved after noticing all the dust on her crystal chandelier are unconfirmed. [SEIU]

• Bush can sing the national anthem in English or in Spanish, but pandering is the international language. [Think Progress]

Dear FBI:

We saw the CNN piece today about how many of your employees don’t have email. As “bloggers,” we know a thing or two about this Internet fad, and we think we might be able to help you out. Here’s some things you may not know:

• Email is free.
• How bad can your budget problems be? You’re not like HUD or something, can’t you get in on that NSA unlimited classified budget action?
• No, seriously, email is actually free. You don’t need to pay for it. We sent DoD a gmail invite, we have like 90 more for you guys.
• Despite what Senator Schumer says, not having email is not actually evidence of a pre-9/11 mentality. It’s like a pre-the-last-15-years mentality. But we guess you probably couldn’t afford like a Prodigy account or whatever back then.
• Hey, we know people who are like temps at Justice, and they get .gov email addresses. Did you piss off the Federal IT department or something?
• We cannot stress this enough: You don’t need to pay for an email address.
• Specifically this line here: “The outside e-mail accounts have to be separately funded” — that just makes no **** ing sense to us.

Anyway, hope that helps. We will, of course, be printing this note and sending it via bike messenger or something.

FBI, You’ve Got Mail — NOT [CNN]

A Richmond, Virginia school district's sidewalk sale of used $50 laptops turned into pandemonium today. Would-be customers stampeded, crushing a baby stroller, throwing an elderly man to the pavement; one person tried to disburse his Mac-hungry competitors by driving his car through the crowd. When the dust settled, seventeen people were injured, and four hospitalized. One shopper, Blandine Alexander, reported that "one woman standing in front of her was so desperate to retain her place in line that she urinated on herself."

And all that's nothing compared to what these people are going to do when they're on hold with the Apple Help line. . . . -- HOLLY MARTINS

$50 Laptop Sale Sets Off Violent Stampede [AP, via (where else?) MSNBC]

Reuters reports that the Department of Defense and the Federal Trade Commission have dispatched recruiters to the annual Las Vegas Defcon summit of computer hackers. Knowing how to manipulate the attendees' addiction to intrigue, the recruiter-infiltrators cunningly assembled at a panel called "Meet the Feds." FTC panelist Don Blumenthal says that his participation serves a dual purpose: "I'm learning while I'm here but I'm also getting the names of people I can maybe call on later so we have a better understanding as cases go along." One such potential contact: a young man who "waved a pages-long manifesto before the panel" and demanded to know "why the federal government, and especially some of the law enforcement agencies, are destroying this country."

We understand he's now preparing to serve as undersecretary to John Bolton.--HOLLY MARTINS

Feds Recruiting Hackers at Defcon [via CNN]