As a reader commented in response to the question posed in a post last night -- "Will [Attorney General] Holder's first step be his last step?" -- Don Siegelman must be asking the same question.

Siegelman's trial, like Ted Stevens', was tainted by prosecutorial misconduct. If Holder dismissed Stevens' indictment to impress upon federal prosecutors the importance of fair play, shouldn't the dismissal of Siegelman's indictment be the second shot of a doubled-barreled message? Siegelman's lawyer makes that argument in a letter that deserves Holder's attention.

President Obama responded in Prague today to North Korea's rocket launch.

"I call on North Korea to honor its commitment to abandon all nuclear weapons programs, to abide by recognized norms of international relations, and to work to promote peace and stability in Northeast Asia," Obama said.

What's behind the launch? A cry for attention? A message that Kim Jong il has recovered from his stroke and is still a big, bad force to be reckoned with?

Apparently, the launch was unsuccessful and fell into the sea. The U.N. will meet today and discuss it, but further tough sanctions are not expected because Russia and China oppose them.

As Jeralyn reported earlier this week, the Justice Department dismissed the indictment against Ted Stevens in response to its admitted violation of the prosecution's duty to disclose exculpatory evidence. John Terzano persuasively argues that Eric Holder's decision to dismiss "represents a critical first step in addressing a growing nationwide problem of prosecutors abusing their power in order to secure convictions."

The proper role of a prosecutor is not to simply seek convictions, but to see that justice is done. In pursuing a conviction against Stevens, prosecutors ignored their constitutional and ethical obligations to ensure a fair trial process. Holder rightly recognizes that there can be no justice when the fairness of a criminal proceeding is interrupted by government misconduct.

Whether Holder's "critical first step" will be an effective first step is a different question. [more ...]

Trooper Patrick Sharkey was dispatched to a residence in Caro, Michigan to respond to a complaint of an "unruly child." Melissa Ihrke told Sharkey that her 8-year-old son suffered from attention deficit disorder. According to the Michigan Attorney General's office, Sharkey later told the dispatcher: "Attention Deficit Disorder? One whack with a paddle gets your attention."

When Sharkey instructed Irhke to spank her son with a belt as the solution to his behavioral problems, Irhke objected that she didn't want to commit child abuse. After Sharkey assured her that spanking wasn't child abuse, Irhke administered blows with a belt that were, in Sharkey's judgment, "a couple of love taps." Dissatisfied with Irhke's gentle approach, Sharkey seized the belt. Telling Irhke "you need to do this so he'll feel it" and "I want to hear him scream," Sharkey demonstrated his theory of "tough love" by striking the boy with the belt. Four times.

[more ...]

Reality continues to make it difficult for drug-warriors to demonize a plant that is at worst benign and at best medically useful. The latest evidence that marijuana is your friend comes from a Spanish study suggesting that THC ingestion "may be an effective therapeutic strategy for targeting human cancers."

Science would have been exploiting the medicinal properties of weed for years now, if only it didn't make smokers feel good. Isn't it time for the Obama administration to engage in reality-based policy when it comes to marijuana?

The Denver Post reports on why jurors only awarded Ward Churchill $1.00 in damages for his wrongful termination by the University of Colorado: One juror insisted on it, and the other five, fearful of a hung jury, went along. The others thought he should get his legal fees in addition to $110,000, a year's salary. According to one of the jurors who would have awarded Churchill money,

"She [the lone juror] was like, she couldn't even stand to give him a dollar. We saw where she was coming from. She felt that he ruined his own reputation and that when you put something out there, even though it is protected speech, there are consequences."

With the lone holdout refusing to come around and the possibility of a hung jury looming, the others eventually agreed to the notion of a symbolic award of $1.00.

Churchill still stands to make some money if the Judge doesn't give him his job back: [More...]

Over at the Big Picture, Barry Ritholtz links to the much discussed WSJ piece on Larry Summers receiving mountains of hedge fund cash and writes that Obama may go down in history as "the smart guy who decided to continue the 'dumb guy's' policies."

Exactly right. But there's more to be frustrated about in the WSJ piece than just the revelations about Summers. For example, the WSJ writes that New Orleanian and White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers "collected a $350,000 salary from Allstate Financial as president of the social networking division..."

Allstate has a richly deserved horrible reputation down here in New Orleans. Check out this account of one New Orleanian's battle with Allstate over Katrina-related claims: [More...]

One of the strange inaccurate defenses that you read about President Obama's reluctance to use the power of regulatory receivership regarding the financial crisis is that since banks are held by bank holding companies, the banks themselves can not be taken over without new legislative authority. Here is an example:

Attorney General Eric Holder sends more mixed messages on marijuana: Today in Mexico:

And with marijuana sales central to the drug trade, Mr. Holder said he was exploring ways to lower the minimum amount required for the federal prosecution of possession cases.

He also promised to send 100 more ATF agents to the border.

And Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano promised Mexico more help in the drug war from the Coast Guard.

And the idea that the Obama Administration would be smarter, rather than just tough on crime? [More...]

I kid, but I wonder if he will now be under attack for this post:

Hopey Changey

Ah well.

The Obama administration is engineering its new bailout initiatives in a way that it believes will allow firms benefiting from the programs to avoid restrictions imposed by Congress, including limits on lavish executive pay, according to government officials....The administration believes it can sidestep the rules because, in many cases, it has decided not to provide federal aid directly to financial companies, the sources said. Instead, the government has set up special entities that act as middlemen, channeling the bailout funds to the firms and, via this two-step process, stripping away the requirement that the restrictions be imposed, according to officials.

It's the banksters' country. We just live in it.

The Obama/Geithner Plan is terrible. Let's hope it gets derailed. Speaking for me only

A former U.S. sailor has been sentenced to 10 years, the maximum sentence possible, for spying for al-Qaeda, informing them of secret U.S. ship movements:

The former sailor, Hassan Abu-Jihaad, was convicted in 2008 of disclosing secrets on ship movements to potentially enable an attack similar to one carried out against the destroyer USS Cole, which killed 17 U.S. sailors.

Several months ago in California, two 28 year olds who operated a medical marijuana dispensary were each sentenced to twenty years in prison, the mandatory minimum.

Does anyone not see something wrong with this picture?

Today is Final Four day in the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament. One of the stories being discussed is NC guard Ty Lawson's successful venture at a Detroit casino (he won $250 playing craps.) A lot of outraged folks around, notwithstanding that neither the law nor NCAA rules prohibit athletes from legal gambling.

But hypocrisy abounds. In any event, Steve M.'s Spartans are the home team. With all the bad news coming to Michigan, they deserve a little bit of good news. So here's hoping the Spartans can pull off the upset. The other 3 teams are UConn, Villanova and North Carolina.

This is an Open Thread.