The reactions of Atrios and Thers to Harry Reid's statements about "the Left" and Senate "moderates" perplex me. Harry Reid is the Majority Leader of the Senate, the leader of the Democratic Caucus. Whatever he really thinks about Bayh and Co., in public he has to support his caucus members. It reminds me of when now-President Obama attacked "the Left" for criticizing Democratic Senators who voted for John Roberts. I wrote a comment then:

James Manship is a Catholic priest. He videotaped two police officers in East Haven, Connecticut as they removed license plates from the wall of a store owned by a Hispanic couple. Manship was trying to document the alleged harassment of Hispanics by the East Haven police. The officers took offense.

The officers said in their reports that Manship was holding an "unknown shiny silver object" and struggled with one of the officers who tried to take it from him. But a 15-second video released by Manship's attorneys earlier this month shows one of the officers, before the arrest, asking the pastor, "Is there a reason you have a camera on me?"

Manship was charged with disorderly conduct and interfering with the police. The video ends as the officer approach Manship, but Manship denies struggling with the officer. The discrepancy between the police report and the video apparently convinced prosecutors that they had a weak case. The charges have been dropped.

Meanwhile, parishoners in Manship's church have filed a civil rights complaint with the Justice Department. [more ...]

Via Reason TV. It takes a bit to get going, but then it's pretty good. The point:

Obama, You're No Stranger to the Bong. Please act like it and take the legalization question seriously.

L-ville Slammed Zona and Oklahoma walloped the Cuse. My bracket is long gone. Steve M.'s Spartans are fighting for Big Ten pride against the JayHawks. The Zags hope to upend the Heels. I'll try to watch the games on the Tubes, from 35,000 feet. I'll tell you how it goes.

This is an Open Thread.

• Fundraising jump for NORML after Obama's remarks

• Council on Hemispheric Affairs: Evidence Mounts that the drug war is unwinnable and that a debate over legalization and decriminalization should not be met by presidential giggles

• Failed Drug War Policies in Mexico? Let's Try More of the Same

[Hat tip for song to MSNBC's David Shuster.]

Congrats to Wichita criminal defense attorney Dan Monnat. A Kansas jury today acquitted his client, Dr. George Tiller, on 19 counts of performing late-term abortions. They deliberated for under an hour.

"Dr. Tiller and his family are just happy it's over, with an eminently just result," said his defense attorney, Dan Monnat. "This whole trial was political." He called the jury "these six brave souls" for not being swayed by the political consideration of the abortion debate in Kansas, where it has occasionally devolved into violence.

The charges: [More...]

Your turn.

This is an Open Thread.

Ezra Klein posits that the Obama Administration is proposing the plans it is proposing on the financial crisis and the economic crisis because it is constrained by Congress:

One of [Obama economic advisor] Laura Tyson's interesting remarks last night came in reply to a questioner who faulted the White House for insufficient ambition. Her response had nothing to do with policy or economics. It was ab[o]ut Congress. "They accomplish what they can accomplish within the realities of the Congress," she shot back. "And the Democratic coalition is breaking already." Critics, she said, need to stop focusing on the White House and begin focusing on Congress. Tyson is pretty plugged in. It's a safe bet that if congressional obstruction has colonized her thinking . . . then it's probably what's obsessing the administration, too.

More . . .

NFL running back Ryan Moats just wanted to get his wife to the hospital before her mother died. You can't blame him for rolling through a red light. You can blame the officer who pulled him over outside the ER, ignored his pleas (and those of hospital staff), threatened to screw him over, and took his time writing a ticket.

His mother in law passed away while the offer forced Moats to remain in his car as he checked for outstanding warrants.

Dallas police officials apologized after confirming that the scene was captured on the squad car's video camera. Too little, too late for Moats and his wife.

Via TPM:

The Wall Street Journal reports (sub. req.) that [NY State AG Andrew] Cuomo plans to subpoena AIG for documents about the credit default swaps that brought the company to its knees.

See also NYTimes ("Members of Congress and the New York State attorney general demanded detailed information Thursday on how tens of billions of taxpayer dollars flowed through the American International Group during its crisis last fall and ended up in the coffers of several dozen big banks, shielding them from losses.") CNBC's Jim Cramer is expected to blast Cuomo for this, via NYTimes:

Speaking for me only

Here's something you don't see every day:

Saying they were negligent and incompetent when they struck seven blacks from the jury pool in a recent murder trial, Harris County [Texas] District Attorney Pat Lykos castigated two of her prosecutors Thursday, docking their pay and removing them from trial work.

Lykos said the prosecutors were negligent when they removed every black member of the jury panel in the murder prosecution of a black defendant. The prosecutors claim they were "shocked" when they looked at the dozen jurors who made the final cut and saw no black faces. Lykos said the prosecutors were merely incompetent, not racist, in their decision to strike all the black panel members. "If I thought for a moment that there were racial motives, they would have been fired,” she said.

But what are "racial motives"? [more ...]

The Washington Post reports the current cost of the war in Afghanistan is $2 billion a month.

Under the plan Obama will announce today, the cost will increase 60% this year. More details:

Along with the 17,000 additional combat troops authorized last month, he said, Obama will send 4,000 more this fall to serve as trainers and advisers to an Afghan army expected to double in size over the next two years.

My latest post on Obama's intent to ratchet up the drug war in Afghanistan is here.

I hope this is change the American people will make clear they don't believe in.