In the last week, the number of Guantanamo detainees on hunger strikes has risen to from 34 to 42. There are about 250 detainees in all. Possible reasons for the increase, according to the Pentagon: Obama's inauguration and the Jan. 11 anniversary of the opening of Gitmo.

As of last Friday, 25 of the detainees were being force-fed.

US military authorities said forced feedings begin after a detainee either has gone three weeks without a meal, has fallen below 85 percent of his ideal body weight, or if a doctor has recommended it as a medical necessity to preserve an inmate's life.

The Administration defends the force-feeding. The ACLU vociferously disagrees and condemns the force-feeding as inhumane: [More...]

Today unnamed Obama advisors say Obama will order Guantanamo closed during his first week in office.

Ordering Guantanamo's prison closed is not the same thing as closing it. There's no mention of a timetable. As noted yesterday, he said on ABC's This Week not to expect it during his first 100 days.

When is a cigar not a cigar? Apparently, when it comes to closing Guantanamo. As the ACLU says in its latest press release on the anonymously-sourced promise:

“While the news from unnamed sources in the Obama transition team about the closing of Guantánamo is certainly welcome, what we need are specifics about the timeline for the shuttering of the military commissions and the release or charging of detainees who have been indefinitely held for years. Executive orders are an important first step. But we trust that President-elect Obama will provide a detailed plan for ending the Guantánamo military commissions, shutting down the Guantánamo military prison and ending President Bush’s legacy of indefinite detention. An executive order lacking such detail, especially after the transition team has had months to develop a comprehensive plan on an issue this important, would be insufficient.

More...

Via TPM:

The Secretary of the Senate has determined that the new credentials presented today on behalf of Mr. Burris now satisfy Senate Rules and validate his appointment to the vacant Illinois Senate seat. . . . "As we had outlined to Mr. Burris, a path needed to be followed that respects the rules of the Senate. We committed to Mr. Burris that once those requirements were satisfied, we would be able to proceed. We are pleased that everything is now in order, we congratulate Senator-designee Burris on his appointment and we look forward to working with him in the 111th Congress."

So that letter in December from Senate Democrats about not seating any Blago appointee? Nevermind. They never meant it. What a humiliating embarrassment for Reid and Durbin.

Speaking for me only

My favorite baseball player, Rickey Henderson, was elected to the Hall of Fame today, his first time on the HOF ballot. Tim Kurkjian writes a great piece on Rickey. Here's a snip:

[T]here's no denying that Henderson is the greatest base stealer ever, and one of the greatest players ever. "But he didn't like day games," [Tom] Candiotti said. "We had a day game in Oakland, and Rickey struck out. He walked all the way through the dugout talking to himself, he always talked to himself. He was saying, 'I don't know who's inside Rickey's body, but he better get out because the guy in there doesn't like day games, he only shows up on day games, so he better get out.' We were all laughing so hard. I wish I'd played my entire career with Rickey because he was just so entertaining. And he was just so good."

In addition, Jim Rice was elected to the Hall in his last year of eligibility.

This is an Open Thread.

There's a heated--yet very unenlightening--debate happening in the blogosphere about the shooting of an unarmed black man named Oscar Grant III by transit police in Oakland, California.

At The Daily Beast, Stanley Crouch writes that "the left" isn't outraged by black on black crime but police brutality instead. Over at The Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates is outraged at the outrage from those who think that blacks aren't sufficiently outraged by black on black crime. Writes Coates:

"I spent most of last year following Bill Cosby around to standing room only rallies in Detroit, Birmingham and Baltimore, talking to people who were pissed off by a variety of social maladies. Number one amongst them all -- the murder rate among black men."

[More...]

Norm Coleman has expanded his search for votes:

The Center for Constitutional Rights has issued a new report on closing Guantanamo. It's as easy as 1-2-3.

• Send home those who can go home
• Secure safe haven for those who cannot, and
• Charge those who can be charged and try them in ordinary federal criminal court.

The full report is available here (pdf). [More...]

The ACLU has launched a new website, You Are Being Watched, "dedicated to tracking the spread of government video surveillance systems throughout American cities. " (From their press release, which should be available here shortly):

“The new site will provide one-stop shopping for users, including the press, who want to know the big picture and the fine details about the spread of video surveillance systems....

The new site will serve as an information clearinghouse to track the deployment of government-run surveillance systems across the United States. It includes a flash map of the United States showing the location of cities that have installed municipal surveillance cameras, a compendium of press clips and other information about camera deployments, links to studies on the effectiveness of surveillance cameras, and other information about the issue.

Video surveillance will not make us safer. It only makes us less free. [More...]

U.S. U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis has issued a 22 page opinion (available here) refusing to revoke Bernard Madoff's bond. ABC News has this report. It's a really good opinion. And, I think, the correct ruling. As the Court notes (from the opinion):

Generally, a court must release a defendant on bail on the least restrictive condition or combination of conditions that will reasonably assure the defendant’s appearance when required and the safety of the community. See 18 U.S.C. § 3142[c](1)(B). The issue at this stage of the criminal proceedings is not whether Madoff has been charged in perhaps the largest Ponzi scheme ever, nor whether Madoff’s alleged actions should result in his widespread disapprobation by the public, nor even what is appropriate punishment after conviction.

The legal issue before the Court is whether the Government has carried its burden of demonstrating that no condition or combination of conditions can be set that will reasonably assure Madoff’s appearance and protect the community from danger. 18 U.S.C. § 3142(e).

[More...]

I've been an avid Talk Left reader since the Rave Act days in the early 2000s, so I'm thrilled to be posting here for the first time.

A little bit about me: I've been writing about street crime and criminal justice policy for about a decade now for publications such as the Guardian, New York, and Mother Jones. I'm also the author of a couple of books: Queens Reigns Supreme--about the drug trade in Southeast Queens and a money laundering case against hip-hop record label Murder Inc--and Snitch, which exposed the dangerously unregulated world of federal cooperating witnesses and informants. [More...]

TalkLeft is ringing in the new year with a new blogger -- Journalist and author Ethan Brown.

Ethan has written about street crime and criminal justice policy for New York, The New York Observer, Wired, Vibe, Radar, The Independent, GQ, Mother Jones, The Guardian and Men's Vogue. [More...]

For those of you on the east coast, the show has begun. Here's a thread for the results. (Spoiler alert to those in other time zones- stay away from the comments unless you want to know who won.)

Our red carpet thread is here.

Updates below: