Some are championing Jonathan Turley's line of argument that all possible criminality by the Executive Branch is equal and the most serious of business, requiring even impeachment. Remember Turley supported the impeachment and removal of President Clinton. This is a wrong headed approach to take in my opinion. You can not reasonably compare anything even arguably done by President Clinton to the brazen attack on the Constitution and the separation of powers by the Bush Administration. I reject Turley's argument in its entirety and think it muddles the issues in a harmful way.

For example, lost in the shuffle of Obama advisor Cass Sunstein's statement about egregious crimes is the fact that Sunstein actually does not believe that Bush Administration did anything wrong. As I discussed in 2005, Sunstein supported the Bush Administration claims on military tribunals and illegal wiretapping. Indeed, Sunstein endorsed the Bush Administration's argument regarding the inherent authority of the President to disregard laws when acting as Commander in Chief. More . . .

The Third Circuit wrote the latest chapter today in the ongoing saga of the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), a law that Congress passed in 1998 to replace the Communications Decency Act, which the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional in 1997. In general terms, COPA prohibits commercial websites from publishing material "harmful to minors" (even if that material is not obscene) without making a good faith effort to prevent anyone younger than 17 from viewing it. Requiring a credit card would be an example of a good faith effort.

The law was promptly enjoined by a district court because it seemed likely to abridge First Amendment rights. That decision was affirmed by the Third Circuit, but the Supreme Court disagreed with the Third Circuit's narrow decision. The case went back to the Third Circuit, which again agreed with the district court. Another trip to the Supreme Court produced a 5-4 decision upholding the injunction on the ground that there are probably less restrictive ways of protecting minors, including filtering software, than criminalizing the distribution of "harmful" materials. [more ...]

L.A. Police Chief Bill Bratton and his wife Rikki Klieman (former Court TV anchor and a good friend of mine) have pulled out their checkbook and donated to the group fighting the effort to ban gay marriage on the November ballot in California.

"The Constitution guarantees life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," Bratton said this week. "I see no reason why gays can't pursue happiness through marriage."

The donation came about when their friends, celebrity publicist Howard Bragman and his longtime partner, Chuck O'Donnell, told them they were getting married. Bill and Rikki asked what they'd like as a gift.

Bragman was direct: No gifts -- instead, make a donation to Equality California to help stop Prop. 8. And please make it public.

All of TalkLeft's coverage of Bill Bratton is assembled here. In 2002, I attended his swearing in ceremony in L.A. and wrote this lengthy report.

Poor John McCain. He has to compete for attention against Barack Obama even when Obama is out of the country. And he has to compete for attention against Bob Barr, who is likely to deflect some votes that would otherwise come his way. Now, at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, he'll have to compete for attention against the entertaining Ron Paul, whose planned rally during the Republican convention looks to be so popular that it's had to move to a larger venue -- the Target Center in neighboring Minneapolis.

Paul, who has often voiced his differing policy views from presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, has made it clear in past interviews with CNN his supporters won’t be in Minneapolis to interfere or cause problems for the Republican Party. “We’re not going to disrupt them,” Paul told CNN last month. “We’re not going to demonstrate as much as present a positive case for values that we believe should be the Republican values.”

As opposed to McCain's values, which are ... um ...

John Edwards was in Denver today, promoting his anti-poverty plan.

The former senator has been traveling the country promoting an anti-poverty campaign called "Half In Ten," meaning the goal is to cut poverty in the U.S. in half within 10 years.

More on his appearance here. Video is here.

According to the National Enquirer, last night he was in Los Angeles where he ran into some sleazoid reporters. I hope the story isn't true, but it's beginning to make the rounds. Curious that the reporters included no photos or video footage. What are they saving it for? Or doesn't it exist?

Here's a more flattering pic of Rielle Hunter.

In any event, if the story becomes national news, at least he's found a way out of being asked to serve as Obama's VP candidate.

I had the tv on in the background and this new ad came on. On my TV, the "Obama, Obama, Obama" (in response to the question, who's to blame for rising gas prices, was louder than it is in the video released by the McCain campaign.

It's clever to use real Obama supporters as the chanters but will anyone buy that Obama is responsible for ourrent high gas prices? A better argument (although also not true)would have been that if elected, Obama won't make prices go down. As a Senator, and one who has rarely been there to cast votes the last year and a half, it's just silly to blame our current gas prices on him.

A few weeks ago I beat Denver Post gossip columnist Bill Husted to the punch in reporting that Bruce Springsteen was free from Aug. 24 to Aug. 30 and could be coming to the DNC. Last week, I beat him by a day in reporting Kanye West, reggae/hip-hop artist Wyclef Jean and the rap/rock fusion band N.E.R.D. were scheduled to perform at DNC events.

Today, Husted beats me with some DNC musical guest news I haven't heard about: The Temptations will be performing for three nights at a "mansion" near 1st and Humboldt in the Country Club area.

As to the Aug. 24 Red Rocks concert with Sheryl Crow and Earth, Wind & Fire, Husted says even though Dave Matthews' people told him this weekend that Matthews is not scheduled to perform, he's convinced Matthews will be there.[More...]

Recent Supreme Court cases tell us that whether the death penalty is cruel and unusual depends upon the nation's "evolving standards of decency." Here are a couple of questions regarding those evolving standards.

What of felony murder? The "felony murder" rule holds an offender responsible for a foreseeable death caused during the commission of a felony, even when there is no intent to kill. Suppose an arsonist burns down what he believes to be an unoccupied house, unknowingly killing someone inside the dwelling. That's felony murder. Should the death penalty be available when there's no intent to kill?

Jurors in California declined to impose the death penalty on Manuel Alvarez, who "parked his Jeep on train tracks and caused a Metrolink derailment" that killed eleven people. [more ...]

Is there any federal agency that hasn't been mismanaged in the Bush administration?

It is supposed to provide health services to about 2 million American Indians and Alaskan natives. But the Government Accountability Office charged Monday that the Indian Health Services, which often runs out of funds to pay for health care, managed to lose more than 5,000 pieces of equipment worth about $16 million in the period from 2004 to 2007.... To top it off, auditors found false purchasing documents created to mislead investigators.

Native American health is right up there with the environment, civil rights, body armor for soldiers, alternative energy, and the Constitution on the list of things the Bush administration just doesn't care about.

Al Sharpton's tax woes will not land him in prison, according to Sharpton's lawyers.

Federal prosecutors have disbanded their criminal investigation into the financial dealings of the Rev. Al Sharpton and his Harlem civil rights group, the minister and his lawyers said Tuesday. Prosecutors concluded that Sharpton's substantial tax problems were better handled as a civil matter by the Internal Revenue Service rather than in criminal court, his lawyers said.

Subtitle - I told you so. Via TPM, McCain is whining that Obama is the Media Darling:

The campaign of John McCain -- who once described the media as his "base" -- has come up with a pretty creative way to portray the media as "in love" with Barack Obama, blasting two versions of this video right into the in-boxes of the swooning reporters themselves...

In the midst of Iraqi PM Nuri al-Maliki's statements in support of withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and McCain's response that he knows best for Iraq, I wonder if John Derbyshire is giving the best explanation of the new McCain position on Iraq:

Now that our American blood and money has seen off most of the enemies of Maliki and his Iranian pals, it is perfectly natural for them to believe they can finish the job themselves, without further assistance from us. . . We should tell Maliki, loudly and in public, that he owes his job to us, and that further prosecution of our military operations in his country will be conducted with regard only to U.S. interests, as determined in consensus by our established domestic political processes. And if he doesn't like that, he can go to hell.

Now here is the question - why is it in U.S. interests to continue to protect the Maliki government with the presence of 150,000 U.S. troops in Iraq?

Speaking for me only