Polls can be wrong and opinions can change between now and November, but results of the latest Field Poll are encouraging:

Californians are likely to uphold the right to gay marriage in the state by voting against a ballot measure that seeks to override a court ruling allowing same-sex unions, poll results showed on Friday.

The Field Poll survey firm found 51 percent of voters oppose the measure, which proposes an amendment to the state's constitution recognizing marriage as only between a man and woman, while 42 percent were in favor.

Writing from Netroots Nation discussion between Markos and DLC Chair Harold Ford, Ezra Klein writes about the incongruity of Ford speaking at Netroots Nation:

[T]he DLC ceased being a threat and became simply a foil. In 2005, when DailyKos was preparing to destroy the DLC, they were punching up, or thought they were. Now it would be baffling if they took the DLC on: What would be the point? The netroots are bigger, richer, and more relevant, or at least feel as if they are.

That strikes me as hilarious. Who was "bigger, richer and more relevant" on FISA? Harold Ford said:

It's good to know that there's no crime in Maryland. That must be the case if the Homeland Security and Intelligence Division of the Maryland State Police found time to mount undercover operations to spy on people who support progressive viewpoints.

Undercover Maryland State Police officers repeatedly spied on peace activists and anti-death penalty groups in recent years and entered the names of some in a law-enforcement database of people thought to be terrorists or drug traffickers, newly released documents show.

What did Maryland taxpayers obtain in return for investing tax dollars in these spying missions? What terrible crimes were the peaceniks and death penalty opponents committing?

[N]one of the 43 pages of summaries and computer logs - some with agents' names and whole paragraphs blacked out - mention criminal or even potentially criminal acts, the legal standard for initiating such surveillance.

Note to the Maryland police: dissent is not a crime. It's not even suspicious. It's a right. Learn to respect it, would you please? [more ...]

The Straight Talk Express took a detour yesterday so that John McCain could revive the "Commie menace" rhetoric of an earlier era.

Asked later if he thought Obama was an extremist, McCain said: “His voting record … is more to the left than the announced socialist in the United States Senate, Bernie Sanders of Vermont.”

Does McCain think Obama is a socialist? “I don’t know. All I know is his voting record, and that’s what people usually judge their elected representatives by.”

Is Obama a socialist? That would be news to those on the left who criticize him for being insufficiently progressive. Yet McCain's answer amounts to "Gee, I dunno, but he sure looks like one." McCain stopped short of calling Obama a pinko, but it's still early in the campaign.

Matt Yglesias writes:

McCain doesn't need daily [foreign policy] talking points. But the reason he doesn't need daily talking points isn't that he can talk about national security issues with fluency and skill without them. Lacking daily talking points, he's repeatedly confused Sunni and Shiite, repeatedly forgotten that Czechoslovakia doesn't exist, changed his position on Afghanistan twice in 24 hours, etc. In short, he's made a ton of gaffes just as you would expect from an underprepared candidate. But he's allowed to get away with a lack of adequate preparation because, in the mind of the press, his years in captivity decades ago are adequate demonstration that he understands national security issues even though there's no real basis for that view.

(Emphasis supplied.) Wes Clark spoke at Netroots Nation last night and said about his now infamous remarks about McCain:

It's understandable that Laci Peterson's mother is "outraged" that Scott Peterson posted his protestation of innocence on his family's website (his own website is relatively empty). She's nonetheless misguided in suggesting that "it isn't right that [inmates] should have access to the Internet, either direct access or through somebody else."

Her view that "being on death row is supposed to eliminate an inmate's privileges" is also understandable, but free speech is a right, not a privilege. Inmates lose some rights, but not all of them, by virtue of being incarcertated.

Free speech isn't free if people like Laci Peterson's mother can act as censors of words they find offensive. Whether or not Scott Peterson is guilty, there's no doubt that countless innocent inmates are serving time. If they don't bring their stories to the public's attention, who will? They often depend upon sympathetic journalists or columnists to call attention to their plight. Should they be barred from talking to reporters? Should they be prohibited from exposing abuses in the prison system that prison administrations will otherwise suppress? What's so different about eliminating the middleman and speaking to the public directly via the internet?

Via Instapundit, Ilya Somin at Volokh writes:

Libertarian Party presidential candidate Bob Barr is one of many people who confuse the theory of the "unitary executive" with the claim that the executive has virtually unlimited power. Barr argues that "McCain has endorsed, in action if not rhetoric, the theory of the 'unitary executive,' which leaves the president unconstrained by Congress or the courts." In reality, the unitary executive argument is a theory about the distribution of executive power, not its scope.

The problem with Somin's argument is that it has been the Bush Administration that has twisted the meaning of the phrase unitary executive to mean what Barr rightly criticizes. More . . .

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department has a plan to clean up its act. The plan is designed to make police officers obey the law. You wouldn't think that would be difficult, but this is what's been happening in the absence of meaningful oversight:

Narcotics detectives ripping off drug dealers. A police officer selling a gun to a felon informant. Another officer helping his wife run an illegal escort service.

Misconduct allegations against the officers have caused the dismissal of at least 20 criminal cases that the bad officers tainted. The question is how many other charges over the years have resulted from work done by officers who feel free to ignore the law. When police officers behave lawlessly, there's reason to wonder whether they have any qualms about planting evidence or committing perjury to advance their own careers.

Here's the plan, such as it is: [more ...]

It's a jail day for me, which means an open thread for you. Have fun, and please keep it civil.

David Brooks predicts the return of big government:

We’re entering an era of epic legislation. There are at least five large problems that will compel the federal government to act in gigantic ways over the next few years.

First, there is the erosion of the social contract. Private sector firms are less likely to provide health benefits, producing a desperate need for health care reform. Second, there is the energy shortage. . . . Third, there is the stagnation in human capital. . . . Fourth, there’s financial market reform. . . . Fifth, there’s infrastructure reform. The U.S. transportation system is in shambles and will require major new projects.

In short, Brooks is saying that Republicanism has failed. And indeed it has. More . .

with apologies to the Rolling Stones.

Via Crooks and Liars: Video of Sen. Larry Craig in the Senate saying:

"We won't let [those foreigners] jerk us around by the gas nozzle."

Too funny. This is an open thread.

James Byrne, #2 at the Office of Special Counsel, has resigned, claiming in his letter of resignation that his boss, Scott Bloch, is just carrying water for his political agenda.

James Byrne, second in command at the embattled Office of Special Counsel, resigned his post effective today after leaving his boss, Scott J. Bloch, a stinging letter suggesting that Bloch's "political agendas and personal vendettas" were preventing the agency from fulfilling its mission.

The two-paragraph letter, obtained by The Times, was sent to Bloch last week at a time when the Bush appointee faces a Justice Department inquiry that includes allegations of illegally erasing information on his government computer.

Byrne led the task force investigating the politicization of the Justice Department and other Executive Branch agencies under Bush. With Bloch in control, it's even more unlikely there will be any accountability. [More...]