Five people are serving life sentences for causing an explosion that killed six Kansas City firefighters in 1988. Questions are surfacing about the conduct (or misconduct) of a federal investigator who may have pressured witnesses to lie in order to develop what was nonetheless a weak case against the five defendants.

Five who testified in the case admit they lied to the federal grand jury that indicted the defendants or later at their trial. The other witnesses said they refused to change their stories.

Rep. Emanual Cleaver and a federal judge called for an investigation.

“I think this is something the Justice Department really ought to look into,” Senior U.S. District Judge Scott O. Wright said recently. Wright did not preside over the 1997 trial of the five defendants. But he excoriated federal authorities when they used his courtroom to try to retaliate against an uncooperative witness.

The U.S. Attorney's office will comply with that request (really, does it have a choice?). [more ...]

Former (my bad, Lott is the former MS Senator) GOP Senator Thad Cochran, who hates John McCain, knows that McCain has a reputation as a hothead. So here he is telling an uncomplimentary story that plays to the idea McCain is a hothead who has no control of his temper:

Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., said he saw McCain, who has a reputation for being hot tempered, rough up an Ortega associate during a trip to Nicaragua led by former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan. . . .

"I looked down there and John had reached over and grabbed this guy by the shirt collar and had snatched him up like he was throwing him up out of the chair to tell him what he thought about him or whatever . . . I don't know what he was telling him but I thought, 'Good grief, everybody around here has got guns and we were there on a diplomatic mission.' I don't know what had happened to provoke John, but he obviously got mad at the guy ... and he just reached over there and snatched ... him."

Time for the GOP to cut Cochran loose. More . ..

When the Bush administration decided to get into the torture business, it adopted methods used by Chinese interrogators during the Korean War -- despite evidence that the techniques lead to false confessions.

The military trainers who came to Guantánamo Bay in December 2002 based an entire interrogation class on a chart showing the effects of “coercive management techniques” for possible use on prisoners, including “sleep deprivation,” “prolonged constraint,” and “exposure.”

What the trainers did not say, and may not have known, was that their chart had been copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many of them false, from American prisoners.

In Bushworld, a false confession is better than no confession. [more ...]

Yesterday, the AP erroneously reported that Barack Obama would permit faith based discrimination in hiring with non-taxpayers funds for organizations that would participate in his faith based initiative. Subsequently, the NYTimes erroneously reported that there was a legal basis for this position based on theDale Boy Scouts case. Apparently, the Obama campaign made clear that Obama says no to faith based discrimination:

Mr. Obama’s position that religious organizations would not be able to consider religion in their hiring for such programs would constitute a deal-breaker for many evangelicals, said several evangelical leaders, who represent a political constituency Mr. Obama has been trying to court. “For those of who us who believe in protecting the integrity of our religious institutions, this is a fundamental right,” said Richard Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals. “He’s rolling back the Bush protections. That’s extremely disappointing.”

(Emphasis supplied.) To me, that is extremely heartening. Indeed, it would have been a deal breaker for me if Obama endorsed religious discrimination. I am happy to see that Obama opposes and will not countenance religious discrimination. John McCain endorses religious discrimination -- "Mr. McCain “disagrees with Senator Obama that hiring at faith-based groups should be subject to government oversight.” McCain is simply not an option for those voters who believe in separation of church and state.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

The CNN poll, Gallup tracking poll and the latest Ras poll demonstrate a static race - Obama has held a steady 5 point lead now for about a week.

Ras writes:

Those results have been identical for three straight days as the campaign has entered a period of amazing stability. With leaners, Obama has been at 49% for eleven straight days and at either 48% or 49% for twenty straight days.

This looks like a 5 point race to me, all the way to November.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Republican columnist Kathleen Parker writes:

Clark is right that getting shot down doesn't qualify one to be commander in chief. But it is relevant to wonder with whom one would rather share a foxhole.

Last time I looked, the White House was not located in a foxhole. Which I sort of think was General Clark's point.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Will John McCain demand the "cutting lose" of Maureen Dowd:

When McCain zoomed in the New Hampshire polls in 2000, W.’s supporters insinuated that McCain’s years in Vietcong dungeons, including two suicide attempts, left him with snakes in his head.

. . . McCain himself has joked: “It doesn’t take a lot of talent to get shot down. I was able to intercept a surface-to-air missile with my own airplane.”

Off with MoDo's head, John McCain? Actually, the interesting point here is that MoDo, who lives in the center of the Beltway Village, turned on McCain on this issue. As I said last night, McCain overplayed his hand. Even McCain loving Fred Hiatt has had enough. The Media looked silly, realized it and now has tired of the story - leaving McCain to have to do the whining himself. Which makes McCain look weak. The further this story goes now, the worse it becomes for McCain. This was always an Alpha Male issue (h/t Steve M) and whining looks weak. The question now is as Atrios put it, has John McCain stopped crying yet?

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Via Huffington Post, here are Obama's current top choices for Vice President:

Top Tier:

• Jim Webb
• Hillary Clinton
• Bill Richardson
• Joe Biden
• Brian Schwietzer

Worth Watching:

• Janet Napolitano
• Sherrod Brown
• Chuck Hagel
• Wesley Clark
• Kathleen Sebelius
• Tom Daschle

Honorable Mention:

• Michael Bloomberg

Aside from Hillary and Wes Clark, not a star among them. If Joe Biden, Chuck Hagel or career prosecutor turned Governor Janet Napolitano make the grade, I'll be rethinking my support the Democratic ticket. If it's Hillary, Clark, or Richardson, he keeps my vote.

Are any a dealbreaker for you?

ABC:

"I think it's up to Sen. Obama now to not only repudiate him, but to cut him loose," McCain said to a small group of reporters somewhere between Indianapolis, IN, and Cartagena, Colombia.

Hmm. Cut Clark loose from what? At this point, the McCain Freakout is turning this into a loss for McCain. I think Obama is done with this issue. And McCain's continuing to harp on it will hurt him.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Sen. Barack Obama is returning to Colorado tomorrow to give a speech on national service in Colorado Springs.

The morning event, at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs campus in northern Colorado Springs, is by invitation only. The audience will include active military personnel, as well as what campaign spokesman Matt Chandler described as those serving in the nation’s other essential services — the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps and ROTC.

Obama's visit reportedly also will include a $1,000-a-head fundraiser and possibly a visit to one of the region’s five military bases — though any details of additional planned events have not been released to the media.

It is not expected that Obama will meet with James Dobson while here.

The McCain Outrage Skit continues:

On MSNBC last night, Webb told McCain that he should "calm down" with the use of his military service in the campaign, adding that it was time to "get the politics out of the military." Now the McCain campaign is responding to Webb, arguing that Webb's comments prove that Obama "can't control his surrogate operation." McCain spokesperson Brian Rogers sends us this:

If you didn't think this was a coordinated attack on John McCain's credentials before, it's clear now that it is. Barack Obama's surrogates are telling the McCain campaign to "calm down" about attacks on his military record? Seriously? Now somehow Wes Clark's attacks are John McCain's fault? It's absurd. If Barack Obama can't control his own surrogate operation, how can he be trusted to run the country?

I hope someone in the Obama camp remembered to turn off Bill Burton's fax machine and Blackberry this time before he has Obama cower with a rejection of Webb.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

First Read:

“Inartful” was the word Obama used Tuesday to characterize remarks Gen. Wes Clark made over the weekend and subsequently about McCain’s military service. . . . At a press conference, the Illinois senator was asked what he thought about Clark's comments, which seemed to downplay the significance of McCain’s military service -- he was shot down and held as a POW for five and-a-half years during the Vietnam War -- and whether he felt they were similar to the Swift Boat ads used to attack John Kerry in 2004.

“I don’t think that Gen. Clark, you know, had the same intent as the Swiftboat ads that we saw four years ago; I reject that analogy,” he said, before adding that he had said many times that McCain’s deserved honor and respect for his service to the country. “Now I have differences with him on policy, and I will vigorously debate a lot of the decisions he’s made when it comes to national security that have weakened our capacity to meet the threats and challenges of the 21st century. But that certainly doesn’t detract from his past service to America.”

[MORE . . . ]