Why is a high school kid getting D's and F's when he's capable of doing this?

18-year-old Omar Khan should be graduating from high school this week, but instead he faces more than 38 years in prison for hacking into school computers. School officials at the Tesoro High School in Las Flores California allege that Khan changed grades and his Advanced Placement test scores. Khan is also alleged to have installed a remote access program onto school servers. In all, Khan is charged with 69 felonies.

Khan also broke into the principal's office to steal an exam that was taken from him when he was caught cheating.

Kahn is charged with a bucketful of felonies, but the $50,000 cash bail set in his case seem excessive. So far, his parents haven't posted it.

Four advocacy groups and three voters filed a petition with California's supreme court yesterday asking the court to remove from the November ballot a citizen's initiative that would amend the state constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage. The petition cites two grounds.

First, the initiative was sold as a "preserving the status quo" measure. Voters who signed petitions in support of the initiative were told that man-woman marriage was already the law, and the initiative merely preserved existing legislation. That's no longer the case after the California Supreme Court recognized that people of the same sex have an equal right to marry. In other words, the Marriage Protection Act should properly be titled the Marriage Discrimination Act, and that isn't necessarily what its supporters signed up for.

On the other hand, most folks who signed the petition probably did intend to discriminate against gay marriage. The second and more persuasive argument is that the initiative actually seeks to revise the state constitution, not to amend it. [more ...]

Here's the problem:

California's 33 adult prisons were designed for roughly 100,000 inmates but currently hold 159,000. Inmate advocacy groups say the crowding has led to numerous problems, including neglectful health care and poor mental health treatment.

Here's the proposed solution being negotiated to settle litigation commenced by inmate advocates:

Under the proposed settlement, 27,000 inmates would be released before serving their full sentences and a population cap would be set in place.

Here's the Republican alternative: [more ...]

Glenn Greenwald:

The excuse that Obama's support for this bill is politically shrewd is -- even if accurate -- neither a defense of what he did nor a reason to refrain from loudly criticizing him for it. Actually, it's the opposite. It's precisely because Obama is calculating that he can -- without real consequence -- trample upon the political values of those who believe in the Constitution and the rule of law that it's necessary to do what one can to change that calculus. Telling Obama that you'll cheer for him no matter what he does, that you'll vest in him Blind Faith that anything he does is done with the purest of motives, ensures that he will continue to ignore you and your political interests.

(Emphasis supplied.) Hear! Hear!

Speaking for me only

The Rocky Mountain News today in an editorial calls on Sen. Barack Obama to "take Denver off the hook" and chip in for the August convention.

Make the calls to your donors, Sen. Obama. Send the e-mails. Denver should no longer be on the hook for Democratic National Convention expenses. A few exhortations to your supporters could quickly retire the city's remaining obligations.

After all, Denver is simply providing the venue for Barack Obama's nomination. It's his party. It's only appropriate to ask his contributors to ensure that the celebration is a rousing success.

Obama has raised $265 million so far. He's now opted out of public financing. Why is he not helping out? [More...]

James Earl Reed, 49, was executed by electric chair in South Carolina last night.

When the curtain to the death chamber was drawn, Reed was seated in a chair in the middle of the room, with leather straps at his wrists, biceps, chest, waist and ankles. A prison official placed a brown hood over Reed's face, on which there was also a cap connected to the ceiling by a thick, black cable.

A series of thumps followed a moment later, as Reed clenched his fists and his body stiffened, lurching back in the chair. Several minutes later, Reed's body relaxed and slumped forward slightly.

A technician then entered the chamber to disconnect the cable from Reed's head, and a physician checked his pulse and pupils before officials announced the time of death.

Reed had fired his lawyer and represented himself at trial. There were last minute appeals based on this week's Supreme Court ruling on self-representation at capital trials, to no avail.

States that have killed inmates since the Supreme Court ruling in Baze v. Rees: Georgia, Mississippi, Virginia, Texas, Oklahoma and South Carolina.

AdamB announced his law panel for Netroots Nation and it is an impressive one. But one thing stuck out for me in his announcement - the bio of Cass Sunstein:

One of America's foremost legal scholars, Cass Sunstein is a professor at Harvard Law School and a visiting professor at The University of Chicago Law School, and serves as an advisor to Obama for America.

Cass Sunstein is an advisor for Obama for America? That is extremely troubling as Cass Sunstein holds views that I believe should be anathema to most progressives. For example, Sunstein supported John Roberts for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court:

The Roberts nomination is not welcomed by those who object to the rightward drift of the federal courts or believe that Justice O'Connor's successor should be no more conservative than she. . . . But at this point in our history, the most serious danger lies in the rise of conservative judicial activism. . . For those who are concerned about that kind of activism on the Supreme Court, opposition to the apparently cautious Judge Roberts seems especially odd at this stage. . .

I wonder if Sunstein still agrees with that. More importantly, what does Obama think of that view. More . . .

Let's hold him to this October 2007 promise:

Senator Obama has serious concerns about many provisions in this bill, especially the provision on giving retroactive immunity to the telephone companies. He is hopeful that this bill can be improved by the Senate Judiciary Committee. But if the bill comes to the Senate floor in its current form, he would support a filibuster of it.

(Emphasis supplied.) If Obama does not filibuster telecom immunity, it proves his commitments can not be trusted. That he will say and do anything to win, even if he does not mean it. A test for Obama's credibility is at hand.

Speaking for me only

DemfromCT writes;

Too many people have too many unwarranted expectations about what Obama would do as President. At the same time, Obama is sending a clear message that he intends to run pragmatically, and has the toughness to do so. Whether it's FISA or campaign finance, that means making some people unhappy. Running to the center means increasing his chances of winning and the size of the win, and it also means that the "Obambi" slurs (weakness, no substance) are badly missing the mark. I'm not suggesting we suck it up and like everything he does, I'm suggesting we be realistic about expectations.

(Emphasis supplied). I find it ironic and disingenuous that after a year of not just sucking it up but actively smearing Hillary Clinton and deifying Barack Obama, that post appears now. NOW there is an admission that Obama is just a pol. NOW there is an admission that all the talk of "new politics" was pure BS. It is a perfect example of why the Left blogs lost all credibility with their behavior during the primaries - their behavior towards Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama belied the belief that the Left blogs were truthtellers. It was a disgrace. More . . .

I've been opposed to all of the proposed rewrites of FISA. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. We don't need a new FISA law. We need to force the President and his Administration to obey the law, not rewrite it so they can do as they please. Here are 10 mytbs about it.

As for Sen. Obama's statement today that he supports the compromise but will work with the Senate to eliminate the telecom immunity provision, my question is, how will he vote if the immunity provision stays in? It seems like he will vote for it. [More...]

I have two FISA thank yous to hand out.

The first is to Big Tent Democrat, who has been relentless in his opposition to the bill. I gave up on it long ago, believing there was no way around what happened today. I'm sorry my cynicism has proven true, and I'm appeciative that he keeps up the fight.

The second is to Colorado Congresswoman Diana DeGette who voted against the FISA bill and issued this statement. [More...]

Reacting to a court's decision that Ohio law precludes using a mixture of three drugs to execute prisoners, The Plain Dealer invites Ohioans to reconsider the death penalty:

There is always the danger, despite safeguards in the criminal justice system, that an innocent person will be killed. The road to the death chamber is usually long and expensive. Survivors of a heinous crime may never get the closure they desire. The state is put in the awkward position of taking life in the name of protecting it. And then there are the death chamber embarrassments - procedures that take longer than anyone can stomach in part because they're done by nonmedical personnel using rudimentary equipment.

According to The Plain Dealer, "the death penalty - however administered - has no place in 21st century Ohio."