This sad story is just one of thousands that resulted from the war in Iraq.

Sen. Barack Obama says if elected, he will require people who make over $250k a year to pay FICA (social security) taxes on the amount in excess of $250k. (I think he means he will ask Congress to pass such a law.)

Under Obama's plan, like now, you would pay taxes on amounts up to the cap of $102k. Under his plan, you wouldn't pay taxes on amounts between $102k and $250k. But over $250k, and you pay.

The 6.2 percent payroll tax is now applied to all income up to $102,000 a year, which covers the entire amount for most Americans. Under Obama's plan, the tax would not apply to incomes between that amount and $250,000. But all annual income above the quarter-million-dollar amount would be taxed under his plan.

Obama has talked before of establishing such a "doughnut hole" in the amount of income subject to the Social Security tax. Friday marked the first time he named a restart level: $250,000 and above.

Here's an ambiguity, at least in the news article. Compare [More...]:

Charles Hood will be executed on Tuesday unless a court or Texas Gov. Rick Perry acts to prevent his death. In light of allegations of a blatant conflict of interest on the part of the judge who presided over Hood's trial, the execution should be stayed or the death sentence should be commuted.

Lawyers for a Texas inmate facing execution next week filed court papers on Thursday accusing the judge at his double-murder trial of having an affair with the prosecutor. The papers, filed in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, argue that the relationship between the judge, Verla Sue Holland, and the man who was district attorney of Collin County, Tom O’Connell, should nullify the conviction of the inmate, Charles Hood, in 1990. ...

The petitions include an affidavit from a former assistant district attorney, Matthew Goeller, who said that the six-year relationship between Judge Holland and Mr. O’Connell was “common knowledge” and that it raised “reasonable doubt on the judge’s capacity to act impartially.”

Even supporters of the death penalty should agree that nobody should be sentenced to death by a judge who is sleeping with the prosecutor.

Here's where I wish I was this weekend. Unfortunately, it's all sold out. But you can watch videos from last years event here.

I'm also thinking this would be a be a great way to recover from the Democratic Convention.

"'Tis a privilege to live in Colorado."

This is an open thread.

While we're pondering the topic of obnoxious media coverage of the campaign, consider this:

[Fox News Channel] has released a statement saying it should not have referred to Mr. Obama’s wife, Michelle, as "Obama’s Baby Mama," as it did on Wednesday in an on-screen headline commonly called a "chyron." ... The chyron appeared during a discussion between the conservative columnist Michelle Malkin and the Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly about political attacks against Mrs. Obama. It read in full, "Outraged Liberals: Stop picking on Obama’s baby mama!" ...

The Oxford English Dictionary defines the term as one "chiefly in African-American usage" that refers to, "The mother of a man’s child, who is not his wife nor (in most cases) his current or exclusive partner."

Earlier this week, the Fox News anchor E.D. Hill had apologized for raising the possibility that the Obamas affectionate fist bump during the senator’s victory rally in St. Paul on June 3 was "a terrorist fist jab." Two weeks prior, the Fox News analyst Liz Trotta said she regretted making a joke about a possible assassination of Mr. Obama.

In his dissent in yesterday's Boumediene v. Bush decision, Chief Justice Roberts wrote:

The critical threshold question in these cases, prior to any inquiry about the writ’s scope, is whether the system the political branches designed protects whatever rights the detainees may possess.

(Emphasis supplied.) This is Roberts the judicial minimalist. And so he is when discussing the Great Writ. But not always. For example, in the Parents Involved school desegregation cases, Roberts trampled the "system the political branches designed." He struck down the systems designed by the charged political branches in Seattle and Louisville to deal with that issue. It seems Chief Justice Roberts is a judicial minimalist when it favors the result he wishes to reach. Of course Roberts is no judicial minimalist, he is a Legal Realist. More . . .

Many of us do not respond well to criticism.

Yesterday, Rachel Sklar criticized Keith Olbermann's denial of sexism in the Media. It seemed to me Sklar made a good case.

When asked about it in his daily kos Special Comment diary, Olbermann responded:

Ellen Goodman writes:

It wasn't just the ugly stuff coming out from under the rocks - "Life's a B - -, Don't Elect One." Nor was it just the sleazy shout-outs of the new boys' blogosphere. What shocked even the slur-hardened feminists was that, as Ellen Malcolm of Emily's List said, "it seemed to be so acceptable. And it was shameful." Where was the DNC's voice of protest? Where were the big feet and CEOs of the media? Why do sexist slurs get a laugh while racist slurs end careers? Getting even is, finally, shaming the media messengers.

(Emphasis supplied.) The Left blogs used to see themselves as watchdogs against the Media. They abdicated that role in this campaign, blinded by their hatred of Hillary Clinton. Instead of denouncing the sexism and misogyny, they were silent. They malignly accepted the sexism and misogyny. They have been stained by their silence. More . .

In a front page NYTimes story, NBC reacts to charges of unfairness and sexism in its political coverage of Hillary Clinton:

Phil Griffin, senior vice president of NBC News and the executive in charge of MSNBC, a particular target of criticism, said that although a few mistakes had been made, that they had been corrected quickly and that the network’s overall coverage was fair. “I get it, that in this 24-hour media world, you’ve got to be on your game and there’s very little room for mistakes,” Mr. Griffin said. “But the Clinton campaign saw an opportunity to use it for their advantage. They were trying to rally a certain demographic, and women were behind it.

Ha! The Obama News Network claims it was fair. Hilarious. Oh and the sexism consistently exhibited by its main newsreaders and commenters? Just a Hillary Clinton ploy. More . . .

Attorney General Michael Mukasey, speaking in Tokyo today, said the Supreme Court's decision yesterday upholding the rights of detainees to challenge the determination they are enemy combatants will not affect the upcoming Military Commissions Act trials.

[Mukasey] said he was disappointed with the decision because it would lead to "hundreds" of detention cases being referred to federal district court.

"I think it bears emphasis that the court's decision does not concern military commission trials, which will continue to proceed," he said. "Instead it addresses the procedures that the Congress and the president put in place to permit enemy combatants to challenge their detention."

There are several levels of detainees at Gitmo. Most have been held for years without charges. A small group have been charged with crimes, including offenses punishable by death. Their trials are by military commission, the rules of which are, in my view, unconstitutional.[More...]

Withheld evidence could have changed the verdict in David Flores' murder trial from guilty to not guilty. The Des Moines Register reports:

Prosecutors and judges have acknowledged that the case against David Flores, now 31 and serving a life prison sentence, was weak at the time he was convicted in 1997. One element that will be central to Flores' hearing is whether police had access to an FBI report that pointed to [Rafael] Robinson as another suspect in [Phyllis] Davis' death.

Flores' defense first learned in 2003 that the report existed — after his appeals were exhausted. But it took them years to discover the contents of the report.

Davis was inadvertently caught in the middle of an exchange of gunfire. Three witnesses say Robinson shot her. Robinson was shot three months later. Flores' lawyers want to examine the police reports concerning Robinson's unsolved killing, but the police and prosecution are resisting, claiming the examination could compromise an ongoing investigation. That excuse would be more persuasive if the investigation had actually produced a strong suspect in the last 12 years. [more ...]