The January 8 issue of Ebony Magazine has an interview with Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson on their crime and punishment agendas if elected President. It's not yet available online, but can be read at Lexis.com.

Joe Biden isn't interviewed. I'm surprised he didn't take the opportunity to push his new election-year omnibus crime bill, that like his 1994 bill (pdf), mass-federalizes a host of crimes that are and should continue to be prosecuted at the state level. His new bill, S. 2237, introduced October 25, just in time for him to campaign as your toughest law and order Democrat, proposes spending billions on 1,000 new FBI agents, 500 new DEA agents, and 50,000 more police officers, increasing prison sentences and locking up more disadvantaged youths by branding them gang members. (On the plus side, it has some prevention funding and it equalizes crack and powder penalties at the current powder ratio, although he ties the reduction to increased salaries for drug prosecutors and agents. There are better crack-powder bills and on the whole, Biden's bill should be strongly opposed.) As of today, the only co-sponsor of Biden's bill is John Kerry.

By contrast (and in some cases, seemingly in agreement) here's what the other Democratic candidates are advocating. (The Ebony interview covers a lot more topics such as civil rights, jobs and education, so be sure to either check their site for when its available free online or pick up a copy at the newstand.)

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During a speech in Iowa today, a voter asked John Edwards why Iowans should vote for Edwards over Obama. Edwards gave two reasons, one he called substantive and one political.

As president, Edwards said, he would be more successful in fighting the powerful corporations and interests that he says control America’s health-care system and other important areas.

Obama, he said, would take a more conciliatory approach. “He talks about bringing drug companies, insurance companies, oil companies, etc., to the table and working with them and negotiating and compromising,” Edwards said. “I just think that’ll never work. If that would work, it would have worked years ago. If that worked, we’d have universal health care. We don’t.”

....we need somebody who’s ready for this battle.”

On the political side, Edwards said he's more electable. [More....]

Hillary Clinton, speaking in Iowa today, took a question for the first time from M.E. Sprengelmeyer, who for the past nine months has been covering the presidential race from Des Moines for the Rocky Mountain News.

His question:

We wanted Clinton to think back to those days during the campaign when her staff reportedly was suggesting that she skip Iowa altogether, saving her money and precious time for states that will be part of the national mega-contest on Super-Duper Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2007.

Since she has invested substantially in Iowa and still trails Sen. Barack Obama in the most recent polls, did she have any second thoughts about rejecting their advice?

Her answer is below:

Anyone who watched Rudy's appearance on MTP saw how his rote answer to Russert on electablility, in light of the fact that he is a distant also ran in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina was "Florida." Yes, the Florida firewall. Uh oh:

Rudy Giuliani’s plan was to accept defeats in the early states and come back strong on January 29 in Florida and in many large states on February 5. The latest Rasmussen Reports polling in the state of Florida suggests that Giuliani might need to work on a “Plan B.’ Mike Huckabee now leads in the Sunshine State Primary with 27% of the vote. He is trailed closely by Romney at 23% and Giuliani at 19%.

Ha!

In this post, TalkLeft called attention to a silly citation issued to a Scranton woman who used salty language inside her own home after her toilet overflowed. A neighbor (an off-duty cop) heard the cursing through an open window and called in a complaint. The woman was cited for disorderly conduct.

Demonstrating much more sense than the officer who issued the citation, District Judge Terrence Gallagher dismissed the charge.

Although the language she used "may be considered by some to be offensive, vulgar and imprudent ... such representations are protected speech pursuant to the First Amendment," the judge wrote Thursday.

Today's moral: if you hear language you don't like coming from someone's home, stop listening and mind your own business. Don't waste the community's resources by calling the police.

In a pair of entertaining posts, Grits for Breakfast takes on "judicial activism" at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, deriding a decision that overturned a police officer's conviction for tampering with evidence because the appellate court majority accepted a defense that the jury didn't buy: the officer who returned part of the marijuana he had seized from the arrestee so she could get high wasn't tampering with evidence (despite knowing that he was making the returned evidence unavailable for a criminal prosecution), but was merely trying to "create a snitch."

Really? It's come to this? Cops can distribute illegal dope so they can recruit informants to catch people distributing illegal dope? What, exactly, is the point of that?

And why, exactly, would a police officer believe that he's entitled to distribute an illegal drug with knowledge that the recipient will illegally use it, even if he thinks the distribution might induce the drug user to become a snitch?

Italia Federici was sentenced in federal court in Washington today to 2.5 months in a half-way house and four years probation for her role in the Jack Abramoff corruption scandal.

Why no prison? She's cooperating with the feds.

Italia Federici, who pleaded guilty in June to tax evasion and obstructing a Senate investigation, was spared prison only because she has become a key witness in the Justice Department's ongoing corruption investigation.

More....

It's our third snow storm of the week and I'm going to take a snow day. Here's a place for you to chat. All topics welcome. Some things to read:

• Kagro X at Daily Kos has a list of Bush vetoes.

• David Neiwert at Firedoglake on Civil Liberties and Terrorism.

• Eriposte at LeftCoaster's exhaustive reasons for why he's chosen his favorite Democratic candidate.

• The LA Times editorials, Liberty and Justice, examining the role of the President in matters of freedom and equal justice under the law.

  The next president must recognize that this nation is defined by its liberties. Personal freedom must not become collateral damage in the war on terror -- for if that occurs, we have lost it all.

• Clinton and Obama spar over negative campaigning (Des Moines Register.) Taylor Marsh points out some of Obama's and Edwards' campaigns' personal attacks.

Bobby Kennedy, Jr. compares Hillary Haters and the Roosevelts over at Huffington Post. He starts with how many had an irrational hatred of the Roosevelts and continues:

Hillary's supporters should be heartened by the fact that intense hatred is often accompanied by equally strong support. Roosevelt won four landslide victories against his opponents and crafted the architecture for the most humane, successful, generous features of modern American government.

They can also take comfort in Hillary's proven ability to transform intense hatred into loyal support. I recently toured upstate New York's traditionally Republican counties which she has transformed through leadership and political acumen, into rock solid Hillary Clinton strongholds.

Update: Also on HuffPo, Hillary's former Chief of Staff and another writer outline Hillary's foreign policy experience.

Update here.

Update: Harry Reid says debate on the bills will begin Monday.

There will be a vote on FISA today. The Senate will consider the Senate Intelligence Committee's bill, S.2440, minus its provision calling for telecom immunity, and S. 2441, the Senate Judiciary Committee's bill, which has no immunity provision, but is somewhat better on wiretapping. The ACLU says,

"Another way to think of it: S 2440 is good on immunity and bad on wiretapping while S. 2441 is bad on immunity but good on wiretapping. It looks as though Senator Reid has created two little FISA Frankensteins."

[Edit: I assume the ACLU means the two provisions of S 2440 that will be taken up. It does have another provision calling for immunity. Reid's statement later today indicates he's changed his mind and will now have the Senate consider the entire House Intel bill, including the provision with immunity.]

The ACLU is asking Senators to participate in the Dodd Filibuster and prevent the passage of any bill that includes immunity.

"Senator Reid is forcing senators to trade the Fourth Amendment to avoid immunity or to give immunity in order to protect Fourth Amendment rights. The ACLU, on behalf its members across this country, asks that he bring the Judiciary Committee’s FISA bill to the floor -- without immunity for companies that broke the law," said Fredrickson.

If nothing gets passed, or if Bush vetos a new bill, it's not the end of the world. The Protect America Act, hastily passed before Congress recessed in August, has a 180 day expiration date, which is February. Then again, the Patriot Act had sunsets and look what happened there.

We don't need another end-run around the Fourth Amendment. [more....]

The House of Representatives today passed a bill outlawing harsh interrogation methods.

The measure, approved by a largely party-line vote of 222 to 199, would require U.S. intelligence agencies to follow Army rules adopted last year that explicitly forbid waterboarding and require interrogators to adhere to a strict interpretation of the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war. The rules, required by Congress for all Defense Department personnel, also ban sexual humiliation, "mock" executions and the use of attack dogs, and prohibit the withholding of food and medical care.

President Bush said he'd veto the bill, which now goes to the Senate. In related news, the ACLU wrote the Senate today (letter here, pdf)listing ten reasons why a special prosecutor should be appointed to investigate the CIA's destruction of interrogation tapes.

It's a done deal. The New Jersey House joined the state senate and today voted to abolish the death penalty. Gov. Corzine has already said he'll sign the bill into law.

New Jersey will become the first state in four decades to abolish the death penalty ....A special state commission found in January that the death penalty was a more expensive sentence than life in prison, hasn't deterred murder and risks killing an innocent person.

The eight men on New Jersey's death row will have their sentences changed to life without parole.