In September, I wrote about Sarge Brinkley, a young injured Army vet who returned to the U.S. addicted to pain pills. Once home, he robbed two pharmacies for percocet.

I'm writing again because his preliminary hearing is November 16, and he needs your help. Please send a letter to convince the D.A. to offer a reasonable deal.

A West Point graduate who is currently facing twenty-odd years in prison for robbing a Walgreens under California's minimum sentencing laws. He used a gun (unloaded) and robbed the drugstores of only Percocet - no money, harming nobody.

Here's the kicker -- he was addicted to the opiates after smashing his hip while serving abroad in the Army -- the military medical system
kept misdiagnosing him, and feeding him more of the painkillers. Add in some serious PTSD (he guarded mass graves in Bosnia from desecration at one point) and he spiraled down.

Sargent turned himself in, has been in a rehab program in county jail for over a year and a half while he awaits sentencing, and by all accounts is
doing well. The Santa Clara DA wants to chuck the book at him, and he'll be gone.

The California Report covered Sarge's case last week.

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My impression of Senator Barack Obama's appearance on Meet the Press (the transcript link will be added when available) was that it was adequate. It was a typical Russert gotcha fest that Obama took in stride and handled with aplomb. Except for one issue. Social Security.

The exchange with Russert on Social Security was particularly damaging because Obama has made a point of calling out Senator Clinton for not speaking forthrightly on the so-called Social Security "crisis." But Russert pulled out quotes from Obama where he said "all options would be on the table," compared it to Obama's most recent rhetoric that appeared to rule out certain options. Obama went back and forth on what was "on the table" and what was not on the table, and how he would deal with Social Security. Ironically, Obama seemed to endorse some type of consensus approach remarkably similar to what Senator Clinton has described.

In the end, Russert asked Obama 'so, all options are on the table?' Obama did not say no. In that exchange, Obama proved why Senator Clinton has taken the right POLITICAL approach on Social Security - a serious approach gets you nowhere in today's political climate with a Media that perpetrates the myth that Social Security is in crisis and a Republican Party that will pounce with mendacity and distortions. Obama gave answers today that CAN be used against him, both by Republicans and his Democratic primary opponents. And discussion of the issue itself has been forwarded not at all. Yet again, Obama should learn the lesson that he does not have the power to change politics. He is just a politican. An extremely talented one to be sure, but still just a politician.

The Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner took place in Iowa Saturday night. It's hard to credit anything any of the candidates say when you read stuff like this:

Obama's raucous supporters dominated the cheering battle, with yell leaders in each of his seating sections coordinating choruses of "Fired Up" and "Ready to Go" -- the call-and-response lines he often uses to close his rallies.

Supporters of Obama and Clinton made up more than half of the crowd, and Edwards also brought a big contingent. They were easy to spot -- Clinton's backers wore yellow T-shirts, Obama's red and Edwards' white.

Each candidate entered the darkened arena in a white spotlight and walked through the crowd to the podium in the center of the floor, giving the event the feel of a prize fight.

The lead quote from Chris Dodd:

Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd promised the crowd that if he was president "You will get your Constitution back. No more Guantanamos."

Then why didn't Dodd show up to vote against Mukasey?

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Via andgarden, Paul Krugman notices that David Brooks is a "heinous" dissembler:

So there’s a campaign on to exonerate Ronald Reagan from the charge that he deliberately made use of Nixon’s Southern strategy. When he went to Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 1980, the town where the civil rights workers had been murdered, and declared that “I believe in states’ rights,” he didn’t mean to signal support for white racists. It was all just an innocent mistake. Indeed, you do really have to feel sorry for Reagan. He just kept making those innocent mistakes.

When he went on about the welfare queen driving her Cadillac, and kept repeating the story years after it had been debunked, some people thought he was engaging in race-baiting. But it was all just an innocent mistake.

. . . Similarly, when Reagan declared in 1980 that the Voting Rights Act had been “humiliating to the South,” he didn’t mean to signal sympathy with segregationists. It was all an innocent mistake. . . .

Hopefully people like Kevin Drum will know better than to defend this Brooks tripe.

Rudy Giuliani got heckled in Loveland, Colorado this weekend.

The Boston Globe has a very long feature on Rudy as part of its series on all the candidates. Here's what you need to know:

His endorsement of police "stop and frisk" policies, crackdowns on jaywalkers, and roustings of homeless people provoked outcries. The city's liberal establishment was in a perpetual state of outrage, as were leaders of the city's African-American community, nearly all of whom found the mayor's office closed to them.

....Giuliani fought to limit artists, protesters, porn shops, labor demonstrations, street preachers, and sidewalk vendors. In one case, the court blocked him from banning advertisements on city buses that said New York magazine was "Possibly the only good thing in New York Rudy hasn't taken credit for."

He attacked the reputation of a dead man:

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Larry Ray, who figures prominently in the Bernie Kerik indictment, has an interesting history.

Here he is with Rudy Giuliani and Mikhail Gorbachev in a photo taken on December 19 or 20, 1997 that was hanging in Bernie's office. The official mayoral picture in the archives (minus Ray) is here.

Ray was providing security for Gorbachev. Gorbachev was in town promoting a Pizza Hut commerical he had made to make money for his Gorbachev foundation. (Pizza Hut was really big in Russia back then.) I've inserted who's who into a larger version of the photo here.

Here's a picture of Bernie and Ray.

Ray was best man at Bernie's wedding on November 1, 1998. Donna Hanover, Rudy's then wife, attended the wedding but Rudy didn't. Why not?

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The New York Times has an article that lays out the risk very clearly, it is the EXPECTATION that more research in genetics will indeed prove innate differences in the races in physical and mental attributes. And if there is one thing we can know about the history of science, scientists will find what they look for. Consider this:

“Regardless of any such genetic variation, it is our moral duty to treat all as equal before God and before the law,” Perry Clark, 44, wrote on a New York Times blog. It is not necessary, argued Dr. Clark, a retired neonatologist in Leawood, Kan., who is white, to maintain the pretense that inborn racial differences do not exist.“When was the last time a nonblack sprinter won the Olympic 100 meters?” he asked. “To say that such differences aren’t real,” Dr. Clark later said in an interview, “is to stick your head in the sand and go blah blah blah blah blah until the band marches by.”

First, to answer the good doctor's question, Alan Welles of Scotland won the Olympic gold medal in 1980. Prior to that, Valery Borzov of the then-Soviet Union won the 100 meters in the 1972 Olympics. Prior to that, Armin Hary of Germany won the 100 meter dash in 1960. 1956? White American Bobby Joe Morrow. To wit, from 1956 to 1980, white men won 4 of 7 100 meter dash Olympic gold medals. Presumably, for the good doctor, all these genetic changes occurred since 1980. MORE.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's embrace of the Cuban authoritarian leader Fidel Castro is as strong as ever:

Chavez joined some of South America's most left-leaning leaders at a rally of about 3,000 people gathered for a "People's Summit" in a Santiago stadium. Chavez interrupted his speech at the rally to call Cuba's Fidel Castro, who he considers his mentor. . . . "Well Fidel, what a shame that we don't have speakerphone on this mobile, the people wanted to hear you," said Chavez, dressed in a red T-shirt.

There can be little doubt that Chavez garners more appreciation in Latin America than he should, and that most of this sympathy is a direct result of the disastrous policies of the Bush Administration.

A New York Times editorial today explains why the Bernie Kerik indictment impacts Rudy's bid for the presidency.

The men have an extraordinarily close bond. Mr. Giuliani plucked Mr. Kerik from obscurity to make him correction commissioner. He made him police commissioner even though he may have been briefed about Mr. Kerik’s ties to the company suspected of links to organized crime. Mr. Giuliani also made him a partner in his security business and promoted him for the Homeland Security Department post.

Two important questions are precisely what are the mistakes the former mayor thinks he made in trusting Mr. Kerik, and how can voters be sure that he would not make them again as president, when the stakes for a disastrous appointment would be so much higher.

The second question is the most important one. The answer is we can't be sure, and Rudy must be judged by his past actions. He ignored too many red flags about Kerik. Perhaps it's a case of willful blindness, of being the ostrich burying his head in the sand. Perhaps it's classic arrogance. Perhaps Rudy is just a bad judge of character.

Either way, Rudy put personal loyalty to Kerik above the good of the nation in recommending Kerik to Bush for the Homeland Security job. Rudy doesn't deserve another chance. He doesn't get to say "trust me." There's no do-over on this one.

Author Norman Mailer has died of renal failure at age 84.

The ugly side of "populism" is rearing its head in the Democratic Party. Kos writes about Rahmbo's enabling bigotry:

Is Rahm racist, or merely scared?

It's got to be one or the other, because Rahm Emanuel is behind efforts to build Democratic support for the Shuler/Tancredo "enforcement-only" bill currently winding its way through the House.

Think about it -- our House leadership is strong-arming Democrats into backing a bill which is the central agenda of the biggest racist xenophobe Tom Tancredo.

Sadly, as Jane Hamsher documents, Speaker Pelosi is backing these efforts:

Tensions between Hispanic Democrats and House leaders exploded Friday when a bloc of Hispanic lawmakers voted to derail a major tax bill, relenting only after an angry confrontation on the floor with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md. The rebellion was a response to votes by 36 Democrats Thursday night in favor of a non-binding Republican motion Hispanic members called offensive. It instructed House conferees on an appropriations bill to accept a Senate-passed provision prohibiting the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from suing employers over certain English-speaking requirements.

This is outrageous AND idiotic. More.

The motive is tragic:

A personal assistant was charged yesterday with using a piece of exercise equipment to fatally bludgeon her boss, Linda Stein, the former punk-rock manager turned real estate broker, in her Fifth Avenue penthouse, the authorities said. The assistant, Natavia S. Lowery, 26, of Brooklyn, said she was driven to violence by the victim herself, who, she said, treated her poorly, “just kept yelling at her” and even made her ill by blowing marijuana smoke in her face, officials said. Finally, Ms. Lowery told detectives, she bashed Ms. Stein six or seven times in the back of the head on Oct. 30 with what she called a yoga stick after Ms. Stein, 62, made a racially demeaning remark, other law enforcement officials said.

I will leave it to the criminal lawyers to explain the legal ramifications. For me, I am struck by the senselessness of it all. I guess quitting was not an option.