I'm off to Las Vegas today for the BlogWorld expo where I'll be speaking on a couple of panels. I doubt I'll be back at the computer until late Thursday night, and I won't be back home until Friday night.

In the meantime, here's a place to discuss what's in the news, and anything else you feel like talking about.

Watch for news about Bernie Kerik's indictment. ABC News is reporting it may come down today, with Bernie scheduled to appear in court on Friday.

O.J. Simpson will be in court in Las Vegas today for the start of his two day preliminary hearing.

The case is likely to pivot on Simpson's contention that he didn't ask anyone to bring guns, that he didn't know anyone had guns and that no guns were displayed. Three of Simpson's co-defendants have pleaded guilty or agreed to do so and are expected to testify against him.

A preliminary hearing is a hearing at which the Judge decides whether there is probable cause to believe that a crime was committed and that it was committed by the charged defendant.

The rules of evidence are relaxed at a prelim, which means hearsay is allowed. Most cases are bound over for trial following a prelim.

But don't equate a preliminary hearing with proof of guilt. The standard of "probable cause" is far less than that of "reasonable doubt."

In other words, with three defendants cutting deals to testify against O.J., and their credibility not being a big issue at the prelim, you can expect him to be bound over for trial.

But, that doesn't mean the prosecution can prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. I hope everyone will keep an open mind.

On November 13, the Georgia Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case of death row inmate Troy Davis (background here.)

How many of you have ever heard the voice of a death row inmate? Now you can. Amnesty International asks you to sign a petition for Troy and listen to what he has to say.

Troy Davis was convicted without any physical evidence. 7 of the 9 witnesses against him have recanted or changed their testimony. Amnesty's 35 page report on his case is here (pdf).

Following next week's hearing, the court could order a new trial for Davis or order a hearing on the new evidence in the case. The hearing will be webcast live.

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The Eagles, performed "How Long" at the CMA Awards tonight. This took me hours to make -- I couldn't figure out how to get rid of the border and make it bigger and I tried converting to Quicktime, Windows and Mp4. The mp4 came out the biggest so that's the one I put on YouTube. On the plus side, it looks great on my iPod.

I finally did buy the new album, Out of Eden, stopping at the dreaded WalMart in Glenwood Springs. I listened to all of it on the drive back to Denver a few days ago. Out of the two cd's, this is far and away the best song on it.

Via Politico:

Former Senator John Edwards (N.C.) has been accusing his rival Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) of double-talk for a week, since she refused to say clearly whether illegal immigrants should get driver's licenses – but his own position on the issue is also incoherent, experts say.

. . . "He supports licenses as part of a path to citizenship. He doesn't support the Spitzer plan because it doesn't include a path to citizenship," said Edwards' deputy campaign manager Jonathan Prince in an e-mail referring to the New York governor’s plan that prompted the question that flummoxed Clinton.

"That's not a rational position — Eliot Spitzer couldn't ever offer somebody a path to citizenship," said Margie McHugh, the Co-Director of the National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy at the Migration Policy Institute, which favors immigration reform. "I don't know if they think you're stupid or what they think," said Frank Sharry, the executive director of the National Immigrantion Forum, another broadly pro-immigration policy shop.

Yep.

The ACLU will be at Guantanamo tomorrow to monitor the military commission hearing of Omar Khadr. The process so far:

Khadr, now 21, was 15 years old when he was captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. He is the first detainee to face a military commission since June when charges against him and a Yemeni prisoner, Salim Hamdan, were thrown out by military judges who said the commission lacked proper jurisdictional authority to prosecute them. The military judges ruled that the two defendants had not been designated “unlawful enemy combatants” as required under the Military Commission Act signed into law by President Bush in October 2006.

The U.S. government appealed the dismissal of the cases, and the newly established U.S. Court of Military Commission Review – a panel of three military officers appointed by the Pentagon – reinstated the charges in September by deciding that the military commission judges have the authority to decide whether detainees should be deemed “unlawful” enemy combatants. Despite an appeal filed by Khadr’s lawyers with the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the military judge in Khadr’s case, Col. Peter Brownback, will hear the case Thursday.

Omar is a Canadian teenager and child of Jihad, captured in Afghanistan and sent to Gitmo where he alleges he was tortured.

In February, his U.S. lawyer told reporters the teenager had been used as a human mop to clean urine on the floor and had been beaten, threatened with rape and tied up for hours in painful positions at Guantanamo Bay.

ABC News reports Bernie Kerik is telling friends and his legal team he expects to be indicted on tax and bribery charges by November 15, at the latest.

The statute of limitations expires on Nov. 15. Months ago, his lawyers and DOJ agreed to extend the statute until then.

I thought there might be another extension, but it looks now like there won't be.

Rather than rehash what I've already written, here are some good Village Voice artices from 2005 and 2006 summing up Rudy's Bernie troubles and explaining Bernie' s state guilty pleas last year.

Russ Buettner for the Daily News has been following the case from the beginning. Here's his article on Bernie's 9/11 "Love Nest" (woven into a great post by the late Steve Gilliard, and a compilation of articles at Citizens for Judicial Accountability.

My 48 posts (to date) on Kerik are accessible at this link.

The rationale for the doubletalk from John Edwards on drivers licenses for undocumented aliens becomes clearer. Rassmussen Reports says:

Just 19% of Democratic Primary Voters in New Hampshire believe that drivers licenses should be made available to undocumented workers. Sixty-six percent (66%) disagree. A separate survey released yesterday found that Democrats nationwide hold similar views with 68% opposing the policy.

Edwards' apparent (his answer is hard to decipher and rather nonsensical) change of heart (he favored drivers licenses for undocumented aliens in 2004) is clearly a result of political expediency.

The one candidate who spoke clearly and correctly on this issue was Barack Obama. He explained very well why offering dirvers licenses to undocumented aliens is good policy. He refused to pander to the xenophobia still present in the Democratic Party. Good for Obama. I hope he sticks to it in the face of this ugly side of the Democratic Party:

The insane Pat Robertson for the seemingly crazy and pro-choice Rudy.

Good to see how principled Robertson is on the social issues. Cilizza labels Robertson one of the most influential figures in the "social conservative movement" (the anti-science, pro-crazy wing?), but we were told something different before, so mission accomplished for Robertson I suppose. The funny part of Cilizza's ignorant column is this:

In recent years, Robertson has drawn considerable controversy for comments made about homosexuality

Homosexuality? Really? Did Robertson come out in favor when we were not looking? Come now Cilizza, either you are stupid or think we are. Robertson's problems are about his advocacy of assasination of the leaders of other nations:

Stunned by his "700 Club" commentary advocating the assassination of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, several of the Rev. Pat Robertson's evangelical brethren quickly, and publicly, condemned him for it. Since in their estimation, the Rev. Robertson now plays a diminished role in national politics, some conservative commentators thought the "liberal" media blew the story out of proportion.

And his comment that US deserved 9/11:

After watching the tv news and clicking on local media websites all night long, trying to determine the outcome of the marijuana initiative on Denver's ballot that would make pot offenses the lowest priority for Denver's police, I gave up.

It was a mostly mail-in election and there were major problems counting the ballots. At midnight, with 70,000 of the 90,000 votes counted, the initiative was winning 55.5% to 45.5%.

Then Denver's Clerk and Recorder called in the Swat Team to finish counting the ballots. Calling in the police to count the votes on a marijuana reform measure?

If the vote changes by morning, I want a recount.

Update: It looks like the pot initiative passed. Congratulations, Safer Denver. They will be counting votes until this afternoon, but 75,000 of the 90,000 are counted and its winning by 56.3% to 43.7%.

Musharraf must go. Hundreds more lawyers were arrested in Pakistan yesterday. The photo is of lawyers shouting slogans as they are being hauled away in police vans and accompanies this Scotsman article describing the lawyers being beaten.

Lawyers protesting yesterday outside the courts in Karachi and Lahore were thrashed by baton-charging police amid clouds of tear gas. About 350 of them were rounded up in Lahore.

Lawyers, judges and human-rights activists appear to have been deemed the enemies of the regime, as the country slides towards totalitarian rule. Since Saturday, between 1,500 and 2,000 have been incarcerated.

"On the pretext of fighting militants, General Musharraf has mounted a coup against Pakistan's civil society," said Brad Adams, the Asia director at the campaign group Human Rights Watch. "It's clear it is aimed solely at keeping himself in power."

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Paul Kane at the Washington Post the other day asked if Diane Feinstein was "the next Joe Lieberman."

She's not the "next" Joe Lieberman, she's been his twin for years and I'm glad people are taking notice. Examples from the past five years, in reverse chronological order:

• 2007: Feinstein crosses the aisle to support the confirmation of Judge Leslie Southwick, despite strong objections from liberal and civil rights groups.

• 2006: She co-sponsors Sen. Arlen Spector's FISA bill which would have made it easier for the NSA to bypass FISA's requirement of a court order. According to her own description of the bill:

The bill would create a new authority that would allow the Attorney General to designate specified FBI and NSA supervisors to begin such emergency surveillance without a warrant so long as the Attorney General is notified within 24 hours of the commencement of the wiretap and approves the surveillance within three days.

She also supported the flag-burning amendment.

• In 2005, she supported inserting the anti-meth bill into the Patriot Act. I wrote then, "I'm not surprised. She's has as little in common with true Democrats as Joe Lieberman." If you're wondering why you have to show id to buy sudafed and other common cold pills, as if that will deter the manufacture of meth, she co-sponsored that part.

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