First, let me make clear my view that Hillary Clinton's vote in favor of the Kyl-Lieberman Amendment was a huge mistake, both on policy and politics. Senator Chris Dodd got it right at the debate:

So what to do now? Pretend that Kyl Lieberman provides a LEGAL basis for Bush to attack Iran? Absolutely not. And yet, Senator Barack Obama, in a crass and harmful political stunt, is doing exactly that:

Democrat Barack Obama introduced a Senate resolution late Thursday that says President Bush does not have authority to use military force against Iran . . . Obama spokesman Bill Burton said the Illinois senator drafted the measure in an effort to "nullify the vote the Senate took to give the president the benefit of the doubt on Iran."

This is simply a false statement from the Obama campaign. Obama apparently is willing to pretend the Kyl-Lieberman Amendment authorizes the President to attack Iran, when it does not, in order to extract politcal gain as a result of Senator Clinton's huge mistake. That is despicable. More.

How about another open thread today as I have court all morning and yesterday's is filling up.

To get you started (but feel free to pick other topics):

• Hollywood writers say they will strike. TalkLeft has some readers who are Hollywood writers. We fully support you. Let us know how we can help. The Writers' Guild Site is here.

• Iran: Hillary and 29 Senators write a letter, Obama goes his own way and introduces legislation. Thoughts on the difference between the two approaches? Will either restrain our unitary executive?

• "American Gangster" is a hit.

• Resurrect the DREAM Act (but don't count on the Democrats to do it.)

• Chris Dodd writes about the questions the candidates should have been asked during the debate.

• Arianna on Rudy's Testosterone Binge

MTV actor Vincent Margera (known as Don Vito to viewers of "Viva La Bam" )is on a suicide watch in a Denver area jail after being convicted at trial yesterday of sexual assault on a child for fondling the breasts and buttocks of two teens at an autograph signing event at a skate park.

The charges carry a possible life sentence. If he gets any prison time, it will be the Sex Offender Treatment Board (a parole board)that decides how much time he does, not the Judge.

According to a 2006 Colorado Department of Corrections report, since 1998, 976 sex offenders have received indeterminate sentences. Only three have been granted parole, according to the report.

Margera collapsed when the verdict came in.

When the verdict was announced, Margera, 51, fell on the floor, saying: “Just kill me now. I can’t spend my (expletive) life in prison. I didn’t do anything.”

If he gets probation, it will be for at least ten years and up to life. If he goes to prison and somehow gets paroled, his parole will last for life.

Our sexual assault laws are over the top. Groping should not carry a possible sentence of life in prison. The nation’s hysteria over child sex offenders needs to be ratcheted down a few notches.

No one supports child sex abuse. But the punishment should fit the crime. This one doesn’t.

I was reviewing the comments to my earlier post, the Final Word on the Pile-On, and was struck by how many people are opposed to one candidate or another because they aren't sufficiently left or progressive.

Which reminded me of what I wrote last month about my ideal candidate, following which I noted that no candidate is going to match my positions on issues or even focus on those I care most about.

That would require a candidate who vows as President to impose a moratorium on executions, close Guantanamo, try accused terrorists under the Code of Military Justice or in federal courts, insist Congress abolish mandatory minimum sentences, put a lockbox on my social security benefits and provide mandatory health care, including affordable and compassionate nursing home care, for the elderly.

And of course, a candidate who as President would end the war in Iraq and promise not to get us into other wars preemptively or under false pretenses.

There just is no such candidate who has a chance of winning in this presidential election.

More...

[Cross-posted earlier today at Firedoglake.com]

Finally, a little relief is at hand for the vastly disparate and draconian crack cocaine sentences meted out by federal courts. New federal sentencing guidelines for crack cocaine offenses went into effect today.

Starting today, many offenders sentenced in federal court for crack will receive a sentence about 16 months less than they would have yesterday.

By way of background, through mandatory minimum sentencing laws, the Feds have punished crack crimes far more severely than those involving powder cocaine. The U.S. Sentencing Commission followed suit by enacting guidelines that matched the mandatory minimums.

A crime involving five grams of crack cocaine carries a mandatory sentence of five years in prison, and 50 grams carries a 10-year penalty. However, it takes 500 and 1,000 grams of powdered cocaine to trigger the same five and 10 year sentences.

More....

Huffington Post reports:

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani now faces a looming government investigation into his handling of the radios used by firefighters on 9/11.

The investigation, which will examine how the FDNY ended up using faulty equipment during the terrorist attacks and why Giuliani gave a no-bid contract to Motorola for that equipment, has been endorsed by New York City Councilman Eric Gioia, chair of the city's oversight and investigations committee.

Background on this is here.

Alliance for Justice has an analysis up (pdf) of Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey's written answers to the questions posed by the Senate Judiciary Committee. It includes the question, answer and AFJ's analysis.

Colorado Senator Ken Salazar said yesterday he might oppose Mukasey. Details on that here.

Crooks and Liars says Bush is playing the 9/11 card to force the Mukasey nomination and provides the video of Bush's latest comments.

Some days, no matter how much time I spend blogging, there are topics I don't get to. Happily, others do. This is an open thread, and if you're looking for some good stuff to read, here's a start:

• The Higazy case: Cover-up: FBI Threatens Suspect's Family with Torture, with a well-deserved hat-tip to How Appealing's Howard Bashman. I would just add that I wish Hizazy's original lawyer, Robert Dunn, was alive to see the result. R.I.P Robert.

• Omar Kadhr update on the Guantanamo prosecutor who recently quit. My last post on Omar is here, one with more case background is here and one on the quitting of Gitmo prosecutor Morris Davis is here.

• Marcy of Next Hurrah typed her fingers off live-blogging the FISA hearings on Firedoglake and then updated on the WSJ op-ed supporting telecom immunity, noting Big Tent's post on that here.

More...

If this is true, I think Hillary's opponents are making a grave mistake:

Her rivals clearly remained delighted by the turn of events. Edwards, in an interview with liberal talk show host Ed Schultz, promised to "keep pounding the drum on making certain the voters know they have these choices" between what he described as the entrenched special interests in Washington, represented by Clinton, and advocates of change such as himself.

Special interests like undocumented aliens? The issues matter Senator Edwards. And your views on licensing undocumented alien drivers is still unknown. Your misleading doubletalk, and that of Sen. Obama, on lobbyist money, is the height of hypocrisy and gameplaying. Obama's performance in the McClurkin Affair smacks of pandering to bigots. Senator Dodd's position on the question of licenses was simply terrible.

We need a little straight talk from Hillary's opponents on REAL progressive issues. There is no doubt that Hillary Clinton does not provide the most straightforward answers. But those folks living in glass houses need to clean up their act before they start casting stones. I want to hear about issues first. Not Hillary. Speak to the issues and then contrast with Clinton. Do not put the cart before the horse.

I try to stay on top of what Congress is doing but this one escaped me. And, since I'm not seeing much about it in the news or on blogs, I'm not the only one.

On the same day last week that the House passed the Ammonium Nitrate bill, it also passed HR 1955, titled the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. The vote on this bill was 404 to 6. Meaning even progressive Democrats voted for it.

This is a thought-crimes bill, aimed at preventing domestic terrorism by judging the thoughts, including those expressed on the Internet, of American citizens.

If passed into law, it will also establish a co.mmission and a Center of Excellence to study and defeat so called thought criminals. Unlike previous anti-terror legislation, this bill specifically targets the civilian population of the United States and uses vague language to define homegrown terrorism.

More....

Another blow for the death penalty in California yesterday:

California's stalled death penalty plunged deeper into disarray Wednesday when a judge tossed out the state's new lethal injection method. The judge's ruling added to the growing uncertainty over the status of capital punishment in the state.

Marin County Judge Lynn O'Malley Taylor invalidated the state's new procedure because state prison officials failed to treat the new execution method as a new state regulation, which mandates public comment among other requirements.

There are 667 persons on Death Row in California. Executions have been on hold since January, 2006 when federal judge Stanley Vogel ruled California could not use licensed medical professionals to carry out the execution.

More...

Go read Jane and newly-converted Democrat John Cole.

That's all. Oh, except for John Amato of Crooks and Liars who, while watching the debate with Jane last night, said to her of Russert, "“Why doesn’t he just ask her if she killed Vince Foster?”

This nonsense that Hillary did not do well in the debate, contradicted herself, flip-flopped or whatever is media hype and desperate, wishful thinking by supporters of the other Democratic candidates and Republican strategists.

The number of comments on this site today from "newbie" commenters, all attacking Hillary, is telling.

If you are a progressive, stop it. You are feeding Republican dreams. The enemy is not in here. It is outside this room. And this party.

Any one of the Democrats in the running for the Presidential nomination is light-years superior to what the Republicans have to offer and what we've endured under George Bush.