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.

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[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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Bump and Update (10/31): The show starts at 10:00 pm ET. It's Channel 107 on Comcast, check their website for other cable systems.

Original post (10/30)

Maybe someone will tell Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey to watch Current TV tomorrow night at 10:00 pm ET.

On Wednesday, October 31st at 10pm ET/PT, Current TV gives viewers a real look at what Waterboarding entails when two ex-Survival, Escape, Resistance and Evasion (SERE) instructors administer a controversial interrogation technique to Current Vanguard Journalist Kaj Larsen.

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After last night's Russert gotcha moment, Senator Hillary Clinton unequivocally embraced New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's plan to provide drivers licenses for undocumented aliens in New York:

Mrs. Clinton’s statement affirming her support of Mr. Spitzer in his office came less than a day after she offered a muddled and hesitant position on the bill, prompting a round of denunciations by her opponents. It signaled the extent to which her advisers viewed that moment as the biggest misstep she made in the debate, and one with long-term potential to undermine her candidacy. “Senator Clinton supports governors like Governor Spitzer who believe they need such a measure to deal with the crisis caused by this administration’s failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform,’” her campaign said.

Senator John Edwards had lot of criticism for Clinton, but little to say on the actual issue. That little game is over now. Where do you stand on the issue Sen. Edwards? We do not need any doubletalk from you.