You will read headlines today blaring "Violent Crime is On the Rise." Read the small print.

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse.... said the overall crime rate -- combining violent and property crimes -- "was the lowest crime rate measured by the UCR in more than 30 years."

Checking the report's table here, there were a total of 11.5 million violent and property crimes in 2005 and 11.4 million in 2006.

Politicians are going to spin this into a need for new crime bills with tougher punishment. Dems will criticize Republicans for cutting law enforcment funds and Republicans will respond pushing the Bush Adminisration's plan for mandatory minumum sentences for all federal crimes.

We already have severe punishments for violent crime, particularly murder and rape in this country. If property crime is decreasing, there's no need to change the law. Don't get fooled. Here's the report.

Update on Giuliani below:

The 100,000 member International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers today endorsed Hillary Clinton for President.

Why? They say she has the best chance to win.

This is the fifth major labor union endorsement for Hillary. She leads the other candidates in overall union endorsements.

Obama got his first union endorsement today -- from a prison guards' union. Thanking the 9,000 member New York City's Correction Officers' Benevolent Association, Obama said:

"It's an honor to have the endorsement of these men and women who put themselves at risk everyday to serve on the front lines of our nation's criminal justice system." he said.

Big news from the DEA today: A major national steroid lab bust. Results: 143 search warrants, 11.4 million steroid pills seized, 29 people arrested.

The countries that assisted in the 18 month undercover operation: China, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and Thailand .

Federal agencies: FBI, Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Immmgration and Customs Enforcement and the National Drug Intelligence Center.

News conferences will be held in San Diego, New York City, Houston, Kansas City and Providence, R.I., which I take it to mean those are the districts where Indictments were brought.

Just a few months ago, Gitmo seemed headed for closure, thanks to a bill introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin and another by Sen. Diane Feinstein.

Now, the passage of either bill is in serious doubt. Harkin's bill failed to generate co-sponsors.

The detention facility has been embraced by many Republicans as a potent political symbol in their quest to seize the terrorism issue ahead of next year's elections. GOP presidential candidates have jockeyed to demonstrate their support for the prison. One candidate has called for doubling its use. Another praised the menu and health plan offered to detainees.

Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, who supports closure, says:

This weekend we reported on Attorney General Nominee Michael Mukasey's endorsement of enhanced interrogation techniques and opposition to closing Guantanamo and some of his rulings on federal sentencing guidelines and his promise to be independent of the White House.

Today, the New York Times has a very unflattering article about his conduct and treatment of material witnesses detained after 9/11.

Let's start with the material witness detentions:

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran, is speaking at Columbia today. Many in NYC and the United States find this appalling. I don't.

It gives the public an opportunity to hear him and, if Columbia is doing its job, ask him questions that enables him to attempt to explain his nation's supporting terror in Iraq and maybe elsewhere and why he denies the Holocaust. Indeed, if he attempts to answer questions, he will harm his own cause because he can't rationally answer some questions.

A U.S. District Court Judge in New Hampshire shows his sense of humor, responding to an inmate's lawsuit by writing in verse, a la Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss.

The backdrop: New Hampshire state inmate Charles Jay Wolff doesn't like eggs. When the state prison kept providing them to him, he filed a lawsuit. Along with the lawsuit, he mailed a hard-boiled egg to the Judge.

The Judge's response:

"I do not like eggs in the file," Muirhead wrote. "I do not like them in any style. I will not take them fried or boiled. I will not take them poached or broiled. I will not take them soft or scrambled / Despite an argument well-rambled."

The verse grew heated, exclamation marks were injected, and the egg was ordered destroyed.

"No fan I am / Of the egg at hand. Destroy that egg! Today! Today! Today I say! Without delay!"

Here's the full text (verse) of the Judge's reply.

The Washington Post explores Rudy Giuliani's claim he is the go-to guy in the war on terror. Here's a snippet, to give you the flavor:

But for most of Giuliani's career as a Department of Justice official, prosecutor and New York's chief executive, terrorism was a narrow aspect of his broader crime-fighting agenda, which was dominated by drug dealers, white-collar criminals and the Mafia. Giuliani expressed confidence that Islamic extremism could be contained through vigorous investigation by law enforcement agencies and prosecution in the court system -- the same approach he now condemns.

The LA Times recounts his flip-flopping on immigration.

More...

To accompany this post earlier today.

The number of law-bloggers hesitant to chime in on the Jena 6 case is growing. One reason given: The facts are not only confusing, but in several significant instances, in dispute. ESPN has this pretty good primer but it's hard to get the narrative from just one source, there are just too many variations.

Earlier this week there was Instapundit and Orin Kerr. They are now joined by Ann Althouse.

So, are the facts confusing or too disputed to pass judgment? Yes and no.

More...

The New York Times has a long expose today on how private capital groups are buying up the large chains of nursing home and cutting staff and care. If you have a loved one in a nursing, you should read it. It's very frightenting. First, what the Times did:

The Times examined more than 1,200 nursing homes purchased by large private investment groups since 2000, and more than 14,000 other homes. The analysis compared investor-owned homes against national averages in multiple categories, including complaints received by regulators, health and safety violations cited by regulators, fines levied by state and federal authorities, the performance of homes as reported in a national database known as the Minimum Data Set Repository and the performance of homes as reported in the Online Survey, Certification and Reporting database.

What it found:

As such investors have acquired nursing homes, they have often reduced costs, increased profits and quickly resold facilities for significant gains. But by many regulatory benchmarks, residents at those nursing homes are worse off, on average, than they were under previous owners, according to an analysis by The New York Times of data collected by government agencies from 2000 to 2006.

More...

Earlier I wrote about Attorney General Nominee Michael Mukasey's interviews with Senate Judiciary Committee members in which he professed his independence from the White House.

Michael Isikoff of Newsweek today reports on the same interviews and says Mukasey told the Senators he doesn't think Guantanamo should be closed and he favors enhanced interrogation techniques:

According to three sources, who asked not to be named discussing the private meetings, Mukasey said that he saw "significant problems" with shutting down Guantánamo Bay and that he understood the need for the CIA to use some "enhanced" interrogation techniques against Qaeda suspects. Mukasey also signaled reluctance with naming a special prosecutor to investigate Bush-administration misconduct, according to one participant.

As to Alberto Gonzales, Isikoff reports he's lawyering up.

The departed A.G. is now looking for a private lawyer to represent him, according to two legal sources who asked not to be identified because of the matter's sensitivity.