The War on Drugs is not just in America. Around the world, people are dying in pain because doctors won't prescribe pain medication. Why? The War on Drugs. Narcotics have become the equivalent of a dirty word.

Like millions of others in the world’s poorest countries, she is destined to die in pain. She cannot get the drug she needs — one that is cheap, effective, perfectly legal for medical uses under treaties signed by virtually every country, made in large quantities, and has been around since Hippocrates praised its source, the opium poppy. She cannot get morphine.

That is not merely because of her poverty, or that of Sierra Leone. Narcotics incite fear: doctors fear addicting patients, and law enforcement officials fear drug crime. Often, the government elite who can afford medicine for themselves are indifferent to the sufferings of the poor.

If someone is dying in pain, addiction is the last thing they care about or we should be concerned about. Opium, heroin and morphine are not dirty words. They relieve pain. They should be readily available to those who need them.

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The Democratic candidates held their first debate broadcast in Spanish on Univison. On immigration:

Clinton criticized the immigration bill proposed in the last Congress, dominated by Republicans. That legislation would have penalized those who help illegal immigrants. "I said it would have criminalized the good Samaritan. It would have criminalized Jesus Christ," she said.

Bill Richardson, showing off:

Richardson, one of two candidate who speak fluent Spanish, objected to the debate rules that required all candidates to answer in English. The rule was designed to make sure that no candidate had an advantage in appealing to the Spanish-speaking audience.

Mike Gravel:

"I honor everyone who comes to this country as an immigrant because we are all immigrants."

Dennis Kucinich was the only candidate endorsing Spanish as America's second language. Joe Biden didn't attend the debate.

The Washington Post has more on the debate.

Larry Craig's lawyer Billy Martin said today he will file papers with the court in Minnesota tomorrow seeking to withdraw Craig's guilty plea.

Martin would not disclose the grounds, but said he was not concerned about Craig's political survival.

My job is to get him back to where he was before his rights were taken away," Martin said.

I'm still thinking, as I've been since August 30th, that the principal ground will be that the plea form (pdf)Craig mailed in did not advise him of his right to counsel. (Video here, about 3 minutes in.)

As other grounds, there's the argument that the facts he admitted to don't constitute a crime and in my view, a much weaker argument that he was illegally arrested because he was on his way to vote in DC and the Constitution prevents lawmakers from being arrested on their way to a vote.

Update: CNN has more, including statements from a source hinting at the grounds. All grounds will go to his plea not being made intelligently and knowingly because of his rights' violations.

Media types are busy speculating who Al Gore will endorse in 2008. He has said he expects to make an endorsement before the primaries.

No one expects Gore to endorse Hillary. I suspect he will endorse Obama, who has been campaigning for his endorsement (as have John Edwards and Chris Dodd. Neither Hillary, Biden nor Richardson have met with Dodd.)

In 2004, Gore endorsed Howard Dean. A month later, Dean was history.

Does Gore's endorsement matter? As much or more than Oprah's?

See Joe Biden on Meet the Press this morning. Crooks and Liars has the video in which Biden says he won't vote to cut off war funding.

When asked by host Tim Russert if he would vote to cut off funding for Iraq if President Bush refuses to accept a withdrawal date, Biden moves directly to the “cutting off funding means you don’t support the troops” mentality pulled straight from the pages of the RNC playbook. Instead of speaking the truth, that it means appropriating funds to begin a safe and smart withdrawal from the country, not abandoning out troops, Biden instead says he won’t vote to cut off funding and chooses to chastise Democrats who support it.

It’s infuriating to say the least to see Biden falling for the White House framing– not one single Democrat in Congress wants to leave our soldiers stranded in the middle of the desert with no food, water, ammo or protection–and cutting off Bush’s funding would not do that–and Senator Biden should know better.

Update: See below for some of the reasons I've never favored Joe Biden.

It's not surprising that most Democratic bloggers (bloggers who are Democrats)have not endorsed a presidential candidate yet. It's too early. There is more than one that most of us could enthusiastically support.

In looking back at 2004, it wasn't until February, 2004 that Daily Kos endorsed John Edwards. Same for The Agonist. I was still undecided between Kerry and Edwards. On March 4, 2004, Edwards dropped out and Kerry had the nomination.

It's only September now. There are still three major candidates in the race, Hillary, Edwards and Obama.

While I've stated Hillary and Edwards are my favorites of the three, and that remains my position, I'll support whichever one gets the nomination. All are light-years better than the Republican candidates. All will bring change. All three will appoint judges and an Attorney General we can count on not to eviscerate our constitutional rights and to uphold the rule of law.

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(Chicago Sun Times Photo)

I think the Chicago Tribune has the most details about yesterday's Oprah-Obama fundraising event.

In addition to the normal dishy details, it has extended quotes by both of them on their new relationship, on why Oprah is supporting Obama and what Obama thinks Oprah's support for him can do.

It's a three page article that is well worth a read.

General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker will be testifying before Congress on Monday and Wednesday, providing his self evaluation of his own military strategy in Iraq. It is no doubt tempting for Democratic members of Congress to challenge General Petraeus' self assessment. My view is that this would be a mistake. The line of argument to take is not to question Petraeus' military assessment. The optics of congresspersons battling on military questions with a 4 star General will not work in the short term.

The line of questioning should be to go above Petraeus's head and question the strategy of President Bush. In short the Surge is failing NOT because of Petraeus, but because the strategy that calls for the military TACTICS Petraeus is employing are failing. I suggest citing the conservative columnist George Will:

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The New York Times, in A Streetwise Veteran Schooled Young Obama, details Barack Obama's unsuccessful attempt in 1999 to challenge Bobby Rush, a popular incumbent congressman and former Black Panther from the South Side of Chicago. Obama was in upscale Hyde Park.

The episode revealed a lot about Senator Obama — now running for president, against the odds again and with a relatively slim résumé. It showed his impatience with the frustrations of his state Senate job; his outsize confidence; his fund-raising powers; his broad appeal; and his willingness to be what Abner J. Mikva, a former congressman and supporter, calls “a very apt student of his own mistakes.”

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Kudos to Frank Rich for taking the Media to task on Iraq, Petraeus and the "Surge. I especially liked this:

What's surprising is not that this White House makes stuff up, but that even after all the journalistic embarrassments in the run-up to the war its fictions can still infiltrate the real news. After Michael O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack, two Brookings Institution scholars, wrote a New York Times Op-Ed article in July spreading glad tidings of falling civilian fatality rates, they were widely damned for trying to pass themselves off as tough war critics (both had supported the war and the surge) and for not mentioning that their fact-finding visit to Iraq was largely dictated by a Department of Defense itinerary.

But this has not impeded them from posing as quasi-journalistic independent observers elsewhere ever since, whether on CNN, CBS, Fox or in these pages, identifying themselves as experts rather than Pentagon junketeers. Unlike Armstrong Williams, the talking head and columnist who clandestinely received big government bucks to "regularly comment" on No Child Left Behind, they received no cash. But why pay for what you can get free? Two weeks ago Mr. O'Hanlon popped up on The Washington Post op-ed page, again pushing rosy Iraq scenarios, including an upbeat prognosis for economic reconstruction, even though the G.A.O. found that little of the $10 billion earmarked for reconstruction is likely to be spent. . .

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When the media gets a bug up it's as*, it just doesn't quit.

Check out all these articles on Norman Hsu this weekend.

The NY Daily News:

Disgraced Democratic fund-raiser Norman Hsu was wandering an Amtrak train bare-chested and shoeless and "freaked out" when he was nabbed, a witness said. "I thought he had a suitcase full of crack or meth," fellow passenger Alberto Dee, 21, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

....The train's conductor said the two-time fugitive looked like an elderly man with dementia, and that's why he called 911.

The Denver Post reports a hospital administrator described Hsu as delirious.

The Washington Post leads with a fundraiser Hsu held for Barack Obama in 2005.

The New York Times devotes multiple paragraphs to one month of bank records it was able to locate from 2003. The stunning revelation:

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The Washington Post reports President Bush is expected to name a new Attorney General next week.

Ted Olson is named as a leading contender.

Other candidates still in the running include former deputy attorney general George J. Terwilliger III and D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Laurence H. Silberman, according to the sources, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the discussions.

It's still possible Bush will name someone not on the short list.

If Bush picks Olson, I hope the Dems put up a fight. He's far too partisan for the job.