Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's lawyers sparred in court with prosecutors today as a hearing was held on his motion for new trial.

Arguments centered on a recent Supreme Court ruling finding the law providing for stiffer penalties for crimes involving the possession of a gun or explosives to be overbroad and constitutionally vague. The ruling affects half of the counts of which Tsarnaev was convicted, and his lawyers say a new penalty trial is required.

Also addressed: Restitution, and Tsarnaev's conditions of confinement. In passing, the Judge indicated he is closer to unsealing many of the court pleadings.

The judge reserved ruling.

Climate change. The New York Times has this report. On the car radio yesterday, all the nay-saying pundits wanted to do was link it to terrorism. I learned nothing except what a waste of time it is to listen to cable news.

Here's a thread to discuss climate change.

Update: The soldiers were released and put in Red Cross vans. Also released as expected: Saja al Dulaimi, ex-wife of ISIS leader al-Baghdadi, She says she divorced him six years ago and intends to go to Turkey.

Lebanon and al Nusra have finally agreed on the terms of a prisoner exchange for the 16 Lebanese military members held hostage by the al-Qaida linked group since August, 2014. Nusra delivered the soldiers to the release point last night.

The actual release won't occur until the 15 or so Islamist prisoners who had been held at Lebanon's Roumieh Prison, arrive at the site. [More...]

After 20 years, activist Lori Berenson, convicted of aiding leftist rebels in Peru, is finally returning home to New York.

The 46-year-old has been living quietly in Lima with her 6-year-old son since her 2010 parole because she was barred from leaving the country until her 20-year sentence lapsed. Berenson told The Associated Press that occurred on Sunday.

The basics:

She was initially convicted of treason in 1996 by a court of hooded military judges and sent for nearly three years to a frigid prison at 12,700 feet (3,870 meters) altitude, where her health suffered.

After U.S. pressure and a legal defense aided by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Berenson was retried in a civilian court in 2001....

[More...]

First day back after Thanksgiving is always busy. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Is anyone surprised that Robert Lewis Dear, Jr is described by those who came into occasional contact with him as a reclusive loner ? He lived in a dilapidated trailer off the beaten path. His only political activity reported so far consists of once handing an anti-Obama pamphlet to a neighbor who had stopped by his trailer.

His ex-wife says he has a college degree and used to be an art dealer of some sort. He did not seem particularly religious or political. When they split up, she said she had no problem with Dear having custody of their 12 year old son and raising him. (She remarried and said she only saw Dear a handful of times since they split in 2000.)

Dear moved to Colorado from North Carolina in the last year or two and bought a piece of land in Hartsel, CO, which is in Park County, about 45 minutes from Colorado Springs. He lived in a trailer with a woman and two dogs.

He has no significant criminal history and none in the past decade. In North Carolina he lived in a cabin in the woods on Black Mountain near Asheville, NC that had no electricity or running water. Until his divorce in 2000, he lived in South Carolina. He grew up in Lexington, KY.

His neighbors, who barely had any contact with him, describe him as an unkempt reclusive malcontent who never appeared threatening (despite being 6'4" tall) and didn't express political opinions.

Most abortion clinic violence has occurred through bombings, not shootings. One exception was John Salvi in Mass. He killed himself in prison in 1996. [More...]

Mehdi Masroor Biswas, aka @Shami Witness, has been in custody since December 13, 2014. He was not charged until June, 2015. He has still not been tried.

What's the holdup? Indian authorities are waiting on Google to respond to a subpoena. They believe Google's response will identify more accounts Biswas used to tweet out his ISIS news updates and opinions. They intend to file a second charge sheet against him with more charges.

The police suspect Biswas ran multiple e-mail accounts which they could not access. “We are yet to get a response from Google. The access and information provided will help to file an additional charge sheet,” said M. Chandrashekhar, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime).

[More...]

Here's how my CFB year has gone - I could hit all 19 games I picked today and I'd still be under .500. I'm a bit better on the money side as I've done decently with my larger plays, but basically a disaster. But bowl season comes soon and a winning season dollar wise is still within reach. Today's picks:

Ohio State -1 (15 units) @ Michigan, Georgia -4 (4 units) @ Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech -4 (4 units) @ Virginia, Southern Mississippi @ Louisiana Tech -6, Louisville @ Kentucky +5, Iowa State @ West Virginia -14 (3 units), Clemson @ South Carolina +17, Cincinnati @ East Carolina -1, Alabama -15 (5 units) @ Auburn, UCLA +3 (3 units) @ USC, Oklahoma -7 (13 units) @ Oklahoma State, Texas A&m +6 (3 units) @ LSU, Notre Dame @ Stanford -3 (5 units), Florida State -3 (3 units) @ Florida, Mississippi @ Mississippi State +1 (3 units), Vanderbilt +18 (3 units) @ Tennessee, Northwestern @ Illinois +4 (3 units), BYU @ Utah State +3, North Carolina -4 (5 units) @ North Carolina State.

Go Gators!

Tuesday, the U.N. Security Council’s counter-terrorism committee held a conference at which several experts spoke about ISIS and foreign fighters. I found this media recap of the presentation of Scott Atran from the Centre for Resolution of Intractable Conflict at Oxford University very interesting. (He is highly credentialed, and his research in the field includes interviews with captured ISIS fighters and still fighting al Nusra fighters.)

He debunks several of the memes currently making the rounds as to ISIS' intentions and strategy, and the reasons young Western recruits find ISIS so attractive. He also explains why the U.S. counter-messaging campaign has been such a failure.[More...]

It's a Thanksgiving tradition we never miss here at Casa TalkLeft. Radio stations around the country today will play the 18 minute version of Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant, recorded in 1967.

Should you miss it on your local radio station and yearn for the original version, you can listen to the You Tube version above.

Why listen to Arlo's 18 minute version of Alice's Restaurant? Because it's like our liberal national anthem, that only comes around once day a year, so you don't want to miss it as it's coming around.

If you're wondering where Alice is, she's here. Does anyone besides me still have a hardcover edition of her 1969 Alice's Restaurant cookbook in their kitchen? (Photo here.) It's filled with tasty recipes and very easy instructions.

After relaxing and laughing with Arlo, you'll be ready for the chaos of Thanksgiving dinner. [More...]

If you're one of the lucky ones not running around like a maniac today, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.