California prison authorities proposed their new plan for executions today, aimed at alleviating criticism over past practices, in which there was no assurance the dying inmate wasn't feeling pain.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger praised the new plan.

Aiming at ending a 16-month legal moratorium on capital punishment in California, state corrections officials today proposed new lethal injection execution procedures they say "will result in the dignified end of life" for condemned inmates.

The state acted in response to a December decision by U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel, who concluded that the state's implementation of the death penalty amounted to cruel and unusual punishment and may have subjected six inmates to excruciatingly painful ends.

The new proposals are listed below:

Too funny, particularly the hokey voice-over. [Via Alternet]

On the Fox post-GOP Debate fest, Alan Colmes asked John McCain how will the terrorists follow us home from Iraq? His answer? Like the Fort Dix "terrorists." I see. So like those guys followed us home 23 years ago?

Three brothers [Dritan "Anthony" or "Tony" Duka, 28; Shain Duka, 26; and Eljvir "Elvis" Duka, 23] charged in the alleged Fort Dix terror plot have been living illegally in the U.S. for more than 23 years and were accepted as Americans by neighbors and friends who had no idea they would scheme to attack military bases and slaughter GIs.

So they "followed us home" at the ages of 5, 2 and newborn? Um,"[t]he brothers entered the United States near Brownsville, Texas, in 1984, the source said, which would put their ages at 1 to 6 when they crossed the border. . ."

Precocious, these "terrorists."

Good news to report on the Student Loan Forgiveness Bill. It passed the House today. The Senate companion bill has passed the Judiciary Committee. There's yet another hurdle: If enacted, the repayment program must be funded through separate legislation in order to take effect. From CQ (subscription only):

CQ TODAY
May 15, 2007 – 3:44 p.m.
House Lawmakers Pass Bill on Student Loan Forgiveness
By Seth Stern and Ben Halpern-Meekin, CQ Staff

Law school graduates who take jobs as criminal prosecutors and public defenders would be eligible for student loan forgiveness under a bill House lawmakers passed Tuesday.

Considered under suspension of the rules, the bipartisan measure (HR 916) passed by 341-73. It would provide a maximum of $10,000 per year — up to a total of $60,000 — for law school graduates who committed to working at least three years as state or local prosecutors or federal, state or local public defenders. Federal prosecutors are already eligible for loan forgiveness.

....Graduates can carry up to $100,000 in law school debt, in addition to debt from their undergraduate educations. Many find it financially difficult to take jobs as prosecutors and public defenders, which typically pay less than entry-level positions in the private sector.

More...

Like Senator Obama, Senator Hillary Clinton does not get it. While ostensibly supporting Reid-Feingold, Senator Clinton seems not to understand the imperative for it. She seems not to accept or understand that President Bush will not be affected by "ratcheting up the pressure" nor will Republicans provide a "veto-proof" majority. Instead Senator Clinton sees Reid-Feingold as:

Senator Clinton will vote for cloture on both the Feingold-Reid and Reed-Levin Amendments, to send the President a clear message that it is time to change course, redeploy our troops out of Iraq, and end this war as soon as possible.

Reid-Feingold is not about sending messages. It is about understanding that President Bush is oblivious to messages. It is about telling the American People that the Democratic Congress will not fund the Iraq Debacle past a date certain. And that it is then incumbent on President Bush to NOT abandon the troops in the middle of the civil war raging in Iraq.

Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee today. Marcy Wheeler live-blogged it over at Firedoglake.

The MSM is reporting on Comey's testimony regarding Alberto Gonzales' and Andrew Cards' 2004 hospital visit to former Attorney General John Ashcroft to get him to sign off on an extension of Bush's warrantless NSA electronic surveillance program.

I covered that extensively here and here in January, 2006, including reporting from the New York Times and Newsweek.

Think Progress has the transcript of today's Comey testimony.

Did Comey add anything today to the story that wasn't previously known? Is it really as shocking as Charles Schumer makes it sound? Or should Schumer have done something about it back in 2006 when the story was widely reported and we were all complaining about it?

Reverand Jerry Falwell has died.

Leading US conservative evangelist Rev Jerry Falwell has died in hospital in Virginia after being found unconscious in his office, his assistants said.

Doctors gave Rev Falwell emergency treatment at Lynchburg General Hospital but could not revive him.

Update: Reactions:

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force:

“The death of a family member or friend is always a sad occasion and we express our condolences to all those who were close to the Rev. Jerry Falwell. Unfortunately, we will always remember him as a founder and leader of America’s anti-gay industry, someone who exacerbated the nation’s appalling response to the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic, someone who demonized and vilified us for political gain and someone who used religion to divide rather than unite our nation.”

The Washington Post has a longer article on Falwell and his evangelical work.

Sen. Barack Obama's "support" for Reid-Feingold is based on a phony description of what the Reid-Feingold framework is about:

Tomorrow, I expect cloture votes on two other proposals. One is the Reid-Feingold plan, which would begin a withdrawal of troops in 120 days and end all combat operations on April 1. . . . I will support both, not because I believe either is the best answer . . .

Quite simply, Senator Obama has chosen to mislead as to the critical point about the Reid Feingold proposal. It is this:

Prohibition on Use of Funds - No funds appropriated or otherwise made available under any provision of law may be obligated or expended to continue the deployment in Iraq of members of the United States Armed Forces after March 31, 2008.

Nothing in any of Senator Obama's proposals contains the concept of NOT funding the Iraq Debacle after a date certain. Senator Obama needs to be forthright on this issue- either he supports not funding the Iraq Debacle after a date certain, or he does not. His "support" of the Reid-Feingold framework is phony and false. To me, this is the WORST possible answer he could have given. I would have preferred honest disagreement. Instead Senator Obama gives us disingenuous "support." Bad show.

Senator Dodd says we can not wait for the next President to end the Iraq Debacle. He's right. And that's why I support his Presidential bid.

John Edwards says:

“It is time to end this war. The only real power Congress has to end the war is their funding power, which is why I and others have been calling on them to use it for some time. "I would actually go further than Reid-Feingold and use the funding authority, not just to set an ultimate deadline, but to force an immediate withdrawal of 40-50,000 troops, followed by a complete withdrawal in about a year. But using the funding authority to bring this war to an end is exactly the right thing to do. Every Senator who believes this war is wrong and wants to end it should support Reid-Feingold."

At the end of a good post on the failed political Presidency of George W. Bush, my friend DemfromCt writes something that I think misses the point:

What America needs is recognition of the problem and a concerted bipartisan effort (including Republicans) to minimize the damage done, rather than a pretense that 'being like Reagan and Truman' will make everything okay in the morning. . . . If Republicans and conservatives are serious about this, they'll call for the firing of Alberto Gonzales. If that doesn't happen (and I doubt it will), all these Rx for Success notes to Bush and the GOP are just so much wasted bandwidth that won't stop a GOP debacle in 2008.

Since, as DemfromCt recognizes, the GOP will not join Dems in "a bipartisan effort to minimize the damage done," what he should recognize America needs is a concerted partisan effort by Democrats to minimize the damage done, particularly on Iraq.

As I have written here many times, it is within the power of the Democratic Congress to end the Iraq Debacle. The Reid-Feingold framework, with an announced date certain, March 31, 2008, for NOT funding the war, is the concerted partisan effort that is needed to minimize the damage of the Iraq Debacle. Today, the Senate takes up the Reid-Feingold proposal. Please urge your Senators to vote in favor of ending the Iraq Debacle in the only way truly possible, by announcing a date certain for NOT funding it.

The Washington Post reports on changes to "Club Feds," the least restrictive federal prison camps. Actually, the article is a review of another article in a right-wing think tank's magazine.

Back in the good old days, when a nice, respectable white-collar criminal went to federal prison, he could do his time playing tennis with crooked pols, embezzling bankers, book-cooking accountants and other high-class folks. Not anymore. Now, Club Fed admits all kinds of lowlifes.

Yes, Club Feds have changed in the last 30 years, but not because of who they admit. It's because they have become places of forced labor with rules that turn inmates into automatons.

A much better read on how the camps have changed is this letter written in December by legendary criminal defense lawyer Tony Serra, who at 71, was serving 10 months for misdemeanor tax evasion.

Tony doesn't just describe the differences. He includes a plan for change. Here's his nine point platform: