There's a freezing rain storm here today and very gray skies. It's the kind where you can hear the wind from inside and watch the rain pound the windows and you just know you aren't going outside unless you have to.

I'm going to spend it reading discovery, listening to wiretaps and organizing my files.

I'll leave the blogging to you.

David Halberstam, RIP, was a great journalist before he became famous and pretty good advocacy journalist after he became famous. And I think he realized that. Glenn Greenwald highlights a few of Halberstam's speeches on the "state of journalism" and a section from this Halberstam speech caught my eye:

There are a few things I would like to pass on to you as I come near to the end of my career. One: It's not about fame. By and large, the more famous you are, the less of a journalist you are. Besides, fame does not last. At its best, it is about being paid to learn. For fifty years, I have been paid to go out and ask questions. What a great privilege to be a free reporter in a free society, to be someone whose job is a search for knowledge. What a rare chance to grow as a person. . . .

(Emphasis supplied.) I think that is a key insight from Halberstam. When you are not famous, your job as a journalist is to learn facts and then tell the public about the facts you have learned. By and large, as a reporter gets famous or even better known, they become advocates for particular narratives. This too is a worthy role so long as we understand that this is what famous journalists are doing.

And the toll, it just keeps growing.

A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-rigged truck into a U.S. military outpost near Baqubah on Monday, killing nine soldiers and wounding 20 in one of the deadliest single ground attacks on U.S. forces since the start of the war in Iraq, military officials said early Tuesday.

....The truck bombing caused the highest number of U.S. fatalities in a ground attack since Aug. 3, 2005, when 14 Marines were killed after their amphibious assault vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Haditha.

How many times have we heard that phrase, "one of the deadliest attacks since the start of the war?"

The House and the Senate have now agreed on a compromise Iraq funding bill.

The measure, a compromise between separate legislation passed earlier by each chamber, requires U.S. troops to begin withdrawing from Iraq by Oct. 1, with the goal of completing the withdrawal within 180 days. Some U.S. forces could remain in the country for training and counterterrorism operations.

Bush still threatens to veto it. Democrats may not have the votes necessary to override the veto.

Your unitary executive at work. He refuses to listen, is unable to grasp and unwilling to concede this war cannot be won by military means. And every day, more soldiers continue to die.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports a possible explanation for the traffic accident that sent New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine to the hospital.

New Jersey State Police are investigating an allegation that the trooper who was driving Gov. Corzine's SUV two weeks ago when it crashed going 91 m.p.h. may have been distracted by e-mails sent to his mobile phone or BlackBerry.

Perhaps Trooper Rasinski is adept at checking his BlackBerry while driving at high speeds, but was startled by the content of the messages.

A Berkeley Heights police sergeant was quoted in the Star-Ledger of Newark yesterday saying he sent an e-mail shortly before the crash to Trooper Robert Rasinski, confronting him over having a two-year affair with his wife, Susan. He said he enclosed a family photo as an attachment.

An acquittal in a South Carolina rape case. The defense had argued the two teenage girls lied and set him up. They were really after his marijuana. He testified he had consensual sex with one hours before the alleged rape.

....during the six-day trial, Hinson said the girls had consensual sex with him just hours before the alleged crimes took place, which explained why evidence on one of the girl's shirts was consistent with Hinson's DNA. He also described in detail a trip to a sex shop with one of his accusers to purchase a sexual device about a week before the alleged crimes and identified the device in court.

When Hinson saw police cars arrive at his property, he said he assumed they were after the four pounds of marijuana stashed in the underground room so he panicked and hid in the nearby woods.

As to the dungeon,

More...

The new list of the 50 best restaurants in the world was released today. You can view it here.

Only 8 are in the United States.

How many have you eaten in? I've only eaten in five, one in London, two in Paris, one each in New York and Chicago.

The one I'd most like to try: Bukhara, in New Delhi, which won as best restaurant in Asia. In the U.S., I'd like to eat at French Laundry in California.

Can you tell I'm writing this just before dinner?

A medical study out today casts new doubt on whether lethal injection causes the painless death we've all been told.

The study analyzed executions in two states, California and North Carolina. The findings:

We were able to analyze only a limited number of executions. However, our findings suggest that current lethal injection protocols may not reliably effect death through the mechanisms intended, indicating a failure of design and implementation. If thiopental and potassium chloride fail to cause anesthesia and cardiac arrest, potentially aware inmates could die through pancuronium-induced asphyxiation. Thus the conventional view of lethal injection leading to an invariably peaceful and painless death is questionable.

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Image from the Innocent Project.

Jerry Miller has been ordered released from jail after serving 25 years for a rape DNA has shown he didn't commit.

Miller is the 200th person shown by DNA evidence to have been wrongfully convicted.

The Innocence Project says,

The 100th exoneration occurred in January 2002, 13 years after the first exoneration. It took just more than five years for the number to double.

"Five years ago, people said that the number (of exonerations) was going to dry up because there just weren't many wrongful convictions," said lawyer Barry Scheck, who co-founded the Innocence Project in 1992 to help prisoners prove their innocence through DNA evidence. "But clearly, there are plenty of innocent persons still in prison. There's no way you can look at this data without believing that."

David Lazer, a Harvard University public policy professor who specializes in DNA issues, says improved testing technology and an increase in the number of lawyers who are taking on DNA cases should result in a continued increase in the number of wrongful convictions that are set aside.

JOE McLAUGHLIN/Staff photographer, Home News Tribune

Nurse Melanie McGuire was convicted today of murdering her husband, dismembering him and dumping his body in the Chesapeake Bay.

You can watch the verdict here.

It was an entirely circumstantial case. TalkLeft pal Joe Tacopina was lead counsel. He and co-counsel Stephen Turano challenged every piece of evidence. They tried a great case. But the jury convicted.

Her $1.2 million bail was revoked, she was taken into custody and now faces a mandatory minimum 30 year sentence -- and up to life.

More....

Former Russian leader and the country's first elected President Boris Yeltsin has died of heart failure at age 76.

Britain's Tony Blair has this tribute.

Here's a timeline of his life, accomplishments and failures.

Here are some reactions from world leaders.

What will they think of next?

A Transportation Security Administration effort to screen air travelers for suspicious behavior is on track to come to Denver International Airport this year, subjecting passengers to observation and small talk from agents looking for signs of deception.

The SPOT program - short for "screening passengers by observation technique" - is modeled after Israeli security measures that pick up on facial expressions, body language and other involuntary reactions that occur when people lie. TSA officials won't list which behaviors raise concerns or say how many screeners are involved, citing security concerns.

What are they looking for?

"We're not just looking for people who seem suspicious, TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said. "We're looking for behaviors that have been proven by scientific research to indicate that an individual is suppressing high levels of stress or fear or deception. People who are up to something, basically."

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Remember when the LeftBlogs were focused on the Iraq Supplemental?

Surprisingly, after yesterday's victory in the Senate, it now seems that Democrats are both capable and ready to send a supplemental funding bill that requires withdrawal from Iraq to Bush's desk. While there are still other battles to be fought before that point, such as the conference report on the funding bill and a vote today on the Webb amendment requiring congressional approval before an attack on Iran [whatever happened to that?], the next major step in this fight will clearly come when Bush vetoes the supplemental.

(Emphasis supplied.) Well, it now seems that Dems are NOT capable of sending a supplemental funding bill that requires withdrawal from Iraq to Bush's desk. Apparently, there will be no fight on the conference report. 0 for 2 there. So what if it becomes 0 for 3? What happens if Bush does not veto? Where does this ingenious strategy go from here? Can't Bush ask for the same language for the regular Iraq appropriations bill this summer? I mean, he will have "caved in" already. How "reasonable" can a guy be? I think it becomes increasingly clear that the Dems' Iraq supplemental funding strategy has been a big mistake. The Reid-Feingold proposal, which can work without becoming legislation, is the only approach that can end the Debacle.

But not to worry, Progressives are fully engaged with the 2008 Presidential election. And aren't we happy about that? I mean who wants to focus on the Iraq Debacle anyway? It's a lot more fun to beat up on Hillary Clinton every day no? What harm can Bush and Iraq do in the next 20 months? A few of us are worried:

Confronting Mr. Bush on Iraq has become a patriotic duty. . . . If nothing is done to wind down this war during the 21 months — 21 months! — Mr. Bush has left, the damage may be irreparable.