More details are coming out about Cho Seung-Hui, the 23 year old shooter in the Virginia Tech killings. To call them warning signs might be an understatement.

Cho had shown recent signs of violent, aberrant behavior, according to an investigative source, including setting a fire in a dorm room and allegedly stalking some women. A note believed to have been written by Cho was found in his dorm room that railed against "rich kids," "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans" on campus.

Cho was an English major whose creative writing was so disturbing that he was referred to the school's counseling service, the Associated Press reported.

He had been referred to counseling, but apparently no one followed up to see if he went. Authorities believe he was taking anti-depressant medication at some point.

Did he abruptly stop taking it? Shades of the Columbine killers seem to be emerging here.

Glenn Greenwald documents again how the Beltway Media is clueless, but I think he overlooks an important sidebar, it is also remains irrelevant on Iraq. Glenn goes through the atrocious Pelosi in Syria coverage and her rising poll numbers:

Yes, Pelosi's trip to Syria sure did make Democrats look weak and untrustworthy on national security -- just like our brilliant media stars told us it would. After all, the percentage of Americans who trust Democrats over Bush to handle the situation in Iraq increased after Pelosi's trip -- from 54% to 58%. And the gap between those who trust Democrats more than The Great War Leader George W. Bush with regard to the war is now a startling 25 point gap -- up from 20 points as compared to the period before Pelosi went to Syria. . . . These media stars have absolutely no idea what and how "Americans" think. They take the conventional Beltway wisdom they pass amongst one another -- all generated by their White House confidants and other right-wing sources who have long ruled Washington (and therefore "their world") -- and they mindlessly assume it to be true and then run around repeating it without any effort to determine if it is actually true . . .

All true, but consider what happened - their relentless bleating had ZERO effect on public opinion. The Beltway Media has rendered itself irrelevant to the American People when it comes to Bush and Iraq.

The views of the folks back home should be uppermost in the minds of the Democratic Congress when it considers what type of Iraq funding bill should emerge from conference this week:

While the media goes 24/7 on Virginia Tech, I have my office tv tuned to Court TV.

Closing arguments are finishing up and being televised live in the Melanie Maguire murder case. The prosecution is up now giving its rebuttal closing, and TalkLeft pal Joe Tacopina gave his closing yesterday.

Also today, Robert Kennedy, Jr. is on the stand in Greenwich, CT testifying for Michael Skakel in Skakel's bid for a new trial. When closings are over in Maguire, Court TV will provide televised coverage. TalkLeft pal Mickey Sherman, Skakel's original defense lawyer, is also expected to be a witness for Skakel.

Jury selection is underway in the Jose Padilla trial. Another TalkLeft pal, Bill Swor, is representing his co-defendant Kifah Wael Jayyousi.

Law Prof Randy Barnett has an op-ed in the Wall St. Journal today praising criminal defense lawyers,Three Cheers for Lawyers, using the lawyers for the Duke lacrosse players as an example.

More....

A new revelation about Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' propensity for untruths:

In October of last year, President Bush had a conversation with Gonzales about U.S. attorneys. According to the White House's public statements, the conversation was a broad one, about voter fraud in three districts. Gonzales has said publicly that he doesn't remember such a conversation taking place. But that's not what Kyle Sampson told congressional investigators this past weekend. According to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sampson said that in early March of this year, Gonzales told him about a conversation he'd had in October with Bush that was specifically about U.S. Attorney for New Mexico David Iglesias. Remember that the White House was getting heavy pressure from Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) and other New Mexico Republicans to can Iglesias.

The problem here for Gonzales is while he insists he did not remember the meeting, Sampson seems to think Gonzales did remember when he spoke to him in March:

[I]f Schumer's relation of Sampson's testimony is accurate, it seems clear that Sampson had not been under the impression that Gonzales himself didn't remember the conversation when they spoke about it in early March.

Gonzales simply has no credibility. None. He has told too many untruths. To me, the biggest whopper remains this:

Last night's MSNBC's Countdown spent the hour on the Va. Tech massacre, which is on every news website today.  Questions were raised about why the campus was not locked down after the first shooting which was two hours before the mass murder.

Who could expect that this would be the one in a million chance that one murder would turn into 32?

For a more poignant perspective, ABC News this morning interviews survivors and family members and shows many pictures taken from the campus on cellphones by students waiting it out.  And, do not forget the Va. Tech website itself discussing today's events on campus.

Remember the dead, comfort the living, but consider the possibilities in a calmer, more sober light light.  Now is not the time for fingerpointing because it will take awhile to gather all the facts.

The silicon chip inside her head
Gets switched to overload.
And nobody's gonna go to school today,
She's going to make them stay at home.
And daddy doesn't understand it,
He always said she was as good as gold.
And he can see no reason
'Cause there are no reasons
What reason do you need to be shown?

Tell me why?
I don't like Mondays.
Tell me why?
I don't like Mondays.
Tell me why?
I don't like Mondays.
I want to shoot
The whole day down.

Is Rudy Giuliani running from his gun control message of years past, or his new message saying he's a Second Amendment supporter?

Rudy Giuliani is in Denver, but he canceled plans for a $1,000. a person fundraiser due to the Virginia Tech shootings. The parking valets were already in place when the cancellation notice was received -- just 30 minutes before the start of the event.

On this day of national tragedy, when we lost some of our finest to this senseless act, we stand together as a country to mourn those who lost their lives," Giuliani’s statement read. "My thoughts and prayers continue to be with the survivors and the many friends, colleagues and family members of those who perished. May God bless them all."

Is that really the reason?

More...

In light of the Virginia Tech shootings, the testimony that Alberto Gonzales was to give tomorrow has been postponed until Thursday. Although Gonzales was given the extra time because he "may be preoccupied on Tuesday with matters related to the shootings" (it's hard to see how), he now has two more days to get his story straight.

It is too early to be debating these things in light of today's Virginia Tech tragedy, but I found these reactions worthy of notice. Atrios is against security checkpoints on campuses:

Without meaning to minimize the tragedy, can we stop the hysterical calls for increased security measures on college campuses. Large residential college campuses are like small cities, places where people live, work, and study. Calling for absurd things like random bag checks and metal detectors in such an environment is like calling for such things on city streets.

Glenn Reynolds is for more guns on campuses:

. . . These things do seem to take place in locations where it's not legal for people with carry permits to carry guns, though, and I believe that's the case where the Virginia Tech campus is concerned. I certainly wish that someone had been in a position to shoot this guy at the outset. Had [guns been allowed on campus], things might have turned out differently, though we'll never know now.

I leave you with your thoughts on these thoughts.

Bump and Update (TL): 33 dead (including the shooter). I just got to the airport to fly back to Denver and this is all over the tv monitors. It's now officially the largest mass shooting in U.S. history. The gunman is dead.

Second update (TChris): 28 additional victims were taken to the hospital. It isn't clear whether the shooter was responsible for bomb threats earlier this week.

The first two victims were killed at about 7:15 a.m. local time at West Ambler Johnston dormitory, Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said. Police said they didn't close the campus because they believed it was an isolated incident and the shooter had left the grounds.

"We secured the building, we secured the crime scene," Flinchum said. "You can second guess all day. We acted on the best information we had."

More here.

original post:

Tragic news at Virginia Tech:

At least 20 people were killed this morning at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University after a shooting spree at two buildings on the campus. ... The university's Web site later posted a notice that 22 had been confirmed dead.

Are judges permitted to express their opinions, or do they shed their First Amendment rights when they don a robe? Adam Liptak calls attention to a disciplinary proceeding against Arkansas Judge Wendell Griffen, who may lose his job (or at least face a suspension) because he made a speech that criticized the president’s decision to wage war with Iraq.

Last month, the commission voted to hold a hearing in the matter, saying there is probable cause to believe that Judge Griffen had damaged public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary. In an interview, James A. Badami, the commission’s executive director, elaborated. “If you are a staunch Republican and a Bush supporter and have to come before this judge,” Mr. Badami said, sounding exasperated, “and this judge has now said some terrible things about Bush and the Bush administration — and now those people are having to appear before him?”

Here’s a better question: when a judge issues campaign promises to be “tough on crime” by making sure that offenders stay behind bars, touts her past experience as a “law and order prosecutor,” and trumpets her endorsement by law enforcement officers across the state, how will someone who is accused of a crime feel about having to appear before the judge? After all, the judge will rarely know whether a party appearing in court is a Republican or Democrat, but the judge will surely know that the party is on the wrong side of criminal prosecution. Isn’t there a greater risk of partiality when the judge has made campaign statements suggesting that she will favor the prosecution over the defense and will follow a uniformly harsh sentencing policy rather than tailoring sentences to the specific offender?

The Pulitzer Prizes were announced this afternoon and among the winners was the Boston Globe's Charles Savage, for his reproting on President Bush's unprecedented use of signing statements:

The Boston Globe took the prize for national reporting for reports by Charles Savage documenting that President Bush had quietly disregarded more than 750 laws enacted by Congress since he took office. Mr. Savage found that the president attached “signing statements” saying he had the power to set those laws aside when they conflicted with his interpretation of the Constitution and when Congress sought to regulate the military.

Congratulations to Mr. Savage. The other winners on the flip.