If the Bush Administration thought that Walter Reed is the only veterans hospital needing fixing, it's in for a huge awakening. In the aftermath of the publicity about the deficient conditions at Reed, soldiers elsewhere are weighing in, with similar stories about treatment across the country.

Stories of neglect and substandard care have flooded in from soldiers, their family members, veterans, doctors and nurses working inside the system. They describe depressing living conditions for outpatients at other military bases around the country, from Fort Lewis in Washington state to Fort Dix in New Jersey. They tell stories -- their own versions, not verified -- of callous responses to combat stress and a system ill equipped to handle another generation of psychologically scarred vets.

...much deeper [than Reed] has been the reaction outside Washington, including from many of the 600,000 new veterans who left the service after Iraq and Afghanistan. Wrenching questions have dominated blogs, talk shows, editorial cartoons, VFW spaghetti suppers and the solitary late nights of soldiers and former soldiers who fire off e-mails to reporters, members of Congress and the White House -- looking, finally, for attention and solutions.

The hearings that begin Monday come none too soon. They need to be expanded. We trusted the Government to treat our returning wounded soldiers with the best care possible. This is just such an outrage.

NBC is pouring a lot of advertising dollars into its new series, The Black Donnellys. If you missed the pilot, you can watch it for free at the NBC link or even download it for free from iTunes. It's by the writers of Crash.

It's about four Irish brothers in New York City whose loyalty to each other knows no bounds, particularly when it comes to the Mob. There's lots of violence.

Some compare it to the Sopranos. I don't think it has the depth. The characters are much younger -- so young, I had trouble taking them seriously. But, in the end, I did, although I kept thinking Boston would be the more appropriate setting. However, that may be because of The Departed.

More....

Well, he was in Colorado this weekend, but this is a fun rap video about Karl Rove.

Congressman Murtha said today:

MR. RUSSERT: What are the Democrats going to do to try to stop the war in Iraq? REP. MURTHA: Well, the, the details haven’t been released yet. Until the members see it, we’re not going to talk about the details of what’s going to happen. That will be released tomorrow.

I'll withhold judgment then Congressman. Meanwhile, the Out of Iraq Caucus is:

becoming increasingly frustrated by what its members say is the Democratic leadership’s unwillingness to heed their calls for decisive action to the end the war.

Me too.

The New York Times presents its "must do" list for President Bush. Excellent choices include:

• Restore Habeas Corpus

• Stop Illegal Spying

• Ban Torture, Really

In addition, the Times says, he must close secret prisons, account for the ghost prisoners, ban extraordinary rendition, tighten the definition of enemy combatant, fairly screen prisoners, ban secret and tainted evidence, better define "classified evidence" and respect the right to counsel.

It may be a to-do list for Bush, but I hope the Democrats are reading and listening. These are many of the issues we expected them to lead on when we voted in November.

Time to get busy.

Via Ben at Politico Blog, quoting the Washington Times about Rudy Giuliani's Cpac speech:

In interviews afterward, some attendees said Mr. Giuliani lost momentum when he heaped lavish praise on Abraham Lincoln.

"While many conservatives regard the Civil War president as the spiritual founder of the Republican Party, others deeply resent him as a man who ruthlessly suspended constitutional rights and freedoms in order to militarily challenge the South's belief in its right to secede. Some saw similar disdain for individuals' rights in Mr. Giuliani's successful war on crime in New York City."

Where is Rudy on civil liberties issues? Squarely with Bush (no suprise there.)

Mr. Giuliani took the side of the Bush administration on an issue that troubles civil libertarian conservatives, saying that "you need the tools like the Patriot Act and legal intelligence surveillance."

This is interesting. The Coulter line is snark, but I figured the Malkin line was too. I was wrong on that.

In the wake of New York's passing a law last week allowing sex offenders to be held in civil confinement after their prison terms are up, the New York Times examines the dubious wisdom of such laws.

Here's a snippet:

only a small fraction of committed offenders have ever completed treatment to the point where they could be released free and clear. Leroy Hendricks, a convicted child molester in Kansas, finished his prison term 13 years ago, but he remains locked up at a cost to taxpayers in that state of $185,000 a year — more than eight times the cost of keeping someone in prison there.

Mr. Hendricks, who is 72 and unsuccessfully challenged his confinement in the Supreme Court, spends most days in a wheelchair or leaning on a cane, because of diabetes, circulation ailments and the effects of a stroke. He may not live long enough to “graduate” from treatment.

As the Times notes, very few will. This is a six page article that examines the flaws and mistaken assumptions in these laws.

More...

A few years ago, I frequently wrote about the trial of San Francisco marijuana advocate Ed Rosenthal. In 2003, Sherry Colb at Findlaw had a good synopsis of the case.

First, Ed Rosenthal grew marijuana for sick and dying patients. Second, Rosenthal acted as an agent of Oakland, California's program to dispense marijuana to people whose doctors have prescribed it. Third, California's Proposition 215 expressly authorized the program.

At Rosenthal's trial, the defense sought to tell the jury these facts, but the judge ruled them inadmissible. As a result, Rosenthal was convicted by a jury whose members believed he was an ordinary marijuana grower.

The jurors were horrified to learn afterwards that Rosenthal had been a licensed marijuana dispenser.

More...

The New York Times reports on Colorado's plan to use prison inmates as farm laborers in place of immigrants.

Under the program, which has drawn criticism from groups concerned about immigrants’ rights and from others seeking changes in the criminal justice system, farmers will pay a fee to the state, and the inmates, who volunteer for the work, will be paid about 60 cents a day, corrections officials said.

My objections to the program are over at 5280.com, where among other things I note that the L.A. Times is spot on in calling the proposal evidence that Colorado's strict anti-immigrant laws have backfired.

Beginning in 2010, documents obtained from Whitehall show that Britian plans to fingerprint all kids from age 11 up and store the prints in a secret database for immigration purposes.

The plans are outlined in a series of “restricted” documents circulating among officials in the Identity and Passport Service. They form part of the programme for the introduction of new biometric passports and ID cards.

Opposition politicians and privacy campaigners warn that the plans show ministers are turning Britain into a “surveillance society”.

Think it can't won't happen here?

Why? How about this?

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has indicated he is too busy to answer letters from Democratic congressional leaders about his firing seven U.S. attorneys involved in probes of public corruption, though a lower-level Justice Department official rejected their proposals.

Contempt of Congress. Issue a formal subpoena to make it official.