CNN has released a new poll showing that 2/3 of Americans oppose President Bush's plan for a troop escalation in Iraq. It's the first poll since President Bush's speech Wednesday night.

Two out of three Americans oppose President Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq, a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Friday indicates. Nearly two-thirds of those polled also say Bush has no clear plan for Iraq.

....Asked whether they believe additional troops will help the United States achieve its goals, 48 percent who answered the poll said it will make no difference; 31 percent said it would help, and 18 percent said the United States would be less likely to accomplish its goals in Iraq.

For your Friday entertainment, you may want to read the police reports and documents (linked at Brad Blog) outlining the three crimes (two of them felonies) that might be charged against Ann Coulter, who misrepresented her address when she applied for a driver's license, when she registered to vote, and again when she voted.

Residing in the United States without proper immigration papers isn't usually a crime. Local police have enough actual crime on their hands without worrying about undocumented immigrants. Expecting local police to enforce federal immigration laws is a waste of resources, so it isn't surprising that the Governor of Massachusetts rescinded his predecessor's agreement to use state police to arrest violators of federal immigration laws.

Mr. Patrick said doing away with the arrangement negotiated by Mr. Romney would allow state troopers to maintain a focus on gun-, drug- and gang-related crime. “The wisest and most practical course,” he said, “is for state troopers to focus on enforcing Massachusetts laws.”

The governor was joined at the news conference by the Massachusetts secretary of public safety, Kevin M. Burke, who said state police officials had expressed concern that the increased responsibilities would overburden their officers. “It would definitely have affected, according to their analysis, their ability to deal with their core mission” of enforcing state law, Mr. Burke said.

Kudos to Gov. Patrick for resisting the federalization of local law enforcement.

The facts were bad enough when it seemed that Kathryn Johnston's death was the result of unnecessarily aggressive tactics in executing a search warrant. Now we learn that the warrant was based on lies. Will the officers involved be held accountable?

As TalkLeft reported here and here, Atlanta police officers broke down an elderly woman's door. The frightened woman fired a gun at the intruders, not realizing who they were. The police returned fire and killed Johnston.

The police obtained a warrant to search Johnston's property by claiming that a confidential informant had purchased drugs at her house. That assertion was a lie, invented by a police officer who otherwise had no probable cause to search. A second lie -- that the "dealer" resident had security cameras outside the house -- was used to justify the request for a no-knock warrant.

Lying under oath is perjury. The officer's crime led to the death of Kathryn Johnston. Will Georgia hold him accountable?

There's lots of news in the Duke lacrosse player's alleged sexual assault case, which continues to crumble at an astonishing rate.

• The accuser told yet another version on Dec. 21. The statement was turned over to the Defense on Jan. 4. In it, she says Reade Seligman was not one of those who sexually assaulted her. DA Mike Nifong knew this before he dropped the rape charges, yet didn't drop charges against Seligman. And that's just the beginning of the new inconsistencies. You can read the original suppression motion here and yesterday's supplement here.

• "60 Minutes" will do a follow-up story on the case Sunday night (Jan. 14).

The U.S. is beginning preparations for trials of the 14 terror suspects flown from secret prisons abroad to Guantanamo. It has set up a secret war room in a suburb of Virginia.

The Bush administration has set up a secret war room in a Virginia suburb where it is assembling evidence to prosecute high-ranking detainees from Al Qaeda including the man accused of being the mastermind of the September 2001 attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, government officials said this week.

What kind of room do the detainees' lawyers get? If you answered "none," I suspect you are correct.

Update: Check out this great editorial in the Washington Post today.

A rocket hit the U.S. Embassy in Greece. Shorter version: There were no injuries. It landed in the toilet.

Sounds like a home grown operation to me.

The 4th snowstorm in a month has hit Denver, this time with freezing temperatures in the teens and below. I'm really getting tired of this.

If any of you have a suggestion for a destination, anywhere in the world, with:

• a beach at least 1 mile long, to walk along at dawn and sunset
• a great spa, hiking, yoga classes, etc.
• restaurants serving primarily fresh vegetables, fruit and fish, as well as spirits
• wi-fi to be able to blog while I'm there
• that doesn't cost an arm and a leg

please let me know in the comments.

Congress has decimated the U.S. asparagus industry by waiving tariffs for Peruvian asparagus. It's a backwards attempt to buffer coca eradication with crop substitution.

Notwithstanding divergent views on free trade among our readership, I'm sure we can all agree that tariffs shouldn't be arbitrarily lifted in support of a failed drug war policy in Peru.

The new Congress can fix this. The Seattle Times has more.

Judge Reggie Walton has issued the following trial decorum order (pdf) for the Scooter Libby trial. There will be two overflow courtrooms.

Also, from another order granting the following persons 24 hour access to the courthouse during the trial, here's a clue as to who's on the Government's trial team (some could be agents and paralegals in addition to lawyers.).

ORDER as to I. LEWIS LIBBY granting the following individuals access to the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse 24 hours a day/7 days per week from the date of the Order until the conclusion of the trial of this matter: Patrick Fitzgerald, Peter Zeidenberg, Kathleen Kedian, Debra Bonamici, Debbie Bond, Gerard Francisco, Jared Richards, Katie Hance, Bonnie Hansen, and Harry Brady.

Woo-hoo! Via the National Journal Hotline, Howard Dean and the DNC have chosen Denver to host its 2008 national convention.

A Democrat who was briefed said that chairman Howard Dean made the final decision yesterday, weeks later than planned. DNC comm. dir. Karen Finney declined to confirm the choice.

Colorado is a marquee states for Democrats, who have, in the past two years, gobbled up the governor's mansion, control of the state legislature, and two congressional seats.

How excited am I?

More from the Denver Post. The decision will be announced this afternoon.

Rudy Giuliani has ended his silence over Bush's proposal for a troop increase. After the speech, he announced he supports a troop increase.

"I support the president’s increase in troops," Giuliani said in a statement. "Even more importantly – I support the change in strategy – the focus on security and the emphasis on a political and economic solution as being even more important than a military solution."