Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton has unveiled a new approach to fighting gang crime.

The strategy is to concentrate on the gangs causing the most violence, to have the courts impose "stay away" orders as conditions of probation to make it easier to return violators to jail and to use the abatement and nuisance laws that allow the state to close and seize properties where gang members congregate.

Thoughts?

Two of the most publicized atrocities by U.S. soldiers in the War in Iraq have been Haditha and Mahmoudiya.

Today, the Associated Press reports that its own investigation into Mahmoudiya revealed the U.S. was aware PFC Steven Green, who allegedly raped a teenage Iraqi girl and killed her and her family, was known to have homicidal tendencies and a desire to strike out and kill Iraqis three months before the tragic event.

Now the U.S. is killing suspected Islamocists in Somalia in the name of the war on terror. But it's not releasing any details.

Are we about to get into another pre-emptive war or are we trying to bring democracy to Somalia or do we just believe we can go anywhere in the world and kill people because they might be al-Qaida followers?

Thoughts?

This is absolutely astonishing.

The chief judge in the city’s juvenile courts had a top public defender arrested Tuesday in a bizarre escalation of a fight over changes in the city’s troubled program for representing indigent defendants.

The judge, David Bell, was upset that no public defender was in his courtroom when he was ready to start this morning, and he drove to the defender’s office and waited outside for Stephen Singer, the chief of trials, to arrive.

The judge took Mr. Singer to his courtroom, where he found him in contempt for not being prepared to provide representation and ordered him jailed for 36 days, three days for each of the 12 items on Tuesday’s docket. Mr. Singer then spent about five hours in jail before a state appeals court stayed the order.

The New Orleans criminal justice system has been in a heightened state of crisis since Katrina. If there aren't enough public defenders to go around, the state needs to increase the funding to hire more of them -- not blame the already overworked, overburdened current defenders who are doing more than their fair share of the work.

J. Stephen Griles is now in the Justice Department's cross-hairs.

Federal prosecutors have notified a former deputy secretary of the interior, J. Steven Griles, that he is a target in the public corruption investigation of Jack Abramoff's lobbying activities, sources knowledgeable about the probe said.

The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that among the possible criminal charges being investigated is whether Griles made false statements to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee in 2005 about job discussions Abramoff initiated while Griles was deputy secretary. Griles's attorneys did not return calls seeking comment yesterday.

When Griles folds, will he implicate former Interior Secretary Gale Norton?

I've been reading all day about the Apple iPhone. It looks very cool. But I kept wondering, what does it have that the Treo doesn't have?

I just got the Treo 680 over the holidays, so the TL kid could take my Motorola Razor - he had a dinosaur of a Nokia.

Aside from the fact that the Treo's phone reception sucks and the battery needs daily recharging, I finally figured out most of its bells and whistles and I like it.

I love my video iPod, but I'm wondering whether I'd shell out $500 to $600 bucks for a new one just because it has a phone and a touch screen.

Logic like this escapes me:

To answer my own question - Yes. But not in the way that is being discussed today by Senator Kennedy:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

Section 1. Prohibition on use of funds for escalation of United States forces in Iraq.

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no Federal funds may be obligated or expended by the United States Government to increase the number of United States forces in Iraq above the level for such forces which existed as of January 1, 2007, without a specific authorization of Congress by law for such an increase.

Of course, as a practical matter, the President can and will veto any such legislation. But even if such a veto could be overridden, the law would be an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers, impinging on the President's power as Commander in Chief in Wartime. In order to act in the manner Senator Kennedy wishes, the Congress must strip the President of the power the Congress granted him to wage war in Iraq. To wit, the Congress needs to "undeclare" the Iraq Debacle by repealing the Iraq War resolution. A new resolution can be approved authorizing the use of force in Iraq for a purpose the Congress wishes, but I believe Senator Kennedy is wrong when he says:

In October 2002, Members of Congress authorized a war against the regime of Saddam Hussein, not to send our troops into a civil war. I voted against that resolution and feel an escalation of this war only compounds the original mistake of going in the first place.

Congress authorization was broader than this:

SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES.

(a) AUTHORIZATION. The President is authorized to use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in order to

(1) defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq; and

(2) enforce all relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions regarding Iraq.

This blanket grant of war power to the President was a disgrace. But it was done. And now it must be undone. More.

The first good result from the November elections...

William Haynes, William G. Myers III and Terrence Boyle had all decided to abandon their quest for confirmation. Another nominee, Michael Wallace, let it be known last month that he, too, had asked Bush to withdraw his nomination.

Sen. Patrick Leahy says only consensus nominees have a chance of being confirmed.

It's time for the Tuesday open thread.

Just a word of caution, I've been getting a lot of emails that several commenters are not abiding by the commenting policy here in that they are personally insulting others with different points of view from their own. Others are commenting more than 20 times a day and not adding thoughts of substance. If you have that much to say, please start your own blog.

Also, some are misusing the rating system. Please rate the comment, not the commenter. It's not a popularity contest.

The diaries have been moved to the inside right column. Scribe has one today examining Alberto Gonzales' testimony at the NSA warrantless wiretapping hearings, asking whether he testified falsely when asked whether the Administration was opening mail.

I'll be back to posting later this afternoon.

Who could forget the Atlanta Courthouse shootings case in 2005 and the 26 hour manhunt for the suspect who shot and killed a judge, court reporter, sheriff's deputy and customs agent? Or Ashley Smith, the young woman and born-again Christian who talked him into surrendering and became an overnight sensation?

Jury selection begins Thursday. The trial should take six months and will be televised. Georgia is seeking the death penalty.

I have an op-ed today in the Washington Examiner asking whether the death penalty is necessary in this case and suggesting that Nichols' trial provides us with an excellent opportunity to rethink our position on the death penalty in general.

For fear of appearing soft on crime, Democrats have raised little objection over the years to draconian sentencing laws. This NY Times article gives us reason to hope that sentencing reform might be a priority in the new Congress.

Among those eagerly awaiting signs of change are federal judges, including many conservatives appointed by Republican presidents. They say the automatic sentences, determined by Congress, strip judges of individual discretion and result in ineffective, excessive penalties, often for low-level offenders.

Starting with the crack-powder cocaine sentencing disparity and moving to senselessly harsh mandatory minimums, Congress will have plenty to consider.

The House Judiciary Committee, under the new leadership of Representative John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan, is planning hearings on the laws, starting later this month or in early February.

Punishing for the crime proved at trial, not for additional crimes imagined at sentencing, should also be high on the reform agenda.

They share the delusion that escalating the war in Iraq will lead to victory, so the answer might be yes to MSNBC's question: Does a McCain-Lieberman ticket make sense? That is, it makes sense to think they might join together in a last mutually desperate struggle to attain relevance.

It would be difficult to improve on Jano Cabrera's take on whether it makes sense for voters to care:

"Barring a radical turn of events in Iraq, I can't imagine 'Vote Hawk' serving as an effective rallying cry in ‘08."