The results of a study of Denver's felony criminal convictions have been published. Denver District Judge Morris Hoffman explains in a New York Times op-ed today, Free-Market Justice.

When two economists from Emory University, Paul Rubin and Joanna Shepherd, agreed last year to collaborate with me on an econometric study of how effective public defenders really are, I had to guard against confirmation bias. I was positive that public defenders would prove more effective than their private counterparts. Mr. Rubin and Ms. Shepherd, with their occupational faith in markets, were equally positive of just the opposite. In the end, the economists were right, though with an interesting twist. (The full study has been published in the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law.)

....The results were surprising. The average sentence for clients of public defenders was almost three years longer than the average for clients of private lawyers.

It is commonly assumed that the First Amendment right to engage in political speech is abridged by military service. Loyalty and duty have often been viewed as inconsistent with criticism of the military or its civilian commanders.

First Lt. Ehren Watada refused to deploy to Iraq, but he's also facing charges for "making four public statements criticizing President Bush and the Iraq war."

Watada, a 28-year-old Honolulu native who enlisted after the Sept. 11 attacks, said he gradually came to the conclusion that the Bush administration had lied about the basis for war and had betrayed the trust of the American people, making Watada ashamed to wear the uniform. In media interviews and in a speech at a peace convention, Watada also said that the Iraq war was "not only morally wrong but a horrible breach of American law," and that soldiers could stop it by refusing to fight.

At this point, Watada's opinions are widely shared. With good reason, many will view Watada's complaints as prescient, not disloyal. The military argues that it has the power to punish Watada for unbecoming conduct, but punishing a soldier for speaking the truth won't sit well with public opinion. The climate is ripe for a decision that respects Watada's right to be a vocal participant in American democracy.

This comes as no surprise to me and other criminal defense lawyers representing those charged with drug crimes, but it's good to see it made public.

In an audit published Friday, Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine examined thousands of seizures between October 2003 and November 2005.

Fine's report states that drug agents rarely counted the cash they took, often didn't provide receipts for seized money, rarely recorded the seizures in agency ledgers and often didn't ask their colleagues to witness their counting and handling of the money.

What this means according to the Inspector General:

The lack of internal controls over the seized cash leads to accusations of theft by the agents, the report states.

What it means in my opinion: Sometimes less money is reported seized than actually is seized. Because of the faulty reporting, and because some may be less than honest about the amount seized, it's very hard to prove.

I've never liked the argument that Bush and Cheney went to Iraq for the oil profits. But stories like this make me look pretty naive:

Iraq's massive oil reserves, the third-largest in the world, are about to be thrown open for large-scale exploitation by Western oil companies under a controversial law which is expected to come before the Iraqi parliament within days.

. . . The huge potential prizes for Western firms will give ammunition to critics who say the Iraq war was fought for oil. They point to statements such as one from Vice-President Dick Cheney, who said in 1999, while he was still chief executive of the oil services company Halliburton, that the world would need an additional 50 million barrels of oil a day by 2010. "So where is the oil going to come from?... The Middle East, with two-thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies," he said.

Oil industry executives and analysts say the law, which would permit Western companies to pocket up to three-quarters of profits in the early years, is the only way to get Iraq's oil industry back on its feet after years of sanctions, war and loss of expertise. . . .

Meanwhile, as David Kurtz points out, if you do not play ball, the US works against oil exploration:

in Iran, "a new U.S. campaign to dry up financing for oil and natural gas development poses a threat to the republic's ability to continue exporting oil over the next two decades," reports the LA Times

You wonder sometimes how stupid our DC Democrats can be. Just when you think they can't do something more idiotic, they top themselves. Nancy Pelosi makes history this week, heck the press coverage was grudgingly good. So what do we get? This dimwittery:

Thursday was notable for another milestone in gender politics: the return of the Alpha Male Democrat. The members of this new faction, which helped the Democrats expand into majority status, stand out not for their ideology or racial background but for their carefully cultivated masculinity. . . . John Lapp, the former executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee who helped recruit this new breed of candidate[, says] “These are red-blooded Americans who are tough.” Mr. Lapp even coined a term to describe these manly — and they are all men — pols: “the Macho Dems.”

Sheesh. The Macho Dems? Only a wimp has to call himself macho. This is the rhetorical equivalent of stuffing the crotch in your pants. Mr. Lapp, let me clue you in to something - Jim Webb and Jon Tester and Joe Sestak and Patrick Murphy do not need YOU calling them "Macho Dems" and "red blooded Americans." Authenticity. Look it up. Figure it out. This is pathetic, not to mention insulting to the rest of the Party and to the strong Fighting Dem women in our Party. Only a wimpy, spineless DC Democrat could come up with this.

Detainee 940, Adel Hamad, a husband, father, aid worker and teacher, is from Sudan. Here's his story, told by his public defender's investigator and others.

Update: Related: This article appeared in last Sunday's New York Times.

Tomorrow at the Denver Public Library, downtown, as part of their month long Jack Kerouac exhibit:

From Kentucky to Colorado
The Literary and Journalistic Legacy of Hunter S. Thompson

Sunday, January 7, 2:30-4 p.m.

Denver Central Library, Level B2 Conference Center

10 West 14th Avenue Parkway

A tribute to the late, great Hunter S. Thompson who was deeply influenced by the writings of Jack Kerouac. David Amram accompanies spoken-word readings by Thompson’s son and grandson, Juan and Will Thompson, and Thompson’s widow, Anita Thompson.

New documents have been released in the Haditha killings of 24 Iraqis by U.S. Marines. They are chilling.

In a nutshell: After the roadside bombing in which a marine was killed, a white taxi with five unarmed civilians happened to drive by the scene.

Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, the squad's leader, shot the men one by one after Marines ordered them out of a white taxi in the moments following the explosion, which killed one Marine and injured two others, witnesses told investigators. Another Marine fired rounds into their bodies as they lay on the ground.

Writing in the Independent, Ali Allawi, former Iraqi Defence Minister provides a blueprint for peace in Iraq.

It's a five part plan, the components of which he lists at the end.

The result of his plan, he writes, would be "three interlinked outcomes":

The first would be a decentralised Iraqi state with new regional governing authorities with wide powers and resources. Devolution of power must be fair, well planned, and executed with equitable revenue-distribution. Federal institutions would have to act as adjudicators between regions. Security must be decentralised until such time as confidence between the communities is re-established.

The second essential outcome would be a treaty that would establish a confederation or constellation of states of the Middle East, initially including Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. The main aim of the confederation would be to establish a number of conventions and supra-regional bodies that would have the effect of acting as guarantors of civil, minority and community rights.

Independent reporter Patrick Cockburn says of the plan:

Comedian Chevy Chase has an oped in Saturday's New York Times about his making fun of Gerald Ford on SNL and how he got to know the former President and Mrs. Ford. It ends with a very funny comment by Mr. Ford. I won't spoil it, go read.

Nicely done, Chevy.

In the House today:

• By 280 to 152, the Democratic-controlled House voted to require sponsors of the pet spending items to be publicly identified, a move that sponsors say will do away with some of the most egregious waste of the taxpayers’ money.
• [A separate] vote to reinstate the “pay as you go” rule [passed] 280 to 154. It requires that increases in spending on entitlement programs be offset by savings elsewhere, so as not to raise the budget deficit.

And yesterday:

• The new House rules bar members from taking gifts, meals or trips paid for by lobbyists, or the organizations that employ them. The rules also ban lawmakers from using corporate jets and reimbursing the owners.

It's time for the Senate to agree to abide by similar restrictions. And quickly, to avoid distraction from the overarching issue of the new year: resisting an escalation of the war in Iraq. It's encouraging to see the Democratic party credited with "fierce opposition" to the president's senseless and stubborn desire to do more of the same.

A ten year old political quiz is making its rounds, courtesy of Andrew Sullivan. Instapundit and Ann Althouse reveal their moderate scores.

I remember this quiz very well from 1994. It was in the Sunday USA weekend magazine section of the Denver paper. The TL kid, then in his early teens, came home from school a day or so later and said the teacher had assigned them to take the test with their parents.

Admittedly, at that time he attended an affluent private school where one wouldn't expect to find that didn't have many liberals among the parents. But the results were disturbing nonetheless. Here's why.