Amendment 44, by SaferChoice, was on Colorado's ballot this year. It would have legalized adult possession of up to one ounce of pot. The measure passed in Denver in 2004, and this was an attempt to make it state-wide. It failed.

For anyone who is interested, NORML has put up the audio of my talk to college kids the week before the election on why it should pass and why it is so critical for young people to register to vote and then weigh in on election day. It's about 15 minutes long.

Kids are the future. If you have a political pulpit to reach them, please use it. Rome wasn't built in a day and the Amendment will be back in 2008.

If his life were made into a movie, Orlando Boquete would like Johnny Depp to star. Depp probably wouldn’t take a role that seems like a rip-off of The Fugitive: innocent man serves a dozen years in prison before escaping, then spends another decade evading capture. Boquete didn’t find the one-armed man, but the ending of his story is almost as dramatic. New DNA testing proved he didn’t commit the rape that resulted in his conviction, and Boquete walked free. Or almost free – since he can’t be deported to Cuba, he has to report regularly to ICE.

Boquete traveled from Cuba to Miami during the Mariel boatlift.

Two years later, police charged him with the sexual assault of a Stock Island woman after she pointed him out on the street as the man who had just attacked her in her bed. In 1983, a jury convicted him based on the victim's ID. He escaped two years later and ran for a decade before he was caught and sent back to prison. In 2003, he saw a television show about the Innocence Project and asked the organization for help.

Boquete was surprised to see how his face had aged in prison.

Via the New York City Independent Media Center and the DMI blog:

These are some statistics from the Department of Justice reflecting data through 2005.

What they tell us: America continues to be a prison nation. The drug war doesn't work. Over-incarceration doesn't work. Our elected officials in Congress need to spend time addressing these issues in 2007.

• the prison population grew 1.9% over the past year
• the United States has 2,320,359 people incarcerated
• in 1995, America sentenced 411 people per 100,000 residents; today it is 491
• there are around 600,000 more people in jail today than 10 years ago
• since 1995, the total number of male prisoners has grown 34%; female prisoners have risen 57%

The BBC Reports:

He's out of appeals and under Iraqi law, his execution must occur within 30 days and could be "at any time."

The court rejected an appeal by Saddam Hussein's lawyers and confirmed that he would be hanged, court spokesman Raed Juhi told the BBC.

...."It cannot exceed 30 days. As from tomorrow [Wednesday] the sentence could be carried out at any time," appeals court judge Arif Shaheen told a news conference in Baghdad.

Saddam has asked for a firing squad but authorities say he may be hanged in his cell. Parts will be televised on Iraqi tv.

Steve Benen points us to an example of how NOT to demonstrate it:

A liberal-bashing book by a veteran St. Louis judge is to become available publicly this week, but it is already causing a stir in political and legal circles — and prompting some to say it could cost him his job.

Chapter 1 of Circuit Judge Robert H. Dierker Jr.'s book, "The Tyranny of Tolerance: A Sitting Judge Breaks the Code of Silence to Expose the Liberal Judicial Assault," has circulated via e-mail since last month and been widely read in legal circles, lawyers and judges say.

The sentiments expressed in that chapter, which frequently uses the term "femifascists" and is titled "The Cloud Cuckooland of Radical Feminism," have already prompted a complaint with the state body that can reprimand or remove judges.

. . . The first chapter was heavily discussed at the recent holiday party for the Women Lawyers' Association of Greater St. Louis. One judge who attended noted, "Everyone's just pretty much shocked." Association President Lynn Ricci said, "I have read it. I find it disturbing." She also said, "I frankly think that it is a shame that this very smart man has lowered himself to name-calling."

Heh, yes that is a shame isn't it? I assume he is planning a careeer as a Right Wing radio talk show host but I could be wrong.

WaPo Columnist Richard Cohen names his person of the year: Gregory Thompson, a delusional death row inmate:

Thompson, 45, is delusional. He is also paranoid, schizophrenic and depressed. For these ailments, he receives daily doses of drugs and, twice a month, anti-psychotic injections. The state of Tennessee wants very much to put him to death for the horrendous 1985 murder of Brenda Blanton Lane, of which there is no doubt about his guilt.

There is grave doubt, though, about the constitutionality, not to mention the decency, of executing an insane man. Thus the 12 pills Thompson takes every day. The idea, according to a recent account of his case in the Wall Street Journal, is to make him sane enough to be put to death.

The wall between federal and state law enforcement agencies continues to crumble.

The Justice Department is building a massive database that allows state and local police officers around the country to search millions of case files from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal law enforcement agencies, according to Justice officials.

The system, known as "OneDOJ," already holds approximately 1 million case records and is projected to triple in size over the next three years, Justice officials said. The files include investigative reports, criminal-history information, details of offenses, and the names, addresses and other information of criminal suspects or targets, officials said.

The Justice Department is preparing to take the breakdown of the wall even further:

In the new apple of the Left leaning eye, Bolivia, a black mark is given to left wing Bolivian President Evo Morales' professed commitment to progressive views. A Cuban dissident's criticism of Bolivia's close ties to Castro is met with a deportation order by the Bolivian government:

The Bolivian government has announced plans to deport a prominent Cuban dissident who publicly criticized President Evo Morales' close ties to Havana. Dr. Amauris Samartino, a Cuban who holds permanent residence status in Bolivia, will be expelled under a 1996 law forbidding immigrants to ''intervene in any form in internal politics or incite by any means the alteration of the social and political order,'' according to a government statement on Sunday. Samartino was arrested Saturday in the eastern city of Santa Cruz, a center of anti-Morales opposition, and later transferred to the Bolivian capital of La Paz. He will be flown home to Cuba once his case has been processed, the statement said.

Flown back to Cuba? Well, so much for the freedom loving Bolivian government. This is disgraceful.

This is a Christmas shout-out to all those who are spending the holidays behind bars, and to the friends, families, and lawyers who visit them.

John Prine:

The search light in the big yard
swings round with the gun
and spotlights the snowflakes
like the dust in the sun.
It's Christmas in prison
there'll be music tonight
I'll probably get homesick
I love you. Goodnight.

James Brown, the "Godfather of Soul" has died at 73.

Along with Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and a handful of others, Brown was one of the major musical influences of the past 50 years. At least one generation idolized him, and sometimes openly copied him. His rapid-footed dancing inspired Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson among others. Songs such as David Bowie's "Fame," Prince's "Kiss," George Clinton's "Atomic Dog" and Sly and the Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song" were clearly based on Brown's rhythms and vocal style.

The TL kid is with friends watching the Bronco game. He'll be back soon, we've got fresh tamales and homemade chicken enchilladas and green chile for dinner, with margaritas to accompany them.

The fireplace is turned on, it just started snowing heavily (again) and I'm glad to be warm and safe in my humble abode.

Best wishes to all of you for a happy holiday and let's hope next year at this time, our soldiers will be home from Iraq.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger broke his leg skiing in Sun Valley, Idaho yesterday.

The 59-year-old former movie star broke the femur bone in his right leg and was taken to a local hospital for X-rays and later discharged, Adam Mendelsohn, the governor's deputy chief of staff for communications, said in a statement.

"When the governor returns to Los Angeles from his scheduled Christmas trip, he will have surgery to repair his femur. No one else was involved in the skiing accident," Mendelsohn's statement said.