Responding to a federal court opinion last week finding California's death penalty procedures woefully inadequate, Gov. Arnold Schwarznegger is promising to fix them in 30 days.

Sorry, Arnie. That's not good enough. You need to suspend them until (if ever) they are fixed, like Jeb Bush did.

The federal judge presiding over the Jose Padilla trial ordered him to be mentally evaluated by Bureau of Prisons doctors.

Defense attorneys have argued that 3-1/2 years of torture and solitary confinement in a military brig had left Padilla mentally ill and unable to understand the charges against him or assist in his defense.

Prosecutors have emphatically denied that Padilla was mistreated in any way but did not object to his undergoing a mental exam.

Is that because they have faith the BOP shrinks will rule for them?

Alex Koppelman at Salon compares the prosecution of Jose Padilla to that of a home-grown terrorist tried the old-fashioned way and explains why the Padilla method is likely to fail.

That the prosecution of Crocker ended so successfully points to what may ultimately be the most significant difference between the Crocker and Padilla cases. Crocker was investigated, prosecuted and detained in the old, pre-9/11 way, and his case has held up even as the Padilla prosecution has self-destructed.

The Crocker case was brought in by old-fashioned police work. A confidential informant passed on a tip and a sting was conducted by an FBI agent careful to make sure the plan was real and not a creation of the government. No lawyer for Crocker has ever filed an allegation that Crocker was tortured. He wasn't even cuffed or shackled at his arraignment. The case against Padilla, on the other hand, came about through anything but normal means, and that has been its downfall.

The Wall St. Journal (free link) examines the problems the Pentagon has encountered with the military commission trial of Canadian teenager Omar Khahr.

I see Omar Khadr, Child of Jihad, much different than the military.

The number one cash crop in America is now marijuana.

The report, "Marijuana Production in the United States," by marijuana policy researcher Jon Gettman, concludes that despite massive eradication efforts at the hands of the federal government, "marijuana has become a pervasive and ineradicable part of the national economy."

Congressman Charlie Rangel said today he would support a Rudy Giuliani - Bernie Kerik ticket. He was joking.

Political observers say Giuliani's relationship with Kerik could be a problem if the former mayor goes ahead with a run for president.

Gee, you think? Here's some TalkLeft background on Rudy and Bernie. More here and here.

What a pair. Under their administration, Jeanine Pirro probably would be Attorney General. (Not to be confused with Jeanette Pinero.)

There must be a role for Judith Regan in here someplace. What cabinet post would Rudy and Bernie award her?

Today the National Coalition Against the Death Penalty, in conjunction with Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights launched a two-week, ten-part series composed of excerpts of human stories from the brand new groundbreaking MVFHR report, “Creating More Victims: How Executions Hurt the Families Left Behind.” (pdf)

Each day will bring a different story. The series launched today and will run through Friday, Dec. 29th. You can follow it here.

Update: Say hello to the Florida Lethal Injection blog.

I criticized Survivor: Cook Islands a few months ago when it was announced the teams would be segregated by race.

Since Desperate Housewives was a repeat last night, I watched the two hour finale and was surprised how into it I got. (I even bought a coconut to eat, story of how abysmal that turned out here.) The four finalists were all minorities. It was a great show.

After Yul won (I would have picked Ozzy)all the contestants were brought out and there was a discussion of the racial division theme. Almost all said they played the game based on loyalty to individual members they bonded with, rather than on their ethnic backgrounds.

Yul is a Stanford and Harvard law graduate who once worked as a legislative aide to Sen. Joe Lieberman. Ozzy is a 25 year old waiter and surfer.

So, back to the original question, was Survivor's initial race-division theme terrible?

It's official. Thanks to you readers, TalkLeft not only beat Stop the ACLU in the Best of the Top 250 category of the 2006 Weblog Awards, we edged out Feministe by 100 votes and won the award.

Considering these awards were hosted by Wizbang, a conservative-leaning site, it's very cool how well the liberal blogs did. Some examples:

• Best Blog: DAILY KOS [Powerline came in 8th]
  

• Best Humor Blog: SADLY, NO!
  

• Best Liberal Blog: THINK PROGRESS
  

• Best Centrist Blog: THE MODERATE VOICE
  

• Best Media Blog: RAW STORY
  

• Best Educational Blog: MICHAEL BERUBE
  

• Best Science Blog: PHARYNGULA
  

• Best Video Blog: CROOKS AND LIARS (beating conservative Michelle Malkin's Hot Air.
  

Oricinus and Feministe made a really good showing in the Best of 250 category Best of the Top 250 Blogs.

Thanks to Kevin at Wizbang for hosting the awards.

The Weblog Awards are the world's largest blog competition, with over 525,000 votes cast in the 2006 edition for finalists in 45 categories.

The trend towards adopting laws restricting where sex offenders may live may be slowing down as more legal challenges are filed and cities and states are finding they are not the panacea once thought.

From the Kansas Department of Corrections, here are "Twenty Findings of Research on Residential Restrictions for Sex Offenders and the Iowa Experience with Similar Policies."

Just a few:

• Housing restrictions appear to be based largely on three myths that are repeatedly propagated by the media: 1) all sex offenders reoffend; 2) treatment does not work; and 3) the concept of “stranger danger.” Research does not support these myths, but there is research to suggest that such policies may ultimately be counterproductive.

• Research shows that there is no correlation between residency restrictions and reducing sex offenses against children or improving the safety of children.

Florida District Court Judge Marcia Cooke will hold a status conference Monday on the issue of alleged "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla's competency.

From the Southern Distict of Florida Blog, the issues, according to the AP are:

• Reports being suspicious of everyone, including his attorneys, and stated that he does not know who he can and cannot trust. He indicated he was unsure of whether his attorneys might really be federal agents posing as his attorneys.''
  
• Appeared to become visibly distressed whenever asked about sensitive topics (his palms appeared to become sweaty ... his body would tense up, and he would rock back and forth).''
  
  
• Is unable to watch video recordings of his interrogation ..."
  
  
• "Appears convinced at times that no matter what happens he will be returned to the brig, even if he prevails in the current case.''
  
  
• Was certain that nobody could help him, that he could not be rescued from his current situation.''
  
  
• Both experts concluded that Padilla was not faking mental problems and, in Hegarty's words, "is terrified that anyone will consider him mentally ill or crazy.''

In addition to the Afghan detainees released last week, the Pentagon has announced that an additional 33 detainees have been sent back to their home countries. There are 395 detainees still at Guantanamo, only a small fraction of whom have been charged with a crime.

Despite the fact that 16 were sent to Saudi Arabia, the Washington Post says:

State Department officials have been working to reducesignificantly reduce the number of Guantanamo detainees through lengthy negotiations with other countries, although the United States is unwilling to release detainees into the custody of nations where they would likely be abused, tortured or killed.

Hello? Saudi Arabia doesn't torture prisoners?

There's a debate taking shape in Houston. Are the cops disproportionately using stun guns against African-Americans?

[Houston] officers are facing a new question: Are they using the high-voltage Taser -- what police call a less-than-lethal "intermediary" weapon -- indiscriminately against black suspects? The recent arrest and use of a Taser against a black professional football player has once again put the police department of the nation's fourth-largest city under scrutiny.

...Police data show that in almost 1,000 Taser deployments since December 2004, 63 percent of the suspects were black. Houston's population of 1.95 million is 25 percent black.

You do the math.