Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld got a big Pentagon send-off today.

Combative to the last, Rumsfeld took a slap at advocates of withdrawing U.S. troops from the war, now in its fourth year with more than 2,900 Americans dead.

"It may well be comforting to some to consider graceful exits from the agonies and, indeed, the ugliness of combat," Rumsfeld said, choking up slightly as he capped a roster of speakers at his pomp-filled goodbye ceremony. "But the enemy thinks differently."

Memo to Mr. Rumsfeld: Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

A federal judge in San Jose has declared Calfornia's lethal injection system to be in violation of the 8th Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

[Judge] Fogel said that "substantial questions" had been raised by the records of previous executions in the state and that the California Department of Corrections' "actions and failure to act have resulted in an undue and unnecessary risk of an 8th Amendment violation."

The opinion is here (pdf). Check out Footnote 8 on how the execution of Stanley Tookie Williams:

Indeed, the execution team members’ reaction to the problem at the Williams execution was
described by one member as nothing more than “sh*t does happen, so.”

Florida Governor Jeb Bush has ordered all Florida executions be suspended after the state botched the execution of Angel NievesDiaz which lasted 34 minutes.

Medical examiner Dr. William Hamilton said Wednesday's execution of Angel Nieves Diaz took 34 minutes — twice as long as usual — and required a rare second dose of lethal chemicals because the needles were inserted clear through his veins and into the flesh in his arms. The chemicals are supposed to go into the veins.

Hamilton, who performed the autopsy, refused to say whether he thought Diaz died a painful death.

And in California, a judge has ordered the states' executions be stopped declaring the system of lethal injection "broken."

More on Diaz:

Now I have heard everything:

Matt Drudge, who may or may not be a willing accomplice to the distortion of news reporting, must be held responsible for the dissemination of the bias in the liberal press. . . . A study of press bias by a professor of political science at the University of California-Los Angeles, Tim Groseclose, listed the Drudge Report as one of the most liberal sites on the Web because it consistently posts articles from left-of-center sources.

My patience with the Drudge Report ended when I saw a photo of Frank Rich of the Times posted on the site along with his words: "We are losing in Iraq." It isn't too encouraging to the morale of the nation, but posts like this are common on Drudge.

The site gives top billing to every possible negative statement about the Iraq war and the Bush administration, and it gets about 13 million hits a day. Is it any wonder that President Bush has record low approval ratings?

Wow. Just wow.

h/t Jason Zengerle and Josh Marshall.

Marc Cooper of The Nation reports that for the first time since 1969, more than 1,000 soldiers are petitioning the Government to withdraw from war. Then it was Vietnam, this time it's Iraq.

On December 15, 1791, the U.S. adopted the Bill of Rights.

It's been slowly eroded since then, with the Patriot Act and other laws borne of fear in the mistaken belief that by restricting our rights we will become safer.

It's a great day to remind our elected officials in Congress of this anniversary -- and the history behind this critical addition to our Constitution.

Both the Government and Lewis "Scooter" Libby filed status reports yesterday. I have uploaded them here and here.

Editor & Publisher notes the key details: While Libby states two reporters may resist testifying for him, Fitz reports none of its witnesses, including White House officials, will claim privilege to avoid testifying.

We can expect Dick Cheney and others to be witnesses and not to claim privilege -- at least during the Government's questioning. Cross-examination by Libby could be different. From Fitz's pleading:

Home Depot is running an ad this month (click on "Pulled Over Santa") where Santa Claus is pulled over by an officer who asks for his license and registration.  Santa can't find the registration, and he sits back looking resigned to the fact that something bad may be in the offing. The elf nervously waves to the officer. The officer then asks: "What's in the bag?"

So, if kids, or even the general public, see this ad, are they supposed to believe that it is legally permissible for a police officer during a traffic stop to ask "What's in the bag?"  

Death sentences are at their lowest level in decades.

The Death Penalty Information Center, a group based in Washington, reported that the number of death sentences, which had remained at about 300 a year in the 1990s, began to drop steadily in 1999 and has declined almost 60 percent since then.

At the Justice Department, the Bureau of Statistics reported last week that there were 128 death sentences in 2005, down from 138 the year before. While the department study does not include an estimate for 2006, the Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes the death penalty and tracks cases closely, says the number for this year will be about 114.

Why the drop?

Update: The accuser is not due until February. Paternity tests have been ordered at the request of the defense. Nifong says he has no reason to believe any of the players are the father.

[Added: The following appears to be incorrect]

The accuser in the Duke Lacrosse alleged rape case gave birth on Thursday.

The 29-year-old gave birth nine months after she alleges she was raped by three Duke University lacrosse players at a March 13 team party.

Added: The following still seems valid:

....A defense attorney tells WRAL that a test taken at the hospital showed that she was not pregnant at the time of the party and that she was given emergency contraception commonly referred to as the morning-after pill.

While no semen from any of those accused as found in her body, male DNA from multiple other sources was.

In other Duke case news, the defense filed a great motion to suppress the accuser's eyewitness identification of the players today. It's 46 pages and available here.

There are more internal inconsistencies in this case than in any other rape case I can remember reading about. A hearing is scheduled for tomorrow.

There's a lot of discussion about today's developments going on at the TalkLeft Duke Forums.

Here we go again. Threats of new al-Qaeda attacks are in the air, courtesy of the FBI.

Radical Egyptian cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman, 68, spat up blood on December 6 and was rushed to a hospital, the FBI notice said. He had a small tear in his esophagus and was treated with a "needed transfusion to replace lost blood," said the FBI bulletin to staffers. Medical personnel then discovered the cleric had a tumor on his liver, the FBI said.

The FBI has put out a bulletin raising fears of terror attacks if the Sheik dies in jail.

Abdel-Rahman, who is serving life in a U.S. prison, has called for attacks if he dies in jail. Law enforcement sources said there is no intelligence to suggest there are any attacks being planned.

The Sheik was returned to jail three days ago.

Of course he's going to die in prison. That's what happens to inmates with life sentences. It's just a question of when. Why is there a terror bulletin going out if there is no intelligence to support it.

According to the bulletin:

Glenn Greenwald and Scott Lemieux, in their analyses of Judge Robertson's decision in Hamdan, seem to me to miss a glaring flaw in the opinion. Robertson's reasoning on why Hamdan does not have a constitutional right to seek the Great Writ is flawed in its focus. It accepts that an allegation by the executive that a detainee is an enemy alien is sufficient to strip a person of his constitutional right to seek habeas relief. Lemieux writes:

Under the circumstances, the decision is actually about as good an outcome for opponents of arbitrary detentions as could be expected. Robertson held that Congress has not suspended the writ of habeas corpus for American citizens--it lacks the power to suspend the writ because there is not an ongoing "rebellion or invasion."

Actually, I think that is not so. Judge Robertson's reasoning actually puts aliens at much greater risk of lacking habeas rights than they would otherwise have been. I'll explain why I think so on the flip.