It's about time. Finally, a judge has stepped in to the mess that has become the criminal justice system in New Orleans and ordered that more public defenders be hired.

The order, issued Monday by judges in the Criminal District Court, said mismanagement of the Orleans Parish Indigent Defender Program has denied poor defendants their 6th Amendment right to proper legal representation. "Day to day, defendants are in jail that just aren't getting the representation that they should be getting," Chief Judge Raymond Bigelow said.

Under the order, the public defender's office must hire 12 public defenders one for every courtroom by Dec. 1, which will double the number of public defenders in each section of criminal court. Currently, there is one attorney in each of the 12 sections.

Statistics show that 90% of New Orleans defendants rely on public defenders.

Here's more, more and more on the city's problems since Katrina. Although, getting justice in Louisiana was no picnic before Katrina either.

Not all Americans are xenophobic. That's the good news from the latest Quinnepac poll, in which 59% of Americans say they favor some sort of guest worker plan for undocumented residents.

Most of those polled also favor more stringent attempts to close the border. But at least they recognize that those who are here, working and lawfully paying taxes, should be allowed to stay here.

Having your own Secret Service detail is no assurance of crime prevention as Bush daughter Barbara learned in Argentina this week:

First Daughter Barbara Bush had her purse and cell phone stolen as she had dinner in a restaurant in Buenos Aires, Argentina, even though she was being guarded by a detail of Secret Service agents, according to law enforcement reports made available to ABC News.

One of the Secret Service agents, in a separate incident, got mugged.

A Secret Service agent on the advance detail got into an "altercation" with someone after a night out and was badly beaten, according to the law enforcement reports. The Secret Service said today the incident was an attempted mugging that occurred while the agent was on his own time. The agent is doing fine.

The funny thing about the Media and Republicans is how little they seemed to have learned from this most recent election.

For two years they, Media and Republicans, forecast that the Democratic Party was self destructing by (1) paying attention to the blogs, (2) focusing on Iraq, (3) being harshly critical of the Bush Administration; (4) fighting against social security privatization; (5) not reaching out to "values" voters; (6) not "compromising" on choice; (7) opposing torture; (8) listening to Murtha; etc.

The elections seemed to prove them wrong to reasonable people. But here they go again:

Having been distracted from the message they wanted to convey in the wake of the midterm elections by Nancy Pelosi's bizarre decision to throw her weight behind John Murtha in his futile campaign against Steny Hoyer for the Majority Leader's position, House Democrats can be forgiven for being quite angry at Charlie Rangel for disrupting their message anew.

Oy. They never learn. Rangel's Modest Proposal, as Josh Marshall cleverly labels it, is about Iraq. There will be no draft. Because our country will not sacrifice more blood and treasure on this Debacle.

The funniest thing is the idea that Democrats might be labelled a warmongering party because of Rangel's proposal. Can you imagine that? Cutting and running and warmongering at the same time?

Sure Republicans. You go with that.

The intellectual forces that vociferously argued for the Iraq Debacle and outrageously smeared anyone who disagreed with them have the cheek to think that their voices still matter on Democratic foreign policy. For example, Will Marshall of the DLC, which has cheerleaded the war from pre-beginning to calamitous near end game now writes:

The realists' complaints, in fact, often echo the Democrats' indictment of Bush's unilateralism, disregard for the rule of law, and excessively militarized approach to national security. But progressives should be wary of realist claims that the way to make America safer is to limit its power and its international commitments.

Limit its power? No Marshall, recognize the limits of its UNILATERAL power. At this late date, Marsahll and the DLC still do not get it.

The Government has dropped its bid to reinstate the conviction of Ken Lay. The Government was hoping to use the criminal case as a means of going after his assets.

Lay died of a heart attack in July after being convicted in May of 10 fraud and conspiracy charges. U.S. District Judge Sim Lake threw out the verdicts under a legal principle that erases convictions of defendants who die before they can appeal.

The government moved yesterday to withdraw a Nov. 16 notice of an appeal of Lake's decision. Steven Tyrrell, chief of the Justice Department's fraud section, said in the document the government made the move after a bill to change the law was introduced in Congress. He didn't elaborate.

I think this just means the Government has decided to place all its apples in the civil forfeiture cart.

In an editorial today, the Houston Chronicle praises a tough sentencing judge's call to reduce drug possession sentences.

Recently, state Judge Michael Mc-Spadden called on the governor and Legislature to reduce sentences for low-level drug possession. In a letter to Gov. Rick Perry, the judge, a former prosecutor with more than 20 years' judicial experience, wrote, "These minor offenses are now overwhelming every felony docket, and the courts necessarily spend less time on the more important, violent crimes."

The result has been that small-time offenders, some accused only of possessing residual amounts of cocaine in a crack pipe, are clogging local jails. In fact, there were almost two times as many Harris County defendants sent to state jails last year for possessing less than 1 gram of a drug — less than the contents of a sugar packet — than in all of the major urban counties of Dallas, Tarrant and Bexar combined. Possession of less than 1 gram of a drug is a felony that often lands people in state jail for six months to two years.

In July, I wrote about the absurd law passed by the Las Vegas city council prohibiting people from providing food for the homeless in city parks. It was intended to affect soup kitchens. The penalty was up to six months in jail and a $1,000. fine.

How was someone determined to be homeless? By their appearance.

The law defines a homeless person as an indigent "whom a reasonable ordinary person would believe to be entitled to apply for or receive assistance."

So the test was whether someone looks poor enough to be on welfare. Classic discrimination based on appearance.

A federal judge has now thrown out the law, issuing an injunction against its enforcement pending his final ruling.

The family of Melissa Duckett, who killed herself the day after being "aggressively questioned" (to put it politely) by Nancy Grace on her cable tv show has sued her.

Jay Paul Deratany, the attorney representing Duckett's estate, said Tuesday that Grace encouraged Duckett to appear on her show by saying the goal was to draw public attention to help find Trenton.

"It's not just about the questioning, it's about the misrepresentation with the knowledge that she was emotionally distraught," Deratany said. The attorney said Grace improperly took on the role of a law enforcement officer.

I'd bet a year from now the case will settle with CNN, not Nancy, paying the tab. In the meantime, the publicity probably will result in higher ratings for her show which in turn will bump the ad rates which will mean more money for the network. I doubt she'll change her style.

The "fry them, don't try them" mentality is still a winner with the public.

In a victory for free speech and a loss for those who may be defamed online, the California Supreme Court has ruled bloggers and Internet providers and bulletin board owners can't be sued for for defamation for writings posted by others on their site.

The bottom line:

"Until Congress chooses to revise the settled law in this area" people who contend they were defamed on the Internet can seek recovery only from the original source of the statement, not from those who re-post it."

The text of the decision is here.

How Appealing has a compilation of news articles discussing the decision.

One of my personal favorites, the great film director Robert Altman has passed away:

Robert Altman, the caustic and irreverent satirist behind "M-A-S-H," "Nashville" and "The Player" who made a career out of bucking Hollywood management and story conventions, died at a Los Angeles Hospital, his Sandcastle 5 Productions Company said Tuesday. He was 81.

A five-time Academy Award nominee for best director, most recently for 2001's "Gosford Park," he finally won a lifetime achievement Oscar in 2006. "No other filmmaker has gotten a better shake than I have," Altman said while accepting the award. "I'm very fortunate in my career. I've never had to direct a film I didn't choose or develop. My love for filmmaking has given me an entree to the world and to the human condition."

RIP. Your art will live forever.

This is a cynical and revolting proposal:

Pentagon officials conducting a review of Iraq strategy are considering a substantial but temporary increase in American troop levels and the addition of several thousand more trainers to work with Iraqi forces, a senior Defense Department official said Monday. The idea, dubbed the “surge option” by some officials, would involve increasing American forces by 20,000 troops or more for several months in the hope of improving security, especially in Baghdad. That would mark a sharp rise over the current baseline of 144,000 troops.

We have played this whack a mole, Waiting for Godot game for 3 years. It will not work. The Pentagon knows it. The public knows it. This is not only NOT a serious proposal, it is morally repugnant. It is playing political games with the lives of our troops.

Personally, I do not think there is anything we can do militarily in Iraq anymore. But if one were serious about trying, you would double the troop strength and basically reconquer Iraq and start over. And indeed, you would have to de facto overthrow the existing facade of an Iraqi government which is the biggest obstacle to a political solution. The Myth of the Purple Finger, the celebration of elections for elections sake, with no thought of actual governance and a political solution, has utterly doomed US Iraq policy.