Professor Althouse is a nice and bright person, that despite my significant differences with her views. But I must say this post is perplexing:

Okay, I'm depressed about the election.

. . . It's the failure of Americans to support the war. It's the folding and crumpling because things didn't go well enough and the way we conspicuously displayed that to our enemies. They're going to use that information.

For how long? Forever.

Huh? Folding and crumpling? Is that what you call realizing doing the same stupid thing over and over again will not yield different results? I really have to question whether Professor Althouse actually understands what has happened in Iraq. It is not minor setbacks. It is an unmitigated debacle. And she would have us continue that? She would have us stay the course? Explain that to me.

Former Enron CFA Andrew Fastow, sentenced to six years for his part in the Enron scandal, got some bad news this week. Although the judge recommended he serve his sentence in Bastrop, TX, which has both a low security prison and a minimum security prison camp, the Bureau of Prisons designated him to Oakdale, a low security facility in Louisiana.

In other words, no Club Fed near home for Fastow.

Fastow and his wife had interesting deals. Because Fastow cooperated with the Government, he not only got a reduced sentence, but got to stay out of jail while his wife, Lea Fastow, served her year sentence, so their young children would not be without both parents at the same time.

Herman Wallace has been in solitary confinement in a Louisiana prison since the 1970s. This week, a court commissioner recommended that Wallace's conviction be overturned.

[Commissioner] Morgan presided over a hearing in September where Wallace's lawyer argued that the conviction was tainted because prison officials had failed to inform the defense lawyer that prison authorities had bribed the star witness.

Wallace was convicted of stabbing a guard while serving a sentence at Angola. The Warden bought the testimony of one inmate witness against Wallace by promising him an early release, while another inmate received favors in exchange for testimony. The prosecution didn't tell Wallace's lawyers about the Warden's efforts to influence the witnesses.

The recommendation now goes to District Judge Michael Irwin, who will make the final decision.

So when I got home this evening, this was on my answering machine:

Hello Mr. Kelly. My name is David Kramer with Congressman Tom Reynolds and the National Republican Congress Committee in Washington. We wanted to recognize you with our National Leadership Award and I need to speak to you about a press release we want to send out.

Yeah, I've been a great Republican leader here at TalkLeft. I'm tempted to return David's call just to gloat about the change of leadership, but in the words of another famous Republican, "that would be wrong." And after Tuesday, it's easy to be generous of spirit.

Amusing thoughts about this NRCC fundraising scam (moving into desperation mode if they're calling me) can be found here, here and here.

Yesterday I wrote about the lawsuit the Center for Constitutional Rights and other groups are filing in Germany seeking a war crimes prosecution against Donald Rumsfeld.

Time Magazine has more on the lawsuit today.

Here is the backgrounder from C.C.R. (pdf) on the lawsuit.

As I predicted, the lone GOP bright spot this election was Lieberman's win in Connecticut. It strikes me as funny as (1) Lieberman is voting for Reid for Senate Majority Leader and (2) Rumsfeld got canned the day after. But the GOP needs its bright spots - and it is either the Dems are conservatives (I think they may have figured out that was not too bright. Have not read that much today) or Joementum. They choose both sometimes:

Jonah, . . . [T]here has been precious little said about who won on the left. In as much as you can say it was a failure of politics instead of policy for the Republicans, doesn't the failure of Lamont to take out Lieberman also point to a failure of policy over politics for the Kos crowd? They purged their ranks in the primary only to have their head handed to them in the actual election. I know this was expected, but I think seeing it actually occur bodes well overall for the general direction of the political discourse in the US. the Democrats won in places where they looked and sounded like conservatives, and where the Kos crown had influence, they were trounced.

Of course, Webb, Tester, most of the Dem candidates, including the two NH House winners, etc., were also Kos candidates. The funny thing is the GOP worked harder and cared more about Lieberman than their own GOP candidates. And they still do. And they wonder why they lost.

I'm recovered from the election frenzy and thinking about the direction TalkLeft will take between now and the 2008 election, which is not far away.

Personally, I'd like to concentrate as I've always done, on the politics of crime, the crime in politics, civil liberties, criminal justice legislation in Congress, prisons, sentencing, the detainees and the War in Iraq. I haven't asked, but I suspect TChris and Last Night in Little Rock feel the same.

But I'm also grateful to Big Tent Democrat who posts on TalkLeft on politics and often exposes the non-liberal media, and glad that he has agreed to continue posting on TalkLeft even though the elections are over. After all, 2008 is right around the corner.

But, let's take a poll.

Six young men were accused of gang-rape and faced life in prison, if charged. But for a videotape, that showed the female accuser "orchestrating" the sex, it might have happened.

A Dana Point woman was told today she must serve at least 90 days in jail for falsely accusing six men of kidnapping and raping her at gunpoint. [Tamara] Moonier went to Fullerton police in June 2004 and reported that she had been kidnapped outside a bar by six men and taken to an unknown location and raped.

But one of the men videotaped the sexual encounter, and the tape contradicted Moonier's story, said Deputy District Attorney Paul Chrisopoulos. The videotape showed that instead of being a victim, Moonier was actually the instigator of much of the sexual activity, Chrisopoulos said.

Via How Appealing: An article in the California Daily Journal (pass through link) reports that one of Sen. Patrick Leahy's first efforts as probable Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee will be to hold hearings to restore some of the habeas rights taken away by the Military Commissions bill.

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who is expected to become chairman, confirmed Thursday that he is drafting a bill to undo portions of a recently passed law that prevent terrorism detainees from going to federal court to challenge the government's right to hold them indefinitely.

Leahy's goal is to "try and do something to reverse the damage," said his spokeswoman, Tracy Schmaler.

The sooner the better in my opinion. I also think Leahy is a great choice for Judiciary Committee Chair. He has been a champion for the rights of the accused on many issues, such as the original Innocence Protection Act. Even though ultimately, an overly weak IP bill was passed, it wasn't his fault. He fought till the bitter end.

I really look forward to having Sen. Leahy serve as Judiciary Chair.

Via AmericaBlog, Barr is positively insightful:

[In 1994,] Many in the new [GOP] House majority incorrectly concluded that their 1994 victory was a mandate for all they had campaigned on . . . What many congressional Republicans failed to realize until much later was that their November victory was less of a vote of confidence in them and more a vote against Clinton. . . . The Democrats will do everything in their power to avoid a return to second-class citizenship. They will be more likely than were the Republicans a dozen years ago to take modest steps, and to be careful lest rhetoric overtake feasible action. The goal for Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her battle-hardened team will be to spend two years laying the groundwork for further gains in 2008, and to push an agenda that will provide a solid and likely centrist platform for their party's standard-bearer.

Seriously, is this really Bob "Impeach Clinton" Barr? Remarkable.

Remember in 2005, when Italy issued arrest warrants for 13 CIA agents alleged to have kidnapped suspected radical muslims and flown them on Ghost Air to secret prisons in countries that practice torture?

One of those Italy alleged to have been kidnapped by the CIA, flown to Egypt and tortured was Abu Omar, also known as Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr.

The Washington Post reports that an 11 page handwritten account of his kidnap and torture has been smuggled out of the Egyptian prison where Abu is being held and made its way to Italian prosecutors. He describes his torture (many details have previously been made public by the Italian newspaper):

I'm not surprised Ken Mehlman is leaving as RNC Chair, after all, the Republicans tanked on Tuesday and the buck stops with him. But, TRex's post on Mehlman at Firedoglake is a great read:

Holy sh*t, that was fast. The AP is reporting that Ken Mehlman will be leaving his job in January to go and work for the Giuliani presidential campaign, possibly because America's Mayor is the only man in the GOP with a more pronounced lisp than his own.

Or maybe is has something to do with Bill Maher outing his scrawny a*s on Larry King Live last night....Of course, CNN edited out that bit later, but apparently the fallout was enough that this morning Big Dubya called Kenny on to the famous Carpet of Optimism in the Oval Office for a "little talk".

Follow the link for a hilarious version of their "little talk." Nice, TRex.