Law Professor Marjorie Cohn presents her case for a war crimes prosecution of Donald Rumsfeld. She includes this:

On November 14, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Lawyers Guild, and other organizations will ask the German federal prosecutor to initiate a criminal investigation into the war crimes of Rumsfeld and other Bush administration officials. Although Bush has immunized his team from prosecution in the International Criminal Court, they could be tried in any country under the well-established principle of universal jurisdiction.

Bob Stein, a long time magazine editor, has joined the New Media, starting his own blog, Connecting.the.Dots. Here is Bob's bio:

ROBERT STEIN, editor, publisher, media critic and journalism teacher, is a former Chairman of the American Society of Magazine Editors, and author of “Media Power: Who Is Shaping Your Picture of the World?” Before the war in Iraq, he wrote in The New York Times: “I see a generation gap in the debate over going to war in Iraq. Those of us who fought in World War II know there was no instant or easy glory in being part of 'The Greatest Generation,' just as we knew in the 1990s that stock-market booms don’t last forever. We don’t have all the answers, but we want to spare our children and grandchildren from being slaughtered by politicians with a video-game mentality." This is not meant to extol geezer wisdom but suggest that, even in our age of 24/7 hot flashes, something can be said for perspective. The Web is a wide space for spreading news, but it can also be a deep well of collective memory to help us understand today’s world. In olden days, tribes kept village elders around to remind them with which foot to begin the ritual dance. Start the music.

Bob is a wise old man. Very much worth reading.

In my view, Chris Shays (R-CT) deserved defeat in his House race. He survived. But I tip my hat to him for this from his victory speech Tuesday night:

"I don't know how you'll react to this, but I want to also say this," he said, after quieting his supporters who'd been joyously chanting, "Two more years!" He then unfolded a piece of paper and read off a list of names. "I sent them to Iraq and they came home draped in American flags," Shays continued, as the once-raucous ballroom became eerily quiet. "I think about them almost every day of my life, and, when the press talked about how tormented I must feel about losing the election, they just didn't get it. ... The only torment I feel is for those families, and I pray that we can make it right for these families and that we will find a way to have our men and women come home from success, not failure, but that we find a way to bring them home." It was a numbing sentiment indeed.

Respect to you for that Representative Shays. Joe Lieberman would NEVER show that quality.

This is funny to me:

Righty blogger consensus on the reason behind defeat 11/7 is clear: too much spending:

• Tapscott's Copy Desk: "When Republicans worry more about staying in government than about limiting government, they get thrown out of government. That's the lesson of Nov. 7, 2006."
• RedState's Pejman Yousefzadeh: "Republicans lost because we forgot who we were. We were supposed to be the small-government, low taxes party. We got the "low taxes" part right but we forgot about that all-important "small-government" aspect. In doing so, we angered and infuriated our base, many of whom decided that divided government was a better and more effective way of achieving small-government goals than was electing Republicans."

Heh. I guess this word - IRAQ - is not in their database anymore. By the way, the GOP lost independents and moderates by 20 points, the largest margin in recent memory - that's why they lost. The deficit did not even register as an issue. Which it should have.

With the vote tally so close, Allen noted that he had the legal right to ask for a recount, a procedure he said could drag on until Christmas. "With deep respect for the people of Virginia and to bind factions together for a positive purpose, I do not wish to cause more rancor by protracted litigation which would in my judgment not alter the results," Allen said, flanked by his wife Susan and long-time Virginia Senator John W. Warner ®.

David Brooks says:

Well, [moderate]'s [have] been on steroids, because on Tuesday the muscular middle took control of America. Say goodbye to the era of Rovian base mobilization. Say goodbye to the era of conservative dominance that began in 1980. On Tuesday, 47 percent of the voters were self-described moderates, according to exit polls, and they asserted their power by voting for the Democrats in landslide proportions.

Brooks calls Dems moderates. I agree. I expect then that Brooks agrees with this agenda:

Pelosi also said Democrats will pursue an agenda that has been resisted by Bush, including cutting student loan interest rates, funding embryonic stem cell research, authorizing the federal government to negotiate lower drug prices for Medicare patients and imposing a national cap on industrial carbon dioxide emissions.

That clip leaves out three other big agenda items - raising the minimum wage, implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission and changing course in Iraq.

This is a moderate's dream agenda. We'll see if Brooks is really a moderate now. I predict he is not.

Sad news to report today that CBS and 60 Minute correspondent Ed Bradley has died of leukemia at age 65.

Bradley was diagnosed with leukemia two years ago, but was in remission. He apparently took a turn for the worse two weeks ago, contracting pneumonia and succumbing to the disease.

Have you had time to catch your breath after Tuesday's election? If not, take a deep one, because it's time to start thinking about 2008.

Despite their presidential aspirations, it's a good bet that (soon to be ex-) Sen. George Allen, (soon to be ex-) Sen. Bill Frist, and (soon to be ex-) Sen. Rick Santorum will not be in serious contention for the presidency in 2008.

On the Democratic side, the first candidate to make an official announcement is Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack. Here's Vilsack at a glance, courtesy of the Des Moines Register.

Banishment laws turn a problem into someone else's problem. More importantly, they inhibit rehabilitation, increasing the likelihood that the banished offender will return to crime. Keeping offenders under close supervision near their friends, families, jobs, and treatment providers is a better way to protect society from recidivists. TalkLeft discussed banishment laws in more detail here.

Laws that tell sex offenders not to live within 1,000 or 2,000 feet of parks, schools, and day care centers amount to banishment from urban areas. The laws have been challenged in Indianapolis and Iowa, while a proposed law was rejected in Covington, Kentucky. Yesterday, a federal judge blocked enforcement of a banishment law that was enacted via California's ballot initiative. The legal challenge to the law was filed by a former sex offender who has lived uneventfully in the same neighborhood for 20 years, but who may be forced to move if the new law stands.

Where did the time go? I left Denver on Monday to be in D.C. for CNN's election night blogger party. I returned late Wednesday, and have court this morning at 8:30 a.m. I feel like the elections hijacked my life. I'm sure my clients feel the same way.

So I hope readers will forgive me as I take a day to re-enter my life, which as much as I sometimes wish could be spent blogging 24/7, just is not the case. In truth, it's a privilege to do both -- to have an opportunity to effect change in the real world of criminal injustice and opine here in the virtual world.

Major thanks to TChris and Big Tent Democrat for their great contributions here -- hopefully they have a bit more energy and time than I do today. In case they don't and even if they do but something else is on your minds, here's an open thread for you.

Texas executed Willie Shannon last night, it's 24th texecution of the year.

Shannon spoke directly to the widow, two children and brother of his victim, Benjamin Garza, and acknowledged that he "took a father."

"It wasn't my fault. It was an accident," he said of the shooting.

Shannon, 33, smiled and hummed as witnesses filed into the death chamber, and said he was going to heaven. He said if he saw his victim, he would ask Garza for forgiveness: "I'll say when I see him, 'I'm sorry.'" He urged the relatives of his victim to "go home, have fun, smile. I'm happy. Why should I lie now. I have no anger. I have no fear."

Ten minutes later at 6:24 p.m, he was pronounced dead.

I'm not expecting the new Congress to abolish the federal death penalty. When it comes to justice for the criminally accused, we didn't get a progressive Congress yesterday, we got a centrist Democratic one. Believe me, I'm thrilled we got that. It's way better than what we had under the Republicans. But I'm not expecting any major reforms for criminal justice for the accused.

The best we can hope for is the rejection of radical right judges and their covert sponsors, the Gang of 14. Filibustering should be safe now.

More about Willie Shannon is here.

Raw Story reminds us of Karl Rove's (to be polite) over-confidence or (to be more accurate, take your pick) disingenuousness or state of denial:

Rove said that he was reviewing 68 polls a week, and that "unlike the general public, I'm allowed to see the polls on the individual races," as opposed to public polls reported in the media.

"You may be looking at four or five public polls a week that talk about attitudes nationally, but that do not impact the outcome," Rove said.

Rove claimed that the polls "add up to a Republican Senate and a Republican House."

"You may end up with a different math, but you're entitled to your math," Rove said. "I'm entitled to 'the' math."

Full transcript of interview which can be heard at NPR.