Amendment 43 isn't meant to change the law. It's meant to change the subject.

As Kos says,

The subject, of course, being Iraq, high gas prices, lack of affordable health care, and so on.

Say no to Amendment 43.

The UK's Timesonline reports:

A diary that appeared to catalogue violent attacks against Iraqi detainees was read out at the court martial of seven British soldiers accused of inhumane treatment towards prisoners today.

The journal was maintained by a former private, Stuart Mackenzie.

... Mr Mackenzie described attacks on Iraqi prisoners, some of whom were dubbed "Ali Babas" in the accounts. The court was told that Mr Mackenzie's unit of the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment became known as "the grim reapers", because it was the first to kill an Iraqi. Julian Knowles, defending Corporal Payne, read sections of the diary to the court.

How bad are some of the entries? Read on.

HBO airs a documentary tonight, "Hacking Democracy," that explores the potential manipulation of electronic voting machines. For obvious reasons, electronic voting machine manufacturer Diebold thinks HBO shouldn't blow the whistle on its hackable machines, leading Keith Olbermann to declare Diebold yesterday's Worst Person in the World.

One reviewer, criticizing the documentary as "torpid," argues that HBO should have made a different documentary focusing on other voting problems that surely merit attention:

According to Reuters and the latest Zogby poll, Democrats have a shot at taking control of the Senate.

With Democrats needing to gain six Republican seats for a Senate majority, extremely tight contests in Missouri, Virginia and Montana could determine the balance of power.

....To gain a Senate majority, Democrats must hold their own seats and win six of seven at-risk Republican seats, including knocking off at least five Republican incumbents. The new polls show that is a viable possibility, pollster John Zogby said.

If Democrats take the Senate, think what it will mean in terms of our federal judiciary. It's the Senate that votes to confirm federal district and appeals court judges and Supreme Court judges. Bush still has two years left in office.

A Democratic controlled Senate will reduce the chances of confirmation for right-wing extremist judges. Federal judges are appointed for life. If you care about maintaining the independence of the judiciary and want to preserve our constitutional rights for your children, get out and vote for Democratic Senate candidates on Tuesday.

Another vapid column from David Broder that does do one service, it highlights why he is essentially a man with empty thoughts:

The authors write . . . "why worry? Because a healthy civic culture ought to do more than bestir voters; it should build their trust in the nation's political institutions. It is in this respect that, alas, querulous partisanship can become corrosive." As we come to the end of another down-and-dirty campaign, that is the damage we must contemplate. It matters little which party controls Congress if the people think Congress is made up of knaves and rascals, or even of well-intentioned men and women corrupted by special interests and the constant pursuit of campaign cash.

It matter little which party controls Congress writes Broder. Because the problem is NOT Iraq, Katrina, and any Bush disaster you care to name, it is the lack of civility. Heck, his next column should cite Rodney King.

Form over substance is the very essence of Broderism. I am glad he admits it.

Harris County, Virginia has a shortage of functioning law enforcement officers now that Sheriff Frank Cassell and more than a dozen of his deputies have been indicted. Twenty people are charged with a long list of federal crimes that include money laundering, conspiracy to distribute illicit drugs, and racketeering conspiracy.

U.S. Attorney John Brownlee outlined the case and charges at the press conference and called the defendants' alleged behavior "disgraceful corruption." He said many drugs and firearms were stolen from evidence and ended up back in the community that the sheriff's office is supposed to protect. One firearm seized in a raid was turned into evidence but later was somehow stolen and recovered upon execution of a search warrant at a "drug house," Brownlee said.

Among the more intesting allegations: "[Former Sgt. James] Vaught's rental house was used as a place for several officers of the Henry County Sheriff's Office to have extramarital affairs."

Here's the indictment (pdf).

Some judges seem to believe that no error during a trial is so egregious that it justifies overturning a death sentence. Half the judges on the Sixth Circuit were undisturbed that the jury didn't even learn Jeffrey Leonard's true identity before it voted for his execution. Nor did the jury learn anything of Leonard's grim past.

Mr. Leonard’s current lawyers say a competent investigation of his background would have yielded a trove of evidence that might well have persuaded the jury to spare his life. He is, for instance, apparently brain damaged, and he endured a brutal childhood.

By a 7-7 vote, the Sixth Circuit decided not to disturb a 2-1 panel vote that affirmed Leonard's death sentence on the theory that a fully informed jury would still have voted for death. The other seven judges must have been gazing into a different crystal ball. In dissent, Judge Coffman was appropriately skeptical of the opinion that no juror would have been swayed by the mitigating information that wasn't presented.

Courts don't often dismiss prosecutions to sanction outrageous governmental misconduct, but the government's conduct in a criminal case is seldom as outrageous as that alleged by Jose Padilla:

In the court papers, Mr. Padilla asserted among other things that interrogators had threatened him with “imminent execution” or with painful cuts; that he was forced to wear a hood and stand in “stress positions” for long periods; that noxious fumes were sometimes introduced into his cell; that he was forced to endure extreme heat and cold, bright lights or total darkness, denied opportunities to shower for weeks and deprived of sleep; and that he was not provided with a copy of the Koran.

The government must respond to Padilla's dismissal motion by November 13. TalkLeft's coverage of Padilla's case is collected here.

The New York Times reports on its final pre-election poll, conducted with CBS.

A substantial majority of Americans expect Democrats to reduce or end American military involvement in Iraq if they win control of Congress next Tuesday and say Republicans will maintain or increase troop levels to try to win the war if they hold on to power on Capitol Hill.

Bush's war approval rating sinks to its lowest level yet: 29%.

The poll showed that 29 percent of Americans approve of the way President Bush is managing the war, matching the lowest mark of his presidency. Nearly 70 percent said Mr. Bush did not have a plan to end the war, and 80 percent said Mr. Bush’s latest effort to rally public support for the conflict amounted to a change in language but not policy.

The poll also shows the changes voters expect from Democrats:

After attending a packed to the gills lunchtime fundraiser for Colorado congressional candidate Ed Perlmutter (headlined by former President Clinton, who as of 2:45 when I left, had not yet arrived), I drove downtown to the Denver Election Commission to cast my early vote. The line was fairly long, about 1/2 hour, but once you got to the first checkpoint where they examine your driver's license, it was smooth sailing. Five minutes later I was in front of my electronic touch-screen monitor.

The ballot was 11 pages, nicely laid out, and the choices registered immediately. They also could be changed. When done, you get to see all your selections on the monitor, with a second chance to make changes. Then you press print, and a paper print-out of your vote appears on the left. Only when you click that the printout is correct, do you click "submit" and your vote gets counted.

As Tristero writes over at Digby's place, those in Florida were not so lucky.

From General Clark:

The American public should simply accept no distractions. In our democracy, it is our duty to hold our elected leaders accountable. We do it at the ballot box. And we should do it not on the basis of personalities or stereotypes, but on the basis of results. Our men and women fighting in Iraq are held accountable for their performance and their conduct.

On duty and off, twenty-four hours a day. They're fighting for us, for our safety, our rights, and our freedoms. Surely, we owe it to them to push aside the distractions and bring the focus back to the essence of this election:

Iraq.

. . . John Kerry made a mistake trying to joke about "getting stuck in Iraq." But this election isn't about John Kerry; he isn't running. But, for a crazy day or two, his gaffe has provided a powerful distraction to an election shaping up to be a referendum on the President's national security policy, and his mission in Iraq, in particular. We can not allow the most powerful country in the world to get sidetracked when American lives and the future of our leadership in the world is at stake.

You're doing a heck of a job Rummy:

President Bush reaffirmed his support for two of the most polarizing figures in his administration today, saying he wanted Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld as well as Vice President Dick Cheney to remain until the end of his presidency.

The president’s verbal embrace of Mr. Rumsfeld and Mr. Cheney, offered during an interview with The Associated Press, seemed to be another reflection of Mr. Bush’s belief in the basic wisdom of the Iraq war and his determination not to back away from it as the Congressional elections approach.

Mr. Bush praised Mr. Rumsfeld’s supervision of the military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan and his attempts to revamp the Pentagon bureaucracy. “I’m pleased with the progress we’re making,” Mr. Bush said during the interview in the Oval Office.