After a long legal fight, the records of two abortion clinics are now in the hands of the Kansas Attorney General.

The state attorney general said Tuesday night that his office has received the records of 90 patients from two abortion clinics and is reviewing them for possible crimes, the culmination of an effort that prompted concerns over patient privacy.

Now here's the b.s. The Attorney General says he wants the records to go after sex offenders, rapists and abortion doctors.

How many women provide a rapist's or sex offender's name when going for an abortion? Doesn't he really mean he's doing this just to go after doctors who performed the procedure?

Smoke and mirrors, folks. Once again.

Talkleft reported on the legal fight here. More from Feministing here, and on how this same Kansas attorney general wanted to require healthcare workers to report evidence of teen make-out sessions here.

The New York Times reports that Colorado has become "the new frontier" politically.

Despite a Republican edge in registration, Democrats are discovering the Mountain West — and Colorado in particular — to be a new political frontier as the party benefits from a potent mix of changing demographics, anger over the war in Iraq, resentment toward conservative social initiatives and millions of dollars’ worth of advocacy advertising.

What's behind the shift? Independent voters. We have a lot of them, and due to dissatisfaction with Republican policies, including the war, they are increasingly likely to vote Democratic.

Colorado Democrats could show big gains next Tuesday.

The number of wrongfully convicted persons is not just a problem in the U.S. Even China recognizes that mistakes can happen. While it would be preferable for China to abolish the death penalty altogether, this news is encouraging:

China's highest court must approve all executions under legislation enacted Tuesday, prompting human rights activists to express hope that the country will reduce its use of the death penalty.

The amendment to China's capital punishment law follows reports of wrongly convicted people being executed and criticism that the death penalty has been imposed arbitrarily by lower courts.

What is the Bush Administration doing? You guessed it. Nothing. And don't cite the watered-down version of the Innocence Protection Act. That ended up with almost all funds going to test old rape kits to catch perpetrators, with a very small percentage going to test or re-test DNA in cases showing innocence.

Here is how the NYTimes and the Washington Post reported the Kerry distraction:

For at least a few hours on Tuesday, President Bush had a chance to relive his victorious campaign of 2004, taking a break from a bleak Republican campaign season as he attacked Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts over the war in Iraq.

Mr. Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who was Mr. Bush’s opponent in 2004, is not running for office this year. But the president seized on what he said were Mr. Kerry’s disparaging remarks about the troops — and what Mr. Kerry insisted was a botched joke aimed at Mr. Bush — as he sought to make Mr. Kerry the face of the Democratic Party this fall.

In the process, Mr. Bush brought renewed attention to the war in Iraq, which he defended with vigor while campaigning in Georgia, at the very moment that a number of Republican Congressional candidates, following the advice of party strategists, were stepping up their efforts to distance themselves from the White House on the war as the campaign enters its final days.

Not bad at all for Democrats from the Times. WaPo is a different story.

I thought Bush went to war in Iraq to destroy its non-existent weapons of mass destruction, bring democracy to Iraq and dethrone Saddam.

The Pentagon, in releasing the names today of the latest U.S. troops to die in Iraq, says they died while supporting the "global war on terror."

Marine Sgt. Luke J. Zimmerman, 24, of Luxemburg, Wis., died Oct. 27 from injuries suffered while conducting combat operations in Iraq’s Anbar province. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Army 1st Sgt. Ricky L. McGinnis, 42, of Hamilton, Ohio, died Oct. 26 in Balad, Iraq, when a roadside bomb detonated near his dismounted patrol in Muqdadiyah, Iraq. McGinnis was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

How transparent. Now that there's no support for the war in Iraq and civil war is rampant, Bush thinks he can change the name and fool us into thinking we're fighting in Iraq to destroy amorphous terrorists.

Last week we wrote about two border agents sentenced to 11 and 12 years respectively for shooting a pot smuggler and an ensuing cover-up at the border.

In an unrelated case today, a federal judge sentenced two veteran border patrol agents to six years each for bribery in an immigrant smuggling scam.

Mario Alvarez and Samuel McClaren released smugglers and their customers from jail while working on a prisoner transfer program with the Mexican government. They once released a prisoner in a Wal-Mart parking lot for a fee of $6,000, according to court documents.

The agents, based in El Centro, once smuggled two illegal immigrants across the border themselves in a government vehicle and released them for cash, according to court documents. They turned over the location of surveillance cameras and other Border Patrol intelligence to smugglers.

Total amount of the bribes received by the agents: $180,000.00. According to the Justice Department:

Another jury got it wrong. Another innocent man languished in prison. And another DNA test set him free.

You've heard the story before. (If you haven't, check out TalkLeft's innocence cases link.) This man's name is Larry Fuller. He served honorably in Vietnam before he served two decades for a rape he didn't commit.

The woman looked at two photo lineups, both of which included Fuller. She picked him in the second one, even though Fuller was bearded in the picture and she said her attacker had no facial hair.

The police contributed to Fuller's misidentification by including his photo in two photo arrays. The unduly suggestive tactic (I know I've seen that face before) all but assured that the victim would pick Fuller. (TalkLeft explores identification procedures in more detail here.)

Fuller has consistently asked for the DNA evidence to be retested, but the Dallas County prosecutors didn't agree to retesting until this year. Remarkably, Fuller is the tenth Dallas County prisoner to be exonerated by DNA testing in the last five years.

I have no interest in watching pundits rail ad nauseum tonight about John Kerry. I've already written two posts today about his statement which is inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.

Searching for alternative viewing, I found my pick. At 7:45 ET, the Sundance Channel airs the 1972 Tuesday Weld - Anthony Perkins movie, Play it As It Lays.

Based on the Joan Didion novel of the same name, which was my favorite book in law school (my copy is dog-eared and highlighted to death), the movie is rarely shown on tv and not available on DVD or VHS as far as I know. I have a copy that I've seen a dozen times over the years. Why? I'm not quite sure, but it's just like a train wreck, I can't not watch it.

So I'll be skipping the Kerry non-news and watching the film. Especially if you enjoyed Tuesday Weld and Anthony Perkins in Pretty Poison, you might want to do the same.

With a week to go, Republicans are backing out of supporting Bush/Cheney favorite Rick O'Donnell who has been trailing the excellent Ed Perlmutter in Colorado's 7th District for the seat being vacated by Bob Beauprez, who is running a seemingly losing race for Colorado Governor.

The beneficiary of the money that will not be spent on O'Donnell? Marilyn Musgrave, mother of the anti-gay marriage amendment.

The AP reports:

It must have seemed like a good idea at the time:

The mayor [of Edmond, OK] personally distributed thousands of fliers discouraging underage drinking only to find they mistakenly contained the phone number for a sex talk line.

The mayor insists that the mistake is "not part of the story." Correction: it is the story. And it's a pretty funny story, at that.

Who cares what John Kerry said? The issue is Iraq.

Guantanamo

Torture

John Kerry flubbed a live statement on Iraq. Here's the video.

What Kerry meant to say:

"I can't overstress the importance of a great education. Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq. Just Ask President Bush." - Senator John Kerry.

What Kerry said:

If you make the most of it, if you study hard and do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well, if you don't, you get stuck in Iraq.

Here's Kerry's official statement castigating those who are castigating him.

Of all people it would be wrong to accuse of not supporting the troops, John Kerry is at the top of the list. It's a side issue people, a distraction, let's move on.

Republicans and their supporters will jump at anything this last week to mitigate their upcoming losses. Balloon Juice explains how it works.