For driving the getaway car in a home burglary, Joshua Herrera was given a life sentence. Joshua didn't enter the home, but the punishment was harsh because Joshua, the prosecution said, was a gang member.

Joshua's mother, Rebecca Rivera, organized a protest march in San Jose yesterday. She joined with other Latinos who think the district attorney's office targets Latinos by seeking sentencing enhancements for gang membership.

Rivera questions why her son should have received such a tough sentence, considering he was going to college and had what she calls a clean record. And no one was killed in the 2003 event.

The president's brother Neil is peddling portable learning centers (he calls them COWs for Curriculum on Wheels) at $3,800 apiece. Neil says they help disadvantaged kids achieve higher test scores, an objective that might have motivated 13 school districts to use No Child Left Behind money to purchase the learning centers. But No Child Left Behind focuses on reading and math, while Neil's company, Ignite! Learning, doesn't offer reading instruction, and the COWs won't teach math until next year.

Why, then, would school districts want to buy from the president's brother? Follow the money:

Most of Ignite's business has been obtained through sole-source contracts without competitive bidding. Neil Bush has been directly involved in marketing the product.

In addition to federal or state funds, foundations and corporations have helped buy Ignite products. The Washington Times Foundation, backed by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, head of the South Korea-based Unification Church, has peppered classrooms throughout Virginia with Ignite's COWs under a $1-million grant.

Oil companies and Middle East interests with long political ties to the Bush family have made similar bequests. Aramco Services Co., an arm of the Saudi-owned oil company, has donated COWs to schools, as have Apache Corp., BP and Shell Oil Co.

The statement today by Barack Obama that he is mulling a run for the Presidency has brought intense focus on how the Senator has practiced his politics the last two years.

My particular criticism of Barack Obama is not at all directed at his stupendous political talent, intelligence or even commitment to a progressive agenda. It is directed at his disdain for politics. Yes politics. Because, whether for selfish image conscious reasons or for idealistic reasons, Obama has decided that Democrats need to find common ground with the Religious Right, look to compromise bipartisan solutions with Republicans and not engage in the political battle.

These pretty thoughts make David Broder and Joe Klein smile, but they are bad politics and since bad Democratic politics lead to Republican governance, bad policy. I'll explain on the flip side.

Wisconsin has not had the death penalty for 150 years. Somehow, it's back on the ballot this November. The LaCrosse Tribune has a concise, well-argued editorial urging voters to reject reinstating it.

• Life without parole keeps the public safe.
• It's ridiculously expensive compared to the cost of incarceration
• It has not been shown to be a deterrence
• It's not applied fairly

I'll add one more: The risk is too great that an innocent person will be executed. Facts and figures are here.

UPDATE by TChris. The death penalty referendum and a referendum to ban gay marriages and civil unions are the product of a cynical Republican attempt to get out the vote for their right wing love child, gubernatorial candidate Mark Green. Green's chances of unseating Gov. Doyle are dismal, but conservative groups of various stripes are working to pass the referenda, and they may well succeed. The linked sites can guide you if you want to assist efforts to defeat either proposal.

There are ten days to go, but October has been the deadliest month of the year for U.S. troops in Iraq.

For Iraqis, it's been even worse:

So far this month, at least 907 Iraqis have been killed in war-related violence, an average of 43 a day.

Senior State Department official Alberto Fernandez, in an interview with al-Jazeera, said "the U.S. had shown "arrogance" and "stupidity" in Iraq."

And what does Bush have to say? The other day he said we're not leaving until we win. Yesterday, he met with his advisors and the report is there will be a shift in strategy -- geared to make the Iraqis take over. Another election time shuffle:

Frank Rich fancies himself a wizened cynic, awake to all the ills of Democratic spinelessness. But Obama weaved his spell, to the point that Rich rips Hillary for the exact positions Obama himself holds, while getting his facts wrong in the process. Too funny:

That’s why it’s important to remember that on one true test for his party, Iraq, he was consistent from the start. On the long trail to a hotly competitive senatorial primary in Illinois, he repeatedly questioned the rationale for the war before it began, finally to protest it at a large rally in Chicago on the eve of the invasion [Since Obama ran for the U.S. Senate in 2004, it is hard to see how Obama could have been doing that]. He judged Saddam to pose no immediate threat to America and argued for containment over a war he would soon label “dumb” and “political-driven.” He hasn’t changed. In his new book, he gives a specific date (the end of this year) for beginning “a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops” and doesn’t seem to care who calls it “cut and run.” Contrast this with Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, who last week said that failed American policy in Iraq should be revisited if there’s no improvement in “maybe 60 to 90 days.” This might qualify as leadership, even at this late date, if only John Warner, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, hadn’t proposed exactly the same time frame for a re-evaluation of the war almost a week before she did.

Obama's position on Iraq today is precisely Hillary Clinton's position - the Levin Amendment's no set date withdrawal resolution. But Frank Rich is intent on lionizing Obama, damn the facts.

I've been searching for the transcript to former President Bill Clinton's "Common Good" speech at Georgetown this past week for days. I should have known Think Progress would have it.

Read and spread it around, and use it to help send Republicans packing.

Here's more on Common Good Progressivism.

The one bright spot for the GOP this election cycle has been the success of Joe Lieberman's reelection run so far. Red State is ecstatic:

Amusingly, the netroots is now hyping the candidacy of Republican Alan Schlesinger, who is also a candidate for the Connecticut Senate seat in the event that anyone has forgotten. The netroots seems to believe that this will somehow trick Republicans into voting for a non-viable candidate and allow Lamont to sneak his way past Lieberman for the Senate seat. And somehow, they seem to think that no one is wise to this.

If the Republicans are able to hold Lieberman's seat, it certainly will be the biggest win of the cycle for the Republicans.

More reason to redouble our efforts for the Democratic candidate, Ned Lamont.

A new Newsweek poll finds that Republicans are losing support among their base. Here are some of the findings:

• Majority Wants Dems to Win Congress;
• 31 Percent of White Evangelicals Would Vote for Democratic Candidate in Their District
• Bush Approval at 35 Percent;
• 56 Percent Say President Won't Be Able to Get Much Done in Remainder of Term
• 74 Percent Support Dems on Drug Pricing, Including 70 Percent of Republicans;
• 68 Percent Support Dems on Hike in Minimum Wage,
  Including 53 Percent of GOP
• 65 Percent of Americans Say U.s. Losing Ground in Iraq;

And perhaps the worst for the GOP,

• Terrorism Trails as Issue Behind Iraq, Economy, and Health Care

To ease overcrowding in its prisons, Great Britain is about to bring back prison ships, also known as "floating jails."

The government has advertised for contractors to provide up to 800 places on ships in England and Wales.

Britain closed its last prison ship in 2005.

The director of the Howard League for Penal Reform has criticised the Home Office's decision to advertise for spaces on ships and warned it could lead to more prisoner re-offending.

Britain used prison ships in the U.S. during the Revolutionary War.

Spencer Ackerman has left The New Republic and it is major hit to that publication, for Ackerman was clearly the best they had. There are other fine writers still at TNR of course, Chait for instance and Frank Foer himself. But Ackerman stood out.

Ackerman has a new blog -
I am sure it will fast become a must read.