TalkLeft has moved to Scoop. The problems with comments are resolved. Just register once, and you will be set.

I hope you like the new ease of commenting. Once you register, you can post comments. If you want to be able to post diaries, e-mail me and I will consider re-setting your permissions to be able to do so.

TalkLeft should both load faster now and your comments (once you register) should be pretty close to instantaneous. We're on a huge server, and we're the only site on it.

It's taken 40 days and 40 nights and more than a few thousand dollars. Be kind.

If you have problems, e-mail me.

by Last Night in Little Rock

Yet another Republican House member is under investigation--for influence peddling.

AP reports today that Rep. Curt Weldon, R-PA 7, is under federal investigation for seeking lobbying and consulting contracts worth over $1M for his daughter Karen. Weldon's staff denied knowledge of an investigation with an interesting choice of words:

After yet another 20 hours of working on the site migration to Scoop yesterday and today, it looks like it will be early morning before we go live. To tide you over, here's Tom Petty and Eddie Vedder in Denver performing The Waiting (is The Hardest Part.)

From Big Tent Democrat

Arianna writes what a lot of people have been thinking, including me:

It is bitterly ironic that instead of building on that momentum by continuing to make his case against Lieberman, Lamont has let himself become enmeshed in the same consultant-driven culture of caution and blandness that has produced a steady stream of modern candidates more worried about stepping on the land mines laid out by their opponents' campaign teams than stepping forward to lead.

On 60 Minutes, Ed Bradley is interviewing the Duke Lacrosse players charged in the Duke lacrosse alleged rape case, and the second dancer.

There's lots of discussion in the TalkLeft forums, but you can comment here as well.

Is the D.A.'s case hopeless? I'll be back with my thoughts after it airs here.

Who says legalization and decriminalization don't work? In Europe, marijuana use has dropped sharply, while cocaine use has risen.

British figures .... show that the popularity of cannabis in the UK has plummeted, with 600,000 fewer people smoking or eating marijuana than three years ago. The Home Office statistics, released last week, also show that consumption of cocaine in Britain has risen.

The figures will help the British government and other European nations with more liberal drug laws such as Holland and Switzerland rebut claims that their approach to cannabis leads to increased use of the drug. The growing cocaine use will, however, worry European anti-narcotics police and many politicians.

(From Big Tent Democrat)

Steve Gilliard writes an interesting post that, in my view, is right in some things and wrong in others. One thing definitely wrong is this:

Ok, let's say that the Dems were ambushed in 2000 and got seriously sh*tty advice on how to fight the ballot issues. The Dems were listening to bullsh*t about continuity of government and trust in elections. So they shrunk from the fight. Stolen? Yeah, in the time honored tradition of intimidation and rules lawyering. If you look at who showed up in Florida, like John Bolton and other future White House staffers, the GOP brought their A game and Gore thought they were playing by the rules of the past. Ooops.

In a word, nonsense. Gore brought the best lawyer (in my opinion) in America, David Boies, to this gunfight, and but for a lawless U.S. Supreme Court, Gore wins.

Other things right and wrong in Gilliard's piece on the other side.

From Big Tent Democrat

Murtha:

Now, Karl Rove may call me a defeatist, but can anyone living in the real world deny that [Iraq is] heading in the wrong direction? Yet despite this bleak record of performance, the president continues to stand by his team of failed architects, preferring to prop them up instead of demanding accountability.

Democrats are fighting a war on two fronts: One is combating the spin and intimidation that defines this administration. The other is fighting to change course, to do things better, to substitute smart, disciplined strategy for dogma and denial in Iraq.

That's not defeatism. That's our duty.

Lieberman:

Does America have a good plan for doing this, a strategy for victory in Iraq? Yes we do. . . . The administration's recent use of the banner "clear, hold and build" accurately describes the strategy as I saw it being implemented last week.

. . . It's time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge that he will be the commander in chief for three more critical years and that in matters of war we undermine presidential credibility at our nation's peril," Lieberman said.

(From Big Tent Democrat)

This is hardly surprising:

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, a lifelong Democrat and student of politics, blanked when asked if America would be better off with his party regaining control of the U.S. House of Representatives. . . . "Uh, I haven't thought about that enough to give an answer," Lieberman said, as though Democrats' strong prospects for recapturing the House hadn't been the fall's top political story.

. . . On the campaign trail, Lieberman's message has changed since the primary, when he stressed his party credentials as a vice presidential nominee and presidential candidate who opposed Bush. His target then was Democratic voters antagonistic to the war and disdainful of Bush. . . . Lieberman relies on talking points more often sounded by the Bush White House than Democratic congressional candidates, invoking patriotism and America's need to be vigilant in a dangerous world.

The question is why in the world any Democrat would support this Bush enabling de facto Republican?

Kudos to the New York Times for this editorial today blasting Bush and Sen. Lindsay Graham for the military commissions bill.

One of the many problems with the new law is that it will only make it harder than it already is to separate the real terrorists from the far larger group of inmates at Guantánamo Bay who were bit players in the Taliban or innocent bystanders. Mr. Graham and other supporters of this dreadful legislation seem to have forgotten that American justice does not merely deliver swift punishment to the guilty. It also protects the innocent.

Why is this the Last Worthless Evening? Because comments on this site will finally be fixed when TalkLeft launches on Scoop (beta version) tomorrow night. The new server is up and running and loaded. I will be so glad not to have to push comments through by hand every few minutes or hours as I've been doing for the last 45 days and the site will be so much faster. Hope you all like it as much as I do.

In the meantime, enjoy this Don Henley classic....from when he looked really sexy with his long hair. I used to think he was singing just to me. (For those not into guys, the woman in the video is really hot too.)

Holy, Moly. The Colorado governor's race just went into overdrive. Congressman Bob Beauprez who is running on the Republican side has been running an attack ad on Democrat and former District Attorney Bill Ritter for plea deals made while in office that allowed some defendants to avoid deportation. (I've been a big Bill Ritter fan for years.) Ritter now says,

Beauprez is running an ad that accuses Ritter of plea bargaining to probation illegal immigrant and accused heroin dealer Carlos Estrada Medina. Medina, the ad says, was later arrested for the sexual abuse of a child. However, Medina's name does not show up on court files in either Denver or California - where Beauprez's campaign says he was charged. Beauprez's campaign contends that Medina used aliases in both cases.

Ritter said Beauprez used non-public law enforcement identification numbers to make the link between the aliases and Medina. He has asked the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to investigate the charge. (my emphasis.)

Beauprez responds he used an informant to get the information and did no wrong.