Today is moving day for me. I'll be losing my tv, telephone and high speed internet connection until Wednesday....and that's assuming Comcast and Qwest perform as agreed.

A huge thanks to TChris who will be posting here and perhaps Big Tent Democrat and Last Night in Little Rock. I'll be on WWAN every few hours to push your comments through, so I hope you'll check in.

The site move to Scoop is progressing, ScoopHost says they'll have a test site up by Thursday. I'm hoping that will solve the commenting problem and by next week TalkLeft will be faster and easier for commenters than ever.

In the meantime, feel free to chat here. I'll be back as soon as I get a working computer and online access at my new home.

And for those of you with a residence move in your future, don't forget to leave a few items of silverware and a towel or two out on your last night. I ate my take-out dinner with a 1/4 teaspoon I found left in a drawer and while I remembered to put a change of clothes, shampoo and some makeup aside, I forgot all about a towel for the shower. I had to go to the new house and bring one back.

I'm skeptical when it comes to new tv shows, particularly on network television. Despite the raves of the critics, I didn't think I'd like "Studio 60." I was never a "West Wing" fan or a fan of any of its actors, except John Spencer whom I loved on LA Law. I've never been a Judd Hirsch fan. Timothy Busfield was good in "30 Something" but far from my favorite character in the show. The movie Network had become a cliche to me even before it won the Oscar. I'm also pretty clueless as to what happens in the "control room" except when they whisper in my ear, "Jeralyn, jump in if you want" when the host isn't calling on me or "Hey, everyone, keep your answers short, we've only got 2 minutes for the segment and there's a package."

I only watched Studio 60 last night because of the buzz and because of its connection to Saturday Night Live. I thought there had been too much hype. I was wrong. Except for the predictability of Judd Hirsch's "Network" moment, it was excellent television.

Many of the tv critics say they got riveted from the moment Matthew Perry made his appearance. That didn't do it for me. For me, it was the scene where Amanda Peet (Jordan) showed up in Bradley Whitford's hotel room room and used his failed drug test to convince him to come back to the show. The ensuing scenes between Brad and Matt Perry clinched it for me. They totally work together. I also got very into Amanda Peet's self-confidence -- she promises to be even a better role model for women than Geena Davis was in Commander in Chief.

How lame. The Bush Administration's Office of Narcotics and Drug Control Policy has uploaded its anti-drug videos to YouTube.

The Bush administration is taking its fight against illegal drugs to YouTube, the trendy Internet video service that already features clips of wacky, drug-induced behavior and step-by-step instructions for growing marijuana plants.

The decision to distribute anti-drug, public service announcements and other videos over YouTube represents the first concerted effort by the U.S. government to influence customers of the popular service, which shows more than 100 million videos per day.

According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report released today, marijuana arrests reached an all-time high in 2005 -- 42.5% of all drug arrests were for pot. Pot arrests have doubled since the 1990's.

In 2005,

Of those charged with marijuana violations, approximately 88 percent -- some 696,074 Americans -- were charged with possession only. The remaining 90,471 individuals were charged with "sale/manufacture," a category that includes all cultivation offenses even those where the marijuana was being grown for personal or medical use. In past years, roughly 30 percent of those arrested were age 19 or younger.

by TChris

TalkLeft has repeatedly told the story of Maher Arar, beginning with his arrest in October 2002 (coverage collected here). This post, praising Time Magazine in Canada for naming Arar Canada's Person of the Year, summarizes the story of Arar's secret deportation to a prison in Syria, where torture induced him to give a false confession that linked him to al Qaeda. Arar is walking proof that torture produces unreliable information. If the president were inclined to let facts influence his judgment, a meeting with Arar might convince him to back off on his petulent insistence that it's not worth interrogating suspected terrorists unless torture and abuse are available tools in the interrogation protocol.

Reuters reports the conclusions drawn at the end of Canada's official inquiry -- conclusions that have been obvious for some time:

Judge Dennis O'Connor, asked in 2004 to examine what had happened, said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police wrongly told U.S. authorities that Arar was an Islamic extremist. "The provision of this inaccurate information ...[is] totally unacceptable'' and guaranteed the United States would treat Arar as a serious threat, O'Connor said. "I am able to say categorically that there is no evidence to indicate that Mr Arar has committed any offense or that his activities constitute a threat to the security of Canada.''

While Judge O'Connor blamed the RCMP for getting the facts wrong, he found no evidence that Canada played a role in the American decision to deport Arar. The American authorities, of course, declined to respond to O'Connor's questions. The administration refuses to be accountable to Congress; it's no surprise that it has no interest in furthering a Canadian investigation into the mistreatment of Arar.

For all you supporters of Duane Chapman, aka Dog the Bounty Hunter, you can view exclusive video and photos of his arrest and bail posting here.

Tuesday night on A&E, there will be a special episode of "DOG: The Family Speaks" at 10 pm ET. You can watch the trailer here.

From A&E's press release today, in case you haven't been following along:

by TChris

Every police officer in the country must have known that pulling over Willie Nelson's bus would be an easy way to make a pot bust. It happened today in Louisiana, after the bus was stopped for "a commercial vehicle inspection."

A search of the bus produced 11/2 pounds of marijuana and 0.2 pounds of narcotic mushrooms, according to state police.

Nelson needs to find a new driver, as Louisiana apparently suspends commercial driving privileges on the spot when a driver is arrested for pot possession.

by TChris

The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit today invalidated an Illinois law -- on the books since 1980 -- that has effectively prevented independent candidates from running for the state legislature. To qualify for a listing on the ballot, independent candidates in Illinois must obtain signatures that equal 10 percent of the votes cast in the last general election, and they must do so at least 323 days before that election. These requirements, said the court (pdf), are too onerous.

In combination, the ballot access requirements for independent legislative candidates in Illinois--the early filing deadline, the 10% signature requirement, and the additional statutory restriction that disqualifies anyone who signs an independent candidate's nominating petition from voting in the primary--operate to unconstitutionally burden the freedom of political association guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Ballot access barriers this high--they are the most restrictive in the nation and have effectively eliminated independent legislative candidacies from the Illinois political scene for a quarter of a century--are not sustainable based on the state's asserted interest in deterring party splintering, factionalism, and frivolous candidacies.

by TChris

According to this Raw Story piece, terrorists really can't mix chemicals together on board an airplane to blow it up. Homeland Security, take note. Can we please start bringing our toothpaste, concealer, and bottled water with us again when we fly?

by TChris

Indiana bans automated telephone calls that play prerecorded messages unless a live person first obtains permission from the called party. That law didn't stop Republicans from using automated telephone calls to target Democratic congressional candidate Baron Hill, who is running for the seat he once held, now occupied by Rep. Mike Sodrel. Indiana's Republican Attorney General Steve Carter filed a lawsuit today against the Republicans who are responsible for the calls -- Republicans who have a history of nasty election practices.

Carter also is seeking a preliminary injunction against the California-based group, Economic Freedom Fund, which is financed by Bob J. Perry, a Texas homebuilder with close ties to White House adviser Karl Rove. Perry also bankrolled the Swift Boat attack ads against the war record of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry in 2004.

The calls (discussed here) make false claims about Hill. While Sodrel pledged to run a clean campaign, Hill points to dishonest statements in Sodrel's advertising as evidence that Hill hasn't kept his word. The dirty tricks may be a sign of desparation as polling shows Hill with a lead over Sodrel.

(Guest Post by Big Tent Democrat)

SusanG at dailykos takes apart Barack Obama's Latest quite nicely. As I wrote before, Obama is not helping Democrats in this cycle because he has bought into the Lakoffian 'appeal to Conservatives' approach. But it is worse than that now. 60 days from an election, he is lecturing Dems that they 'need an agenda.' I can tell you the agenda we don't need - this one:

What Democrats have to do is to close the deal. We have got to show we have a serious agenda for change.

Show the agenda Obama. Don't tell people Dems do not have the agenda! Honest to Gawd. 60 days from the election and he says stuff like this? Just incredibly stupid.

More on the other side.

I'm moving my house Monday and Tuesday. I'm only going 1/2 block but it's still a huge ordeal, not to mention I'll be without high speed internet, cable tv and telephone service for a few days.

I do have a laptop with WWAN that allows me to connect without a hotspot, so I'll be logging on to push any stuck comments through, but my content may be light. TChris and Big Tent Democrat may stop in, so check back.

Have I mentioned how much I hate moving?