On the kids from Texas busted in Michigan Friday and being held by local Michigan prosecutors for terror offenses because they bought too many cell phonesat a Wal-Mart:

The FBI said Monday it had no information to indicate that the three Texas men arrested with about 1,000 cell phones in their van had any direct connection to known terrorist groups. Also, a prosecutor in a separate Ohio case said he can't prove a terrorism link to two men arrested after buying large numbers of cell phones and will drop terrorism charges against them.

Another case of racial profiling gone wild.

Update: Sen. Allen's campaign manager Dick Wadhams may have sunk the Senator. Macaca isn't a name for Siddarth's haircut since he doesn't have a mohawk, see original post below -- it's a name for a monkey with a mohawk. The Macaca monkey of Indonesia has a mohawk.

Sulawesi Macaques are covered with black hair that mixes with white on their shoulders and arms. Their most distinguishing feature is a short ruff of coarse hair on the top of the head that sticks straight up.

*******
Original Post:

What was Senator George Allen thinking today when at a campaign stop, he taunted a young university student of Indian descent who was filming Allen for rival James Webb's campaign, calling him "Macaca?

Received this by e-mail from the Decider's Last 1,000 Days and thought I'd pass it on:

• December 7, 1941 through May 8, 1945 (VE-Day) = 1,248 days

• March 19, 2003 (U.S. invasion of Iraq) through Friday, August 18, 2006 = 1,248 days

A new CBS poll shows President Bush's approval ratings haven't changed since the London terror threats became public:

The arrests in Britain have not helped President Bush's popularity so far, the CBS poll finds. His job approval remains exactly at 36 percent, where it was a month ago. Even the president's rating for handling terrorism - his strongest suit - remains unchanged at 51 percent.

The LA Times has a long profile, gleaned from hours of interviews, on how former SLA member Sara Jane Olson is coping in prison. Even if you're not interested in Olson (formerly known as Katheen Soliah) or her case (TalkLeft coverage is assembled here), it's a great read because it really conveys the dismal, grey, barren life of a female state prison inmate.

Shortly after 8 each weekday morning, Inmate W94197 reports for work on the prison yard. She earns 24 cents an hour emptying trash cans and tidying up. She is grateful for the job.

....[Olson] is now a white-haired woman of 59, serving out her seven years. Her experience, related in letters and a series of conversations, reveals much about punishment and survival in a state system that holds 11,730 women.

[More...]

The online auction for the domain "Right to Life.com" ends tomorrow. I would love to see an anti-death penalty group buy it. "Choose Life, End the Death Penalty."

The price right now is at $15,000. For an organization with 1,000 members, that would be a donation of $15.00 per member. Even at $25,000, an anti-death penalty group would recoup its investment through contributions of $25.00 per member.

Another possibility is for a human rights organization to buy it. If you know of any, spread the word.

The Christian Science Monitor, employer of kidnapped Jill Carrool, is publishing her account of her ordeal at the hands of Iraqi kidnappers beginning today. It's an 11 part series, which means it should be a book any time now.

Read it and remember all those who thought she might be complicit in her abduction. What fools.

The experts say the Republicans are now facing a tough battle in the Northeast.

The Iraq war and Bush's low approval ratings have created trouble for Republicans in all regions. But nowhere is the GOP brand more scuffed than in the Northeast, where this year's circumstances are combining with long-term trends to endanger numerous incumbents.

.... A Washington-Post ABC News poll this month found Bush's approval rating at 28 percent in the Northeast -- 12 points below his national average. The Republican Congress fared no better.

Democrats need a plan, and they need to get off the defensive about being soft on the war on terror. In one month, it will be five years since the U.S. has been attacked. If the Republicans want to say it's because of newly strengthened laws, then fine, they don't need any more of them.

We all know now that the bumbling warriors in Great Britain weren't ready to proceed with whatever plan they had. Yet Michael Chertoff still wants to milk it for whatever it's worth and is saying he will substitute non-skilled and non-union traffic screeners with more experienced ones from the TSA.

The fragile truce between Israel and Lebanon has begun.

Israeli still has thousands of troops deep inside southern Lebanon after expanding its ground offensive throughout the weekend. However, some Israeli forces did start withdrawing as the ceasefire came into effect.

....Hezbollah's leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, vowed over the weekend that his fighters would respect the ceasefire but would resist any continued Israeli presence in Lebanon after the deal came into force, raising fears of further clashes.

How likely is the truce to suceed?

by TChris

The second installment in the "Revolving Door" series -- "exploring what happens when convicts leave prison and return to their communities" -- appeared in yesterday's New York Times. The first installment, reporting on Iowa's onerous residency requirements for sex offenders, appeared in March.

Yesterday's story examines Rhode Island's effort to understand why "some women and many more men cycle repeatedly through the state's prisons."

Rhode Island is among the states beginning to make progress in easing offenders' re-entry to society with the goal of bringing the revolving door to a halt, or at least slowing it. But sometimes it can be hard to see much of a difference.

These efforts are a counterweight to the "tough on crime" thinking that dominated policy-making during the last quarter century. By focusing on punishment rather than rehabilitation, politicians filled the nation with prisoners who, after finishing harsh sentences, are frequently doomed to return to the unsettled lives that led them to prison in the first place.

Michael Evans spent 27 years in an Illinois prison for a crime DNA evidence later proved he didn't commit. He was released in 2003.

What did he get as compensation? $6,000. a year.

Evans left prison in 2003 and received little more than a hug from his family. No money. No training. No job placement. No therapy. No apology. It took two more years and a governor's pardon before the state coughed up $162,000 to compensate Evans for his lost life. Evans has distributed most of that sum to family members and others who helped win his release.

On Tuesday, Evans lost a $60 million civil lawsuit he brought against 10 former Chicago police officers he accused of conspiring to manipulate evidence and coerce an eyewitness in his criminal trial. So $162,000 is likely to be all he'll get for his ... inconvenience.

Shame on Illinois.

The New York Times' public editor Bryan Calame examines the timing of the Times' NSA article and publisher Bill Keller's decision not to print it just before the 2004 election. The Times published the article on December 16, 2004. Would it have made a difference in the outcome of the election?

• Empty Wheel
• Obsidian Wings
• tlhliberal at Daily Kos