Note: TChris also posts about this here.

I'm gonna stand my ground, I won't back down....Tom Petty

The New York Times reports today that states are increasingly enacting "Stand My Ground" laws that allow an individual to shoot to kill in self-defense without first having to "retreat to the wall."

The first of the new laws took effect in Florida in October, and cases under it are now reaching prosecutors and juries there. The other laws, mostly in Southern and Midwestern states, were enacted this year, according to the National Rifle Association, which has enthusiastically promoted them.

15 states have now enacted such laws, and Florida's is serving as a model. I support these laws, but think they should go further and cover businesses not just residences and vehicles. The basics of the Florida law are:

by TChris

Despite winning the Republican primary in May, despite enjoying the endorsement of the Ohio Republican Party and more than 100 Republican officials in Ohio, despite his vow to stay in the race for reelection, Rep. Bob Ney has flip-flopped. Ney -- otherwise known as "Representative No. 1" in one of the Abramoff indictments -- announced his decision to drop out of the race.

Like every other disgraced politician or political operative who leaves his position voluntarily, Ney said he wants to spend more time with his family. The more likely reason: Ney has exhausted his ability to exploit his office.

Contributions to Ney's legal-defense fund dried up over the summer. He raised no money for the fund over the last three months after picking up $65,000 in the year's first quarter, according to financial disclosure records.

Ney, like his buddy Tom DeLay, will likely use funds he's raised to finance his reelection campaign to pay legal expenses associated with ongoing investigations of his corrupt behavior.

As Ned Lamont and Joe Lieberman make their final push to CT voters today, let's take a look at the numbers. Newsday reports:

• 2.1 million voters in CT
• 942,000 or 45% are unaffiliated
• 702,000 are Democrats
• 456,000 aree Republicans

A new Quinnipiac poll released today still has Lamont winning, but not by as much:

A Quinnipiac University poll released Monday showed Lamont with a slight lead over Lieberman, 51 percent to 45 percent, among likely Democratic voters. The telephone poll, conducted from July 31 to Sunday, was of 784 likely Democratic primary voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Reuters reports Lieberman has lost the trust of many voters, particularly because of his relationship with Bush and his stand on the war. His announcement he would run as an Independent if he lost the primary also alienated many voters.

Josh Nichols of the Nation who is on the ground in CT takes a look at Lieberman's Desperate Measures. Katrina Vanderheuval notes that Lamont's great-great uncle helped keep The Nation alive years ago.

Elian Gonzales, now 12 years old, has written a letter to Fidel Castro.

Elian Gonzalez sent a note Sunday wishing a speedy recovery to "my dear grandpa Fidel," and Cuba's vice president said the world's longest-serving leader is recuperating well after surgery..... Gonzalez, the Cuban boy at the center of an international custody battle with family members in Miami six years ago, published a letter in the Communist Youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde signed with "little kisses" from him and his half-siblings and cousins.

"We send you this letter to let you know that we are worried about your health," Elian, now 12, wrote. "We hope for your speedy recovery and take the opportunity to wish you a happy birthday, may you have many more."

In other Castro news, August 13 is the Cuba leader's 80th birthday and Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage denies Fidel has stomach cancer.

The testimony continues in the case of the rape and murder of a teenage girl in and slaughter of her family by U.S. troops in Mahmudiya, Iraq. One of the accused says following a day of drinking and playing golf, Pvt. Steven Green felt like killing some Iraqis. After going to her house and separating the family members, he says the soldiers took turns raping or trying to rape the teen, when they were done, Steven Green shot and killed her, and then they set her body on fire and then attempted to cover up their crime.

A US military court has heard testimony of how three soldiers took it in turns to hold down and try to rape an Iraqi girl aged 14 in Mahmudiya in March....Graphic details of the attack at the family's home came in a sworn statement by one of the accused, James P. Barker.

The four soldiers, Barker, Sergeant Paul Cortez, Private Jesse Spielman, and Private Bryan Howard, are accused of helping former Pvt. Steven Green, who is charged in U.S. federal court (details here and here.)

This is for the LA Times article today on the atrocities in Vietnam...for the 4,000 U.S. troops re-deployed today to Baghdad to fight the civil war there...for the three soldiers killed in Iraq today and for the citizens of Connecticut who are about to choose between Joe Lieberman who opposes a timetable for bringing our troops home and Ned Lamont who wants an end to the Iraq War now. Too bad we didn't learn then about "fighting a losing war on foreign shores."

From Poison in the late 80's, Give Me Something to Believe In. "I wish to G-d I didn't know now things I didn't know then....

Only, we knew it then and we know it now. At some point, you think we'd learn.

Joe Lieberman says he 's fighting to the finish against Ned Lamont. Here's the text of the speech he delivered today in New Haven, where he was joined by Max Cleland and which he called his "closing argument" to Connecticut voters.

He had one funny line:

I am the only Democrat in America to run against George Bush in a national election twice. I even beat him and Dick Cheney once, if all the votes had been counted.

Lieberman then lists 8 areas in which he opposed Bush.

The LA Times today reports on newly released Pentagon documents showing atrocities committed by U.S. armed forces during the Vietnam War were far greater in number and scope than previously acknowledged.

The files are part of a once-secret archive, assembled by a Pentagon task force in the early 1970s, that shows that confirmed atrocities by U.S. forces in Vietnam were more extensive than was previously known. The documents detail 320 alleged incidents that were substantiated by Army investigators -- not including the most notorious U.S. atrocity, the 1968 My Lai massacre.

....The records describe recurrent attacks on ordinary Vietnamese -- families in their homes, farmers in rice paddies, teenagers out fishing. Hundreds of soldiers, in interviews with investigators and letters to commanders, described a violent minority who murdered, raped and tortured with impunity. Abuses were not confined to a few rogue units, a Times review of the files found. They were uncovered in every Army division that operated in Vietnam.

Much of the 8 page article concerns the slaughter of 19 civilians in an incident previously reported but never confirmed until now. The LA Times has put some of the records online. My Left Wing has more about the article. As to the sourcing, it is

• Say hello to Pollyticks....great Bush & company cartoons and satire.

• The Daou Report is back, being edited by Steve Benson while Peter Daou is working on Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign.

• Check out the great job the bloggers are doing at Colorado Confidential and Media Matters first state site, Colorado Media Matters.

• Larisa has a compelling post at Huffington Post on anti-semitism and bigotry, vis a vis Mel Gibson (and the Bush Administration.) Arianna has a roundup of the site's Gibson coverage this week -- and the Lieberman coverage.

I'll state my bias here right up front. Pitkin County Sheriff Bob Braudis is one of the most enlightened law enforcement officer around -- and practicing criminal defense as long as I have, I've met quite a few.

At 61 and still standing 6/6″, Braudis has been Aspen's sheriff since 1986. This year he picked up a challenger, Rick Magnuson, who is the Aspen Police Department community safety officer. Their crime-fighting philosophies, particularly with respect to the war on drugs, couldn't be more different.

But Magnuson just pulled a dirty trick. This spring, Braudis had been sick for a few months. I saw him twice in Aspen the first weekend in June and he was clearly suffering from bronchitis. That Friday he told me had been his first day out of the house. The bronchitis had lingered and wouldn't go away. His doctor had insisted on him having blood tests, and it came back with news that he had very high cholesterol and blood pressure. He also said he had packed on a few too many pounds. Here's a picture I took of him that Saturday afternoon.

So Braudis took a seven week leave of absence to get his health in order. He didn't tell outsiders where he was going. Magnuson decided to play undercover cop.

(Guest Post by Big Tent Democrat)

The Connecticut Senate race has sparked a healthy debate in the Democratic Party (there can be no debate in the Rubberstamp Republican Party) about the Iraq War. Strangely, for someone who has been positively loquacious about Iraq, Joe Lieberman chose to stand mute on Iraq. Hell of a dialogue with Connecticut Democrats there Joe.

But another very interesting debate has been forwarded, one of great importance to the Democrat Party - the issue of partisanship versus ideology. At TPM Cafe, Nathan Newman, a smart, committed Democrat and progressive, in his response to Ed Kilgore's interesting post on generational politics and ideological battles, so fundamentally misunderstands why many of the leading Democratic blogs (like Daily Kos, Eschaton, Mark Schmitt of TPM Cafe and others) have argued for the primacy of Democratic partisanship over ideology as the focus of their activism, and their primary reason for opposing Lieberman, that it leaves me a bit discouraged that the Democratic Party will understand it.

But I think there is hope. The leading blogs understand why, even though some intelligent bloggers like Billmon refuse to understand. I believe the Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid understands. More and more Democrats are understanding. Despite the stragglers (Obama, Schumer and some others), the Lamont campaign and its results and consequences may make their understanding less important. The "people power" kos and Jerome Armstrong speak of is being tested in Connecticut. Are Democrats taking back their Party? Connecticut will be an interesting test.

Columnist Bob Novak reports today that he has confirmed Rudy Giuliani will run for President. I'd take ten Liebermans over one Giuliani any day, so if this is true, it's dismal news:

A footnote: A report in this column that Rudy Giuliani intends to run for president has been confirmed by one of the former New York mayor's closest Republican friends. He said Giuliani definitely is running.

Perhaps the report that Bernie Kerik is now under federal investigation although denied by his lawyer, is true. If so, Rudy may be entangled in it -- at least it promises to be another example of his poor judge of character when it comes to appointing officials within his administration: