Surely this should have been the final blow to Katherine Harris' senate campaign.

The state Republican Party bluntly told Rep. Katherine Harris that she couldn't win this fall's Senate election and that the party wouldn't support her campaign, a letter obtained Monday by The Associated Press shows.....The letter said: "Katherine, though it causes us much anguish, we have determined that your campaign faces irreparable damage. We feel that we have no other choice but to revoke our support.

"The polls tell us that no matter how you run this race, you will not be successful in beating Bill Nelson, who would otherwise be a vulnerable incumbent if forced to face a stronger candidate," it said.

But no, Harris could care less. The day after receiving the letter in May she placed her name on the September primary ballot. She says those that signed the letter were pressured into doing so.

Received by e-mail:

The Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review is publishing its first ever article written by a prison inmate, Thomas C. O'Bryant, who is a jailhouse lawyer serving two consecutive life sentences in prison without hope of release. Having taught himself the law from prison, O'Bryant has represented himself and other inmates in numerous criminal and civil lawsuits in state and federal courts over the past ten years.

In his law review article, O'Bryant describes the difficult process that he and other indigent inmates must endure to challenge their state convictions. O'Bryant argues that the combination of federal laws and stringent prison conditions make it impossible to challenges wrongful convictions effectively. O'Bryant describes his own case, in which his lawyer assured him that if he pled guilty, he would be eligible for release after ten years, even though he discovered from prison that he would never be eligible for release.

The entire summer issue of the Journal, including O'Bryants article, is available here.

Mel Gibson has entered rehab for alcoholism treatment. He has also issued a statement denying he is an anti-semite and asking to meet with Jewish leaders of the community.

Please know from my heart that I am not an anti-Semite. I am not a bigot. Hatred of any kind goes against my faith.

I'm not just asking for forgiveness. I would like to take it one step further, and meet with leaders in the Jewish community, with whom I can have a one on one discussion to discern the appropriate path for healing.

Unlike his apology of the other day, this one directly acknowledges his hateful comments towards Jews:

An era may be coming to an end. Cuban leader Fidel Castro handed over the reins of power Monday to his brother Raoul Castro following surgery. Apparently, the 79 year old Fidel, who has outasted nine U.S. Presidents, developed complications.

White House reaction:

White House spokesman Peter Watkins said: ''We are monitoring the situation. We can't speculate on Castro's health, but we continue to work for the day of Cuba's freedom.'' The State Department declined to comment Monday night.

Major General Geoffrey Miller, former commander of Guantanamo, has resigned. You can read his letter here. (pdf.)

Miller chose to retire without seeking promotion and a third star, in large part because his legacy has been tarnished by allegations of abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, according to military officials and congressional sources. Miller had hoped to retire in February, but his departure was delayed because members of the Senate Armed Services Committee wanted to question him while he was still in uniform about his role in implementing harsh interrogation techniques at the two prisons.

Miller was allowed to retire only after he assured members of the Senate panel in writing that he would make himself available to testify if called. Congressional sources from both political parties said yesterday that they were not satisfied with several investigations into Miller's actions while he was commander at Guantanamo Bay and are still skeptical of his truthfulness in Senate testimony after the Abu Ghraib abuse surfaced in spring 2004.

When is a website liable for posting nasty stuff about other people? Take a look at Don't Date Him Girl, a website that allows women to post trashy stuff about men they think have cheated on them, as a warning to other women. (You can search their site here to see if you are listed.)

Pittsburgh criminal defense attorney Todd Hollis wasn't amused when he was listed. He sued Tasha Joseph, the website owner, two other women, one of whom he alleges wrote the initial post, another he says wrote a follow-up post, and five unnamed "Does" who posted or commented about him on the site. The complaint is here (pdf). How Appealing has been following the case and posted links to the website owner's Motion to Dismiss (pdf) and accompanying affidavit (pdf).

Now, according to How Appealing,

Bump and Update: More tales from the Twilight Zone about the TalkLeft content that disappeared down the rabbit hole. I've been working all day getting TalkLeft back on track (a big thanks to TChris for all his posting). Here's what happened. The hosting company moved TalkLeft on July 26 to a different server and didn't notify me. They left TalkLeft on both servers, so the only way I had of figuring out something was wrong was when I uploaded some pictures and pdf files to the server and they didn't show up on the site.

They moved the server because for the past two weeks I had been telling them that TalkLeft was running really slow and inexplicably would go down for 15 minute periods. Alexa says TalkLeft loads slower than 90% of other sites on the internet. So I asked them to check into it. They did and told me nothing was wrong on their end and I should have someone check the applications and Movable Type templates on TalkLeft. I hired someone to do this at $100 an hour. After three days, he told me nothing was wrong with the templates or applications and made some suggestions for speeding up the site, and said he believed it was a problem with the server.

All of the trial exhibits in the case of Zacarias Moussaoui are now online at the court's website. You can access them here. (hat tip How Appealing.)

The AP is reporting that new documents obtained by an FOIA request show that the detainees at Guantanamo repeatedly have been abusive to the guards.

Pentagon incident reports reviewed by The Associated Press show Military Police guards are routinely head-butted, spat upon and doused by "cocktails" of feces, urine, vomit and sperm collected in meal cups by the prisoners.

They've been repeatedly grabbed, punched or assaulted by prisoners who reach through the small "bean holes" used to deliver food and blankets through cell doors, the reports say. Serious assaults requiring medical attention, however, are rare, the reports indicate.

Contrast this with the report issued by Seton Hall Law School in early July, Guantanamo Detainees in Detention (pdf) also based on official Pentagon documents:

by TChris

Reasonable minds can differ about the degree to which illegal downloading of music harms artists or recording companies. Some argue that few artists ever see their royalties anyway, and that the free distribution of their music encourages more people to attend concerts where artists are more likely to profit. Others argue that recording companies can't stay in business if music is stolen rather than purchased.

However you come out on that debate, the recording industry's heavy-handed practice of suing parents, grandparents, and other unwitting computer owners for file sharing by kids or grandkids, often without their consent or knowledge, isn't creating sympathy for the industry. Papers are filed in court and the defendants are given an ultimatum: pay us a few thousand dollars or we seek a lot more in court, including attorney's fees. Everyone settles, and the settlement proceeds fund more suits. For some people, it's an expensive lesson: pay attention to what your kids are doing on the computer. For others, it's a nightmare.

Iola Scruse of Louisville, a 66-year-old grandmother on Social Security, said her three teenage grandchildren downloaded music using an Internet account in her name. Her case ended up as a default judgment because she did not respond to the lawsuit. So Scruse, who also is racking up medical bills for dialysis, must pay $6,000 for the 872 songs her grandchildren downloaded, in addition to court fees.

(Guest Posted by Big Tent Democrat)

Honey you do me wrong but still I'm crazy about you
Stay away too long and I can't do without you
Every chance you get you seem to hurt me more and more
But each hurt makes my love stronger than before
I know flowers go through rain
But how can love go through pain

Ain't that peculiar
A peculiar ality
Ain't that peculiar baby
Peculiar as can be

On July 3, Newsweek columnist Jon Alter wrote:

These are the stakes: if Rove can successfully con Democrats into ignoring Iraq and reciting their laundry list of other priorities, Republicans win. It's shameful that the minimum wage hasn't been raised in nine years and that thousands of ailing Americans will ultimately die because of Bush's position on stem-cell research. But those issues won't get the Congress back for Democrats. Iraq can.

Last December, Joe Lieberman wrote that Our Troops Must Stay:

by TChris

TPM Muckraker reports that Democrats have counted the number of laws and regulations that the Bush administration has violated. The number -- with specifics to be revealed (perhaps later this week) in a report prepared by the House Judiciary Committee Democrats -- is greater than two dozen. Is that all?