Like millions of other people this weekend, I've been trying to find some objective discussion of Israel and Lebanon. It's easier said than done. Here's Newsweek's latest, bringing Iran into the mix. Syria's in the middle of this too, there just wasn't room in my post title to include it.

Have at it, just remember all anti-semitic comments and those with profanity, personal attacks and name-calling will be deleted upon my return.

Update: Jewish bloggers are live-blogging the war.

Update: Pajamas Media is following every news development.

Crooks and Liars has the video of Bob Novak's appearance on Meet the Press this morning. Christy at Firedoglake provides her view.

Shorter version: Novak now claims he made a mistake when he told Newsday one week after his infamous column in which he outed Valerie Plame that his primary source gave him Valerie Plame Wilson's name.

Novak, in an interview, said his sources had come to him with the information. "I didn't dig it out, it was given to me," he said. "They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it." [my emphasis]

Memories weaken upon the passage of time, they become comingled with post-event information --things the person experiencing the event later hears and reads about the case -- so that often it is no longer possible to distinguish between their original memory of the event and the blended memory that is created by what they heard, observed or later learned from others. Novak's memory is undoubtedly a mish-mosh now, but it wasn't one week after the event.

I'm going with what Novak said then: his primary source, who is no partisan gunslinger, not only told him Joseph Wilson's wife had a role in sending him to Niger but supplied her name.

Here's one post from last week on Novak Then vs. Novak Now.

Update: Editor and Publisher has the majority of the transcript.

With all the war going on in the world tonight.....here's Buffy Saint Marie's 1970 live television performance of Universal Soldier, which she says she wrote to express "individual responsibility for war and how the old feudal thinking kills us all."

It starts about 1 minute, 15 seconds in, but the first minute gives a good glimpse into what live tv music shows looked like in the pre-MTV age.

This was one of the first songs I learned to play on the guitar in the late 60's and I played it so many times I can still recite the words. But for those of you who can't, here they are:

by TChris

Federal judges have more discretion to impose reasonable sentences than they had before the Supreme Court's Booker decision, but the limits of that discretion remain unclear. We know only that federal sentences must not be "unreasonable."

Was it unreasonable to sentence Michael Martin to 7 days of incarceration? The Eleventh Circuit thinks the sentence was just as unreasonable as the original imposition of straight probation, which it reversed. District Judge U.W. Clemon is testing the limits of his discretion, and might have kept ratcheting the sentence up a week at a time if the Eleventh Circuit hadn't tossed him off the case (decision here in pdf).

Michael Martin is a former HealthSouth executive who pled guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and mail fraud.

by Last Night in Little Rock

A month ago today, Justice Scalia justified cutting back on the exclusionary rule in Hudson v. Michigan using this rationale, obviously culled from the state's amici briefs (playing into Scalia's hand) with no basis in fact:

Moreover, modern police forces are staffed with professionals; it is not credible to assert that internal discipline, which can limit successful careers, will not have a deterrent effect. There is also evidence that the increasing use of various forms of citizen review can enhance police accountability.

Not necessarily so in our fastest growing metropolitan area: Las Vegas.

Today, the LA Times reports in Many Possible Triggers in Rash of Police Shootings in Las Vegas that the unusually young LVPD is coping with its first cop killing in 17 years. Not likely coincidentally,

This year, they have fired at suspects in 19 incidents, killing nine people. If that rate continues, the total police-involved shootings for the year would far surpass those in each of the previous five years, according to police data.

...

The rash of shootings has triggered an FBI investigation into one case, prompted a local review of the inquest system that has repeatedly cleared officers of wrongdoing, and caused outcry from civil rights organizations.

This is a revealing article about a police department policing its own when they are admittedly so young and inexperienced.

by Last Night in Little Rock

Pending in U.S. District Court in San Francisco is a suit against AT&T accusing it of collaborating with the Justus Department in the illegal surveillance of U.S. Citizens.

Thursday, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) introduced a bill to remove that case and any like it to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review in Washington where it could be heard in secret and only the Justice Department could be heard.

So much for transparency in government and open courts. Specter is no longer his own man, if he ever was one. He's now just another Bush Administration cover-up artist.

Media Matters has a round-up of the reporting on Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame Wilson's lawsuit against Rumsfeld, Rove, Libby and others as yet unknown. Prime offenders:

• Good Morning America and Special Report

• ABC's World News Tonight and CBS Evening News ignored the lawsuit while devoting airtime to Shakespeare and the Kentucky Derby.

• On CNN, John King and Darren Kagan repeated false statements by Republicans about Wilson's trip to Niger. echoed Republican falsehoods on Wilson's trip to Niger. [corrected on my part to reflect John King, not the other King.]

Crooks and Liars has the video of the Wilsons' news conference yesterday. It's the first time Valerie Plame Wilson has spoken publicly about the damage done to her by the leak of her identity and employment, and she's very impressive. If you'd like to lend a hand to the Wilsons, contributions to the Joseph and Valerie Wilson Legal Support Trust can be given here or sent to P.O. Box 40918, Washington, D.C. 20016-0918.

A few weeks ago I wrote about federal Judge Fernando Gaitan Jr. in Missouri who ordered the cessation of executions in that state due to the "unconstitutional pain and suffering" the inmate may experience from the drug cocktail used, and because the lone doctor mixing the drugs was dyslexic. He gave the Department of Corrections 15 days to find another protocol.

The 15 days is up today. Last night, the Department of Corrections told Judge Gaitan it had failed to find a board-certified anesthesiologist.

In the state's filing last night, officials said they had sent letters to 298 certified anesthesiologists who reside anywhere near the state's death chamber in Bonne Terre, and were turned down by all of them.

"A requirement of using a board-certified anesthesiologist is a requirement that cannot presently be met," Attorney General Jeremiah W. Nixon wrote. "To enforce it may effectively bar implementation of the death penalty in Missouri. Surely that is not what the court intended."

Another killing by someone described as most unlikely to commit a crime.

William Lash, Bush's former Assistant Director of Commerce,

after arguing violently with his wife Thursday night, shot and killed his 12-year-old son inside their McLean home, then turned a shotgun on himself and committed suicide, Fairfax County police said.

....Friends and neighbors described Lash as devoted to his only child, William H. Lash IV, who was autistic

by Last Night in Little Rock

In a story posted on Sports Illustrated's website (SI.com) this evening, San Francisco Giants "slugger" Barry Bonds will be indicted next week for perjury and tax evasion charges. But no steroids charges. See Indictment on deck? Lawyer: Bonds may face tax evasion, perjury charges. The grand jury's eighteen month term ends next week, so there is reason to believe it is coming then.

Barry Bonds' legal team is preparing for the San Francisco slugger to be indicted as soon as next week and has begun plotting his defense.

Attorney Laura Enos told The Associated Press on Friday that Bonds, second on the career home run list, could be charged with tax evasion and perjury.

Enos, Bonds' personal attorney, also said the lawyers believe the grand jury investigating the star player will expire next Thursday.

"We are very prepared," Enos said. "We have excellent tax records and we are very comfortable that he has not shortchanged the government at all."

by Last Night in Little Rock

A police sergeant in Bloomington, Illinois, home of Illinois State and Illinois Wesleyan Universities, was charged today with four rapes dating back to 2002, according to a story via AP on CNN.com. Sgt. Jeff Pelo, a 17 year police veteran, was also charged with stalking on Wednesday "a woman who found him lurking outside her home."

Two of the rape victims identified Pelo from a photo lineup, and police found a mask, pry bar and other items in his home that appeared to have been used in at least one of the assaults, Assistant State's Attorney Mark Messman said.

Prosecutors have said the attacker was armed with a knife in one case and a gun in another.

Steve Skelton, Pelo's attorney, called Friday that the identifications were suspect.

No word about any possible DNA links to the accused, but bail was set at $2M.

Via Stand Down:

Tonight on PBS is a special, Do No Harm.

A new controversy about the death penalty focuses not on the convicts, but on doctors and nurses who help end their lives. NOW asks the question: Should medical professionals play a part in state executions?

You can watch a live stream of the show after it airs if you are not by a tv.