Bump and Update: Congrats to Colorado's Bill Winter who was announced as the winner today.

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original post: 7/10/06
Last Day for MapChanger Voting - Help Bill Winter

Today is the last day to vote for your favorite candidate to win Gov. Mark Warner's map changer contest. The winning candidate gets a campaign fundraiser with Gov. Warner.

I recommend Bill Winter of Colorado who will oppose Tom Tancredo. It's really close now, please help. Winter and John Courage are running neck and neck and have joined to ask Gov. Warner to pick them both.

The National Journal has published the newly released list of White House salaries. The big guys get $165,000.

In 2003, they made $151,000.

Not on the list: Cheney chief of staff Dave Addington. Why not? His predecessor Scooter Libby was on the 2003 list. [Via Tim Grieves at Salon's War Room.]

Wow. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, speaking in California yesterday:

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy yesterday criticized the federal Sentencing Guidelines and the lobbying efforts of correctional officers' unions.

"The only thing worse than sentencing under the guidelines is sentencing without them," he told judges and lawyers from across the Ninth Circuit yesterday. "I think the guidelines are far too severe," he added, explaining that spending money on prisoners while failing to invest in efforts to inform at-risk groups about sentencing undermined the principle of deterrence.

"The fact that the prison guards' association lobbies for higher penalties is sick," he added emphatically.

Best thing I've read all day. [Via How Appealing.]

Update: First person account from a Wall St Journal reporter (free link) who was on a train next to one of those bombed.

The news from Bombay is grim as the death count from the mass transit bombings now stands at 163 with more than 400 injured.

Eight bombs hit Bombay's commuter rail network during rush hour Tuesday evening, killing at least 147 people and wounding more than 400 in what authorities called a well-coordinated terrorist attack.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility in the bombings, which came in quick succession - a common tactic employed by Kashmiri militants. The blasts came hours after a series of grenade attacks by Islamic extremists killed eight people in the main city of India's part of Kashmir.

U.S. officials say the attacks "were likely part of the sectarian violence over Kashmir."

In 2003, the Goose Creek police department conducted an outrageous armed raid on a S.C. high school looking for drugs which they did not find. The principal resigned and lawsuits were filed.

Yesterday, "a federal judge approved a $1.6 million class-action settlement to compensate students who were searched....in a lawsuit filed against the Berkeley County School District and the Goose Creek Police Department by students' families."

The students will split $1.2 million. Their attorneys' will receive the remaining $400,000. The exact amount each student receives will depend on the final number of claims, but could average between $6,000 and $12,000 apiece.

The Bush Administration has announced that it will now give detainees their rights under the Geneva Convention.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said the policy, outlined in a new Defense Department memo, reflects the recent 5-3 Supreme Court decision blocking military tribunals set up by President Bush. That decision struck down the tribunals because they did not obey international law and had not been authorized by Congress.

The policy, described in a memo (pdf) by Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, appears to change the administration's earlier insistence that the detainees are not prisoners of war and thus not subject to the Geneva protections.

What to make of it? Read Law Prof Marty Lederman at Balkinization who says the "devil, of course, will be in the details."

As General Counsel of the Department of Defense, William Haynes was a principal architect of policies that led to the abuse of detainees in Guantanamo, Iraq and Afghanistan. Bush has nominated him for a seat on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold confirmation hearings starting today, July 11th.

Human Rights First has a webpage dedicated to concern about his nomination.

In additon, more than 20 military leaders have written a letter(pdf) opposing his nomination.

by TChris

The latest victim of death by Taser is Nickolos Cyrus, a mentally ill man who was found partially dressed in a home that was under construction.

Chet Cyrus, the man's father, said sheriff's detectives told him Nickolos Cyrus was shocked twice by stun guns, once in the back while he was walking or running away and then once when he was on the ground with his arms under his chest. Nickolos Cyrus was shocked a second time because he apparently refused to place his hands behind his back so police could handcuff him, Chet Cyrus said detectives told him.

After testing the Taser for a year -- "testing" by shooting 262 people with Tasers during that time span -- the Milwaukee Police Department "concluded that the stun guns helped officers safely subdue people who were resisting arrest." Tell that to the parents of Nickolos Cyrus, who lost their mentally ill son because he allegedly resisted arrest -- nonviolently -- for a trivial offense.

Al Qaeda has released a video showing the mutilatied bodies of the two soldiers from the 101st kidnapped in June from Yusufiya.

In the newly-released film, the captors linked their actions directly to the rape and killing of the Iraqi girl and her family in the town of Mahmudiya. The groups said capturing and killing the soldiers was "revenge for our sister who was dishonoured by a soldier of the same brigade". The groups said capturing and killing the soldiers was "revenge for our sister who was dishonoured by a soldier of the same brigade".

Steven Green and the four other soldiers charged in the girl's rape and murder, and in the murder of her family members, as well as a 5th soldier charged with failirng to report the crimes, were all from the 101st.

John McCain was interviewed in the new issue of Esquire. Asked about Hillary Clinton's chances in 2008, here's what he had to say:

I think the biggest mistake we could make is to underestimate Hillary Clinton. She's smart and she's tough. She's very disciplined in all ways--unlike her husband--and I think she's formidable. Plus, she already has $20 million in the bank. If we don't get our act together..."

Asked about Bush, he said:

He also believes that the war has been botched badly. "I don't blame Bush," he says. "I blame Rumsfeld. It's his failure that we didn't have enough troops in Iraq, because he ignored the advice of the military. We never had enough troops over there from the beginning, and that's where most of our problems come from."

Tom Petty has not been one to frequently mix his politics into his music. I guess drastic times call for drastic measures -- and I applaud him for this interview in the new Esquire [Via Down with Tyranny]:

"The war in Iraq is shameful. Whether you're pro or con Bush, you've got to admit: The guy lied. And he continues to do so. I can't understand why he's just not run out on a rail. To send somebody's kids off and have them killed for no good reason--he's going to have his day in hell for that. I wouldn't want that karma.

When you kill somebody's little sister with a missile, he's going to hate you forever. And the next generation will hate you even more.

So, for Tom Petty tonight, here's Won't Back Down -- performed with George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

After his speaking gig in Aspen, Karl Rove came to Denver for a sit-down interview with the editorial board of the Denver Post. What he said:

• Bush will exercise the first veto of his presidency to jettison the stem cell research bill if it passes the Senate (it's already passed the House.) The chief sponsors of the bi-partisan House bill, Colorado's Diana DeGette and Delaware's Michael Rogers, upon hearing the news, are now asking for their own pow-wow with Bush. Rove said there are not enough votes to overcome a veto. DeGette's comment: I'm appalled that Bush would use the first veto of his presidency to veto a bill that could help 110 million people and their families."