Why am I not surprised?

An Iraqi man raised fresh questions about the events surrounding the end of
Iraq's most-wanted militant. The man, who lived near the scene of the bombing, told AP Television News on Friday that he saw U.S. soldiers beating an injured man resembling al-Zarqawi until blood flowed from the victim's nose.

Does an anonymous report mean a beating happened? No, but the AP is not the National Enquirer and it doens't print bald accusations. Think about it. Pumped up soldiers on a fresh bombing scene realize they've captured the bronze alive (Osama being the gold and Saddam the silver) -- what do you think they did, read him his Miranda rights or give him a few little jubilant stomps?

TalkLeft was down for several hours, it's back up now. Here's an open thread to tell us what we've missed.

The dukesters need a new thread. What's in the news? The Washington Post explores how the players' families are coping.

Feeling abandoned, angry and distraught over their sons' futures, the parents bonded most through the shared conviction that everyone on the team is innocent....Over the months, tensions erupted over legal strategies and fears of which son might be handcuffed next. The less-affluent parents have worried about how to pay legal bills. The wealthy ones swore they would spend every last penny clearing the names of the indicted.

There are also interviews with parents of four of the uncharged players. The article is detailed and I'm so glad to see their side of the story told for once instead of all the attention being focused on the accuser, the inconsistent versions of Dancer #2 and the partying.

1,000 bloggers, assorted Democratic party leaders and candidates and the national press, including Maureen Dowd, Adam Nagourney and Dan Froomkin, are all in Las Vegas for Yearly Kos.

By all accounts I've read, the Plame panel was outstanding (great job, Jane and Christy, Murray Waas, Joe Wilson, Larry Johnson and Empty Wheel.)

Markos is totally the rock star of the blogosphere, and it couldn't happen to a more deserving guy. Even Elisa and Ari are there (old picture.)

Mission Accomplished Man, aka actor Will Keenan, is making them all laugh.

And who's live blogging? Skippy!

As if we needed another wasteful Congressional investigation. California Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, Chair of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the International Relations Committee, announced yesterday a House panel will investigate whether there was a foreign connection to the Oklahoma City Bombing.

Can we move on, please? This has been investigated to death, by the prosecution and two separate defense teams. If the House wants to search for foreign terrorists, why not concentrate on Osama?

The U.S. does not approve of torture, claims President Bush. Does anyone have any doubt that Ziad Khalaf Raja al-Karbouly, the Iraqi customs inspector who turned on Zaqarwi after being arrested and held for months by the Jordanian police, talked as a result of being subjected to torture? Connect the dots. More here.

An Iraqi customs agent secretly working with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror cell spilled the beans on the group after he was arrested, Jordanian officials tell ABC News. Ziad Khalaf Raja al-Karbouly was arrested by Jordanian intelligence forces last spring.

Officials say Karbouly confessed to his role in the terror cell and provided crucial information on the names of Zarqawi commanders and locations of their safe houses. Karbouly also admitted to his role in the kidnappings of two Moroccan embassy employees, four Iraqi National Guards and an Iraqi finance ministry official.

In a videotaped confession, Karbouly said he acted on direct orders from Zarqawi.

So now we use information gained from torture to murder our target. What makes us different from them?

Say hello to "Driving While Muslim."

A bill with bi-partisan support has been introduced in New York to allow police to engage in racial and ethic profiling:

The proposed legislation would authorize law enforcement officials to "consider race and ethnicity as one of many factors that could be used in identifying persons who can be initially stopped, questioned, frisked and/or searched."

This is a mistake. The law will be misused. From Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union:

"Racial and ethnic profiling has been shown time and time again to be not only anathema to principles of equality, but it's bad law enforcement," she said in a telephone interview. Lieberman likened targeting people as possible suspects based on race or ethnicity to "tactics used by the Bush administration - like the roundup of Muslims, or special registration of immigrants."

Oklahoma joins South Carolina today in approving the death penalty for second time child molesters.

Oklahoma on Friday became the fifth state to allow the death penalty for certain sex crimes, although legal scholars questioned the constitutionality of the new state law. Under the measure signed by Gov. Brad Henry, anyone convicted twice for rape, sodomy or lewd molestation involving children under 14 can face the death penalty.

South Carolina's governor signed a similar law on Thursday allowing the death penalty for offenders convicted twice of raping children younger than 11. Louisiana, Florida and Montana also have laws allowing the death penalty for certain sex crimes.

Musab al-Zarqawi did not die instantly. He died on a stretcher awaiting medical help.

President Bush said he was "thrilled that Zarqawi was brought to justice."

Since when is assassination bringing one to justice? I thought bringing someone to justice meant bringing him or her before a court of law to judge their guilt and imposing sentence after the suspect has an opportunity to present a defense.

This is like a scene out of Alice in Wonderland: "No, No" said the Queen. "First the punishment, then the verdict."

And who will get the $25 million reward? The al Qaeda member who turned on Zarqawi? The U.S. is going let al Qaeda have access to $25 million? Some defeat for al Qaeda.

by TChris

Despite the testy letter that Sen. Arlen Specter wrote to Vice President Cheney, and despite this article's description of Specter as a "subpoena-wielding member of Congress who is ready to force a showdown over what he sees as the Bush administration's intrusion into legislative territory," Specter has reportedly "modified his stance" on the administration's warrantless spying on Americans by proposing "legislation that would give President Bush the option of seeking a warrant from a special court for an electronic surveillance program such as the one being conducted by the National Security Agency."

Complying with FISA would be an "option"? How often would this lawless administration choose that option? The administration doesn't feel bound by FISA now, given the president's belief that he has the inherent, king-like authority to decide which laws apply to the executive branch and which can be ignored.

Specter said "he just wanted to move the bill forward so it can be amended later to insert more safeguards." The current law -- FISA -- has plenty of safeguards. What's the point of introducing bad legislation to replace good legislation that the president feels free to disregard?

by TChris

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon will play two lawyers in a movie that dramatizes the wrongful conviction and eventual exoneration of John Thompson. The case may convince viewers, as it did this Philadelphia columnist, that the risk of wrongful conviction is too great to justify death as a penalty.

If you're on the fence about capital punishment, as I have been - vacillating between horror at the growing number of death-row inmates who turn out to be innocent, and rage at the brutal killers responsible for the daily carnage in our streets - this case may settle the issue for you. It did for me.

The case against Thompson seemed clear. He was found with the victim's ring and the murder weapon, making it easy for the police, prosecutors, and the jury to jump to the conclusion that Thompson was the killer.

by TChris

North Carolina District Attorney Michael Parker will ask a special prosecutor to decide whether two former prosecutors should be charged with obstruction of justice or subornation of perjury. As TalkLeft reported here and here, the North Carolina Bar concluded that the former prosecutors withheld evidence and encouraged a witness to commit perjury during the murder trial of Jonathan Hoffman. Parker was urged to hand the investigation to a neutral party given his relationship with the former prosecutors, one of whom is now a judge.