by TChris

If the government is powerless to interfere with our right to play with a consenting adult sex partner of either gender, it should surely be powerless to prevent us from playing with a sex toy. Some South Carolina extremists nonetheless view the sale of sex toys as the kind of commercial activity that the state legislature should ban.

The South Carolina bill, proposed by Republican Rep. Ralph Davenport, would make it a felony to sell devices used primarily for sexual stimulation and allow law enforcement to seize sex toys from raided businesses.

"That would be the most terrible thing in the world," said Ms. Gillespie, an employee the Anderson shop. "That is just flabbergasting to me. We are supposed to be in a free country, and we're supposed to be adults who can decide what want to do and don't want to do in the privacy of our own homes."

Those who fret about the private lives of adults should redirect their interest to a serious topic: the kidnapping and sex trafficking of women in Iraq, a phenomenon that began after President Bush declared "Mission Accomplished."

Bump and Update: the LA Times tells Bush to dump Cheney and Rumsfeld . As to Cheney:

Unlike most vice presidents, Cheney does not aspire to be president, and he is the consummate Bush loyalist. He would not be giving up a political birthright by agreeing to retire (citing health reasons or a concern about the publicity surrounding the trial of his former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby). And the problem of taking sides in the 2008 election is easily solved. Bush could nominate as Cheney's successor an elder party statesman -- Bob Dole, anyone? -- with no interest in the 2008 nomination.

As to Rumsfeld:

The secretary should go not because he has been criticized by a group of retired generals but because he embodies the smugness and inability to acknowledge error that has characterized both the Iraq war and the wider war on terrorism. Rumsfeld has been the pinched public face of an administration that has cut legal and humanitarian corners in dealing with people -- including U.S. citizens -- suspected of involvement with terrorists.

I'm torn between thinking it's better for Democrats in 2006 and 2008 if Bush keeps Cheney and Rumsfeld--and hoping they go for the good of the country. Your thoughts?

Here's an open thread dedicated to the Duke Lacrosse case.

Newsweek has a very detailed 8 page recap of events in the Duke Lacrosse players alleged rape case. If you don't have time to read the whole thing, here are the highlights I found significant. First, the article puts Reade Seligman's alibi defense in a clear and concise nutshell.

WtVD, the local ABC news station in Durham has viewed the transcript of the photo identification made by the rape accuser in the Duke Lacrosse player case.

Eyewitness News was allowed to look at the 15-page document describing the process. The accuser looked at pictures of 46 lacrosse players on April 4 in a police department Powerpoint presentation. She would look at a picture, then see a blank screen before looking at the next image.

She identified Reade Seligmann, 20, with 100-percent certainty as the man who forced her to perform oral sex on him. She also identified Collin Finnerty, 19, as the man who raped and sodomized her.

Today's News Observer has a very good article explaining why the DA in the Duke case may have crossed ethical lines by proclaiming his belief in the accuser's rape allegation. It also contains the ethical rules in a sidebar. As the excellent, veteran criminal defense lawyer (and TL pal) David Rudolf says,

"When a district attorney talks to the local and national media about his personal belief that certain people are guilty and are 'a bunch of hooligans,' about how horrified he is by the allegation, that 'a bunch of lacrosse players from Duke ... raped a black girl from Durham,' or how alleged racial slurs 'make what is already an extremely reprehensible attack even more reprehensible,' the State Bar would have to be concerned," Rudolf said.

Here's what DA Nifong said, according to the News Obersver which tracked his comments:

Don't miss the video of Pink's live version of Dear Mr. President

[hat tip to Bobby at Progress Now.]

by TChris

The FDA's recent claim that marijuana has no medical benefit is a triumph of politics over science, of turf protection over compassion.

Several officials in the 11 states that allow medical marijuana disputed the F.D.A.'s contention that there was no research supporting the drug's medical use. They noted, in particular, a 1999 review by the National Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences, the nation's most prestigious scientific advisory panel, which found marijuana to be "moderately well-suited" to some conditions, including wasting disease from AIDS and the nausea that often results from chemotherapy.

The scientists who authored the National Institute of Medicine report have good reason to take issue with the FDA.

by TChris

It's official. Historian Sean Wilentz, writing for Rolling Stone, declares George Bush a contender for the title of Worst President in History. Here's a summary of his thorough analysis:

Calamitous presidents, faced with enormous difficulties -- Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Hoover and now Bush -- have divided the nation, governed erratically and left the nation worse off. In each case, different factors contributed to the failure: disastrous domestic policies, foreign-policy blunders and military setbacks, executive misconduct, crises of credibility and public trust. Bush, however, is one of the rarities in presidential history: He has not only stumbled badly in every one of these key areas, he has also displayed a weakness common among the greatest presidential failures -- an unswerving adherence to a simplistic ideology that abjures deviation from dogma as heresy, thus preventing any pragmatic adjustment to changing realities. Repeatedly, Bush has undone himself, a failing revealed in each major area of presidential performance.

The New York Times reports the identity of the fired senior CIA employee who disclosed information on the CIA's secret prisons to WaPo reporter Dana Priest.

The C.I.A. would not identify the leaker, but several government officials said it was Mary O. McCarthy, a veteran intelligence analyst who until 2001 was senior director for intelligence programs at the National Security Council, where she served under Presidents Clinton and Bush. . At the time of her dismissal, Ms. McCarthy was working in the agency's inspector general's office, after a four-year stint at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based organization that examines global security issues.

Agent McCarthy apparently 'fessed up after failing a lie detector:

Defense lawyer Abbe Lowell, representing former AIPAC lobbyist Steven Rosen in a case in which he and fellow lobbyist Keith Weissman are charged with receiving and disclosing classified National Security information, has subpoenaed Secretary of State Condi Rice and other officials, alleging that they also disclosed such information. The Government sought to quash the subpoenas but it the Court has approved them.

The point is not to go after Rice, but to demonstrate to the judge that the law prohibiting disclosures is overly vague, and it is often not possible to discern what is legal from what is illegal to receive and disclose. The Judge has said he's close to tossing the Government's charges because of the vagueness and overbreadth of the law which may impermissibly infringe on protected free speech.

This is a continuation of yesterday's post, Duke Accuser's Photo Identifications of the Lacrosse Players.

The defense received a copy of the lineup details Friday. Sure enough, the only photos shown were of Duke lacrosse players.

To obtain the identification, Durham police showed the woman photos of the 46 lacrosse team members one at a time, sources said. The woman said she was 100 percent certain that Finnerty and Seligmann were involved and 90 percent certain that a third player was involved.

....Defense attorneys also noted that two people at the party who aren't on the lacrosse team weren't included in the photos shown to the woman. Those two people also have never submitted DNA samples to authorities for testing, attorneys said.

This increases the chance for misidentification. But, as I wrote yesterday,

On April 13, the judge in the Scooter Libby case issued an order (pdf) asking both sides to submit grounds in writing why a gag order should not be imposed as a result of disclosure of non-public information to the media and statements lawyers had made to the media about the case. Their responses were filed today. [Libby Response, Fitz Response, Fitz Affidavit.]

Shorter Fitz: His office didn't leak anything and because his office doesn't talk to the media about the case he takes no position on whether there should be a gag order.

Shorter Libby: Team Libby admits to two disclosures, explains and justifies them, (quite well in my opinion) and opposes a gag order.

I think the Judge will not issue a gag order based on Libby's response. The longer version: