The farce of the Saddam Hussein trial just got worse. The trial judge has submitted his resignation.

Many claimed he was being too lenient with Saddam in tolerating his speeches and outbursts. Apparently, the pressure got to him --either from the public or the Government, take your pick.

Saddam should not be tried in Iraq. He should be tried in an international tribunal like the Hague. Of course, since the death penalty would be off the table, that would never happen.

Human Rights Watch explains why Saddam should be tried in an international court.

If you thought Newt Gingrich's 1994 Contract on America died a welcome death, think again. Rep. John Shadegg, who has announced his candidacy to replace Tom DeLay as House Majority Leader, will bring it back from the grave.

You can read about Shadegg in today's Washington Post.

"He's Newt's progeny," said Marshall Wittmann, a Democratic Leadership Council aide who previously worked for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). "A hard-core, true-believing, hard-charging right-winger who believes everything Newt said about dismantling government and transforming the culture. In many ways, he is trying to revive the spirit of the revolution of '94."

The Arizona Republic has called Shadegg a "firebrand" and "equal-opportunity iconoclast." He argued in 2001 that Bush's $1.6 trillion tax cut was not big enough.

There's lots more, but for readers who may not remember Newt's Contract on America, particularly as it pertained to criminal justice and civil liberties issues, I'll provide a refresher course. I wrote numerous published articles about it at the time, and lobbied mightily for its defeat. The worst of the provisions were defeated, but with the wrong leaders in Congress, they will rear their ugly heads again.

The New York Times takes a swipe at President Bush in its Sunday editorial, Our Imperial Presidency at Work. First he gamed McCain over the Torture Amendment with his signing statement. Then he tried divest the Supreme Court of jurisdiction in the detainee cases.

The Times astutely observes:

Both of the offensive theories at work here - that a president's intent in signing a bill trumps the intent of Congress in writing it, and that a president can claim power without restriction or supervision by the courts or Congress - are pet theories of Judge Samuel Alito, the man Mr. Bush chose to tilt the Supreme Court to the right.

The administration's behavior shows how high and immediate the stakes are in the Alito nomination, and how urgent it is for Congress to curtail Mr. Bush's expansion of power. Nothing in the national consensus to combat terrorism after 9/11 envisioned the unilateral rewriting of more than 200 years of tradition and law by one president embarked on an ideological crusade.

[graphic created exclusively for TalkLeft by CL.]

Did Judge Sam Alito tell the truth about CAP at his confirmation hearing? Here are some more details about CAP from Berkely Professor Jerome Karabel, author of The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.

Prof. Karabel asks:

Why, then, in late 1989 -- 13 years after CAP was founded -- would the mild-mannered Samuel Alito tout his membership in such an organization as he sought the job of Deputy Assistant Attorney General?

....In all likelihood, Alito -- who was by all accounts a marginal and inactive member of CAP -- highlighted his membership in the organization for the most prosaic of reasons: he thought that it would signal to the movement conservatives who controlled appointments in the Justice Department that he shared their values and was a member of their network. Alito was not wrong, and in late 1985 -- shortly after Prospect published what turned out to be its last issue -- he received the promotion that helped place him on the path to the Supreme Court.

[graphic created exclusively for TalkLeft by CL.]

The New York Times writes about reservists coming home from Iraq and the difficulty they have adjusting. Sad article.

Military studies already indicate that nearly one-fifth of returning soldiers struggle with depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder. Many veterans suspect the numbers are much higher. Military officials said they were especially concerned about National Guard soldiers and reservists who, according to a recent Army Medical Department study, have higher rates of post-deployment stress.

"I tell my friends in civilian practice that over the next 10 years, you need to be aware what's coming through your door," said Capt. Robert Sidell, an Army psychologist at the United States Military Academy at West Point. "You're going to be seeing a lot of these guys."

The casualties of war. More than 2,2000 dead and how many wounded and psychologically scarred? We'll probably never know.

For those concerned about the possibility of Judge Sam Alito voting to overturn Roe v. Wade, consider the Connecticut Supreme Court's opinion yesterday upholding the conviction of Michael Skakel for the murder of Martha Moxley. Precedent? Forget about it.

Convicted killer Michael Skakel's best bet for freedom was rooted in a 1983 state Supreme Court ruling that would have barred his prosecution for the 1975 fatal bludgeoning of his friend and neighbor, Martha Moxley, 25 years after the slaying. But the Supreme Court, in upholding Skakel's conviction Friday, dramatically reversed its own precedent, saying the 1983 ruling was "fundamentally flawed."

"Although we will not lightly reverse long-standing precedent, we are unwilling to compound the error that we made in [1983] by approving it again today," Justice Richard N. Palmer wrote in the court's unanimous ruling.

Murray Waas tracks down some information on David Thibault, the editor in chief of Cybercast News, which ran the swift-boat style article criticizing Jack Murtha. (See Howard Kurtz in the Washington Post for more details on the Murtha attack.)

Murray finds that Thibault was a "senior producer for a televised news magazine" broadcast and sponsored by the Republican National Committee. Murray's point:

Thibault's background, it seems to me, and those engaging in the Swiftboating of Murtha would seem to be relevant to any news story on this issue, I would think. And so would some independent examination by the Post as to whether there is even any veracity to the charges.

HuffPo reports the Bush Administration asked "high ranking military leaders" to attack Murtha. Murtha responds to the attacks on HuffPo. Some soldiers weigh in agreeing with Murtha.

Markos weighs in. Murtha will be on 60 Minutes tomorrow night.

It occurs to me that no one has a greater interest in preventing cell phone records from being obtained by third parties via the internet than drug and FBI agents.

Informants often contact their police sponsors via cell phone. Cops give out their cell phone numbers for all sorts of reasons. Anyone wanting to know if someone has become an informant could order up a cop's cell phone records, and voila.

Also, a suspecting drug dealer could order up the records on an associate he thinks has given him up, and then request the records of the phone numbers listed. When one turns out to belong to an agent, somebody could be in real danger.

by Last Night in Little Rock

The NY Times reports today that the government stated at a hearing for Jose Padilla that he filled out an application form to join al Qaeda.

The "Mujahideen Data Form" bears the signature of Abu Abdallah al Muhajir, which the F.B.I. says is the Muslim name that Mr. Padilla adopted after he converted to Islam. Defense lawyers have questioned the authenticity of the document, potentially a critical piece of evidence for prosecutors trying to prove that Mr. Padilla sought to become a terrorist.

The defense disputes its authenticity. This is the first glimpse of what the government is using to detain Padilla, accused of planning to make a "dirty bomb."

Club kids in England have discovered Nitrous Oxide, also known as laughing gas. Authorites plan a clamp-down.

Although its recreational use is not illegal, those selling it have been warned they face prosecution under the Medicines Act by the Medical and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency. Promising to investigate after the issue was drawn to its attention by The Independent, a spokesman for the Agency said: "Sale of nitrous oxide for medicinal use is strictly regulated and anyone selling the drug for recreational use, whether or not they have a license, faces prosecution.''

I thought the drug went out of favor in the '70's:

The recreational aspect of the gas was highlighted by the late Hunter S Thompson in his tale of drug consumptionFear and Loathing in Las Vegas; and in the David Lynch film Blue Velvet, the nitrous oxide-addicted villain, played by Dennis Hopper, carries a tank with him. It was also used as a disabling weapon by the Joker, played by Jack Nicholson, in the first Batman film.

Guess not. While the article talks about the relative safety of the gas, I did attend a client's funeral in the late '70's who died of an overdose. But he and his friends weren't doing balloons, they were sharing a tank.

Bump and Update: Update: al-Zawahiri was not killed in the attack on the Pakastani Village. Between 17 and 30 villagers were killed, and Pakistanis are protesting the air strike.

According to U.S. sources,

CIA-operated unmanned drones were believed to have been used in the attack, U.S. sources said. A Pakistani intelligence official said four missiles had been fired.

It looks like the raid has resulted in creating at least one future terrorist:

At another destroyed house, Sami Ullah, a 17-year-old student, said 24 of his family members were killed and vowed he would "seek justice from God."

Senate Judiciary Chair Arlen Specter has announced he will vote to confirm Judge Sam Alito to the Supreme Court. The vote could come as early as Tuesday.

Democrats sound increasingly pessimistic about stopping Bush's drive to pack the court with conservative ideologues.

"To stop a president on judicial nominations, you either need a Democratic president, a Democratic Senate or moderate Republicans who will break ranks when it's a conservative nominee," Mr. Schumer said. "We don't have any of those three. The only tool we have is the filibuster, which is a very difficult tool to use, and with only 45 Democrats, it's harder than it was last term."

He's right. That's why we must begin focusing now on the 2006 elections and 2008.