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.

An attorney in Waco, Texas has been arrested for kidnapping her client on his wedding day.

What was she thinking? Attorney Paula Allen bonded a client out of jail, he failed to appear and she was held liable for $5,000.

In an attempt to collect, she and some associates allegedly showed up at the client's wedding and kidnapped him. The client was handcuffed, which is against the law in Texas, even for bounty hunters.

They drove to the police station, but didn't turn the client in. Instead, they allegedly drove around for four hours while they had the client call family members on a cell phone trying to raise $20,000 the client owed Allen for the bail bond forfeiture and attorneys' fees.

The client escaped. The lawyer got no money, but a felony charge.

[Via How Appealing.]

by Last Night in Little Rock

"Brokeback Mountain," the movie of a love affair between two cowboys who later marry women and must deal with their love for each other, was voluntarily banned in Utah, which is not surprising since even renting an R rated movie at Blockbuster is impossible (you get the sanitized made for airplanes or TV versions there).

It opened in Little Rock last night to a sold out crowd, with the theater manager saying, essentially, "if there is a market, we'll show it."

by TChris

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft implemented the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), which required thousands of Arab and Muslim men "to report to local immigration offices across the United States to be registered, fingerprinted, photographed and interrogated."

NSEERS was so poorly conceived and badly managed that it created chaos and fear. Trust between the immigrant community and law enforcement was severely strained, and in the end, there was no evidence that any terrorists were apprehended as a result of the effort.

Although parts of the program have been suspended, it continues to cause harm.

VA Governor Mark Warner leaves office today. Some are criticizing his attempts to make our criminal justice system a fairer place. They are off-base. He is not a "soft on crime" politician.

But in four years as governor, Mr. Warner has incrementally and with little fanfare established groundbreaking policies on the use of DNA testing to confirm, or challenge, criminal convictions, many of them in death penalty cases. Last week, he became the first governor to order a DNA test involving a man who had already been executed.

The actions of Mr. Warner, who leaves office on Saturday, have established new middle ground in the polarized world of death penalty politics. Unlike former Gov. George Ryan of Illinois, who ordered a moratorium on executions in 2003, Mr. Warner has not called for halting executions, and he still supports capital punishment. His goal, he has said, has not been to undermine the system but to make sure it works.