by TChris

Science, rationality, and the Constitution prevailed in Dover, where the school board tried to undermine the science underlying evolution by promoting a religious alternative, intelligent design. (TalkLeft coverage of the lawsuit is here.) Judge John Jones III decided that the board's policy violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment by endorsing a religious belief.

"In making this determination, we have addressed the seminal question of whether ID is science," Jones wrote. "We have concluded that it is not, and moreover that ID cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents."

The school board's policy required teachers to inform biology students of "gaps" in Darwin's theory of evolution while directing their attention to a book on intelligent design in the school library. Judge Jones was scathing in his criticism of the board members, who have since been voted off the school board.

by TChris

Here's how the Bush administration is protecting you from terrorism:

Counterterrorism agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have conducted numerous surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations that involved, at least indirectly, groups active in causes as diverse as the environment, animal cruelty and poverty relief, newly disclosed agency records show.

You may not have known that poverty relief activists were responsible for 9/11, but they must have been, or the Bush administration, which focuses on nothing but protecting us from the likes of Osama, wouldn't be wasting scarce resources snooping into their activities.

2,000 people in Los Angeles paid their respects yesterday to Stanley Tookie Williams, executed last week in California.

"Many of the people who lined up today for a last look at the man didn't know him; never met him," Ali said. "But they came to pay their respects because they have a Tookie in their family, or identify with his struggle."

Who were they? Here's one example:

When elementary schoolteacher Macella Hibbler, 34, heard that Williams' body was on public view, she threw sweaters on her three young children and hurried to the mortuary to see the man whose life story had saturated the news media only a week ago. "My only thought has been this: How can I get my children to understand, I mean really understand, why we're here?" she said. "I'm telling them, 'Watch the road you take and make wise decisions. That way you won't wind up in a coffin.' "

Another said:

Standing outside the mortuary, watching the spectacle in the street, Wanda Smith, 42, shook her head and said, "I feel sorry for Tookie. It could have been my own brother, or my son. "I hope that his death will make gangbangers stop killing each other," she said. "I've been to so many funerals, it's heartbreaking."

I think that is the legacy Williams hoped for.

A TalkLeft reader I am not familiar with wrote the following. Read at your own risk, as it is not further sourced, but it has a certain logical appeal.

Let me ask why every smart blogger out there and every pundit on TV is talking about wiretapping when the obvious problem is that the U.S. government is now monitoring the entire U.S. Internet a la Echelon or Raptor.

Why do Gonzales and Condi Rice keep mentioning the "technical" aspects of the program as a dodge around FISA?

Why this seemingly inconsequential parsing by Bush of the difference between "monitoring and detection"? Bush says they use FISA if they're montioring, but this is about "detection."

Why, in his letter, does Rockefeller state that he's "not a technician."?
Why the mention of TIA in Rockefeller's letter?
And why the mention of "large batches of numbers all at once"?

Why?:

These are not phone numbers we're talking about...These are IP addresses, email addresses.

The Bush Administration drug warriors are about to become apoplectic. Bolivia elected a new President Sunday, Evo Morales, an Aymaran Indian, of the Movement towards Socialism, who garnered more than 50% of the vote. For the first time in 500 years, Bolivia will revert to indigenous rule.

Among Morales' promises:

Señor Morales, who used to lead a coca-growers’ union, has promised to legalise the cultivation of coca, the primary ingredient in cocaine — to the horror of the US, which has pursued a big coca eradication effort in Bolivia in recent years. Bolivia is the world’s third largest producer of cocaine.

My view: Bolivia has been a democracy since 1982. Since Bush is so fond of bringing democracy to other countries, and insistent that once they get their government set up their people should rule, I think he wholeheartedly should endorse Mr. Morales and his policies.

On July 17, 2003, following a briefing by Cheney, Sen. Jay Rockefeller responded with a handwritten letter (pdf). How prescient. Markos at Daily Kos has the text version. Here's a portion of it:

Clearly the activities we discussed raise profound oversight issues. As you know, I am neither a technician or an attorney. Given the security restrictions associated with this information, and my inability to consult staff or counsel on my own, I feel unable to fully evaluate, much less endorse these activities.

As I reflected on the meeting today, and the future we face, John Poindexter's TIA project sprung to mind, exacerbating my concern regarding the direction the Administration is moving with regard to security, technology, and surveillance. Without more information and the ability to draw on any independent legal or techical expertise, I simply cannot satisfy lingering concerns raised by the briefing we received.

I am retaining a copy of this letter in a sealed envelope in the secure spaces of the Senate Intelligence Committee to ensure that I have a record of this communication.

Patriot Daily has a great round-up of liberal blogger reaction to the unauthorized spying.

by TChris

It's good to see the AP calling out the president when he fails to tell the country the rest of the story.

President Bush is making selective use of an opinion poll when he tells people that Iraqis are increasingly upbeat.

The same poll that indicated a majority of Iraqis believe their lives are going well also found a majority expressing opposition to the presence of U.S. forces, and less than half saying Iraq is better off now than before the war.

The AP also notes the president's dismissive attitude toward polls that tell him things he doesn't want to hear (like the percentage of Americans who think he's doing a lousy job) -- an attitude that makes it odd for him to embrace (albeit selectively) a poll of Iraqis.

Seventeen Democrats who are members of the House Judiciary Committee today called on Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner to convene hearings to investigate President Bush's ordering the National Security Agency to conduct electronic surveillance of persons within the United States without obtaining court-ordered warrants. They noted in their request that Sen. Arlen Specter has called for similar hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. (More on that here.)

From the letter (received by e-mail):

...we ask that you, too, convene hearings to investigate why the President circumvented the system established under current law, which permits him to seek emergency warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to conduct domestic surveillance. It is imperative we understand the legal authority upon which it is claimed these activities are based and the scope of the activities undertaken.

by TChris

The North Texas Innocence Project will bring together faculty and students from six universities who will join defense lawyers in investigating the possible innocence of convicted inmates.

The project will be based primarily at the University of Texas at Arlington and the Texas Wesleyan University School of Law, with 40 criminal-justice and law-school students working with lawyers on the cases. The UT-Arlington students, who have been meeting for almost a year, have identified a murder in Tyler, a sexual assault in Dallas and a robbery in Fort Worth for further review.

Under the direction of licensed lawyers, the local students will work with law students from Texas Tech University, Texas Southern University and the University of Houston as well as journalism students from the University of St. Thomas in Houston.

Innocence projects are always needed. This one had the support of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which successfully urged the Texas legislature to provide funding.

National Law Journal has selected Patrick Fitzgerald, the prosecutor in the Valerie Plame leaks case, as Lawyer of the Year.

Runner-up is Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, for his challenge to the Guantanamo Review tribunals.

Both are excellent choices in my opinion. The articles are outside the subscription wall and available to all.

President Bush held a news conference today that was dominated by recent news that after 9/11 he ordered electronic surveillance without a warrant or court order.

President Bush offered a vigorous and detailed defense of his previously secret wiretap program today, calling it a legal and essential tool in the battle against terrorism and saying that whoever disclosed it had committed a "shameful act."

Mr. Bush said the surveillance would continue, that it was being conducted under appropriate safeguards and that Congress had been kept informed about it. He rejected any suggestion that the surveillance program was symptomatic of unchecked power in the presidency.

It's important to note here that people in this country have been subjected to the warrantless surveillance, not just foreign nationals.

Yes, this is TalkLeft. It's our new design. We hope you like it.

The new graphic is by Monk of Inflatable Dartboard. I designed the layout (colors, font styles and sizes, columns and content arrangement) based upon a Wordpress theme named Relaxation.

The indefatigable Mike Ditto did the lion's share of the work over the past week. He converted the Wordpress coding to Movable Type, writing approximations where there was no equivalent. He converted and created a total of 17 templates and modules, while I insta-messaged him every 15 seconds over the past 8 hours asking "Can we do this?" and "Can we change that?" Then he made everything work across IE, Firefox and Safari.

Now, there are going to be undocumented features ( "bugs" is a politically incorrect term.) Feel free to point them out in comments. The new design may take some getting used to. But I hope you like it and agree it's an improvement over our previous look.