Arianna posts this leaked memo from the Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign which, if for real, is enough for me to say "No Hillary" rather than "Go Hillary" in 2008.

But I suspect the memo is a fake, particularly due to the inclusion of this paragraph:

The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is being held on August 7th, and we expect HRC to be the “Grand Marshall.” HRC has agreed to get three tattoos. Thoughts? Top suggestions so far: “Semper Fi,” “Live Fast Die Young”, and “Senators Do It on the Floor”. Check local chapter of Hell’s Angels for endorsement and temp renaming to “Hillary’s Angels”. Must be sure HRC’s motorcycle lessons are completed by then, and remind her to call her bike her “hog”. Also, what size bustier and leather skirt is HRC?

Update: Arianna intended it as a parody, she wrote the whole thing. In that light, it's very, very funny.

Whether you agree with his politics or not, praise is due Ramsey Clark for risking his life to represent Saddam Hussein. Glenn Greenwald has an excellent post explaining why Clark is a true hero and why the right-wing law bloggers who are bashing him are doing a disservice not only to Clark but to all who support the rule of law.

it is painfully obvious -- or at least it ought be -- that few things are more vitally important than ensuring that Saddam Hussein has a genuine, fair trial before he is convicted and punished. If we simply execute him after some sort of sham show trial, it will be even more difficult than it already is for us to claim that we are building a different, better Iraq -- or that we are there in order to bring democracy and respect for human rights. If we claim the right to simply execute people including Hussein without a fair trial, it's hard to see how we can claim, with a straight face, that we are engaged in something other than pure tyranny.

The ACLU has filed a lawsuit against former CIA Director George Tenet alleging that Khaled El-Masri was illegally kidnapped, detained and tortured.

The American Civil Liberties Union today announced the first ever lawsuit against former CIA director George Tenet challenging the CIA’s abduction of a foreign national for detention and interrogation in a secret overseas prison. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Khaled El-Masri, an innocent German citizen victimized by the CIA’s policy of “extraordinary rendition.”

“Kidnapping a foreign national for the purpose of detaining and interrogating him outside the law is contrary to American values,” said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. “Our government has acted as if it is above the law. We go to court today to reaffirm that the rule of law is central to our identity as a nation.”

When announcing Judge Sam Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court, President Bush said:

I'm sure, as well, that Judge Alito is thinking of his mom, Rose, who will be 91 in December. And I know he's thinking about his late father. Samuel Alito Sr. came to this country as a immigrant from Italy in 1914. And his fine family has realized the great promise of our country.

London Yank at Daily Kos checked out the elder Alito's military records (available online) for WWII.

Samuel Alito of Mercer, New Jersey was born in 1914 in New Jersey. There are codes on the data set for "Nativity" as well as "Citizenship" so there is no possibility of error here - unless Sam Sr. lied when he enlisted in 1938 to serve his country.

Kevin at Wizbang is running his third annual weblog awards. (These are different from the Koufax awards in that there are many conservative blogs competing with liberal blogs.)

Kevin's got more categories this year and more liberal choices within the categories. Voting began today, and there is a real-time voting tally so you can see who's winning at any given point. Among the categories and finalists:

• Crooks and Liars is up for best video blog
• Raw Story is up for best media/journalist blog
• Firedoglake and Digby are up for Best of the Top 250 blogs
• Atrios, Daily Kos, HuffPo and Kevin Drum are up for best blog
• Think Progress is up for best group blog
• Jesus' General and Fafblog are up for Most Humorous blog
  
• Sentencing Law and Policy and How Appealing are up for best law blog
• and TalkLeft, TBogg and AmericaBlog are up for best liberal blog

So please, take a moment to go over and vote. You can vote once a day in each category. Voting ends December 15.

Condi Rice is the new Emporer with no clothes, trying to sell Europe a bill of goods, pretending the CIA's secret prisons and renditions are legally legitimate and factually justified. Her first big test comes Tuesday in Germany. Human rights lawyers spoke up today, exposing the falsity of her claims.

Human rights lawyers said some of the cases which have come to light amounted to "disappearing people," a practice recognized as illegal for decades since its widespread use by Latin American governments in the 1970s. "If we're actually taking people, abducting them and then placing them in incommunicado detention, which appears to be the case, we would be actually guilty then of a disappearance under international law, in addition to a rendition," said Meg Satterthwaite of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University School of Law.

Deborah Davis, the woman charged with a crime for refusing to show her identification to an officer while riding on a public bus in Denver, has a court appearance on Friday. There will be a rally at the federal courthouse in Denver to show support for her.

WHAT: Rally for Deb Davis' stand for the Freedom to Travel
WHEN: Friday, the 9th of December at 8:30 AM
WHERE: The steps of the Alfred A. Arraj U.S. Courthouse, 901 19th Street in Denver.

Information about her legal case is available here. Her side of the story is presented here. The statement of the Homeland Security Officer is here (pdf).

What was going through the mind of former Miami cop Jesus Guitierrez when he turned down a plea offer with probation and no jail time on charges he had sex with a 14 year old enrolled in a police teen program over a ten month period?

He rolled the dice, went to trial and was convicted of three counts of lewd and lascivious conduct on a child. The Judge sentenced him Friday to 20 years in prison to be followed by 15 years of probation.

Trials are risky. Guiterrez has a wife and two small children, who will now grow up without a father. If he turned down the deal to get his job back or avoid sex offender registration, banking on the victim crumbling on the stand, he made a poor choice.

It looks like Tom DeLay will not be able to regain his leadership position in the House in January. The judge in his Texas criminal case today refused to dismiss the money laundering charges against him. While the conspiracy charges were dismissed, DeLay now must stand trial, and it is unlikely the trial can be scheduled before the end of the year.

As to the dismissed charges:

by TChris

Adam Bollenbach was 16 when he stole a six-pack of beer from an open garage. Apart from being young, he’s bipolar and suffers from ADHD. His crime merited an apology, repayment for the beer, and enough supervision to assure that he obtained treatment for his mental health problems. So why is this Florida teen serving a ten year sentence?

Months earlier, Adam had been charged as an adult for theft of a bag of potato chips from his school lunchroom. This charge was dropped, but according to the law, once charged as an adult, you cannot be charged as a juvenile.

Adam went before Circuit Judge Ric Howard who admitted that he was using Adam as a teaching tool in front of other juvenile offenders. The result was a sentence of 10 years in prison.

Adam was sentenced for burglarizing a dwelling, but harsh penalties are intended for those who break into homes at night (potentially putting lives, including the burglar’s, at risk), not for unarmed kids who walk into an open garage during the day. Adam’s plight is, in part, the handiwork of the “tough on crime” crowd, who perceive no difference between kids and adults, and who have successfully lobbied compliant legislators to enact laws that punish teenagers instead of helping them. And it’s partly the fault of a judge who is willing to throw a kid away to make an example out of him. From this travesty, other kids are supposed to learn to respect the law?

Is the tide finally turning on Law and Order and its never-ending spinoffs about prosecutors and cops? I hope so. ABC will launch a new series in January called In Justice about defense lawyers in an Innocence Project fighting to free clients who have been wrongfully convicted.

Every year, hundreds of innocent men and women get convicted of crimes they didn't commit. Sloppy police work. False testimony. Biased juries. In the blink of an eye an innocent man can lose his life to the mistakes of an imperfect system. And every year the number of innocents who live without hope behind bars multiplies, while the real criminals walk free.

The leading role goes to a Barry Scheck-type character.

I'm sure Kathleen Sullivan is not amused that her failure to pass the California Bar Exam after this illustrious career is making national news:

A native of New York City, Ms. Sullivan has an undergraduate degree from Cornell University and a law degree from Harvard University. She taught at both Stanford and Harvard before becoming dean of Stanford's law school in 1999. The author of a leading constitutional-law casebook, Ms. Sullivan has argued several cases before the Supreme Court. Earlier this spring, the nation's highest court ruled in favor of one of her clients, a California winegrowers' group, striking down state laws that restricted direct sales from vineyards to consumers.