25 years ago, on December 8, 1980, John Lennon was shot and killed outside his apartment building on the upper West Side of New York. Newsweek takes a long look back, particularly at the effect of his death on Yoko and his former wife Cynthia, and their respective sons with John, Sean and Julian. It's a sad article. This comment by Yoko struck me most:

"You know, this is like a Shakespearean drama almost," says Ono. "Each person has something to be totally miserable about because of the way they were put into this play.

John Lennon's death has a special meaning for me, one I was able, through fortuitious circumstances, to turn into something positive. I wrote about it here on the anniversary of his death in 2003.

Rolling Stone brings us John Rendon, the man Bush used to sell the War in Iraq. The story begins in December, 2001:

The road to war in Iraq led through many unlikely places. One of them was a chic hotel nestled among the strip bars and brothels that cater to foreigners in the town of Pattaya, on the Gulf of Thailand.

On December 17th, 2001, in a small room within the sound of the crashing tide, a CIA officer attached metal electrodes to the ring and index fingers of a man sitting pensively in a padded chair. The officer then stretched a black rubber tube, pleated like an accordion, around the man's chest and another across his abdomen. Finally, he slipped a thick cuff over the man's brachial artery, on the inside of his upper arm.

The subject was Adnan Ihsan Saeed al-Haideri, whom as we now know, told a very false tale.

It's Wal-Mart day at Huffington Post. My entry is Wal-Mart: Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor.....

I hope you will read them all....and see the movie.

More than 2,000 delegates of the Union of Reform Judaism met this weekend in Houston and passed a resolution opposing the nomination of Judge Sam Alito for the Supreme Court. The resolution is based on Judge Alito's record with respect to abortion, women's and civil rights, federal power and the separation of church and state. The group represents 900 synagogues with 1.5 million members. It is the only branch of Judaism that recognizes civil unions between same-sex couples and ordination of gays. From the text of the resolution :

• Judge Alito’s elevation to the Supreme Court “would threaten protection of the most fundamental rights which our Movement supports including, but not limited to, reproductive freedom, the separation between church and state, protection of civil rights and civil liberties, and protection of the environment;”

• On choice, women’s rights, civil rights, and the scope of federal power particularly as it relates to civil rights and environmental protection, Judge Alito’s nomination “has engendered a national debate on one or more issues of core concern to the Reform Movement so that the outcome of the nomination is likely to be perceived as a referendum on that issue and will have significant implications beyond the individual nomination;”

by TChris

In his application to join the Justice Department during the Reagan administration, Judge Alito emphasized his pride in working against abortion rights and “racial and ethnic quotas,” and pointed to his “disagreement with Warren Court decisions, particularly in the areas of criminal procedure, the Establishment Clause and reapportionment.” Alito’s apparent zeal to retrench the progress that the law has made in each of those areas is cause for alarm. Today, Sen. Biden singled out the least contentious of those issues -- reapportionment -- to question whether Alito has embraced a view of the law that is well outside the mainstream.

"The part that jeopardizes it (Alito's nomination) more is his quote in there saying that he had strong disagreement with the Warren Court particularly on reapportionment - one man, one vote," Biden told "Fox News Sunday." "The fact that he questioned abortion and the idea of quotas is one thing. The fact that he questioned the idea of the legitimacy of the reapportionment decisions of the Warren Court is even something well beyond that," Biden said.

Biden dropped the F-word -- filibuster -- as a remedy if Alito seems primed to reshape the law to suit an extreme agenda.

The Philadelphia Inquirer today has a disturbing article about the jailing of outspoken criminal defense lawyers in China.

Lawyers viewed as troublesome, or those who vigorously toil on civil-rights or criminal cases, can face obstacles unknown in the West. They're beaten, disbarred, threatened and otherwise harassed. With surprising frequency, they follow their clients into the maw of China's prison system.

On the surface, China has the scaffolding of a functioning judiciary, with prosecutors, law schools, a tiered court system, and even occasional jury trials....scholars say there's less than meets the eye on protections of basic civil and legal freedoms. The presumption of guilt looms over all those accused of crimes.

The article provides a revealing glimpse into China's legal system.

Via Halcyon at Daily Kos: The ACLU has sued a New Orleans parish prison for locking up 45 inmates without food or water during Katrina. The suit also alleges abuse by prison guards during this period.

Some prisoners claim that deputies forced them into their cells by shooting bean bags, macing and tasering them; once they were returned to their cells, some deputies handcuffed the cell doors to prevent them from escaping. As the locked cells began to flood, prisoners hung signs out of the broken windows for help, and others jumped into the water below. According to the testimonials, deputies and members of the Special Investigation Division shot at some of the prisoners who were attempting to escape the rising water inside the jail, and several prisoners report that they witnessed fellow prisoners getting shot in the back.

The LA Times has an excellent editorial opposing the Streamlined Procedures Act which would gut habeas corpus for those on death row as well as the provisions in the Patriot Act renewal legislation that would make it easier for the feds to get a death penalty conviction.

The Times also points out that it is becoming increasingly acceptable for politicians to oppose the death penalty. Case in point: the newly elected Governors of both Virginia and New Jersey oppose the death penalty.

Michael Isikoff and Evan Thomas, writing for Newsweek, suggest that Novak's source and Woodward's source are the same, and that former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage is the likely suspect. Their reasoning:

• He is no partisan gunslinger as Novak described his source
• He's been a frequent source for Woodward
• He has thus far refused to give a denial
• Woodward has indicated he knows Novak's source
• He had access to the information

Andrea Mitchell said on Tim Russert's Saturday show the day after the Libby Indictment (via Lexis.com):

by Last Night in Little Rock

Every once and awhile, a Member of Congress from Arkansas does something to get noticed. Making the rounds this weekend in Arkansas is Rep. Marion Berry (D-AR,1) calling a Rep. Adam Putnam (R-FL,12) a "Howdy Doody Looking Nimrod" in a floor speech on November 17th complaining about Republican budget items and tax cuts that Berry complained that the far younger looking Putnam would be paying for himself.

Here's an interesting development.

The Justice Department is deciding whether to pursue an investigation into allegations of wrongdoing over how a division of the Halliburton Co. was awarded a contract in Iraq. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., released a letter Friday from Defense Department Assistant Inspector General John R. Crane that said the department's Defense Criminal Investigative Services is investigating the allegations and "has shared its findings with the Department of Justice."

The letter also said the Justice Department is in the process of considering whether to pursue the matter.

No comments from Halliburton because "As the investigation is ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time."

The denials and admissions keep coming regarding Bob Woodward's source for the information about Valerie Plame Wilson. The Washington Post reports Woodward's source has previously testified before the grand jury.

Karl Rove sources say he's not in jeopardy by Fitzgerald's decision to transfer the case to a different grand jury. Of course not --is there anyone left who doesn't believe his deal is in place, secured by his cooperation against others with possible criminal liability?

Condoleeza Rice aides have come forward and said she is not the leaker.

Raw Story continues on its theme of Stephen Hadley being Woodward's source, noting:

Hadley was privy to a June 10, 2003 Intelligence and Research memo prepared by INR head Carl Ford for Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman at the request of Vice President Dick Cheney’s former Chief of Staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby.