To add to TChris' excellent post about this yesterday: For any variety of reasons, good people can commit bad, even horrible crimes. The question is, if they have demonstrated real reform in prison, should the parole board be allowed to deny them release solely because of the severity of their crime?

The New York Times explores this issue today in To More Inmates, Life Term Means Dying Behind Bars.

....driven by tougher laws and political pressure on governors and parole boards, thousands of lifers are going into prisons each year, and in many states only a few are ever coming out, even in cases where judges and prosecutors did not intend to put them away forever.

Indeed, in just the last 30 years, the United States has created something never before seen in its history and unheard of around the globe: a booming population of prisoners whose only way out of prison is likely to be inside a coffin.

Note: This is long, and primarily for the terminally-addicted PlameGate followers among you.

There are two components to Judith Miller's explanation for her decision to testify before the grand jury. One is her claim that by speaking to Libby on the phone the other day, she satisfied herself the waiver was genuine. The other is that she got a promise from Fitzgerald that he would not question her about sources other than Libby or matters other than her conversations with Libby. These were enough for her to change her mind and both testify and turn over heavily redacted notes (link to article fixed)of her conversations with Libby about Valerie Plame.

We all know the waiver issue is a red herring. Another red herring is the speculation that she got a new lawyer, Bob Bennett, who gave her different advice than her old lawyer, Floyd Abrams. It was Bennett, not Abrams, who appeared in court with her and argued on her behalf in July when she was sent to jail. He could have asked Fitzgerald before that hearing whether she could talk to Libby about the waiver without it being considered obstruction of justice, if that was the concern.

That leaves us with her and Fitzgerald's agreement. By making it, did Fitzgerald give away the store and his chance of Indictments against anyone, except perhaps Libby? Or, is he now focused only on such a narrow issue that her other sources don't matter to him?

Retired Army Lt. Gen. William Odom says the invasion of Iraq was the worst strategic disaster in U.S. history.

The invasion of Iraq was the “greatest strategic disaster in United States history,” a retired Army general said yesterday, strengthening an effort in Congress to force an American withdrawal beginning next year., Retired Army Lt. Gen. William Odom, a Vietnam veteran, said the invasion of Iraq alienated America's Middle East allies, making it harder to prosecute a war against terrorists.

The U.S. should withdraw from Iraq, he said, and reposition its military forces along the Afghan-Pakistani border to capture Osama bin Laden and crush al Qaeda cells.

[Via Raw Story.]

by Last Night in Little Rock

The embattled Republican Party, suffering through the last month of missteps and outright screw-ups, is looking forward to the weeks ahead. According to an article in tomorrow's NY Times, Embattled Republicans Seek to Regain Control of Agenda, they collectively hope that the immediately forthcoming Supreme Court nomination and fall legislative agenda will bolster their poll numbers and image.

I was reading yesterday's AP Timeline of Judith Miller's role in the Plame investigation, and realized it omitted events of one of the most crucial time periods: July 6 - 14, 2003. July 6 was when Joseph Wilson's op-ed appeared in the New York Times discrediting the Administration's claim about Iraq buying yellowcake uranium from Niger. July 14 is when Novak's column appeared citing "two senior administration officials" as sources advising him that Joseph Wilson's wife was a CIA operative.

That's probably the most important time period Fitzgerald has been investigating. So, I've complied a new timeline, with links to the source documents, where available. Here's what I've got so far.

• July 6 - Records of White House Iraq Group for 7/6 - 7/30 subpoenaed by Fitzgerald.(Chicago Tribune, 3/5/04)

• July 7- Bloomberg reports on the State Department Memo prepared for Colin Powell and dated July 7, that includes Plame’s name in a paragraph marked “(S)'’ for `Secret.’ "The three-page document said that Wilson had been recommended for a CIA-sponsored trip to Africa by his wife, who worked on the CIA’s counter-proliferations desk."

• July 7 - Novak calls Ari Fleischer(no confirmation they spoke.)

• July 7 - Air Force One (with Colin and Ari on it)leaves for Africa; Ari's Press Gaggle. Ari observed perusing state department memo on flight.

• July 8 - Condi Rice briefing on Air Force One

• July 8 - Libby Meets with Miller

by TChris

The conservative argument against parole -- that it somehow cheats the public by permitting offenders to escape the full weight of a sentence -- underappreciates the leveling force that a parole authority exerts against disparate sentences. Conservative politicians say they value uniformity in sentencing, but they prefer to limit sentencing discretion by narrowing the range of sentences that judges may impose or by requiring minimum sentences. That philosophy has prevailed in Congress and in most state legislatures for a quarter century, but it has ratcheted up the time that offenders serve while doing little to eliminate disparate sentencing.

The sentencing philosophy of conservative politicians holds that rehabilitation is inachievable, that good conduct in prison deserves no reward, and that punishment and public protection are the only legitimate goals of incarceration. That policy leads to draconian sentences and increasingly fills prisons with elderly, nonthreating individuals who will die behind bars.

As today's must read article demonstrates, the elimination of parole for life sentences -- the proliferation of "life means life" laws -- has turned prisons into nursing homes and elder care centers.

by Last Night in Little Rock

I want to know why lying about sex warrants impeachment but lying about a justification for war that has killed 1935 and wounded 7700 Americans does not?

I want to know why the Republican members of Congress are openly two-faced and get away with it? They are so rankly political that party loyalty comes before loyalty to their country. Isn’t that a form of treason, or at least a violation of their oaths of office?

A good read: Writer Leonce Gaiter of Bourbon Street:

Bennett's comments reminded me of a seminar I attended in LA years ago. The seminar was arranged by right wing freak David Horowitz....One of the speakers was Bill Bennett's wife, Elayne, discussing her Best Friends Foundation, which teaches abstinence education in the DC public schools.

She stood there, this white, bleach-blonde, faux Stepford horror, talking about teaching young black adolescent girls the joys of not f**king, and I couldn't help wonder what other lessons she taught as well. Here she was, the white woman come to save the colored girls from their racial predisposition toward moral looseness. The Great White Mother, preaching abstinence-only to girls who need to know the benefits of delaying sex until intellectual maturity, but who also desperately need to know how to protect themselves now -- should they choose otherwise.

by TChris

Bill Bennett now justifies his racist remarks as a "thought experiment" that proposed a deliberately racist hypothetical to illustrate its "noxious" nature. Bennett indeed proved that he has mastered the ability to think noxious thoughts, but his latest spin defies reason.

Bennett spoke in response to "a caller who suggested that Social Security would be in better financial shape if abortion were illegal, leaving more people to pay into the system." What fallacy in that suggestion does Bennett's response -- that "you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down" -- illuminate? The caller's hypothetical suggests that banning abortion would have a positive consequence, while Bennett argued that forcing abortion (but only with regard to black women) would also have a positive consequence. If this non sequitur was a "thought experiment," the experiment went badly awry.

I haven't connected the dots in a while, but now reading that Cheney was in on the discussions about Wilson's article published the week before Novak's column, it's time for another go at it.

First up: The New York Times reports:

A lawyer who knows Mr. Libby's account said the administration efforts to limit the damage from Mr. Wilson's criticism extended as high as Mr. Cheney. This lawyer and others who spoke about the case asked that they not be identified because of grand jury secrecy rules.

On July 12, 2003, four days after his initial conversation with Ms. Miller, Mr. Libby consulted with Mr. Cheney about how to handle inquiries from journalists about the vice president's role in sending Mr. Wilson to Africa in early 2002 to investigate reports that Iraq was trying acquire nuclear material there for its weapons program, the person said. In that account, Mr. Cheney told Mr. Libby to direct reporters to a statement released the previous day by George J. Tenet, director of central intelligence. His statement said Mr. Wilson had been sent on the mission by C.I.A. counter-proliferation officers "on their own initiative."

by Last Night in Little Rock

Robert William Bennett two days ago proved he was a bigot as noted here. Not to be outdone by the controversy raging around him that he remains completely oblivious to, he goes to the friendly forum of FoxNews with Hannity & Colmes where the questions will be slow pitches he can hit out of the park. Instead, he leans into the pitch and gets beaned. For such a smart man, he sure can act like a dumbas*.

by Last Night in Little Rock

The NY Times reports tonight for Saturday's paper that the Bush Administration's Buying of News by Bush's Aides Is Ruled Illegal by "making payments to the conservative commentator Armstrong Williams and by hiring a public relations company to analyze media perceptions of the Republican Party" according to federal auditors.