by Last Night in Little Rock

NYC Mayor Micheal Bloomberg has become the first [noted] Republican to oppose the confirmation of John Roberts to the Supreme Court, primarily over the right to choose under Roe v. Wade, not that it matters. [More...]

by Last Night in Little Rock

Friday's funnies, for those who liked Wednesday's on Roe v. Wade:

How many members of the Bush Administration are needed to change a light bulb?

by TChris

Daily Kos has a story that's sure to get your dander up. After the administration spread its dual talking point strategy -- blame state and local governments for the failure to protect the poor from Hurricane Katrina, all the while decrying the "blame game" -- the Justice Department started looking for evidence that would allow the administration to blame environmentalists.

by TChris

Two men accused of terrorism have been ordered held in solitary confinement for fear that they might persuade other prisoners in the detention facility’s general population to join the terrorist cause. The notion that other inmates are susceptible to terrorism recruitment seems far-fetched, but the government persuaded a court to go along with its desire to isolate the suspects.

U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke denied motions by Adhan Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi to be moved out of the special housing unit at Miami's downtown federal detention center. But Cooke also said she will insist that the U.S. Bureau of Prisons provide them with greater access to their lawyers to prepare for what will be a lengthy, complex trial in fall 2006.

TalkLeft background on the case is here.

by TChris

Don't try this at home:

A man from Sri Lanka on Friday broke the Guinness world record for the longest time spent watching TV. He finished with 69 hours and 48 minutes.

by TChris

A columnist at The Daily Tar Heel, the student newspaper at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who started a column with the words "I want all Arabs to be stripped naked and cavity-searched if they get within 100 yards of an airport," has been fired -- not for expressing her repellent views, but for misleading her sources.

Columnist Jillian Bandes told three campus sources - two Arab students and a professor who teaches a course on Arabic - she was writing an article about Arab-American relations, Daily Tar Heel opinion editor Chris Coletta wrote in an article published Thursday.

Bandes lied to her sources. She was actually writing a column about her desire for racial profiling at airports. Her column gave the false impression that the sources she interviewed endorsed her views.

by TChris

In a story that could have been entitled "Stupid Arrest of the Year," TalkLeft reported the plight of a 73-year-old diabetic grandmother and church elder who was arrested for allegedly looting sausages in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In defiance of the Constitution's prohibition of excessive bail, the woman's bail was set at $50,000. Her long overdue release from custody speaks to the power of the press:

Despite intervention from the nation's largest senior lobby, volunteer lawyers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and even a private attorney, the family fought a futile battle for 16 days to get her freed.

Then, hours after her plight was featured in an Associated Press story, a local judge on Thursday ordered Maten freed on her own recognizance, setting up a sweet reunion with her daughter, grandchildren and 80-year-old husband.

Look for this prosecution to disappear quietly. A witness attests that the charge is bogus.

by TChris

The Innocence Project at Illinois State University hopes that a documentary will arouse interest in the 1993 murder conviction of Dale Helmig.

Missouri newspapers have begun to re-examine the case since the Innocence Project produced "A Matter of Innocence: The Story of Dale Helmig" that will be shown Tuesday at ISU.

There is ample reason to question Helmig's guilt. Helmig's supporters argue that police and prosecutors built a circumstantial case against Helmig while ignoring evidence pointing to two other suspects.

by Last Night in Little Rock

The NY Times reports today that G.O.P. Split Over Big Plans for Storm Spending. I wrote here that the federal government had a moral obligation to pay for the damage and reconstruction.

Suddenly, the big spenders become misers.

by TChris

As a general rule, the federal government shouldn’t be in the business of micro-managing a school’s curriculum, even if the school receives federal funding. Still, it’s easy to understand Senator Byrd’s frustration that schools have done a poor job of teaching the history and meaning of the United States Constitution.

In December he inserted into a giant spending bill a passage requiring every American school receiving federal money to teach about the Constitution on Sept. 17, the date it was signed in 1787.

Constitutional history is an unlikely subject at the massage and cosmetology schools that are subject to the law, and there are reasons to fear congressional interference with local control of schools. Do we want the federal government telling schools that they should teach intelligent design alongside, or instead of, evolution?

Byrd is nonetheless right to believe that people need to know more about the Constitution.

Summer is definitely over. I have court at 8:30 and again at 2:00 and yet again at 3:30. On the plus-side, the weather in Denver is perfect, even driving from court to court is a pleasure and I have the best day job in the world. Also, my latest post is up on Huffington Post, and maybe TChris or Last Night in Little Rock will be around.

On the minus-side, I don't have a Blackberry or other means of posting when I'm away from my desk, so feel free to keep each other up-to-the-minute with news and your views. I'll be back tonight.

If you need something to get you started, check out Bill Maher, speaking to President Bush:

"On Your Watch, We've Lost Almost All Of Our Allies, The Surplus, Four Airliners, Two Trade Centers, A Piece Of The Pentagon And The City Of New Orleans”...

A pre-publication, 40% discount offer has been extended until September 21 for Alan Ellis' indispensable Federal Prison Guidebook (pdf). First published in 1998, this is the best one yet. Not only does it include a listing of all federal prisons and updated information, but it also contains a much expanded chapter on practice tips, an updated and revised chapter on “How to Do Time,” a new chapter on “How to Secure a Favorable Prison Placement,” an article entitled “Getting Out Early: The Bureau of Prisons Drug Program,” a user friendly listing of all federal prisons that contain the BOP RDAP program and more. It will be sent out in late October.