This weekend, another Minuteman-style group is gearing up to “patrol” the California-Mexico border at various points between the Pacific Ocean and the Arizona state line. As they head to the South Bay and drive past Chicano Park on I-5, this group will see the above 50 × 10 foot canvass painted to resemble a movie billboard.

Cazamigrantes is Spanish for migrant hunters. The billboard was designed by local artist Susan Yamagata and painted by Southwestern College’s Border Arts Workshop. It was commissioned by Latino organizations in San Diego.

Several people have e-mailed me this week to let me know the site is loading so slowly it's become a source of frustration. If you are having the same problem, please add a comment here. I am going to contact my hosting company to see if there is something they can do, but I'd like to get a handle on the size of the problem. Please be patient.

by TChris

A federal marshal who shot another driver after a traffic altercation in Maryland has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. A jury rejected Arthur Lloyd's claim that he acted in self-defense. The verdict isn't surprising if this description of the evidence is accurate:

by TChris

A NY Times editorial explains why the Pennsylvania House passed a bill that would prevent individuals on probation or parole from voting.

The Pennsylvania bill represents an odious attempt by lawmakers to undo a state court ruling overturning a law that required newly released prisoners to wait five years before getting the right to vote. Republican lawmakers who disliked the court ruling liked it even less when community activists in Democratic parts of the state began to inform ex-felons that they now had the right to return to the polls.

Voting is a right of citizenship. Voting fosters rehabilitation by allowing ex-offenders to feel a connection to others, to be woven into the social fabric. The counterproductive and undemocratic bill is likely to die in the Pennsylvania Senate, but the Times is right to label this attempt to suppress voting rights as "shameful" and "reprehensible."

by Last Night in Little Rock

The LA Times today has an op-ed today, Roberts' bad decision by legal ethicists Stephen Gillers, David Luban and Steven Lubet that John Roberts was in the process of being interviewed for his appointment to the Supreme Court while he was deciding Hamdan v. Rumsfeld on the constitutionality of Gitmo military tribunals. (Roberts did not write the opinion, but he voted on the three judge panel.)

Judicial ethics and 28 U.S.C. § 455 mandated recusal. But, neither of those legal constraints kept Justices Thomas and Scalia from making George Bush president in 2000. Thomas' wife worked on Bush's transition team (§ 455(b)(5)(iii)) and Scalia's son worked for one of the law firms representing Bush (albeit not directly involved; § 455(b)(5)(ii)).

The "appearance of impropriety" standard applies. If it looks bad, that is enough.

by TChris

Today in Iraq:

Terrorists loyal to al Qaeda claimed responsibility for a wave of deadly attacks across Iraq that left more than 100 people dead today, saying they were retaliating for a military offensive against insurgents in the northern city of Tal Afar.

by Last Night in Little Rock

CNN.com last night posted this story: 'People making decisions hesitated' / More officials' jobs may fall to Katrina response criticism with a video link to who knew what and when before Katrina struck.

And Michael Brown's magnanimous resignation is not the first.

Update: Never Mind, Positions have been filled.

From the Southern Center for Human Rights: Volunteer criminal defense attorneys and paralegals are needed this weekend in Louisiana:

When the levee broke in New Orleans, about 7000 men, women, and children were locked up in Orleans Parish Prison (OPP) and other area jails. After 2 days of chaos and rising water, people who were locked up were shoved onto
buses and scattered to 35 facilities throughout the state. They were sent without papers, and the OPP computer system is underwater. Many of the folks now sitting in DOC custody were in OPP waiting for bond, serving 5 day sentences for public drunkenness, waiting to be processed in/out, etc. They are now locked down in Louisiana's DOC, a notoriously mean-spirited bureaucracy that has very little capacity to reconnect families or even verify information that would allow these folks to be released & reunited with their families.

Former Judge Leslie Crocker Snyder has lost her bid to run for Manhattan District Attorney. Current Manhattan D.A. Robert Morganthau easily won in the New York Democratic primary.

Morgenthau, age 86 and in office since 1974, topped Snyder 59 percent to 41 percent with 99 percent of precincts reporting.

That's good. Judge Crocker Snyder, while experienced and smart, was a hanging judge when it came to sentencing and a proponent of the death penalty, once writing that as to a certain defendant, she'd have "needled him" herself.

Morganthau has been DA in New York forever, but he's a staunch opponent of the death penalty and his office runs smoothly. If the cart ain't broke...

Two more associates of Tom DeLay have been indicted by a Texas grand jury.

Two associates of U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay were charged today with two additional felony charges of violating Texas election law and criminal conspiracy to violate election law for their role in the 2002 legislative races. The indictment is the seventh this month from a Travis County grand jury investigating the use of corporate money in the campaigns that gave Republicans control of the Texas House.

It is unlikely DeLay will be indicted. Roll Call (subscription only) reported today:

After 7 and a half days of deliberation,

A federal jury this afternoon found former Westar Energy Inc. chairman and chief executive David Wittig guilty of all counts in his trial on charges of looting the utility. The jury convicted his co-defendant, former Westar executive vice president and chief strategic officer Douglas Lake, of all but nine of the 39 counts against the two men.

What ever happened to the investigation that was demanded by groups into Westar's ties to former Attorney General John Ashcroft and Rep. Tom DeLay?

Via the Guardian:

Although Bob Dylan entered his 65th year a few weeks ago, he has never seemed more current. Great anti-war anthems such as Masters of War and A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, composed at the dawn of the 1960s, are more perfectly attuned to the mood and concerns of the present time than anything being created by contemporary songwriters. Conceived in the era of Kennedy and Khrushchev, these songs could be redirected straight to the present inhabitants of the White House and the Kremlin, with only a change of name on the address labels.

The Official Bob Dylan Exhibition runs from September 16 until October 15 at the Sony Eriksson Proud Gallery, Stables Market, The Gin House, Chalk Farm Road, London, NW1 8AH.

In case you've never noticed, the "tag line" on TalkLeft from day one (see bottom left of screen)has been this line from Subterranean Homesick Blues:

The pump don't work 'cause the vandals stole the handles.