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.

Sen. Patrick Leahy's staff has been live-blogging the confirmation hearing for Judge John Roberts.

7:30 p.m. Senator Durbin questions Judge Roberts about the death penalty.

Sen. Durbin is asking Judge Roberts about a question he was posed earlier: If there is room for a judge’s values and beliefs in their rulings. Sen. Durbin is asking Judge Roberts about what goes through Judge Roberts mind when he addresses cases that deal with the death penalty. Judge Roberts says that it is important to differentiate between cases that offer new scientific claims versus new personal claims. Judge Roberts says that it is important to recognize the irrevocability of the death penalty, and that it is necessary to bring additional scrutiny to those cases. Judge Roberts says that DNA evidence is an important opportunity that is a significant development in the law.

Here is the exact exchange:

The owners of the New Orleans nursing home where 34 elderly and infirm patients died have been charged with negligent homicide.

Mable Mangano and her husband, Salvador Mangano Sr., surrendered to Medicaid fraud investigators in Baton Rouge on Tuesday and were being held in a parish prison. The Manganos declined an offer from St. Bernard Parish authorities of buses to evacuate the residents of their facility, and they did not use a contract they had with an ambulance service, the state said.

The couple has been released on bond. Their lawyer says they were faced with a Hobbsian choice:

The nursing home owners had to make a difficult decision between evacuating the patients, many of them elderly and on feeding tubes, or keeping them at the home and weathering the storm, [Lawyer Jim Cobb said. "If you pull that trigger too soon those people are going to die," he said. Three people from another nursing home had died during the evacuation ahead of the hurricane.

But the Attorney General of Louisiana says:

by Last Night in Little Rock

Still defending the Administration's argument that race had nothing to do with the Katrina debacle, Secretary of State Condalezza Rice, who was watching "Spamlot" in NYC in front row seats, buying expensive shoes the next day on Fifth Avenue, and getting tennis from a NYC tennis pro while NOLA flooded, hedged her bets on CNN.com today.