What an editorial!

Rove's record has been consistent. Over 35 years, he has been a master of dirty tricks, divisiveness, innuendo, manipulation, character assassination, and roiling partisanship.

It's a two-pager that traces Rove's history and brings us up to RoveGate.

Related: Bush Launches Operation "Cindy Sheehan."[hat tip Patriot Daily.]

Grits for Breakfast reports:

Texas incarcerates more people for marijuana than any other state, the Justice Policy Institute (JPI), a D.C.-based think tank, said in a new public policy report. In Texas, "marijuana arrests comprised 56 percent of total drug arrests (48,963 out of 88,053 total arrests). Texas currently has 1,215 people in prison for marijuana as the controlling offense."

...Nationally, nearly half of all drug arrests in 2003 were for marijuana, chalking up $5.1 billion in enforcement, adjudication and incarceration costs for marijuana alone, the group reports. Download the full study here.

Last week, TalkLeft contributer Last Night in Little Rock, aka John Wesley Hall, wrote a moving post about his wife's trip to Crawford. Arianna really liked it and asked me if I'd like to post it at Huffington Post. Of course, my answer was yes. Here it is. Thanks, Arianna!

Update: John Amato of Crooks and Liars has a post at HuffPo too - on the she-pundit with long blonde hair.

by TChris

In today’s NY Times Magazine, Jeffrey Rosen argues that John Roberts (who might serve for 40 years if confirmed to the Supreme Court) should be asked about “a Brave New World of constitutional disputes” that could arise during the coming decades. These include:

• Brain fingerprinting: Using neuro-imaging techniques to detect electro-chemical signals could reveal whether an interrogated subject is telling the truth. Would the Court view an involuntary brain scan as a nonintrusive gathering of information rather than a search governed by the Fourth Amendment? Would the Court view brain scans as forcing an involuntary disclosure of thoughts prohibited by the Fifth Amendment’s requirement that individuals not be made to testify against their will?

• Genetic screening: Would the Court decide that the right to procreation and to privacy in intimate decision-making outweighs a state’s interest in prohibiting the creation of “designer babies,” genetically engineered to weed out (for instance) homosexuality, or to assure a child of a preferred gender?

• DNA analysis: If affirmative action continues to pass constitutional muster under some circumstances, will a potential beneficiary of a race-based preference be entitled to rely on a DNA analysis showing the presence of genes that came from Africa?

Other topics: “Old Age and Drug Legalization” and “Property, Free Expression and the Right to Tinker.” Judge Roberts is unlikely to take a meaningful position on any of these issues (arguing that he shouldn’t prejudge any issue likely to come before the Court), but the article is a fun read for those who like to ponder the evolution of constitutional jurisprudence in the 21st century.

by TChris

“Survivor” might be reality TV in the US, but it’s a way of life in Iraq. The invasion of Iraq has nonetheless given Iraq’s TV stations an opportunity to develop their own reality TV series. The bombing of homes spawned “Materials and Labor,” a show inspired by “This Old House” that might have been called “This Destroyed House.”

The same network also broadcasts a weekly show called "Congratulations!" featuring producers who help young, poor couples marry, and another that follows TV crews on road trips to hand out $1,000 to lottery winners.

This summer, a rival network, Sumeria, began running "Iraq Star," an amateur singing competition that bears more than a passing resemblance to "American Idol."

Here’s a sad commentary:

"This is the only good thing we've acquired from the American occupation," Majid al-Samarraie, the writer of "Materials and Labor," said as he watched the reconstruction of Ms. Ismail's home.

Via Crooks and Liars: Oh those high class Repubs:

One more you are all familiar with, but for me, as the mother of a kid who is in the draft-age range, it's the one that really gets my heartstrings going.

I think military recruiters who target teenagers in high school when our country is in engaged in an unnecessary war are the source of evil. My response to them as a mother is, "Over my dead body." True, I'm blessed to have a kid who realizes that repaying educational loans is preferable to promises of a free education by military recruiters. For kids who don't recognize the distinction, or who don't understand that loans are out there for everyone, ask yourselves, what's the benefit of a promise of a free future education if you're dead?

[second graphic via Buzzflash]

Frank Rich is still on a roll and his dice just get hotter and hotter. Don't miss "Echoes of Vietnam" (subtitled "The Vietnamization of Bush's Vacation")in the Sunday New York Times.

The Democrats are hoping that if they do nothing, they might inherit the earth as the Bush administration goes down the tubes. Whatever the dubious merits of this Kerryesque course as a political strategy, as a moral strategy it's unpatriotic. The earth may not be worth inheriting if Iraq continues to sabotage America's ability to take on Iran and North Korea, let alone Al Qaeda.

As another politician from the Vietnam era, Gary Hart, observed last week, the Democrats are too cowardly to admit they made a mistake three years ago, when fear of midterm elections drove them to surrender to the administration's rushed and manipulative Iraq-war sales pitch. So now they are compounding the original error as the same hucksters frantically try to repackage the old damaged goods.

I stopped writing about the case of Natalee Holloway a long time ago. There was no news and it finally seemed like all but the Holloway family was ready to move on. But now the cable news stations are back to almost full-time Holloway coverage. And not one show I've seen states what I think is the obvious: Aruba has learned how to play dirty, most likely courtesy of our FBI, with whom the Aruban authorities began sharing investigation files last month.

The "news" in the case is not news at all. There's no big break. All that happened was the Kalpoe brothers were re-arrested yesterday on suspicion of other charges . They can be held and interrogated anew for eight days.

Here's what I think happened. Time is running out on keeping Joran van der Sloot detained. The 116 days he can be detained without charges under Aruban law expires in early September. The authorities ran out of leads long ago and none of the suspects have cracked - despite untold hours of interrogation and harsh detention conditions. So, out of leads and short on time, the Aruban authorities decided to turn up the heat on the Kalpoe brothers. They dug and dug until they believed they had enough to link the brothers to crimes totally unrelated to Natalee.

There's a lot of tension and a big law enforcement presence in Crawford today as Bush supporters came to town. The Brad Show is broadcasting live with Air America radio now.

by TChris

The University of California sets admissions standards that require applicants to have completed high school courses in a broad range of core subjects, “including science, mathematics, history, literature and the arts.” To receive credit for taking a science class, a student must be taught course content that is generally accepted in the scientific community.

Some students from Christian schools haven’t satisfied those admissions standards because their instructional programs substituted faith for science. The Association of Christian Schools International and the Calvary Chapel Christian School have sued UC, claiming its admissions standards violate the civil rights of their Christian students.

Under a policy implemented with little fanfare a year ago, UC admissions authorities have refused to certify high school science courses that use textbooks challenging Darwin's theory of evolution, the suit says.
…

According to the lawsuit, UC's board of admissions also advised the school that it would not approve biology and science courses that relied primarily on textbooks published by Bob Jones University Press and A Beka Books, two Christian publishers.

…

"It appears that the UC system is attempting to secularize Christian schools and prevent them from teaching from a world Christian view," said Patrick H. Tyler, a lawyer with Advocates for Faith and Freedom, which is assisting the plaintiffs.

Not really. UC doesn’t prevent any school from teaching anything it chooses. It’s simply setting standards for a minimum knowledge base that a high school education should be expected to provide. It isn’t the task of UC professors to teach fundamental knowledge that students should pick up by the end of their high school careers.

Stay safe, New Orleans. Katrina is a now a category 3. Here's the Nola Hurricane guide. And a great song, Come On Sheila, with a Nola hurricane reference, by my favorite Louisiana artist, Zachary Richard, from the album Snake Bite Love. (very catchy audio clip here.)

I’ve been waiting here since this morning,
I’ll wait as long as it will take.
Down in the old town of the city of New Orleans,
With my heart so heavy it might break.

Last night they put up a hurricane warning,
Last night you came into my room.
Around midnight the rain started falling,
I was holding on to you.

by TChris

The State of Maryland wants to keep John Muhammad alive so that Virginia can kill him. Muhammad is being held for trial in Montgomery County as Maryland tries to add to the sentences of death and life imprisonment imposed by other courts.

Muhammad went on a hunger strike after his transfer to the jail, complaining of bad food and inadequate access to his legal papers. Maryland responded by obtaining a court order to force feed Muhammad. Muhammad's lawyer thinks "the situation will be resolved without having to put him on an IV." Wouldn't it be easier and less expensive to give Muhammad his legal documents and a better meal?