Westchester District Attorney and television legal analyst Jeanine Pirro has finally made up her mind. For months, she's been going back and forth between running for Governor or Attorney General of New York or challenging Hillary Clinton for the New York Senate Seat. She has now decided on the Senate seat.

Jeanine is pretty much a one-issue person: Lock 'em up (and by extension, pass more victims' rights bills.) Hillary is no liberal on criminal justice issues, but she's fairer than Jeanine.

The interesting question though, is why did she pick the Senate race, which is all but impossible for her to win if Hillary is the opposing candidate. Here's her answer as to why she is running:

...she [Hillary] wants us to re-elect her even though she won't promise to serve out her term and wants to use us as a springboard to the presidency. She's asking us to become her doormat. I believe we deserve better."

I think her party is offering her up as a sacrificial lamb to batter Hillary before her 2008 run.

Singer Marc Cohn was shot in the temple during a carjacking last night in Denver. He had been in Colorado to perform concerts in Denver and Boulder. The bullet was removed and his injury is not expected to be life-threatening. He has been released from the hostpital. His wife, ABC news anchor Elizabeth Vargas, arrived in Denver this afternoon.

An arrest warrant was issued Monday for Joseph William Yachteen, 26, in connection with the series of crimes. Police said Yachteen also goes by the name Anthony Andolini.

More details here.

Update : 8/10: Two are in custody for the shooting.

Silja J.A. Talvi at Alternet has an excellent article on the reauthorization of the Patriot Act and what it means. It's all but certain Congress will approve the bill, although there are important differences between the House and Senate version, and the Senate version is far preferable.

Talvi describes the provisions that are of greatest concern to those who care about freedom and civil liberties. Here are just a few:

• Sneak and Peeks:

Under the PATRIOT Act, law enforcement agents do not have to prove they are suspicious of domestic terrorism to obtain the right to conduct such searches. They are allowed to utilize such sneak-and-peeks for regular criminal investigations as well. Once granted, a sneak-and-peek visit can include the taking of photos or of physical objects. As the law is currently written, the subject of the search is likely to never know the search has even taken place.

Saddam Hussein's family has fired all his lawyers except one, Iraqi lawyer Khalil Dulaimi.

"There are too many people in the world who are claiming they are defending the president without the family's knowledge and we don't know who authorized them," said Abdel Haq Alani, the legal consultant of Raghd, Saddam's eldest daughter who is authorized to act on behalf of the ousted leader's family.

He told Reuters Saddam's family had revoked any right of attorney previously issued to any lawyers to represent Saddam, and had chosen Iraqi lawyer Khalil Dulaimi who attends Saddam's court hearings as the "only authorized lawyer at this moment."

Curiously, this is one of the reasons, according to Abdel Haq Alani, the legal consultant for Saddam's daughter:

The DEA is persona non grata in Venezuela. President Hugo Chavez has accused the DEA of using its agents as spies.

Chavez maintains that the DEA has been using the fight against drugs as a pretext to gather intelligence on Venezuela.

David Neiwert exposes the extremism of the Minute Men with a rally photo in which one of the attendees is holding a Nazi flag.

At a recent anti-immigrant rally in Laguna Beach, the connection was made explicit. The rally was held July 30. It apparently was a follow-up of sorts to a similar rally held in the same locale on July 16, in which a local anti-immigration activist decided to protest a local arts festival's financial support for a day labor center for undocument workers. This rally drew the participation of the Save Our State campaign (an ostensibly mainstream anti-immigration organization) and the Minutemen's Jim Gilchrist. It also drew a contingent of neo-Nazis.

....What's going on, of course, is that the Minutemen provide an ideal opportunity for white racists to "mainstream" their agenda, using the relatively benign "average citizens" that Lou Dobbs exclusively observes in their ranks as just so much cover.

Tonight is the debut for Rita Cosby's 'Live and Direct' on MSNBC. She takes over the 9pm ET slot, formerly held by Tucker Carlson (a show that should go to video already, in my opinion.)

She'll have tough competition up against Hannity & Colmes and even Larry King, but it will be nice to have three choices in that timeslot.

Tonight Rita will have interviews with the two sell-out Jackson jurors who are writing a tell-all about the jury deliberations and now claiming they are sorry they voted to acquit. Yeah, right. It's the only way they could sell the book. I hope Rita gives them a tough time.

The American Bar Association is having its annual meeting in Chicago. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens spoke to the Group Saturday, and was sharply critical of the death penalty:

Stevens stopped short of calling for an end to the death penalty, but he said there are many problems in the way it is used. Stevens said DNA evidence has shown "that a substantial number of death sentences have been imposed erroneously. . . . It indicates that there must be serious flaws in our administration of criminal justice," he said.

It is death penalty cases, not abortion cases, that dominate the caseload of the Supreme Court.

In their last term, which ended in June, justices overturned the death sentences of four inmates, ruled that states cannot put to death killers who were not at least 18 years old at the time of the crime and held that it is unconstitutional to force defendants to appear before juries in chains during a trial's penalty phase.

Stevens was also critical of the death-qualifying jury selection process, the admission of victim-impact evidence and the lack of competent counsel in death cases.

I've noted that Judge John Roberts is no friend of the criminally accused. The Wall Street Journal (free article) confirms this today. It's worse than I thought.

While Roberts doesn't have an extensive judicial record on criminal issues, his positions as Deputy Solicitor General are troubling, first because he helped decide what cases the office should accept and second, because of information emerging that he is a staunch law and order man.

...one issue that has gotten less public scrutiny has been his staunch law-and-order record. During Judge Roberts's time as principal deputy solicitor general in the administration of George H.W. Bush, his office chose to get involved in dozens of state cases to limit the rights of criminal defendants. The cases backed state prosecutors seeking to preserve convictions won with warrantless searches and confessions obtained without Miranda warnings about the right to remain silent; to dismiss claims by inmates of "cruel and unusual punishments"; and to validate aggressive law-enforcement techniques, such as sobriety checkpoints and "protective sweeps" of crime-infested dwellings.

San Francisco criminal defense lawyer Tony Serra was sentenced Friday to ten months in jail for failing to pay income taxes. Tony is one of the all-time greats. He is legendary in the criminal defense community for his trial skills and his passion for the underdog.

Tony never cared about money. He lived like a spartan. More than 100 defenders submitted letters on his behalf to the judge and several spoke at his sentencing. My favorite description in the article: "He was a warrior with a touch of sainthood."

If you are a criminal defense lawyer, aspiring to be one, or just want to read about one of the greats, this article is for you. Here are some snippets:

Having read quite a few criticisms and praiseful posts for Mithras' "Conservative Blogger Taxanomy," I'm ready to weigh in.

A few of Mithras' comments about right-wing bloggers are funny and dead-on. I disagree with his description of Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds. But it is his comments about Michelle Malkin that are particularly offensive, embarassing and inexcusable. Mithras writes:

Michelle Malkin: Far-right affirmative action hire who is so bigoted she'd arrest herself for trying to cross a border. Famously published a book praising internment of Japanese-Americans that was (a) incoherent and (b) probably not written by her. If she didn't have t*ts, she'd be stuck writing at Townhall.com.

Very sad news, Peter Jennings has died of lung cancer at his home. He was 67.

Jennings first became a news anchor at 26. At 29, he became a foreign correspondent, at which he excelled.

He established an ABC News bureau in Beirut, and became an expert on the Middle East. He won a Peabody Award for a 1974 profile of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. On the scene at the Munich Olympics in 1972, Jennings was perfectly placed to cover the hostage-taking of Israeli athletes by an Arab terrorist group. He and a crew hid in the athletes' quarters for a close-in view of the drama.

Ten years later, Jennings returned to anchor duties at ABC. His New York Times obituary is here.

Peter Jennings was the face of the ABC News. He will be missed by millions. Our condolences to Mr. Jennings' family, and may he rest in peace.

Update: Crooks and Liars has reposted Jenning's last broadcast of April 26, when he announced to the world he had lung cancer.