by TChris

Jim Sensenbrenner is one of the most arrogant members of Congress, as demonstrated by his continuing belief that he knows more about the appropriate sentence to impose in drug cases than the judges who make those decisions. His attempts to impose mandatory minimum sentences on judges are bad enough, but when can't get his way legislatively, he tries to interfere with judicial decisions. Sensenbrenner must have been absent from his Constitutional Law class they day his professor explained the concept of separation of powers.

Sensenbrenner sent a letter to the U.S. Court of Appeals "demanding the court overturn a decision affirming a 97-month prison term for Lissett Rivera and impose a 120-month term." His antics provoked a complaint to the Office of Lawyer Regulation. The complaint alleges that Sensenbrenner communicated with a judge about a pending case without sharing the communication with all parties in the case.

Sensenbrenner's letter was sent to the U.S. Department of Justice, which prosecuted the case, but was not sent to Steve Shobat, the drug courier's attorney.

Sensenbrenner's Wisconsin law license is in "inactive" status -- a designation that allows him to avoid continuing legal education requirements so long as he doesn't practice law. It's doubtful that the Office of Lawyer Regulation will do more than issue a private caution to Sensenbrenner, and just as unlikely that the House ethics committee will take serious action on a similar complaint. Still, it's good to see that Sensenbrenner's arrogant stunt hasn't escaped notice.

by TChris

The first death officially attributed to police use of a Taser occurred in Chicago.

[Ronald] Hasse was shot with the Taser as police tried to subdue him in a 26th-floor Lakeview apartment after they arrived to help Fire Department personnel and Hasse allegedly tried to bite an officer. Denton said Hasse received the electrical shock produced by the Taser for 57 seconds, more than 10 times the usual amount.

Taser International predictably denied that the medical examiner's conclusion is accurate. TI inevitably argues that people who die after being shocked by Tasers were killed by their own drug abuse. Hasse had methamphetamine in his blood, a factor the medical examiner viewed as a contributing cuase of his death. Unlike other cases, the medical examiner carefully reviewed the evidence and concluded that the Taser was "the principal cause of Hasse's death."

Even if Tasers are most likely to kill drug users, it's forseeable that some individuals who disobey a police officer (and who are Tasered as a result) will have taken drugs. Their drug use shouldn't condemn them to a death sentence. Perhaps this medical examiner's courageous conclusion will finally convince policy makers that Tasers should not be part of law enforcement's arsenal.

Among the documents released from Judge John Roberts' tenure as Associate White House Counsel during the Reagan era are memos criticizing the Supreme Court Justices for accepting too many death penalty appeals and prisoners-rights cases:

Mr. Roberts wrote in a memorandum to his boss, Fred F. Fielding, the White House counsel, that ...the court had only itself to blame for its burden of cases.

"If the justices truly think they are overworked, the cure lies close at hand," Mr. Roberts wrote. "The fault lies with the justices themselves....He wrote that if the court took fewer death penalty and prisoner-rights cases, the docket would be cut by at least a half-dozen cases a year. He added a comment that may signal his view of the Supreme Court's proper role.

The ACLU says it could have been worse.

The New York Times reports:

The bill approved Friday by the Senate makes permanent 14 of the 16 antiterrorism provisions of the Patriot Act that were set to expire at the end of the year. The two remaining sections - particularly controversial provisions that allow the government to conduct roving wiretaps and to demand records from institutions like libraries - are to expire in four years unless Congress acts to reauthorize them.

The legislation also puts in place several new restrictions on the government's powers, including a higher standard of proof for the government in demanding library and business records, greater judicial oversight and increased reporting to Congress on antiterrorism operations, time restrictions on the use of secret searches, and limits on roving wiretaps. Civil rights advocates saw the new limits as welcome steps.

Horror story of the day:

About 30 children, some as young as 3 months old, were left without their parents after immigration agents raided a poultry plant and took the parents away to face possible deportation. While some of the arrested workers were able to call and arrange care for their children, others were not and a local church had to help make arrangements.

..."A lot of those families had kids in day care in different places, and they didn't know why Mommy and Daddy didn't come pick them up," Arkadelphia Mayor Charles Hollingshead said

.....Jose Luis Vidal said his sister and brother-in-law left behind children aged 10, 5 and 1 as they were deported to Laredo, Mexico. "The children are very sad, especially the baby. She cries all the time," Vidal said in an interview conducted in Spanish.

The Secret Service has responded to an inquiry by Sen. Ken Salazar and Reps. Diana DeGette and Mark Udall as to whether criminal charges will brought against the unidentified Republican operative who posed as a Secret Service agent and ejected three Denver activists from President Bush's social security event at Wings Over the Rockies in March.

According to the letter, which you can read here, (pdf) the matter was presented to the U.S. Attorneys' office for investigation of a possible violation of this federal law making it a crime to impersonate a federal official. The U.S. attorneys' office declined the prosecution.

Salazar, DeGette and Udall have responded with this statement, which I received by e-mail.

This just in via e-mail....36 Senate Democrats including all leadership just signed this letter:

Dear Mr. President:

In light of the fact that John Bolton was not truthful to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the questionnaire he swore was truthful, we ask that you do not make a recess appointment of Mr. Bolton to be the Ambassador to the United Nations and instead submit a new nomination to the Senate.

Mr. Bolton’s excuse that he “didn’t recall being interviewed by the State Department’s Inspector General” is simply not believable. How can you forget an interview about an issue so important that the United States Senate unanimously passed an amendment stating that Congress supports “the thorough and expeditious investigation by the Inspector General of the Department of State and the Inspector General of the Central Intelligence Agency into the documents . . . that the President relied on to conclude that Iraq had attempted to obtain uranium from Africa”? The amendment was cosponsored by the Chairmen of both the Foreign Relations Committee and the Intelligence Committee.

Mr. President, we know you are engaged in an effort to strengthen our relationships throughout the world. Sending someone to the United Nations who has not been confirmed by the United States Senate and now who has admitted to not being truthful on a document so important that it requires a sworn affidavit is going to set our efforts back in many ways.

Received from my terrific Congresswoman, Diana DeGette:

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), co-author of H.R. 810, the Castle-DeGette Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act that passed the House in May and is now awaiting consideration in the Senate, released the following statement on Senator Bill Frist's (R-TN) announcement this morning that he supports expansion of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research:

"Until today, there had been an ideological logjam in the Senate preventing stem cell research from coming up for a vote. Senator Frist's speech this morning gives new hope for everyone who supports medical research. He is a welcome ally in our bipartisan effort to change the current policy. The ideas and concerns he raised today about H.R. 810 are all minor. I believe they can be worked out to everyone's satisfaction."

You go, Diana. If anyone can get this bill passed, you can.

by TChris

Death and physical impairment are not the only consequences that befall our soldiers in Iraq. Many who return with no physical harm have nonetheless been damaged.

Thirty percent of U.S. troops surveyed have developed stress-related mental health problems three to four months after coming home from the Iraq war, the Army's surgeon general said Thursday. The survey of 1,000 troops found problems including anxiety, depression, nightmares, anger and an inability to concentrate, said Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley and other military medical officials. A smaller number of troops, often with more severe symptoms, were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, a serious mental illness.

...

The 30 percent figure is in contrast to the 3 percent to 5 percent diagnosed with a significant mental health issues immediately after they leave the war theater, according to Col. Elspeth Ritchie, a military psychiatrist on Kiley's staff.

Among the many costs of this unnecessary war:

[S]such reactions can lead to problems with spouses and children, substance abuse and just day-to-day life, [military medical officials] said.

It's your turn to pick the topics and opine.

Former National Security Council staffer (under Johnson and Nixon) Roger Morris has developed a timeline in the leak of the identity of Valerie Plame, that puts Condoleezza Rice smack in the middle of the scandal.

She alone among senior officials was knowing and complicitous at every successive stage of the great half-baked yellow cake fraud. She alone was the White House peer—and in national security matters the superior—to Rove and Libby, who never could have acted without her collusion in peddling Plame’s identity. She as much as anyone had a stake in smearing Wilson by any and all means at hand. If Rove and Libby are to be held criminally or at least politically accountable for a breach of national security, our “mushroom cloud” secretary of state should certainly be in the dock with them

It's time to keep our eye on the ball - what is Fitzgerald after? The answer: information about Judith Miller's sources. Arianna writes yet another informative post about Miller, How Deep Do Her Connections Go? Many of Arianna's assertions are confirmed in this June, 2004 New York Magazine article. Arianna, graciously, left out the worst of the dirt.

Coincidentally, I've been working on the same question, trying to cull down the mass of information out there to points I think are significant, using some deductive reasoning and Lexis. I had hoped to avoid the WMD and national security issues, because I don't know that much about them, but I've now decided it's not possible to do that and get anywhere.

So here's my shortened list: