Atrios:

Another fine Republican bigot, who believes his religious freedom involves using the apparatus of the state and the military to force his religion onto others.

What happened:

During a debate today surrounding an amendment by Rep. David Obey (D-WI) to fully examine allegations of proselytizing and religious intolerance at the United States Air Force Academy, six-term Republican Rep. John Hostettler (IN) rose to assert that "Democrats can't help denigrating and demonizing Christians."

Let's end the proselytizing by the radical right. It has no place in Congress - or at the Air Force Academy.

Crooks and Liars called Sen. Bill Frist's office today to ask for an apology for his comments about Terri Schiavo's autopsy results. Here's the audio.

The Administration and the right wing will not succeed in its attempt to smear Illinois Senator Dick Durbin. Durbin’s comments have had the positive effect of stimulating more discussion about the fact that the Bush Administration’s policies have put our troops at risk and hurt our efforts to win the war on terrorism.

Durbin’s constituents, who know him best, seem to recognize that was his intent. Durbin’s hometown paper, the State Journal Register writes,

The real message of Durbin's statement - that we must investigate and stop inhumane treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo and other military prisons - is one we can't afford to ignore.

Greg Hinz writes in Crain’s Chicago Business,

Mistreating people, some possibly innocent, in a harsh prison forever is not an Illinois value. Nor is it an Illinois value to take a person who might possess some intelligence of possible value, stake them out naked on the ground, turn up an air-conditioner until they’re shaking with cold, play ear-splitting music, and watch them defecate and urinate on themselves. That, in fact, was the conduct Mr. Durbin was protesting.

And the Daily Southtown editorializes,

CNN TV reports that the jury in the Killen murder trial of civil rights workers is deadlocked, six-six. They have only deliberated three hours. But the judge is going to make them deliberate tomorrow. Background here .

President Bush spoke in Europe today, and he defended both secret renditions and Guantanamo:

"We've got some in custody - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is a classic example. The mastermind of the September the 11th attack that killed over 3,000 of our citizens," Mr Bush said at a press conference after meeting with European Union leaders. "And he is being detained because we think he could possibly give us information that might not only protect us, but protect citizens in Europe," Mr Bush said.

"And at some point in time he will be dealt with, but right now we think it's best that he be kept in custody. We want to learn as much as we can in this new kind of war about the intention, and about the methods, about how these people operate," he said. "And they're dangerous, and they're still around, and they'll kill on a moment's notice."

When exactly is that point? When he, and not a court, decides? Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has been held since March 1, 2003. The U.S. even took his 7 and 9 year old sons into custody. Ramzi bin al Shibh has been held in secret overseas detention since September, 2002. How much more information will they give after two or three years? How do we know Mohammed masterminded the 9/11 attacks? Shouldn't a judge or a jury decide that?

by TChris

Congress told TSA not to collect personal data on air travelers, and TSA said it wouldn't. TSA lied.

A Transportation Security Administration contractor used three data brokers to collect detailed information about U.S. citizens who flew on commercial airlines in June 2004 in order to test a terrorist screening program called Secure Flight, according to documents that will be published in the Federal Register this week.

The contractor, EagleForce Associates, then combined the passenger name records with commercial data from three contractors that included first, last and middle names, home address and phone number, birthdate, name suffix, second surname, spouse first name, gender, second address, third address, ZIP code and latitude and longitude of address. EagleForce then produced CD-ROMS containing the information "and provided those CD-ROMS to TSA for use in watch list match testing," the documents said.

The Judge in the Adelphia Cable fraud case handed 80 year old company founder John Rigas an effective life sentence today - 15 years. The prosecution had asked for 215 years. His son is being sentenced now.

How's this for mercy?

U.S. District Court Judge Leonard Sand said at Monday's hearing that John Rigas' sentence could be altered after two years, but only if the Bureau of Prisons determines Rigas' life expectancy to be less than 3 months.

Update: Rigas suffers from bladder cancer. I have to say, I'm glad he didn't cower at his sentencing. He knew what was coming and said,

``If I did anything wrong, I apologize,'' said Rigas, speaking in a faint voice before the judge passed sentence. ``It's in your hands, and in God's hands. In my heart and conscience, I'll go to my grave really and truly believing that I did nothing but to improve conditions for my employees.''

Rigas's son Timothy Rigas has just been sentenced to 20 years.
America. Prison Nation.

by TChris

The popular modern response to sex offenders was once applied to lepers: shun them, isolate them, treat them as outcasts. States and municipalities increasingly require the identities and photographs of sex offenders to be posted on registries that are available on the internet. Sex offenders are often required to report to local law enforcement agencies when they move, and the agencies notify their neighbors that an offender resides in the neighborhood. The newest laws prohibit offenders from living within 1,000 feet of schools or parks, often forcing offenders to live outside of cities while depriving them of job opportunities.

These laws effectively cripple an offender's rehabilitative goal of becoming a productive member of society. Are they worth it? New research suggests they aren't.

"I would rather have someone who has committed a sex offense be going to work every day, come home tired, have a sense of well-being that comes from having a regular paycheck and a safe home, as opposed to having a sex offender who has a lot of free time on his hands," said Richard Hamill, president of the New York State Alliance of Sex Offender Service Providers. "You tell me: Who is at a greater risk of reoffending?"

A must read today, Molly Ivins on injustice in Texas.

For the first time in 40 years, a death penalty trial is taking place in Vermont. Vermont doesn't have the death penalty. But that didn't stop former Attorney General John Ashcroft from insisting the case be transferred to federal court so the death penalty could be sought.

In 2002 federal prosecutors and defense attorneys had reached a plea deal to have Fell plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of life without parole. But that deal was struck down by the Justice Department, which insisted on the death penalty.

Jury selection began today. If there's any good news, it's that the Justice Department has been losing most of these trials. See, these two cases in Puerto Rico; this one in Binghamton, NY.; this one in Miami; this one in Brooklyn, NY. More here.

Only in America, folks. Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez, who was in charge of Abu Ghraib during the height of the prisoner abuse, is in line for a promotion by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Talk about adding insult to injury.

Such a move, which has been urged by senior U.S. Army officers and civilian officials now that an Army inquiry has cleared Sanchez of wrongdoing, seems to reflect a growing confidence that the military has put the abuse scandal behind it. It is one of two changes being considered that would involve new posts for senior generals who had previously been ruled out for nominations to the commands because of the U.S. Senate's outrage over Abu Ghraib, the officials say.

What kind of message would this send to the Arab world....that not only don't we hold senior Administration officials accountable for what happens on their watch, but we reward them with promotions? [link via Huffington Post.]

The AP reports that the July issue of GQ magazine (subscription only) features an interview by Lisa De Paulo with three U.S. soldiers who guarded Saddam after his 2003 capture. They say he's friendly - and a hygiene nut.

Thrust unexpectedly into the role of prison guards for Saddam Hussein, a group of young American soldiers found the deposed Iraqi leader to be a friendly, talkative "clean freak" who loved Raisin Bran for breakfast, did his own laundry and insisted he was still president of Iraq, says a report published on Monday.

Saddam liked Ronald Reagan, thought Clinton was okay, and initially disliked the Bushes:

"The Bush father, son, no good," one of the soldiers, Cpl. Jonathan "Paco" Reese, 22, of Millville, Pa., quotes Saddam as saying. But his fellow GI, Specialist Sean O'Shea, then 19, says Saddam later softened that view. "Towards the end he was saying that he doesn't hold any hard feelings and he just wanted to talk to Bush, to make friends with him," O'Shea, of Minooka, Pa., told the magazine.

A third soldier, Spc. Jesse Dawson, quoted Saddam as saying of Bush, "'He knows I have nothing, no mass weapons. He knows he'll never find them.'"

The soldier's are not breaking rules with the interview. Their agreement with the Government pertains to logistics of Saddam's detention but not their interaction with him.