by TChris

Regular participants in and observers of trials soon learn that most witnesses, no matter how well intentioned, are poor estimators of times and distances. It's no surprise that Michael Schiavo gave varying estimates during interviews in 1992 and 2003 of the time at which he discovered his wife's collapse.

If he looked at his watch and two days later could recall exactly what it said, I'd be mildly surprised. So to think it highly suspicious that he got the time wrong or rounded it off too roughly two years after the fact, and again 13 years after the fact, is laughable.

Michael Schiavo has been consistent as to the critical point: he called 911 promptly after determining that his wife was unresponsive. As TalkLeft recently noted, Jeb Bush nonetheless wants the state attorney in Pinellas to investigate Jeb's unsupported suspicion that Michael waited half an hour before calling for help.

Jeb's continued pandering to the religious right while attempting to save face by hounding Michael Schiavo is inexcusable. Schiavo has endured enough tragedy without being forced to defend himself against Jeb Bush's scandalous attempt to assassinate his character. An autopsy (and a review of medical records) revealed no evidence to support the slanderous assertions of abuse leveled by Terri's parents, and there is no credible evidence that Michael waited (or had any reason to wait) before calling for help.

Jeb Bush's abuse of the criminal justice system to pursue the religious right's vendetta against Michael Schiavo is appalling. Michael deserves an apology.

by TChris

There's no doubt that the sprawling Ninth Circuit has a huge caseload, but that isn't the motivation underlying conservative efforts to divide the circuit into two or three parts. Long viewed by the right as a "liberal" circuit, conservatives hope to diminish its influence by breaking it into smaller pieces.

Next week, Senator John Ensign, Republican of Nevada, plans to introduce a bill to split the circuit into three parts. Representative Mike Simpson, Republican of Idaho, has already introduced legislation that would create two new appellate courts for the area.

Right wing Representative Jim Sensenbrenner, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, doesn't want to approve the addition of judgeships to any circuit (even though that would be the best solution to the workload problem) until the Ninth Circuit has been split. Most Ninth Circuit judges oppose the plan.

Electronic Frontier Foundation has published a free legal guide for bloggers.

Law Sites's Robert Ambrogi gives it high marks. Here's the index.

The Onion takes a comic look at reaction to the Supreme Court medical marijuana ruling. (Via Crim Prof Blog.)

What a political ploy. Newt Gingrich must really think he has a comeback coming. As if we'd ever forget his Contract on America. He is calling on the U.S. Senate to censure Sen. Dick Durbin for his Guantanamo remarks.

In a letter sent to United States Senators on Saturday, June 18, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called on the Senate to censure Senator Richard Durbin for his speech comparing U.S. servicemen serving in Guantanamo Bay to those of the Nazi Gestapo, Soviet KGB, and Pol Pot's killers in Cambodia.

"Senator Richard Durbin has dishonored the United States and the entire U.S. Senate. Only by a vote to censure Senator Durbin for his conduct can the U.S. Senate restore its dignity and defend American honor," Gingrich wrote.

Durbin never compared U.S. servicemen to nazis. He was talking about interrogation techniques used at Gitmo.
Gingrich writes:

Incredibly, Senator Durbin is sticking to his original assertion that there is indeed, in his own words, an "historic parallel" between U.S. soldiers at Guantanamo Bay and the killers under Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot.

As an aside, why does Gingrich write his letter with the letterhead of "Office of Speaker Newt Gingrich." He hasn't been in Congress, let alone the House Speaker, for years.

Check out conservative blog Balloon Juice's condemnation of Gingrich's call. And Armando at Daily Kos.

Guantanamo Bay and torture continue to make headlines and blog posts. Some more to read:

• Billmon
• Balloon Juice, which says some Republican bloggers are getting it now. More here.
• David Neiwert
• Obisidian Wings
• Kevin Drum
• Brad Plumer

In MSM:

• New York Times Editorial today

by TChris

From time to time, a columnist recognizes the double standard that pervades mainstream reporting of sex offense allegations: despite the presumption of innocence, the accused offender is identified, often destroying his reputation and employability, while the names of the accusers go unreported to protect them from publicity. The policy assumes that sex offense victims are stigmatized in a way that other crime victims (whose names routinely appear in news accounts) are not. In modern times, that distinction is dubious, but even if true, it is difficult to understand why it is fair to publicize the identity of a presumably innocent accused.

Most mainstream media still have not identified Michael Jackson's accuser, even though Jackson was acquitted. If a jury rejects an accuser's story, isn't the identity of the person who makes a (presumably false) accusation newsworthy?

This blackout was maintained even after the fact, while the mother of the alleged victim was being vilified as a disaster to the case by TV and radio commentators because of her shady background. Network newscasts, Nightline, even self-styled maverick Bill O'Reilly kept her identity secret while the legally exonerated Michael continued to be discussed in terms of child molestation.

Examples of this double standard are legion.

It is now estimated that hackers have gained access to 40 million Master Card and other credit card accounts - and that Card Systems may have been negligent.

MasterCard said CardSystems had not been using industry safeguards at its Tucson processing center, suggesting to analysts that the numbers had not been encrypted for protection. CardSystems did not return calls seeking comment.

"There's no excuse for this," said Avivah Litan, a Gartner Inc. expert on the security of financial data. "This takes the cake."

As to what you can do: Ask for a new card.

A weekend round-up - non-political edition

• This has to be one of the wierdest sites ever, Crying While Eating, and the LA Times says it's had 15 million visitors since late May, making it one of the most popular around.

• Suburban Guerilla on some strange problems the British are having with domestic cats

• Jim MacDonald over at Nielsen Hayden explores the history and variations of the game of chess.

• Paul Reiser at Huffington Post on Father's Day and driving in the car, made me laugh out loud with this line about making his kids listen to the Boss:

let me tell you something; until you’ve heard a 4 year-old belt out, "This town rips the bones from your back, it’s a death trap..." you have not been entertained.

Actually, real parents have their kids sing songs by Bob Dylan, like Subterranean Homesick Blues. The TL kid could belt out from the age of five,

Johnny's in the basement
Mixing up the medicine
I'm on the pavement
Thinking about the government

...Twenty years of schoolin'
And they put you on the day shift

He hasn't been arrested yet, knock on wood.

How many times do you hear Nancy Grace, Jeanine Pirro, Wendy Murphy, Mark Fuhrman and other prosecution oriented tv analysts proclaim a parent guilty of murdering his or her child because, they claim, statistics show that this is almost always the case? DNA may prove a better indicator than their precious statistics. The Chicago Tribune reports on the case of Kevin Fox, released Friday after 8 months in jail:

Charges were dropped today against Kevin Fox, accused of the sexual assault and murder of his 3-year-old daughter Riley, after prosecutors said DNA tests excluded him as a suspect in her death. This is an absolute exclusion of Kevin Fox," Will County State's Atty. James Glasgow said during an emergency court hearing this afternoon requested by prosecutors in the Joliet courthouse.

Prosecutors already are falling over themselves to justify their erroneous rush to judgment:

Major kudos to Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack who is restoring the right to vote to felons who have completed serving their sentences.

The governor's order, which he plans to sign on July 4, will make an estimated 80,000 ex-felons eligible to vote. Advocates hope that the order, which comes after a similar restoration of voting rights in Nebraska, will encourage other states with similarly restrictive laws to broaden voting privileges for ex-felons.

Nationally, about 4.7 million people are ineligible to vote because of felony convictions, about 500,000 of them war veterans, according to the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit organization that promotes alternatives to incarceration. About 1.4 million are black men.

Iowa had one of the most restrictive bans in the country.

Go read James Capozzola at Rittenhouse on the latest New York mob arrests....Yesterday's Mobsters Today: Bum Knees Have Replaced Broken Kneecaps....Jim asks if it's funny or sad. I'd say both, but more on the sad side. He's talking about this New York Times article: