Federal Judges rarely respond publicly to criticism. It makes this "letter to the editor" by U.S. District Court Judge Charles B. Kornmann of Aberdeen, S.D. even that much more compelling. Check it out. (Via My DD.)

Misunderstanding Alarming

To the Editor - A recent article by Professor Art Marmorstein displayed an alarming misunderstanding of the nature of our government. He stated that judges are either of the John Lennon school or the Bolshevik school. I know judges in South Dakota and most federal judges. The professor is badly mistaken.

He praised James Dobson's Family Policy Council. Dobson in Sioux Falls last year stated that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy is "the most dangerous man in America." Does that sound like a rational statement? Outlandish statements by Dobson, Pat Robertson and others encourage deranged people to act violently against judges and relatives of judges.

We give the last word on the Michael Jackson verdict to Jon Stewart of the Daily Show, who hilariously takes apart the media and legal analysts covering the Michael Jackson trial. Crooks and Liars has the video.

Second to the last word- for the best take on the verdict by a legal analyst -- goes to CBS's Andrew Cohen, and his column You Just Had to Be There in Court.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld today said the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay will be in operation for years to come - until the war on terror has ended.

But the war on terror has no end. It looks like Guantanamo is just another financial burden we will be saddled with for life - and it hasn't even produced a terrorist.

This is just a further indication that the military tribunals are a sham. Should there be an acquittal, as 60 Minutes pointed out a few weeks ago, the detainee will just be returned to his cell until the end of the war on terror. In other words, a life sentence.

After a long, hard day at work, the last thing I needed to see when I got home was that Senate Republicans are proposing raising the retirement age for social security eligibility to 69 from the current 65 1/2. Do we have to work ourselves into the grave to collect our money? Maybe if we didn't have a President who lied to us and led us into an unnecessary war at a cost of untold billions, the U.S. would be able to honor its obligation to its own citizens.

I'm sure there are topics besides Michael Jackson you'd like to discuss today, so here's a place for them. I'll be back this afternoon to join in.

The Senate today issued a long overdue apology for refusing to heed the requests of seven Presidents to enact a law making lynching a crime.

The apology was enacted on a voice vote which was not recorded. This article says that while there were 80 co-sponsors of the bill, only six Senators showed up for the voice vote.

With many members straggling back to town from a weekend at home, and only six coming to the floor to vote, the Senate delivered a historic apology Monday night for failing to move against a wave of lynchings that claimed more than 4,700 Americans – most of them black – from the 1880s until the 1960s.

Who was against it? America Blog has the updated list.

If you've never seen a photo of a lynching, go here.

First off, the news today is that Shcapelle has lodged her appeal.

Second, I have received an e-mail from someone close to Schapelle Corby advising that this is now the official site for Schapelle Corby and that the family has placed its trust in Kay Danes, once imprisoned in Laos for a year for allegedly smuggling jewels. Ms. Danes is now working with Schapelle's legal and press team. The family has released this message:

Verdict Watch, Day 7
Monday June 13, 2005

Congratulations to Michael Jackson....Not Guilty on all counts! Kudos to Tom Mesereau and team. Shame on DA Tom Sneddon, man on a mission.

Other losers:

• Martin Bashir
• The Accuser's mother
• Larry Feldman
• Gloria Allred

Sneddon Press Conference: He's not going to quarrel with the jury's verdict. He has not spoken with accuser or family. Denies that his past history with Michael Jackson had anything to do with his office's decision to file.

Via Marijuana Policy Project:

In a new Mason-Dixon poll released today, registered voters said by a greater than 3-1 margin that they don't want the federal government to arrest medical marijuana patients, even though the Supreme Court has given it permission to do so. In the poll, conducted June 8-11, 68% of voters said medical marijuana patients should not be arrested, compared to just 16% who said they should.

Responses varied little by party, age, or gender, with 63% of Republicans, 73% of Democrats, and 68% of independents agreeing that medical marijuana patients should not be arrested.

If you haven't been following the Roger Ailes (of Fox News, not the blogger) battle with Newsweek's Jonathan Alter, you can catch up here, reading Alter's latest letter.

The Iraq tribunal that will be trying Saddam Hussein has released a video of him being interrogated.

The incident Mr. Hussein was questioned about involved the 1982 killings of up to 160 men took place in Dujail, a predominantly Shiite village north of Baghdad, where Mr. Hussein had survived an assassination attempt that year.

These killings form the basis of one of the charges against him. You can watch the video here.

With a stinging rebuke, the Supreme Court today threw out the death sentence of Thomas Miller-El. Prosecutors in the case had removed 91% of the black jurors.

Prosecutors removed 10 out of 11 potential black jurors before the trial. Miller-El is black while the victim was white. The jury had nine whites, one Hispanic, one Filipino and one black....[Justice David] Souter said the jury selection process was "replete with evidence that the prosecutors were selecting and rejecting potential jurors because of race."

The opinion by Justice Souter is here. Justices Scalia and Thomas and Chief Justice Rehnquist dissented.