The International press is reporting that two weeks ago, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited Saddam Hussein in jail and offered to free him:

US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld paid a secret visit to former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and offered him freedom and possible return to public life if he made a televised request to armed groups for a ceasefire with allied forces, a media report said.

Saddam promptly rejected the offer, Ynetnews reported quoting a London based Al-Quds Al-Arabi daily.

Other news agencies that have run the story: Here, here and here. [Via Sploid and Crooks and Liars.]

And here's an interesting recent interview with Samir, the St. Louis auto mechanic who pulled Saddam Hussein from his spider hole.

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft is going into the security business:

Ashcroft is starting a company that will offer "strategic consulting, security and internal investigative services, and crisis counseling," to major corporations, a spokesperson for the new firm said on Monday. ...His new firm will advise clients on issues including homeland security, law enforcement, corporate compliance, antitrust law and intellectual property protection, the spokesperson said.

Joining Ashcroft at the Washington-based firm will be his long-time chief of staff David Ayres, and Juleanna Glover Weiss, a former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney and other Republicans.

Anything that gives Giuliani competition can't be all bad.

If you haven't visited TalkLeft since Friday morning, there's been a big change. You now have to register with TypeKey to post comments. Here's why and how it works.

TalkLeft owes a huge thanks to Mike Ditto for working all weekend to change our templates and other internal mechanisms to make the switch.

All registrations are subject to my approval. Obviously, I have to be online to get notice of your registration, so don't be upset if it takes a few hours. It helps if you use a name you've used before so I recognize you. This is not a political move, it was caused by someone repeatedly posting obscenities in my name. In other words, commenters who disagree with TalkLeft are welcome to register. Out of 100 registrations, only one, whom I suspect of being an imposter, has been rejected. One other is on hold because I have some doubts.

I apologize for the inconvenience, but I'm not unhappy with the change. Already, the comments are far more civil, although just as contentious. And I'm glad that annoying, annonymous commenters are a thing of the past.

Bill Gates is not going to make any friends among the Minutemen or Congressmen like James Sensenbrenner and Tom Tancredo with proposals like this:

The United States should remove visa limits to allow more skilled foreign citizens to work at U.S. companies if it wants to remain a leader in technology, Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) Chairman Bill Gates said on Wednesday. Microsoft is having a hard time finding skilled workers within the United States, and the lack of H-1B visas for skilled workers is only making the situation worse, Gates said in a panel discussion at the Library of Congress.

"The whole idea of the H-1B visa thing is, don't let too many smart people come into the country. The whole thing doesn't make sense," Gates said.

After 60 years, Red Cross nurse Erna Flegal, who served in Hitler's bunker the last days before his suicide, and during the time that Magda Goebbels killed her six children, agreed to be interviewed by The Guardian.

• Here is the transcript of her interview with The Guardian
• More interesting is her CIA interview after Hitler's suicide.

The final paragraph of the Guardian interview leaves much to be desired. Ms. Flegel is evasive, hardly apologetic:

Say hello to The Periscope, the companion blog to the news site euro-correspondent.com.

The Periscope was conceived by journalist Michael Standaert in 2003. The main idea is to highlight interesting and thought provoking stories dealing with Europe, the EU, transatlantic relations and just about anything else that catches our eye. There's not a lot of commentary here and we hope the content spans ideological lines in a way that provides a variety of information for the reader. Posting on The Periscope is mainly done by Michael and Stephen Gardner, euro-correspondent.com managing editor.

Gwinnett County (Georgia) DA Danny Porter has questions to ask the runaway bride before deciding she should not face criminal charges, but he's doesn't think Georgia sheriff deputies who tasered a handcuffed and foot-bound arrestee five times in 60 seconds should be charged, even though the prisoner died at the scene.

Wizbang has a link to the police video of the Georgia deputies tasering Frederick Williams, and writes:

Frederick Williams last words as he was carried into the Gwinnett County jail were, "Don't kill me, man. Don't kill me." It turned out to be an unheeded plea - minutes later he was dead after receiving 5 direct stuns from a Taser gun in the span of 60 seconds.

A sheriff's department investigation found the deputies acted properly. A police investigation also cleared them of criminal liability. The grand jury refused to view the video and declined to recommend indictment for the deputies. The D.A. says this ends his case, although Wizbang notes the DA declined to prosecute the officers before he sent it to the grand jury.

Be sure to listen for the line, "Do you want another one?" from one of the deputies,

The Atlanta Journal Constitution has more. [hat tip: Balloon Juice.]

Plan Colombia has failed, according to the New York Times. Jacob Sullen at Reason notes:

Five years and $3 billion into the most aggressive counternarcotics operation ever here, American and Colombian officials say they have eradicated a record-breaking million acres of coca plants, yet cocaine remains as available as ever on American streets, perhaps more so.

Drug War Rant comments:

This is five times as much as the federal government spends on the arts. Now you may disagree with arts funding, and you may not like all the art that comes from arts funding, but arts funding at least doesn't destroy the rainforest, increase international violence and terrorism, spread poison on poor farmers' crops with nothing to show for it -- at least with the arts funding you can get a pretty good symphony and some excellent arts in the schools now and then.

Further evidence the war on cocaine supply has failed to affect demand or use: today's Denver Post article, Cocaine Demons Stalk Aspen.

Markos of Daily Kos is in London where he'll be writing for the Guardian:

I'll be writing for the main Guardian site as well as its blog over the next week. My job is to compare and contrast the British elections with the ones we had back home. In two words? Bizarro World. More on that over the coming week, but you get a first taste of it here, where I talk about how in Bizarro World, it is Labour which has won the framing wars.

I'm actually doing real journalism and won't be near an Internet connection most of the time. As for that "real journalism" thing, I wonder what'll happen to all those silly "are bloggers journalist" idiots. Their heads will probably explode. And they'll deserve every bit of cognitive dissonance they suffer through.

Amid the fanfare of Apple releasing its new operating system named Tiger, a lawsuit is still pending over some online writers who are being sued and/or subpoenaed by the company to produce records that would reveal their sources of information.

80 California bloggers have filed a friend of court brief (pdf) in support of the writers in O'Grady v. Apple. SoCal Law Blog, one of the brief's authors, provides a description of the case and details.

This is becoming like a soap opera. The last time we checked in with Tommy Chong, he had opted out of the Marijuana-Logues because he was on supervised release and feared that second hand smoke from the audience might have landed him back in jail.

But, now he's facing a lawsuit because he's refusing to go back to the show after he gets off supervised release. Now, Chong says it would interfere with his attempt to expunge his record by sending the wrong message to officials.

“I don’t feel comfortable because I’m trying to get my record expunged. I’d still be thumbing my nose at the government [that] just finished putting me in jail.”

The producer of the show is not amused. and has filed suit. Tommy says he may countersue.

Here are some of today's news and events on the nuclear option and protecting the filibuster:

• The Princeton Filibuster of Frist continues today with Rep. Frank Pallone. The filibuster has been going on 123 hours as of now. Any Senator or other elected official who is interested in speaking on campus should call 301-793-0046.

• Newsweek: The War on Judges

• Is Hatch's Fury Hypocrisy

• Republican Lisa Murkowski doesn't like filibusters but gets targeted by the right for looking for a compromise. The Anchorage Daily News says, Stand Up, Senator.

• Mario Cuomo speaks out against filibuster change

• Filibuster a hedge against a majority stampede