Tuesday is the tenth anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. 168 people died. Over 500 were injured. Meet Budd Welch, father of Julie Welch, who lost her life that day:

Emmett "Bud" Welch, 65, whose daughter, Julie Marie, died in the blast, has found his own way to deal with the pain. The bombing turned Welch, a former gas station owner, into an international crusader against the death penalty and human rights violations.

Welch has spoken about human rights in London, Rome, Kenya and dozens of other places all over the world. "For 11 months after the bombing, I dealt with my situation by drinking. I'd go to the bomb site two or three times a day, with my head splitting from a hangover," Welch said. "Finally, one day, I said, "What are you doing to change your life?'

"I remembered how Julie was so adamantly opposed to the death penalty. She felt so strongly, she started an Amnesty International chapter in her high school at age 16."

I didn't know Danny Faulkner, but thanks to Denver Post reporter Claire Martin, who wrote this obituary , I feel like I did.

My biker clients have always been a pleasure to represent. Unfailingly, they have been polite, non-demanding, realistic, and non-whining. Yet, it's not always easy getting others to see them the way I do. Martin's obituary of Danny shows something important - that there is something good to be said about everyone. Even outlaw bikers.

Danny, 52, was killed by a hit and run driver last week as he was finishing a shift on a street construction job. His obituary is the most prominent one in today's Post, and bears a big headline, "Harley biker loved outlaw living - and Mom." Here's some of it:

Say hello to the Youth Law Center - protecting the rights of juveniles. And listen to a five second clip of President Bush during a 1994 gubernatorial debate urging that 14 year olds be tried as adults.

Watch the longer video, in which he also advocates unsealing juvenile records. The video is particularly worth watching for its comparison of Bush's 1994 debating style with his 2004 debate performance. There was no stuttering, no pauses back then. What happened to him?

[link via poster ErrorAmerica at Randi Rhodes show message boards.]

Also say hello to Blawgdaddy who has resumed blogging because of popular demand - including our's. We just got this e-mail:

by TChris

Is the Bush adminstration harassing labor unions for their support of Democratic candidates?

The Bush administration is rapidly expanding audits of the nation's labor unions, citing a need to ferret out and deter corruption. But union leaders assert that those increased efforts are nothing more than crude political retaliation.

"It is obvious," said John J. Sweeney, the federation's president, "that the Department of Labor's assignment of 48 new staff to audit unions, starting with the A.F.L.-C.I.O., is pure political payback for the labor movement's opposition to the president's antiworker policies."

As former labor secretary Robert Reich points out, "enforcement has been cut in other areas, like occupational safety and minimum wage enforcement." Corruption in labor unions, like corporate misconduct, should be policed. Still, the administration’s sudden emphasis on an enforcement mechanism that burdens unions is suspicious given the administration’s lax enforcement of business regulations that protect employees and consumers.

by TChris

Some Republicans who care about the image of their party think Tom DeLay must go. Concerns about DeLay's unethical behavior -- or, more importantly, the publicity surrounding it -- have led to "signs of restiveness" back home. A recent poll for The Houston Chronicle showed that nearly 40 percent of voters had a lesser opinion of DeLay than they had last year.

As one might expect, the Fort Bend County Republican chair (formerly the public relations director for Enron) doesn't think Democrats will benefit from DeLay's slipping support, because the district is so heavily Republican.

But with some Republican voters siphoned off to create new districts that added to the Republican majorities in both the Texas Legislature and Congress last year, and perhaps because of Mr. DeLay's slippage as well, he garnered 55 percent of the vote last year - 53 percent in Fort Bend County - a dropoff from his share in his original district in previous years and below President Bush's 2004 majority of 57 percent in Fort Bend County.

Conservative voters who won't support a Democrat may be inclined to oust DeLay in a Republican primary.

"When a man is in trouble or in a good fight, you want to have your friends around, preferably armed. So I feel really good."

Tom DeLay, KeynoteSpeaker, Annual Convention of the National Rifle Association, Houston, April 16, 2005.

The most talked about article of the day is bound to be Jeffrey Rosen's nine page article in the Sunday New York Times Magazine, The Unregluated Offensive."

Since I oppose Congress' use of the commerce clause to federalize crimes that should be left to the discretion of the states, I can't endorse everything in this article, even though the article focuses on property and economic issues.

Using the commerce clause to federalize every gun crime; to override state laws legalizing medical marijuana; to make carjacking and gang crimes federal offenses; to create more federal death penalties; to federalize domestic violence crimes; and to create a national Amber Alert bill, Laci's Law and Megan's Law, is wrong.

And day now the Supreme Court will decide Raich v. Ashcroft:

On Thursday, House Democrats serving on an Intelligence committee wrote a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales inquiring about the status of the Valerie Plame investigation and seeking an explanation for the lack of Indictments.[Via Buzzflash.]

The Democrats' letter noted that Fitzgerald wrote in March court filings that the factual investigation "was for all practical purposes" completed in October, yet no charges were filed.

"Nearly two years have elapsed, and nobody has been held accountable for this serious violation of law," the Democrats said in a letter to the attorney general, adding that they were "writing to express our grave concern."

In addition, the letter asked that Gonzales appear before the committee to provide a briefing. Gonalez answered on Friday with this non-response:

The best article I've read so far about the Michael Jackson trial is this one in the Sunday Observer. It lays out the damaging testimony from the prosecution's witnesses, and reports:

But the picture of a doomed Jackson is far from true. The prosecution has now fired most of its big guns and Jackson is still standing. The defence phase of the case has yet to begin and will probably last until the end of June at least. Already there are hints that the prosecution's best days could be behind it. The defence will rely on two main tracks. Firstly, that Jackson's accusers are after his money. Secondly, that all the witnesses so far are disgruntled former employees who have sold their stories to the tabloids. There is ample evidence for both.

Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) has released a document showing the Administration knew of the lack of ties between Iraq and al Qaida before going to war.

A TOP Democratic senator has released formerly classified documents that he says undercut top US officials' pre-Iraq war claims of a link between Saddam Hussein's regime and the al-Qaeda terrorist network. "These documents are additional compelling evidence that the intelligence community did not believe there was a cooperative relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda, despite public comments by the highest ranking officials in our government to the contrary," Senator Carl Levin said today.

The declassified documents undermine the Bush administration's claims regarding Iraq's involvement in training al-Qaeda operatives and the likelihood of a meeting between September 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta and an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague in April 2001, Senator Levin said in a statement

[link via Buzzflash.]

Human Rights Watch has released a new report on the Administration's use of extraordinary rendition - shipping suspects off to countries that are known to practice torture. It's focus is the failure of diplomatic assurances to prevent abuse.

“Governments that are using diplomatic assurances know full well that they don’t protect against torture,” said [HRW Executive Director Kenneth]Roth. “But in the age of terror, they’re convenient. Only pressure from the public in Europe and North America can stop this negative trend.”

Governments rely on a variety of devices to transfer suspects to other countries, including renditions, removals, deportations, extraditions and expulsions. But none of them is legally permissible if the person to be transferred is at risk of torture on return.

The acclaimed documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is set to open Wednesday in Houston to an invitation-only audience. The film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, opens to the public nationwide on April 29. The film is based on the book "The Smartest Guys in the Room," by two writers for Fortune Magazine Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, both of whom appear throughout the film.

I watched the film this week. It's very well done and worth viewing. Of course, it's also entirely one sided, demonizing all but the whistle blowers, Barbara Boxer and curiously, Gray Davis.

Statements by principals Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, at press conferences, company meetings and before Congress, are interlaced with descriptive commentary by former employees Amanda Martin, Sherron Watkins and others, and mixed with a cool sound track and snippets from pop culture. The film's goal is to establish that Enron was a human tragedy, not just a numbers tragedy.