As expected, the mother of the current accuser self-destructed today under cross-examination. For one thing, she admitted lying under oath twice in her previous lawsuit.

"The mother of Michael Jackson's young accuser acknowledged Friday that she twice lied under oath in a lawsuit as the singer's lead defense attorney fired a fast-moving barrage of questions meant to portray her as the mastermind behind bogus molestation charges."

Thanks to Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post and AOL News' Blog Zone for mentioning TalkLeft today.

First, Howard:

Attorney Jeralyn Merritt of TalkLeft doesn't think much of DeLay saying he had made "inartful" remarks on targeting judges:

"If one of my clients gave this kind of apology at a sentencing, the judge would throw the book at him. . . . "He's not sorry for the content of his intemperate remarks, only for the way he phrased them. That's like saying he isn't sorry for the crime, only that he got caught."

AOL BlogNews picked up on blog coverage of Sen. Bill Frist's threat to go nuclear:

Daily Kos outlines some news stories about Frist. And Rightsided takes exception to those news reports. Captain wonders what GOP "milquetoasts" are waiting for.

Frist has backed himself into a corner, says Talk Left. And Blue Vertical Studio reports on the makeup of American federal courts.

Construction at the new bank site looked pretty ugly today, but since I've had some requests, here's week two of what will be a new bank outside my window.

by TChris

Since the Bush administration has become notorious for disguising propagada videos as “news stories,” it’s a bit disingenuous for the president to remark that it’s “deceptive to the American people” to show the videos without disclosing their government origins. He’s right about the deception, but wrong about the solution. He thinks it’s up to the news broadcasts that run the stories to identify their origins. They should, but it’s also incumbent upon the administration not to disguise propaganda as news in the first place.

Senator Byrd got 98 votes for his proposal to "force federal agencies over the next year to disclose the origins of video releases."

Thanks to The Gap, the parking meters in downtown Denver were free today.

Did anyone notice this in other cities?

Bump and Update: It's official. Convicted bomber Eric Rudolph will be serving out his life sentence at Florence, Colorado's Supermax.

Jim Cavanaugh of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Birmingham, Ala., said Thursday Rudolph would be held on the "bomber's row" at Supermax, which holds Nichols, Kaczynski and other convicted bombers.

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Original Post:

Eric Rudolph pleaded guilty today to bombing an abortion clinic in exchange for two life sentences. He was not remorseful, and said the Government could "just barely" prove its case. He didn't speak much but he did express praise for his attorneys.

When asked by the judge whether he had set off the bomb in Birmingham, Mr. Rudolph responded, "I certainly did, your honor." But he also volunteered that the government could "just barely" prove its case against him, and that his lawyers were "very, very good, superlative attorneys."

Republican Congressman James Sensenbrenner has launched his next assault on freedom. The full House Judiciary Committee is set to vote as early as next week on H.R. 1528, which creates a new group of mandatory miniumum penalties for non-violent drug offenses, including a five year penalty for passing a joint to someone who's been in drug treatment.

That's right: Passing a joint to someone who used to be in drug treatment will land you in federal prison for a minimum of five years.

The "Defending America's Most Vulnerable: Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child Protection Act of 2005" (H.R. 1528) was introduced by House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) on April 6, and it has already passed out of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.

We warned you about this bill last September. It's now coming home to roost. Please visit here to e-mail your U.S. representative and two U.S. senators today. Stop this bill in its tracks.

Sen. Bill Frist will be joining forces with evangelists like James Dobson to stage a day-long telecast on April 24 that will portray Democrats as enemies of "people of faith" because they oppose some of Bush's judicial nominees.

Fliers for the telecast, organized by the Family Research Council and scheduled to originate at a Kentucky megachurch the evening of April 24, call the day "Justice Sunday" and depict a young man holding a Bible in one hand and a gavel in the other. The flier does not name participants, but under the heading "the filibuster against people of faith," it reads: "The filibuster was once abused to protect racial bias, and it is now being used against people of faith."

Organizers say they hope to reach more than a million people by distributing the telecast to churches around the country, over the Internet and over Christian television and radio networks and stations.

What's behind the push to defeat the filibuster?

.... a chance to reverse decades of legal decisions about abortion, religion in public life, gay rights and marriage.

Republicans fear they may be losing the battle.

Sen. Minority Leader Harry Reid has pledged to bring Senate business to a standstill if Republicans try to carry out their threat. From his latest statement:

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, in an opinion by Judge Edith Jones, has walked over the First Amendment issues involved in Louisiana's "Choose Life" license plates and instead, by declaring the fee paid for license plates a tax, has referred the case back to the state courts.

This is a bad decision. Our pal Bill Rittenberg, who represented the freedom of choice activists in the case, says that in effect, Judge Edith Jones (who also once ruled it's okay if the defense lawyer sleeps through his client's death penalty trial) has decided that the state courts should decide first amendment rights that the state legislature denied. He says the Court sidestepped the real issue as to whether the plates profide the the state a device to discriminate based on viewpoint. I'm surprised Judge Edward Prado joined the decision.

Our view: "Choose Life" license plates are fine, provided they include the tag line "End the Death Penalty."

On a related note, yesterday the Ohio Senate authorized license plates that say "one nation under g-d" for an extra 10 bucks. Our source quips: "I guess it could be worse - they could have offered - "Jesus died for our sins." That bill now goes to the Ohio House.

Virginia medical doctor William Hurwitz was sentenced to 25 years in a federal prison today for over-prescribing pain medication.

Prosecutors said Hurwitz knowingly turned a blind eye to patients who were obvious drug addicts and drug dealers, and that his waiting room was at times filled with stoned, sleeping patients with track marks on their arms from drug abuse. Patients received prescriptions for as many as 1,600 pills a day. An FBI agent's affidavit indicated that 21 percent of Hurwitz's patients had criminal records.

Hurwitz's supporters packed the courtroom:

About 100 of Hurwitz's supporters packed the federal courtroom in Alexandria, and several testified that Hurwitz saved them from debilitating pain that other doctors were unwilling to treat.

by TChris

Businesses and professionals don't like to be sued when their carelessness leads to injury or death, and so their lobbyists have spread the myth that "tort reform" is needed to save us from frivolous lawsuits. A recent survey reveals that federal judges -- the people who should know best -- disagree with the proposition that frivolous litigation is a serious federal problem.

The survey, conducted by the Federal Judicial Center, was based on the responses of 278 federal district court judges. Seventy percent of the respondents called groundless litigation either a "small problem" or a "very small problem," and 15% said it was no problem at all. Only 1% called it a "very large problem," 2% called it a "large problem" and the rest rated it as a "moderate problem" in their courts.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales today held a press conference to proudly announce the capture of 10,000 fugitives as the result of a week-long project called Operation Falcon.

Officials acknowledge the decision to provide such a massive show of force at one time was expected to prompt publicity and help highlight the mission.

Blogenlust says:

You don't just find and capture 10,000 fugitives in a week, because if it was that easy, we probably wouldn't have had 10,000 to catch, right? What am I missing? Bueller?

Oh, and wouldn't it be great if we could set up a week long dragnet called Operation FIND OBL. Imagine how successful that would be!