by TChris

This is from an email alert sent out this morning by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers:

A disastrous "Booker fix" is scheduled for hearing and markup this afternoon before the House Crime Subcommittee. The provision, sneaked into a drug sentencing bill (H.R. 1528), would effectively make the guidelines a system of mandatory minimum sentences. If this provision is enacted, there will be almost nothing left of judicial discretion in sentencing: it would eliminate virtually every basis ever relied on by a judge to depart downward. If it were to pass, the Supreme Court likely would find the new "Guidelines" would be subject to constitutional challenge on almost the same grounds as Booker, and, after another year or two of uncertainly, we likely would be right back to where we are today. Due to a complete lack of reasonable notice, the judiciary, practitioners, academics and other experts have been denied the opportunity for meaningful input.

More information is available from NACDL here, and analysis from sentencing expert Doug Berman is here and here. In this post, Prof. Berman asks the insightful question: "Is this Booker fix a symptom of the post-Schiavo attack on the judiciary?"

Tell your congressional representative: Just say no to bad sentencing laws.

by TChris

Last September, TalkLeft reported the arrest of 1,000 protesters at the Republican National Convention in New York City. It turned out that 1,806 people were arrested during the Convention, including a guy who was busted while he was on his way to pick up sushi.

The first arrestee to take his case to trial, Dennis Kyne, was charged with inciting a riot and resisting arrest. The arresting officer testified that Kyne had to be carried away "because he was kicking and refusing to walk on his own." The officer didn't know, however, that the arrest was captured on a video recording that would expose his perjury.

During a recess, the defense had brought new information to the prosecutor. A videotape shot by a documentary filmmaker showed Mr. Kyne agitated but plainly walking under his own power down the library steps, contradicting the vivid account of Officer Wohl, who was nowhere to be seen in the pictures. Nor was the officer seen taking part in the arrests of four other people at the library against whom he signed complaints.

The charges were abruptly dismissed. And what about the poor guy who just wanted to get his sushi?

We get letters. This one is in response to one of the several posts TChris and I have written criticizing sex offender registries, particularly those posted on the Internet.

I read your article about sex offenders....I have to tell you i am on that list. In the state of Wisconsin I will be on it for the rest of my life. When I was 20 there was a girl that accused me of having sex with her. I will admit we messed around a bit but we never had sex. There was never any intecourse.

When i plead guilty ( bad attorney) there was no sex offender registration. If there was, I would have taken my chances and probably won with a jury. But I guess thats besides the point now. Now I get evicted from apartment, people vandalize my truck and I can't get a job in my chosen profession. And it's all because I'm all over the Internet. I'm 33 years old now, I did my time...but after the fact the state added a life sentence.

Thanks for listening. ill keep reading. Tom from Wisconsin

Thanks for writing, Tom, and check out SoHopeful.org.

Time Magazine describes the she-pundit with long blond hair as "irrestible and influential" in naming her as one of the most 100 influential people in the World (not just America, mind you, but the World.)

Time describes its list as consisting of people whose "power, talent or moral example is transforming the world."

She's listed in the "artists and entertainers" categories. At least she's not listed in the Leaders, Thinkers or Heroes categories, but still, it's totally irrational and voids the list of any modicum of credibility. In fact, it's downright insulting.

Executive Editor Adi Ignatius claims responsibility for the list. In an audio clip on the site, he says the nominations came in from readers correspondents and then he and staff whittled them down. I knew there was a reason I have always read Newsweek instead of Time. Whenever I have see a copy of Time, usually at the dentist's office, I think "Dick Cheney."

I'm really glad Time has never gotten a dime from me. If I had a subscription, I'd cancel. With all the media choices out there, who needs a magazine that wastes what little time extra time we have for reading the news?

[Corrected to reflect that the correspondents, not readers, of Time were the source of the nominations.]

At least one right wing blog is suggesting Sens. John Kerry and Richard Lugar blew the cover of a CIA operative referred to as "Mr. Smith" at today's Senate Hearing. The person they referred to was Fulton Armstrong.

Only Fulton Armstrong has been a publicly identified intellgence officer for years. He was the CIA's national intelligence officer for Latin America. Kerry didn't out anything. Even the story about him being forced out of the CIA has been in the media. From Salon:

Put it this way, with this White House, I see an outright pattern of bullying: Gen. Eric Shinseki, the former Army chief of staff, warned that the U.S. was going to need several hundred thousand troops in Iraq, and he's attacked for that, and basically told that he doesn't know what he's talking about -- and he's fired essentially a year before he's out of that job. When it's time for him to retire, not a single senior representative of the Department of Defense or White House leadership is there for his retirement. ... There was a senior CIA analyst by the name of Fulton Armstrong who was attacked, using leaks to the press, which alleged that he was disloyal and somehow under the influence of the Cuban government. There was a prosecutor [ousted from] the Department of Justice who had warned that John Walker Lindh's father had hired a lawyer and that [the DOJ] needed to consider the Miranda rights. [emphasis supplied]

Here's his official bio from 2003.

We thought the America We Stand as One video was just about the funniest video ever. But the remix will have you laughing out loud. [Link via Greg Beato at Wonkette with a hat tip to Atrios.]

It depicts an America that stands as one...because after we get finished blasting the world's evildoers into democracy-loving rainbows, there won't be any other countries left. F**k yeah!

America, We Stand as One (F**k Yeah! remix)

America, We Stand as One (Original version)

Ashcroft's Eagle Soars is chopped chicken liver in comparison.

Jeffrey St. Clair, writing for Counterpunch, has a lot of new details on Torture Air, the Gulfstream jet that has flown detainees all over the world for interrogation. Canadian Mahar Arar was flown from New York to Jordan on the plane - before being handed over to Syria.

St. Clair charges that Vice President Dick Cheney not only knew about the secret CIA flights, he authorized the torturous interrogations.

Jenna and Barbara Bush got President Bush an iPod for his birthday. Here's what he's listening to. The White House reminds us not to "psychoanalze the playlist." Sorry, can't help it. My Sharona?

Here's more.

Tapped is the place to be today if you're looking for insight and analysis of Abramoff and Delay, or a roundup of coverage of John Bolton's senate confirmation hearing. These are just a handful of what's over there:

Cutting straight to the core of the issue, Hesiod of American Street raises a question about Mr. Bolton's double life. Atrios and Nickisthebest discuss another important symbolic issue. Only slightly less serious, Bolton's champions have their rigorous arguments rebutted by Media Matters and Thinkprogress.org.

Martha Reeves, lead singer for Martha and the Vandellas, has announced she's running for the Detroit City Council.

Reeves said the city is dealing with a number of serious problems including blight, abandoned buildings and a struggling public schools system....Reeves, 63, said she wasn't put off by the sometimes volatile nature of city council meetings.

"I think that our city council could probably get along better if they had a little music," she said. "And I'll get them to dance in the streets."

I bet she will. You go, Martha.

by TChris

A prison reform group, United for No Injustice, Oppression or Neglect (U.N.I.O.N.), is using the courts, as well as political activism, to call attention to the dismal conditions in California prisons. The group's director, B. Cayenne Bird, realized how deplorable prison conditions have become after her son was incarcerated.

Bird, a self-proclaimed human rights journalist for 30 years, formed U.N.I.O.N. in 1998. She said part of the goal is to get families of prisoners together in a voting block so that the state's prisons can be reformed. "There's enough there to create a voting group," she said.

Scores of U.N.I.O.N. members join Bird at rallies at the state Capitol, and the organization also frequently pickets at prisons where it feels an inmate has suffered a preventable death.

The group has filed lawsuits in at least three cases on behalf of inmates who died while in a prison's care.

So far, Michael Jackson's attorney has made some serious inroads into derailing the prosecution's witnesses, discrediting them with financial and other motives to lie. None of them are free of heavy baggage.

Today the mother of the 1993 accuser testifies. You can expect the defense to bring out on cross that she knew her son was sleeping in Jackson's bedroom.

On a legal note, the defense has filed a motion (pdf) that I think has an excellent chance on appeal of reversing a conviction, should one occur. The motion objects to the introduction of past conduct evidence because it is not coming in through the accusers, but through third parties.