by TChris

A GAO investigator today told a subcommittee of the House Government Reform Committee that the Defense Department's claims about the number of Iraqi soldiers and police officers who are trained and equipped to do their jobs are unreliable.

Mr. Christoff [testified] that the U.S. government's claim that Iraq now has more than 80,000 trained and equipped soldiers and over 60,000 trained and equipped police officers must be understood in the context of the many challenges facing the effort to expand Iraq's security forces. He said those challenges include problems in the Iraqi force structure and leadership ranks, a lack of clarity on the actual readiness of those forces to conduct independent operations and the need to continually re-evaluate security needs as the insurgency continues.

Calling the Defense Department's numbers "Fantasyland" and accusing the department of issuing a "phony report," Committee member Dennis Kucinich compared the Department's assessment to its assurances that Iraq was filled with weapons of mass destruction.

Daily Kos notes that Kwesi Mfume has announced he will run for the Maryland Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Paul Sarbanes. He will make an excellent Senator, he was a terrific Congressman. The Washington Post reports,

Mfume, a Baltimore native, was elected to serve Maryland's 7th Congressional Distict in 1986. His decade in the U.S. House of Representatives included a stint as chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. He became president and chief executive officer of the NAACP in February 1996 and retired from that post at the end of last year.

Here's his platform statement:

He said his campaign would focus on "overcrowded and ill-equipped schools," health-care costs and disparities and fighting "low expectations" for some youths.

Like Kos, I'm a big Kwesi Mfume fan.

by TChris

Prepare to hear more complaints about "activist" judges -- "activist" being defined as any judge who interprets the law in a way that upsets the religious right -- after a California Superior Court judge ruled today that the state's voter-approved definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman violates the state's constitution.

"The denial of marriage to same-sex couples appears impermissibly arbitrary," wrote San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer. "Simply put, same-sex marriage cannot be prohibited solely because California has always done so before."

Drawing an analogy to the "separate-but-equal" justification for school segregation that prevailed before the Brown decision, the judge held that providing "marriage-like rights without marriage" is insufficient to assure equal protection of the law.

Jackson Trial Update
Monday March 14

Michael Jackson looked much better today in court. The cross-examination of his accuser continues, with the boy making admissions that helpful to the defense.

The accuser was known as a disruptive student and twice told the dean at the school that Jackson never did anything improper to him.

Additional mistakes by law enforcement are coming to light in Friday's Atlanta courthouse shootings:

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Monday that a courthouse surveillance camera recorded Nichols' initial surprise attack on Deputy Cynthia Hall but that no one in the control center noticed the assault.

"It's not just horrible, it was preventable," Senior Superior Court Judge Philip Etheridge told the newspaper. A video camera that is supposed to be monitored by two guards in a command post shows Nichols lunging at Hall and knocking her backward, according to a law enforcement official who saw the tape.

Etheridge said Hall, a petite 51-year-old, should not have been alone with Nichols, a former college linebacker who had been found with two sharpened door hinges in his socks earlier in the week.

From all the interview segments I've seen of hostage Ashley Smith, it sounds like she will be a good mitigation witness for Nichols. That's good news for the lawyers who will be trying to save his life.

by TChris

Tom DeLay's meltdown continues.

And for the first time, a significant number of Republicans have begun to question DeLay's political survival. Frets a senior G.O.P. Congressman about the odor surrounding DeLay: "It just isn't going away."

CNN today recounts DeLay's ethical lapses, his coziness with lobbyists, and his mounting legal problems before asking the question: Will DeLay survive? (CNN's answer, quickly summarized: "Probably, but it depends.")

After the debacle over the ethics rules, more than a few House members say they can ill afford to put their necks out much farther for DeLay. And their support could erode further--and quickly--if they start hearing complaints about DeLay from their constituents at home. ... A more ominous sign for DeLay: those who might succeed him have begun quietly positioning themselves to make a move if the opportunity arises, sources say.

The Judge in the Scott Peterson case is scheduled to rule on Scott Peterson's motion for a new trial Monday. If he denies it, Peterson will be sentenced Wednesday. If the judge affirms the jury's death sentence, he will be transferred from the county jail to San Quentin's death row, where he will wait five years before a lawyer is appointed to represent him in his first appeal.

Out of fear for their safety, a federal judge Saturday issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Administration from transferring 13 Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo to other countries.

Jackson Trial Update
Sunday March 13

Cross-examination of Michael Jackson's accuser resumes tomorrow. The trial is proceeding more rapidly than anticipated. Jackson's lawyer, Tom Mesereau, has been doing an excellent job.

Here's a quick wrap-up of the three juvenile witnesses, the accuser, his brother and his sister:

Newsweek reports on the more than 1,000 American kids who have lost a parent in Iraq.

Bump and Update: Say hello to Stop Fake News, brought to you by Start Change, the same folks who began Stop Sinclair. They are seeking an FCC investigation into President Bush's use of fake news. Turns out, there are at least two laws or regulations that may have been violated:

• 47 U.S.C. 317, the Radio Act, prohibits broadcast stations from airing government-produced programming without proper disclosure.

• 31 U.S.C. 1341, Pub. L. No. 108-199, prohibits the use of public funds for creating and distributing partisan propaganda.

Join their sign-on letter here.

In Appalachia, a Christian foundation has decided not to wait for the Government and its drug war to help their communities.

In the latest initiative, the Christian Appalachian Project announced Friday that it plans to invest $1 million to open long-term rehabilitation centers in Eastern Kentucky to help drug abusers to break their addictions. Bill Mills, president of the ministry that has fed and clothed the poor in Appalachia for 40 years, said churches and other Christian organizations are stepping forward to deal with the drug problem.

"Substance abuse is a plague upon our Eastern Kentucky communities," he said. "It is the most dominant and devastating of the problems we face today. We simply are choosing to be part of the solution."

Here's how they are doing it: