Six released Kuwaiti prisoners, held in Afghanistan, have made serious abuse allegations against U.S. soldiers:

Six Kuwaiti prisoners said they were severely beaten, given electric shocks and sodomized by U.S. forces in Afghanistan before they confessed to fighting with the Taliban and were sent to the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, their lawyer said Monday.

Captured in Pakistan or Afghanistan about three years ago, the Kuwaiti men were taken to U.S. bases in Afghanistan where they were hung by their wrists, beaten with chains and subjected to electric shock, said Tom Wilner, who represents a dozen Kuwaiti captives.

Howard Dean is the last man standing. Tim Roemer has dropped out of the race for DNC Chair.

It's curious that Roemer is still pitching that Dems need to be more inclusive and less divisive. What could be more divisive to Democrats than his anti-choice position:

Roemer said he hoped to make the party more inclusive, especially on the issue of abortion. He opposes abortion except in cases of rape, incest and the health of the mother.

Contratulations, Dr. Dean.

Watergate's "Deep Throat" is ill and the Washington Post has already written his obituary, according to John Dean who also writes that Deep Throat's identity will be revealed shortly.

Dean thinks it's one of his former compatriots at the Nixon White House. He will be discussing this tonight on MSNBC's Countdown.

Over at Romanesko, Author Adrian Havill writes that Deep Throat is none other than former President George Walker Bush. Who is not ill, as far as we know. Editor and Publisher has more.

Update: Guilty all counts.

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The jury has reached a verdict in the trial of defrocked Priest Paul Shanley. It will be read later this afternoon. Background here.

With all the talk of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, it's important to remember that abuse occurs here as well. SK Bubba has the details of a Tennessee case in which four sheriff's deputies have been indicted by the feds, and the transcript of an audio tape on which it is established that they brutally beat a drug suspect into signing a consent to search his home. The news article is here.

They launched the attack with a stunningly simple message. "It's (expletive) over, son."

For two hours, authorities say, that message would be pounded into Lester Eugene Siler's head and body, reinforced with the barrel of a gun and echoed in threats of electrocution.

Dateline aired an excellent program a few days ago on New York's Palladium murder. It looks to be a case of faulty eyewitness evidence and prosecutorial withholding of evidence, made all the more compelling by the extraordinary dedication of a detective who wouldn't give up fighting to prove the convicted mens' innocence. The transcript from the show is here.

Three weeks after the shooting, eyewitnesses identified 22-year-old David Lemus in a photo array. At the time, he was a part-time construction worker going to night school to become a carpenter's apprentice. Five weeks later, he was picked out again in a lineup, arrested and charged with murder.

Say hello to The Next Left...it has great photos accompanying the entries. [via TBogg]

Scotus Blog got a bloglift and a new address, update your bookmarks.

Oregon has charged three mothers with passing drugs on to their babies through the umbilical cord or by breast-feeding.

Similar cases in other states have raised legal questions about holding drug-addicted mothers accountable. "No one is saying it's OK to use (drugs) or for pregnant women to use," said criminal defense attorney Karla Nash, who represents one of the women who has been charged. "But pregnant women should be able to communicate openly and honestly with health care providers without being concerned about prosecution."

Court rulings on these laws have varied widely across the country. Florida courts take this view:

Journalist Silja J.A. Talvi went undercover at the American Correctional Association’s 2005 Winter Conference in Phoenix last month. The organization of wardens was originally designed to promote " rehabilitation, religious redemption and humane treatment of prisoners." But that was back in 1870. Today, Talvi writes, its focus has shifted to profiting from inmates.

Scores of individuals from prison acquisition and purchasing departments, consulting agencies, and the ranks of high-level prison administrators had come to the conference for networking, recruiting and, above all, business.

And they weren't disappointed.

Time Magazine's cover story trumpets the 25 most influential evangelicals in America....all of them chafing at the bit to push Bush's faith-based initiatives.

Number 5 is the rehabilitated Charles Colson, who is praised by none other than Bush's former Solicitor General and Richard Mellon Scaife crony from American Spectator and Arkansas Project days, Ted Olson. Check out Media Transparency's analysis of religious groups funded largely by the Scaife Foundations.

Bump and Update: We wrote this Saturday but it's a big story today so we're bumping it.

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Here's what Bush is proposing in his new budget:

• slashing grants to local law enforcement agencies
• cutting spending for environmental protection,
• cutting funds for American Indian schools
• cutting funds for home-heating aid for the poor

He's alloting 1/2 the amount he allotted last year for school districts in poor neighborhoods. Here are some more details:

University of Colorado Ethnic Studies Professor Ward Churchill continues to be a hot topic of debate, both in MSM and by bloggers. Here's the latest:

In one corner, we have Law Professor Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit, writing at his MSNBC blog. Glenn says that Churchill shouldn't be fired, but he is very critical of Churchill as a scholar. In the opposite corner, is Kurt Nimmo, writing for Counterpunch, who sees similarities between Churchill and Sami al-Arian, the professor from Tampa who has been sitting in a jail cell in isolation awaiting trial on terrorism charges, which Nimmo says largely stem form pro-Palestinian views.