TalkLeft will hit 5 million visitors today. We began in June, 2002 with this post, some of which we got right...

It has become readily apparent that this Administration is not interested in preserving our rights, only in convincing a fearful public that it is fighting terrorism.

We really like the way the ACLU has jumped on Mr. Ashcroft and the administration since Sept. 11.

We think the FBI has no business engaging in domestic spying. Not after all its past abuses.

And some of which turned out to be wishful thinking:

It seems like progressive and liberal websites and blogs are sprouting daily. Hopefully it will be in time to cause a major defeat for the Republicans in the 2002 elections.

2002 and 2004 are now behind us. Hopefully we'll be here for 2006. If at first you don't succeed.....

I'm off to court in the mountains ....50 degrees in Denver, snowing up there. I hope you'll catch up with our weekend posting, and check out the great blogs nominated for the Koufax Liberal blogging awards (links on top left). This is also an open thread for you.

What makes you more likely the target of a drug cop on the Interstate? Texas Officer Tracey Freeman says,

[he]targets the drivers who go 5 mph over the speed limit, or who change lanes without signaling first. He checks to see if people's license plates are lighted, or whether they're wearing seatbelts.

So where do the dogs come in?

After stopping a car for a minor violation, Freeman, Gregg County's crime interdiction officer, walks up to the front passenger's window. He checks insurance and driver's license, studies the car's occupants to see if they're nervous, and he smells for marijuana. He introduces himself and asks where they're headed.

If Freeman thinks they're hauling drugs, he'll ask to search the car. In three years fewer than 10 people have refused. But if they do, or if he can't find anything and is still suspicious, he brings in Luctor the drug dog.

The Supreme Court is set to deliver a decision on drug dogs this term.

Ok, this is carrying the law and order thing way too far. Charter school officials in Texas strip-searched ten 11 and 12 year olds, "down to their underwear," looking for a ten dollar bill another student reported missing. Can you imagine if it were drugs they were looking for? Cavity searches, for sure.

This wasn't even in a backwater town. It was 40 miles from Houston. [link via Last One Speaks.]

Bump and Update: Jury selection begins Monday.

Coleman's trial on the perjury charges, which centers on whether he lied about his own arrest record during the evidentiary hearings for four defendants in 2003, was to begin with jury selection Monday. It was expected to last about a week.

Don't forget to check Grits for Breakfast where guestblogger Rev. Alan Bean is live-blogging the trial.

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Original Post 1/8/05

Tom Coleman is the undercover drug cop responsible for the convictions of 38 mostly black defendants in Tulia, Texas. He was found to be non-credible, the convictions were overturned and the defendants were pardoned. They even received a $5 million settlement. He is about to go on trial for perjury.

He may be suffering in the court of public opinion, but Bernie Kerik is still in demand among one group--jailers.

[the]...former nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security will be a keynote speaker [today] at the American Correctional Association's conference in Phoenix.

"Mr. Kerik's tales of leadership, valor and determination will serve as motivation for hundreds of attendees in reaching their desired goals," the association says on its Web site.

Kerik was booked for the speaking gig a long time ago, and the group's President said it would be awkward to cancel now. His topic is terrorist threats to prisons and jails. He has waived his speaking fee.

There are 790 men in Truro, MA and police want to take the DNA of all of them to try and solve a murder. They want to know who last had sex with the victim.

"The person we're looking for is the one who deposited the DNA" by having sex with Ms. Worthington before she died, Sergeant Perry said. "We're not saying that this is the killer. What we're saying is we need to talk to this person, who may be just the last person to see her alive."

We've been down all night from what Instaundit says is another DDOS attack at Hosting Matters, which is the hosting company for both of our weblogs. Lots of weblogs, actually. They are excellent hosts.

We don't have a backup blog to let you know about these things, but Instapundit does, here. So if you can't find us, you might check his backup blog to see if it's a server or hosting problem.

On a related note, we moved CrimeLynx (our legal resource site) to Hosting Matters this weekend, so if you wondering what's up there, same story. And you may have to refresh your bookmark for the change to go through.

CrimProf blog today discusses possible sources of the leak of Barry Bonds federal grand jury testimony in the "Balco case" to the San Francisco Chronicle. The Judge in the case has denied the defense request to dismiss the charges due to the leak, ruling that it has not been proved that the source was the government or an agent.

Conte, Anderson, lab Vice President James Valente and veteran track coach Remi Korchemny are charged with conspiring to distribute human growth hormone, testosterone cream and a designer steroid called THG to star athletes through the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative in Burlingame. All four men have pleaded not guilty and are free on bail.

...In the two days after the hearing, The Chronicle published articles based on transcripts of grand jury testimony by Bonds, of the San Francisco Giants, and the New York Yankees' Jason Giambi. Giambi said he took steroids supplied by Anderson; Bonds described using similar-looking substances obtained from his trainer but said he thought they were flaxseed oil and arthritis cream.

That's not the only leak that the defense believes the Government has made to the media:

Opening arguments begin tomorrow in the military trial of Charles Graner, the alleged ringleader of the guards in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. His lawyer, Guy Womack, says Graner may testify in his own defense. Womack says it is very unusual for him to allow a client to testify in his own defense, but that Graner can tell his story better than anyone else. I'll bet he can.

Womack plans to argue that Graner was told by higher-ranking soldiers and intelligence agents to rough up the detainees prior to interrogation, and that he had no choice but to obey despite personal misgivings.

You see any misgivings here?

The Seattle Times is running a series by reporter Ray Rivera, beginning today, of the failed case against Guantanamo Army Chaplin Captain James Yee. Background is here.

Yee was granted an honorable discharge Friday. We suggested he receive one last March. All of our coverage of the Yee case is accessible here. [link via How Appealing.]

Quite a coup for blogger Tom Burka of Opinions You Should Have who has a satirical op-ed on Alberto Gonzales, the Tsunami, filibusters and other news stories in Saturday's New York Times. This part made me laugh out loud:

As the result of a bureaucratic slip-up, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was inadvertently included in the United States government delegation sent to comfort tsunami victims in Southeast Asia.

"Waves happen," Mr. Rumsfeld told survivors. "Weather is untidy. Sometimes you have to make do with the weather you get instead of the weather you want."

Mr. Rumsfeld also criticized the news coverage of the disaster. "They just keep showing the same wave over and over again," he said.

The LA Times has a long article on jail food. If the thought of doing time doesn't seem like a big deal to you, it might after you read this. County jails, where people go for more minor crimes, may be the worst, although maximum security is no picnic either.

One problem is the budget. California's county jails allot $2.25 per day per inmate. The state prison is $2.45 and the feds fork over $2.78).

Think about eating something that is made in batches for 17,000, as do the inmates in LA county jails.

[the] inmate crew stirred 100-gallon kettles of carrots and beans with paddles big enough to row a boat. Although it was late morning, the vegetables were for dinner, the jail's only hot meal.

....In the kitchen, inmate laborers washed the remains of instant mashed potatoes from bathtub-size kettles. Pans of the potatoes were stocked in walk-in "quick chill" refrigerators. Quick chilling allows the prison to start meals two days in advance. The food is cooked, then "blast cooled" in the refrigerators to within a few degrees of freezing. On serving day, it is reheated.

This reaction from an inmate doing life is probably typical:

"If I don't eat, I don't survive, but it's not like I look forward to it," he said. "After so many years you get immune to it. You just swallow."