by TChris

A police union that evidently has little else to do produced a 44 page report criticizing the "special treatment" given to Diana Ross while serving her sentence for drunk driving.

[Police Chief] Walters allowed Ross to keep a cellular telephone in her jail cell, have food delivered and let her go home in the middle of her sentence ...

Other inmates deserve the humane treatment extended to Ross, but the real question is why the union -- which "voted no confidence in the chief this month, citing the Ross issue and other matters" -- is so upset. Have a heart, people. It's Christmas.

Rudy Giuliani isn't getting the pass he wants from the Kerik story quite yet. The New York Times Friday details the many lawsuits for damages the city of New York incurred during his watch, quite a few of which are ongoing--suits that allege Rudy or his senior aides violated the plaintiffs' constitutional rights.

In the three years since Michael R. Bloomberg succeeded Mr. Giuliani, the city has spent close to $2 million to settle lawsuits brought by residents and city workers who accused the Giuliani administration of retaliating against them for exercising free speech or other constitutional rights.

Michael Hess, Giuliani's current partner at Giuliani Partners, says the suits amount to a drop in the bucket. Pocket change, right?

I'll agree that settling a lawsuit is not an acknowledgement of the correctness or truth of the prevailing party's allegations--it's more a litigation strategy and an assessment of the risk/reward ratio of going to trial. That's not the issue.

The point I'm making is that for the Times and other papers to be publishing this stuff now shows that Rudy is no longer "the golden boy"--a position he never, ever deserved to hold in the first place. Rudy was on his last leg when September 11 came around. His divorce woes had made him a laughing stock. He was pummeled by the press every day. His prostate cancer and withdrawal from the Senate race against Hillary led many to conclude his political career was over.

The Kerik mess has dethroned Rudy. It's probably the way the Republicans want it, since they think he's liberal on social justice issues. They may even be engineering it. I won't be surprised if the media begins re-hashing the Donna Hanover stories next. That ought to be the final nail in the coffin of Rudy's political aspirations. [hat tip to Terry K.]

When I first read the news of ex-Conn. Republican Governor John Rowland pleading guilty this morning, there was no mention of the likely sentence. I assumed he made a deal for probation or house arrest. This more recent article says Roland faces 15 to 21 months in jail.

Rowland was accused of allowing state contractors to renovate his beach house and accepting similar perks and then lying about it.

Federal prosecutors last year accused Rowland of accepting free renovations to his vacation cottage as well as charter flights and vacations from a state contractor, and of defrauding the Internal Revenue Service by not paying taxes on the free services.

He stepped down to avoid impeachment. Now Rowland has pleaded guilty to one count of "conspiracy to deprive the state of his honest services."

Rowland was considered as a possible VP choice for Bush in 2000.

This didn't take long. President Bush has resubmitted 20 rejected extremists for federal judgeships. Among them: Alabama Attorney General William Pryor; Priscilla Owen; Richard Allen Griffin, David W. McKeague; Henry Saad; Janice Rogers Brown and William G. Myers III.

Opponents say many of the stalled nominees opposed abortion rights, preservation of the environment and civil rights safeguards. ``It's a slap in the face of the Senate and a show of contempt for many of the issues Americans care about the most,'' said Nan Aron, director of the Alliance for Justice, which opposes a number of Bush's nominees.

Then there is William Haynes, who as General Counsel for the Department of Defense, submitted the infamous "torture memo" to Rumsfeld.

Charges that the Democrats are being obstuctionists are ill-founded. More than 200 of Bush's appointees were approved in his first term. The Dems have strategically chosen the worst of the worst to oppose. Even Harry Reid is on board so far to oppose these nominations:

Mainstream media in House Minority Leader Harry Reid's home state of Nevada has taken note of liberal bloggers' opposition to his appointment.

Bloggers and liberal Web pages called for Reid's defeat and the election instead of Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, Richard Durbin of Illinois or even Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

One of the first came from TalkLeft.com, which the day after the election posted this notice: "TalkLeft supports Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, primarily on his record, yet also because he comes from a solidly Democratic state, and Republicans won't be able to successfully target him for removal the way they did [Tom] Daschle."

The article continues with opposition by several other bloggers and then notes:

Soon, liberals in the mainstream media were joining the effort.

by TChris

TalkLeft recently called attention to the stingy pardon practices of two Georges: Pataki and Bush. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger merits at least mild praise for the pardons he granted to three drug offenders who (according to his proclamation) "turned their lives around through hard work and public service and years later are pillars of their communities." Three is not a generous number -- c'mon Governor, it's Christmas! -- but it beats the number pardoned during all the years Gray Davis was in office: zero.

Proposition 200 which allows Arizona to deny benefits to undocumented residents went into effect today after a federal judge lifted a stay order.

Prop 200, which was approved by the voters in November, requires state and municipal employees to confirm the immigration status of applicants for welfare and various other public benefits. U.S. District Judge David Bury ruled Wednesday that Prop 200 did not go beyond the scope of existing federal law that requires applicants for public benefits to provide proof of eligibility.

An appeal is expected to be filed today or Monday. The law encompasses welfare, and five programs in particular:

General Assistance, Sight Conservation, Neighbors Helping Neighbors, Utility Repair, Replacement and Deposit and the Supplemental Payment Program.

Everyone likes a feel-good Christmas story, here is our's this year- from The Onion, titled Weed Delivery Guy Saves Christmas. It's off-beat, kind of funny and has nothing to do with religion. It begins:

MADISON, WI-The holidays evoke images of carolers and hot cocoa, sleigh rides through the crisp country air, and chestnuts roasting on an open fire. But for the four residents of a drafty little apartment on Johnson Street, such holiday traditions seemed nothing more than fairy tales. For, through a combination of poverty, circumstance, and plain old bad luck, these young gentlemen nearly saw their holiday dreams shattered like so many fallen ornaments.

Almost, but not quite. For although there would be no Yule log in the fireplace, a crackling blaze of another kind would come to warm the hearts of the hapless roommates. For, these four lucky friends had a guardian angel watching over them, and this is the heartwarming true story of how the weed delivery guy saved Christmas.

Follow the link for the rest of the heartwarming tale.

One of Rudy Giuliani's last feats as Mayor was to rename the Manhattan Detention Center the Bernard B. Kerik complex. Will Rudy ever live down his endorsement of Kerik?

Rudy has not been completely forthright regarding Kerik. As we reported here, in April, 2002, at Kerik's retirement dinner, Rudy called Kerik "the brother he never had." After Kerik withdrew his nomination, Rudy denied being particularly close to Kerik.

Rudy said Kerik wasn't really part of the company, despite his "vice president" title and despoite the fact that a joint venture of Giuliani Partners is named Giuliani-Kerik, LLP(now to be renamed Giuliani Security & Safety.

Giuliani said repeatedly that Kerik's role in the firm is very limited, representing "less than 5 percent" of its business. He also said that Kerik's position was largely limited to their joint venture, Giuliani-Kerik. "He's not part of Giuliani Partners," the former mayor said.

I hope Rudy and Judy move to the Hamptons and live happily ever after, far away from electoral politics.

Sara Olson of California was married to an al Qaeda member before 9/11. She tried to tell the FBI and they ignored her.

Saraah Olson says she watched as her then-husband, Hisham Diab, and his group transformed local teen Adam Gadahn into an America-hating fanatic who she says is the masked man who promised in an al Qaeda video message released in Pakistan late October that the "streets of America will run red with blood."

Olson says blind Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and other bin Laden deputies stayed at her home.

Olson said she repeatedly tried to notify the FBI of her husband's suspicious activities, but that she was never taken seriously. "I'm in hell," Olson remembers thinking after she recognized Abdel-Rahman in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombings. "I have entered the bowels of hell and I'm going to be here forever. And I've only been married seven months. I've got a terrorist in my house."

A statistical breakdown has been performed on the 440 inmates doing time in New York under the Rockefeller drug laws who may be eligible for release when the new law goes into effect (referred to as A-1 felons.) Bottom line: They differ in several ways from both the general prison population and lower-level drug offenders.

There is a greater percentage of A-1 felons born abroad, particularly in the Dominican Republic, as compared to the general prison population. There are more hispanics and fewer blacks than in the general population. For example, 1/3 of the A-1 inmates are black while 50% of the general population and 60% of low level drug offenders are black. Only 8% of A-1's are white--there is a greater percentage of whites in the general population.

Experts disagree on the reason for the disparate numbers. The only good news is that there are fewer A-1 inmates these days.

Time Magazine's Man of the Year is old news already. Out today is P.C. Magazine's People of the Year and it is a joint award to Blogger.com 's Evan Williams, Meg Hourihan, and Paul Bausch, and Ben and Mena Trott of Six Apart , (creators of Movable Type and Typepad). I got a little surprise reading the first paragraph - TalkLeft is now an "accredited member of the Fourth Estate."

Blogs—short for weblogs, or online diaries—have been around for more than a decade. But this year, the blog found a new role as an accredited member of the fourth estate. Select bloggers were allowed the same access as traditional journalists at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, among them Patrick Belton at Oxblog.com and Jeralyn Merritt at www.TalkLeft.com, powered by blog tools Blogger and Movable Type, respectively.

Also prominently featured: Technorati.

Technorati, a blog-tracking service, keeps tabs on over 3 million weblogs in what has come to be known as the blogosphere. According to Technorati, a new weblog is created every 5.8 seconds, or about 15,000 new blogs a day. There are blogs out there for everyone, and the audience is growing: A February 2004 study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project says about 11 percent, or about 50 million, of Internet users are regular blog readers.

Thanks, P.C. Magazine.