So much for accountability for misdeeds that occur on your watch. The Pentagon reports that Maj. General Geoffrey Miller, who was in charge of Guantanamo prison from 2002 to 2004 as well as Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, where widespread torture and abuse occurred, has been promoted:

Miller ran Guantanamo Bay from October 2002 to March 2004 and has been credited by senior Pentagon officials with improving the amount of useful intelligence gleaned from terrorism suspects held there. In August 2003, Miller was sent to Iraq to provide advice on the screening of detainees, their interrogations and the collection of intelligence. Among his recommendations was that military police be actively involved in ``setting the conditions'' for successful interrogations.

Miller's promotion puts him in a senior staff position at the Pentagon.

Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller will be the Army's assistant chief of staff for installation management, with responsibility for the housing, environmental and other support operations at Army bases.

Meet the new boss in Iraq. He's Maj. Gen. William Brandenburg. His background:

.... [he was] deputy commander of the U.S. Army Pacific, based in Hawaii, since August 2003. He served much of his career in the infantry, mostly in Europe and the United States. He also was chief of staff of the Army's 5th Corps, its largest organization in Europe.

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In the past two months, the number of Iraqi detainees held by the U.S. has doubled to approximately 8,300. The number is expected to increase in the coming weeks. Anxious to overcome negative perceptions caused by the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, the U.S. says it has turned over a new leaf:

Detainees in U.S. military custody are kept in recently constructed camps with climate-controlled tents, a visitation center and three hot meals a day. For the most cooperative prisoners, there are movies and a library.

The U.S. says the Red Cross is satisfied with the new procedures:

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which in the past was sharply critical of the handling of Iraqis in U.S. custody, has been "very positive" in its recent reports and expressed "no significant" concerns, Miller said. "We're down to talking about the type of toothbrush being issued to detainees," he said.

Just like the Holiday Inn? We'll wait to hear what the detainees and the Red Cross have to say when they speak for themselves.

Say hello to American, Christian nation. Just three weeks after the elections, Republicans in Congress are already planning how to wield their increased majority power. Among the first items on their list: Passing faith-based legislation.

With Minority Leader Tom Daschle leaving the Senate and Republican gains in both chambers of Congress, supporters of President Bush's faith-based initiative hope to quickly pass into law next year legislation providing tax incentives for donations to faith-based and other charities. "We plan to move it as one of the first things," said Sen. Rick Santorum, Pennsylvania Republican and sponsor of the measure.

What's more, some conservative Republicans want to resurrect Bush's older, more objectionable "charitable choice" plan:

Charitable choice applies to some federal grant programs and allows faith-based groups to receive federal funds while maintaining their religious nature, including hiring only people of their same faith.

"We want to come back to it," said Rep. Mike Pence, Indiana Republican and incoming chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee. "We've got a new Senate and a conservative mandate from millions of voters who said 'yes' to traditional values."

Don't look for the Democrats to save us.

A California study of drug offenders suggests that that drug treatment programs are not successful. It's a bum rap, based on a study that used fairly irrelevant criteria, following just 688 offenders for the first six months.

The study looked only at the early months of the program -- July 1 through Dec. 31, 2001 -- when counties were still grappling with how to implement it. [It] found that offenders in rehabilitation were 48 percent more likely to be arrested for a drug offense within a year of starting rehab than drug users who were on parole or probation.

What the article does not mention is that relapse is not only common, it is practically certain during first attempts at drug treatment. Ask a treatment expert how many of their patients relapse in the first six months and the answer is going to be close to 100%. That doesn't mean drug treatment is not effective. It means it is a process, and may take more than one attempt. As one California official pointed out,

the report is not an accurate evaluation because it was "a snapshot in time -- following just 688 cases in 13 counties for the first six months." "We know that procedures have evolved since the early days," she said.... more recent data shows more abusers are completing treatment programs.

Our Republican-dominated Congress has begun to turn up the heat on foreign countries that don't sign "article 98" immunity agreements with the U.S. The countries that don't capitulate stand to lose substantial amounts of foreign aid from the U.S., including amounts that go to programs we have supported in the past because they are in our best interest:

A provision inserted into a $338 billion government spending bill for 2005 would bar the transfer of assistance money from the $2.52 billon economic support fund to a government "that is a party" to the criminal court but "has not entered into an agreement with the United States" to bar legal proceedings against U.S. personnel. The House and Senate are to vote on the budget Dec. 8.....congressional staff members say the legislation would disproportionately hurt small countries with limited strategic importance to the United States.

...Congress's action may affect U.S. Agency for International Development programs designed to promote peace, combat drug trafficking, and promote democracy and economic reforms in poor countries. For instance, the cuts could jeopardize as much as $250 million to support economic growth and reforms in Jordan, $500,000 to promote democracy and fight drug traffickers in Venezuela, and about $9 million to support free trade and other initiatives with Mexico.

We've written a few times about Bush's wrong-headed refusal to sign onto the International Court. A short primer from today's Washington Post:

If your passport is due to expire soon, you might want to consider renewing it earlier than usual-- like now. The State Department has plans to put an embedded computer chip in passports, as early as next year, that raise serious privacy concerns. Critics charge the information can be viewed from several feet away by utlizing a practice called "skimming." It's not just the ACLU that is concerned: Britain, Canada and Germany are chiming in as well.

This is like putting an invisible bull's-eye on Americans that can be seen only by the terrorists," said Barry Steinhardt, the director of the A.C.L.U. Technology and Liberty Program. "If there's any nation in the world at the moment that could do without such a device, it is the United States."

The organization wants the State Department to take security precautions like encrypting the data, so that even if it is downloaded by unauthorized people, it cannot be understood.

Think of it like a "smart card" used at the subway turnstiles or toll booths. The card will soon be required of all visitors to the U.S. who are considered low security (because of the country they are traveling from)and don't need a visa:

Last Thanksgiving, I had a cast on my wrist and reduced my blogging for the weekend. Little did I know then it would get progressively worse until March when I finally had sugery on it. Jay Allen, who is the creator of MT-Blacklist that despams our comments, once had the same thing, called DeQuervain's Tensonsynovitis and began a thread at his blog about it that is still in use today. It was a great place to go and find others with the same problems. Some were musicians, some were engineers, everyone needed their wrists to work.

Thankgiving, 2002, we gave thanks to other bloggers who had helped put us on the blogging map. What's great about re-reading it is the realization that all of them are still blogging.

Analysis of the recently released 15 year study of federal sentencing guidelines in beginning to stream in. One major finding: Since the guidelines were enacted in 1987, the number of blacks imprisoned has increased sharply and they receive harsher sentences than white prisoners:

The 15-year study by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which sets guidelines for federal judges,...found that while sentencing has become "more certain and predictable," disparities still exist among races and regions of the country.

The average sentence for all prisoners has almost doubled to 50 months under the guidelines.

The percentage of whites in prison dropped sharply from nearly 60 percent in 1984 to about 35 percent in 2002....In addition, the gap between sentences for blacks and whites widened. While blacks and whites received an average sentence of slightly more than two years in 1984, blacks stay in prison for about six years, compared with about four years for whites. The report attributed the disparity in part to harsher mandatory minimum sentences that Congress imposed for drug-related crimes, such as cocaine possession. In 2002, 81 percent of these offenders were black.

Sentences are longer in the South than in the Northeast and West. For links to the report, see our earlier post here.

Holiday blogging will be light here, as the TL kid is going to be in town and I'm getting ready to move houses for the first time in 13 years. It doesn't mean non-existent, just light. TChris is away for the holidays, as are lots of bloggers. But having blogged through the past two Thanksgiving holidays, I know that many will be blogging throughout. If you are one of them, or if you know of some, please put them in the comments here, so everyone else will know too.

Don't feed the trolls (post a menu when you see them, that will alert everyone to skip the comments and go onto another thread) and give a read to those on our blogroll. They are there because we think they're special, not because they asked for a link.

If you're interested in Colorado news, 5280 will be live through the holidays, and I'll be contributing. Today I wrote about the new "drug courier profile" being used to catch "doctor-shoppers" in the mountains. Yesterday it was about the new law giving you a free credit report, and how credit card companies are gouging consumers to the gills, while raking in $2.5 billion a month in profits (yes, you read that right.)

One day early, Happy Thanksgiving to all, and a special thanks to TalkLeft readers, commenters and contributers....you are what makes the site a success and keeps it strong.

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Great news for Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish. They were acquitted of murdering Las Vegas casino son Benny Binion. At their last trial, they were both convicted.

After deliberating for about 18 hours, the jury returned on Tuesday morning with their verdicts. They found the defendants not guilty of murder but convicted them of conspiring to commit "burglary and/or larceny" as well as burglary and grand larceny. They were charged after sheriff's deputies discovered Mr. Tabish, less than two days after Mr. Binion's death on Sept. 17, 1998, digging the casino owner's fortune in silver bars and coins out of a vault sunk in the sand near the desert town of Pahrump. While he was in the desert, cellphone records showed, Mr. Tabish spoke at least three times with Ms. Murphy, a former stripper who lived with Mr. Binion until his death and with whom Mr. Tabish had been having an affair.

The two were accused of murdering Mr. Binion, 55, in his Las Vegas home by forcing him to ingest a large quantity of drugs and then suffocating him.

Court tv has all the details. It carried the trial live last year. We even commented on the case during opening arguments for CTV as we happened to be in NY that day.

The John Ashcroft legacy will include, in addition to the Patriot Act, the validity of medical marijuana raids. On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Raich v. Ashcroft. Check out Drug War Rant, which has compiled an incredibly useful guide to the case and the issues it presents. As Pete says, it is a historic case that

....may have significant impact on the future of medical marijuana, states' rights, federal power, and the meaning of the commerce clause. Possibly the most important case in recent years.

Our prior coverage of the case is accessible here.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission has issued its long awaited 15 year summary report on federal sentencing. Law Prof Doug Berman at Sentencing Law and Policy has the details and the important highlights. Links to the actual reports are here.