Chutzpah department: the Management and Training Corporation (MTC), a Utah corporation selected by John Ashcroft to run the Abu Ghraib prison is bidding on contracts to run British prisons.

After Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled, John Ashcroft, the US attorney general, put MTC director Lane McCotter in charge of reopening Iraq's prison system. He helped to rebuild Abu Ghraib and trained Iraqi citizens to work in prisons.

McCotter, a Vietnam veteran, has a chequered record of running US jails. In 1997 he was forced to resign as a senior prison official in Utah after a scandal surrounding the death of a mentally ill inmate strapped naked to a chair for 16 hours. This year, Schumer wrote to Ashcroft, asking why someone with McCotter's controversial history was sent to Iraq.

Last year MTC was criticised by the US Justice Department over its management of Santa Fe prison in New Mexico which was found to have unsafe conditions and lack adequate medical care for inmates. The company said the problems have been resolved and it has had its contract renewed.

British prisons are plagued with problems, but as Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said:

If you're thinking about writing a fiction work that has anything to do with a crime caper involving terrorists, you may want to re-think your project. It didn't work out too well for this published novelist, who was interviewed by fellow novelist Stephanie Bond. [Bond doesn't have a permalink for the interview so scroll down...the novelist is referred to as "Dilyn."]

Bond says Dilyn's experience with being raided is not an uncommon occurrence for writers and is another example of the dangers of the Patriot Act. She reminds us that a vote for Bush will be a vote for Patriot Act II.

The editorial endorsements for John Kerry keep rolling in. Several are from papers that endorsed Bush in 2000. Here are a few that stand out:

The Des Moines Register goes with Kerry in a state that is a must win battleground for Bush.

"Yes, Kerry is liberal. But what's to fear from a liberal president? That he would run big deficits? That he would increase federal spending? That he would expand the power of the federal government over individuals' lives? Nothing Kerry could do could top what President Bush has already done in those realms."

Another must read is the Orlando Sentinel which endorsed Bush in 2000. This is important because it is in the Tampa Bay/Orlando corridor which is critical to determining Florida's outcome:

Monday, October 25, you can join the Freeway Blogger in promoting "Can You Feel a Draft?" Day.

On October 25th people across the United States will post hand-painted signs on freeway overpasses opposing the reinstatement of the military draft. This nationwide action will occur just ten days after National Freeway Free Speech Day: Driving America to Think, in which more than 700 people posted banners critical of the Iraq War along the nation's highway system.

To see pictures, visit Free Speech Day

Good news to report on the House-Senate conference negtiations over H.R. 10, the intelligence reform bill. Senators It's stalling. The Senate conferees are doing their job so far and refusing to cave in to the demands of right wing Republican House members.

Our opposition stems from the inclusion in the House version of extreme law enforcment and immigration powers, and new death penalty offenses, none of which were recommended by the 9/11 Commisison.

However, those provisions are in Title IV of the bill. The conferees are still stuck on Title I.

by TChris

A mentally disabled janitor spent nine years in prison after being convicted of three murders. David Allen Jones was released in March after being cleared of the crimes. DNA evidence points to Chester Turner as the true killer. In fact, Turner may have been responsible for the murder of a dozen Los Angeles women between 1987 and 1998.

by TChris

Apparently deciding not to interfere (again) with a state's election process, the Supreme Court declined to order Pennsylvania to place Ralph Nader's name on the November ballot.

Nader's request for a review went to Justice David H. Souter, who referred the matter to the full court. The justices on Saturday denied the appeal. Nader wanted the justices to put him on the ballot while they considered whether to hear an appeal of the Pennsylvania ruling.

Nader contended that Pennsylvania violated the First Amendment rights of people whose signatures on his nomination papers weren't counted because they weren't registered voters. Lack of voter registration, however, may not have been the only problem with the signatures.

On Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld a lower court that had found the petition sheets were "rife with forgeries." The lower court determined that fewer than 19,000 of the more than 51,000 signatures submitted were valid; Nader needed at least 25,697 to be listed on the ballot.

Nader may still play a spoiler's role as his name will be on the ballot in at least 34 states and in the District of Columbia.

by TChris

John Kerry frequently reminds voters that President Bush instituted a "back door draft" by using stop loss orders to force members of the "volunteer" Army to remain in uniform after their terms of service expire. Now a soldier who completed his service and resigned -- and who wasn't subject to a stop loss order -- has been ordered to report to duty. To his credit, he's fighting back.

Jay Ferriola, a 31-year-old Manhattan resident, handed in his resignation in June after eight years of active and reserve duty, according to the suit filed in Manhattan Federal Court. But even though his commanding officer recommended that he be granted a discharge, the military never sent out the paperwork, the suit says, and on Tuesday, Ferriola got orders dated Oct. 8 sending him to war.

Ferriola's attorney, Barry Slotnick, says the Army should uphold the contract it made with Ferriola in 1993. The lawsuit contends that the Army's refusal to honor its agreement subjects Ferriola to involuntary servitude in violation of the Thirteenth Amendment.

Although courts do not equate the draft with slavery, we don't have a draft. Or at least that's what the President says. Ferriola's experience strengthens Kerry's argument that the administration has effectively instituted a draft by refusing to let military service come to an end.

The Republicans are taking no chances. On Election day, they are sending out thousands of recruits in Ohio and other swing states to try and find voters who aren't eligible to vote.

Good. The more people they waste on this effort, the fewer they will have available for important stuff like driving voters to their polling places and making sure their supporters vote.

Good for another reason. Undecided voters arriving at polling precincts to find Republicans playing the part of cops and detectives are going to be very annoyed. Maybe enough to make them decide to vote for Kerry.

I can just see my polling place now. On one side will be Democrats trying to ensure my right to vote is intact. On the other side will be Republicans trying to take it away. Who to vote for will be a no-brainer.

Hmmm...just how much of Bush's resume is padded? Knights-Ridder reports on a new potential exaggeration, totally unrelated to his National Guard service--his much touted public service work in Project P.U.L.L. If true, it shows Bush is far more the recipient of compassionate croneyism than the promoter of compassionate conservatism:

President Bush often has cited his work in 1973 with a now-defunct inner-city program for troubled teens as the source for his belief in "compassionate conservatism."

Bush says in his 1999 autobiography:

The LA Times examines who the soldiers in Iraq will vote for on E-day and says there is one paramount issue--which candidate has an exit strategy.

Sinclair proceeded with plans to air some of the anti-Kerry film 'Stolen Honor' tonight. Did anyone see it? Was it any less anti-Kerry because of the "news format" they decided to adopt after protests caused the company stock to fall?