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This was great to see today. Thanks to Jed for making such a great graphic:

And to Walter and Darren for leading me to it.

The great thing about America is that, win or lose, after the elections we still party together. And this year is no different. RMBB is at the Falling Rock Tap House on November 6th.

I'm bringing a camera to catch the fireworks. This is not a politically homogenous group by any stretch. I can't wait to snap a shot of Jeff G. and Steven G. crying in their beer.

For the first time, employees at Guantanamo have come forward and in interviews with the New York Times, contradicted claims of the military on whether there was harsh or coercive treatment of detainees.

Many detainees at Guantánamo Bay were regularly subjected to harsh and coercive treatment, several people who worked in the prison said in recent interviews, despite longstanding assertions by military officials that such treatment had not occurred except in some isolated cases.

The people, military guards, intelligence agents and others, described in interviews with The New York Times a range of procedures that included treatment they said was highly abusive occurring over a long period of time, as well as rewards for prisoners who cooperated with interrogators.

The Times goes on to describe some of the abusive treatment to which the detainees were subjected for as long as 14 straight hours at a time.

"It fried them,'' the official said, explaining that anger over the treatment the prisoners endured was the reason for speaking with a reporter.

Here's how the Times describes its sources:

The new information comes from a number of people, some of whom witnessed or participated in the techniques and others who were in a position to know the details of the operation and corroborate their accounts.

Those who spoke of the interrogation practices at the naval base did so under the condition that their identities not be revealed. While some said it was because they remained on active duty with the military, they all said that being publicly identified would endanger their futures.

Kudos to the guards for speaking out.

A highly credible report substantiates the existence of Gulf War syndrome .

Thousands of veterans of the 1991 war suffer from unexplained poor health. Servicemen and women from the US, UK, Canada and France who took part in the operation to drive Saddam Hussein's forces from Kuwait have reported one or more symptoms, including memory loss, chronic fatigue and dizziness.

...The findings are in a report by the influential Research Advisory Committee on Gulf war veterans' illness, leaked to the New York Times. Committee chief scientist Professor Beatrice Golombe said that exposure to certain substances in the Gulf may have altered some troops' body chemistry. ...The US report said the troops' problems were definitely caused by exposure to toxic chemicals rather than stress or psychiatric illness. Potential sources include Iraqi nerve gas and drugs given to the troops to protect them from chemical weapons.

The original October 14 New York Times article on the study is here. It says "an estimated 100,000 Gulf War veterans, or about one in seven, suffer war-related health problems."

Yaser Hamdi, back home in Saudi Arabia after three years in a military brig in South Carolina, is speaking out. He asserts his innocence. He says the military knows he's innocent--otherwise they would never have let him go.

Hamdi was interviewed on CNN Thursday. He says he is not bitter. Here's the transcript of the interview. Check out that smile, is he glad to be home or what?

Here's more.

On the campaign trail today....

Bush sought to counter suggestions that there will be a military draft if he's re-elected, but the president almost blew his line.

He said that, after a debate with Kerry, "I made it very plain. We will not have an all-volunteer army." The crowd fell silent. "WE WILL have an all-volunteer army," Bush said, quickly catching himself. "Let me restate that. We will not have a draft."

[Link via Atrios.]

Received from a reliable source:

On September 8, oral arguments were offered in the case of Griffin v. Roupas before the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. The plaintiffs argued that the way the absentee ballot system works in Illinois (a) discriminates against people like working mothers, and (b) makes it easier for a well organized machine to defraud the system.

Yesterday, with BLINDING SPEED--ie, in time for the election--Judge Richard Posner handed down the following decision, rudely, curtly, missing the plaintiff's arguments by a mile.

The briefs can be downloaded here (type 03 in first bank, 3770 in second). The oral arguments can be heard here:

Bottom line: The broad langauge of Judge Posner's precedent will make it harder to challenge states when they take actions to restrict voting opportunities, especially working people and low-income voters.

Watch the games begin November 3.

by TChris

During the debates, President Bush announced that he has only one test for judicial appointments: he won't appoint "activist" judges. Of course, those who toil in the federal courts recognize that many of the conservative judges he favors pursue an activist philosophy. When the Fourth Circuit decides that the Miranda decision doesn't mean what it says, that's activism. When the Seventh Circuit decides that failing to hire a pregnant woman for fear that she won't return to work after having her baby isn't pregnancy discrimination, that's activism. And when Republican-appointed judges refuse to enforce environmental laws, that's activism.

A report (pdf) by the Environmental Law Institute examines the judicial response to lawsuits filed under the National Environmental Policy Act, a 1970 law that requires federal agencies to produce environmental impact statements before undertaking a project that might have a significant environmental impact.

Federal judges appointed by Democratic presidents are at least three times more likely than those appointed by Bush to rule in favor of plaintiffs who sue the federal government for violating certain environmental regulations, the report found. ... The report shows that federal district judges appointed by a Democratic president ruled in support of pro-environment NEPA cases 60 percent of the time, while GOP-appointed judges ruled in support 28 percent of the time. (The Bush appointees, by comparison, only ruled in favor 17 percent of the time.)

Bush appointees constitute 23 percent of active federal judges. Can the country afford to have President Bush choosing activist judges for another four years?

Five more U.S. soldiers lost their lives Saturday in Iraq, victims of car bombings.

The clerics in Fallujah are threatening a jihad if the U.S. doesn't quit trying to take over the city.

In a separate statement read Friday in Sunni mosques in Baghdad and elsewhere, Fallujah clerics threatened a civil disobedience campaign across the country if the Americans try to overrun the city.

The clerics said if civil disobedience were not enough to stop a U.S. assault, they would proclaim a jihad, or holy war, against all U.S. and multinational forces "as well as those collaborating with them."

They insisted that the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi was not in Fallujah, claiming his alleged presence "is a lie just like the weapons of mass destruction lie." "Al-Zarqawi has become the pretext for flattening civilians houses and killing innocent civilians," the statement said.

A Fallujah delegation said it would resume negotiations with the U.S. if it would stop bombing the city.

In Afghanistan, two U.S. soldiers were killed by a bomb Saturday.

And an Annenberg military poll shows:

62 percent in the military sample said the administration didn't send an adequate number of troops to Iraq. And 59 percent said too much of a burden has been put on the National Guard and the reserves when regular forces should have been expanded instead.

Everybody's buzzing about Jon Stewart's Crossfire appearance tonight in which he lit into Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson. Stewart called Carlson "a dick." He called both of them "partisan hacks." Here's the official transcript from CNN.

Dave Cullen sums up the appearance. So does Salon.

The Free Speech Zone has the video of Jon Stewart's appearance on Crossfire tonight. If you have trouble getting into the site as I did, try these links.

[Comments now closed. Thanks to all for adding your thoughts.]

Karl Rove bit the bullet and testified before the grand jury investigating the leak of the identity of former CIA operative Valerie Plame.

"He's doing his part to cooperate," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan, traveling with Bush on campaign visits to Iowa and Wisconsin.

Second piece of spin:

White House aides would not give any other details about the proceedings, which are secret.

There is no secrecy rule for federal grand jury witnesses. They can tell all they want about what they were asked and how they responded. The secrecy rule applies to prosecutors, grand jurors, investigators and others involved in the proceedings.

Fed. R. Crim. P. Rule 6(e)(2) Secrecy.

(A) No obligation of secrecy may be imposed on any person except in accordance with Rule 6(e)(2)(B).

(B) Unless these rules provide otherwise, the following persons must not disclose a matter occurring before the grand jury:

(i) a grand juror;

(ii) an interpreter;

(iii) a court reporter;

(iv) an operator of a recording device;

(v) a person who transcribes recorded testimony;

(vi) an attorney for the government; or

(vii) a person to whom disclosure is made under Rule 6(e)(3)(A)(ii) or (iii).

Karl Rove could hold a press conference and say what he told the grand jury...if he wanted to.

The Clarion Ledger reports:

A 17-member Army Reserve platoon with troops from Jackson and around the Southeast deployed to Iraq is under arrest for refusing a "suicide mission" to deliver fuel, the troops' relatives said Thursday. The soldiers refused an order on Wednesday to go to Taji, Iraq — north of Baghdad — because their vehicles were considered "deadlined" or extremely unsafe, said Patricia McCook of Jackson, wife of Sgt. Larry O. McCook.