With the deadline looming today in many states, voter registration soared.

In a glimpse of what the nation might see a month from now, people lined up at election offices and caused parking lot traffic jams as voter registration deadlines fell Monday in more than a dozen states. Many officials reported record numbers of new voters, some said they were overwhelmed, and allegations were already flying about fraud and the disqualification of some voters' applications.

Does anyone seriously believe support for maintaining Bush as President is generating this response?

Political Brew is sponsoring a contest and you can win $500.00.

Play Electoral College Pick'em and win $500! How does it work? You pick the winner in 14 different battleground states and assign point values to each. Get the state right, win that many points. Get it wrong? Lose that many points. Whoever has the highest total wins! All entries must be made by October 8th to keep players in suspense. Only one entry per player is allowed.

[link via Instapundit.]

Wrongfully arrested and detained Oregon lawyer Brandon Mayfield sued Attorney General John Ashcroft today.

The Portland lawyer who was wrongly arrested by FBI agents on suspicion of involvement in Spain's worst terrorist attack filed a lawsuit Monday against the U.S. government, claiming he was singled out because of his Muslim faith.

Brandon Mayfield, a 38-year-old convert to Islam, is accusing the FBI, John Ashcroft and the Department of Justice of violating his civil liberties by wiretapping his Oregon home and filing misleading affidavits to justify his two-week imprisonment, according to court documents filed Monday....Mayfield is seeking unspecified damages as well as a ruling that key provisions of the U.S. Patriot Act are unconstitutional.

Our coverage of the Mayfield case is accessible here .

Four U.S. soldiers from Colorado werecharged with murder today in the suffocation death of Iraqi General Abid Hamed Mowhoush.Our first report on the General's death was in November, 2003:

Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush, an air defense general captured Oct. 5 in a raid near the Syrian border, was being questioned Wednesday while in American custody in Qaim near the Syrian border when lost consciousness after complaining he didn't feel well, the military said in a statement. He was pronounced dead by a U.S. military physician. The cause of death is under investigation, the military said. The statement did not give his age.

In May, 2004, the U.S. announced it had submitted three deaths of Iraqi prisoners to the CIA for investigation. We cited several other publicized cases, and asked, how many more are out there?

Also in May, 2004, the Government began to come clean about the circumstances of Mowhash's death. No longer was it claiming he died from natural causes:

The military has said Mowhoush died during interrogation Nov. 26 from asphyxiation due to smothering and chest compression. The CIA said one of its agents may have been involved and referred the case to the Justice Department. Jaleel died Jan. 9 at a post near Al Asad, Iraq, of blunt force injuries and asphyxia, the Army said last week. The facility was the base camp of the 3rd Armored Cavalry.

Also in May, TChris wrote about the new investigation into Mowhoush's death. He noted:

David Ziff at the Blakely Blog was in the courtroom today for the defense arguments in the Booker and FanFan cases. Here's his synopsis. TChris stood his ground and did not back down. A quote:

When compared to the Justices and Mr. Clement, Mr. Kelly is indeed a criminal trial expert, and it would be interesting to know how much weight the Justices gave to his statements based on experience in the trenches.

It's all very nice and good to argue these cases in the abstract, as professors and law students, but the reality is, that criminal defense attorneys see the inequities of the guidelines on a daily basis. The jury finds X but the defendant gets sentenced for X + Y because of an argument the prosecutor makes to the judge, after the trial, where the burden of proof is reduced and where the rules of evidence aren't applicable. Ashcroft today held a news conference and said, essentially, the guidelines are necessary because they have made the crime rate go down because they send the message that you shouldn't do the crime if you can't do the time.

No one is arguing defendants shouldn't be held accountable for their conduct. It's another thing entirely to double or triple their time based on arguments the jury never hears and the prosecution is allowed to establish by hearsay and speculation.

My prediction: Blakely will be held to apply to the guidelines. If the prosecution is seeking an increase based on additonal facts, there will be need to be a second phase of the trial, where the jury is presented with facts, subject to the rules of Evidence, which the prosecution must establish beyond a reasonable doubt. That's the Constitution, that was our system until 1987 when the Guidelines came in, and since 1987, some defendant somewhere has gotten screwed by the Guidelines every day. Enough.

This is one night to be by the tv if you have cable that gets the Sundance Channel.

Next Monday evening, the Vote for Change tour will culminate in one of the great moments of this election -- a grand finale, televised live on the Sundance Channel, featuring Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band, the Dixie Chicks, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, John Mellencamp, and many other special guests. We're holding watch parties nationwide to celebrate and mobilize. Can you host?

If you don't get Sundance, you can listen on the radio or over the Internet.

Defense Lawyer Mickey Sherman is in the courtroom right now at the Scott Peterson trial in California. There is wi-fi in the courtroom and he's insta-messaging so I can put it up on TalkLeft. [Too bad we couldn't do this with the Supreme Court argument this morning.] Here's what he has to say.

MS: so they put on the Tidal Expert-----Dr. Cheng ---who was not great for the prosecution.

MS: On the stand now is Mike Richardson, friend of Scott and Laci for 7-8 years. He was best man at their wedding. He testified that Scott had changed his cars because he feared a GPS system had been placed on his car by the police. Further---he confirmed that Scott changed the color of his hair. He told us that Scott said it was the result of swimming in someone's pool.

MS: Now they have the guy on who owns the pool and hot tub that Scott supposedly swam in which turned his hair color. Scott had stayed at his home. On direct---he told the prosecutor that Scott never swam in the pool. On cross, he is now saying that Scott may have swam in his pool! This blockbuster testimony is barely keeping the jury awake!!!!

JM: Can you describe Scott when you have a second?

MS: Scott is very attentive to everything and speaking at times to Geragos who seems very much in control here. This morning, he very effectively took apart Dr. Cheng, the tidal expert who basically admitted that he really had never done any work like this before. In a very good-natured manner, Geragos had the entire jury laughing very loudly when Dr. Cheng said that his emails to the prosecutor are never fact checked or reviewed---Geragos remarked---"That's okay---that's why we have cross-examination!"

MS: No smoking guns here today in the last gasps of the prosecution case.

MS: I gotta get over to the MSNBC truck for Dan's show---grab you later.

MS signed off at 3:34 PM

So, if you're by a tv, turn on MSNBC and watch the Abrams Report.

Bump and Update: Law Prof Doug Berman of Sentencing Law and Policy was also in court. Here's his first take, more tonight:

First, I agree with Tom Goldstein's post here that the Blakely five will stay together to apply Blakely to the federal system. The pre-argument buzz was that Justices Souter and Ginsburg might shrink away from extending Blakely, but their questions to Acting SG Paul Clement (who did a brilliant job) suggested that they both were firm on this issue.

But oral argument also suggested everyone is still struggling with the remedy after we conclude Blakely applies to the federal system. Justice Stevens pressed the SG about how many cases would really be impacted if Blakely applies to the guidelines, confirming that this may be a critical issue for the Justices on the severability question (and on which the US Sentencing Commission ought to try to shed a lot more light with whatever data it has assembled). How (and when) the Justices will sort through these matters remains the biggest question in my mind after hearing today's arguments.

******************
Original Post 2:00
Like many lawyers around the country, we're waiting for news about the Supreme Court oral argument in Booker and Fan Fan today. Tom Goldstein, of Scotus Blog via Blackberry, has this report:

The AP reports that the prison guards union is warning that it may not be able to protect Martha Stewart in jail:

The head of the guards union at the federal prison where Martha Stewart will serve her time said Monday that staffing shortages will make it difficult to protect her. Staffing at the minimum-security women's prison at Alderson has fallen from 60 guards four years ago to 35 because of budget cuts, said Kent Gilkerson, local president of the Council of Prison Locals. The prison houses about 1,000 inmates.

Is this an attempt by the union to make political hay by getting free publicity for their plight? Or is Martha really in danger at Alderson, known as Camp Cupcake?

Martha is smart. She will know before she goes in what the do's and dont's are. This is not rocket science. Plus, it's quite possible the women will want to befriend her hoping she returns the favor when she's out. She probably will have more protectors than she knows what to do with.

Of course, this also may be advance spin for justifying why Martha gets her own room and privacy, instead of sharing a dorm-type room...should that occur. If that's the case, we doubt it will because of her money or influence--it will be because of great lawyering by her new lawyers. We'll know in a few days, stay tuned.

Digby explains this image.

If the shoe fits.....

The Freeway Blogger has declared October 13 to be Freeway Free Speech Day.

On October 13th, hundreds of activists nationwide will post signs critical of the Bush Administration on area freeways, reaching millions of voters in states from Maine to California. The Freeway Blogger has posted more than 2000 such signs over the last year.

In addition to coordinating activists, we will launch a nationwide media campaign to promote the fact that hundreds (if not thousands) of these signs are going up across America on the same day, and to highlight this newest, and oldest, form of civic dialog. We anticipate wide-spread news coverage about this powerful grassroots effort.

...We are asking for your help in posting signs and recruiting activists, especially in the following states: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

[link via Atrios.]

Bloomberg News analyzes the boost in the polls Kerry received from the debate.

Democratic challenger John Kerry may get a lift in the polls, judging by the responses of undecided voters who said he dominated his first debate with President George W. Bush. Instant polls by the Gallup Organization, ABC News and CBS News immediately after Thursday night's debate found Kerry ahead by as much as 16 percentage points on the question of who won the encounter. Five of the 18 voters in the focus group by Republican pollster Frank Luntz said they moved from undecided to supporting Kerry, Luntz said in a press release. None switched to Bush.

Dave Cullen of Conclusive Evidence takes a closer look and says the results are even more impressive for Kerry:

We have all been celebrating because Kerry won by 10-20 points, which is astounding, of course. But that includes hard-core Rs who see everything through rightwing eyes, and would call Bush the winner if he sat on the floor slurping oatmeal for 90 minutes.