Another first. Two U.S. soldiers have been charged with pre-meditated murder in the deaths of three Iraqi prisoners. Very few details are being made available.

The military named the two soldiers, Sgt. Michael P. Williams and Spec. Brent W. May, but did not provide further details about the deaths. Williams also was charged with obstruction of justice and making a false official statement, the military said. "The specific events relating to these charges cannot be discussed at this time because of the Army Criminal Investigation Division's ongoing investigation," the military said in a statement.

The soliders were members the 1st Battalion , 41st Infantry Regiment, Fort Riley, Kansas.

The 1st Battalion, whose soldiers are nicknamed "hell-raisers," according to a newsletter posted on an Army Web site, spent their first few weeks in Iraq fixing their vehicles. In August, the soldiers began accompanying other units in the area to "become familiarized with the city and to hear lessons learned to help us patrol the streets," the newsletter said.

Two new studies show that felon disenfranchisement laws have prevented large numbers of black men from exercising their right to vote.

As many as one of every seven black men in Atlanta who have been convicted of a felony, and one of every four in Providence, R.I., cannot vote in this year's election, according to a pair of studies released yesterday. The studies, the first to look at felon disenfranchisement laws' effect on voting in individual cities, add to a growing body of evidence that those laws have a disproportionate effect on African-Americans because the percentage of black men with felony convictions is much larger than their share of the general population. The study in Atlanta concluded that two-thirds of the gap in voter registration between black males and other ethnic and gender groups was attributable to Georgia's felon disenfranchisement law.

How to read this?

"We have the conventional wisdom that African-American males register to vote at lower rates because of political apathy," said the study's author, Ryan King of the Sentencing Project, a research and prisoners' rights group based in Washington. But the new data clearly indicate that "their registration is artificially suppressed by the disproportionate effect of their disenfranchisement."

How important is the felon vote?

Interest in the effect of felon disenfranchisement laws has increased since the presidential election of 2000, when George W. Bush won Florida by only 537 votes; an estimated 600,000 people in the state, most black, were barred from voting because of felony convictions.

This is our third post on this topic in two days...see here and here...because it's that important.

The studies are available to read or download. The Vanishing Black Electorate: Felony Disenfranchisement In Atlanta, Georgia PDF Sentencing Project. 09/2004; Political Punishment: The Consequences of Felon Disenfranchisement for Rhode Island Communities PDF Rhode Island Family Life Center. 09/2004

Bump and Update: It's official. Yaser Hamdi will be released and deported to Saudi Arabia.

After weeks of negotiations over his release, lawyers for the Justice Department and Mr. Hamdi announced an agreement requiring him to renounce his American citizenship. The agreement also bars him from leaving Saudi Arabia for a time and requires him to report possible terrorist activity, his lawyer said, although legal analysts said the arrangement would be difficult for the United States to enforce.

Although Mr. Hamdi was born in 1980 in Louisiana, where his father worked for an oil company, the family left the United States when he was a toddler and returned to Saudi Arabia. He lived there most of his life, and most of his family remains there.

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Original Post: 9/16/04

Detained "enemy combant" Yaser Hamdi, an American citizen captured in Afghanistan and held over three years without charges, will be freed and allowed to return to Saudi Arabia, where he grew up, according to his lawyer and others familiar with the case. One small detail: He has to give up his American citizenship to avail himelf of the deal--even though he has never been charged with a crime.

An Islamic website is reporting that two female Italian aid workers, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, who were taken hostage September 7 in Iraq, have been killed by the Iraqi militant group known as Jihad Organization. Background on the kidnapping of the workers is here.

In January, 2003, we wrote about draft proposals pending in Congress. This was after Charlie Rangel and John Conyers, both Democrats, came out for a draft, apparently under the assumption that if the kids of rich congresspersons and senators had to serve, Congress would vote against any war. (Of course, who knew back then that Bush would decide on his own to declare war against Iraq?) Following Rangel and Conyers, Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-SC) introduced a companion version of their bill in the Senate. In April, 2004, Republican Senator Chuck Hagel endorsed a reinstatement of the military draft.

In checking on Thomas, the Federal Legislation Server back then, it's clear that members of both parties have sponsored or co-sponsored bills or resolutions opposing the draft---just as members of both parties have introduced bills to reinstate it. It doesn't seem to be strictly a Republican/Democratic or Conservative/Liberal issue. (For more history on this, read Objector.Org's position paper on rumors of a 2005 draft.)

It may not be a party issue, but it is a candidate issue. Despite his statements to the contrary, Bush may reinstate the draft. This is supported not only by his "stop-loss" orders extending soldiers' duties in Iraq and the acknowledgement that there is a shortage of soldiers for a prolonged war, which seems to be what we're in for with Bush at the helm, but also by actions of the Selective Service System,(more here), whose directors and members serve under the direction of his Administration.

On the other hand, John Kerry and John Edwards have stated unequivocally there will be no draft if they are elected.

While researching something else,Trent Lott's Vietnam draft deferments popped up on my screen. Turns out there's his version, and the Selective Service System's version. From the January, 1997 (Memphis) Commercial Appeal [available at lexis.com):

Sen. Lott's version:

''I was a little bit ahead of the Vietnam curve,'' says Lott. ''Very few of my classmates went to Vietnam, but it was the next year or two after that when they really did start.'' Lott says, ''I never had an actual deferment, as I recall. But I never got drafted. I went from whatever it was, 1-A (eligible for the draft) to whatever you got in those years when you got married.''
(our emphasis)

The Selective Service System's version:

Official records, though, indicate Lott did receive two types of deferments. The Selective Service System says Lott was classified 1-A, or eligible, on Oct. 20, 1960. But he received an educational deferment on Sept. 12, 1963, a year before what the Selective Service considers the 1964-72 Vietnam era. (The United States halted the draft in 1972 when the military became an all-volunteer force.)

...Lott returned to 1-A status from March 11 to Sept. 20, 1965 - a heavy Vietnam draft year. But his enrollment in law school qualified him for a graduate educational deferment. As Lott neared law school graduation, he received a 3-A hardship deferment on April 12, 1967. [Lew Brodsky, director of public and congressional affairs for the Selective Service System } said the 3-A was available to men who declared family hardships, ranging from a dependent parent to a child, or even one on the way, as was Lott's first child.

All of Lott's deferments were legitimate, so why didn't he acknowledge them?

Just found this in the TalkLeft archives, and in recognition of TalkLeft's growing number of younger readers, I thought I'd repost it (scroll down to the last paragraph):

"If you grew up in the 60s, you grew up with war on tv every night. A war that your friends were involved in...and I want to do this song tonight for all the young people, if you're in your teens... because I remember a lot of my friends when they we were 17 or 18, we didn't have much of a chance to think about how we felt about a lot of things. And the next time, they're gonna be looking at you, and you're gonna need a lot of information to know what you're gonna wanna do. Because in 1985, blind faith in your leaders, or in anything, will get you killed. Because what I'm talking about here is: War!
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing.... --Bruce Springsteen, introducing his band's rendition of "War" by Edwin Starr, Los Angeles, September, 1985.

Via Tapped, a quote from Richard Perle a year ago:

And a year from now, I'll be very surprised if there is not some grand square in Baghdad that is named after President Bush. There is no doubt that, with the exception of a very small number of people close to a vicious regime, the people of Iraq have been liberated and they understand that they've been liberated. And it is getting easier every day for Iraqis to express that sense of liberation.

Bump and Update: Cat Stevens was deported today.

A leading Muslim group has called upon President Bush to explain the deportation.

At a news conference here Wednesday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said, “Yusuf Islam is perhaps one of the most widely-known and respected personalities in the Muslim world. He has a long history of promoting peace and reconciliation and condemning terrorism....Treating mainstream and moderate Muslims like Yusuf Islam as if they are criminals or terrorists, without bringing charges or allowing for due process, sends the message to the Islamic world that even those who seek peace and condemn terror are not fit to enter the United States. We call on the Bush administration to explain why Yusuf Islam was barred from coming to this country and whether other internationally-respected Muslim travellers or scholars will face such treatment in the future.”

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Update to last night's post on the U.S. denying entry to musician and peace activist Cat Stevens, (Yusuf Islam) -- The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

[A] government official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said Islam was placed on a watch list after multiple intelligence sources in recent weeks indicated the peace activist may have associations with potential terrorists.

John Kerry today promised that if he is elected President, there will be no draft. He also said that Bush may reinstate the draft.

If you're young, and you don't want to be forced into military service, get out there and vote. Here's a new site, MustVote.com, that is giving away music from Radiohead, Pearl Jam, Bright Eyes, The Sun, Lisa Loeb and others to those who register to vote through its site.

British hostage Kenneth Bigley cried and pleaded for his life in a video posted today on an Islamic website. You can watch the video here.

The captive, Kenneth Bigley, appealed to British Prime Minister Tony Blair to intervene. ''I think this is possibly my last chance,'' he said. ''I don't want to die.''

As we wrote earlier, the Iraqi justice minister announced they would release one of the two female detainees on bail, only to be subsequently contradicted by a U.S. official.

a U.S. Embassy spokesman ruled out any immediate release. The two female scientists from Saddam's regime ''are in our legal and physical custody. Legal status of these two and many others is under constant review,'' the spokesman said.

Your turn, have at it. Try not to feed the trolls, there are several lurking in the shadows.