Oregon prosecutor Al French who has admitted lying about John Kerry in the swift boat ad was placed on leave today--and it has nothing to do with the Swifty issue.

Sanction him for lying about something that affects the public, fine. But for a private matter like this, that occurred 10 years ago, that's a cheap shot.

Ashcroft has a new tool in his war on drugs arsenal - Pre-written, canned op-eds praising mandatory minimum sentences, signed by various U.S. Attorneys around the country.

Under the fearless leadership of Attorney General John Ashcroft, the U.S. Department of Justice has taken to churning out prewritten op-ed pieces in support of mandatory minimum sentencing requirements, which are being pitched to local newspapers bearing the signatures of local U.S. attorneys, reports the Drug Reform Coordination Network. Ashcroft's full-throttle "AstroTurfing" campaign – i.e., a pseudo-grassroots campaign – comes in response to a growing discontent with the man-min sentencing structure, voiced by several federal judges, including Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy – and, more recently, a June 24 Supreme Court decision (Blakley v. Washington), in which the court opined that juries, and not judges, must decide the facts of a case if those facts may result in a longer sentence.

The DOJ's bolstering campaign was outed earlier this month by the advocacy group Families Against Mandatory Minimums and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, after the "model" op-ed turned up in three different newspapers. And last week DRCNet spotted the same piece – which warns that the high court's Blakley decision jeopardizes "the safety of America" – in three Tennessee newspapers, signed by two different U.S. attorneys.

[link via Cursor.]

The protesters have arrived in New York. Some are wacky and wild, New Yorkers seem to be amused, and Mayor Bloomberg is nonplussed. Let's hope it stays this way. -Don't miss this picture--

It's court and then Kobe for me today. Let's hear what you have to say, there's lots more going on in the world.

Sound the trumpets! President Bush has finally admitted he made a mistake with Iraq. Of course, it's not with his decision to go to war, only in his post-war handling of Iraq, but still, it's like the earth moved. Meanwhile, here's the current death total:

According to the Pentagon, 969 U.S. troops have died in Iraq since the invasion, 828 of them since April 30, 2003. An additional 6,690 service members have been wounded, most of them during the occupation.

Almost 1,000 dead and we're letting the Republicans dominate the discourse in this country with whether Kerry was in Cambodia on Christmas or on Tet? Something is wrong with this picture.

TalkLeft is close to declaring itself a Swift Boat Vet-free zone. It's become a stupid distraction that's been beaten to death and is playing right into the hands of the Bushocrats. Time to end it. I'll be really glad to get to New York on Saturday where the anti-Bushites will be out in full force and take center stage. TalkLeft will spend the week focusing on how Bush's policies have hurt this country and why another four years will be a disaster.

John Kerry is not the only one calling for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Congressman Charlie Rangel has been demanding it since 2003. Rangel established this website, StopRumsfeld.com which has a petiton. Go over and sign. Rangel writes today to Tom of Functional Ambivalent:

Today, Senator Kerry reiterated his call for Secretary Rumsfeld to resign. I have been calling for the Secretary to resign since November of 2003. The time has come for American citizens to assert their power to remove him from office by calling on their elected representatives to impeach Rumsfeld. Please join me in this effort by signing this petition to impeach him here.

It's not just Abu Ghraib and the failure of post-war planning. Read on:

An Islamic website is reporting that kidnapped Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni has been killed. Two French journalists are still missing.

Update: Chris Allbriton at Back to Iraq has a first hand account of police rounding up journalists in Najaf. It sounds terrifying. Chris, stay safe. [link via Jeanne at Body and Soul]

If you need another reason to vote for Kerry over Bush, here it is: During three of the four years of the Bush Admninistration's reign, both the poverty level and the uninsured level have risen.

The number of Americans living in poverty increased by 1.3 million last year, while the ranks of the uninsured swelled by 1.4 million, the Census Bureau reported Thursday. It was the third straight annual increase for both categories. While not unexpected, it was a double dose of bad economic news during a tight re-election campaign for President Bush.

Approximately 35.8 million people lived below the poverty line in 2003, or about 12.5 percent of the population, according to the bureau. That was up from 34.5 million, or 12.1 percent in 2002.....Nearly 45 million people lacked health insurance, or 15.6 percent of the population. That was up from 43.5 million in 2002, or 15.2 percent, but was a smaller increase than in the two previous years.

The poverty rate is even higher for children. Leave no child behind? Who does Bush think he's fooling? Let's hope its not the voters.

How stupid can one school's educators be? So stupid that the incident made the New York Times. The award of shame goes to Grayson High School in Gwinnett County, Georgia:

Terrell Jones, a student in Gwinnett County's Grayson High School, was weeded out of a classroom by a school administrator because he wore a shirt that read: ``Hempstead, NY 516,'' a reference to the Long Island town and its telephone area code.

According to Jones' family, which moved from Hempstead to the Atlanta suburb, the school thought the shirt referred to marijuana. Jones wasn't allowed to return to class until he persuaded school officials to search the Internet for the town name.

Mahablog found this CNN article announcing that United for Peace and Justice and the NYPD have reached an agreement. The Sunday march will be end at Union Square Park instead of Central Park. Here's the details from the UPJ website. Note that they are asking marchers not to break out in groups and head to Central Park. This is a good compromise. The march will go past the Garden. Some side streets will be blocked off to serve as feeders for the marchers. It's way better than the West Side Highway. If you're planning on protesting Sunday, please honor UPand J's agreement and stay away from Central Park[added: until the UP and J march has concluded.]

TBogg, one of the funnier and wittier bloggers in blogtopia, has this beautiful and moving tribute to his father who passed away this morning. I felt like I knew his dad by the time I was done reading. I hope you'll take a minute to read it.

TBogg doesn't take comments, but you can send a condolence e-mail to him at tblogg@hotmail.com. Or send him something from his Amazon wish list to lift his spirits. RIP Mr. TBogg, Sr.

Swift Boat vet John O'Neill, now accused of lying himself about being in Cambodia, may be feeling the heat. His law firm's website, Clements, O'Neill, Pierce, Wilson & Fulkerson, L.L.P, which was accessible Tuesday night, and which provided O'Neill's e-mail address, is now giving the message "Access is Forbidden."

[hat tip to Randy of Beautiful Horizens and Atrios.]