Instapundit links to Yuppies From Zion who relies on a Matt Taibi article to claim Kerry will be tougher than Bush on drug offenses.

We disagree--we've been reporting on Kerry's (and all the Democratic candidates') positions on drug offenses and crime for the past two years on Talkleft. Here's a quick recap on Kerry:

Kerry voted "No" on increasing penalties for drug offenses (Nov 1999). The amendment he voted against would have specifically targeted the manufacturing or trafficking of amphetamines & methamphetamines and possession of powder cocaine, and set stronger penalties for dealing drugs. He voted "No" on spending international development funds on drug control. (Jul 1996) In 1994, he voted against mandatory minimum penalties for firearms offenses committed during the course of a drug crime.

He would end Ashcroft's raids on medical marijuana patients and providers.

Here are more of Kerry's views on marijuana. See also here.

As to John Edwards, check this out:

He also would have us shrink our bloated prison population and return its present members more successfully to society by better distinguishing non-violent drug crimes from other offenses; restoring abandoned treatment and training options; and re-enfranchising those who have done their time.

And, don't forget, Kerry opposes the death penalty, except for foreign terrorists; He has called for a federal moratorium on the death penalty pending further study; and he advocates DNA testing for every inmate facing execution.

So, don't believe it. Kerry is not going to be worse than Bush and Ashcroft on the drug war--or on crime.

Just in by e-mail, here is part of John Kerry's response to today's announcement by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge that New York is facing a new terror threat from Al Qaeda:

“The Department of Homeland Security called to notify our staff in advance of Secretary Ridge’s news conference. They offered Senator Kerry a briefing on this new information. It is being scheduled now. We have a message today for al Qaeda or any terrorist who may be thinking of attacking our country: John Kerry and John Edwards will bring all aspects of our nation’s power to crush al Qaeda and destroy terrorist networks. No matter what threats we may face, the terrorists will not divide us. Our nation is united in its determination to defeat terrorism.”

The official Kerry-Edwards blog is here and it takes comments.

Natasha at Pacific Views interviewed the the chief of Act Blue at the convention. She reports:

Enter Act Blue. People interested in supporting Democratic candidates can set up an account, and just start picking candidates they'd like to channel money towards. After picking your set of candidates, Act Blue sets up a single web page for you that lists all of them. When your visitors click through to the page, they can check off one or all of your chosen candidates, and enter an individual donation amount next to each one. When you finish the transaction, one total charge is made to the donor's card, and Act Blue gets the cash to its destination. Rahn says that anyone who uses email or makes purchases on Amazon can use this system.

We're setting up TalkLeft's list. If you have a special candidate that you think deserves TalkLeft's support, let us know in the comments.

We get a lot of calls from reporters asking whether we can point to instances of Attorney General Ashcroft using the Patriot Act to charge non-terror crimes. Here's an example from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

The U.S. attorney in Seattle has used a Patriot Act provision to charge 15 people with smuggling marijuana money out of this country as part of a multimillion-dollar drug operation based in Canada. It is the first time the provision has been used in a major case in this district, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg. The indictments say an undercover agent spent nearly a year working with the alleged smugglers, accused of helping to deliver $3.4 million illegally into Canada in 2003. The money came from the sale of marijuana in the states, Greenberg said.

The 15 each were charged under the Patriot Act with one count of bulk-cash smuggling. Nine others were charged earlier with international money laundering and marijuana trafficking under a separate law. It has long been illegal to take more than $10,000 out of the country without reporting it. But the Patriot Act strengthened that law and "took it out of just being a reporting violation to be a smuggling, trafficking type of offense," Greenberg said. The crime carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and the forfeiture of the illegally transported money.

The U.S. Attorney conceded these defendants have no connection to terrorism.

Lots of new folks we've discovered to give a shout-out to today:

Green Pass by Zoe Vandervolk, whose day job is to work as an intern for Gadflyer. She also studies statistics and music at Harvard. We talked to her a lot at the convention, she's great friends with Jesse and Ezra of Pandagon, and she got frustrated having to be careful what she wrote on Gadflyer, so she's created her own blog.

Newsfeed: Submit your blog and help spread the word.

NEWSFEED is for bloggers, news junkies, commentators, drudgereporters, and all who take interest in the wild world of news reporting. 1,000s of news sites, culled every day for the most interesting reading.

Fafblog, also blogging on the convention and related matters.

Post-convention polls show a solid boost for John Kerry.

The Newsweek poll released on Saturday said Kerry, who has been running in a virtual dead heat with Republican President Bush, gained a four-point boost in the polls from the Democratic National Convention held last week in Boston.

In the poll conducted on Thursday and on Friday, Kerry received 49 percent of the vote to Bush's 42 percent and 3 percent for independent candidate Ralph Nader. In early July, Kerry led Bush 47 percent to 44 percent, with Nader at 3 percent. Without Nader in the race, Kerry led Bush in the new poll by 51 percent to 45 percent. The poll of about 1,000 registered voters had a 3 percent margin of error.

Kerry told Fox News Sunday this morning he's not paying attention to the polls because they are bound to go up and down. Everyone expects Bush to gain a few points after the RNC.

Many pundits believe that the key to this election lies with 7% or so of undecided voters. That's a very small number. According to this article, only 2 out of 10 voters say they might change their preference.

We think it also will turn on getting out the vote. While we were at the convention, we spoke with a Rock the Vote staffer at a Comcast/MTV party who told us that by Wednesday, they had registered over 400,000 new voters. Their goal is one million. Obama resonates so well with youth that he will be a big key. Both John Edwards and Obama attended the Rock the Vote party in Boston and were treated like rock stars. But, P.Diddy isn't impressed with Kerry or Bush's outreach to young voters.

If the Dems can get out the youth, particularly in urban areas, and minorities and former felons, we think that will put him over the top. Of course, we don't expect the campaign to be enlightened enough to seek out the former felon vote--it would be perceived as being soft on crime--so keep your eye on the polls that show which way the youth and minorities are leaning.

Update: USA Today says Kerry got no bounce. Digby has the analysis.

The New York Times calls Iraqi criminal defense lawyer Fuaad Ahmed al-Jawary, "the Johnnie Cochran of the Insurgency." The article portrays the Iraqi criminal justice system, a type of french inquisitorial process with roots in the 3,800 year old Hammurabi code, and one of the lawyers working within it.

It might be hard to imagine that in a place where bombs keep blowing up and raw sewage splashes in the streets there would be a functioning legal system, complete with subpoenas, autopsies, objections, search warrants, evidence reports and public defenders. But there is, and American officials are increasingly turning to the Iraqi courts to prosecute suspects still being held in Abu Ghraib and other prisons.

Hundreds of detainees are being shuffled from American custody into one of the three tiers of the Iraqi criminal justice system: a special tribunal for Saddam Hussein and high-ranking Baath Party members; a new national criminal court for terrorism suspects; and local courts for run-of-the-mill crimes. American officials said that right now, of about 2,300 inmates at Abu Ghraib, 580 had been scheduled for prosecution in Iraqi courts.

Mr. Jawary is the current star of the legal system. Two of his mottos: "Every man is born innocent" and "I try to take cases only where there is some doubt." The article describes his typcial day and a few of his "tricks." It's a very interesting protrait, one that makes us glad we have court in Denver tomorrow, not Iraq.

by TChris

Judge Terry Ruckriegle, presiding in the Kobe Bryant prosecution, apologized to Bryant's accuser for the court's errant disclosure of her identity on its website. The mistake was quickly recitified and the mainstream media haven't published her name.

There's a larger issue that isn't addressed in press coverage of the judge's apology. Is it fair for Bryant -- who is, after all, presumed innocent -- to have his face and name spread across the news? Is it fair to publish the accusations against him without identifying the accuser? Isn't her name (and any information legitimately affecting her credibility that might flow from the dislosure of her identity) just as important to fair coverage of the story as Bryant's?

by TChris

A judge in Maryland views a sandwich board as the modern equivalent of a scarlet letter: shame as punishment.

A woman who stole $4.52 worth of fuel was ordered to stand outside the gas station Friday wearing a sandwich board sign that declared: "I was caught stealing gas."

One of the bystanders who watched the woman endure catcalls and blaring horns from passing cars asked the right question: "What is this, the Middle Ages?"

I'm back from the Democratic National Convention. It was one of the best experiences I've had in years. Seriously. There was not a moment of downtime or boredom. The comraderie among the bloggers, most of whom had never met in person before this week, was outstanding. I give the adventure/experiment an A-.

Weblogs are as diverse as their authors. Their goals in covering the convention varied. Some wanted to cover the media. Some wanted to cover the delegates and speeches. Others wanted to make the convention alive for readers, so they could feel they were present. Most of the bloggers announced their goals before arriving in Boston. Here were mine, followed by some personal thoughts as to whether I achieved them:

Washington Post:

"I'm committed to seeing Bush out of office in November and want to do what I can to help," says Jeralyn Merritt, a Denver defense lawyer who writes the TalkLeft blog. "To me the purpose of a convention is solidarity and getting strength from each other and renewed commitment to a joint purpose. I am a cheerleader. I am a partisan. I am an advocate. My goal is to get everyone else stirred up."

Newsday:

My general strategy is to provide news with attitude and enthusiasm. I want my readers to feel like they are there with me. I hope to capture and convey the sense of unity, enthusiasm and resolve among Democrats to win in November. I will concentrate on civil liberties, terrorism, criminal-justice issues and the war in Iraq. I also will report on the convention process and the mainstream media. I will be an advocate and critic rather than a neutral observer of what I report.

The week before the convention we wrote of Boston's plan to install over 100 security cameras on buses and around the Fleet Center. On the third day of the convention we wrote about the lawsuit over Boston's plan to search all passengers on mass transit. We said:

So, to the citizens of Boston, whom the media has reported as being "fine" with the searches, remember that what you don't object to now, may stick around a lot longer than you think. Once we give the Government new powers, it rarely gives them back.

The prophecy has been fulfilled:

An array of security measures that raised the hackles of civil libertarians, but that law enforcement officials believe make the city safer, are also likely to stay. The Boston Police Department plans to move its new surveillance cameras from around the FleetCenter to high-crime neighborhoods around the city. The MBTA says it retains the right to search the bags of passengers, although it doesn't expect to do so with any regularity.

by TChris

One of the great barriers to equal justice is the inability of poor defendants to afford a lawyer. The Gideon decision was supposed to level the playing field, assuring counsel for criminal defendants who can't hire an attorney, but the chronic underfunding of public defender and other assigned counsel programs has betrayed the promise of that landmark decision.

Recognizing that those accused of crimes have no voice in state government, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts spoke on their behalf this week, ordering indigent defendants in Hampden County released from jail if they aren't furnished with a lawyer within seven days. After 45 days, charges must be dismissed (subject to refiling if the state gets around to furnishing the defendant with counsel).

The decision is expected to force the state legislature to raise the hourly rate of pay for court-appointed lawyers. Current rates, ranging from $30 to $54, haven't significantly increased in twenty years. Lawyers can't pay their overhead at those rates, providing them with no incentive to take appointed cases. The state's other alternative is to increase funding for the Committee for Public Counsel Services so that it can hire enough lawyers to meet the demand for indigent defense.