You thought Operation TIPS was dead? Not in concept, apparently, for Republicans in Minnesota. The party has set up a website requesting that members report their neighbors' political beliefs:

The state Republican Party has developed a Web site that allows its activists to tap into a database of voters whose political allegiances and concerns it would like to know. But it is not just any group of voters -- they are the activists' neighbors.

The project, dubbed WebVoter, gives GOP activists the names and addresses of 25 people who live, in most cases, within a couple of blocks from them. The party has asked 60,000 supporters from across the state to figure out what issues animate their neighbors and where they stand in the political spectrum, and report that information back to the party -- with or, possibly, without their neighbors' permission.

[link via Altercation]

Rocky Mountain News editorial yesterday:

Elena Lappin arrived at Los Angeles airport and was searched and interrogated, jailed in a small barren cell and deported 26 hours later. Why? She’s a British journalist who arrived in the U.S. without a visa. As a visitor from one of 27 visa waiver countries, she expected to be allowed to enter the U.S. for 90 days.

....But Homeland Security has revived a long disused relic of the McCarthy era, a special I-visa for journalists that entails, upon application overseas, being grilled by U.S. consular officials about whom the journalist plans to talk to and what he plans to write. Few other countries require those visas, and those that do tend to be unsavory Third World dictatorships. Sadly, Lappin is not alone. Reporters from Australia, France, Germany and the Netherlands have also been collared on arrival and summarily deported. And these are our friends.

These I-visas need to be abolished for the visa-waiver nations and their journalists welcomed at the airport. We want foreign journalists to cover the presidential campaign. We want them to see that American democracy is robust and thriving and that we have not become the pinched police state that so many foreigners suspect.

[hat tip to Quaker in a Basement]

We have trouble believing this actually happened but it did. A crazed surgeon in Bucharest was supposed to operate on a man's testicles. Instead he cut off the man's p*nis and sliced it into three pieces:

A ROMANIAN surgeon underwent a fit of madness while operating on a patient's testicles and instead cut off the man's penis and sliced it into three pieces, hospital officials said. The surgeon, Naum Ciomu, was described as a senior member of the hospital staff and a professor of anatomy. He had been operating on a 34-year-old man for a testicular malformation when he committed the act, the officials said.

"We are shocked by what has happened. It is the first time we have had such a case," said Sorin Oprescu, head of the Bucharest emergency hospital where the patient was rushed for emergency reconstructive surgery. The operations have been entrusted to a highly respected Romanian plastic surgeon, Ioan Lascar, who said he would try to restore the man's urinary function but that he was unlikely to recover normal sexual activity.

Lesson: Never, never go to the emergency room in Bucharest.

U.S. Marine Wassef Ali Hassoun is speaking out. He denies he's a deserter. He says he was captured and held for 19 days--during which he witnessed beheadings. Authorities aren't sure whether to believe him.

He's willing to go back to active duty. He's going to be subjected to intense military interrogation. We say give him the benefit of the doubt. Presume him innocent.

Salon writer Geraldine Sealey picks up on the friction caused by Alex Jones' slam of bloggers attending the convention with press credentials. She says it better than we could, so we'll just quote:

The difference between most bloggers and journalists is usually what attracts readers to blogs in the first place. Bloggers, among other things, chronicle, archive, editorialize, provide community for the like-minded and forums for debate, and emphasize key points being lost in the din of the mainstream coverage. Blogs provide a helpful lens, even if a partisan one, for understanding mainstream media coverage. And since blog readers are usually voracious news junkies, blogs provide them a supplement to the daily consumption of mainstream news -- they don't necessarily supplant say, the Washington Post. As with all flavors of media outlets, there are good blogs and bad, prominent ones that have risen on their reputation and track record, and others you can probably do without.

Via Electablog: Linda Ronstadt was performing at the Aladdin Casino in Las Vegas. At the end of her set, she praised Michael Moore and his Fahrenheit 911 film. She got cheers and jeers--and then the guy in charge at the Aladdin booted her out of the place, not even allowing her to return to her dressing room and get her belongings.

The Aladdin was never our casino of choice in Vegas. But now, we're demoting it further--to the same level as Slimfast.

Earlier today we were discussing whether journalists are more objective than bloggers. Check this out. The Associated Press only reports that Ronstadt got jeered. The Las Vegas Sun reports she got equal amounts of cheers and jeers.

Scotus Blog reports as follows:

Our sources who litigate these cases and have excellent contacts (you know who you are, and we thank you) tell us that there is an excellent prospect that the Solicitor General will likely take the post-Blakely questions under the Guidelines to the Supreme Court on Wednesday. One or both of two filings are contemplated: a cert. petition in the Seventh Circuit's Booker case (in which Judges Posner and Easterbrook divided); and a petition for cert. before judgment in United States v. Fanfan (a district court decision from the District of Maine that was just appealed by the government to the First Circuit). Both cases involve drug conspiracies.

The government will move to expedite both the cert. and merits stages of the cases, seeking: that any response to the petitions be filed within a week, that cert. be granted by August 2, and that merits briefing be completed by mid-September or early-October (under alternative schedules that are being discussed). Argument would be held immediately thereafter.

The Booker case was briefed and argued in the 7th Circuit by TalkLeft contributor TChris. We can't wait till he gets to the Supreme Court. On the other hand, if the Supremes take the case, it will entail an enormous amount of work, particularly in light of the expedited briefing schedule, and he may have less time to blog. Then again, if we had a choice between litigating a case in the Supreme Court and blogging, we know which one we'd choose, so we're behind TChris all the way. Even if it means blogging alone for a while.

The New York Times is expected to break the news Tuesday, although the cert petitions most likely won't be filed until Wednesday. We don't know for sure which of the two cases--or whether both will be taken up to the High Court, but we have a strong suspicion it will be both of them.

Update: As predicted, here is the New York Times article.

by TChris

There's joy in Tulia, where the government's attempt to railroad a community of African-Americans resulted in undeserved convictions, 35 pardons, and an eventual settlement (all chronicled in these TalkLeft posts). Checks began to arrive on Friday. Four million dollars will be distributed among 45 defendants. This is a well-deserved, albeit small, measure of justice for the Tulia defendants.

Ted Killory, an attorney for one of the defendants, said he was pleased that the wrongly accused got at least some compensation, but ''no amount of money is going to make up for losing four years of life in prison.''

by TChris

Taking a summer vacation in the USA? You might want to leave your camera at home ... unless you don't mind being questioned by Homeland Security.

Ian Spiers had just hours to finish an assignment for his photography class. He was taking shots of a railroad bridge near the Ballard Locks when an officer with a German shepherd approached him, asked him what he was doing and requested some ID.

Spiers showed the first officer his class assignment and asked whether he was really required to produce ID. The officer said "no" and left. Not good enough for Homeland Security.

But soon after, several armed officers approached him, including three from the Seattle Police Department and three from the federal Homeland Security Department. ... This time, Spiers said, a Seattle police officer told him he had no choice but to show his ID. A Homeland Security agent who flashed his badge told him he had broken a law by taking pictures of a federal facility.

Spiers submitted to a half hour of questioning before being told he had no choice about being photographed by Homeland Security: the agency that protects us from dangerous photographers by ... taking their pictures.

Jennifer Van Bergen, writing for Counterpunch, says that the Supreme Court's decision in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld may be the death knell for Habeas Corpus:

The Great Writ has been a core part of democratic processes for over four
hundred years. The Supreme Court may go down in infamy as the one that
destroyed the Great Writ of Liberty, and along with it, our freedom.

Here's why:

TalkLeft hit 3 million unique visitors today--with almost 5 million page views. We converted TalkLeft to a weblog on June 15, 2002--just about two years ago. (Here's our pre-blog look.) We never dreamed so many people would read us. Thanks to every one of you. And a big thanks to TChris who has become an invaluable contributor to TalkLeft.

In a 4-3 split decision, the Colorado Supreme Court today upheld a trial court's order in the Kobe Bryant Case prohibiting the media from publishing or disclosing the contents of transcripts of a sealed hearing disseminated to the media through a mistake by the court reporter--even though it is a prior restraint of press.

"This prior restraint is necessary to protect against an evil that is great and certain and would result from reportage," the court ruled.

Justice Michael Bender (formerly an esteemed Colorado criminal defense lawyer) wrote the dissenting opinion:

Justice Michael Bender .... said it was unfair to hold the media responsible if a court failed to do its job to protect confidential information. "The power the majority authorizes is the power of the government to censor the media, which is precisely the power the First Amendment forbids," Bender wrote.

The text of the decision is available here.