by TChris

July 2 will be the 40th anniversary of the day the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law. This landmark legislation was designed to end racial discrimination in employment and in public accommodations.

By putting pen to the Civil Rights Bill, Johnson sealed the doom of the Democratic Party in the South. But he opened the doors not only of restaurants and hotels but also expectation and opportunity to Americans of every race, color and religion.

A day worth celebrating.

Meet former LAPD officer Brian Bentley. He was fired from the LAPD for using excessive force and has written a book about it.

One Time is a candid and brutal look at the life of a Black cop with the LAPD. Bentley says he became a police officer because he wanted to make a difference and to change even one life. Unfortunately, he found that the only life he changed was his own. He lost hope, gave in to episodes of violence and abuse while relishing the power given to him by his badge and his gun.

One Time pulls no punches! The author recreates the joy, pain and frustrations he felt as he tried to do what was right. One Time brings great, dramatic stories of South Central Los Angeles to life. It is a story about the inner workings of America's most powerful institutions, the LAPD!

You can buy the book at Amazon.

Monica Lewinsky is unhappy with the way she is portrayed in President Bill Clinton's book. She thinks their affair was mutual and based on more than sex. She says he ruined her life.

There's no question that Monica Lewinsky's life has been permanently changed by her relationship with Bill Clinton. That's regrettable. But...maybe she should have thought about the consequences of having a relationship with a married man who was President before she succumbed to his overtures--assuming she's correct that it was Clinton who made the overtures.

We think it's particularly disingenuous of her to raise the "Chelsea" card now--pointing out that she was the same age as Chelsea at the time of her dalliance with Bill. Monica was an adult who made her own choices. She spent hours on the phone with her friend Linda Tripp reviewing each insipid detail of the affair. She went willingly into those dark waters and ultimately must bear the responsiblity for her poor judgment.

On the other hand, Ken Starr should be ashamed of himself for what he put Monica through. That was an inexcusable witchhunt and a waste of American taxpayer dollars. He hung her out to dry. Our Congress and executive branch had far more important things to do than wallow in this muck.

So, yes, we feel sorry for Monica, but we can't say Bill's at fault. The Republicans and Ken Starr bear the brunt of the blame. If we feel really sorry for anyone in the wake of the whole ordeal, it's for what Susan McDougal went through.

On a related note, read the praise in today's Washington Post for The Hunting of the President, the documentary based on the book of the same name by investigative reporters Joe Conason and Gene Lyons. [link fixed]

Update: He's out.

***************
No surprise here...Illinois Republican senatorial candidate Jack Ryan likely will drop out of the race. The sex allegations made by his ex-wife were too much. Much ado about nothing in our view, particularly since Ryan denies his ex-wife's allegations which have never been proven, but we're glad a Democrat likely will get the seat:

Ryan, 44, a wealthy former investment banker, is running against Democrat Barack Obama for the seat being vacated by retiring GOP Sen. Peter Fitzgerald -- a potentially key contest in the battle for control of the evenly divided Senate. Even before the lurid allegations, Obama held a lead over Ryan in various polls.

by TChris

As TalkLeft has reported, the police in New York have been slow to issue permits to those who wish to protest the Republican National Convention -- although NYPD claims it will begin issuing permits next week. It's much easier for the police to protest than it is for ordinary folk, as they're proving in Boston, where 300 officers are picketing outside a meeting of the U.S. Conference on Mayors. That's a picket line that John Kerry, an invited speaker, won't want to cross for fear of losing the police union's endorsement. Let's hope NYPD officers learn from their Boston colleagues that protest is actually a good thing, not something to be discouraged or foiled.

by TChris

In an effort to convince a Magistrate to detain a suspect without bail, federal prosecutors typically give a preview of their evidence (sometimes accurately, sometimes wishfully) to demonstrate the strength of their case. The government previewed its case against David Passaro today while arguing that he should be detained pending his trial.

Three U.S. soldiers will testify that a former CIA contractor beat an Afghan detainee with a heavy flashlight 10 to 30 times and kicked the man so hard he came off the ground and later begged to be shot, a prosecutor said Friday.

The prosecutor said 82nd Airborne soldiers will testify that during one interrogation session, Passaro left the room and Wali begged one of the paratroopers guarding him "to please shoot me before the defendant returned."

Wali died three days after the alleged beating. The court has not yet ruled on the prosecution's request to detain Passaro.

Statement of Barry Scheck, President-Elect, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers on today's Supreme Court decision in Blakely v. Washington:

Beyond a doubt, today’s decision in Blakely spells the end of sentencing guidelines -- as we know them. The decision does not represent a step backward from the goal of sentencing reform, but a great leap forward, because it stands for the proposition that no defendant in a U.S. court will be punished for an unproven crime.

The key issue in Blakely was that the judge found a fact, after the defendant’s plea, that increased his sentence by almost three years. It has always been NACDL's position that facts that substantially increase a defendant's sentence should be admitted by the defendant at his guilty plea or found by a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. Today’s decision is a logical application of that principle. As Justice Scalia said in the opinion of the Court, it is too much to believe that the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers was “duped” into taking the wrong side on such an important issue as fairness in criminal proceedings.

In NACDL’s friend of the court brief, authors Adam Steinman, Sheryl Gordon
McCloud and David M. Porter wrote that "failing to apply Apprendi to exceptional sentences upward creates a situation where a defendant may be punished for a crime that no jury has considered -- much less delivered a verdict of conviction -- and for which the ... reasonable doubt standard has not and cannot be met."

Just received this email from Andrew in Oregon, who included his full name, email address and telephone number:

This Saturday, there will be a convention in Portland, Oregon to attempt to place Ralph Nader on the Oregon ballot. They will need 1,000 registered voters for his name to be on the November ballot and an independent. A few months ago, they attempted but came up short.

I am a Democrat who, a short while ago, gave my email address and phone
number to the local Republican party to receive updates on what they were up
to. Today I received a phone call from the local Republican party asking me
if I wanted to go the Nader convention. They explained the need to get Nader on the ballot to help President Bush. The name on the caller ID on my phone said “Bush Cheney” implying that they were calling from the Oregon Bush Cheney headquarters.

I found it blatantly sleazy of the Bush Cheney campaign to ask volunteers to attend a Nader rally and contacted the John Kerry campaign and some local
media. Do what you wish with this info, it should start hitting the Oregon news
radar in a few hours.

Remember the case of the pilot who used "go pills" and mistakenly killed four Canadians by dropping a bomb in the wrong place in Afganistan? He won't face a court martial after all.

The Air Force has decided not to court-martial a U.S. fighter pilot who mistakenly dropped a 500-pound, laser-guided bomb that killed four Canadians in Afghanistan in 2002. Maj. Harry Schmidt, 37, will face nonjudicial punishment and four dereliction-of-duty charges against him will be dismissed in court, the Air Force said Thursday. He could face punishment including 30 days confinement or loss of one month's pay, about $5,600, Air Force spokeswoman Col. Alvina Mitchell said.

Schmidt originally was charged with manslaughter and aggravated assault and faced up to 64 years in prison. Military officials recommended against a court-martial on those charges last June, saying Schmidt could face nonjudicial punishment instead. Schmidt turned down the offer, saying he wanted to clear his name in a court-martial instead. He was ordered to be tried on the lesser charge of dereliction of duty.

Schmidt will remain in the military, although not as a pilot. He has transferred to the Illinois National Guard.

For the first time, a national USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll shows that a majority of Americans think the war in Iraq was a mistake. The poll also finds the presidential race a toss-up.

Fifty-four percent of those polled said it was a mistake to send U.S. troops to Iraq, compared with 41 percent who expressed that sentiment in early June. Most poll respondents, 55 percent, also said they don't believe the war has made the United States safer from terrorism -- rejecting an argument that President Bush has repeatedly advanced in his rationale for the war.

Only a toss-up? Help Kerry. We can remove Bush in November. Money talks, Bush takes a walk. Give what you can and give often.

Wonkette reports Dick Cheney told one of our favorite Senators, Patrick Leahy, on the Senate floor to "go f**k yourself."

CNN is reporting that on the floor of the Senate yesterday, Dick Cheney told Sen. Pat Leahy, "Go f** yourself." We agree! Go f**k yourself -- while it's still legal! UPDATE: Speaking of s*domy. . . Wonkette operatives tell us that the fighting words sprang from an exchange in which Cheney told Leahy he didn't like what Leahy had been saying about Halliburton, to which Leahy replied that he didn't like Cheney calling him a bad Catholic. So you'd see how "Go f**k yourself" is the only appropriate response.

Update: David Sirota reminds us of these Cheney statements:

Many have tried to refute Michael Moore's allegations in Fahrenheit 911 that the Saudis sent planes to the U.S. to fly Saudi citizens out of the U.S. in the days following the 9/11 attacks. The St. Petersburg Times reports that TIA has confirmed such flights.

Two days after the Sept. 11 attacks, with most of the nation's air traffic still grounded, a small jet landed at Tampa International Airport, picked up three young Saudi men and left. The men, one of them thought to be a member of the Saudi royal family, were accompanied by a former FBI agent and a former Tampa police officer on the flight to Lexington, Ky.

The Saudis then took another flight out of the country. The two ex-officers returned to TIA a few hours later on the same plane. For nearly three years, White House, aviation and law enforcement officials have insisted the flight never took place and have denied published reports and widespread Internet speculation about its purpose. But now, at the request of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks, TIA officials have confirmed that the flight did take place and have supplied details.

[hat tip, David Sirota, American Progress.]