This just in from NORML -- Place your Bid today!

You can own an original Doonesbury comic strip relating to medical marijuana while at the same time supporting NORML's marijuana law reform efforts. Click here to view and bid on the original comic strip. The comic strip's creator and longtime NORML supporter Garry Trudeau recently donated to NORML a funny-and poignant-original Doonesbury comic strip.

We feel grateful at NORML that since the early 1970's Garry has been a
major, and humorous, advocate for marijuana law reform via his award winning political cartoon. An original marijuana policy-specific Doonesbury comic is truly a collector's item! Do not delay because this NORML online auction only lasts until 12:30 PM Eastern on June 29.

Newly available records show that a "flurry" of suicide attempts at Guantanamo began three months after Major Gen. Geoffrey Miller took over the prison camp in November, 2002:

Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller took over as commander at Guantanamo in November 2002 after interrogators criticized his predecessor for being too solicitous for the detainees' welfare. Between January and March 2003, 14 prisoners at Guantanamo tried to kill themselves, according to Pentagon figures. That's more than 40 percent of the 34 suicide attempts by 21 inmates since the prison was opened in January 2002.

Miller is now in charge of all military-run U.S. prisons in Iraq, a job he took after news broke of beatings and sexual humiliations last fall at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

Another case of "Meet the new boss....?" Here's the link to the full text of the Geneva Conventions and Protocols--in html, not pdf.

Media Matters is on top of tracking the misinformation spewed by conservatives about President Bill Clinton's book 'My Life':

• Gigot's wishful thinking: that Clinton thinks "[I]t was right for President Bush to go into Iraq"

• Kurtz falsely implied Reagan left office a more "popular figure" than Clinton

• Russert gave Novak platform for discredited anti-Clinton stories

• Scarborough and Bossie: together again

• New York Times' Kakutani twice failed to note Clintons' criticisms of the Times

• Kakutani struck again: She recycled anti-Clinton review

Very sad but predictable news.

An Iraqi militant group has beheaded its South Korean hostage, Al-Jazeera television reported Tuesday. The pan-Arab station said it had received a videotape showing that Kim Sun-il had been executed. Kim, 33, worked for a South Korean company supplying the U.S. military in Iraq and was abducted last week, according to the South Korean government. Al-Jazeera, which had not broadcast the tape, said the execution was carried out by the al-Qaida-linked group Monotheism and Jihad.

No, we won't be linking to the video even if it becomes available. We're very sorry for Mr. Kim Sun-il and his family.

Update: South Korea confirms death.

The General Accounting Office (GAO) has released the following reports, testimony, and correspondence:

First Report: US Attorneys: Performance-Based Initiatives are Evolving. GAO-04-422, May 28. Highlights are here.

Second Report: Survey of Supervisors at U.S. Attorneys' Offices. GAO-04-616SP, May 28

John Kerry was in Colorado yesterday for his first public campaign appearance in the state. He spoke in downtown Denver's Civic Park--where more than 1,000 people showed up in the rain to welcome him--and attended a fundraiser at a private home in Aspen, where he addressed his choice of Vice Presidential candidate. The man has a great sense of humor: [link now fixed]

Earlier Monday in Aspen, Kerry attended a brief fundraiser at the home of Michael Goldberg, president of the Miami-based airline leasing company Aerolease International. Kerry netted about $500,000. While there, Kerry started his speech by saying:

"Just to put your minds all at ease, I have four words for you that I know will relieve you greatly. How does this sound? Vice President Hunter Thompson."

Hunter was in attendance at the gathering. In Denver, Kerry stressed the need for funds for stem-cell research, among other things. You can read the text of his speech here.

We're experiencing a problem with our comment filter program--apparently, it's blocking innocuous comments about mandatory minimum sentences and guidelines, to name a few topics. We should have it fixed soon, we apologize for the inconvenience.

Update: Fixed now. Somehow the filter blocked all comments with the letter "n." Let us know if you still have problems.

by TChris

As he often does, Paul Krugman is asking the right question: "is Mr. Ashcroft neglecting real threats to the public because of his ideological biases?" Krugman wonders why Attorney General Ashcroft, who loves to make headlines when the Justice Dept. levels dubious accusations of terrorism against Muslims, hasn't said anything about the FBI's arrest of white supremacist William Krar, caught in possession of a lethal arsenal.

In the small town of Noonday, Tex., F.B.I. agents discovered a weapons cache containing fully automatic machine guns, remote-controlled explosive devices disguised as briefcases, 60 pipe bombs and a chemical weapon — a cyanide bomb — big enough to kill everyone in a 30,000-square-foot building.

Right-wing lunatics like Krar don't seem to merit Ashcroft's attention. His Justice Dept. instead focuses on the real bad guys: those who stand in the way of the concerns of big business.

Two weeks ago a representative of the F.B.I. appealed to an industry group for help in combating what, he told the audience, the F.B.I. regards as the country's leading domestic terrorist threat: ecological and animal rights extremists.

Animal rights activists and environmentalists don't go armed with cyanide bombs. They don't kill abortion doctors and they don't advocate the extermination of entire races. Funny how Ashcroft doesn't want to talk about the right-wing lunatics who are the real home-grown domestic terrorists.

by TChris

Darnell Williams is scheduled to die on July 9. There are so many doubts about his guilt that even his prosecutor doesn't believe he should be executed. Many of his jurors now agree that his life should be spared.

Williams' initial accuser later named someone else as the killer, and another man at the murder scene later recanted his testimony about Williams. New DNA tests revealed the presence of blood that didn't belong to either murder victim or to Williams.

Williams pleaded his case Monday before the Indiana Parole Board, which was told he met only twice with his defense attorney before the trial, which calls into question the quality of his representation.

An editorial in the Northwest Indiana Times says it well: "Putting Williams to death without erasing all doubts would be an injustice that cannot be corrected."

by TChris

A former Maryland law enforcement officer who had the attitude "The law applies to everyone but me" -- a police superintendent, no less -- received a six month sentence for misusing thousands of dollars in public funds.

Edward Norris, 43, and his one-time chief of staff, John Stendrini, 60, spent the money on dinners, hotels and encounters with women. In one case, Norris used money from the police fund — originally set up during the Depression to help officers' families — to buy Valentine's Day lingerie for his mistresses.

Press Release:

WASHINGTON, D.C. -– Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) have joined in a bipartisan effort to introduce legislation to further protect the civil rights and civil liberties of Americans. Their legislation aims to ensure that officials within the Department of Homeland Security have the ability to balance public safety with the civil right and liberties that are so important to Americans. The legislation will be referred to the Governmental Affairs Committee, which Senator Collins chairs.

“I am pleased to join with Senator Wyden in introducing this important bill,” said Senator Collins. “The Department of Homeland Security was created in response to the need to safeguard our homeland, and it represented the most significant government restructuring in 50 years. But in focusing our attention on protecting the homeland from future terrorist attacks, we also must ensure that we do not trample on the very values that the terrorists seek to destroy,” said Senator Collins. She added “Secretary Ridge has done an outstanding job at taking these sensitive and important issues into account. So it is the responsibility of the Congress to ensure that federal law supports goals that the Secretary has already undertaken.”

A Massachussetts federal judge has declared the Federal Sentencing Guidelines unconstitutional:

In a scathing criticism of the system used to punish federal crimes, a judge on Monday called the government's sentencing guidelines unconstitutional, saying they unfairly limit the authority of judges. In a series of drug cases, U.S. District Judge William Young said the guidelines put too much power in the hands of prosecutors and give judges too little discretion in sentencing.

....In his ruling, Young said he believes the sentences handed down to five defendants were too harsh and violated their constitutional right to due process. Young asked the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to throw out the sentences and send the cases back for new sentencing hearings.

Judge Young is not the only Judge to harbor such beliefs:

....many judges have lamented the stringent nature of the guidelines, and some judges have refused to take criminal cases because they object so strenuously to the rules."What judges have perhaps most strongly detested has been exactly what Judge Young says here, and that is that the Department of Justice acts, in a manner of speaking, as both prosecutor and executioner," Yas said.

As we point out here, the Guidelines came in under former President Ronald Reagan ...as did mandatory minimum sentences, laws allowing the death penalty for drug kingpins and the Bail Reform Act, which allowed Judges to deny bail for many drug defendants at the request of prosecutors.

Update: Judge Young's sentencing opinion describing "the reality of criminal sentencing under the Guidelines" (op.p.59) and holding that "the Guidelines system violates the constitutional rules announced in
Apprendi v. New Jersey and Ring v. Arizona" (id.) is 176 pages in length and can be found here. If that fails, go to the district court website, click on case information, opinions, recent opinions and then United States v. Green.