by TChris

Charges against Philadelphia rapper "Filthy Rich," a/k/a Richard Rayordo Harris, will be dropped after a judge suppressed key evidence that the prosecution neglected to provide to the defense. The judge also suppressed statements made by Harris and pre-trial witness identifications. The prosecutor blamed a heavy workload for his failure to turn over evidence that included transcripts of conversations that the police recorded using wiretaps in its investigation of an alleged cocaine distribution ring.

Harris was facing a drug kingpin count that carried a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years. Harris' lawyer, William Riddle, argued that the prosecutor wasn't playing around with the charges but seemed to be playing around with discovery.

It isn't the first time the state's attorney's office has failed to provide evidence to defendants on time. In April, [State's Attorney] Eastridge dropped a rape case after a clerical error caused his office to miss a 45-day deadline to turn over DNA evidence. Eastridge also blamed that mistake on his office's high caseload.

by TChris

Christopher Lame of Des Moines believed he didn't get one of the tacos he ordered at a Taco Bell drive-through. He entered the business to complain, but the woman working at the drive-through told him they were closing. Lame responded by pelting her in the face with a chalupa. He's now charged with assault, having avoided the greater charge of assault with a deadly chalupa.

A fascinating analysis by Manuel Garcia, a Cuban-Puerto Rican American who grew up on the Upper West side of New York, on who are really the true Americans. We recommend reading it in its entirety. Here's some quotes:

I pledge allegiance to the flag
Of the altered states in America
And to the republic-of-dreams for which it stands,
One nation under the gods, the goddesses,
The spirits of the ancestors,
And the great unknowable void,
With liberty to imagine justice
For all.

Are you an American?" I've been asked since I can remember and to this day. I'm never sure, let's just say I'm trying. Being born here is not enough. I know, I was, and still most Americans think I'm a foreigner. I was born in the upper West Side -- Spanish Harlem -- in the time of Machito. I have a black moustache (well, had) and a permanent tan "to die for" -- if your skin is plucked-chicken white and you can afford the "color." I've been taken for every kind of Latino (I'm Cuban-Puerto Rican), for Egyptian, Persian, Turkish, and even black.

When you understand what it means to be a real American, then you can see that most Cubans are real Americans, where most Floridians are not; that most Mexicans are real Americans while most Californians are not; and that many immigrants will never be real Americans, though probably most always were. If this essay makes no sense to you, then you are sober in your delusions, for I am drunk in my insights. Insight knows itself to be particular, whereas delusion imagines itself to be general. This separates Carlos Castañeda from John Ashcroft. If you don't like my icons, then pick your own, just make sure they are real, like Crazy Horse and Noam Chomsky, instead of fakes like George Armstrong Custer and Henry Kissinger. If this rant makes any sense to you, then you are capable of seeing that the America that will survive into the 22nd century, in peace and security, is as remote from the America of George W. Bush as that of Mark Twain was from J. P. Morgan's, or Kurt Vonnegut's is from Richard Nixon's.

Mr. Garcia is as much of an American as we are and you are. Don't you feel shame that he is treated differently? We do.

Markos at Daily Kos hits the nail on the head:

I am quite amused at Republican attempts to brand Bush the "new Reagan". It's clear Bush has been unable to stand on his own as a leader, hence the efforts to transfer some of that Reagan glow to the failed Bush presidency. But really, I'm not sure why they insist on making Bush/Reagan comparisons. However you look at it, Bush looks so much smaller in relation to Reagan. And it really helps drive home the growing concensus that Bush is, indeed, the worst president ever. In comparison, Bush makes Reagan look positively god-like.

Jury selection is beginning in the case of five Palestinean brothers accused of aiding Hamas by supplying keyboards and modems.

Defense attorneys have said the case, introduced with much fanfare by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft in December 2002, was being pursued by overzealous Justice Department officials targeting Muslim men with ties to the Middle East. Prosecutors are preparing two trials. In the first, they will bring charges of conspiracy, export violations and money laundering for sending computer parts to Syria and Libya. In the second, they plan to allege that the brothers -- Bayan Elashi, Ghassan Elashi, Basman Elashi, Hazim Elashi and Ihsan Elashyi -- sent money to Hamas or to senior Hamas leader Musa Abu Marzook. Marzook is married to Nadia Marzook, who is a cousin of the brothers. No date has been set for the second trial.

....Defense lawyers have said that export violations are typically classified as regulatory crimes for which violators pay civil fines. They have said some large U.S. companies only paid fines -- and faced no criminal action -- for illegally shipping equipment to Libya and Syria. U.S. attorneys have also said the brothers are linked to a Muslim charity called the Holy Land Foundation, which had an office across the street from their computer company in suburban Dallas.

About three months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, the U.S. government shut down the Holy Land Foundation, saying it was being used to send money to terrorists. President Bush said the charity sent money to Hamas which used it "to support schools and indoctrinate children to grow up into suicide bombers." No criminal charges have been filed against the Holy Land Foundation.

James Ujaama was charged and convicted for building websites and providing laptops. These five brothers sent money to charity. Because the charity is Hamas, they knowingly aided or supplied material support to terrorists? How about catching Osama bin Laden instead of the little fish who supported middle eastern charities?

We're not easily impressed but Billmon at Whiskey Bar is overwhelming in his torture coverage. Not only with the news, but with his insightful analysis and sourcing. Between him and the Wall Street Journal (subscription only, skip the opinion pieces), you get it all.

Tuesday is the day. Here are some sites with live feeds of the transit of Venus. You will never see this again in your lifetime, so be sure to watch. [link via What Really Happened.]

by TChris

Some winners of the "Surprising English" award, as determined by the English Speaking Union of Japan:

The Nonsense Award went to "High Touch Town Roppongi," a slogan attached to the overpass at Roppongi Crossing in Tokyo.

The You Should Know Better Award went to the slogan "Our city is fruity," promoting the Hanagasa Festival in Yamagata.

The Hilariously Funny Award went to a notice found at a department store entrance in Kanagawa Prefecture: "When a visitor has injustice, I will notify the police irrespective of quantity."

Eric Alterman of Altercation expresses his views of former President Ronald Reagan . He links to this Nation article that he wrote in 2000. He also provides a lot of external source material on Reagan, if you're wanting to know more about him. We point this out mostly for the younger TL readers, and our international ones, who don't know much about him. We believe he was far more complicated and controversial as President than the mainstream media has portrayed to date. Once again, may he rest in peace. And please, go here and donate to The Alzheimer's Association. Even a few dollars will be helpful.

Update: Torture Memo Available Here.

The Wall Street Journal reports that it has reviewed a classified draft of a Pentagon report from 2003 in which the authors conclude that President Bush is not bound by laws prohibiting torture and that the Justice Department cannot prosecute U.S. soldiers or agents who engage in torture at his direction. If you don't have access to the Journal, you can read this Reuters account of the report.

One of the authors of the draft report is William Haynes, now awaiting confirmation as a federal judge.

According to Bush administration officials, the report was compiled by a working group appointed by the Defense Department's general counsel, William J. Haynes II. Air Force General Counsel Mary Walker headed the group, which comprised top civilian and uniformed lawyers from each military branch and consulted with the Justice Department, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Defense Intelligence Agency and other intelligence agencies. It isn't known if President Bush has ever seen the report.

Robert Dreyfuss at TomPaine.com has more.

....here’s how the Pentagon’s shysters split the torture hairs: "The infliction of pain or suffering, whether it is physical or mental, is insufficient to amount to torture,’ the report advises. Such suffering must be ‘severe,’ the lawyers advise, and they rely on a dictionary definition to suggest that it ‘must be of such a high level of intensity that the pain is difficult for the subject to endure.’

The report goes on to say that Congress has no business trying to regulate whether U.S. soldiers or other officials torture prisoners, since that would violate the commander-in-chief’s constitutional power to wage war. “Sometimes the greater good for society will be accompanied by violating the literal language of the criminal law,” says the report.

Intel Dump also covers the WSJ report.

Some quotes from the WSJ article:

Terry Nichols's defense begins its presentation in the death penalty phase of his trial. Here's an interesting factoid: There are no more alternate jurors.

That's right. No more. So if one juror gets sick, Terry Nichols jury can't finish deliberations. Mistrial as to the sentencing. The matter goes to the judge, and under Oklahoma law, he has to impose a life sentence. Question: What's to prevent one juror, who wanted to make sure Nichols' got a life sentence, from just calling in sick?

All those millions spent prosecuting a man already serving a life sentence would be down the drain. For those of us opposed to the death penalty, we can't think of a more fitting ending.

Some legal eagles have suggested that the Judge could convene a second jury and retry the sentencing. We disagree. But even if it were legally possible, we don't see it. This judge has had enough. He's not going through this again.

Update: A commenter thought we were advocating that a juror pretend to be sick. We were not. That would be a fraud upon the court. Our comment about a fitting ending related to the possibility that a juror might really get sick and be prevented from deliberating.

by TChris

Freedom of speech means freedom to protest -- except in Westwood, Massachusetts, where Joseph Previtera Jr. was arrested for engaging in an act of "street theater." Previtera stood on a milk crate outside a Military Recruiting Center wearing a hood and shawl, with wires dangling from his outstretched hands -- copying a photo released in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. He was hoping to give potential recruits a different perspective on war than they were likely to receive from the recruiter.

The police responded by arresting Previtera for disturbing the peace, making a false bomb threat and possession of a hoax device. But Previtera said nothing about a bomb; in fact, silence was part of his protest, making it difficult to understand how the peace was disturbed by anyone other than the police, who brought in the bomb squad and taped off the area around Previtera before taking him into custody.

The wires constituted the "hoax device," and the "threat," according to the police, was implied, not stated: although the wires weren't attached to anything, a complete idiot may have been able to imagine that they had something to do with a bomb. Previtera isn't a violent man, but the police who arrested him for exercising his right to protest did violence to the First Amendment.