by TChris

It's bad enough when prosecutors break the rules to secure a conviction. When an accused's own lawyer turns against him, there's no hope of a fair trial.

Both ends of the criminal justice system worked against Patrick Rugiero, who is serving a 30 year sentence after being convicted of drug crimes in federal court. Fortunately, federal Magistrate Steven Pepe has recommended that Rugiero receive a new trial.

Rugiero's trial lawyer, Deday LaRene, was under investigation for tax evasion when he decided to represent Rugiero. Magistrate Pepe found that government lawyers were willing to offer Rugiero a deal that would limit Rugiero's sentence to 15 years in exchange for Rugiero's cooperation, but that LaRene never pursued the offer because didn't want Rugiero to reveal that he paid LaRene $80,000 in cash.

Magistrate Pepe also criticized federal prosecutor Keith Corbett, head of the Organized Crime Strike force, for failing to give key documents to Rugiero’s appellate lawyers for more than four years.

This isn’t the first time that Corbett has been accused of withholding documents. Corbett was co-counsel in the 2003 Detroit terrorism trial and has been under fire for failing to turn over a letter that raised questions about a key government witness.

Rugerio asked for the file on LaRene's tax fraud investigation in 1997, leading to more than 20 court hearings, during which the Corbett claimed the file was "missing." Magistrate Pepe didn't buy it.

Eventually, much of the file was found down the hall from Corbett’s office, in a file cabinet in the office of IRS Special Agent Frank Scartozzi — a fact disclosed when Rugiero’s lawyer, David Schoen, was allowed to question Scartozzi under oath. Corbett, Pepe wrote, “must have known of its existence.”

U.S. District Judge Paul Gadola will now decide whether to accept Magistrate Pepe's recommendation.

American Progress has this Viewing Guide to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's testimony today. Here's an open thread to discuss what the embattled military chief has to say.

Rumsfeld: "These events occurred on my watch, I am responsible, I take full responsibilty." He says, paraphrasing, "We were wrong, I apologize, the treatment is inconsistent with the values of our nations and teaching of our military. It is fundamentally Un-American." He will find a way to financially compensate the abused prisoners.

He praises military personnel who brought the pix to light. Now he is addressing corrective measures.

Shouting protest by demonstrators in the gallery. They are being physically ejected. Yelling "Fire Rumsfeld." Rumsfeld keeps his cool, nervous laughter erupts.

We're going back to work. You can take it from here.

The New York Times reports on the life and current status of Lynndie England, the female national guardsman featured so prominently in the Iraqi abuse photos:

While in Iraq, members of the 372nd say, Private England became romantically involved with another man implicated in the abuse scandal, Specialist Charles A. Graner. Military officials say she is pregnant and has been sent to Fort Bragg, N.C. She has not been charged, as Specialist Graner and five other members of the 372nd have. But military investigators have called her a suspect in the abuse inquiry and continue to question her.

Her mother says the military has not provided her with a lawyer.

Update: Lynndie England officially has been charged with abusing prisoners and may face a court-martial proceeding.

by TChris

If your mother likes to read and has an interest in politics, you might want to give her Amy Goodman's new book, The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media that Love Them.

So what's the connection to Mother's Day?

Goodman says that one of her goals is to go where the silence is and fill it, to give a voice to the voiceless. In many respects, she's a motherly figure. She empowers citizens, tells those untold stories out of an honest caring for the struggle of the voiceless and is critical of injustice, inequality and war. This compassion embodies the true spirit of Mother's Day as represented by its founders who wanted much more than flowers.

The first proposition for Mother's Day in the United States came in the late 1850's by Appalachian homemaker Anna Jarvis. She organized "Mother's Work Day" to raise awareness of poor health conditions in her community. Then in the 1870's Julia Ward Howe, a Boston poet, pacifist, suffragist and author of the lyrics to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," organized a day encouraging mothers to rally for peace, since she believed they bore the loss of human life more harshly than anyone else.

Mother's Day became an officially recognized national holiday in 1914 after Jarvis' daughter, also named Anna successfully lobbied the Wilson administration.

by TChris

Remember: if any little thing bothers you in life, no matter how silly, just ask your government to make it illegal. Much of the time, your government will oblige.

The city council in Gaston, North Carolina passed an ordinance prohibiting dogs in store windows -- unless the store is a pet shop. The ordinance is targeted at Clint Baucom, a bail bondsman who keeps his two dogs in his storefront office.

Baucom says his dogs give his office a sense of protection, and he's able to better care for them at the store given his round-the-clock business hours.

But, because others think the dogs are "ugly" and don't portray the "positive image" that Gaston desires, Baucom's dogs can no longer lounge around in a room with a view.

by TChris

With nearly half of all probable voters seemingly incapable of recognizing evil when it seizes the Presidency, it is important for progressives to enlist the support of new voters. You can help by supporting America Votes.

America Votes is a new coalition of many of the largest membership-based groups in the country, who have come together to increase voter registration, education and participation in electoral politics. This historic partnership represents a combined membership of more than 20 million Americans in every state in the country. Groups that are part of America Votes work on a broad range of issues including environmental protection, education, human and civil rights, women's rights, choice and labor.

America Votes is seeking volunteers in 17 states tomorrow for Election Action Day, the start of a six month campaign to register and educate new voters. Help them if you can.

Must read...Baghdad blogger Riverbend's Just Go.

People are seething with anger- the pictures of Abu Ghraib and the Brits in Basrah are everywhere. Every newspaper you pick up in Baghdad has pictures of some American or British atrocity or another. It's like a nightmare that has come to life. Everyone knew this was happening in Abu Ghraib and other places… seeing the pictures simply made it all more real and tangible somehow. American and British politicians have the audacity to come on television with words like, "True the people in Abu Ghraib are criminals, but…" Everyone here in Iraq knows that there are thousands of innocent people detained. Some were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, while others were detained 'under suspicion'. In the New Iraq, it's "guilty until proven innocent by some miracle of God".

People are so angry. There’s no way to explain the reactions- even pro-occupation Iraqis find themselves silenced by this latest horror. I can’t explain how people feel- or even how I personally feel. Somehow, pictures of dead Iraqis are easier to bear than this grotesque show of American military technique. People would rather be dead than sexually abused and degraded by the animals running Abu Ghraib prison.

...Today's lesson: don't rape, don't torture, don't kill and get out while you can- while it still looks like you have a choice... Chaos? Civil war? Bloodshed? We’ll take our chances- just take your Puppets, your tanks, your smart weapons, your dumb politicians, your lies, your empty promises, your rapists, your sadistic torturers and go.

Go read the whole thing.

Awesome series this week in the Boston Herald on the wrongfully convicted and the need to establish an Innocence Commission. Please go read some of the stories of these innocent men who were wrongfully convicted and sentenced to long prison terms for crimes they did not commit.

The Chicago Tribune reports more turbulance for Air America Radio, now in its fifth week on the air:

In yet another sign of trouble for Air America Radio, the liberal talk network's co-founder and chairman, Evan Cohen, resigned Thursday along with his investment partner and vice chairman, Rex Sorensen. The company also failed to make its scheduled payroll Wednesday, leaving its staff of roughly 100 writers and producers unpaid until Thursday.

We're on a wild ride," said Jon Sinton, the network's president, acknowledging that Air America has suffered "the typical bumps and bruises faced by any start-up." "But the bottom line," he said, "is that we are on the air to stay."

From Yale Law Prof Jack Balkin at Balkanization:

The Administration, and particularly Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, have been cavalier about American obligations under international law, including the Geneva Convention. International law and transparency, we are told, are unnecessary because, unlike all of the other countries in the world, we are Americans, and we naturally believe in human rights and the rule of law. We need no special incentives to be good. But if history teaches us anything, it is that when governments, no matter how well they think of themselves, decide to free themselves from constraints, they become unconstrained, and when they refuse to make themselves accountable, they abuse their power.

The only thing that has been lacking until now has been the proof of what everyone should already have known: that unchecked power leads to hubris, hubris leads to corruption, and corruption leads to violations of human rights.

Americans are proud of their devotion to democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. But these cannot exist without institutional preconditions: they cannot exist if government officials insist on complete secrecy, mock international covenants, and refuse to allow their actions to be tested and constrained by law. This Administration wanted secrecy. It wanted to be free of legal constraint. It wanted to do whatever it wanted whenever it wanted without ever having to be called to account for it. Now it is reaping what it has sown.

[link via Atrios]

Wonkette makes us laugh every day.

You can ask the White House anything, and sometimes they answer:

Q: Tom from Camano Island, WA:
How could this Country who is supposed to represent all that is right in the World allow the treatment of prisoners to happen as reported in our newspapers today? Swift and sure action must be taken to correct this situation (if true).

A: Dr. Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor:
. . . Those pictures were awful because America -- American men and women in uniform, active and reserve, are serving in Iraq at great sacrifice. People are losing their lives. We came there to help to liberate the people of Iraq. We came there to build schools, and to build clinics, and we want very much that the images of Americans should be the images of helping the Iraqi people.

You hear that? Someone screwed up and released the wrong images. It's like during the civil rights movement. The protesters kept emphasizing the lynchings and the angry mobs; they never showed photos of the terrific restrooms and water fountains the white folks so thoughtfully provided. You can see how people got the wrong idea.

White House Interactive [WhiteHouse.gov]

Wonkette rules DC.

Via Media Matters, this comes from the she-pundit with long blond hair (really, who else could have said it?)

I think the other point that no one is making about the abuse photos is just the disproportionate number of women involved, including a girl general running the entire operation.I mean, this is lesson, you know, one million and 47 on why women shouldn't be in the military. In addition to not being able to carry even a medium-sized backpack, women are too vicious. [FOX News Channel, Hannity & Colmes, May 5]

[For newer TL readers, we try not to use her name so as not to contribute to a rise in her google popularity. Please just use her initials in comments]