by TChris

A car bombing on Thursday in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, took the lives of eight U.S. soldiers and wounded four others. Other attacks in eastern Baghdad and in Ba'qubah, north of Baghdad, claimed the lives of two more U.S. soldiers.

by TChris

A New York Times editorial urges the State of Delaware to adopt a proposed law that would end the State's inflexible policy of denying occupational licenses to people who have been convicted of a felony. The proposed law would require a "substantial relationship" between the crime and the occupation, so that somebody convicted of (for instance) a felony trespass on government property during a demonstration would not, twenty years later, be denied a license as a landscape architect.

The proposed law only makes sense. People who have been punished, who have paid their debt to society, should be given a chance to reform. Society only benefits by allowing ex-offenders to become productive. As the Times argues, ending these "senselessly punitive bans" makes it easier for reformed offenders to stay on a path that keeps them out of prison.

Peter Coors has been a candidate for just a few weeks, but he's already in hot water with minority groups for comments made by one of his spokespersons:

DENVER (AP) - Minority groups called on Republican Senate candidate Peter Coors to apologize Wednesday after a spokeswoman said it would be worse to be compared to Sen. John Kerry than to a convicted killer. The dispute arose last week when an appeals court upheld the conviction of a reputed Ku Klux Klansman in the murder of a black man. The New York Times mistakenly used a photo of Coors with a story about the ruling. Asked about the error, Coors campaign spokeswoman Cinamon Watson said: "It could have been worse. Pete could have been identified as John Kerry."

The Rev. James Peters, spokesman for the Greater Metro Denver Ministerial Alliance, said the remark was insensitive. "If Peter Coors or Ms. Watson thinks it is funny or lighthearted to compare Sen. Kerry to a convicted KKK murderer, then they are either willfully ignorant of the emotion African-Americans feel about such matters, or they are terribly out of touch and they should be ashamed," Peters said.

A new New York Times/CBS poll shows support for Bush and the war dropping significantly in recent months:

Support for the war in Iraq has eroded substantially over the past several months, and Americans are increasingly critical of the way President Bush is handling the conflict, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll. After initially expressing robust backing for the war, the public is now evenly divided over whether the United States military should stay for as long as it takes to stabilize Iraq or pull out as soon as possible, the poll showed.

Asked whether the United States had done the right thing in taking military action against Iraq, 47 percent of respondents said it had, down from 58 percent a month earlier and 63 percent in December, just after American forces captured Saddam Hussein. Forty-six percent said the United States should have stayed out of Iraq, up from 37 percent last month and 31 percent in December.b

...just short of a year after Mr. Bush stood on the deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln last May 1 and proclaimed the end to major combat operations under a banner reading "Mission Accomplished," his approval rating has slid from the high levels it reached during the war. It now stands at 46 percent, the lowest level of his presidency in The Times/CBS News Poll, down from 71 percent last March and a high of 89 percent just after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001....Mr. Bush's approval rating for his handling of Iraq was 41 percent, down from 49 percent last month and 59 percent in December.

The poll shows that Bush and Kerry remain in a statistical dead heat.

We're on the road today, so here's an open thread to discuss the Bush-Cheney hearings, which won't be televised and are not being conducted under oath.

Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney will meet jointly with the commission beginning at 9:30 a.m. EDT for what is expected to be several hours of questions. White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and two members of his staff also will be present. One of the most pressing issues is the allegation that the administration failed to make terrorism a top priority in the face of what CIA Director George Tenet has said was a system "blinking red" with warnings.

Unlike the commission's televised hearings that produced some sharp exchanges, Thursday's meeting will not have cameras or a stenographer in the room and there will not be any record of what was said beyond note-taking...."If they thought it would help him, they'd televise it," James Thurber, director of American University's Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, said of White House advisers. "And obviously they don't think it will help him, and so they are not."

For the second month in a row, we've exceeded our very generous 24,000 MB a month bandwidth allotment and there are two days left in the month. If any of you are able to chip in, we'd really appreciate it. Just click on one of the buttons below. Amazon is anonymous, paypal is not. Many thanks.

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The folks running ReDefeatBush.com just put up a Firesign Theatre/SNL-style Flash parody of tomorrow’s Bush/Cheney hearings here.

In anticipation of Bush and Cheney's 9/11 Testimony, and given the lack of recordings or even transcripts, ReDefeatBush.com has produced the version we'd like to hear. Take a look at ReDefeatBush.com's first installment of ReDefeatBush Theater. Premiering Thursday April 29th between 7:00A and 8:00A on WJFK-FM in Washington during the Howard Stern Show, along with a couple of more traditional radio commercials. Our television ads start Friday on WJLA, the ABC affiliate in Washington.

Hat-tip to BB who writes in:

The parody’s pretty funny -- the Bush voice is dead-on -- but the topic of Cheney’s potential involvement in an oil deal gone wrong (the launch-point of the parody) sure isn’t. RDB does link from the SWF to a pretty good backgrounder. More grist for the how-crazy-were-they mill …

The Center for American Progress today formally launched a massive searchable database, Claim v. Fact, "that charts conservatives' distortions, lies and dishonesty, and refutes them with well-documented facts.The Center is soliciting the public to help grow the database, asking citizens to submit entries that are not yet documented in the system." Submit your entry here.

John Kerry has begun the process of getting background checks on his potential Veep candidates--including Dick Gephardt and John Edwards. Another is said to be Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack. [link via Political Wire.]

Please, Mr. Kerry, pick Mr. Edwards. He will get the Democrats enthused and engaged in a way that the others won't. He will bring in the youth vote in a way the other's won't. He'll bring in the South and the blue collar workers. He's a great and tireless campaigner. He's telegenic. He's real. He connects with people. Choose him.

Two and half days of hearings in the Kobe Bryant alleged sexual assault case ended today with no rulings on the admission of the accuser's sexual history or the suppression of Kobe's statements to sheriff's investigators. However, the Judge did set May 10 as a date for Kobe to plead "not guilty". This is the date that will start the speedy trial clock running.

Our source in the courtroom tells us that the Judge pressed the accuser's attorney quite hard on why he chose to file a public motion for his client seeking an accelerated trial date--with a letter attached from the accuser's mother. Our source says the questioning was so pointed s/he was left with the impression the Judge was accusing the accuser's lawyer of grandstanding for the public.

In a twist from the usual practice, it seems the Prosecution has filed several motions in limine to prevent the defense from presenting certain expert witnesses. Usually, it is the defense that tries to exclude evidence. What doesn't the prosecution want the jury to hear?

If you're by a tv, tune in to '60 Minutes II' tonight. It will be airing photos of alleged abuse of Iraqi POW's by U.S. Troops:

U.S. military police stacked Iraqi prisoners in a human pyramid, and attached wires to one detainee to convince him he might be electrocuted, according to photographs obtained by CBS News which led to criminal charges against six American soldiers. CBS said the photos, to be shown Wednesday night on "60 Minutes II," were taken late last year at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, where American soldiers were holding hundreds of prisoners captured during the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

We wrote about the case against the GI's here.

[Ed. There have been so many hits on this post via Google that the comments have gotten out of hand. We are closing them, and will be deleting those that have used profanity or engaged in namecalling.]

by TChris

The Supreme Court heard argument today about the administration's authority to detain without counsel or trial American citizens accused of being enemy combatants. You can listen to the arguments here (Hamdi) and here (Padilla).

From the argument by Jennifer Martinez on behalf of Jose Padilla:

"We've had war on our soil before, and never before in our nation's history has this court granted the president a blank check to do whatever he wants to American citizens."

From the argument by Frank Dunham on behalf of Yaser Esam Hamdi:

"We have never authorized detention of a citizen in this country without giving him an opportunity to be heard, to say, 'Hey, I am an innocent person."

Justice O'Connor, often the swing vote, voices doubt about the Bush position:

"But have we ever had a situation like this where presumably this warlike status could last for 25 years, 50 years, whatever it is?"

Denying that courts should have any oversight authority over the executive's desire to do as it pleases with those it tags as enemy combatants, the government's lawyer assured the court that the president would always make appropriate decisions. Justice Ginsberg wondered whether it is wise to be so trusting as to give a president unlimited power. Cross your fingers that four of her colleagues see her point.