Via Law Prof Michael Froomkin at Discourse.Net:

One of the marks of a free country is that you can criticize the Maximum
Leader without fear of investigations or reprisals. Not in Seattle, USA, where a boy was investigated by the Secret Service, then disciplined by his School, for drawing Bush as the devil in an art class assignment on the Iraq war.

by TChris

The Justice Department has withdrawn the subpoena that it issued to New York-Presbyterian Hospital for the records of women who received abortions. Other courts confronting similar Justice Department subpoenas have protected the privacy of those records, but Judge Casey in the Southern District of New York held the hospital in contempt for failing to produce redacted versions of the records. The Justice Department contended that the records would help it defend a constitutional challenge against a law that bans a particular abortion procedure.

The Justice Department says it changed its position because it wants the case to be resolved promptly. Maybe. Or maybe the Justice Department knew it would lose on appeal. Or maybe the Justice Department realized that its position was inconsisent with the President's pledge to support the privacy interests of patients. In any event, if the judge grants the Department's request to vacate the contempt order, the Department's misguided attempt to obtain the records will finally be laid to rest.

by TChris

Let's start by getting our terms straight. If you take property that belongs to another person without that person's consent, it's called theft. The fact that the property is easy to steal is not a defense to theft. So why does Manuel Miranda, who worked for Bill Frist and Orrin Hatch, continue to argue that taking over 4,000 memoranda that belonged to Democrats from the Senate's computer system isn't theft?

New York federal prosecutor David Kelley will lead a Justice Department investigation into the theft of the documents. The Justice Department had been urged to appoint an independent prosecutor to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, but it's unclear just how independent Kelley will be since John Ashcroft hasn't recused himself from overseeing the investigation.

An investigation by the Senate's sergeant-at-arms suggested that the wrongdoing was not limited to the two Republican staff aides who downloaded and printed the files.

The report also suggested that many other Republican aides might have been involved in trafficking in the stolen documents, and Democrats have questioned whether officials at the Justice Department and the White House were also privy to the material in working to support Mr. Bush's nominees and derail Democratic opposition.

Whether Kelley will successfully uncover the full extent of the wrongdoing may depend upon the cooperation he receives from the Justice Department, but his appointment letter "left open whether he would have the type of broad autonomy given to the prosecutor in another politically sensitive case involving the leak of a C.I.A. officer's identity." Bowing to political pressure, Ashcroft recused himself from that investigation. Since this investigation could also lead to the White House, Ashcroft should recuse himself here, as well.

Say hello to Volconvo, "a socially conscious group that wants to promote intelligent debate and activism."

Congrats to Lis Wiehl, our friend and frequent sparring partner on Fox News, whose book comes out today. We've read it, it will be a best seller, get your copy now:

Winning Every Time: How to Use the Skills of a Lawyer in the Trials of Your Life
by Lis Wiehl

Our sitemeter has been down almost all day. It's a pain, because TalkLeft takes forever to load when Sitemeter is not working. There's one way we can always tell if it's us or Sitemeter....We check Instapundit whose sitemeter is on the same server. His sitemeter is down now too. [This has nothing to do with our hosting company which is the great Hosting Matters--only with Sitemeter which uses its own servers to compute site stats.]

Only a contortionist could twist abortion rights into having a connection to 9/11. President Bush's former (and returning) media spin artist Karen Hughes managed to do the job. Kicking Ass has the details, orginally contained in this Salon article.

Hughes' comments:

I think that after September 11, the American people are valuing life more and we need policies to value the dignity and worth of every life. President Bush has worked to say, "let's be reasonable, let's work to value life, let's reduce the number of abortions, let's increase adoptions." And I think those are the kinds of policies the American people can support, particularly at a time when we're facing an enemy and, really, the fundamental issue between us and the terror network we fight is that we value every life."

The Christian Science Monitor has a very good article on the rise of skinheads in the Pacific Northwest. The citizens there are banding together to oppose them.

It was a Saturday morning recently when Jason Martin heard a knock at his front door. As he stepped outside, he was astounded to find 200 people there cheering, then singing "God Bless America," and praying the "Lord's Prayer" together. "It made me feel very humble, very received, very respected, very encouraged," he recalls. Later that day, more than 500 people in town marched and rallied in support of Mr. Martin, an African-American minister who had wakened up three nights earlier to find a cross burning on his front lawn.

Pastor Martin's story - especially how his community responded to a frightening example of bigotry - is an important chapter in the Pacific Northwest's evolution from recurring racism and hate to what experts say is an inspiring model of how communities can reverse this troubling legacy of national life.....There's been a second cross-burning in Washington State. Racial profiling has become an issue in Portland, Ore., where there have been two recent instances in which black motorists pulled over by white police officers were shot and killed. There have been several episodes of hateful literature distributed in the region, most recently last week in a suburb of Portland where white supremacist tracts were included in bags of candy meant to attract kids.

The number one authority on this topic in our book is Journalist and Author David Neiwart, who writes the blog Orcinus from his home in the Pacific Northwest.

In related news, white supremacist Matthew Hale, leader of the former World Church of the Creator (now known as the Creativity Movement), was convicted today of soliciting the murder of a federal judge and obstruction of justice.

by TChris

Jarred Gamwell is the kind of politician our country needs. He believes that being honest and open is the best way to run for office. He stands up for his principles. He thinks voters will respond to a self-deprecating sense of humor.

Too bad you can’t vote for Jarred. He’s running for student council president at James Hunt High in Wilson, N.C. And Jarred is getting an ugly lesson in politics from Principal Bill Williamson.

Williamson took down two posters containing slogans that helped define Jarred as a candidate: "Queer Eye for Hunt High" and "Gay Guys Know Everything!" Williamson deemed the messages "disruptive of the educational process" and irrelevant to the campaign for student president. But the slogans aren’t irrelevant to Jarred, who believes that political candidates are entitled to stamp their unique identities upon their campaigns.

Defending Williamson’s judgment that references to sexual orientation are inappropriate in student elections, the school district’s attorney said: "There are North Carolina Statutes that make certain acts in a homosexual relationship criminal in nature." The district’s lawyer hasn’t made it to the law library lately -- apparently hasn’t read a newspaper, and certainly hasn’t read TalkLeft -- or he would realize that he’s basing his argument on unconstitutional statutes.

Political speech lies at the core of the First Amendment. A school that does not respect the First Amendment cannot teach students to respect the Constitution. Student governments help students learn about democracy in a hands-on way, by participating in the democratic process. Ironic then, that a school would use that process to teach students that discrimination is better than diversity, that censorship is preferable to free speech.

Thanks to Zombyboy at Resurrection Song , the 7th edition of the Rocky Mountain Blogger Roundup is up. There is some fine writing and humor in this edition, so go check it out.

Don't forget the Rocky Mountain Blogger Bash is May 28 at the Denver Press Club. We hear liberal Colorado bloggers will be in short supply, so if you are one, or support one, please come on down.

by TChris

Read my lips: no new taxes. Okay, wrong president, but the current President wants the Republican controlled Senate to read his lips, just this once.

As the President promises two chickens in every pot and a high speed internet connection for all but the homeless, the Senate is debating "whether to renew a lapsed ban that would permanently prevent state and local governments from levying additional taxes on dial-up, DSL (digital subscriber line), cable modem, wireless or satellite access to the Internet." John McCain (R-AZ) is trying to sell a compromise that would extend the moritorium while allowing states to tax voice-over Internet Protocol (using the internet in lieu of long distance), but Lamar Alexander (R-TN) worries that "state and local governments could lose billions in tax revenue if prevented from taxing Internet access."

Will Bush persuade his party to stand behind him? Let's hope he doesn't propose a tax on liberal bloggers.

by TChris

Three members of a "top-secret unit detailed to search for weapons of mass destruction" in Bahgdad died in an explosion as they were raiding a house, apparently in search of chemical agents. Although our government will neither confirm nor deny the soldiers' mission, the UPI found "clear evidence" that they belonged to the Iraq Survey Group, "including credentials looted from the vehicles by local Iraqi youth." The military acknowledges that two of the dead are Americans; the third may be British, or his death (like the mission) may be classified information that the government won't confirm or deny.

Five other soldiers were wounded.

Their completely anonymous uniforms, lack of unit patches or rank indications, facial hair, personalized weaponry and radically modified military vehicles generally indicate membership in special operations units.