Kevin Drum at Political Animal explains why there's still good reason to be suspicious about President Bush's National Guard Service, and why the press has been silent about it lately. Kevin reviews the documents that have been released and then addresses those that are missing. He says the two together give us plenty to be suspicious about. As to the silence of the press, Kevin says, there's just no smoking gun. We think he's probably right.

However, we did receive this email today from a retired lieutenant colonel, who's not willing to let Bush off the hook and who pleads with Kerry and the Democrats to stay on this:

by TChris

This man in Pretoria is a lucky fellow:

Telkom senior manager Petrus Mthethwa on Wednesday escaped unhurt after two alleged assassins broke into his house at midnight and opened fire.

The botched assassination attempt was Mthethwa's third escape from death.

In an attack last October, one of the security guards provided by Telkom sustained gunshot wounds to the neck and was admitted to hospital.

In another incident, Mthethwa was followed while driving home from work. The occupants of the car fired several shots but he escaped unharmed.

As we reported here, some USA Today employees were hoping USA Today's top editor, Karen Jurgenson, would not take the fall alone for the Jack Kelley scandal. Turns out she won't: Managing News Editor Hal Ritter submitted his resignation today, and Executive Editor Brian Gallagher will be next.

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in the Zacarias Moussaoui case, splitting the baby:

For the defense:

The government had asserted that Brinkema, in Alexandria, Va., exceeded her authority by ruling that Moussaoui - an acknowledged al-Qaida member - could have access to three prisoners from Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization. The three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the government's argument. Rather, the judges affirmed the trial judge's findings that "the enemy combatant witnesses could provide material, favorable testimony on Moussaoui's behalf."

However, the appeals judges rejected Brinkema's view that it was not possible to craft a compromise - saying that written statements from the prisoners could substitute for direct questioning of the witnesses.

For the Government:

Judge Brinkema sought to punish the government for refusing her orders allowing access to the prisoners - barring all evidence related to Sept. 11 and also banning the death penalty, which the government said it would seek if Moussaoui was convicted. The appeals judges rejected the sanctions.

You can read the opinion here.

Congressional Quarterly (paid subscription only) is reporting that the Victims' Rights Amendment is dead--the proponents have abandoned their attempt to pass a constitutional amendment and instead will try to pass a law applicable to victims rights in federal cases.

Supporters of a long-stalled constitutional amendment that would guarantee
rights for crime victims are at least temporarily conceding defeat and planning to back alternative language that would spell out such rights in a statute. New legislation (S 2329) agreed upon late Wednesday by constitutional amendment sponsors Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and others, is scheduled for Senate floor debate and passage on Thursday.

Final details of the bill were not available, but Democratic Senate aides
said Wednesday that the compromise would likely include language that would
give victims or their representatives the right to be heard at public release, plea sentencing and other proceedings and would require judicial officials to take victims' safety into account when deciding the fate of defendants. The compromise is also expected to authorize federal grants for crime victims.

A law is a lot easier to change or repeal than a constitutional amendment. Wise choice. We hear there are some problematic provisions in the planned law, but we'll save that for another day. Right now we're just thrilled that the VRA is dead.

Update: The AP reports:

Feinstein and Kyl had to sacrifice a proposed victims' rights constitutional amendment to get the bill through the Senate. A constitutional amendment would have required all states to follow the federal government's wishes. The bill passed by the Senate would only apply to federal crimes and federal courts.

Buzzflash asks, Can You Feel the Draft?

The military has already wasted millions of dollars trying to boost recruitment through entertainment like NASCAR. Not surprisingly, recruitment goals have fallen far short of expectations. Current soldiers, meanwhile, have made it clear that they want out. Not even signing bonuses are coaxing them to re-enlist. Why go through this mess again?

The draft is the only remaining option. Bush will start implementing a draft through reactivation of the Selective Service Boards, shortly after he is sworn in for a second term, if that nightmare scenario of his election should come to pass. But not to worry for the offspring of the Bush dynasty. The Bush loyalists will find a way to keep the twins and other Bush kin from serving. None of the Bush brothers, including George, have fought in a war. They don't plan on starting any new Bush traditions now with the "next generation."

It's our sons and daughters who will be drafted not the kin of the Bush family. You can be sure of that.

Here are some details of post-9/11 bills calling for the draft. More here.

For those who haven't read our many, many posts on the draft, we unequivocally oppose it. You can access them by placing "Rangel" or "country joe" "military draft" in the search box. (Our archives have moved so internal links within the posts won't work, but the search box does.)

Where's Country Joe when we need him? And Arlo? And Bruce? (scroll to the bottom for that one.)

The U.N. Security Council has adopted a resolution to back the investigation of the "oil for food scandal", which will include a probe of contracts with Iraq around the world. We don't know enough about this to opine yet, but if you do, feel free to comment.

Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, began a high-level investigation yesterday into allegations of kickbacks and bribes in the U.N.-run oil-for-food program for Iraq. Volcker assumed his post as head of a three-man team after he was assured all 15 members of the U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution to back the investigation, which will include a probe of contracts with Iraq around the world. "We will be following the money as well as we can," Volcker told a news conference.

....Under the now-defunct program, Iraq was permitted to sell oil in order to buy civilian goods. Its purpose was to ease the impact on ordinary Iraqis of sanctions imposed after the 1991 Persian Gulf War...The panel intends to hire investigators, accountants and legal specialists in an effort to analyze contracts, he said. The program allowed Saddam's government to choose buyers of its oil and suppliers of goods. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he took the allegations seriously, which include accusations that a senior U.N. official took a bribe from Saddam's government.

Kelley at Demopower writes that the woman who allowed the rarely shown photo of coffins of U.S. troops awaiting transport back home to be published has been fired. The news report of the firing is here.

Tim Dunlop has more over at Road to Surfdom.

This is an interesting article about David Paul Hammer, a death row prisoner in jail for 26 years, who is ready for his June 8 execution. He's also the death row inmate who will testify at Terry Nichols' trial about what he says Timothy McVeigh told him while they were in adjacent death row cells. He's also written a book.

Providence Sister Rita Clare Gerardot of St. Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind., who has been one of Hammer’s two spiritual advisers since March 2000,....She said Hammer also told her that incarceration is "like a slow death in a cage." In a recent statement shared by the Providence sister, Hammer said, "It is my hope that protests against capital punishment will be loud and vocal on the day before I am killed—not for me, but rather for the thousands of men and women still fighting against overwhelming odds for justice in their respective cases. There is no justice in capital punishment. It is revenge, pure and simple."

He was sentenced to die in 1998 after he pleaded guilty to the 1996 murder of Andrew Marti, his cellmate at the U.S. Penitentiary in Allenwood, Pa. At the time of the murder, Hammer was serving a federal sentence for escaping in the early 1980s from an Oklahoma state prison, where he was incarcerated for kidnapping and attempted murder.

Hammer will be the 4th federal prisoner executed since 2001, when the federal reinstated the death penalty after a 38 years suspension. His website is here.

The National Coaliton Against the Death Penalty (NCADP) just sent us this press release:

The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Thursday called on Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute the death sentence of James Clark, a mentally retarded man scheduled to be executed April 27. "Texas may not flout the highest court in the United States," said David Elliot, NCADP communications director. "Prosecutors and judges may not like the outcome of Atkins. But to allow this execution to proceed would create a stain of embarrassment that will not be easily hidden or soon removed."

The details and action alert are here. Please contact Gov. Perry and urge that he stop the execution of James Clark. Please further urge the governor to declare a moratorium on all Texecutions.

Yesterday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals vacated the death sentence of another retarded prisoner, Willie Mack Modden. It also vacated the death sentence of Kenneth Vodochodks, a prisoner for whom the Court found the evidence insufficient that he aided the triggerman.

Modden is the first Texas inmate to have his death sentence commuted by the Court of Criminal Appeals since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that execution of retarded inmates is unconstitutional.

On April 2, we published pictures of Thomas Lee Goldstein, a former young marine who was released from jail after serving 24 years for a crime he didn't commit. The cause of his wrongful conviction was an unreliable jailhouse snitch and an eyewitness, both of whom subsequently recanted. Yesterday, Goldstein sued for damages.

Attorneys for Thomas Lee Goldstein, who spent 24 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, announced Wednesday that they had filed damage claims, alleging that police officers and prosecutors had committed egregious acts of misconduct that cost the Vietnam veteran the prime years of his life. "For the police to fabricate evidence and use perjured testimony to achieve their conviction" was an "egregious affront" to Goldstein and the Constitution that calls for compensation, said Ronald O. Kaye, Goldstein's attorney, at a Pasadena news conference.

Goldstein, 55, said he could never be compensated for the years lost to prison. "I was 31 years old. I never got married, I never had children, I never started my career. No human being should have to suffer what I went through," Goldstein said.

The road to freedom was a long one for Goldstein:

In recent years, five federal judges said Goldstein's constitutional rights had been violated at the trial, where he was sentenced to 27 years to life in prison. Campbell's testimony was improperly influenced by police officers, the judges ruled. And the judges found that police and prosecutors had sat mute as longtime jailhouse informant Edward F. Fink — who said Goldstein confessed to him in a jail cell — lied when he testified that he had received no benefit for his testimony.

The complaint for damages includes two retired prosecutors, four retired policemen and two detectives as defendants, among others.

There will be a abortion womens' rights march this Sunday in Washington, sponsored by Planned Parenthood. It begins at the National Mall. We hope you'll be there. More information is available here--or click on this ad on the right side of TalkLeft.

The March for Women's Lives on April 25, 2004, promises to be one of the largest public demonstrations in support of reproductive freedom in history. We are organizing diverse delegations from around the world and we invite you to join us. If you're pro-choice, pro-privacy and pro-family, the March for Women's Lives is about you. Join us, as we demand reproductive and social justice for women at home and abroad.

Hundreds of thousands are expected to participate. The New York Times has this report. More reports here and here. Molly Ivins is here.