The Miami Herald has the results of a new Herald/Zogby poll showing John Kerry has a wide lead over George Bush among latin voters in Florida. It downplays the import, saying that Kerry needs a wider lead, but we think it's significant.

Tre Arrow says he's an activist. The FBI says he's a terrorist. A fugitive for the past 19 years, Arrow is now in a jail in Vancouver awaiting trial. The charge: shoplifting bolt cutters. More serious charges await him in Oregon, on which he's fighting extradition. He's also begun a hunger strike:

Arrow is accused in Oregon of use of fire to commit a felony, destruction of vehicles used in interstate commerce and use of incendiary devices in a crime of violence. The charges carry combined penalties of up to 80 years in prison.

To the "environmental militants", he's a folk hero. The FBI thinks he's more than an activist and has links to the ELF.

"As an activist, I stand tall. I hold my head high," Arrow said in an interview with The Associated Press at the Vancouver Island Regional Correctional Centre. Arrow, 30, was born Michael Scarpitti but says the trees told him to change his name. He gained notice by scaling the offices of the U.S. Forest Service in Portland in 2000 and perching on a narrow ledge for 11 days to protest logging on Mount Hood. Arrow says he is not a terrorist.

Bump and Update: The second article in the series is out today, Attorney Profited, But his Clients Lost

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Original Post 4/4/04

The Seattle Times is doing a series on the pitiful state of the public defense system in Washington. Today's article, For some, free counsel comes at high cost, is a must-read. How lawyer Guillermo Romero ever got to be a contract public defender is beyond us, but he did, and he's not the only one.

In a rape case, he once filed a motion seeking "D and A testing." What he meant was DNA. He gave lousy advice, according to disciplinary officials. You can't appeal, he told one client, when the client certainly could. You can leave the country before trial, he told another, when the client certainly could not. He allowed the state to take liberties. He didn't object when a prosecutor compared his client to Hitler. He didn't object when the same prosecutor argued that everyone who goes to rock concerts uses drugs. He didn't object when police transcribed the tape-recorded statement of a teenage murder suspect and inserted damning words the boy never uttered. Romero couldn't object, because he had never bothered to listen to his client's taped confession. ....Twice, reviewing courts ruled that he was so incompetent, the adversarial system had collapsed.

One of the problems with the Washington State system is that 2/3 of the counties use a contract system for indigent defense.

Warnings about such contracts have been sounded for three decades, but the state has refused to enforce public-defense standards or to help fund indigent defense at the trial level except in extraordinary cases.

There is so much more to this article, please read the whole thing.

He was 16 years old. He came to this country when he was 12 to escape a gang. He pleaded with the U.S. for asylum, saying he would be killed if returned to Guatamala. His request was denied, he was sent back. 17 days later he was shot and killed by the gang he tried to escape. World Wide Rant has more.

by TChris

With all the bad news reported from Iraq, the Office of Strategic Communications has a difficult task.

One of the main goals of the Office of Strategic Communications - known as stratcom - is to ensure Americans see the positive side of the Bush administration's invasion, occupation and reconstruction of Iraq, where 600 U.S. soldiers have died and a deadly insurgency thrives.

Finding the positive side of chaotic violence is a challenge, but the administration found loyal supporters to do the job.

Dan Senor, a former press secretary for Spencer Abraham, the Michigan Republican who's now Energy Secretary, heads the office that includes a large number of former Bush campaign workers, political appointees and ex-Capitol Hill staffers. More than one-third of the U.S. civilian workers in the press office have GOP ties, running an enterprise that critics see as an outpost of Bush's re-election effort with Iraq a top concern.

Which New York Times op-ed columnist are you? Take the quiz. Jeanne D'arc of Body and Soul is Maureen Dowd. We're Bob Herbert:

You are Bob Herbert! You're not the most sparkling writer, but one of the most solid and selfless on the Op-Ed staff. You focus on New York politics, the poor, race issues, and civil liberties. You like to quote others, and rarely place yourself in your columns. You keep it real. Seriously.

by TChris

This isn't a headline the Bush administration wants to see:

Leaders of 9/11 Panel Say Attacks Were Probably Preventable

We have a new candidate to cheer about and hope you reward him with generous donations. He is Jeff Seeman, a progressive candidate for the House in Ohio. He just took out an ad on Daily Kos, and says it's because of the controversy. Here's just a portion of what he has to say about the Daily Kos controversy:

Our campaign has decided that because of the recent events we will step in and advertise on www.dailykos.com. We have made this decision for two reasons: 1) We firmly believe in the First Amendment and everyone's right to say whatever he or she chooses on their own website. 2) We refuse to allow our campaign to be bullied by the right wing like they bullied Kos' previous advertisers.

We entered this campaign for Congress based on courage and the desire to stand up to the Republicans who are destroying our country with huge deficits, unjustified wars, and a blatant disregard for Americans and the challenges they face in their daily lives. We understand that the decision to launch this advertising campaign will attract attention, both positive and negative. We will make no statement regarding the actual content of Kos' controversial statement, but we will always stand up for his right to dissent. Furthermore, we are campaigning to return this country to a Democratic majority in Congress and we will not allow our message to be written or altered by our opposition.

Candidate Seeman is seeking $20 donations. Go give now. Here's his issue statement on civil rights:

by TChris

The federalization of crime may help politicians craft a "tough on crime" image, but it makes no sense to burden federal courts by criminalizing behavior that state governments can effectively regulate. Michael Oxley, R-Ohio, is exercised about "dirty old men" who use their cell phone cameras to photograph girls "through peepholes." He wants to make it federal crime. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay thinks the legislation is "common sense to protect families."

Some Democrats support the bill. Rep. Charles A. Gonzalez, D-Tex., says the bill is about decency and privacy. Maybe, but the breadth of the law is troubling.

It would establish fines or penalties of up to a year in prison for digital offenders who knowingly capture "an improper image" of a person's "naked or undergarment-clad genitals, pubic area, buttocks or female breast" when the individual has "a reasonable expectation of privacy."

Whether a person in a particular environment has a "reasonable expectation of privacy" is often ambiguous, and there may be circumstances in which the first amendment right to disseminate non-obscene images outweighs a claim of privacy. Some of these battles are being waged in state courts that have enacted similar laws. Unless and until it becomes clear that a nationwide problem exists (are there really a lot of peepholes around?) and that the states are incapable of fixing it, Congress should resist the temptation to create yet another federal crime.

by TChris

The number of American soldiers who have died in Iraq reached 600 on Sunday. One of the bloodiest gun battles, in Najaf, south of Baghdad, lasted three hours. The battle was part of a "coordinated Shiite militia uprising against the American-led occupation," a significant change from previous attacks "by fighters drawn from Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority rather than majority Shi'ites."

Correction: The number of American service members killed in Iraq is said to be at least 610.

by TChris

John Allen Muhammad has been sentenced to death for his role in one of ten sniper slayings. Nonetheless, a prosecutor in a different Virginia County wants to try Muhammad for the murder of an FBI agent. Why isn't one death sentence enough? Because the prosecutor -- Robert Horan Jr. -- wants an "insurance policy."

The "insurance" comes at a high price. Virginia spent about $3 million for the first trials of Muhammad and Lee Malvo. While Horan maintains that cost shouldn't deter a prosecutor from racking up death sentences, he may be forced to change his thinking. The Virginia legislature has slashed $5.5 million from local prosectors' budgets in the last two years. Horan may not have the resources to prosecute more mundane crimes if he commits his budget to a death penalty trial for a condemned man.

by TChris

Having been frustrated in its efforts to evade the scrutiny of the 9/11 commission, the Bush administration may have found a way to keep its final product from influencing voters: seize control of the report.

Thomas Kean, chairman of the bipartisan commission looking into the attacks, said on NBC's Meet the Press Sunday that the Bush administration would go through the report "line by line to find out if there's anything in there which could harm American interests in the area of intelligence."

If the administration doesn't think it can delay the process until after the election, it may want the report to come out soon after it's finished, giving the buzz time to die down before election day. But how much of the report will we see?

Democracy suffers if we give our leaders the power to censor the results of an investigation into their own conduct.