Why do people make up crimes? Police now say Wisconsin college student Audrey Seiler fabricated her story about being abducted at knifepoint. The police now have evidence showing "she researched places to hide and bought rope and duct tape to make it look like an abduction.

But this is not just an attention-seeking, victimless caper. Seiler aided in the drawing of a composite sketch of the man she claimed kidnapped her.

The sketch shows a clean-shaven white man with a long chin in a stocking cap. A caption on the sketch describes the man as in his late 20s to early 30s, stocky and about 5 feet 10.

What would have happened if the police had been less dilgent in Seiler's case? What if her sketch had resulted in an arrest and she then identified the man as her kidnapper? He would have been charged, and quite possibly, wrongfully convicted.

Police have not yet determined whether Seiler will be charged with a crime.

In a win for privacy rights of medical marijuana patients, a Los Angeles appellate court has ruled a doctor does not have to comply with a subpoena seeking production of his patient records.

The Medical Board of California must present more than “speculations, unsupported suspicions, and conclusory statements” to justify subpoenaing patient records from a doctor suspected of indiscriminately prescribing marijuana, this district’s Court of Appeal ruled yesterday. Justice Laurence D. Rubin of Div. Eight said Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs erred in ordering Dr. David Louis Bearman to comply with an administrative subpoena seeking records of his treatment of a patient identified by the court only as “Nathan.” The board sought the records after park rangers found marijuana and smoking pipes in Nathan’s possession at the Lake Piru Recreation Area. Nathan presented Bearman’s letter stating he was medically certified to use marijuana to control his migraine headaches.

When Nathan wouldn't produce his own records, the medical board tried to get them from his doctor. The Court held:

“When the Medical Board seeks judicial enforcement of a subpoena for a physician’s medical records, it cannot delve into an area of reasonably expected privacy simply because it wants assurance the law is not violated or a doctor is not negligent in treatment of his or her patient.”

We got this by email so we don't know whom to credit, but it made us laugh so we're reprinting it:

TEXAS HILLBILLIES (sung to the tune of The Beverly Hillbillies)

Come and listen to my story 'bout a boy name Bush.
His IQ was zero and his head was up his tush.
He drank like a fish while he drove all about.
But it didn't really matter 'cuz his daddy bailed him out.
DUI, that is. Criminal record. Cover-up.

Well, the first thing you know little Georgie goes to Yale.
He can't spell his name but they never let him fail.
He spends all his time hangin' out with student folk.
And that's when he learns how to snort a line of coke.
Blow, that is. White gold. Nose candy.

The next thing you know there's a war in Vietnam.
Kin folks say, "George, stay at home with Mom."
Let the common people go to get maimed and scarred.
We'll buy you a spot in the Texas Air Guard.
Cushy, that is. Country clubs. Nose candy.

Say hello to Oliver Willis' latest creation--a weblog about the Apprentice, which we must admit, has us hooked as well.

Welcome back from hiatus to MyDD, also known as political whiz Jerome Armstrong, who in real life, is business partners with Daily Kos.

Update: Tapped got a great bloglift, go check them out.

Pop singer Michael Jackson has been presented with a humanitarian award in Washington, DC for his efforts in fighting AIDS in Africa. All of the British papers are reporting it--here, we mostly see articles about the grand jury investigation into allegations of child molestation. We prefer the British articles:

Michael Jackson has been honoured in Washington DC for his work fighting Aids in Africa. Apparently unmoved by the Los Angeles grand jury currently hearing evidence in his child molestation case, Jackson watched a children's choir as they performed his hit 'Heal the World' and gathered them on his lap, embracing other children, patting their heads and hugging them.

....During his three days in Washington, Jackson, dressed in a spangled jacket and silver-sequinned boots, toured the halls of the Capitol and met with members of Congress. Though he said little, he attracted hordes of reporters and was trailed by fans, enthusiastic maintenance workers and congressional staffers using their camera phones to take photographs. "It set Capitol Hill on fire", said Leon Buck, chief of staff to US Republican Sheila Jackson Lee, who helped arrange Jackson's visit. One staffer even fainted in the hubbub, Buck said.

The Bush Administration has announced it will be adding 27 countries, some of which are our close allies, to the US-VISIT program that requires foreigners be fingerprinted upon entering the U.S.

The move affects citizens in 27 countries -- including Britain, Japan and Australia -- who had been allowed to travel within the United States without a visa for up to 90 days, according to the Homeland Security Department. Under changes in the US-VISIT program that will take effect by Sept. 30, they will be fingerprinted and photographed when they enter through any of 115 international airports and 14 seaports. There are no changes in unique rules covering visits by Canadians and Mexicans.

This will add 13 million visitors to the program, but the Administration says it won't cause a delay to travelers. What about the privacy intrusion? And the fact that other countries now are apt to demand Americans be fingerprinted when visiting within their borders, as Brazil has done.

The Government says that to date, 5 million visitors to the U.S. have been fingerprinted under the program, only 200 of whom have been stopped. The stops are due to the visitor having a prior criminal record or being suspected of visa violations or crime. This program strikes us as a colossal waste of money and law enforcement resources. It is bound to generate nothing but ill-will.

Update: Here's a resource page on the US-VISIT program.

by TChris

The prosecution of Dennis Kozlowski and Mark Swartz, former executives of Tyco accused of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the corporation, has ended in a mistrial. TalkLeft's most recent coverage of jury deliberations can be found here.

The infamous juror number four, who may have been the lone holdout for acquittal, reportedly received a "coercive letter" within the last day, prompting the judge to grant the latest in a series of mistrial motions.

The district attorney's office said that it will seek a retrial.

by TChris

Billy Warsoldier, a Native American member of the Cahuilla tribe, doesn't want to cut his hair. Warsoldier's religious beliefs prevent him from getting a haircut until someone in his family dies. But Warsoldier is serving a 19 month sentence for drunk driving, and the California Department of Corrections has a policy that prohibits male inmates from having hair longer than three inches.

Since the policy applies only to men, it is difficult to believe that security needs justify the policy. The ACLU is helping Warsoldier challenge the policy as a violation of his right to freely exercise his religion. In the meantime, prison authorities are denying privileges to Warsoldier, including visits and vocational training, until he submits to a haircut.

by TChris

Homeland Security is vigilantly protecting the country from foreign novelists.

Halted en route to a West Coast lecture tour, Ian McEwan, an acclaimed British novelist who lunched last fall with first lady Laura Bush, was denied entry into the United States for 36 hours this week.

Unfortunately for a country that has been terrorized by foreign novelists, Homeland Security relented -- but not because it wanted to.

During his third session on Wednesday with Homeland Security officials, after word had spread to British and U.S. newspapers about his situation, McEwan said his interrogators told him: "We still don't want to let you in, but this is attracting a lot of unfavorable publicity."

The quality of the agents guarding our borders from dangerous novelists is illustrated by a question that one of the agents posed to McEwan: "What kind of novels do you write: fiction or nonfiction?"

by TChris

The Outlaws in Hartford, Connecticut didn't like the way the police behaved when executing a search warrant at their club's Christmas party. Some members of the motorcycle club are taking the Hartford police to court, claiming a civil rights violation.

Police were looking for a gun that they believed a member of the Outlaws possessed. They obtained a warrant to search the man's house and car, as well as the Outlaws' clubhouse. But the suit alleges that the police did more than search for the gun when they invaded the Christmas party.

According to the suit, state police officers forced people to the floor, handcuffed the revelers, searched for illegal guns, ripped open Christmas presents and photographed everyone before they left.

The Outlaws wonder whether such rude behavior would have occurred if police had executed the warrant at a Knights of Columbus party.

The suit argues that the police exceeded the scope of the warrant. Some of the members who were searched declined to join the lawsuit, saying they were "nervous that the police would seek them out afterward."

Who's that mustachioed, 62 year old man cavorting with models in the new Victoria Secrets lingerie ad on tv? None other than Bob Dylan. (WSJ, subscription only.)

Mr. Dylan once sang of "Advertising signs that con you/Into thinking you're the one/That can do what's never been done/That can win what's never been won/Meantime life outside goes on/All around you" in his 1965 song "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)." Now, some fans are distraught: "I'm going to have to go blow my brains out," says John Baky, curator of a collection of Dylan material housed at Philadelphia's La Salle University.

Dylan's purported purpose: To introduce his music to the 18 year old crowd and "freshen his fan base." Whatever it takes to keep his music alive and on the airwaves is A-okay by us.

Update: The LA Times (free subscription required) begins a weekly series of articles about songwriters. This week it profiles Bob Dylan.

[comments now closed]

Writing in the Washington Post, Senator Edward Kennedy rails against the confirmation of William Haynes as Federal Appeals Court Judge:

Haynes has been nominated to the influential 4th Circuit on the basis of his work as general counsel for the Department of Defense. In that capacity he has developed and defended three of the administration's most controversial policies: the refusal to treat any of the hundreds of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay as prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions of 1949; the department's military tribunal plan for trying suspected war criminals; and even the incarceration of U.S. citizens without counsel or judicial review.

An essential part of winning the war on terrorism is protecting the ideals that the United States stands for at home and around the world. The basic checks and balances in the Constitution are indispensable to our democracy and a continuing source of our country's strength, not luxuries or inconveniences to be jettisoned in times of crisis. The mass detentions at Guantanamo have clearly damaged our reputation abroad, caused serious tensions with our allies, and violated fundamental principles of international law that have long protected U.S. soldiers serving abroad and American citizens traveling in other countries.

Here comes Haynes: