by TChris

Twelve out of thirteen potential jurors were dismissed yesterday as jury selection began in the Scott Peterson trial. Most were released because they had made up their minds about Peterson's guilt or because they strongly opposed the death penalty. Faster progress was made today as five potential jurors were selected. The judge and lawyers expect to individually question about a dozen potential jurors each day during this initial phase of voir dire.

Acknowledging the difficulty of selecting a fair jury in such a high profile case, the prosecutor agreed with Mark Geragos, Peterson's attorney, that juror questionairres should not be released to the press. The judge accepted their reasoning, ruling that Peterson's interest in a fair trial outweighed the media's interest in publishing the questionairres. Judge Alfred Delucchi said that releasing information that might permit the media to identify jurors could have a chilling effect upon the willingness of potential jurors to serve.

by TChris

Remember when Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and other right wingers dominated the political best sellers list? Those days are gone. Recently, book buyers have been interested in alternatives to the whacky ideas advanced by the Bush administration and its apologists.

Richard Clarke's new book, Against All Enemies, (discussed in TalkLeft here) was released yesterday. It had an impressive first printing of 300,000 copies, and another 100,000 have already been ordered. And it's not alone among hot sellers that take a critical look at the President.

Against All Enemies was ranked No. 1 on Amazon.com's list of best sellers as of Tuesday afternoon and has raised sales for other works attacking Bush, including Kevin Phillips' American Dynasty and Ron Suskind's The Price of Loyalty, a collaboration with former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill.

Anti-Bush books have been popular since last fall, when liberal pundits Al Franken, Joe Conason and Molly Ivins were among those with best sellers. Now the best sellers are being written by historians such as Phillips and former Bush officials such as Clarke.

Neil Nyren, the publisher and editor-in-chief of Putnam, says that conservative books still sell, but that liberal books now occupy the spots that books by the likes of Coulter held during the Clinton administration.

More books that Bush would rather you not read will appear later this year.

Books unfavorable to Bush will continue coming out, including Worse Than Watergate, by John W. Dean, a former aide to President Nixon, and The Politics of Truth, by former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, who has criticized the White House's uses of intelligence before the Iraq war.

If he finishes writing it, President Clinton's autobiography will also appear this year.

A federal judge in California has allowed defendants to raise medical marijuana use as a defense to cultivation charges:

Monday's ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Nora M. Manella to allow Anna Barrett and her husband, Gary, to make such a case comes in the wake of a December ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The December ruling concluded that a congressional act outlawing the drug may not apply to sick people with a doctor's recommendation in states with medical marijuana laws.

This is a blow to Ashcroft and the Justice Department. And it's only one judge in one jurisdiction. It's why we need to pass the Truth in Trials Act.

Here's what the House Panel investigating the 9/11 attacks finds:

The Clinton and Bush administrations' failure to pursue military action against al-Qaida operatives allowed the Sept. 11 terrorists to elude capture despite warning signs years before the attacks, a federal panel said Tuesday.

The Clinton administration had early indications of terrorist links to Osama bin Laden and future Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as early as 1995, but let years pass as it pursued criminal indictments and diplomatic solutions to subduing them abroad, it found.

Bush officials, meanwhile, failed to act immediately on increasing intelligence chatter and urgent warnings in early 2001 by its counterterrorism adviser, Richard A. Clarke, to take out al-Qaida targets, according to preliminary findings by the commission reviewing the attacks.

It's a big story for today. Here's an open thread to discuss it.

Matt Yglesias, writing for American Prospect, explains why President Bush could have done more to stop al-Qaeda and terrorism but didn't.

Differences aside, it's possible to detect a coherent story here: Bush inherited a set of policies that he knew to be inadequate, and he wanted to do more; unfortunately, there wasn't time to put a "more comprehensive policy" into place, and the country paid the price. It's a coherent story, but it's one that's contradicted by the facts.

The Cincinnati Enquirer has an extensive series on Youth, Mental Illness and Abuse. It consists of 10 articles in two days plus a follow up the 3rd day. Yesterday, we wrote about the paper's investigation into abuse at juvenile treatment facilities. Sunday's article reported on parents who give up their kids as a last resort. The entire series is available here.

The Ohio legislature is paying attention and reform bills are underway. The editorial board of the paper weighs in here.

The State bar of Texas has commenced an investigation of Swisher County DA Terry McEachern who was in charge of the bogus Tulia, Texas drug busts. From an Austin Statesman editorial today:

The bar initiated an investigation of Terry McEachern, the Swisher County district attorney who relentlessly pursued felony convictions of dozens of Tulia residents on trumped-up drug charges in 1999 -- despite a lack of evidence. In investigating McEachern, the bar is sending a message that it won't look the other way when prosecutors hide evidence from defense lawyers or permit key witnesses to make false statements under oath. This isn't the only case in which a prosecutor has bent or violated ethics rules to win cases. Nonetheless, this is a rare and significant occurrence in Texas justice, signaling that prosecutors who conduct themselves unethically will answer to the state bar.

Prosecutors who cheat to win convictions rarely face consequences because their wrongs are uncovered years after the misconduct occurred. That's what happened last month, when the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the death sentence of inmate Delma Banks after finding that Bowie County prosecutors had violated Banks' constitutional rights by withholding evidence for nearly two decades and permitting key witnesses to lie about the 1980 slaying of a Texarkana teenager. It is refreshing to know that the state bar is awake and doing its job in holding cheating prosecutors accountable. Such prosecutors undermine public confidence in the judicial system. Now the bar should look into the Banks case.

Say hello to The Revealer-- a daily blog about religion and the press. It is a project of NYU's Center for Religion and Media and the Pew Charitable Trusts.

The blog's goal is to educate the public about the role of religion in politics and culture and to help journalists do a better job of covering religion. It is edited by Jeff Sharlet, who writes for Harper's, In These Times, The Nation and The Baffler) and published by Jay Rosen, creator of PressThink and the "founder of the public journalism movement."

Jeff writes, "Too much of the press is blind to the role religion plays in politics; we think The Revealer is needed to add some nuance to the discussion."

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that South Carolina's "Choose Life" license plates violate the First Amendment:

A three-judge panel unanimously ruled Monday that the plates, which bear the slogan "Choose Life" violate the First Amendment by giving anti-abortion advocates a forum to express their beliefs without giving abortion rights supporters a similar forum. "By limiting access to a specialty license plate to those who agree with its pro-life position, the State has distorted the forum in favor of its own viewpoint," the court wrote. "...South Carolina has engaged in viewpoint discrimination by allowing only the Choose Life plate."

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals took a different position in 2002 and upheld Louisiana's "choose life" plates, finding a lack of standing to sue. This could mean the Supreme Court will make the final decision on the issue. Meanwhile, in Georgia today, the Senate approved "choose life" license plates.

We have a simple solution. Allow "Choose Life" license plates, provided they include the phrase "End the Death Penalty."

[links via How Appealing]

The Wall Street Journal (paid subscription required) reports that in many states, police are opting for blood tests instead of breath tests for suspected drunk drivers -- even if they have to take the blood by force.

The tests raise two nettlesome questions: How much force should police be able to use in extracting blood from uncooperative suspects? And should medical professionals, who are honor-bound to obey patients' treatment wishes and protect their privacy, be compelled to do otherwise?

Prosecutors say the blood tests are more accurate than breath tests. Also, many drivers refuse to take either test, and police say you can't force someone to take a breath test, but you can strap someone down to draw blood from them.

At least eight states -- Alaska, Arizona, Iowa, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada and Texas -- have in recent years enacted statutes specifically permitting police to use reasonable force to obtain blood samples in DUI cases.
Laws in at least seven other states allow police to take blood without the driver's consent, without explicitly authorizing force. In most other states, court rulings have authorized reasonable force to obtain blood. Many such rulings cite a little-known fact about driving laws in the U.S.: All motorists are considered to have consented to a search of their blood, breath or urine. Such "implied consent" laws were introduced in New York in 1953, and today all 50 states and the District of Columbia have them.

Here are some excerpts from Richard Clarke's book in which he describes various White House officials. Here's what he says about Attorney General John Ashcroft:

Clarke criticizes Ashcroft over his response to the 2001 attacks, especially over handling of alleged "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla as an enemy combatant. "The attorney general, rather than bringing us together, managed to persuade much of the country that the needed reforms of the Patriot Act were actually the beginning of fascism." Clarke says an unidentified staffer asked him after meeting with Ashcroft early in 2001, "He can't really be that slow, can he?" Clarke's response: "He did lose a Senate re-election to a dead man."

Against All Enemies
by Richard Clarke

Update: Avedon Carol does a terrific job putting the Clarke pieces together.

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Written by a friend of a friend.....

JUST A BAD DREAM

I remember it as if it were yesterday.

A little over a year ago, I heard this awful rumor that the Government was going to take my tax money and spend it on things like health care and education.

I was outraged. "How can they do this?" I screamed. "There are hospitals in Iraq -- the country that I, and virtually everyone I know, had always cared about more than any other -- that are as bad as some of the ones in our town. And we're doing nothing about it."

"Poverty, schmoverty," I said. "Those people in the South and in the so-called 'ghettos' who go to sleep hungry would probably have eaten fast foods anyway, so we're actually doing them a favor by keeping them poor. So let's get a few hundred billion over to Iraq. I mean, what are our priorities, anyway?"

And what bigger mistake could we make than improving our school systems? If all our kids got a decent education, they'd probably qualify for college -- and for a family that can't afford grade school supplies, think of what a nightmare those college tuitions would be.

So for God's sake, let's get English textbooks for those children in Iraq -- before they attack us again.

Lost jobs, increased personal bankruptcies? Give me a break. Those are problems-come-lately. Saddam Hussein was killing his own people more than twelve years ago.

But then I woke up and realized that this awful rumor was just a bad dream. Thank God for President Bush.