Now that the Democratic race effectively is down to two choices, bloggers are picking sides: Daily Kos and The Agonist are going for John Edwards.

If you find some more bloggers making endorsements, please post them in the comments. We're still undecided between Edwards and Kerry.

The Pentagon has refused requests of three human rights groups to attend the upcoming military tribunal trials at Guantanamo. The reason given was "limited courtroom seating and other logistical issues.”

In a letter sent last week to U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Amnesty International, Human Rights First (formerly the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights) and Human Rights Watch protested their exclusion from the proceedings and urged the U.S. government to rethink its position.

Despite the Bush administration's promise that the commissions would be open to the public, the Pentagon has refused to grant any of these organizations permission to attend the proceedings. Over the last month, the Department of Defense has responded to written requests from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, with a brief statement that it intended only to provide seating for select members of the press and for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

We're still reading all the post-mortem reviews of last night's Sex and the City finale, which we loved--and just came across The Sex and the City Quiz--supposedly it will tell you which of the four women you most take after.

Our score: 30% Samantha; 30% Miranda; 30% Carrie; 10% Charlotte.

[for male readers, no need to leave a snarky comment, just go on to the next post.]

At least every few months, we write that Jeanne D'Arc of Body and Soul has outdone herself with another outstanding piece of writing. She's done it again, this time on understanding the spiral of poverty, please go read.

Speaking of poverty, please, if you can, go and give some aid to Jim Capozzola of Rittenhouse Review. He writes a fabulous blog and he's nearly homeless.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear two deportation cases today, both of which involve the issue of deportation after conviction for a crime.

In the first case, the court will decide whether a person can be deported to a country (Somalia, in this case) without an agreement by the other country to accept the person back. In the second case, the court will decide if driving under the influence is a crime of violence when someone is injured as a result.

Here are the details:

The Pentagon today announced it had opened a criminal probe of Halliburton:

The investigation was focused on Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root, the U.S. military's biggest contractor in Iraq, which has become a lightning rod of Democratic criticism during this presidential election year.

"The Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the criminal investigative arm of the Inspector General's office is investigating allegations on the part of KBR of fraud, including the potential overpricing of fuel delivered to Baghdad by a KBR subcontractor," said a Pentagon spokeswoman.

Vice President Dick Cheney ran the company from 1995 to 2000.

Aside from military auditors' questions, the U.S. Treasury, the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission are all looking into a range of issues, from whether the company paid kickbacks in Nigeria to whether it broke U.S. laws by dealing with Iran via a foreign subsidiary.

The company has consistently said all its dealings have been in line with U.S. laws and has strongly denied wrongdoing, except in the case of one or two former employees who it said may have paid $6.3 million in kickbacks to a Kuwaiti subcontractor. Two former Halliburton employees told Democratic lawmakers earlier this month the vice president's old company "routinely overcharged" for work it did for the U.S. military.

If you're in the Denver area tomorrow.....

You are cordially invited to join your Rocky Mountain Progressive Network for a special news conference tomorrow, February 24th, in Denver. The following notice was just sent to over 400 state and national media outlets:

WHO: Rabbi Joel R. Schwartzman, Reverand Bill Kirton and the Rocky Mountain Progressive Network

WHAT: Press Conference on the Federal Marriage Amendment, Fidelity & Colorado's Elected Officials

WHEN: TOMORROW / TUESDAY, February 24, 2004, 1:15 p.m.

WHERE: State Capitol Press Room, 3rd Floor of State Capitol, Denver, Colorado

CONTACT: RMPN, 303-991-1900 or info@rmpn.org

Meet Windman, a new comic strip hero, who has superpowers and uses them to fight the death penalty. We can't wait to get our hands on a copy of the comic book:

The comic book world has a new superhero whose focus isn't fighting crime, but fighting the death penalty. Like some other comic book heroes, Windman has superpowers. He can fly, pass through solid objects and move heavy objects without lifting a finger. Rather than helping damsels in distress or saving Earth from an extraterrestrial threat, Windman uses his powers to aid inmates on death row.

Windman, which was produced by the Western Missouri Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, is the brainchild of Independence resident Bob Myers. Jose Tello drew the book and Joshua Bourland did layout. Myers said he wanted the book to be a detective story, but one that communicates the idea that the death penalty is misguided.

The cover of the comic book's first issue shows a woman crying out, "Windman! Come back! We've found the missing witness!" Below her, two death row inmates say, "Can anyone hear me? I'm innocent!" and "I'm giving up my life so a prosecutor can brag he's tough on crime." Windman flies overhead, his speech bubble reading, "I've barely got time to stop the execution!"

Wherever anything happens these days, it seems a blogger is covering it. Two bloggers writing from Haiti and covering the conflict are Haiti Pundit and John Engel.

We haven't had time to read them in depth and don't even know if they take sides, but Instapundit says:

One observation: "The conflict is incredibly complex. The rebels for the most part, are baddies. In my opinion, Aristide and his regime are also baddies."

Rumsfeld flew into Iraq today. Tom Paine.com's new blog, The Dreyfus Report, asks and answers an important question..."Does the United States want to have permanent military bases in Iraq? Does a camel sleep in the desert."

Speaking at a Feb. 11 seminar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, Isam Al Khafaji of the Open Society Institute—just returned from Iraq—noted that for the United States, the real issue isn't its oft-proclaimed commitmentto establishing a democratic Iraq. Instead, what's driving U.S. concern, he suggested, was strategic:

"The question is not democracy. The question is: how to develop a formally sovereign Iraq that signs a treaty with the United States, with permanent military bases for the U.S. All of Iraq's political actors are quite aware of the importance of this issue."

How many times does this go on when and no one finds out? A high school principal has admitted planting marijuana on a student he suspected of using the drug.

Eric Nordmark planned to kill himself in jail if convicted -- with a razor blade he had smuggled into his cell. He spent 8 months in that cell awaiting trial on a charge that he molested three schoolgirls. The trial began. Two days into it, the girls admitted they made up the accusation to cover themselves and not get in trouble for being late coming home from school.

The girls didn't get off lightly.

The three little girls were arrested and led from their elementary school in handcuffs for making up the story.

Mr. Nordham is now living in Seattle where he obtained a job sorting clothes for Goodwill. What went wrong? How did the girls' story get so far?

Nordham's lawyer, David Swanson, believes the police made serious error by interviewing the girls in a group rather than individually, a circumstance that made it easy for them to tell the same story.

False accusations are a bigger problem than you think. There are a myriad of reasons why they occur. But this story is a powerful reminder that children can do bad things and all allegations of misconduct should be scrupulously scrutinized.