Kevin Cooper, whose California execution was postponed last week, has written an article detailing his hours in the execution chamber not knowing if the Supreme Court would uphold or reverse the stay of execution granted by the 9th Circuit.

According to a new CBS Poll, the only Democrat who would beat George Bush is John Kerry:

Among the three top Democratic candidates still in the November race, only front-runner John Kerry leads in a head-to-head matchup with President Bush, says a poll released Monday.

In the CBS News poll, Kerry had a lead of 48 percent to 43 percent over Bush. The president led John Edwards, 50-41 percent, and Howard Dean, 54-37 percent, in other matchups.

Historian Arthur Schlesinger recently spoke at Swarthmore College:

Schlesinger, 86, said he believed that more debate was needed before the United States commits American lives to fighting on foreign soil, and that public dissent is essential to democracy.

"Going to war does not abrogate our freedoms of conscience, speech and thought," the prize-winning author and former foreign-policy adviser told those who attended the first in a series of American history lectures Tuesday.

"We have no obligation to bow down before an imperial presidency," he said.

[link via Instapundit.]

The DearMary.com campaign launched last week. It's highlighted in Newsweek.

President Bush has granted a pardon to a Texan who pleaded guilty to fraud in one of the 1980's Savings and Loan scandals. He is David B. McCall, Jr., former lawyer and mayor of Plano, Texas.

David B. McCall Jr., who is battling cancer, served six months in prison for his role in fraudulent loans at the Plano Savings and Loan Association, which failed in the mid-1980s.

Our ears perked up when we heard fraud and "1980's savings and loan" because that was what Neil Bush had been involved in. We checked on Lexis to see if there was a connection between McCall and Neil Bush and there wasn't. But, what we learned was that McCall's fraud was big. From the October 11, 1996 Dallas Morning News:

Former Plano Mayor David B. McCall Jr., one of the most prominent civic leaders in Plano's 115-year history, on Thursday pleaded guilty to bank fraud, federal prosecutors said. Mr. McCall, 72, is the second former mayor of the city to admit guilt in the case involving more than $ 25 million in fraudulent loans made in the mid-1980s.

Bump and Update: Grossman is gone from the Dean Campaign.

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Original Post 2/15 7 pm

Howard Dean won't say he's quitting the presidential race if he loses Wisconsin Tuesday. But his chief campaign aide, Steven Grossman, will be quitting Dean --to back Kerry--if Dean loses:

The chairman of Howard Dean's presidential campaign said today that he would leave and shift his support to Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts if Dr. Dean loses the Wisconsin primary on Tuesday, an outcome he sees as all but invevitable.

"If Howard Dean does not win the Wisconsin primary, I will reach out to John Kerry unless he reaches out to me first," said the chairman, Steven Grossman, who was chairman of Mr. Kerry's 1996 Senate race. "I will make it clear that I will do anything and everything I can to help him become the next president, and I will do anything and everything I can to build bridges with the Dean organization."

Dean is under a lot of pressure to quit now, as is Edwards. We bet Dean sees the light on Wednesday.

Dr. Dean has no events scheduled beyond Tuesday night, when he plans to fly home to Burlington, Vt., to regroup. He has not won in any of the 16 states that have voted. His bank account is dwindling. Many of his aides are planning vacations or seeking jobs with other candidates. "None of us are doing a whole lot right now, because there's not a whole lot to do," one top aide said Sunday, on the condition he not be named. "We've put one ad on the air in Wisconsin. We're not polling anymore. We're not going to have the money to run some full-fledged campaign for March 2."

Edwards will probably stay in longer. He sees it as a two person race between him and Kerry--and has made plans to visit New York, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota and Ohio next week.

Drudge's credibility takes a hit. The Kerry Rumor is over, done, finito, put out to pasture. It wasn't true. Good for John Kerry for sticking to his guns and aggressively denying it:

Breaking her silence four days after the allegations surfaced on the Internet, Alexandra Polier issued a statement to The Associated Press, saying, "I have never had a relationship with Senator Kerry, and the rumors in the press are completely false."

Kerry already has denied reports that he had an extramarital affair. On Monday, his campaign said he would have no further comment. Polier's statement was released to the AP in Nairobi, where the 27-year-old freelance journalist is visiting the parents of her fiance, Yaron Schwartzman, an Israeli who was raised in Kenya. She previously worked as an editorial assistant for the AP in New York.

"Whoever is spreading these rumors and allegations does not know me," Polier said, appealing to the media to respect her privacy and the privacy of her fiance and his family. Polier also took issue with reports that referred to her as a former Kerry intern. "I never interned or worked for John Kerry," she told AP over the phone.

This part's the best:

In a separate statement, Polier's parents, Terry and Donna Polier of Malvern, Pa., dismissed the "completely false and unsubstantiated" allegations about their daughter. "We love and support her 100 percent and these unfounded rumors are hurtful to our entire family," the statement said. "We appreciate the way Senator Kerry has handled the situation, and intend on voting for him for president of the United States."

[link via Counterspin.]

Bump and Update: CrimeLynx went down today and is being moved to a new server. The newsfeed will return when CrimeLynx is settled in its new home.

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original post

We are grateful for the numerous blogads TalkLeft has received. But we don't want our blogroll and favorite sites lists to be at the bottom of the site. So, we've moved the blogrolls to the left side of TalkLeft, right under the newsfeed. Hopefully, that will make them more visible. If you think it was better the other way, let us know.

Kudos to Colorado librarian Susan Oakes for bringing this innovative program to inmates and their children:

Arapahoe County librarian Susan Oakes provides a small bright spot for some of the prisoners and their families. For 25 years, she's been finding ways to inspire people to read, and five years ago she started Begin With Books, in which Arapahoe County Jail inmates have a chance to share reading with their children. "I don't believe these children should suffer for any of the choices their parents have made," Oakes said.

Depending on inmates' level of privileges, they can select books to send home, record their voices reading the books, or call home during story time. Inmate Sean Bolsinger's son was born in August. The program enables him to be involved from behind bars.

A few weeks ago, Oakes learned that those programs had won her a prestigious award. She's one of 27 librarians across the country to receive the 2003 New York Times Librarian Award.

We hope librarians reading this post will bring the program to their communities.

The Milwaukee Sentinel has endorsed John Edwards for President.

Democrats in Wisconsin and elsewhere owe much to Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont and candidate for the presidential nomination of their party. Perhaps more than any other candidate in the race, the long-running Dean has set the thematic framework and identified the critical issues in the coming battle with President Bush. Those themes and issues by now are familiar to voters: the conduct of the war on terrorism, justification for the invasion of Iraq, globalization and the loss of manufacturing jobs, outsourced services, health care costs and coverage, tax cuts skewed to America's most prosperous citizens and a deficit-burdened fiscal policy.

For Democrats, then, the challenge is to nominate the man who can take his party's common vision for the nation and convince voters that it offers the right course for America. That man, in our judgment, is Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina. We urge Democrats to vote for him in Tuesday's primary.

Meantime, we invite Wisconsinites to take an unblinkered look at Edwards - and not because Kerry lacks the right stuff to be president. Quite the contrary: Kerry would be a formidable nominee if Democrats choose him. But we believe Edwards would be more than Kerry's match to lead his party in November. It's true that Edwards cannot touch Kerry's distinguished military record or his long career in public life. Kerry, 60, has served in the Senate for nearly 20 years; Edwards, 50, was elected for the first time in 1998. But that also means Edwards does not carry as much baggage for his opponents to exploit.

The paper praises Kerry and Dean, but gives its reasons ("The Two Americas" message primarily) for going with Edwards. It's a good analysis and we recommend reading the entire article.

The Guardian reports that Saddam's trial is two years away. The delay is due to the Iraq special tribunal for crimes against humanity which will not get underway until October or November. The tribunal will try some Ba'ath party officials first.

"I think it will take two years to get to Saddam being tried," said Salem Chalabi, one of the architects of the court and a nephew of the influential Iraqi exile Ahmad Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress.

The need to select and screen judges, prepare courts and establish well-guarded jails to hold the suspects have led to delays. "There are frustrations," said Mr Chalabi. The court has to balance the demand of most Iraqis for a rapid show trial of Saddam and his deputies with the need to establish an impartial model for the new judiciary.

"It is a balance that we have to work here between trying to protect defendants' rights and meet international standards of due process of law and the wish of the Iraqis for quick vengeance," said Mr Chalabi.

Update: In other Saddam news, the Iraqi Governing Council is seeking to strip Saddam of his POW status.

We can't even believe this is true, but it is. Junior Allen stole a black and white tv set in 1970. A North Carolina judge sentenced him to life in prison.

Mr. Allen, now 63 years old, has now been in prison 33 years for stealing that tv set. Last week, the North Carolina Parole Commission denied him parole for the 26th straight year. Here's more on the case.

Let this man go home.