Bump and Update: Senator Richard Durbin responds to Ashcroft--we received his press release by e-mail:

DURBIN RESPONDS TO VETO THREAT AGAINST THE SAFE ACT

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) today issued the statement below following the Bush Administration’s veto threat against legislation that would amend parts of the PATRIOT Act. Bipartisan legislation which I, along with Larry Craig (R-ID) and a group of other senators, introduced last October has today come under fire from Attorney General John Ashcroft and members of the Bush Administration. The legislation, known as the Security and Freedom Ensured (SAFE) Act, is a bill designed to impose reasonable limits on law enforcement’s authority without hampering their ability to investigate and prevent terrorism.

Our bill does not propose a repeal of the PATRIOT Act – far from it. I voted for that bill, as did the vast majority of my colleagues in Congress. I believed then, and I still believe, that the PATRIOT Act made many reasonable and necessary changes in the law. But in some cases the new law goes too far, and we should amend those provisions to reflect every American citizen’s right to be both safe and free. Under the SAFE Act, the FBI would still have broad authority to combat terrorism; at the same time the bill would protect innocent Americans from unchecked government surveillance.

Attorney General Ashcroft’s response today is an unfortunate over-reaction to a reasoned and measured effort to mend the PATRIOT Act. Three months ago I asked senior officials at the Department of Justice to work with me and my staff on changes to the PATRIOT Act that reflect the very real concerns of many Americans. After 90 days of silence, today they issued a veto threat. This extraordinary reaction to a bill that hasn’t even had a hearing in the Senate demonstrates that the Administration fears that this reasonable bipartisan approach is likely to succeed.

I am eager to work with the President to meet the challenges posed by the post-September 11th world, but we must do so in a way that protects the freedoms of all Americans

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Three teenagers held for more than a year at Guantanamo Bay have been freed. Details of their conditions of confinement are here. [Hat tip to Kitt, thanks.]

Update: The AP reports on the release. The three were younger than 16.

"The detention of children as 'enemy combatants' and their interrogation without even the basic safeguards to which they were entitled was a significant violation of human rights," William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International U.S.A., said in a statement. "The release of these children is long overdue, but does not let the U.S. off the hook for continued violations of the rights of hundreds of other detainees."

Don't miss this--Thanks for the Memories.

Minnesota's new Republican governor is continuing his efforts to reinstate the death penalty in the state. Gov. Tim Pawlenty first floated the idea about a month ago and faced widespread criticism. At the time, the Legislature, comprised of a Republican House and Democratic Senate, made it clear that legislation renewing the death penalty did not have the votes to pass either chamber. It seemed that the issue would be dropped, but it now appears the Governor is looking for a way to bypass the Legislature.

Minnesota voters should decide via a constitutional amendment referendum whether to reinstate a state death penalty after nearly a century for the "worst of the worst" criminals, Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Tuesday.

As about 50 protesters outside his State Capitol office chanted "Execute justice, not people," the governor proposed the outlines of a Minnesota system of capital punishment that he said would be "the most modern and cautious" in the nation.

To drum up support for his plan, the Governor brought out the father of a murdered rape victim who said he believed in "an eye for an eye." There was no mention of Mahatma Ghandi, who sagely said, an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.

Sen. John Hottinger, DFL-St. Peter, denounced the plan as "a cowardly approach designed to allow elected officials to avoid responsibility for taking us down this dark alley of criminal justice." He also described Pawlenty's proposal as an attempt to divert voters' attention from the effects of the administration's budget cuts and its release of [Dru] Sjodin's accused kidnaper.

Added Rep. Keith Ellison, DFL-Minneapolis: "This is playing with fire. It's political cynicism at its worst. The death penalty serves no legitimate purpose. It's applied unfairly, falling disproportionately on the poor, people of color and, in too many cases, on the innocent. It's also a budget buster, sapping resources from education, health care and public safety."

Hopefully, the good people of Minnesota won't kowtow to their new governor's ill-advised agenda.

It's official. Effective today, Great Britain has reclassified and downgraded marijuana. Instead of being a class B drug like amphetamines, it is a class C drug like tranquilizers and steroids. Possession of small amounts results in an on-the-spot warning.

Under the reclassification, the possession, production and supply of marijuana are still illegal, but the penalties are different. Adults found carrying the drug are now more likely to receive a warning than a prison sentence. And the maximum prison sentence for possession has dropped from five to two years. Legally, this brings Britain in line with some European countries such as the Netherlands, although in practice these laws are likely to be more strictly enforced in Britain.

At least in Britain, reefer madness is slowly giving way to acceptance that marijuana does have medical benefits:

...the drug may have positive effects for some. Marijuana is thought to dull chronic pain and may ease the symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS), an incurable disease of the nervous system that causes spasms, pain and tremor.

In a recent large-scale trial, 60% of MS patients who took synthetic cannabis said it helped their mobility and eased their pain and muscle stiffness. "It doesn't suit everyone, but it does suit some," says Clare Hodges, MS sufferer and founder of the Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics, a pressure group that lobbies for the medicinal use of marijuana. About 10,000 seriously ill patients in Britain use cannabis to control their symptoms, says Hodges. Sufferers tend to smoke or eat the drug.

A leading British criminologist gives the reasons why the downgrading should be extended to small home growers.

How do our presidential candidates stack up on the issue? Check out NORML's presidential score card and find out where they stand on decriminalization, on medical use and on the Higher Education Act provision that prevents convicted marijuana offenders from receiving student aid.

John Kerry scores the highest of the viable candidates. He is the only candidate expressing any support for medical marijuana:

Buzzflash scores an interview with George McGovern, now 82, and points out he was right about Vietnam and he's right about Iraq:

"Let me say that one thing that Richard Pearle and Dick Cheney and George W. Bush have in common is that none of them have ever been near a combat scene. They're perfectly willing to send younger people -- other people's sons -- into war. They're very generous with that blood of the young men and women that they throw into combat so casually. But they've protected their blood and their limbs by never serving near a battlefield. That's true of the President. It's true of the Vice President. It's true of Pearle and Wolfowitz -- that whole crowd of neo-conservatives that have the ear of the President."

-- Former Senator George McGovern and 1972 Democratic Candidate for President.

We don't care if he did, in fact, we think it would be a plus if he did--he'd look friendlier-- but you decide--Drudge has the pictures. Kerry denies it. But his wife has said in interviews she's a botox user.

We hope if Kerry is using it, he'll just say so. Getting caught in a lie is always worse--even if it's on such a trivial matter.

Maybe Kerry just had a facial and a peel. Maybe he just looks better when he's smiling. After all, before Iowa, he didn't have much to smile about.

Update: 24 hours later, the story still has legs.

Canada has officially called for a full public inquiry in the Maher Arar case.

Justice Dennis O'Connor, who led Ontario's Walkerton tainted water inquiry, will head the Arar inquiry, McLellan announced. It is not clear when hearings will begin or who will be called to testify.

Arar was detained by American agents at an airport in New York in the fall of 2002 on suspicion he had links to al Qaeda. He was deported to Syria and imprisoned for 10 months in Damascus, where he says he was tortured. He was released without explanation this fall. He has consistently denied any links to terrorism and has pressured Ottawa for months to call an inquiry into the affair.

Mr. Arar had this response to the news:

Arar welcomed the announcement as "a great day for Canadian justice.

"It is . . . very important to ensure this inquiry can, indeed, clear my name and answer all of our questions so that we can begin to rebuild our lives," said Arar, who has been on public assistance since the incident and expects the inquiry to address compensation for him and his family.

As always, Damned Foreigner has more. Our coverage of the case can be accessed here.

Eric at Hamster has the details on the John Kerry ad that will run in South Carolina--including the script. The ad features Kerry and one of the men he served with in Vietnam.

David Alston: "When the bullets began to hit the side of the boat, the boom, the pow, pow, pow, we found out that John Kerry can lead."

Kerry: "There's this sense after Vietnam that every other day is extra. That you have to do what's right. You know it's right to roll back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy to guarantee all Americans health care and invest in our kids. That's why I'm running for president."

It's coming down to the wire. What will Gov. Arnold do with his first life or death decision? He's being asked to delay the execution of Kevin Cooper so that additional DNA tests may be performed:

On CNN tonight, Rubin Hurricane Carter and (curiously) former White House Counsel Lanny Davis were championing Cooper's cause. A roster of actors, including Denzel Washington, Sean Penn and Anjelica Houston, are petitioning Gov. Arnold to delay the execution.

Lanny Davis said one of the victims had blond hairs clutched in her hand and the jury didn't get to hear about it. Cooper is a black man. Another witness said her boyfriend or husband came home bloodied that night, missing the hatchet that was used in the crime. One of the victims who survived reportedly told the police at the time he was attacked by three hispanic men. Now and adult, the victim denies that he ever said that. Some of the jurors have changed their minds about Cooper's guilt.

Rubin Carter said there are tell-tale signs this case was wrongly decided:lack of hard evidence; witnesses who have changed their statements after conferring with police; jailhouse snitches; unreliable eyewitness testimony; lab fraud.

The crime was horrendous, no question. But was the wrong man convicted?

Art Garfunkel has decided to fight his pot charge rather than pay a $100 fine. Our prior post on the bust in which a state trooper stopped the limo in which Garfunkel was a passenger is here.

Bump and Update: We are glad to see this case make the national news. We just listened to the prosecutor on CNN. She was emphatic that the nurses left this poor boy in agony for three days and did nothing. He finally died sitting in a chair.

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Original Post 10:54 a.m.

This is sickening. We need changes in our juvenile detention facilities.

Two nurses at a juvenile jail were charged with murder Tuesday, accused of failing to treat a 17-year-old inmate who died of a burst appendix after three days in pain.

In a scathing attack on the juvenile justice system, a Miami-Dade County grand jury said the women skipped examinations or falsified medical records on Omar Paisley, who spent his last days "in agony lying on a concrete bed."

Following a nine-month investigation, the grand jury noted in frustration that the state Department of Juvenile Justice is immune to criminal indictments. The panel called for wholesale changes at the jail to "prevent another unnecessary death."

The nurses, Gaile Tucker Loperfido and Dianne Marie Demeritte, were expected to surrender Wednesday. They face up to nine years in prison on charges of third-degree murder and aggravated manslaughter of a child. It was not immediately known if they had attorneys.

The nurses weren't the only ones involved in the death. The Grand Jury report says: