Atrios has the transcript of a Paula Zahn-Joe Trippi interview on Howard Dean in which Ms. Zahn (incorrectly) asserts that Dean said Bush had prior knowledge of 9/11. Trippi makes her read from her transcript of Dean's statement to show he mentioned that a rumor to that effect had been floating around, and he disagreed with it. From the Zahn-Trippi transcript (no way to judge the tones without having seen it,) we say advantage Trippi.

Update: In other Dean news, Tom Harkin (Iowa) will endorse Dean . We like Harkin. He and Wellstone were true Senate liberals. And the latest New Hampshire poll numbers are here. Kerry is falling big, Clark is gaining, Dean still has a solid lead. [links via Political Wire.]

The ACLU has filed a lawsuit against a prominent professor on behalf of a student at the University of Northern Colorado. The suit alleges that the prof sent the cops to seize his computer and shut down his online newsletter because of the student's dissenting political views.

A Weld County man is suing Greeley police for seizing the computer on which he publishes an online newsletter called The Howling Pig, which takes satirical barbs at a vocal university professor.

Thomas Mink, of Ault, a 24-year-old English major at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, said police have warned that he likely will be charged with criminal libel because The Howling Pig makes fun of Junius "Jay" Peake, a Monfort Distinguished Professor at UNC and a specialist in financial markets.

Rocky Mountain Progressive Network is following the case and says it's all the more worrisome because of the conservatives' hunt for liberal Colorado professors and their clandestine effort to enact an Academic Bill of Rights for Conservatives and impose a quota to make for more conservative professors in the states' colleges and universities.

The Rocky Mountain Progressive Network, a non-profit, provides a " 'fair and balanced' response to the radical right-wing interests that dominate our region's politics and media." We have been in communication with them for several months and like them a lot. They have just taken an ad on TalkLeft--so, please, visit them often so they see a lot of response to the ad. In addition to to the satisfaction you will receive from reading their assaults on conservatives and exposure of inequities, a lot of hits on their website from here may cause them to extend the time they advertise on TalkLeft, which is money for us. A win-win all around.

Nightline is devoting its program this evening to an examination of 9/11 legal issues, including the Padilla, Hamdi and Zacarias Moussaoui cases. The show is called Legal Limbo.

The Supreme Court has announced it will hear an appeal from Yaser Hamdi; he was born in the U.S., captured in Afghanistan, and has been held without charges as an "enemy combatant." Meanwhile "20th hijacker" Zacharias Moussoui is being tried in the American judicial system, and Jose Padilla continues to be held as an "enemy combatant."

Is the country strong enough to use the judicial measures already in place or do the events of 9/11 require a fundamental shift in the judicial process? .... This is an issue that every American has a stake in....

What we're reading today:

Agonist:

UK Government to scale back emergency laws under pressure from civil liberties groups. The United Kingdom's plans to give the police and the Army sweeping emergency powers to ban street demonstrations and seize property were diluted by the Government yesterday in the face of a civil liberties outcry. The Civil Contingencies Bill, the biggest shake-up of emergency laws since early last century, will cover terrorist attack, natural disasters and epidemics. But the Government backed off from an earlier proposal that the powers could be triggered by an event that threatened "political, administrative or economic stability", which critics claimed could have been used to outlaw marches against the Iraq war or to combat the fuel protests of 2000. The text of said bill, courtesy the UK government.

Warblogging:

Mr. Ashcroft belongs to a sect of religious extremists that believe that dancing is immoral. Mr. Ashcroft is scared of calico cats because he feels they are associated with the devil. Mr. Ashcroft feels that gambling is the height of immorality, and that sex outside of marriage is evil. Mr. Ashcroft truly stands as the polar opposite of Las Vegas.

Pandagon:

They are ex-felons. In that they are free. In that they have served their time. In that whatever transgression, they made, they have paid their debt to society, and as such their very basic rights as American citizens are due them.

One can argue that ex-felons who committed violent crimes shouldn't be able to own guns. But what is the argument that those who aren't imprisoned any longer should no longer be allowed the franchise?

Outrageous. A state appeals court has told a gay man he must stay in the closet.

A state appeals court says a gay father must
keep his homosexuality in the closet when his son is around.

[link via e-mail from Pontificator.]

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Via Cursor:

The Carnegie Endowment of International Peace's "WMD In Iraq: Evidence and Implications," concludes that "Iraq was not an imminent threat, that UN inspections were working far better than realized, that our intelligence process failed, that officials misrepresented the threat, and, importantly, that war was not the best-or only-option."

Two Iowa aides of Howard Dean have been fired for trying to infiltrate John Kerry's campaign.

In a letter to the Kerry camp, Jeani Murray, Dean’s Iowa campaign manager, said the two were terminated after an investigation prompted by complaints by John Norris, who is running Kerry’s Iowa effort.

Norris complained in a letter to Murray earlier in the day that the two men claimed to work for Dean and approached the Massachusetts senator’s Creston, Iowa, office, earlier in the week asking about the operation. Norris said one of the men, Mitch Lawson, admitted Thursday to being employed by Dean and said they were trying to get their hands on “calling scripts.”

Also, Thursday, Gephardt made accusations against Dean alleging that he intended to have out of state workers come in to vote in the Iowa primary, a charge Dean flatly denied.

It's likely to get nastier as the primary gets closer. We don't think anyone benefits from dirty laundry.

Update: The NY Times reports voters in Iowa are having second thoughts about Dean, but not enough to throw the primary into disarray.

From the BBC (available at lexis.com)--also reported here:

Ousted leader Saddam Husayn has two years left to live as he is suffering from cancer in its advanced stage, the Kuwaiti news agency Kuna reported on 7 January, citing the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Anba.

"Doctors confirm that Saddam will die in two years' time," the paper said, quoting "a high-ranking Iraqi source". "During his visit to the country, a high-ranking Iraqi source disclosed to Al-Anba that Saddam Husayn, who is currently being held captive, is suffering from lymphoma, adding that the ailment has reached an advanced stage," the agency said.

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As we wrote here, the principal has resigned. Now it's time for the lawsuits to proceed over the ill-advised high school drug raids. Law Prof Glenn Reynolds (aka Instapundit) writes over at his MSNBC blog:

.... the law enforcement authorities who conducted the raid shouldn't escape responsibility for their misconduct as a result. Raiding schools with drawn guns is the sort of thing that should be limited to terrorist emergencies and hostage situations. It's not the proper way to look for a few bags of pot.

The question is whether other principals -- and law enforcement officials -- will take the lesson. I'm not sure they will, which is why I'd like to see the lawsuits go forward, and see the law enforcement officials who conducted the raid lose their jobs, too. Responsibility demands consequences.

The Supreme Court has reversed the stay of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals and federal court in North Carolina, thereby allowing an execution to proceed, despite defense arguments that one of the lethal injection drugs is so painful the execution would amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

The execution is set for 2am Friday. Background on the issue is here.

Bump and update:Judge now accepts the plea bargain, with some modification. Lea's lawyer says they are deciding whether to accept it.

**************
original post 1/7 6:25 pm

Bad news for Enron spouse Lea Fastow today. A judge rejected her plea deal.

The judge reportedly rejected it because it called for a five month sentence and did not give him the opportunity to give her a longer sentence if he thought one was warranted.

Her trial is set for Feb. 10. We suspect a revised plea deal will be submitted. The count to which she has agreed to plead guilty calls for a sentence of up to 16 months.

Lea's husband, Andrew Fastow, Enron's former financial chief, is negotiating before a different judge for a ten year sentence.

The Fastows' goal, as we reported here, was to have Mrs. Fastow out before Mr. Fastow went in, so one of them would be with the children.

Here's a look at the Enron cases scheduled for trial in 2004.

A sixteen year old's murder conviction has been overturned in Nevada after he has served fifteen years. He pleaded guilty upon advice of his lawyer who had told him that if he did not, a jury would sentence him to death because he was black and the victim was white.

Jimmie Davis was 16 when he was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1988. In its ruling Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said there was "almost no possibility" that a jury would have imposed a death sentence, given his age and the background of the case.

The court said Davis' counsel "failed to conduct a meaningful investigation" before recommending the guilty plea. "Perhaps most egregiously, it appears from the record that defense counsel may not have been aware that Davis was only 16 years old at the time of the offense," the court said.

Davis, 31, of North Las Vegas, has said he accidentally shot Brittain Gelabert with the stolen .38-caliber revolver she was trying to sell him for $100.....The attorney general's office had argued against his appeal and in support of the conviction, saying that even if the shooting was accidental it could be considered murder under state law.

Now the D.A. will decide whether to retry Davis. We think 15 years is enough and hopes the DA decides against it.