Rocky Mountain News columnist Dave Koppel (also the research director for the Independence Institute and a National Review columnist) announces the winners of the best Colorado weblogs in 2003. Our hearty congratulations to Walter in Denver, who is number one.

Here in Colorado, Web logs haven't reshaped the media landscape - yet. Even so, Colorado's best Web logs provide a very useful supplement to your media diet, providing you with news you may never find in the Denver dailies. So it's time to announce the winners of Colorado Best Web Logs, 2003.

At the top of the heap is Walter in Denver .

We're proud to be the runner-up:

Runner-up for best Colorado blog is the aptly named TalkLeft.com, run by criminal defense lawyer Jeralyn Merritt. TalkLeft provides excellent summaries and links to national news stories about the criminal justice system - from the perspective of people who believe that we need more civil liberties and fewer people in prison.

The site provides a consistent critique of the War on Terror, particularly the civil liberties infringements such as the Patriot Act.

The award is particularly meaningful to us since Mr. Koppel is a devout Libertarian, whose political views sometimes, but certainly not always, match our more liberal ones.

If you are in Seattle, we recommend you stop by the Frye Art Museum and view a new exhibit on the brutality of the death penalty by University of Washington Professor and artist Zin Liu. You can view one of the paintings and learn more about the exhibit here. The exhibit runs through January 25. A fully illustrated color catalogue is available in the museum store.

In a group of 12-by-7-foot paintings titled "Five Capital Executions in China," Lin makes us party to shocking, almost off-hand executions played out among crowds of people who show little emotion as they cluster to watch or simply pass by on their daily routines. The paintings — which show decapitation, starvation, flaying, drawing and quartering, and shooting — aren't modeled on actual events. But Lin's fictional scenes do depict real methods of execution, past and present, which for him represent a long history of human cruelty not confined to any one nation. Because of the large scale of the paintings and Lin's clever compositional tricks, we end up feeling like passive onlookers to the carnage.

As the reviewer of the exhibition points out, it's tempting to think this can't happen in America. But, as the exhibition catalog points out,

The death penalty has been abolished in 106 nations, and 80 percent of the world's recorded executions take place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

The artist's message:

I feel strongly about capital punishment," he says. "It's government sanction of killing, a vicious cycle that doesn't end."

Here's more on the art:

Court TV profiles the famous cases set for 2004. For us, the biggest are Michael Jackson, Kobe Bryant and Scott Peterson. Behind them come Martha Stewart, Robert Blake, Phil Spector and the retrial of Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish in the Benny Binion murder trial in Las Vegas.

Our congrats to Court TV for having its most successful year ever in 2003. 2004 should be even better.

Even old cases still make the news-- DNA has been submitted to CODIS, the FBI's databank, in the Jonbenet Ramsey case. We'll be talking about it Sunday night on Fox's Rivera at Large (which happily doesn't air until after the final season premiere of Sex and the City.)

The San Francisco Chronicle says Ashcroft's recusal from the Plame investigation is not enough to assure integrity:

Both Comey and the man he selected as special counsel to direct the investigation, U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald of Chicago, are political appointees who were tapped by President Bush. The fine reputations of Comey and Fitzgerald notwithstanding, this is still a situation of the Bush team investigating the Bush team.

As we said at the time this scandal broke, the public would be best served by vigorous independent investigation. Either an outside counsel should look into these serious allegations, or Congress should commit the resources necessary for a thorough inquiry of its own.

Wesley Clark said today that he won't be Dean's Cheney:

Clark said he's running for president, not vice president. ''I'm not going to be Howard Dean's Dick Cheney,'' Clark told reporters. ''We've already tried that model of government. That's what's misled America thus far.''

Clark said President Bush was a former governor, inexperienced in foreign policy who surrounded himself with experienced advisers, like Cheney.

''He tried to reassure the American people by having a lot of highly experienced and competent advisers around,'' said Clark. ''And we see the results right now in our presence in Iraq and the alienation of people around the world.''

Clark is comparing Bush to Dean --but not to Bill Clinton, former Governor of Arkansas. What's the difference?

''Bill Clinton had several other things going for him and the time was different,'' Clark said. ''This is a new era, especially after this current administration has done so much to wreck America's relationship with its allies and destroyed American esteem in the world.''

Still think the Patriot Act and similar legislation won't be used against you? Then we hope you didn't go to Vegas for New Year's. The FBI ordered Las Vegas casinos and airlines to give them information on guests and travelers:

Las Vegas hotel operators and airlines serving McCarran International Airport are being required by the FBI to turn over all guest and passenger names and personal information, at least during the holiday period, several sources said Tuesday.

FBI spokesman Todd Palmer confirmed the federal action and said the requirement that the companies surrender customer information is a "normal investigative procedure."

As of now, they're not asking for your gambling winnings and losses, but they are asking for personal information:

Hotel operators who asked not to be identified said the information being provided to federal officials includes guest and passenger names, addresses and personal identification information, but not casino records or guest gambling information. ....the FBI in Las Vegas is receiving 100 percent cooperation from the gaming companies and airline operators.

Compliance is mandated by the legislation Bush signed into law Dec. 13--that had been passed by both houses of Congress.

Via Atrios who got it from Time:

FBI investigators looking into the criminal leak of a CIA agent's identity have asked Bush Administration officials including senior political adviser Karl Rove to release reporters from any confidentiality agreements regarding conversations about the agent. If signed, the single-page requests made over the last week would give investigators new ammunition for questioning reporters who have so far, according to those familiar with the case, not disclosed the names of administration officials who divulged that Valerie Plame, wife of former ambassador Joe Wilson, worked for the CIA.

We're glad to see this issue brought up. The investigation may not get too far if it's just based on interviews and emails of White House officials. And we think that's what the White House is counting on. We doubt we'll see the White House encourage reporters to come forward. From the October 5, 2003 Washington Post (available on Lexis.com):

Victoria Toensing, who as an aide to the late senator Barry Goldwater helped write the 1982 law banning the disclosure of covert operatives' names, said journalists were exempted because they, unlike federal officials, don't have clearances for classified information. The only exception is if a journalist engages in a "pattern" of naming operatives, inspired in part by CIA agent-turned-author Philip Agee, who repeatedly tried to expose agency personnel around the world.

Asked about the possibility of subpoenaing journalists in this case, Toensing, a former federal prosecutor, said: "I don't think it's ever a good idea. You're just going to make a hero out of the reporters, who can raise their book prices. It's like calling a lawyer to talk about attorney-client privileged information. You're not going to get it."

Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press, said journalists -- like doctors, lawyers, therapists and the clergy -- deserve to be shielded from having to testify. But if Novak were dragged into court, she said, "you think he wouldn't gladly face contempt? This is the kind of thing that young journalists dream of. They love to go to jail."

Maybe, maybe not. But subpoenas in leaks probes have been tried before--usually unsuccessfully. The Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill case is one example:

Liberal Oasis compares the press on US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, now in charge of the Valerie Plame investigation, to the press on Ken Starr, when he was first appointed independent counsel for Whitewater in 1994.

Looks like our Valerie Plame theory--that Ashcroft recused himself so that fewer people will scream whitewash when the Justice Department announces it can't prove a crime and no one gets indicted --is getting more play.

The Justice Department investigation into the leak of a CIA agent's identity could conclude that administration officials disclosed the woman's name and occupation to the media but still committed no crime because they did not know she was an undercover operative, legal experts said this week.

"It could be embarrassing but not illegal," said Victoria Toensing, who was chief counsel of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence when Congress passed the law protecting the identities of undercover agents.

Actually, we don't think the Justice Department will claim that the White House officials didn't know Plame was an undercover agent. We think the excuse will be that the officials inadvertently mentioned her name and undercover capacity during a conversation about something else and therefore it was not an "intentional" disclosure.

Here is the law at issue: The Intelligence Protection Act (50 U.S.C. Sec. 421). Different sections of the act provide for penalties ranging from three years to ten years. There are three ways to violate the law:

Don't miss NORML's 2003: The Year In Review with the top ten events that shaped marijuana policy. We think #4 may be the most significant for the future:

Supreme Court Says Doctors Can Recommend Medicinal Marijuana:

The Supreme Court in October declined to review a unanimous Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding the rights of physicians to discuss the medicinal use of marijuana with their patients. By rejecting the government's appeal, the Court upheld the Ninth Circuit's order enjoining the Justice Department from revoking physicians' federal licenses to prescribe medicine if they recommend marijuana to their patients. Read the full story at:

This cow is mad and he's not gonna take it any more. (warning, explicit language.)