Ridiculous Congressional comment of the day comes from Tom Tancredo (R-CO) from an interview in a conservative publication:

I talked to a man who headed up a gang unit out of Los Angeles. He told me that there were five cities -- Compton, California, near Los Angeles, was one -- that were completely taken over by the Mexican Mafia. He said they had taken over the city council, the mayor’s office, the police chief…it has become simply another place for illegal drug activity in an institutionalized fashion. He said they couldn’t bust anybody in town. They can't talk to the police in these towns.

LAPD Chief Bill Bratton must be laughing out loud.

More from Tancredo--he's against legal immigration too.

So what we are seeing is a phenomenon that is really disturbing and it’s all about numbers. People talk about illegal immigration being a problem. It’s not just illegal immigration: it is immigration both legal and illegal, on a massive scale.

[link via Walter in Denver]

Attorney Dick Atkins provides a free initial consultation (+1 215 977 9982; Dickatkins@aol.com). He has helped thousands of Americans obtain release after being arrested in other countries. In this month's National Geographic Adventurer, he provides some tips in The Atkins Zone--The Houdini of fast escapes from international prisons advises on how to get out—and stay out—of jail while traveling abroad. Plus, some good reasons to avoid getting slammed in these six notorious tourist traps.

First, the numbers. 10,000 Americans are arrested overseas every year. The State Departments numbers are less because they don't count the ones that bribe themselves out of all but a few days in the pokey.

"Families are almost always shocked when they hear about the condition of a loved one who has been incarcerated overseas," says Atkins.

He should know. Having spent the past 23 years helping Americans get out of legal trouble abroad, Atkins approximates that he has helped win freedom for more than a thousand Americans being held in foreign custody. His services are sought by congressmen seeking help for detained constituents, travel insurance agents looking into high-stakes claims, and people who call his hotline, which offers around-the-clock legal advice.

Atkins is well-regarded in the international legal community.

Atkins's success in freeing incarcerated Americans abroad hasn't gone unnoticed. He has testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on international prisoner transfer agreements and wrote a guide to prisoner transfer treaties for the UN. For years, human rights organizations like Amnesty International have referred clients seeking help for friends or loved ones in trouble abroad, and his expertise as the Houdini of hard times has been documented by newspapers like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Here's some of his latest free tips -- we hope you never need to use them:

President Bush is expected to announce a new immigration plan in January--as a kick-off to his reelection campaign:

Lobbyists working with the White House said Bush is developing a plan that would allow immigrants to cross the border legally if jobs are waiting for them. The sources said the administration also wants to provide a way for some undocumented workers in the United States to move toward legal status.

Bush will try to make the plan more palatable to conservatives by including stricter entry controls, including increased use of technology at the border and steps toward better enforcement of current visa restrictions and reporting requirements, sources said.

Bush said at his year-end news conference last week that he was preparing to send Congress recommendations for an "immigration policy that helps match any willing employer with any willing employee." He said he is "firmly against blanket amnesty," or a mass legalization. An estimated 8 million undocumented people live in the United States. At least half of them are Mexican, authorities said.

Of course, this is geared towards getting the 2004 hispanic vote.

A leading Bush adviser said that, given the crucial swing vote Hispanics could provide next November, "the White House feels it's got to get its irons in the fire now."

MaxSpeak has moved to MT and a new home, update your bookmarks!

Say hello to Lotus...Surviving a Dark Time and Donkey Rising.

Blogrunner tracks weblog conversations and has the most frequently referenced weblog posts published in the previous 24 Hours.

Skippy has the link to Michael Moore's letters from the troops.

Walter in Denver will be blogging through the holidays. If you will be too, let us know in the comments section.

Dave at Seeing the Forest says the news of mad cow disease in the U.S. will kill the beef industry

Things are going to happen fast now. By the time we wake up tomorrow there will be no beef industry in the US. This is because we have no real inspection system -- the corporations have bought off the government -- and our Agriculture Secretary is corporate lobbyist Ann Veneman.

Greg at Soundbitten points out some inconsistencies in Rush's various statements over the past few months, concluding:

Supposedly cured after 30 days of self-examination and hard reckoning, Limbaugh seems like he's still pretty much thinking like a junkie: he didn't do anything wrong, except for all the wrong stuff that he did, but that stuff wasn't really his fault…

Ralph Nader is still considering a presidential run, but it will not be as a Green Party candidate. Ralph informed the Greens of this today--if he runs, it will be as an Independent.

A disappointing decision today from Canada's Supreme Court, ruling 6-3 that the country's marijuana laws are constitutional and do not violate the nation's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. But, all is not lost, as the Court said Parliament could change the law:

"We conclude that it is within Parliament's legislative jurisdiction to criminalize the possession of marijuana, should it choose to do so," said the decision, co-written by Charles Gonthier and Ian Binnie. "Equally, it is open to Parliament to decriminalize or otherwise modify any aspect of the marijuana laws that it no longer considers to be good public policy."

New Prime Minister Paul Martin has said he will reintroduce a bill in Parliament to eliminate criminal penalties, including potential jail time and lasting criminal records, for those caught with small amounts of marijuana. Penalties would remain, and possibly increase, for large-scale growers and traffickers.

Today's decision could have a wider application than just in Canada. According to an e-mail we received from NORML,

The Canadian Supreme Court decision indicates that signatories to the 1961 United Nation's Single Convention Treaty on Narcotics, which include Canada, can modify their domestic drug laws, notably marijuana laws, towards a Dutch-like system of decriminalization and tolerance for adult use of marijuana.

The text of the decision is here.

Jeri Becker will be paroled, after all. She's served 23 years on a murder conviction. Last year the parole board granted her parole, but Gray Davis reversed it one month before he left office. The board has again granted Ms. Becker parole, and Gov. Arnie will not reverse it.

Schwarzenegger's role in Becker's release signals a momentous shift from the prior administration of Gov. Gray Davis who was widely lambasted for second-guessing his own appointees on the parole board by routinely overturning parole decisions.

In Becker's case, the state Board of Prison Terms granted her parole last year; Davis reversed that decision last October -- a month before his re- election. The board granted her parole again on July 30. On Monday, Schwarzenegger issued a statement declining to review the decision. Out of 18 cases to date, Schwarzenegger has approved or taken no action in six cases. He has reversed parole in all the other cases except one, which he sent back to the board for additional review.

Of the 267 inmates convicted of murder who were granted parole during Davis' term in office, he released only eight including three women who said they killed their victims after years of abuse.

Buzzflash has an editorial today warning Republican college kids that by backing Bush, they are likely to get the draft reinstated.

We are very, very, anti-draft here at TalkLeft. Always have been. And, like Buzz and Salon and others, we too have been warning readers about Bush's search to fill draft board vacancies.

Where's Country Joe when we need him?

Former Illinois Governor George Ryan pleaded not guilty today to official corruption charges and issued this statement:

....Lura Lynn and I have spent more than three decades in service to the people of Illinois. I have tried my best to be faithful to that service, and to earn the trust and support of the voters who elected me in election after election. I would not dishonor that trust by the kind of conduct the government has alleged, and I am grateful for the calls and letters that I have received from people who are standing by me.

I have retained Dan Webb, an outstanding trial lawyer and fighter, because I am not going to give up -- I will fight. I want to respond to the six years of abuse my family and I have endured as the federal government has torn apart my personal life with this intrusive and overbearing investigation. Therefore, I will not plea bargain -- I will go to trial and establish my innocence.

....I am innocent and the truth will come out in court.

Among the defects in the Government's case, according to Ryan's lawyer: There is no witness who will testify that Ryan took a bribe.

A Virginia jury rejected the death penalty today for John Lee Malvo in the "sniper trial." Malvo was 17 at the time of the crimes. This is a resounding defeat for Ashcroft:

Attorney General John Ashcroft had cited Virginia's ability to impose "the ultimate sanction" in sending Malvo and Muhammad to Virginia for prosecution.

Virginia is one of only 21 states that allow the execution of those who were 16 or 17 when they killed. Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, Virginia is one of only six states that have actually executed someone whose crime was committed as a juvenile.

Update: Jurors talk about deliberations. The vote began 7 to 5 for death. They say they were anguished and tormented. Muhammad's jurors discuss the verdict here--some get it, some don't.

And Virginia keeps killing juveniles.

New York Governor George Pataki has issued a posthumous pardon to comedian Lenny Bruce.

Comedian Lenny Bruce was granted a posthumous pardon by Gov. George Pataki on Tuesday for a nearly 40-year-old obscenity conviction prompted by a foul-mouthed political commentary. Pataki, a third-term Republican, called his decision to issue the first posthumous pardon in New York state history "a declaration of New York's commitment to upholding the First Amendment."

The campaign to win a pardon for the groundbreaking 1960s comedian was supported by his ex-wife and daughter, more than two dozen First Amendment lawyers and entertainers including Robin Williams, the Smothers Brothers and Penn and Teller. Floyd Abrams, a leading First Amendment lawyer and member of the campaign, said Pataki's decision "is really a major step forward in recognizing the mistreatment of Lenny Bruce personally and of the First Amendment that Bruce defended."

It's time for justice for Lenny Bruce. In May, we wrote this detailed post supporting the pardon quest,

Aren't you glad this cop isn't in your neighborhood? Who do you think will play him in the movie? This would be a funny story if it also weren't true.

A Brooklyn cop is being investigated for Internet postings in which he brags about beating suspects, writing phony tickets and ignoring calls to his precinct. The officer, identified by Internal Affairs investigators as a patrol cop who works in the 75th Precinct, uses the pseudonym "Brooklynbacon" and posts his messages on a site accessible through Xanga.com.

Alongside pictures of motorcycle trick riders, naked women, photographs with comical captions and pictures of human oddities, he posts messages supposedly about his job and, in some instances, his own misconduct. Any one of the offenses he describes could cost him his job.

We suspect Brooklynbacon commits three felonies before noon every day. Someone should relieve him of his patrol position fast.

In railing against an unspoken traffic ticket quota he says that officers must meet -- 10 tickets per week, he contends -- he writes: So I have come up with a better way of writing tickets. I just write down the plates of the cars that cut me off the the (sic) parkways and I send them a bogus parking ticket in the mail. The person will then have to deal with the Parking Violations Bureau and not me. Problem quickly resolved. So, in other words, be careful who you cut off on the road. They might be an off duty cop and they could write your plates down and write you a $150 parking ticket. Have a nice day."

The guy writes so much that is unique to his job that it didn't take long to smoke him out. But as of yesterday, he's still on patrol. Why?

After getting in a motorcycle crash, he got assigned to desk duty, of which he says:

"they assigned me to the wrong position.""I have neither sympathy nor remorse when people call me up complaining about their problems. I have no feelings when people complain about loud music and I could really care less if they are seeking information regarding a family member that has been incarcerated. Cry me a river."

What a piece of work.