Are civil liberties important to you in choosing a Presidential candidate? Then check out this site, which has tracked each of the candidate's positions. [link via Patriot Watch]

[comments deleted on this thread. They went off-topic to personal views using phrases that would trigger censor blocking software. Jeff Stark and Jason in particular, please watch your language and stay on topic.]

A real life example of the absurd application of our drug laws. This time in Kansas, where mushrooms bring more time than murder:

Stephen Fletcher II tried to grow some psychedelic mushrooms in his Lawrence apartment. Tremain V. Scott shot and killed a man at close range during an armed confrontation, then, according to an eyewitness, took the victim's gun and shot him with it as he lay on the ground. An autopsy showed the victim had been shot 18 times.

Both Fletcher and Scott are in their early 20s and have little or no criminal-conviction record, their attorneys say. So who's facing the stiffer sentence? Fletcher, by double.

Under state drug-sentencing guidelines, he's facing at least 11 1/2 years in prison unless a judge finds "substantial and compelling" reasons to lighten the sentence. Under a separate set of guidelines for all nondrug crimes, Scott faces between four and six years in prison for his violent crime.

Breaking it down mathematically for you:

Attempted manufacture of mushrooms: Between 11.5 years and 12.8 years if defendant has no criminal record.

Voluntary Manslaughter: 4.6 to 5.1 years if defendant has no criminal record. Second-degree murder would have been between 9 and 10.25 years.

[link via Drug War Rant .

The Guardian reports that the Pentagon fired some of the defense lawyers it previously recruited to represent detainees facing military tribunals because they rebelled against the unfair rules:

A former military lawyer with good contacts in the US military legal establishment said that the first group of defence lawyers the Pentagon recruited for Guantanamo balked at the commission rules, which insist, among other restrictions, that the government be allowed to listen in to any conversations between attorney and client.

"There was a circular that went out to military lawyers in the early spring of 2003 which said 'we are looking for volunteers' for defence counsel," said the ex-military lawyer. "There was a selection process, and the people they selected were the right people, they had the right credentials, they were good lawyers.

"The first day, when they were being briefed on the dos and don'ts, at least a couple said: 'You can't impose these restrictions on us because we can't properly represent our clients.' "When the group decided they weren't going to go along, they were relieved. They reported in the morning and got fired that afternoon."

The Pentagon denies the claim, but the Guardian stands by it and further says that the remaining team of six defense lawyers is very dissatisfied with the rules. The Guardian's source says:

A new special report in the Guardian, People the law forgot, begins this week:

Images of Camp Delta's orange-jumpsuited, manacled detainees have provoked international outrage. But the real horror they face isn't physical hardship, it is the threat of infinite confinement, without trial or access to legal representation. James Meek has spent the past month talking to former inmates and some of those involved in operating the Pentagon's Kafkaesque justice system. He has built an unprecedented picture of life on the base, which we present in this special issue.

One story told is that of Mohammad, a 23 year old baker who tried to commit suicide several times:

But his attempts at self-harm at Guantanamo began after he was confined, without explanation, in a sealed punishment cell for a month - not, it seems, because he had broken camp rules, but because the American authorities had nowhere else to put him while they were finishing new facilities.

The military has conducted a mock tribunal trial at Guantanamo. The exercise even included a defendant who acted out, had to be restrained and then ejected from the proceeding.

Prosecutors played the roles of presiding judge and defense attorneys, while military police played defendants and their own role of providing court security, military sources said.

Rep. C.L. "Butch" Otter's amendment that would prohibit funding for sneak and peek searches is officially dead. The attempt to scale back the Patriot Act provision that authorized the delayed notification of search warrants will not make it through Congress this year. And the Justice Department sounds pretty cocky that it won't ever make it through Congress:

Otter, an Idaho [Republican] congressman, was successful in July at getting the House to approve a prohibition on the use of federal funds for such searches, which are executed without the property owner's or resident's knowledge and with warrants delivered afterward.

Senate and House leaders, though, refused to place that provision in the massive omnibus spending bill coming up before Congress next week, killing it for the year.

Otter's measure would have prevented federal dollars from being spent to implement warrants that delay notification that a covert search is being conducted. The Patriot Act.... permits agents to search the home of a suspected drug dealer, or plant a listening device in the car of a reputed mobster, or copy a computer hard drive of a terror suspect, without notifying the suspect until a later date.

Otter says he will try again next year.

The Justice Department, however, says it doesn't expect that Congress will ever pass Rep. C.L. "Butch" Otter's legislation banning "sneak and peek" searches.

The SAFE Act is still on the drawing board. Officially known as S. 1709, the Security and Freedom Enhanced (SAFE) Act of 2003, it needs your support. Send a letter to your Senator today.

In a surprise about-face, the Pentagon today announced that it will allow Yaser Hamdi to consult with a lawyer.

Hamdi is a U.S. citizen being held as an enemy combatant in a military brig in South Carolina. No criminal charges have been brought against him. The Government has refused to let him see a lawyer and the Supreme Court is considering whether to hear his case.

The Pentagon, in reversing course, says it will allow him to see either Frank Dunham, who has been appointed by the federal court in Virginia, a military lawyer or a private lawyer.

Why the change of heart? The Pentagon says it has finished interrogating him and cites his U.S. citizenship. Well, the latter hasn't mattered to the government for the past year and a half, so we don't buy that one. We think the Administration sees the handwriting on the wall, and rather than risk the loss of face an adverse Supreme Court ruling will bring so close to election time, is trying to cut its anticipated losses.

The DoD press release is here. It sets forth the following policy:

DoD policy is that it will permit access to counsel by an enemy combatant who is a U. S. citizen and who is detained by DoD in the United States after DoD has determined that such access will not compromise the national security of the U. S.; and after DoD has completed intelligence collection from that enemy combatant or after DoD has determined that such access will not interfere with intelligence collection from that enemy combatant.

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments tomorrow in the Zacarias Moussaoui case:

A federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., will hear arguments Wednesday from prosecutors and Moussaoui's court-appointed lawyers over whether the government forfeited its right to seek the death penalty by refusing to produce certain al-Qaida witnesses for his defense.

The larger issue is simple: Does the Government's terror war outweigh a defendant's consitutional rights?

Taking a position that experts say is unprecedented, prosecutors warn that Brinkema's ruling endangers national security by crimping the fight against al Qaeda, allowing terrorism defendants to tie the criminal justice system in knots with similar requests for access to detainees.

....Defense lawyers are sounding a different alarm. They say that by refusing to turn over the witnesses, the government is seeking to turn the Constitution on its head, arguing that the 6th Amendment guarantees defendants the right to interview witnesses on their behalf.

"If a court were to say there is a national security exception to the right to confront witnesses, even when you are subject to the death penalty, that would be staggering," said Stephen Saltzburg, a law professor at George Washington University who has closely followed the Moussaoui case. "There would basically be no limits to what the government could do."

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals is viewed as one of the most conservative and pro-Government appeals courts in the country. The three judges who will hear the case are Chief Judge William W. Wilkins Jr. and judges Roger Gregory and Karen Williams. Experts predict the ruling could go either way.

Blogads reports:

Pleased with the results from the first go-round, John Kerry's campaign has re-ordered ads on Talkingpointsmemo, Atrios, PoliticalWire and Agonist.

New ads ordered on Oliver Willis, Talkleft, Pandagon and NathanNewman.

He's back. The Nader 2004 Presidential Exploratory Committee website is up and running. It went up October 24.

Politics1 says Ralph will try again. He may run as an Independent as opposed to a Green, although it reports the Green nomination is his if he wants it. [link via Political Wire.]

We say fire this teacher:

A 7-year-old boy was scolded and forced to write "I will never use the word `gay' in school again" after he told a classmate about his lesbian mother, the American Civil Liberties Union alleged Monday.

Marcus McLaurin was waiting for recess at Ernest Gaullet Elementary School on Nov. 11 when a classmate asked about Marcus' mother and father, the ACLU said in a complaint.

Marcus responded he had two mothers because his mother is gay. When the other child asked for explanation, Marcus told him: "Gay is when a girl likes another girl," according to the complaint.

A teacher who heard the remark scolded Marcus, telling him "gay" was a "bad word" and sending him to the principal's office. The following week, Marcus had to come to school early and repeatedly write: "I will never use the word `gay' in school again."

Any teacher who believes that "gay" is a dirty word or that children should be restricted in talking about their homelife should not be allowed past the front door of an educational institution. There should be zero tolerance for this kind of teacher misbehavior.

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Five Seconds, Ten, Fifteen, Twenty... Here comes the battering ram:

Police officers executing a search warrant do not violate constitutional rights by waiting only 15 to 20 seconds after knocking and announcing their presence before using force to enter a suspect's residence, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday.

The case stemmed from an incident in the middle of the afternoon on July 15, 1998, when officers from the Las Vegas Police Department and the FBI executed a warrant at the apartment of LaShawn Lowell Banks.

The officers knocked on the front door, announced a "police search warrant" and waited 15 or 20 seconds. Hearing no response, they used a battering ram on the front door to enter the small apartment.

Banks said he did not hear the officers knock and announce their presence because he was in the shower. The officers found him standing by the bathroom, having just come out of the shower.