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.

[comments now closed]

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.

The California Assembly has joined its Senate counterpart in voting to repeal the immigrant driver's license bill. No surprise, as Gov. Arnold made this a cornerstone of his campaign.

The law, which would have taken effect next month, would have allowed an estimated 2 million illegal immigrants to submit federally issued taxpayer identification numbers instead of Social Security numbers to apply for a license.

There's a glimmer of hope, however:

The law's author, Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, said the governor had promised in private meetings to work in good faith on a new version of the bill.

This is music to our ears. Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry outlined a new terrorism plan Monday:

Democrat John Kerry said Monday he will end the "era of John Ashcroft" if elected president, stepping up efforts to protect civil liberties while strengthening the war on terrorism.

"In my first 100 days, I will restore our commitment to civil rights and individual rights," Kerry said in remarks to be delivered at Iowa State University. That will begin with the appointment of "an attorney general who knows he can fight the war on terrorism without attacking America's freedoms. ... an attorney general whose name is not John Ashcroft."

S.D. Congressman and former Governor Bill Janklow is raising a diabetes defense in his manslaughter trial.

Rep. William J. Janklow (R-S.D.) was speeding and ran a stop sign when his Cadillac struck and killed a motorcyclist in August, Janklow's attorney conceded in court Monday, but the defense argued that the congressman should not be convicted of felony manslaughter because he was suffering a diabetic reaction at the time of the crash.

On the opening day of a trial that could send the 64-year-old Janklow to prison for 10 years -- and end his storied political career -- defense lawyer Edwin Evans told a jury in this quiet prairie town that Janklow "was mixed up. He was confused. . . . This was very likely an episode of low blood sugar due to his diabetes."

Will it work? Probably...first off, he's a legend in his home town. Second, he's admitting the minor misdemeanor charges....speeding and running a stop sign, in hopes of a compromise verdict. He just needs one juror to vote that the state failed to prove a "conscious disregard" of the danger. It will be easy for someone who likes him to say they can't see inside his mind to find the "conscious" element beyond a reasonable doubt. Good strategy.

Instapundit has the latest on the fake Abraham Lincoln quote making the rounds--it was debunked by the Chicago Sun Times here:

"There's no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There's nothing good in war except its ending." Attributed to Lincoln by anti-war protesters earlier this year, the statement actually was made by an actor portraying Lincoln in an episode of "Star Trek."

Nonetheless, you can buy the t-shirt here.

And former Governor George Ryan of Illiniois used it in his speech on January 7, 2003 announcing his decision to commute the sentences of Illiniois death row inmates.

As I prepare to leave office, I had to ask myself whether I could really live with the prospect of knowing that I had the opportunity to act, but that I failed to do so because I might be criticized. Could I take the chance that our capital punishment system might be reformed, that wrongful convictions might not occur, that enterprising journalism students might free more men from death row? A system that's so fragile that it depends on young journalism students is seriously flawed.

"There is no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending."

That's what Abraham Lincoln said about the bloody war between the states. It was a war fought to end the sorriest chapter in American history--the institution of slavery. While we are not in a civil war now, we are facing what is shaping up to be one of the great civil rights struggles of our time.

We'd just say it's the thought that counts.

The National Law Journal has an article today on the refusal of two of the fifty states, Georgia and Alabama, to provide lawyers to inmates on death row for their habeas petitions.

While all states provide counsel in direct appeals, it is the federal courts inmates must turn to when those are exhausted. The habeas petition allows them to argue that their conviction was obtained in violation of a constitutional right--like effective assistance of counsel.

The result, according to critics, is that legitimate claims can go unheard, and post-conviction petitions are generally denied on procedural grounds-an action that ends their effort in state courts and blocks the route to the federal courts.

Examples are numerous, because Alabama makes liberal use of the death penalty. Since 1998, it has sentenced more people to death per capita than any other state. One hundred ninety-four are presently on death row, about 30 without counsel.

These petitions typically require intense investigation of potential claims that are outside of the trial record, investigations that can't be conducted from inside a prison. They require expert knowledge of substantive criminal law and often arcane criminal procedure.

Lilith at LegalWrites has more.

Diebold, manufacturer of electronic voting machinery, announced today it will drop plans to sue websites that have published documents about security leaks.

A Diebold attorney promised in a conference call Monday with U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel that it would not sue dozens of students, computer scientists and ISP operators who received cease-and-desist letters from August to October.

Diebold also promised not to file lawsuits against two Swarthmore College students and a San Francisco-based Internet service provider for copyright infringement, according to a motion that company attorneys filed Nov. 24 in San Jose's federal court.

A big thanks is due the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) which represented the students and service provider involved. Plus, EFF is promising to stay on the case:

EFF plans to continue with its case against Diebold, arguing under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that Diebold must pay damages for intimidating Internet service providers. The hearing is scheduled for Feb. 9.

We missed blogging Monday due to court and meetings, and we just finished catching up. Here's some of what we missed:

Atrios explains how he got his name.

Anger Management announced he was quitting blogging today...then resumed five hours later. (Via Walter in Denver.) The kid (he's 21) is a good writer, we hope he sticks with it.

Blogshares, the fictional stock trading game that popularized so many blogs, is no more. We're sorry about that too, it was practically an institution.

Patrick Nielsen Hayden of Electrolite weighs in on the President's Thanksgiving Day trip to Iraq.

Oliver Willis notes major bookstore chains are removing the comfy chairs of recent years and he's not a happy camper about it.

Ezra and Jesse at Pandagon are covering the new liberal radio network and thinking, hey, maybe they could get a gig. Actually, we think the idea of some young voices on the network is a good one. Let's hope it's not all 50 year old white men. Nick at Tapped has more, and says, "Progress Media is at least hiring entertainers with a political bent, rather than politicians and pundits with a yen to be the left's Rush. But I wonder if that will be enough." And Skippy weighs in with his usual wit.

Jeanne D'Arc at Body and Soul covers World Aids Day and Thanksgiving at her house--we almost felt like we were there.

And over here at TalkLeft, you may notice we have an ad running on the right side of the page. We like the way it looks, and are pleased we could make the text match the text of the rest of the site. We hope you will click on our ads often so the advertisers think it's worthwhile to keep advertising with us. It's not huge bucks, but it will help us buy a few more Christmas presents for those on our list.

The program was a flop. No terror leads were obtained. Good riddance.

The United States has ended its requirement men from 25 mostly Muslim countries register with the authorities every year they are in the country. The program has yielded no terror leads, U.S. Undersecretary for Border and Transportation Security Asa Hutchinson announced Monday.

A new program will take its place January 6. Officials say it will track individuals instead of groups of people.

Angela Kelley, deputy director for the National Immigration Forum, says the news is a bit of a "break in the clouds of the storm" but we're still "far from a sunny day."