The Claremont Eagle Times of New Hampshire has published an editorial saying that John Edwards should be smiling about the newest poll results in New Hampshire. He is in third position, behind Dean and Kerry. Why is that good news? Because, the editorial predicts, the race will ultimately be a two man race between Dean and Edwards. Here's the analysis:

The Claremont Eagle Times of New Hampshire has published an editorial saying that John Edwards should be smiling about the newest poll results in New Hampshire. He is in third position, behind Dean and Kerry. Why is that good news? Because, the editorial predicts, the race will ultimately be a two man race between Dean and Edwards. Here's the analysis:

This was posted in the comments section to an earlier piece we wrote on Tommy Chong, who is now serving his federal prison sentence. We verified the information through the Bureau of Prisons lnmate Locator webpage.

Anyone wishing to write to tommy chong may do so through this address:
Address letters to:

Thomas Kin Chong
07798-068
Taft CI
UNIT A, #4B
PO Box 7001
1500 Cadet Road
Taft, CA 93268

send him your love and let him know you care and that we are doing all we can. Thanks AMERICA

You might also want to send him some magazine subscriptions. He's not scheduled for release until July, 2004, and last time we checked, federal prisons don't allow inmates to receive hardcover books.

This was posted in the comments section to an earlier piece we wrote on Tommy Chong, who is now serving his federal prison sentence. We verified the information through the Bureau of Prisons lnmate Locator webpage.

Anyone wishing to write to tommy chong may do so through this address:
Address letters to:

Thomas Kin Chong
07798-068
Taft CI
UNIT A, #4B
PO Box 7001
1500 Cadet Road
Taft, CA 93268

send him your love and let him know you care and that we are doing all we can. Thanks AMERICA

You might also want to send him some magazine subscriptions. He's not scheduled for release until July, 2004, and last time we checked, federal prisons don't allow inmates to receive hardcover books.

No less an authority than Sam Dash, chief counsel of the Senate Watergate Committee in 1973-74 and a Georgetown University Law Professor, says the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity may violate the Patriot Act. Dash says the leak constitutes an act of domestic terrorism as defined in the legislation. He also questions whether the Justice Department will conduct the same kind of investigation it does in other suspected domestic terrorism cases. Here's just a portion of his article. We recommend you read the whole thing.

If, as now seems likely, top White House aides leaked the identity of an American undercover agent, they may have committed an act of domestic terrorism as defined by the dragnet language of the Patriot Act their boss wanted so much to help him catch terrorists.

No less an authority than Sam Dash, chief counsel of the Senate Watergate Committee in 1973-74 and a Georgetown University Law Professor, says the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity may violate the Patriot Act. Dash says the leak constitutes an act of domestic terrorism as defined in the legislation. He also questions whether the Justice Department will conduct the same kind of investigation it does in other suspected domestic terrorism cases. Here's just a portion of his article. We recommend you read the whole thing.

If, as now seems likely, top White House aides leaked the identity of an American undercover agent, they may have committed an act of domestic terrorism as defined by the dragnet language of the Patriot Act their boss wanted so much to help him catch terrorists.

Cathy Young's Boston Globe column today, Those accused of rape have rights, too, explains the importance of the rights of the accused in a sexual assault case--and using recent high-profile cases as examples, shows how overbroad application of rape shield laws are unjust.

Rape is a despicable crime, and an accusation of rape should be taken very seriously -- but the rights of the accused should be rigorously protected. After the 1997 trial of sportscaster Marv Albert, defending the judge's decision to admit compromising information about Albert's sexual past but not about his accuser's, feminist attorney Gloria Allred decried "the notion that there's some sort of moral equivalency between the defendant and the victim." Yet as long as the defendant hasn't been convicted, he and the victim are indeed moral equals in the eyes of the law.

It's frightening to put oneself in the place of a sexual assault victim who finds the intimate details of her life paraded in public. But it's at least as terrifying to imagine that you, or your husband or brother or son, could be accused of sexual assault and denied access to relevant information that could make the difference between guilt and innocence.

Cathy Young's Boston Globe column today, Those accused of rape have rights, too, explains the importance of the rights of the accused in a sexual assault case--and using recent high-profile cases as examples, shows how overbroad application of rape shield laws are unjust.

Rape is a despicable crime, and an accusation of rape should be taken very seriously -- but the rights of the accused should be rigorously protected. After the 1997 trial of sportscaster Marv Albert, defending the judge's decision to admit compromising information about Albert's sexual past but not about his accuser's, feminist attorney Gloria Allred decried "the notion that there's some sort of moral equivalency between the defendant and the victim." Yet as long as the defendant hasn't been convicted, he and the victim are indeed moral equals in the eyes of the law.

It's frightening to put oneself in the place of a sexual assault victim who finds the intimate details of her life paraded in public. But it's at least as terrifying to imagine that you, or your husband or brother or son, could be accused of sexual assault and denied access to relevant information that could make the difference between guilt and innocence.

Two of the best investigative journalists anywhere, Steve Mills and Maurice Possley of the Chicago Tribune, have a special report today on the legacy of wrongful convictions. The report finds that after a wrongful conviction is exposed, police and prosecutors cling to their original theories and seldom pursue new leads and suspects.

Since the death penalty's reinstatement in the mid-1970s, more than 100 people have been sentenced to be executed, only to be set free when they were legally absolved. The Tribune reviewed 88 cases in which 97 Death Row prisoners were set free, eliminating those cases with self-defense claims or pleas to lesser charges, to focus on those where a crime was left unsolved.

Each of those Death Row releases suggested the justice system had corrected itself. Instead, the legacy of those cases is a new set of troubling legal and ethical dilemmas that is largely lost amid the burst of public attention that accompanies a condemned inmate's unexpected freedom.

As a result, rarely is anyone brought to justice for crimes once considered worthy of society's most severe punishment, a failure that takes on greater significance when there is a possibility the real killer has been allowed to commit other crimes.

Two of the best investigative journalists anywhere, Steve Mills and Maurice Possley of the Chicago Tribune, have a special report today on the legacy of wrongful convictions. The report finds that after a wrongful conviction is exposed, police and prosecutors cling to their original theories and seldom pursue new leads and suspects.

Since the death penalty's reinstatement in the mid-1970s, more than 100 people have been sentenced to be executed, only to be set free when they were legally absolved. The Tribune reviewed 88 cases in which 97 Death Row prisoners were set free, eliminating those cases with self-defense claims or pleas to lesser charges, to focus on those where a crime was left unsolved.

Each of those Death Row releases suggested the justice system had corrected itself. Instead, the legacy of those cases is a new set of troubling legal and ethical dilemmas that is largely lost amid the burst of public attention that accompanies a condemned inmate's unexpected freedom.

As a result, rarely is anyone brought to justice for crimes once considered worthy of society's most severe punishment, a failure that takes on greater significance when there is a possibility the real killer has been allowed to commit other crimes.

The new Report to the Congress: Downward Departures from the Federal Sentencing Guidelines (October 2003) is available online here. This report was submitted in response to section 401(m) of the the Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to endthe Exploitation of Children Today Act of 2003, Pub. L. No. 108-21.

Here's background to the report and the issues behind it.

The new Report to the Congress: Downward Departures from the Federal Sentencing Guidelines (October 2003) is available online here. This report was submitted in response to section 401(m) of the the Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to endthe Exploitation of Children Today Act of 2003, Pub. L. No. 108-21.

Here's background to the report and the issues behind it.