Lots of good reading around the bloggerhood this weekend:

Lisa English of Ruminate This has the latest on the blackbox voting story.

Daily Kos on the "Wesley Clark Praises Republicans" propoganda.

Jeanne D'Arc of Body and Soul on Bolivia.

Beautiful Horizens on the trial of Fernández Larios. Larios, a former Chilean military officer and admitted terrorist conspirator, was found liable under the Alien Torts Claims Act by a Miami jury for the death of Winston Cabello, a Chilean economist murdered as part of the infamous "Caravan of Death" tour shortly after the coup in Chile in 1973.

David Neiwert of Orcinus on the so-called "First Amendment zones" that are being deployed wherever President Bush and Vice President Cheney appear these days.

Skippy on the Bush family banking connection to the Nazis of pre-war Germany. Hesiod of Counterspin on his delayed reaction to same.

Say hello to LegalWrites, by members of Open Source Politics.

Oliver Willis is angry over news that the State Department had forewarnings about problems plaguing Iraq.

Pacific Views sums up the Saturday blogs.

And on a lighter note, Politics in the Zeros touts Friendster. If we were in our 20's and lived in California, we'd be tempted.

Attorney General John Ashcroft is coming under increasing fire as critics and those in Congress move forward with legislative proposals to scale back the Patriot Act.

A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation last week that would gut major provisions of the Patriot Act, including the "sneak and peek" provision, which allows federal investigators to delay notifying terrorism suspects about search warrants. The House effectively voted to do the same thing to the provision, in an amendment attached to an appropriations bill in July.

Critics applauded the attempts at scaling back the Patriot Act, saying that Ashcroft has used the act to push a conservative agenda, politicize his office and curtail civil liberties. As they see it, Ashcroft is the very embodiment of the Patriot Act.

That's our view too. We recommend the whole article, particularly these comments by Sen. Richard Durbin:

Bill Lockyer, a Democrat, and the Attorney General for California, issued free-speech guidelines to the states' law enforcement officers this week. They aren't exactly in sync with those of the FBI:

California law enforcement officers should not spy on citizens exercising their constitutional rights of speech, religion and association unless they have reason to think a crime has been or will be committed -- no matter what John Ashcroft says.

That's the gist of one of a series of legal guidelines that state Attorney General Bill Lockyer sent to every police chief and sheriff in the state this week in the form of a book titled, "Criminal Intelligence Systems: A California Perspective."

In a story of redemption vs. punishment in Georgia, for once, redemption wins out.

Charles Young was 28 when he brutally killed a banker. He was convicted, sentenced to death, and then resentenced to life with parole. After 28 years in prison, at the age of 56, the Georgia Parole Board has voted to parole him.

During Charlie Young's 28 years in prison, he has never been cited for breaking the rules. Young's parole file is filled with the names of wardens, chaplains and counselors willing to provide character references for him.

Conventional wisdom has it that lawyers for alleged sniper John Muhammed will focus on saving his life rather than trying to convince the jury that he is not guilty.

Opening arguments are set for Monday. We'll be paying close attention as we are scheduled to do a live chat for the Washington Post on the case on Tuesday. More details when we have them.

Philadelphia Mayor John Street faces more trouble. Not only was his office bugged, but the feds have subpoenaed his bank records...as well as those of his wife and son.

The subpoena was served Friday at Commerce Bank's Philadelphia headquarters and sought bank records for Street, his wife Naomi Post, his son Sharif Street, and Ronald A. White, a lawyer who has been among Street's closest advisers and who has raised more than $250,000 for his campaigns, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Saturday, citing sources familiar with the investigation.

It does seem like a dirty leaks campaign is going on. Who but law enforcement would know about the subpoena and leak it? Sure, maybe bank employees knew, but what would be their motive to leak it and why would they risk their job to do so? After the leak, a bank spokesman confirmed the existence, but not the scope, of the subpoenas.

Lawyer White had this to say about the seizures:

White, speaking outside a youth foundation event Saturday, said federal authorities had taken "every record I have." Why have they focused this entire investigation on only minority businesses?" White told WPVI-TV. "Are you telling me that minorities are the only people that have contracts in this city? I don't think so."

The U.S. announced today that eight U.S. Marine reservists have been charged with mistreating Iraqi POWs. Two of the eight reservists, Maj. Clark Paulus and Lance Cpl. Christian Hernandez are charged with negligent homicide in the June death of one prisoner.

Paulus was also charged with dereliction of duty, cruelty and maltreatment, making a false official statement and assault. Hernandez also faces charges of dereliction, cruelty and maltreatment, and assault.

We reported on this incident back in June, here. The Washington Post report is here. US Central Command issued this press release about the commencement of an investigation into the death.

This is not the only such incident that has been investigated. In August, we reported on military hearings conducted into reports of mistreatment of Iraqi POW's by four reservists from the 320th Military Police Battalion, based in Ashley, Pa. Among those allegations: kicking, punching, breaking one prisoner's nose and holding prisoners down while encouraging others to kick them.

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Rita Cosby on Fox News is reporting new information about the accuser's yellow panties that she wore to her rape exam the day following the encounter with Kobe. "Sources close to the prosecution" now tell Rita that these were dirty panties lying around the accuser's room that she just happened to put on. Panties that were dirty from a sexual encounter that had happened weeks earlier. Isn't this in violation of the gag order?

This is laughable. We repeat, the prosecution wants to say the accuser wore dirty underwear she had laying around her room for weeks following another sexual encounter to her rape exam. Talk about damage to the accuser's reputation....who wants to be known for having such poor personal hygeine that you leave dirty underwear around your room for weeks - and then re-wear it?

But more troubling is Rita's repeated references to "sources close to the prosecution." All law enforcement, prosecutors and court personnel are effectively gagged by the court's July 24 Order. The Order also directs prosecutors to maintain a tight lid on their investigators and employees. Time for another investigation.

Hermandad Mexicana Latinoamericana, an immigrants advocacy group, held their national conference Saturday. It was attended by many top state Democratic officials. Among the top issues: how to save California's new law allowing undocumented residents to obtain drivers' licenses. Among the ideas under consideration: a work stoppage.

``We're building a movement to show the economic strength of the immigrant and Latino community until these types of adverse right-wing referendums or legislative proposals come to a stop,'' said Nativo Lopez, the group's national director.

The bill is scheduled to take effect January 1. Governor-elect Schwarzenegger has promised to try to repeal the legislation, but he may not have to do much. Already, conservative Republicans have collected 40,000 signatures to get the matter on the March, 2004 ballot. But it's not over yet as they need 375,000 signatures. Check out Calpundit, who says it's time for an intitiative to end initiatives. We're not quite ready to jump on that bandwagon.

Meanwhile, here are reasons to keep the driver's license bill:

The New York Times reports that President Bush's popularity with older voters is slipping substantially.

Politicians in both parties consider older voters to be particularly important because they are much more likely to vote than younger people, and because they are heavily concentrated in states that are often presidential battlegrounds, like Florida and Pennsylvania.

Instapundit reports that Greg Easterbrook has been fired from ESPN for his distasteful comments about Jewish movie executives earlier this week.

Eric Alterman at Altercation says we should accept Easterbrook's apology. Jonathan Alter of Newsweek writes Romenesko to say he knows Easterbrook very well and he is not anti-semitic.

Atrios says he didn't want Easterbrook fired either. He says, "I just am pretty disturbed that he didn't confront the main issue - or that he even embraced it - and his defenders gave him a pass."

For those not familiar with Gregg Easterbrook until this (and that includes us) he is a senior editor of New Republic, a contributing editor of The Atlantic Monthly and a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, with a column at ESPN.

Here's the column that started the embroglio (which, by the way, wasn't published on ESPN). The column was a review of Quentin Tarrantino's new movie, Kill Bill. Here are the comments at issue:

Jay Shaft has a five part series of interviews with U.S. soldiers who have returned from serving in Iraq, published in the New Zealand Scoop. From Part III of US Soldiers to America: Bring Us Home Now:

I had the unique opportunity to interview five US military servicemen who just got back from Iraq, or in the case of two men, corresponded with their wives so that I could ask questions of these soldiers by mail. When the two I corresponded with came back just last week, I was able to complete the interviews I started several months ago with some new details on how the war is actually going.

I was shocked and angered when I found out how many of the service men hate being in Iraq and want nothing to do with rebuilding and policing the devastated nation. From the conversations I had, many soldiers never wanted to go over to Iraq and fight, and the ones who had were now convinced of the awful crime that had been committed against Iraq and our own troops. I was told very few soldiers now believe in staying in Iraq, or want to stay in the country and serve any more days.