The Boss gets political in his closing concert at Shea Stadium:

Springsteen wove strong criticism of the administration of President Bush (news - web sites) into the first of the final three shows at Shea Stadium on Wednesday night, playing a recording of Bush talking about weapons of mass destruction, questioning America's motives for the war in Iraq (news - web sites) and calling for Bush's defeat as he seeks re-election next year.

"It is time to impeach the president and put in somebody that knows what they're doing," the musician, known as "The Boss," told the crowd.

Heading into the hit "Born in the U.S.A.," he said: "The question of whether we were misled into the war in Iraq isn't a liberal or conservative or Republican or Democratic question, it's an American one.

Demanding accountability from our leaders is our responsibility, our job as citizens," he said.

[link via Hamster]

Democratic presidential contender Bob Graham may drop out of the race. We think he should. He's never gained traction and he would serve the cause better by throwing whatever support he has to one of the top contenders. [thanks to Atrios for the heads up.]

Update: Graham's Communications Manager quit today.

Key rulings came down in the Kobe Bryant case today:

The Judge will not allow the defense to call the accuser at the preliminary hearing. The Prosecution has agreed not to introduce the accuser's videotaped statement.

The preliminary hearing will be open. However, the Judge will entertain motions to close parts of it. The parties will meet with the Judge just before the hearing to discuss this.

The Judge refused a defense request for the accuser's prior medical records, saying the request should be made later before the trial judge. (This judge loses jurisdiction over the case once it's bound over for trial after the preliminary hearing or waiver of preliminary hearing.)

The Judge also set a telephone status conference two days before the preliminary hearing. We suspect that is for the defense to advise the Court if they still wish to go forward with a preliminary hearing. Without the accuser's availability for cross-examination, we see no benefit to a preliminary hearing. We think the defense will waive it. Or seek a stay while it appeals today's decisions to a higher court.

We will be discussing these developments tonight with Dan Abrams on MSNBC's Abrams Report (9 - 9:30 pm ET.)

[comments now closed]

Excellent article in Slate today about why no one really cares about prison rape. The authors note that the recent Prison Rape Elimination Act that passed Congress merely provides for a study on the issue--not to do anything about it. The authors, have some suggestions:

Perhaps while this federal study is under way, there are other, more honest ways of acknowledging what the American prison system has created. Perhaps every sentencing judge should require that a defendant headed for prison be given extensive "pre-rape counseling" in the hope that he or she can take some small personal steps to reduce the risk of attack. Or perhaps we could require judges to demand data about the differential risks of rape and assault for different types of prisoners in different prisons and begin to factor such data into any sentence. "You committed murder, so let's send you somewhere where you're really likely to be raped." In that way we will be at least as brutally honest with ourselves as we are literally brutal with our prisoners.

[link via Instapundit]

Gray Davis provides the media with a very classy response to Arnold's apology today about his past treatment of women:

I would just rather leave this matter to the voters of this state. They will digest it. They will decide what importance to attach to it. And they will decide what impact it has on the choices before them next Tuesday.

"I've been saying (that) one thing has become clear over the last several days ... we no longer have 135 choices to make. It's really one choice that's likely to emerge from (ballot) question number 2: Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"And that leaves the voters with a clear choice. They can retain Gray Davis as governor or they can elect Arnold Schwarzenegger and his crew from (former Gov.) Pete Wilson to run the governor's office. "That's the choice they'll have to make. I'm sure they'll make it fairly, to determine who's best qualified to lead this state."

Rush Limbaugh may be under investigation for illegally purchasing painkillers. We would have dismissed this out of hand as malicious gossip, except the lawyer mentioned is a friend of our's and he's a terrific lawyer. So, the fact that he is representing someone who claims to have sold painkillers to Rush is probably true. Does that mean his clients' allegations are true? Absolutely not.

It also sounds to us like the target of the investigation is Rush's maid's supplier--she may be cooperating to get a deal for herself. That is, she rats out others and either gets immunity or some kind of sweeheart deal. For her to admit publicly she sold narcotic painkillers means to us she already has her deal. Otherwise, what lawyer would let their client go forward and publicly admit it? Certainly not a good one like Ed Shohat. We'd also point out that her admitted conduct, selling drugs, is viewed more harshly by prosecutors and judges than Rush's alleged conduct of using drugs.

If Limbaugh was overusing painkillers, we think it's a medical issue and we're not going to trash him for it. Drug dependency is a medical condition. It should not be a crime. If he is in legal trouble for it, we hope he gets the best legal help possible. We know some excellent defense lawyers in Palm Beach.

From the news article:

More good news: The 9th Circuit rules for prisoner privacy over the FBI's DNA databank program:

A 3-year-old law that requires federal prisoners to give blood samples for the FBI's DNA database was declared unconstitutional Thursday by a federal appeals court.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that requiring the blood samples amounts to an illegal invasion of privacy because they are taken without legal suspicion that the convicts were involved in other crimes.

The San Francisco-based court, the first federal appeals court to address the federal DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act, said that is a violation of inmates' Fourth Amendment rights against illegal searches.

Maybe now more of that $545 million earmarked for the backlog of DNA testing of unsolved crimes in the Bush-backed Debbie Smith Act can go to testing prisoners with innocence claims under the Innocence Protection portion of the new Advancing Justice Through DNA Technology Act introduced in Congress yesterday.

Update: What the Court held:

Yes!

The Judge presiding over the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui has decided on sanctions for the Government as a result of its refusal to comply with her order to allow Moussaoui to interview 3 al Qaeda witnesses who may have exculpatory information about his participation or lack of participation in the 9/11 attacks: the Government can't seek the death penalty.

A U.S. federal judge on Thursday barred the government from seeking the death penalty for terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui, inflicting a major defeat on the government for refusing to let the defendant question three al-Qaida prisoners.

She said the government's notice of intent to seek a death sentence must be stricken and prosecutors cannot present any evidence or argument that the defendant was involved in, or had knowledge of, planning the Sept. 11 attacks.

This is way better for Moussaoui than dismissing all charges as the Government had wanted. Had all charges been dismissed, the Government, if it lost the appeal, most likely would have decided to try Moussaoui in a secret miltary tribunal proceeding.

With the case still alive, and the Government not prohibited from going forward on all counts at trial and getting a life verdict, we think Ashcroft and Rumsfeld would face far too much criticism if they moved Moussaoui's case to a tribunal just to be able to execute him.

Judge Brinkema's order today will be stayed so the Government can appeal. We think they face a tougher battle on appeal since it is up to the Judge to decide on sanctions, and since she didn't pick the most serious sanction, dismissal, the appeals court will be hard pressed to say she abused her discretion.

Since last September, we've been suggesting:

Maybe a compromise could be worked out where the Government drops the death penalty request against Moussaoui if Moussaoui pleads and agrees to a life sentence thereby avoiding the need to call Binalshibh at all.

Whatever happens, it should occur publicly. The Government should not be allowed to hide behind a veil of secrecy in this case as it has with Padilla and Hamdi and the other so called "enemy combatants."

All of our Moussaoui coverage can be found here.

California Political Review reports that Bustamante is expected to withdraw from the recall race.

Dems are finally understanding that the issue is defeat the recall, not who should replace Gray Davis.

Political Wire, which links to the withdrawal report, says the report may be incorrect.

We think Bustamante will drop out to salvage his career. He's not going to beat Arnold. If Arnold wins, Bustamante's future doesn't look too bright within the Democratic Party. At least if he does the right thing by Gray Davis now, even though like Arianna, it will be too little too late, he may maintain some respectablility within the Democratic Party.

Arnold today acknowledged improperly touching women in the past, said he has reformed and promised to be a champion of women's rights, if elected.

Gubernatorial front-runner Arnold Schwarzenegger acknowledged that he has "behaved badly" to women and offered an apology Thursday...."When I am governor I want to prove to the women that I will be a champion for the women, a champion of the women," Schwarzenegger said at a rally in San Diego. "Now let's go from the dirty politics to the future of California."

The crowd of Schwarzenegger supporters interrupted him with cheers.

Schwarzenegger said: "Yes, it is true that I was on rowdy movie sets and I have done things that were not right which I thought then was playful but now I recognize that I offended people." "Those people that I have offended, I want to say to them I am deeply sorry about that and I apologize because that's not what I'm trying to do," he said.

We don't think the issue will matter one whit in the election. It's more dirty tricks politics and coming so close to the election, we suspect California voters will shrug it off as such. We think his advisors picked the right response. Since they knew it was coming, we wouldn't be surprised if they did focus groups with women and ran several different possible responses by them, so they could determine which would elicit the most favorable reaction.

We'd say: Advantage Arnold on the dirty tricks.

Once again, vote no on recall, no on Proposition 54. The latest poll has Arnold and Gray Davis in a dead heat.

Bump and Update: Eddie Hartman is scheduled to be executed Friday in North Carolina. Media critic and commentator Doug Ireland writes about the case today for TomPaine.com. Take action through Amnesty International and protest the execuution of Eddie Hartman.

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(Original Post: 9/30/03 10 am)

The Charlotte Observer today calls for a stay of execution for convicted killer Eddie Hartman.

Here's this week's flawed capital punishment case: Eddie Hartman, sexually abused so severely as a boy that the prosecutor in his murder trial, hoping to combat any sympathy the jury might have for him, made sure his jury knew he was a homosexual before they sentenced him to death.

And to fully qualify the Eddie Hartman case as one of a long string of deeply flawed cases, the trial transcript shows that the defendant got an incompetent defense from his lawyers. Among other things, during the guilt phase of his trial his attorneys failed to introduce evidence of Eddie Hartman's substance abuse problems, a head injury or mental health difficulties.

Maureen Dowd on the Wilson-Plane affair and Bush's promise to hunt down the culprit:

The issue is the administration's credibility, not Joe Wilson's.

The men who won the 2000 election by promising to restore honor and integrity to the White House spent yesterday doing a pretty good imitation of O. J. Simpson, looking for the culprit. You could just picture President Bush with his Sherlock Holmes deerstalker, magnifying glass and bloodhound Barney. Silly. The White House knows who did it. All Mr. Bush has to do is roll heads.