On the national front, Gen. Wesley Clark will join the Democratic debate on economic issues scheduled for New York next week.

In California, Cruz Bustamante and Tom McClintock, two of the top contenders for Governor, are threatening a boycott of next week's debate if the format is not changed. Arnold has agreed to participate in the debate, but the others say it has been scripted and doesn't allow for enough spontaneous exchange. Arianna Huffington and Peter Conejo are mulling it over.

The debate is sponsored by the California Broadcasting Association. Their policy is to send out questions in advance. This is the only debate Schwarzenegger has agreed to participate in.

Schwarzenegger's campaign noted that the scripted format was developed by the CBA and Schwarzenegger already unsuccessfully asked for a change. Stan Statham, president and chief executive of the CBA, said the format would not change.

"If the candidates want to break their promises that's their prerogative. But we set the rules and we're going stick to them," he said.

In other campaign news, it looks Donnie Fowler will be Clark's campaign manager. Fowler is the son of former DNC chairman Donald Fowler. Donnie ran an Al Gore's 2000 field operation

In Florida today, several hundred supporters mobbed Clark at his first campaign appearance.

And a major union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, with 1.5 million members announced it will delay its decision on which Dem to endorse, now that Clark is in the race.

A California man allegedly offered to kill the accuser in the Kobe Bryant case for $1 million up front and $2 million after the deed was done. He wrote to Kobe's security staff who contacted the sheriff's deaprtment. An undercover operation ensued and the purported hit man, a 31 year old who represented himself to be a member of the Russian mob, was arrested. He is being held on charges of solicitation to commit murder.

In other Kobe news, the Pitkin County Sheriff has completed his court-ordered investigation into law enforcment leaks in the case. His conclusion: No wrongdoing by anyone subject to the gag order. So, perhaps the leaks occurred before the gag order. More likely, the leaks turned out to be unsubstantiated rumors rather than true facts obtained from sealed documents or reports in the case. In any event, we're satisfied. We know the Pitkin County Sheriff and think quite highly of him.

Journalist and author Christian Parenti is over in Iraq and reports back to The Nation on the state of mind and heart of our troops. How are they doing? They are Stretched Thin, Lied to & Mistreated:

Trapped in the polluted heat, poorly supplied and cut off from regular news, the GIs are fighting a guerrilla war that they neither wanted, expected nor trained for. On the urban battlefields of central Iraq, "shock and awe" and all the other "new way of war" buzzwords are drowned out by the din of diesel-powered generators, Islamic prayer calls and the occasional pop of small-arms fire.

I know that probably sounds sick," says [Sergeant] Sellers, "but humor is the only way you can deal with this sh*t." And just below the humor is volcanic rage. These guys are proud to be soldiers and don't want to come across as whiners, but they are furious about what they've been through. They hate having their lives disrupted and put at risk. They hate the military for its stupidity, its feckless lieutenants and blowhard brass living comfortably in Saddam's palaces. They hate Iraqis--or, as they say, "hajis"--for trying to kill them. They hate the country for its dust, heat and sewage-clogged streets. They hate having killed people. Some even hate the politics of the war. And because most of them are, ultimately, just regular well-intentioned guys, one senses the distinct fear that someday a few may hate themselves for what they have been forced to do here.

Added to such injury is insult: The military treats these soldiers like unwanted stepchildren. This unit's rifles are retooled hand-me-downs from Vietnam. They have inadequate radio gear, so they buy their own unencrypted Motorola walkie-talkies. The same goes for flashlights, knives and some components for night-vision sights.....

There's lots more. Parenti is also the author of a new book, The Soft Cage, which is the first book to trace the history of surveillance in the U.S., "from the slave pass to the Social Security number all the way to the many forms of computerized monitoring now shaping the post-9/11 world." We were sent an unsolicited review copy a few weeks ago and recommend it.

The Soft Cage

by Christian Parenti

Cheers to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg who has reversed himself and issued an order preventing police and city workers from reporting a person's immigration status to federal officials in the abscence of a criminal or terrorism investigation:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday signed an executive order prohibiting police officers or other city employees from reporting a person's immigrant status to federal officials - unless a crime or terrorism investigation is involved.

Executive Order 41, set in motion yesterday at a City Hall bill-signing ceremony, allows city employees to ask about a person's immigrant status only in cases where it's needed to ascertain his or her eligibility for public services.

Even then, under the new order, immigration information will be considered confidential except when relevant to a crime investigation. A person's sexual orientation and those who have been victims of domestic violence or sexual assault will also remain confidential, the directive reads.

"At its core, Executive Order 41 is a clear and unequivocal invitation to all law-abiding New Yorkers to come forward without fear or apprehension and avail themselves of the services that keep us all healthy, safe and prosperous," Bloomberg said.

This comes from Time Magazine, not the Paranoid Conspiracy News:

Radio-frequency identification — with track-everything-anywhere capability, all the time — is about to change your life.

In the not-so-distant future, RFID systems may monitor your money (to halt counterfeiters), your passports (to stop terrorists), the freshness of your food (to pinpoint spoilage), even your medicine intake (did you swallow that pill?).

Someday even you may carry an RFID. In Gulf War II, the Navy tracked wounded soldiers "like FedEx tracks packages," cutting down on battlefield confusion. Tag, you're it.

This is scary stuff. Read the whole thing, even though it's long. Make sure you remember the term--RFID. The fact that Corporate Amercia is throwing hundreds of millions at this new successor to the bar code, is particularly frightening.

How could any jail allow this to happen?

Two teenage daughters of James Carpenter, a mentally ill inmate who died from a flesh-eating bacteria in the Mobile County jail three years ago, will receive about $350,000 each in a partial settlement of a lawsuit over their father's death....The total payout is $1.45 million -- the maximum under the insurance policies that cover the county,.

Carpenter's death revealed serious problems at the jail. Though jail officials have said they've improved things, the fallout is ongoing. The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating jail conditions and has named several topics that were at issue during Carpenter's incarceration.

A lot of lawyers worked hard for this settlement, including one of our pals from Mobile, Robert F. "Cowboy Bob" Clark.

For those of you who can stomach the gory details of Mr. Carpenter's 15 day incarceration, taken from court pleadings and Sheriff's Department reports, read on:

If these allegations are true, every resident of Chicago ought to be very afraid.

The Chicago Police Department has a policy of locking up and interrogating witnesses who are not charged or suspected of any criminal wrongdoing, according to a lawsuit filed today in federal court by the MacArthur Justice Center, the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic and First Defense Legal Aid. The suit was filed on behalf of three individuals who were locked in a police interrogation room for questioning for as long as two full days.

In each of the three incidents, the witnesses say they were locked in a small, windowless interrogation room furnished only with a metal bunk and lacking a toilet or running water. The police refused their requests to leave. The police denied McFall's repeated requests to call her mother; Treadwell faced abusive questioning during the approximately 24 hours he was held.

Buzzflash has a new editorial up today, It's Me or the Terrorists-- You Have Three Seconds to Decide":

If you had to distill the Bush administration's argument for its existence down to the essence, it would amount to simply this: "It's Me or the Terrorists! You Have Three Seconds to Decide."

Since September 11, 2001, the American people have had the threat of terrorist attacks hovering over them and a gun held to their heads by the Bush administration. The true risk of terrorist assaults on the U.S. and its interests is hard to gauge. Partly, it is due to the murky, secretive nature of terrorism itself, which makes risk assessment a difficult task. But, the other challenge for Americans is that they have an administration that shamelessly uses terrorism to scare and frighten its own population in order to achieve political goals and reward their campaign contributors. The first limitation in assessing terrorism risk is understandable; the second is shameless and unconscionable.

Say hello to the Rocky Mountain Progressive Network, a non-profit formed by local business executives to counter the radical right. It launched Tuesday to some major press in the Rocky Mountain News, Denver Post and Denver Business journal.

The "Rocky Mountain Progressive Network" was formed to combat the state's "radical right," according to Michael Huttner, director of the group and a local lawyer. He said policies of Gov. Bill Owens and other Republicans have "bankrupted the state," which has a "devastating impact on children, seniors, and those least able to help themselves," Huttner said in a statement.

"....Political fundraiser Donna Good is heading the efforts of the 501c3 nonprofit organization. "The RMPN will be both proactive and reactive and has a Web site, www.rmpn.org, as a clearinghouse for information to hold our elected officials accountable," Huttner said in a statement."

The site's webblog is excellent, From its first post, by J.B. Holston:

We've launched the Network because the radical right-wing running our state.... is ruining our future. While Colorado "went from among the nation's best economies in the 1990s to ranking last for job creation and personal income growth in 2002", our ambitious Governor and his radical cronies in the Legislature sought to change the subject, by making Colorado ground zero for radical Beltway interests test-driving their social engineering agendas.

We're tired of it, and we're not going to take it any more. And we need your help....You've come to the right place. Please join the Network now. Get regular e-mail updates as illustrious folks from all over the region offer solid, middle-of-the-road solutions. Sign on as a voice for the network. Drop us a 'hot tip', and we'll get on it right away.

The blog has been very flattering to TalkLeft. In linking to our post today on Ashcroft and the death of TIA, they call TalkLeft "Colorado's Very Own Premiere Internationally Branded Blogger." On the home page today they refer to us as "Colorado's inestimable blogger."

If you're in Colorado, join today. Even if you're not, we hope you will give them a donation. We are very excited about this group-- and proud they launched in Colorado.

First comes Joe Biden's 2002 Rave Act. It's defeated. He gives it a fancy new name, the Illicit Anti-Drug Proliferation Act, and through a stealth attack, inserts it into the Amber Alert bill. It passes in April, 2003. Critics are charging the law amounts to musical profiling.

Although he reworked, renamed and reintroduced the legislation this year, its intent remained basically the same. He removed the mention of glow sticks, water bottles and other accouterments in the law that passed, but in arguing for the measure on the Senate floor, he again termed the items telltale signs of drug use. This time the legislation passed, incorporated into the Controlled Substance Act.

Passed in April, the law makes it possible for a promoter or building owner to be charged with a felony if anyone at an event uses or sells drugs. Politicians and federal law enforcers say it's the kind of hard-line approach needed to keep young people away from drugs.

Critics are organizing and protesting.

....The law has spurred electronic music devotees to get organized. A group called Ravers Against Opposition to Raves (ROAR) spearheaded a Sept. 6 protest on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. It attracted more than 2,000, including celebrity DJ Junior Vasquez. “We’re being vilified by people who don’t understand electronic music,” said Legba Carrefour, director of ROAR.

The law is being enforced around the country.

The law has gotten ample use .... Its first application on May 31 chilled the nightlife in Billings, Mont. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) had organized a fundraiser at a Billings Eagles Lodge. Before rock bands kicked off the event, a DEA agent presented the bar owner with a copy of the law and informed him that he could be fined $250,000 and face jail if anyone on the premises was caught with so much as a joint. The event was canceled and promoters lost money.

Busts have occurred in Missouri, Louisiana, Wisconsin and North Florida. Those raids unleashed a string of legal counterattacks by the American Civil Liberties Union.

We've been opposed to this bill since its inception. You can access all of our coverage here.

There were two wins Wednesday in the War on Terror: A Senate subcommittee killed the Total Information Awareness Program (TIA) and Attorney General John Ashcroft reversed himself and agreed to release data on searches of library records.

It's a nice start, but we won't be satisfied until Ashcroft agrees to release the data on the FBI and Justice Department's use of FISA search and electronic surveillance warrants. So far it has only released the number of warrants sought and obtained. We have no indication of whether the warrants were needed or useful. That's something Congress needs to know in order to determine whether to continue the broad expanse of Patriot Act powers.

The Houston Chronicle reports that American Lori Berenson, serving a 20 year terrorism sentence in a Peruvian jail is in love--with a Peruvian law student and they want to marry.

While Peruvian inmates are generally allowed to marry while in jail, it's uncertain if Ms. Berenson will be accorded that privilege. Let's hope so.