The Feds have big plans for Supermax, the maximum security prison at Florence, Colorado. It wants to expand the institution and make it the nation's prison of choice for terrorists.

The U.S. Penitentiary-Administrative Maximum Facility, better known as "Supermax" and "Alcatraz of the Rockies," opened in Florence in 1994 as a place to put problem prisoners.

It has become the government's preferred facility for high-profile inmates, such as convicted "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski and Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City.

....Testifying in May before the House subcommittee on crime, terrorism and homeland security, Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Harley Lappin requested $23 million to build up to "24 new super-secure cells for convicted terrorists." If the money is approved, the cells will be built at Supermax.

How are these cells different from all other cells?

Solitary cells measure 7 feet, 1 inch by 12 feet, 1 inch, but at least half the floor space is filled with fixtures. Other cells are 10 feet by 12 feet. About a third of the cells are for solitary confinement. Cell amenities currently include a concrete bed, an 18-inch-high, fixed-in-place concrete stool, a fixed writing shelf, knobless stainless-steel shower and a stainless-steel unit containing a seatless toilet and knobless wash basin.

Supermax prisoners live in virtual isolation and are rarely allowed out of their cells. Cameras and microphones record nearly everything they do. In the case of terrorist inmates, who often are imprisoned under special national security provisions, that can include conversations with lawyers.

The feds are being pretty tight-lipped about the plans for Supermax, but there are indicators of what's to come:

Kobe Bryant has suffered his first loss of an endorsement contract--Nutella Chocolate Spread said it would not renew its contract with him in January, 2004. Truth be told, however, it hadn't planned to renew the contract before the sex assault charge:

Ferrero, an Italian company with U.S. headquarters in Somerset, N.J., said it has discontinued all promotions involving the Los Angeles Lakers guard.

"Ferrero U.S.A.'s contract with Kobe Bryant expires in January 2004," the company said in a statement. "Marketing plans established earlier this year did not contemplate a contract renewal. In keeping with this decision, and considering the recent developments, Kobe's image on Nutella labels and promotional material is being phased out."

Since we try to consolidate our Kobe coverage as much as possible for those readers not interested in the case, here's some other news:

The LA Times has an in-depth article about of Kobe's "low-profile" defense team today.

The cable news networks will continue heavy Kobe coverage this week due to the hearing Wednesday and an anticipated ruling, perhaps Thursday, on media access issues related to the sealed warrants and 9/11 calls. We'll be doing Fox News' Hannity and Colmes tonight around the half hour, and MSNBC's Abrams Report Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.

Our Kobe-only news page is here.
Our full TalkLeft coverage is here.

Strange Bedfellows examines the unlikely but productive alliance between the NRA and the ACLU.

America’s love affair with the homeland security state is getting a little rocky. Republican Rep. C.L. “Butch” Otter of Idaho proposed an amendment to this year’s Commerce, Justice, and State funding bill that would order law enforcement agencies to stop using delayed-notification search warrants, one of the dubious measures enshrined in the Patriot Act of 2001. The amendment passed the House on July 22 by a vote of 309-118, with 113 Republicans voting in favor. A similar measure has yet to face a Senate vote, and it’s anybody’s guess whether the change would survive a presidential veto, but the Otter Amendment signals a clear direction in the nation’s mood.

The amendment seems to follow the lead of a growing grassroots movement on both the left and right opposing the Patriot Act and the so-called Patriot Act II. (The latter has not been introduced in Congress yet, but a Justice Department document outlining provisions for a new bill was leaked on February 7, causing much alarm among defenders of civil liberties.)

Backlash against the Patriot legislation has created a fantasyland of political concord: Gun Owners of America nodding in agreement with the American Library Association and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), with the Green Party happily concurring. Organizations across the political spectrum, from village councils to national advocacy groups, are going on record opposing this newest potential assault on Americans’ civil liberties.

Count NACDL in the group as well. We have been aligned with Second Amendment organizations for years even though we differ on some central issues. What matters most are those issues you do agree on because there is power in numbers.

Thanks to Patriot Watch for the link.

Lethal injection may not be the painless, smooth death as has often been portrayed in the media--or communicated to death row inmates.

But Dr. Edward Brunner, an emeritus professor of anesthesia at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago, said the information is critical. Dr. Brunner, who is a death penalty opponent, said injection can be painful, but it depends on the dosage and the training of those who administer it.

"The drugs, if not given properly, can cause a precipitate - like a solid gel - which will block the needle and not allow the flow of the medication. If the drug doses are not proper, the drug used to put the patient to sleep can wear off and the drug used to paralyze you can act, and the patient can be fully sensitive.

"The final drug is potassium chloride, which stops the heart. It is very caustic and burning if it is administered when the person is awake. It would be very devastating and painful," said Dr. Brunner, 74.

The Innocence Project today announced the opening of an office in their New Orleans center to serve Mississippi.

We have already received more than 100 applications from inmates seeking assistance," said Emily Maw, a staffer for the Mississippi project. A case in which two sisters, Jamie and Gladys Scott, were sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of taking about $10 at gunpoint is among those being reviewed.

The Innocence Project was instrumental in winning a new trial last year for former Mississippi death-row inmate Kennedy Brewer. Local lawyers handled the case for the national Innocence Project.

....Mississippi ranks second only to Louisiana in the number of individuals incarcerated per 100,000 people, according to the Innocence Project. "If the system's failure rate is a mere one percent, 215 people in prison in Mississippi are innocent," the project says.

Another group, the Mississippi Justice Project will work with the Innocence Project to get information and applications to inmates.

....The project will be looking at questionable convictions in which inmates received more than 20 years in prison.

The goal is one project in every state. We'll keep reporting on the progress.

In Florida, lawyers with the aid of law students are furiously battling a coming DNA testing deadline, after which they will not be allowed testing to prove their innocence.

Meanwhile, Barry Scheck, cofounder of the The Innocence Project at Cardozo Law School in New York, is trying to line up support from lawyers around the state to find a way to lift the ''arbitrary deadline,'' established by the Legislature two years ago.

He characterizes the situation as a looming miscarriage of justice for possibly hundreds of inmates who could be cheated out of the chance the law was designed to provide.

Under the law, passed in 2001 and sponsored by Sen. Alex Villalobos, R-Miami, anyone convicted of a crime has two years after a sentence becomes final to ask a judge to review DNA testing of physical evidence. Those convicted before the Villalobos law went into effect have until Oct. 1 to file their petitions.

Villalobos is willing to consider extending the deadline, but Florida Governor Jeb Bush is not.

Thanks to Atrios, we found this article in The Guardian explaining the numbers of soldiers dead and wounded in Iraq:

US military casualties from the occupation of Iraq have been more than twice the number most Americans have been led to believe because of an extraordinarily high number of accidents, suicides and other non-combat deaths in the ranks that have gone largely unreported in the media.

Since May 1, when President George Bush declared the end of major combat operations, 52 American soldiers have been killed by hostile fire, according to Pentagon figures quoted in almost all the war coverage. But the total number of US deaths from all causes is much higher: 112.

The other unreported cost of the war for the US is the number of American wounded, 827 since Operation Iraqi Freedom began.

Bush's support for continued presence in Iraq is declining in the face of the increasing casualties. 25% of Americans want the troops home now. An additional 33% want the troops home if casualties continue to rise.

In fact, the total death toll this time is 248 - including accidents and suicides - and as the number of non-combat deaths and serious injuries becomes more widely known, the erosion of public confidence is likely to continue, posing a threat to Mr Bush's prospects of re-election, which at the beginning of May had seemed a foregone conclusion.

Military observers say it is unusual, even in a "low-intensity" guerrilla war such as the situation seen in Iraq, for non-combat deaths to outnumber combat casualties.

The Washington Post reports that Secretary of State Colin Powell and his deputy Richard Armitage will not stay on for a second term with Bush. They intend to step down in January, 2005.

Since Colin Powell enjoys much popularity across party lines, we think this could hurt Bush in the 2004 election. It's not like Powell is quitting now, so the country won't have much, if any, time to adjust to his replacement before the election.

We also wonder why this is coming out now. Won't foreign governments begin viewing Powell as a "lame duck" of sorts, decreasing their incentive to pay much attention to him?

The Post says National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz are the leading candidates to replace Powell, but Rice may not want the job because of the bureaucracy involved.

We'll be curious to see what the professional politicos make of this.

The Monday New York Times has an important article evidencing growing disdain for Bush in "democratic strongholds":

There is a powerful disdain for the Bush administration, stoked by the aftermath of the war in Iraq and the continuing lag in the economy. There is also a conviction that President Bush is eminently beatable and a hunger to hear their party's leaders and candidates make the case against him — straight up, from the heart rather than the polling data.

It is not simply a lurch to the left, many Democrats say; it could, in fact, lead caucus voters to more centrist candidates, if they seem most likely to defeat Mr. Bush in the general election.

It seems the message is spreading--forget whether you're right or left and the fact that no particular candidate speaks to you on every issue --if he or she can beat Bush, that's what counts.

Geoff Garin, a pollster who is working for Senator Bob Graham of Florida, who is seeking the Democratic nomination, said the Democratic anger toward Mr. Bush was "as strong as anything I've experienced in 25 years now of polling," and perhaps comes closest to the way many Democrats felt about President Richard M. Nixon.

California's embattled Governor Gray Davis signed into law a bill that prohibits transgendered discrimination in housing and employment. Only three other states, New Mexico, Rhode Island and Minnesota, provide similar protection to the transgendered.

The new California law will prohibit discrimination against people whose ``perceived gender characteristics are different from those traditionally associated with the individual's sex at birth.''

The New York Times reviews John Mellencamp's July 31 performance favorably and notes that he has inserted some anti-Bush politics into his songs:

Mr. Mellencamp's new song "To Washington," with an Appalachian melody by way of the Carter Family and Woody Guthrie, showed misgivings about the current Bush administration and war in Iraq. And when Mr. Mellencamp sang Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited," with its verse about a roving gambler trying to create a next world war, he made it a "Texas gambler" and altered the last lines: "Just give Donald Rumsfeld about a million guns, and have it out on Highway 61."

We've always liked Mellencamp a lot and are glad to see he's singing his politics out loud. With Willie Nelson singing for Kucinich, we hope it's the start of a trend.

Howard Dean makes the cover of both Time and Newsweek, and Dave Cullen of Conclusive Evidence puts all the articles from both magazines in one place, with summaries and analyis.