The July 14 issue of Newsweek has an interview with Ret. General Wesley Clark. We loved this excerpt:

What do you think of President Bush’s using war imagery as a political tool, like when he recently flew onto an aircraft carrier?

The world expects something more of an American president than to prance around on a flight deck dressed up like [a] pilot. He’s expected to be a leader. That’s my fundamental issue with it. It doesn’t reflect the gravitas of the office. Furthermore, it’s a little phony.

Clark also says he suspected things were going wrong with the Bush Administration just before the 2000 elections, following a conversation he had with soon-to-be National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.

Who could believe this could happen again?

A 19 year-old man in Florida hit a pedestrian and drove for a mile to his house, with the 57 year-old pedestrian's legless body stuck in his windshield. The accident cut off the man's legs, which later were found near the parking lot of a bar. Bar patrons called in the discovery.

Meanwhile, the traumatized young driver, who did not have a cell phone, figured his house was the closest stopping point. He called 9/11 when he got home. The pedestrian was dead. No charges will be filed against the driver as he was not at fault, according to Kim Miller, spokesperson for the highway patrol:

``It's the pedestrian's fault. He was wearing dark clothing,'' Miller said. ``The poor kid (Dradeen) was in the wrong place at the wrong time.''

Drudge reports that Gephardt's Meetup was canceled for lack of interest--less than five people signed up.

Free at last--of Michael Savage. We can't even begin to image why MSNBC hired him in the first place. Ratings at the expense of the network's credibility don't make sense. Here's what Savage said that got him canned:

So you're one of those sodomists. Are you a sodomite?" Savage asked.

The caller replied: "Yes, I am."

"Oh, you're one of the sodomites," Savage said. "You should only get AIDS and die, you pig. How's that? Why don't you see if you can sue me, you pig. You got nothing better than to put me down, you piece of garbage. You have got nothing to do today, go eat a sausage and choke on it."

He asked for another phone caller who "didn't have a nice night in the bathhouse who's angry at me today."

These bums "mean nothing to me," he said.

[link via Tristero]

David Corn of the Nation has more evidence that Bush misled the country on the existence of WMDs.

Slowly, official material is seeping out that confirms the allegation that Bush and his national security crew misled the country into war. Last week, Representative Jane Harman, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, referred to preliminary findings of a review being conducted by her committee. This examination, like Kerr's, has found that the intelligence analysts had attached caveats and qualifiers to their assessments of the WMD threat from Iraq (which Bush never bothered to mention) and that there had been no good intelligence linking Hussein with bin Laden.

If you would like to register a complaint with your congressional representatives, go here . True Majority will send the fax for you. True Majority was founded by Ben Cohen, cofounder of Ben and Jerry's ice cream.

A judge in Fairbanks, Alaska has dismissed a man's marijuana conviction, ruling that the Alaska Constitution guarantees one the right to possess pot in one's home.

In a decision rendered last week, Superior Court Judge Richard Savell dismissed the Fairbanks man's conviction for pot possession, ruling that a 1975 Alaska Supreme Court decision legalizing personal marijuana use by an adult in their home is still the law.

Since that decision, Ravin v. State, came down, a voter initiative passed in Alaska prohibiting the possession of any amount of pot in any location. Judge Savell ruled this law is unconstitutional, and the prior decision allowing first up to four ounces of marijuana, now up to eight ounces, for personal possession in one's home, is still valid:

The defense argued that the portion of the law prohibiting possession of marijuana for personal consumption by an adult in their home is unconstitutional. "A direct conflict in the law exists between the right to privacy guaranteed under the Alaska Constitution and the statutory prohibition ... which criminalizes the personal use of marijuana by an adult in the privacy of the home, regardless of the quantity of the prohibited substance," reads a portion of Thomas' motion to dismiss his conviction.

Savell granted the motion on June 25, writing in pen under his signature of approval that "Ravin stands."

A clerk for the defense attorney, Jim McClain said:

. ...the 1990 voter initiative that criminalized all pot use in the state is not binding, considering voters do not have the power to change the constitution through the initiative process.

The article says that the 1975 judicial decision "became part of the state's criminal code."

Kobe Bryant's defense attorney, Pamela Mackey, came out swinging at the Eagle County, Colorado Sheriff's office for bypassing the district attorney's office to get an arrest warrant for Bryant:

"Mr. Bryant is innocent and expects to be completely exonerated," Denver attorney Pamela Mackey said in a statement. Mackey accused the sheriff's office of "complete bias," saying it ignored the wishes of the district attorney in obtaining the arrest warrant.

Officials from the Sheriff's office and the District Attorneys' office met Monday to decide if charges will be filed. Bryant has been accused by a woman of sexually assaulting her at a hotel near Vail on June 30, when he was in Vail for knee surgery. He turned himself in over the weekend upon learning of the warrant.

Law enforcement officials plan to hold a news conference later this afternoon.

Emma Goldman of Notes on the Atrocities deserves a major award for her new dossier on John Ashcroft. It is likely the most comprehensive, sourced analysis of him available in one place. We can only guess at the number of hours and days it took her to compile this. It's generously hosted by the folks at genfoods.

After Ashcroft's biographical data, these sections follow:

Abuses
Threats
Persuing a Personal Agenda
Civil Liberty Violations
Theocratic Leanings
Paranoia and Secrecy

From the Introduction:

Under John Ashcroft, the Attorney General has become an activist position, prosecuting citizens on a narrow agenda of social issues Ashcroft finds distasteful, often against the wishes of states. Under the auspices of federal narcotics laws, Ashcroft has pursued doctors in Oregon (under the state-passed and judicially-sanctioned "Death with Dignity" law) and medical marijuana users in California. Meanwhile, he gave broad rights to gun users.

Since 9/11, Ashcroft has made an all-out assault on civil liberties, foisting TIPS and TIA, racial profiling, immigrant and prisoner abuses, and first amendment violations on the public. He has threatened Congress and the citizens he is supposed to protect. His theocratic leanings, sanctimonious anti-nudity and anti-gay positions are inconsistent with a man who, as Attorney General, is supposed merely to enforce law, not interpret and create it.

It's too long to read at one sitting, particularly on a workday, so bookmark it and return often until you've read the whole thing. Still to come are similar dossiers on Rumsfeld and Cheney. Thanks, Emma.

People in the Iraqi town of Ramadi are calling for the return of Saddam and threatening jihad against America.

``You will see what will happen to the Americans now. You will see what we will do to them,'' hospital administrator Taha Hussein told Reuters.

.... ``The Americans are terrorists. They don't respect us. They enter our houses and frisk our women. They handcuff us at checkpoints and step on our necks,'' said Abu Mohsen.

....``Now look at this. They just shoot at cars and kill innocent people,'' he said pointing to the body of the decapitated man on a stretcher outside the morgue.

....``We want Saddam. Look what the Americans are doing. They are killing us. The attacks on Americans will get worse. It will be Jihad (holy war),'' said Yassin Mishaal.

The July 14 issue of Time Magazine has an excellent report on the death penalty titled Guarding Death's Door . We don't express our praise for prosecutors too often, but when we do, we want you to know about it:

The death penalty is under attack. Scores have been wrongly convicted of capital crimes, and most Americans believe at least one innocent has been executed. Who can fix the system? Meet Ronnie Earle, veteran Texas prosecutor, death-penalty supporter — and a D.A. who has learned from his own terrible mistakes.

....[Earle] is trying to do in his corner of Texas what death-penalty opponents say is impossible: enforce capital punishment flawlessly, ensuring that the innocent never spend a day on death row and the guilty are sent there only after trials free of bias and vengeance. Earle hopes that by raising every conceivable doubt about defendants before he decides to seek the death penalty for them, he can slay the "demon of error" invoked by Governor Ryan and achieve total certainty in the capital system.

....Earle often sees himself as an advocate — for his constituents, for the state, for crime victims. Because of their role, prosecutors tend to be portrayed in popular culture as modern-day knights. But Earle has come to prefer another metaphor. "I'm the gatekeeper," he says. "I don't dare ask my boss, the public, to sit in judgment of somebody that I don't think deserves to die. That's why they elect me, to exercise that judgment and not bother them."

Buried in that philosophy is something radical — the notion that the jury system, as it's currently constructed, can't be trusted to send only the guilty to death row. Most prosecutors wouldn't embrace that philosophy, which is why it may take an Earle, not a knight, to slay the demon of error.

Three U.S. soldiers have been killed in Baghdad in the past 24 hours. A British freelance journalist was killed on Saturday. Seven Iraqi police recruits were killed a few days ago in a bomb blast just after they finished a U.S. training school.

Twenty-seven American and six British soldiers have been killed in Iraq since US President George W Bush declared major hostilities over on 1 May.

The locals don't want us there. Who can blame them?

President George W Bush's declaration that the United States is preparing for a "massive and long-term undertaking" in Iraq will have confirmed the fears of many in Baghdad - that the US is establishing itself as a force for occupation, not liberation.

Steve Gilliard over at Daily Kos tells us why the U.S. recently has been losing a man a day.

According to U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, there is a 70-30 chance Saddam is alive .

The U.S. is setting up a reward scheme for information leading to the identity of the murderers. This is in addition to the existing $25 million reward in place for Saddam and his sons. US Central Command , whose website is down for "routine maintenance," says its troops will continue to conduct active patrols. Reward schemes don't impress us. No one has turned in Osama or Saddam. We have a different solution: Send the troops home.

It's Monday Comedy over at The Hamster . We like this one:

The big story: President Bush announced today we will rebuild Iraq after the war. You think that will happen? We still haven't rebuilt South Central after the riots." Jay Leno.