Tomorrow the House will mark up a bill to allow the National Drug Control Office and Drug Czar John Walters to spend what could amount to up to a billion of our taxpaying dollars on advertising to fight state marijuana ballot initiatives. Marijuana Policy Project says:

Until now, the ONDCP authorization has included sensible language barring the use of National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign funds for "partisan political purposes." The new language creates an exemption from this ban when the ONDCP director is acting "to oppose an attempt to legalize the use of [marijuana]." If this provision becomes law, there is no doubt that the drug czar will use it to his maximum advantage. The idea that the drug czar will have control over $1 billion to use for partisan political purposes is almost too scary to consider.

Visit here to send a pre-written fax to your U.S. representative today.

TomPaine.Com has more:

Last month we wrote about a lawsuit brought in Mississippi by the ACLU alleging that death row conditions were so bad, inmates were being driven insane.

A Judge in Mississippi did the right thing today, granting relief and ordering ten reforms, including:

annual mental health checkups, better lighting, improved toilets, insect control and ways to keep inmates cool during the summer heat.

...Davis also ordered the Corrections Department to draw up plans to upgrade the plumbing and lighting, provide cleaning materials and make sure all windows are repaired and screened to protect the inmates from insects.

...Davis said officials should also provide sneakers and a shaded area with access to water for exercise. Currently, inmates wear prison-issued flip-flops in individual pens for exercise.

Margaret Winter, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project, said the decision sets new standards for death row:

Judge Davis really did the right thing here in recognizing the basic principle in our society that we treat everybody humanely, that we don't subject anybody to torture," she said. "Even prisoners sentenced to death cannot be subjected to subhuman conditions of confinement."

From the Associated Press:

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (May 21) - An explosion was reported in a mail room at the Yale University law school, a city spokesman said.

James Foye, a spokesman for Mayor John DeStefano, said he had no immediate information about any injuries.

The FBI in New Haven said members of the agency's terrorism task force were sent to the scene. Smoke could be seen rising from downtown.

The incident came as the nation was on elevated alert for possible terrorist attacks and several hours after President Bush - a Yale alumnus - visited the state to speak at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy graduation ceremony in New London.

Many of you may have noticed we have not posted since Monday. That's because our server has been having problems with one of its hosted sites which gobbled up all its bandwidth, making other hosted sites load incredibly slowly. TalkLeft has been running so slowly since Monday night that it's been inaccessible to us -- it times out before we can save and publish a post. It took us almost an hour last night to get the newsfeed up.

The hosting company is working on it now, and if you are reading this, it means the problem is hopefully fixed. If any of you still are experiencing delays accessing TalkLeft, please let us know, either by email to talkleft@aol.com, or by posting in the comments section here.

Thanks for your patience, and we'll be back with some substantive posts tonight.

Update: We're told it's all fixed. The hosting company has been very responsive -- they called us three times today on the phone to discuss the issue with us, the last call being to let us know all is well again.

"The California Assembly on Monday called for Rep. Howard Coble to resign as chair of a key House subcommittee because of his comments about the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II."

Law Professor Eric Muller of Is That Legal? has been all over the story. Go read. "Even the 32 Republicans in the Assembly voted for the measure."

After two months of testimony, closing arguments began today in the Detroit terror trial. Arguments will resume Tuesday. The defense says the prosecution's case is built on lies. The Governement's star witness was discredited. Enough for the jury to acquit? We'll stay tuned.

A New York man, Michael Mercer, who has spent the past 11 years in prison for rape has been freed through DNA testing proving his innocence.

Cause of conviction: the teenage victim's "insistent identification" of the inmate as the rapist. The real perpertrator: a repeat felon serving two life prison terms. The Manhattan DA's office made the request to free Mercer.

Understatement of the year: In freeing Mercer, the Judge said, ''Obviously a terrible mistake was made.'' Obviously, there are no words to adequately address the needless waste of 11 years of their life. Money would help. New York does have a law allowing wrongfully convicted persons to obtain compensation. All states should have one. The federal government should withhold federal funds from states that refuse to enact such a law.

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Don't miss Mother Jones today and The Return of the Poppy Fields in Afganistan

With America's attention elsewhere, the reconstruction effort in Afghanistan is faltering. As a result, poor and desperate farmers are once again turning to the only crop they can count on.

Last year opium production in Afghanistan increased 18 fold to 3,400 tons, leaving the fragile country once again responsible for more than 75 percent of the world's heroin. The harvest this summer is expected to break new records, owing to high prices and new poppy fields in the country's most remote reaches.

This resurgence is among the greatest threats to the country's stability. Ashraf Ghani, the nation's finance minister, recently warned that Afghanistan could soon revert to a "narco-mafia" state. As it stands, the lawless and tribal foes of Hamid Karzai's government outside Kabul have become the country's primary moneymen. Warlords and militias oversaw a crop harvest worth more than $1.2 billion in 2002, according to the United Nations, more than twice as much as the Afghan government's annual operating budget.

Let's get something straight. According to Unicef, children in Iraq are in grave peril and undergoing crisis conditions as a result of the war. Our war in Afganistan (and our failure to provide rebuilding tools and money) has resulted in a huge increase in production of the world's most addictive substance. But the war was a success? Not to us.

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For the dumb law of the week, we go to Iowa, where the state legislature has been trying to pass a bill to reduce the prison population. Instead, they passed a bill raising the penalties for powder cocaine to more closely resemble those for crack cocaine. The result: There will be an increase in Iowa's jail population.

Under the new law, the penalties for powder will be raised so that crack penalties will only be 10 times the penalty for powder, instead of the current ratio of 100:1.

Only in the 'Twilight Zone,' which is the Legislature, could a bill start with the concept of trying to do something with sentencing reform . . . and end up with a bill that will increase our prison population," said Rep. Kevin McCarthy, a Des Moines Democrat and former assistant attorney general.

Crack Cocaine penalties are absurdly high. They should come down to match penalties for powder, not the otherway around. We call this the "Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right" bill.

The FBI ran over Dr. Steven Hatfill's foot Saturday during their around the clock surveillance of him in connection with the Anthrax investigation. Here's the stunner: Hatfill got a ticket for "walking to create hazard."

According to Hatfill's spokesperson,

Hatfill and his girlfriend were driving to the Georgetown section of Washington while being followed by several vehicles. A green sport utility vehicle was following especially closely, Clawson said.

Shortly before 4:30 p.m., Hatfill's car pulled into a parking spot on the street and Hatfill got out with a camera to take photos of those trailing him. Hatfill told officers the driver of the green SUV "had been recording his movements all day when he decided to take a picture back," according to the police report.

The driver of the green SUV then drove off, striking Hatfill, the reports said. Hatfill did not seek hospital treatment and refused attention from paramedics at the scene. Washington police issued the ticket to Hatfill for walking in the street while attempting to take the photo.

[link via Instapundit.]

What do the wrongfully convicted get in Florida after being exonerated? Would you believe $100.00 and a bus ticket?

Freddie Pitts and Wilbert Lee petitioned the state 19 times over two decades seeking compensation for the dozen years they lost as innocent men in prison, nine sitting on Death Row. Each time, conservative Republicans and old-South Democrats slapped them down.

When the men finally got their money, $500,000 apiece, Pitts was so frustrated that he didn't show up at the obligatory ceremony with lawmakers to mark the event. Inmates who are exonerated by DNA testing, cleared by prosecutors, released by judges, even pardoned by the governor are not automatically entitled to compensation under Florida law for their years of wrongful imprisonment -- as they are in more than a dozen other states.

When the wrongly convicted walk out of prison in Florida, they get $100 and a one-way bus ticket. This kind of treatment should no longer be tolerated. Particularly in Florida with its high rate of exonerations.

No such law exists in Florida, a state with some of the most notorious cases of wrongful conviction. Vindicated men and women are left with two sobering options: Persuade a lawmaker to file a bill seeking compensation in the conservative state Legislature, or file a civil lawsuit seeking damages.

'It shouldn't be that every time someone is exonerated, we should have to go and make a personal plea before a state legislature,'' said Morrison of the Innocence Project. ``We have a moral obligation to help them. It should be a law.''

The states, of course, won't be passing such bills any time soon with their budget crises. It's another reason we need to pass a federal Innocence Protection Act--hopefully it will have a provision for the "government to mandate that federal Department of Justice money be withheld from any state that doesn't have a system on the books compensating the wrongfully convicted."

Word reaches us that Amber Frey, the woman with whom Scott Peterson had an affair and who went on national television after Laci's disappearance to announce that she did not know Scott was married, has retained counsel--High-profile women's rights attorney Gloria Allred, who also has been a frequent commentator on the case.

We wonder why Amber needs an attorney. It may be that she just wants a lawyer to be her public spokesperson. We've watched Amber's s father on tv sticking up for her, and while he is heartfelt in his comments, he's still her father. Mr. Frey also has said Amber doesn't want to talk to the media herself

Amber should have someone watching out for her interests in the media fest other than a relative. If that's the reason for her needing an attorney, she couldn't have made a better choice than Gloria Allred.