Media Horse is back from vacation and jumps right into the Senator Santorum debacle, with a link to the full transcript of the interview and some choice excerpts. We like this one.

SANTORUM: In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be. It is one thing. And when you destroy that you have a dramatic impact on the quality...

...?

AP: I'm sorry, I didn't think I was going to talk about "man on dog" with a United States senator, it's sort of freaking me out.

SANTORUM: And that's sort of where we are in today's world, unfortunately.

Several bloggers, of diverse political persuasions, have some excellent criticism of Santorum--among them, Atrios, Daily Kos, Jim Capozzola, Glenn Reynolds on his MSNBC blog, Arthur Silber of Light of Reason, even Andrew Sullivan.

Among the politicos, Howard Dean blasts Santorum on his blog calling him "unfit for a leadership position" in the U.S. Senate.

Former Congressman Bob Barr is dropping out of the race to return to Congress. The reason: He no longer has "the fire in his belly." We'd love to hear the real reason.

Matthew McAllester, the Newsday reporter who along with cameraman Moses Saman and Photographer Molly Bingham, were held in an Iraqi prison for a week, has written an eight chapter description of the ordeal.

"I just needed to share the rising horror I was trying to control, knowing that we were in the depths of a prison known for years to human rights groups as a center of torture and execution. It was part of this feeling of silent togetherness that the five of us would foster over the next days, a feeling that I suspect we will always have."

We've read his earlier, abridged accounts and were impressed with the detail and his ability to recall and recount. We suggest you give this much longer version a read as well. [link via Jim Romanesko]

Have you heard of Free the State Project? It's a group that wants to create a Libertarian utopia in one state.

A movement called the Free State Project has registered some 3,100 people who would help choose a "candidate" state and move there in hopes of canceling laws against drugs, prostitution, guns and other individual liberties, while privatizing current state functions such as schools. "Rather than change the whole nation it makes sense for all of us to gather in one place," said Elizabeth McKinstry, 33, of Hillsdale, Mich., the project's vice president.

Ten states are under consideration, all with under 1.5 million residents. Their goal is to get 20,000 people to sign up and move to that state. That's the number they say is needed to be in a politically influential position.

States under consideration are: Idaho, Montana, Alaska, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Hampshire, Maine, Delaware and Vermont. The project is the brainchild of Jason Sorens, 26, a doctoral candidate in political science at Yale University. 3,100 people have signed up so far. When they get 5,000 members, which they expect to happen by the end of the year, the group will vote on the state and members will have five years to move there.

Is this a new take on Woodstock Nation? We can remember an idea circulating shortly after that event that if 500,000 of the nation's hippies moved to Wyoming, they could take over the state. (Back then, word was that Wyoming only had 500,000 residents.) Idealistic and improbable? Sure. But it was also fun to contemplate.

Then there was the movie "Wild in the Streets," about a movement to stop anyone over 30 from holding office. We suspect these ideas come and go, but in these days of the internet, word spreads so fast and among so many that Free the State likely will entice enough people to sign up. Check out their website, it's quite well done and they obviously mean business. We wish them good luck.

Law Professor Glenn Reynolds' new Tech Central Station column is up on the dangers of the Patriot Act:

.... the Justice Department's unwillingness to release information on how it is implementing the Patriot Act is deeply troubling. Sure, there are some tactical secrets that shouldn't be released. But it's been a year and a half since the Patriot Act was passed, and information on how the rather sweeping power that it granted has been used isn't being released. As Representative James Sensenbrenner recently complained, this sort of close-to-the-vest attitude makes it rather hard to trust them.

Reynolds adds a lot of historical perspective to the column. This is becoming a recurrent theme for him and we look forward to reading more at Instapundit and his MSNBC blog.

Bump and Update: The suit's been filed.

Posted April 21:

The city and county of Santa Cruz, California will file suit Wednesday over medical marijuana. The lawsuit will be filed against Attorney General John Ashcroft, Acting DEA Administrator John Brown and Drug Czar John Walters. It will seek a preliminary injunction to allow a raided marijuana club to reopen and resume providing marijuana to the medically ill.

It is legal in California for medically ill people to use marijuana. It is illegal under federal law. Last year the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the federal ban on medical marijuana.

``It is pretty clear that the people in the state of California support the use of medical marijuana,'' said Mardi Wormhoudt, a Santa Cruz County Supervisor. ``It is disturbing when the people in the state have overwhelmingly expressed their support at the ballot the federal government feels no right to uphold that.''

Earlier this month, three U.S. Congressman, Sam Farr (D-CA), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), and Barney Frank (D-MA), introduced the "Truth in Trials Act", to allow marijuna defendants, both users and providers to introduce evidence at trial that their actions were for medicinal purposes and in accordance with state law.

A hearing on information leaks in the D.C. sniper case will be held tomorrow. Lawyers for defendant John Muhammed have subpoenaed "four Washington Post reporters, two FBI agents and three police officers to appear at the hearing." The Judge issued a gag order against police last December, specifically prohibiting disclosure of the type of information published in the Post.

"We don't intend to ask the reporters to reveal their sources," co-counsel Jonathan Shapiro said. Defense attorneys want the reporters to "verify what they reported is accurate," he said. The Washington Post has moved to quash the subpoenas.

The Case for Scott Peterson: Why a murder conviction is not a slam dunk

CNN reports that Peterson's legal team is now in place. Three public defenders have been assigned to his case.

Via Atrios, a Fox News Television Engineer faces smuggling charges for bringing back loot from Iraq:

A television news engineer faces smuggling charges after attempting to bring into the United States 12 stolen Iraqi paintings, monetary bonds and other items, federal officials said Wednesday.

A criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., charges that Benjamin James Johnson, 27, tried to bring the paintings into this country last Thursday. They were contained in a large cardboard box that was examined by Customs agents at Dulles International Airport outside Washington.

An affidavit filed with the criminal complaint says that Johnson, who accompanied U.S. troops in Baghdad, gathered up the paintings at a palace that belonged to Uday Hussein, one of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's sons. The paintings depict Saddam and Uday.

Johnson, who initially told Customs officials he was given the paintings by Iraqi citizens, said he had planned to keep them "for decoration" and to provide one to his employer, the affidavit says. It is U.S. policy that all such items belong to the Iraqi people.

Roger Ailes has news of the arrest of a Boston Herald reporter for bringing back a painting. (permalink not working, scroll down)

The U.S. Supreme Court today issued a ruling favorable to habeas petitioners. The case is Massaro v. U.S. The text of the opinion is here.

An ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim may be brought in a collateral proceeding under §2255, whether or not the petitioner could have raised the claim on direct appeal. Requiring a criminal defendant to bring ineffective-assistance claims on direct appeal does not promote the procedural default rule’s objectives: conserving judicial resources and respecting the law’s important interest in the finality of judgments. Applying that rule to ineffective-assistance claims would create a risk that defendants would feel compelled to raise the issue before there has been an opportunity fully to develop the claim’s factual predicate, and would raise the issue for the first time in a forum not best suited to assess those facts, even if the record contains some indication of deficiencies in counsel’s performance. A §2255 motion is preferable to direct appeal for deciding an ineffective- assistance claim.

The Court specifically held it was not limiting ineffective claims to habeas petitions as the issue was not before it--in cases where the ineffectiveness can be determined solely from the record, defendants can still raise it on direct appeal. Sounds like a win-win to us.

Via Oliver at The Liquid List, CNN reports that Bush may not make Alabama's ballot .

Unless Alabama's election law is changed, there could be one notable candidate missing from the state's 2004 presidential election ballot -- President Bush.

....The problem is that the Republican National Convention is being held later than usual to avoid conflict with the Olympics, and the GOP won't choose a candidate until September 2 -- two days after Alabama's August 31 deadline to certify presidential contenders.

Republicans are asking the Democrat-controlled Legislature to change the law and extend the deadline until September 5.

That bill is on the work agenda in the House for Thursday, but some Republicans say they are concerned the bill has been placed behind several contentious issues and may not come up for consideration.

Now wouldn't that be sweet!

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has stayed the texecution of Charles Ladd, set for later today, so his lawyers can raise the issue of mental retardation. Ladd would have been the 14th texecution this year.