Ed Rosenthal may have received his best shot yet at a new trial. A juror disclosed that she sought legal advice during his marijuana cultivation trial.

In a startling revelation that could mean a new trial for convicted medical-marijuana cultivator Ed Rosenthal, a juror in the case says she violated the law by seeking outside legal advice during the trial and then sharing the information with a fellow juror.

The development is another chapter in the bizarre case of Rosenthal, a nationally recognized medical pot advocate whose case pitted state medical marijuana laws against federal laws, which do not allow for any use or cultivation of pot.

With Rosenthal's sentencing slated for later this month, jury member Marney Craig will appear this morning before Judge Charles Breyer. Craig is expected to say that despite constant warnings from the judge not to discuss the case outside of the courtroom, she sought and obtained outside legal advice on whether she could vote not guilty.

To make matters worse, the juror said she shared the advice she received with another juror.

When extraneous or outside evidence is brought into the jury room, it can be grounds for a mistrial. This seems like a clear case to us--the verdict should be set aside and a new trial ordered. If only Ashcroft would decide not to re-prosecute, but that's probably not likely given the mission he is on to stamp out medical marijuana.

Eric at The Hamster has the full text of an Arab News editorial warning that our conduct in Iraq is likely to create 100 Bin Ladens. Eric then sends us to American Prospect where James Galbraith explains why liberals must continue to oppose the war. And don't miss Eric's own thoughts on Republican hypocrisy on the affirmative action issue.

Howard Bashman of How Appealing has all the news on the Supreme Court oral arguments in the race cases. The transcripts of the oral arguments are here and here. He also covers the Senate's confirmation Tuesday of Timothy M. Tymkovich to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. The vote was 58-41. Joe Lieberman was a no show. Senator Leahy's statement is here. Howard says there will be another cloture hearing Wednesday on the Miguel Estrada nomination.

Skippy has a rant on secret arrests and nazi's-- and Bush and concentration camps.

Gary Hart updates his weblog with his thoughts on America's role in the world.

Avedon Carol of Sideshow has started a media blog (with help from Lisa English of Ruminate This) on the degradation of our airwaves. Avedon is having some surgery, we wish her well, and she will be posting at her emergency blog for the time being.

It's National Make Fun of the Cheney's day over at Rittenhouse, Neal Pollack and TBOGG (scroll down).

David Neiwert of Orcinus covers the War on Dissent.

Atrios has been so generous with his links, we hope you will buy him a present.

As for us, we should be finally settled at Corner Host, our new home, sometime tomorrow. We've managed 7,000 visitors both Monday and Tuesday despite the disruption of the move, so thanks to all of you for your patience.

This opinion article by Pat Rabitte, leader of the Irish Labour Party, published in the March 31 Irish Times (available on lexis. com) is too good not to print in its entirety. While others have written on the same theory, we find this article especially easy to follow, and quite compelling. In a nutshell, Rabitte says that the real purpose of the war in Iraq is "American global leadership," a concept with an imperial agenda and two very dangerous ideas that have been pursued by senior officials in the Bush Administration (I and II) for more than five years.

We can see the suffering and fear on television nightly. The war in Iraq has already caused untold human damage and will do a lot more before it's over. But before the final toll of physical casualties can be counted, we can already see others.

The multilateral global system has been severely damaged. The United Nations has been seriously (in the eyes of some fatally) undermined. Europe is bitterly divided. Economic development throughout the world has been compromised. And it has all happened in the name of two new concepts in international relations, concepts that most of us had never heard of until a couple of months ago.

I certainly would never have predicted that democratic countries, including one with a social democratic leadership, would go to war to secure "regime change". And I would never have predicted that the entire world would be caught up in a "pre-emptive war".

Where did these concepts come from? Have these new directions in global policy just sprung from the perceived threat of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction?

No. In fact, a small group of US policy-makers have been developing these dangerous ideas for several years. The brutal dictator Saddam Hussein is a good target and September 11th was the tragic catalyst they needed to put their policy into action.

These men are intent on world domination or, as they put it themselves, "American global leadership". They have an imperial agenda, which they have been pursuing for more than five years.

If these were cranks or conspiracy theorists, it would be possible to dismiss them, perhaps. But they include seven or eight people who occupy extremely senior positions at the heart of US government, and their philosophy dominates American policy.

They include Vice-president Dick Cheney, Secretary for Defence Donald Rumsfeld, and a host of senior appointees and advisers - names like Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Elliot Abrams, Paula Dobriansky, and others.

Their agenda first surfaced in 1992 with the document known as the Defence Planning Guidance, co-authored by Mr Wolfowitz, then an under-secretary in the Department of Defence. The agenda goes under various names such as the Wolfowitz Doctrine and the Project for the New American Century.

The White House Drug Office has announced it is ending it's drug and terrorism advertising campaign.

Now, the office will direct 60% of its buys toward youth-oriented media -- the same percentage it had previously directed at adults -- and will focus on halting drug use among children already using rather than aim to deter youth from starting drugs. The drugs-and-terror ads will end in May.

Some justice in Texas today:

Texas prosecutors today agreed to throw out the convictions of 38 people, nearly all of them black, who faced drug charges based on the uncorroborated testimony of a former white undercover police officer.

In a stunning reversal, the state agreed with defense lawyers that the former officer, Thomas Coleman, was an unreliable witness even though his testimony was the only evidence used to convict the defendants, some of whom are serving sentences of 90 years or more.

Asked if the convictions represented a travesty of justice, the state's special prosecutor, Rod Hobson, hesitated a moment and then said, "Yes."

....Lawyers close to the case said that as part of today's agreement, Swisher County Commissioners Court would pay the defense $250,000, to be split among the defendants according to the amount of time spent incarcerated. In return, the defense would agree not to sue Swisher County, its sheriff or district attorney for civil rights damages.

Here is an earlier post of our's about the case. The ACLU has a list of older articles here.

Last week, MSNBC's Kerry Sanders reported from outside a hospital U.S. Marines had taken over in An Nasiriyah. An Nasiriyah is the town where the five soldiers on a supply run were taken into custody by the Iraqis. It's also where Jessica Lynch and another soldier disappeared.

Sanders said marines showed him at least one bloody shredded female U.S. uniform found in one room of the hospital, and in another room, a large battery charger, from which it was speculated that the g.i.'s had been tortured. On March 28, on the Brian Williams Show, Sanders said:

The hospital, if that's what it ever was, is now under full control of U.S. forces. The 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, making a disturbing discovery here.

In a back room, the uniform of at least one U.S. service woman. It was cut up and covered in blood, the name patch and American flag torn off.

STAFF SGT. RICK ST. JOHN, U.S. MARINE CORPS: Originally, when we did the breach on the room, we saw the battery laying next to the bed, and we assumed it may have been a torture chamber, some sort of torture device.

SANDERS (on camera): While hospitals worldwide all have areas to hold unruly patients, in this hospital U.S. Marines suspect this part may have been used to detain American prisoners of war..... [transcript, Lexis.Com]

On March 29, Sanders said, "US military intelligence officers say they suspect the hospital was used by Iraqi soldiers as a headquarters."

The tv news tonight reports that Jessica had some gunshot wounds. CNN just reported she had "been through quite an ordeal."

Hopefully, if one of the bloodied uniforms was Jessica's, the blood was from a gunshot wound, not from being tortured. However, MSNBC also is reporting that the gunshot wounds occurred during Jessica's rescue, and that she had been held in the hospital since March 23 when she disappeared. The Pentagon is being very close-mouthed about the details of Jessica's rescue and her captivity. We hope she wasn't tortured and wish her a speedy recovery.

Update from Reuters on the "daring midnight raid."

She was said to be doing well, but CNN reported that Lynch had suffered had suffered multiple gunshot wounds at some point during her ordeal in Iraq that made it hard to move her. ....Military officials would not discuss the fate of the other captives, but CNN reported that Lynch's rescue team also brought out the bodies of up to 11 people believed to be U.S. soldiers."

We are almost done with our move to a new hosting company. Right now there are still a few glitches, but it should be smooth sailing by tomorrow or the next day. It has been difficult for us since Sunday, when the site went down and we made the decision to switch, as we've cotninued to write new posts, read the comments and email , stay on top of the news of both war and crime issues, and at the same time, try to remember all of the site peculiarities to relay them to the new hosting company. Not to mention, put in full days at work.

So please bear with us a little longer, and excuse any dead links should you run across one. If you run across something that doesn't work right, send us an email, talkleft@aol.com.

The missing Newsdayjournalists are alive and well in Jordan. The reporter and his cameraman, as well as two others, Molly Bingham from Kentucky and a Danish reporter, phoned in today. Next stop for the group: Amman.

Two other journalists from Britain's Independent Television News remain missing.

Update: Democracy Now! features an interview with Israeli reporter Dan Scemama, who was among four foreign journalists detained by the U.S. Military last week.

The House of Representatives today passed a bill that would defer student loan payments for those on active duty in the military. The bill passed 421-1.

Who voted against this and why? This is a no-brainer to us. We're only sorry the alternative version was defeated. It would have deferred interest accrual on the loans as well as payments while on active duty.

The bill also requests colleges to refund tuition to those who paid and got called up--and to make it easier for the students to re-enter when their military service is over.

The bill is H.R. 1412, which now moves on to the Senate.

There are 37,000 non-citizen, green card holders in the military. A major incentive for them to join is that they receive a shortcut to citizenship.

Citing the war on terrorism, Bush in July issued an order permitting green card holders who are on active duty to immediately apply for citizenship, waiving the usual three-year waiting time. The government also created a team to quickly process citizenship applications from the military. Such requests have since quadrupled, from about 300 a month to more than 1,300 a month.

California produces the lion's share of these enlistees. Half of the first 10 Californians killed in the War on Iraq have not been citizens. Is it fair?

Critics say the government is playing off the desire for citizenship to exploit these mostly poor immigrants — from Latin America, Asia and the Caribbean — for the war effort. "Especially at a time when the doors for citizenship are closing, this may be one of few routes left," said Connie Rice, a civil rights attorney. "It's a tough but well-worn path. Is it fair? No."

We agree. It's true that many, if not most of the enlistees, have true patiriotic feelings for America. But why should citizenship be so hard for them to obtain--why should they have to risk death to get it? For example, take Los Angeles City College student Winston Leiva. He is

motivated by loyalty and respect. He came to Los Angeles at 14, joining family members who were escaping political oppression and economic hardship in Guatemala. Out of gratitude to America, the 29-year-old Koreatown resident said, he signed up for the Marines and is prepared to go to war.

After living here for 15 years, shouldn't Leiva be able to obtain citizenship any time he wanted, regardless of whether he served in the military? Apparently not, because "Some have spent years and thousands of dollars seeking citizenship through attorneys and immigration consultants, recruiters say."

We think demanding service in the military as a quid pro quo for faster citizenship is too high a price to extract from these green card holders. What good will citizenship do for them if they die on the battlefield before they have a chance to enjoy it?

Presidential contender Joseph Lieberman endorsed several liberal social goals Monday and said he would make them a priority.

Lieberman's four liberal social priorities:

· Gay rights: Pledges to sponsor a bill providing benefits to the domestic partners of gay federal employees. Push for legislation barring discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation.

· Affirmative action: Endorsed the University of Michigan admissions program that gives extra points to minority applicants.

· Racial profiling: Would work to ban it.

· Abortion: Denounced banning the procedure called "partial birth abortion." Said it was "a harbinger and a warning" of future threats against the legal right to abortion.

The Washington Post is reporting that an official has told reporters the U.S. is prepared for some very high casualties :

U.S. Prepared to Pay 'Very High Price' Monday, Mar 31, 2003; 4:04 PM

DOHA, Qatar, March 31 -- Though U.S. troops have suffered "fairly light casualties" so far, a senior official at U.S. Central Command official warned there "may come a time when things are much more shocking."

"We're prepared to pay a very high price because we’re not going to do anything other than ensure this regime goes away," the official told reporters. "And if that means there’s going to be a lot of casualties, there’s going to be a lot of casualties."