We won't have time to post until much later today, so if you have something you want to discuss or rant about, you can do it here.

A House Panel in Illinois has voted to approve a death penalty reform bill that incorporates 23 of the 85 reforms recommended by the Illinois Commision in 2002. We don't understand the House reluctance to ban executing the mentally retarded, but the measures it does include represent a significant step towards reform of the broken death penalty system in Illinois.

From Patriot Watch:

On March 11th, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights released a new report entitled “Imbalance of Powers.” The report outlines the steady erosion of human rights protections and civil liberties in the 18 months since the Sept. 11 attacks. One of the issues addressed in the report is the recent allegations in the news media that U.S. military officials are employing illegal interrogation techniques to elicit information from detainees in the U.S. and abroad. Some of these techniques include hooding and sleep deprivation and physical beatings. The Lawyers Committee has urged Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld to address these allegations by making clear the unambiguous U.S. prohibition against all forms of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment. Go here to take action.

Urge Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld to address these issues personally and publicly by making clear the unambiguous U.S. prohibition against all forms of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.

[Ed. permalink to Patriot Org. didn't work so we changed the link to their homepage]

Atrios gets a blogging gig--way cool. We know he won't forget his roots though.

Actor Robert Blake will be going home from jail. The Judge in his case, while finding probable cause to make him stand trial for the murder of his wife, also granted him release on a $1.5 million bond with home detention as a condition.

Madelyne Toogood, the mom videotaped beating her young daughter in a parking lot has regained custody of her daughter.

"The judge recognized Ms. Toogood has done a good job with parenting skills," her attorney, Fred Hains, told the South Bend Tribune. Madelyne Toogood underwent court-ordered parenting and anger management counseling.

We're glad to see that in the end, Toogood was treated like every other offender and the Judge refused to make a decision that bowed to the media lynch mob mentality. We're not condoning the behavior, only the result.

Update: The bill to ban partial birth abortions passed. Daily Kos has the numbers and analysis.

Lisa English of RuminateThis brings us up to date on the vote in Congress today on abortion:

The fundamentalist legislators of America - nearly all of them men - will decide today on whether this nation's women will be allowed to end pregnancies, that if carried to term poses a "grievous threat" to the health and life of the mother. The men, all bought and paid for by religious extremism, believe that a woman's life is not nearly as worthy as that of a fetus. We're not talking about the wholesale slaughter of near-term babies. We're talking about a rare situation...where two doctors, unrelated to abortion, come together and agree that the pregnancy should end for medical reason. The extremists, who have no problem executing children and men on death row, have problems terminating pregnancies where the mother's health is in trouble. It's murder, they say. God told them so.

Lisa's right, we are headed down a dangerous path here....go read her whole post.

In today's New York Times, MTV Refuses Antiwar Commercial:

MTV has refused to accept a commercial opposing a war in Iraq, citing a policy against advocacy spots that it says protects the channel from having to run ads from any cash-rich interest group whose cause may be loathsome.

Nonetheless, viewers in New York and Los Angeles will be able to see the rejected spot from Not in Our Name starting today on MTV's "Total Request Live" and "Direct Effect," because its backers did an end-run around the channel by buying time on local cable providers.

A scene from an antiwar ad, directed by Barbara Kopple, who has won two Academy Awards for documentaries. The ad was rejected by MTV.

As other advocates have butted up against similar policies prohibiting advocacy ads at most national television channels, they have increasingly resorted to making local buys. A few minutes of commercial time are reserved each hour for local cable operators or broadcast affiliates.

Guess its up to the Internet to spread the word. Television ads may dry up, democratic candidates may clam up, but we'll all be here. Dissent will go on.

"Victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks can watch closed-circuit coverage of the trial of alleged conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui in courthouses in Washington, New York and New Jersey, a federal judge has ruled."

"But U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema rejected a plea by federal prosecutors to set up additional viewing sites in Pennsylvania, California and Massachusetts."

"The decision Tuesday triggered an immediate outcry from victims' families and public officials in Pennsylvania, where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed, killing all 44 people aboard."

Elizabeth Smarth's father said she was definitely brainwashed by her alleged captor.

"Smart, who broke down at times, said the man had held his daughter at knifepoint until August in the mountains directly above their Salt Lake City home. Elizabeth heard rescuers calling her name but could not reply. "It kills me she was there for three months, literally up in the hills (behind our house)," Smart told NBC's "Today" show."

We've been asked to supply an open thread where readers can talk and debate their own topics, be it the war, elections, crime, whatever. Since we've got court most of the day, and won't be posting till later this afternoon, we're going to give it a try.

We only ask that you not list urls without the appropriate coding because they skew the size of the comments box and sometimes the whole site, and not use obscenities because censor software will block us to many law firms and businesses that read us, and it's difficult to reverse. Other than that, TalkLeft is your's today.

Get ready for the Silence of the Dems. Once the war begins, none of the leading candidates or potential candidates will discuss it.

Democrats have a brand-new dilemma over the looming Iraq invasion: What should they say -- especially the half-dozen or so camped out in Iowa right now, crusading for the '04 presidential nomination -- once war breaks out?
Even some antiwar Democrats are insisting they won't criticize the Bush administration once the fighting begins. Massachussetts Sen. John Kerry, who has staked out a complex pro-disarming Saddam, anti-unilateral-war approach to the mess, says he'll hit the mute button immediately. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a more unequivocal war critic than Kerry, also suggests he'll clam up once the shooting starts. War critics like former Sen. Gary Hart and Florida Sen. Bob Graham may postpone official announcements of their candidacies if war begins, as expected, in the next couple of weeks. Only Rep. Dennis Kucinich and former Sen. Carol Mosely-Braun, who are not given much chance of winning the nomination, have had the courage to tell reporters that they'll stick with their antiwar message come war.

Gary Hart has been clear the past two weeks that while he may decide to run for President, he won't decide until after the war, he won't criticize the war while its going on, and that because politics and war don't mix, he won't announce a candidacy until after the war.

We just heard a long live interview with Hart on Boulder's KBCO radio station and he repeated this. Hart has been very busy this week. Yesterday he gave a speech at the Denver Forum and signed books. This morning he was on the radio at 8:00 am. He's speaking tonight at the University of Colorado in Boulder. If you're in the area, come listen to him. It may be the last chance you get to hear his welcome views on war before he too clams up. Details here.