"In a speech delivered at the National Press Club today, Sen. Edward Kennedy took a hard anti-war stance. "I continue to be convinced that this is the wrong war at the wrong time. The threat from Iraq is not imminent, and it will distract America from the two more immediate threats to our security -- the clear and present danger of terrorism and the crisis with North Korea."

"Kennedy, who voted against the Senate resolution in October authorizing the President to take military action against Iraq, said the inspectors need more time. "If our goal is disarmament, we are likely to accomplish more by inspections than by war."

Go on over to CNN and answer today's poll question, who's right, Bush or Kennedy. (Thanks to Jim Capozzola of Rittenhouse for the link)

Results as of 5:30 p.m.: President Bush 26% 1589 votes, Sen. Edward Kennedy, 74% 4594 votes , Total: 6183 votes

USA Today reporters Tom Squitieri and Dave Moniz wrote today that front line troops in the military are disproportionately white, not black , according to military statistics.

The American troops likeliest to fight and die in a war against Iraq are disproportionately white, not black, military statistics show -- contradicting a belief widely held since the early days of the Vietnam War.

''If anybody should be complaining about battlefield deaths, it is poor, rural whites,'' says Charles Moskos, a military sociologist at Northwestern University in Illinois.

In a little-publicized trend, black recruits have gravitated toward non-combat jobs that provide marketable skills for post-military careers, while white soldiers are over-represented in front-line combat forces.

Blacks make up 12 percent of the population, and 20% of the military. But they make up less than 5% of the high-risk postions, such as army commandos and navy and air force fighter pilots.

Among the possible reasons given for the disparate numbers are "lingering racism in some quarters of the military and a tendency among black recruits to choose jobs that help them find work in the civilian sector."

"A federal appeals court dismissed hundreds of lawsuits Tuesday brought by World War II prisoners of war who alleged they were enslaved by Japanese and German companies."

"The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld lower court rulings that said treaties signed by the United States barred prisoners from seeking restitution from companies accused of forcing them to work in mines, dig roads and perform other duties more than 50 years ago."

Eric Alterman of MSNBC's Altercation is off to Brussels this afternoon. We'll be guest-hosting Altercation once again this Friday, which is a Slacker Friday edition. As Eric mentions in today's column, please send any responses to what he has written this week to us at Alterlinks@aol.com. Charles Pierce will be hosting Altercation tomorrow and Eric Boehlert will do Thursday.

The website for Eric's new book, What Liberal Media is up and running. You can pre-order the book there, it should be hitting the bookstore's shelves very soon. We haven't read it yet, Instapundit got an advance copy, but not us. Still, we can't wait to read it. You can also read about it and buy it here.

From the New York Times:

Four of the seven Democrats who have already joined the presidential race or are likely to do so have longstanding views supporting the death penalty and have not changed their positions because of the circumstances in Illinois. Along with Mr. Lieberman, the group includes Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, Senator Bob Graham of Florida and Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri. Of the seven, only the Rev. Al Sharpton opposes the death penalty, as he has done for years. Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts supports it in the case of convicted terrorists, and Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont, supports it for murderers of children or police officers.

We predict at least a few, if not more, will join the call for a moratorium during their campaigns--Al Gore should have in his campaign but didn't. Either did Ralph Nader. It's not about support or opposition to the death penalty. It's about restoring fairness and justice in our criminal justice system, as well as protecting the lives of innocent people.

Via Tapped, we find Newsweek's Jonathan Alter, who we agree is not particularly liberal on criminal justice issues, explaining why former Illinois Governor George Ryan granted blanket clemency to the state's death row inmates, in Machinery of Mercy. Alter jumped on the bandwagon of the innocence movement several years ago, providing it with additional welcome exposure.

Here's the point he makes we'd like to echo:

Is Illinois’ criminal justice system somehow worse than that of Texas or Virginia or the three dozen other states that impose capital punishment? Does Illinois rely more than other jurisdictions on questionable testimony, false confessions, withheld DNA testing and other abuses? No. Illinois simply has more aggressive journalists (at The Chicago Tribune) and activists (at Northwestern’s Center on Wrongful Convictions) than elsewhere. I’ve been watching this story unfold for a decade. Believe me, if reporters and law schools in other states got cracking, they would find their own capital punishment systems just as rotten.

This is why we need Innocence Projects at law schools in every state--along with journalism students. It's happening, and when the details emerge from other states, the system should grind to a halt. We need a moratorium on the death penalty--at least until it can be applied fairly, accurately and in a non-discriminatory manner. Illinois Senator Richard Durbin, a supporter of the death death penalty, has come out in favor of a moratorium because of problems with its fairness:

"I think Governor Ryan has set the stage for an honest debate about creating safeguards in the legal process," he said last week. "Because of inequity and injustices involved in the court system, we need to take a serious national look at death penalty reform, and until we can get that debate under way I support a moratorium."

The Office of Legal Counsel memorandum underlying the Bureau of Prison's recent policy changes regarding the use of Community Corrections Centers can be found here.

This mostly affects white collar offenders, as we reported here and here.

Jeanne D'Arc over at Body and Soul quotes from a new Salon premium article on the myth that the death penalty heals the victims' families, and provides her own insightful comments. For more, check out Murder Victim Families for Reconciliation--a growing group of victims' family members opposed to the death penalty.

In 1995, with much ado, the newly Republican-constituted House of Representatives enacted a total ban on receiving gifts from lobbyists. They've been chipping away at it ever since.

This month, in a party line vote, they eroded it even further by passing a new rule that:

...allows lawmakers and their aides to once again accept free trips to golf courses and free meals catered to their offices from corporations and other special interests.

By relaxing the gift ban, Republicans have provided corporations, labor unions and other interest groups many new avenues -- which are closed to ordinary Americans -- to try to influence lawmakers and their staffs. Lobbyists footing the bill often get coveted face time with key lawmakers and their aides.

"As gifts are given, meals are paid for and vacations subsidized, these favors build up and it's just human nature members and staff will be responsive to those doing the favors," said Don Simon, acting president of Common Cause, a nonpartisan group that monitors congressional ethics. "It's not how government business is supposed to be conducted."

Praise, however, is due Colorado Republican Congressman Joel Hefley, who said the rule goes too far:

Now even a key Republican worries that the party is going too far by allowing House members to take free trips to charity events and accept free, catered meals.

"I see my job as to keep people out of trouble," said Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.), chairman of the House ethics committee. "We don't want to have the impression, nor the reality, that we're trying to weasel around ways to live high at someone else's expense."

Hefley said he was blindsided earlier this month when Hastert decided to weaken the gift ban without consulting him. At the behest of Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), Hastert drafted what Hefley and others worry might become the biggest loophole in the gift ban yet: allowing members to take all-expense-paid trips to charity fundraising events. The 1995 gift ban outlawed such trips because the practice was routinely abused.

Under the new rule, which passed 221-203, a corporation could anonymously underwrite a charity event on the greens of, say, Pebble Beach in Northern California and provide accommodations at a five-star resort. The corporation then could send its top executives and lobbyists to the event for a weekend of schmoozing with lawmakers.

"That is open to enormous abuse if we are not careful," said Hefley. "I don't want sham charities out there so congressmen have a nice vacation at a resort."

Tom Delay and Dennis Hastert are said to be behind the new rule--for personal reasons--Delay to be able to fly colleagues to "his annual golf tournament in Texas" which raises money for his foundation for foster children. "Scores of corporate lobbyists attend the event." Hastert wants to be able to continue accepting delivered meals from, for example, pharmaceutical firms, on the same night the House is voting on prescription drug legislation. They call this the "pizza rule."

The Republicans are not only creating an appearance of impropriety with this rule, they are providing an opportunity for the impropriety to occur. Where was the media when this rule was proposed and voted on? Was it reported but glossed over with Republican spin? Why are we just hearing the true likely effects of the rule now, after-the-fact?

New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer announced Monday at a tribute for Martin Luther King, Jr. that he will file an amicus brief in the Supreme Court supporting Michigan's admissions policy.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, also present at the tribute, said she would join with several other senators in filing a brief supportive of Michigan's policy.

Spitzer told the assembled crowd: "We are trying desperately to create institutions of higher education that are diverse, that bring in and include all people," Mr. Spitzer told the audience. "What did our president say? He said, `No, I'm against that affirmative action plan.' Shame on him."

"Well, let me tell you. I am your attorney general, and I represent the State of New York, and on your behalf, I'm filing a brief that opposes our president, that opposes what he is saying, because we believe in diversity and we will fight for it." Spitzer, a Democrat, is likely to run for Governor of New York in 2006. He's on the right track.

In a major blow to the Bush Adminstration, the Washington Post reports that "France suggested today it would wage a major diplomatic fight, including possible use of its veto power, to prevent the U.N. Security Council from passing a resolution authorizing military action against Iraq."

Mexico goes to the World Court tomorrow seeking an order preventing the United States from executing Mexicans. There are more than 50 Mexicans on death row in the U.S.

From our earlier post on Mexico's lawsuit:

Mexico filed suit against the US in the International Court of Justice in the Hague over the U.S.’s failure to comply with the Vienna Convention’s guarantee of allowing foreign nationals access to consular officials prior to interrogation. Mexico is also seeking provisional measures, essentially a temporary restraining order, against all capital prosecutions in the US against Mexican nationals until the case is resolved. A hearing is tentatively set for January 20.