If you live in Nevada or one of 16 other states, be aware the state is snooping into your medicine cabinet--every prescribed controlled substance you receive from a pharmacy is reported to a state board and to law enforcement. They say the information is not being used for law enforcement purposes, but to encourage those who take more than "experts" think they should to seek treatment.

"Nevada is one of 17 states in which police are able to collect the information under the auspices of a federal program that has pharmacists file regular reports that include patients' names, the names of their prescriptions, the amount of the medication they receive and the names of their doctors. The states' programs fall under the national umbrella of the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program."

Nevada's Prescription Controlled Substance Abuse Prevention Task Force "tracks everything from hard-core narcotics to prescribed painkillers and anti-anxiety medication like the frequently prescribed Xanax and Valium pills. It is composed of representatives from boards that license doctors, veterinarians, dentists and pharmacists as well as physicians who specialize in the treatment of addiction. One member is from the Nevada Division of Investigations."

George Washington Law Professor Jonathan Turley reminds us today in his LA Times op-ed article that that Liberty Ebbs by Degrees--and that Bush is slowly twisting the Constitution to fit his war plans and no one is doing anything about it. Here are his examples:

* Holding citizens indefinitely without access to the courts or counsel.

• Monitoring library withdrawals and Internet communications.

• Taping attorney-client communications.

• Attempting to create a national reporting system for citizens to monitor one another in their day-to-day activities.

• Developing a massive computer system to monitor every purchase by every citizen, from hospital bills to gasoline.

• Establishing a huge surveillance system, including the expansion of searches ordered by a secret court without satisfying the probable cause standards of the Constitution.

• Claiming the right to create a military tribunal system to try and execute suspects without applying the Constitution or federal laws.

• Assisting private organizations in creating the foundation for a national identification card that could easily become a type of internal passport for citizens.

• Recommending state laws (already adopted in many states) that give governors virtual dictatorial control after they unilaterally declare emergencies because of "potential" health threats.

• Expanding the use of the military in domestic law enforcement.

• Endorsing the broad use of assassination as an alternative to capture, including the possible assassination of citizens.

• Refusing to apply the Geneva Convention and then later agreeing to apply only part of it. Most recently, it was disclosed that the U.S. created a facility in Afghanistan where suspects reportedly had been tortured by U.S. officials or sent to surrogate nations for more aggressive torture.

A fight is brewing in the Arizona courts over the rights of inmates to use the web:

Critics say the Arizona measure violates the free-speech rights of inmates and their supporters and that it targets only prisoner-advocacy groups since the Corrections Department continues posting information about death-row inmates on its own website. David Fathi, an attorney for the ACLU's National Prison Project, calls the law unconstitutional. "It's not about prison security," he says. "It's not as if they're trying to prevent someone from sending instructions into prison for how to make a bomb, or plans on how to escape."

In December, a federal judge issued a temporary injunction and blocked enforcement of an Arizona law that prohibited all information about state prisoners from being published on the internet and banned communication between prisoners and organizations that might publish information about them on their web sites. In granting the injunction, the Court cited its fear that the law would cause irreparable harm to the First Amendment. As a result of the injunction, prisoners who violated the law couldn't be punished.

The ACLU brought the lawsuit last July seeking to invalidate the law, which "barred prisoners from corresponding with a 'communication service provider' or "remote computing service" and faced discipline if any person outside prison walls accessed a provider or service website at a prisoner’s request."

"The ACLU’s organizational clients are the Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty, which has information about 45 Arizona prisoners on its website; Stop Prisoner Rape, a group that seeks to end sexual violence against individuals in detention; and Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, a group that organizes public education campaigns with the intention of abolishing the death penalty. All of the ACLU’s clients maintain websites with prisoner information."

Since the Judge's decision was in the form of a temporary injunction, in the next few months the Court will make a final ruling on the constitutionality of the statute.

As we have opined many times before, inmates do not lose all constitutional rights when they pass through the prison doors. Among the rights they retain are those guaranteed under the First Amendment. Unless the state has a compelling interest in regulating a certain kind of activity and does so with a law that is narrowly tailored to apply only to the conduct it's trying to prohibit, the law won't pass muster.

"We see these (laws) as periodic attempts to silence prisoners and keep the eyes of the public away from what goes on in our nation's prisons and jails, where two million American citizens live," said the ACLU's David Fathi.

Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) has joined Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) in calling for a national draft. Their reason: "children of the rich should serve alongside less privileged Americans in the war on terrorism."

Rangel and Conyers said they will "ask the House to consider legislation to reinstitute the draft, perhaps as early as next week, at the start of the 108th Congress. The United States has not drafted troops since 1973."

We said our piece on this yesterday and we stand behind it-- in strong opposition to Conyers and Rangel.

A federal court has denied a motion by the Office of Homeland Security seeking to keep its activities private . The Court ruled that the agency must answer questions about its operations and activities.

The Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center last March requested Office of Homeland Security records on proposals for standardized U.S. driver's licenses, records associated with a ``trusted-flier'' program and other proposals concerning biometric technology for identifying individuals.

The Office of Homeland Security sought to have the case against the office and its director Tom Ridge dismissed, arguing that it could not be subjected to the Freedom of Information Act information requests because it was not an agency and that its sole function was to advise and assist the president.

Judge Kollar-Kotelly's ruling granted the Electronic Privacy Information Center's (EPIC) request to obtain information that would establish the status of the White House Office of Homeland Security.

You can access the full text of the opinion here. You

Via Walter In Denver:

"South Dakota Governor Bill Janklow has pardoned libertarian and AIM activist Russel Means. From the Sioux Falls Argus Leader:"

"The Means pardon deals with a felony conviction for riot to obstruct justice. The law was repealed by the Legislature in the late '70s, but with no retroactive provision for those convicted, Means said. He recalls the incident in the Sioux Falls courtroom."

"I refused to stand up for Judge Joe Bottum. There is no crime for not standing up for a judge, but it is a polite show of respect. So he sent in the riot police to deal with us, and we (Means' supporters - W.) beat up the riot police," Means said. "I did my time, one year, three days, 22 hours in the Sioux Falls penitentiary."

We agree with Walter that while Means might have committed other transgressions in his younger days, "The charge for which he was actually imprisoned is bogus. Federal and local authorities pulled out all the stops to try to convict Means of something, anything, but that was the only charge that stuck."

The parents of slain San Diego 7-year old Danielle van Dam have sued David Westerfield , her convicted killer, for an unspecified amount of damages. Westerfield gets sentenced tomorrow, most likely to death. That's what the jury recommended, although the judge can override its decision.

"In their lawsuit, the van Dams ask that the self-employed Westerfield be restrained from transferring any of his assets, which include a design engineering firm."

We certainly don't begrudge the van Dams damages from the person who killed their daughter.

But we would like to point out the cost to the taxpayers of prosecuting and defending a death penalty case as opposed to a murder case where the punishment sought and obtained is life in prison without the possibility of. Here are the reasons why and the breakdown of the cost differentials.

Most defendants facing a capital trial are indigent and must have court appointed counsel. A study done by the Sacramento Bee argued that California would save $90 million per year if it were to abolish the death penalty. The average cost of a capital trial in Texas is $2.3 million--three times the cost to incarcerate an individual for 40 years. The average cost of a capital trial in Florida is $3.2 million. (same source as above)

"Various state governments estimate that a single death penalty case from arrest to execution ranges from $1 million up to $7 million. Cases resulting in life imprisonment average around $500,000 each, including incarceration cost." (In accord, here.)

More from Death Penalty Focus:

"A 1993 California study argues that each death penalty case costs at least $1.25 million more than a regular murder case and a sentence of life without possibility of. Families of murder victims undergo severe trauma and loss which no one should minimize. However, executions do not help these people heal their wounds nor do they end their pain; the extended process prior to executions prolongs the agony of the family. Families of murder victims would benefit far more if the funds now being used for the costly process of executions were diverted to the provision of counseling and other assistance."

"There is a better alternative. California judges have the option of sentencing convicted capital murderers to life in prison without the possibility of. There are currently over 1,700 people in California who have received this alternative sentence which includes no appeals process. According to the Governor's Office, only one person sentenced to life without has been released since the state provided for this option in 1977, and this occurred because he was able to prove his innocence."

We don't know how much Mr. Westerfield's design firm is worth, but he was declared indigent before his trial and his attorneys' and expert witness fees and defense costs from that point forward have been borne by the state. By the time the appeals are through, appeals not brought for delay but which are automatic pursuant to statute, well over a million dollars will have been spent. We would much prefer Mr. Westerfield, if he loses his appeals, to spend the rest of his life in prison, with the money saved on the death penalty prosecution and defense going to the Van Dams and family members of other murdered victims.

Here are some of our prior posts on the Westerfield case.

From Howard Bashman at How Appealing today:

"And, just when I've finally come to accept that my law firm uses Internet filtering software that makes it impossible for me to receive any emails that contain foul language, my firm's version of Websense decides to block my access to the blog TalkLeft. Hmm, what's up with that!"

We have no idea, and while the anti-authoritarian in us is tempted to be flattered, we'd rather Howard was able to read us--and link to us--considering how huge his readership has become. Plus, we can't remember ever using a four letter word or other foul language on TalkLeft.

After months of hard work, Daily Kos' new blog, Political State Report made its debut today. It has state-level political reports directly from the trenches, with volunteers from each state offering their time as a state coordinator/reporter. What an effort-- but what a great result--go read and comment and keep it active. Congratulations, Kos...and thanks for adding this valuable service to the internet.

PLA has announced the winners of the first annual Koufax Awards for liberal blogging excellence. TalkLeft is the proud recipient of the award for "Best Single Issue Blog." Thank you to all who voted for us--it feels great to be recognized for our efforts.

Voting in our category resulted in a close race between us and three excellent blogs we read every day: Daily Kos (our good friend as well as the designer of TalkLeft's blog and our guru on all things technical) and MY DD are unsurpassed when it comes to election coverage; and Ignatz, is a terrific law-and-politics blog written by Alabama labor lawyer Sam Heldman.

Our congrats to the other winners, including Atrios (best blog and best writing series), Jim Cappozola of Rittenhouse Review (best single entry), Jeanne of Body and Soul (best writing) and Alas a Blog (best design).

Thanks to Skippy, for his several congratulatory posts to us-- he was nominated for both best humorous blog and best special effects.

We're proud just to be in the company of the other nominees and winners. And we agree with the award host (Dwight of PLA) and others that many great blogs also warranted nomination --such as Lisa English of Ruminate This; Avedon Carol of Sideshow and Liberal Oasis, to name just a few.

Update: Next up are the Bloggie Awards. Nominations Due by January 12--and there are prizes and a real winners' ceremony in Austin, Texas on March 9.

We received this joint press release today from the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty ( NCADP) and Mississippians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty :

Ron Chris Foster could become the seventh consecutive African American juvenile offender to be executed if his death sentence is carried out as scheduled on Jan. 8 by the state of Mississippi.
The last six juvenile offenders executed all have been African American. Although African Americans are disproportionately represented on death rows overall, the racial disparity among juvenile offenders on death row is even more pronounced -- two thirds of the approximately 80 juvenile offenders on death row throughout the United States are people of color.

"Mississippi needs to stop and study how race affects its criminal justice system in general and its death penalty convictions in particular," said Ken McGill, executive director of Mississipians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. "The crime for which Chris was convicted was bad. However, given the circumstances of the crime, it is difficult to imagine that a white person would have received a death sentence."

Foster was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of George Shelton, a convenience store clerk, in Lowndes County. Although 17-year-old Foster had told a friend he planned to rob the store, he did not take a weapon with him when he did so. Shelton was shot with his own gun after the two struggled.

Steven W. Hawkins, executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said Foster never should have been tried for a capital offense. "He did not have a weapon with him, and there is absolutely no reason to believe he intended to kill anyone," Hawkins said. "In addition, the very fact of his youth and his background dramatically lessen his culpability."

McGill and Hawkins called upon Mississippi Gov. Ronnie Musgrove to commute Foster's sentence. "This case cries out for commutation," McGill said. "The death penalty is supposed to be reserved for 'the worst of the worst' of crimes. This crime, while tragic, does not qualify."

Foster's execution, if allowed to proceed, could be the last in the United States involving a juvenile offender, Hawkins predicted. "We expect a number of states to move this year to ban the execution of juvenile offenders," he said. "Should that occur, it is more likely than ever before that the U.S. Supreme Court will agree to revisit this issue. The United States joins Iran and Congo as the only nations that currently execute juvenile offenders. It is time to halt this barbaric practice."

For more information on Ron Chris Foster, his crime and his life, including why clemency is appropriate, go here.

Here's how you can help: Please write Gov. Ronnie Musgrove and request a commutation of Foster’s sentence. Such executive action would not only encourage the U.S. Supreme Court to join the rest of the civilized world by banning juvenile executions in the future, it would also save this young man’s life. Click the "more" button for addresses and details:

An update on the case of the two U.S. pilots who released the bomb over Afganistan in April that killed four Canadian soldiers: A lawyer for one of them says the Air Force pressured the pilots to take amphetamines (called "go pills") that "may have impaired their judgment during the mission."

We commented at length on the case here.

Update Jan. 4 from the LA Times is here.