Some corrections are in order to our guest blog on Altercation today, submitted from Shanghai.

First, in saving the html version of what we wrote to Word, so we could send it as an attachment to MSNBC, our computer (not MSNBC's, they are blameless) changed some dashes to underlines in the urls to two of the linked-to articles, and as a result those hot-links don't work.

Here is the correct link to the news story about China's about-face on AIDS .

And here is the correct link to the article, High Court To Review Race-Based Admissions

As to the Supreme Court review of the Texas sodomy law case, thanks to PG and KevDC for pointing out that the Supreme Court Monday agreed to hear the case (we incorrectly stated that arguments were held Monday)--and that Lawrence v. Texas is the name of the Texas case the Court agreed to hear Monday, not the name of the 1986 case previously decided by the court in a split ruling(we botched that one in our editing.)

So much for blogging from China before dawn and editing on airplanes....our apologies to all. We'll try to do better tomorrow when we are again filling in for Eric, this time from Denver.

Also, thanks to Instapundit for his warm compliment on our Altercation guest blog today (even though he, too, noticed our error but was kind enough not to mention it.) Instapundit thinks the Texas sodomy law is dumb and backs it up with a law review article he and Dave Koppel wrote in 2000 on state police powers in general with a particular focus on sodomy laws.

The article has many worth-reading quotes from actual cases striking down sodomy laws. Such as:

"The individual's right to freely exercise his or her liberty is not dependent upon whether the majority believes such exercise to be moral, dishonorable, or wrong. Simply because something is beyond the pale of "majoritarian morality" does not place it beyond the scope of constitutional protection. To allow the moral indignation of a majority (or, even worse, a loud and/or radical minority) to justify criminalizing private consensual conduct would be a strike against freedoms paid for and preserved by our forefathers. Majority opinion should never dictate a free society's willingness to battle for the protection of its citizens' liberties. To allow such a thing would, in and of itself, be an immoral and insulting affront to our constitutional democracy." Powell v. State, 510 S.E.2d 18, 27 (Ga. 1998) and

"Simply because the majority, speaking through the General Assembly, finds one type of extramarital intercourse more offensive than another, does not provide a rational basis for criminalizing the sexual preference of homosexuals." Commonwealth v. Wasson, 842 S.W.2d at 502 (Kentucky) and

"The usual justification for laws against such conduct is that, even though it does not injure any identifiable victim, it contributes to moral deterioration of society. One need not endorse wholesale repeal of all "victimless" crimes in order to recognize that legislating penal sanctions solely to maintain widely held concepts of morality and aesthetics is a costly enterprise. It sacrifices personal liberty, not because the actor's conduct results in harm to another citizen but only because it is inconsistent with the majoritarian notion of acceptable behavior." Wasson at 498.

Eric Alterman of MSNBC's Altercation has graciously asked us to fill in for him on Tuesday. Of course, we're delighted to do it. We're also flying home from China on Tuesday so this should be no small feat, but we're determined to make the column a worthy one. Since in one hour it will be Tuesday here (13 hours ahead of New York, 16 ahead of California) we're going to forego more posting on TalkLeft until we're back home.

China may be the most service-people friendly country we've ever been in. From the airport pickup which consists of a driver and a hotel staff person waiting at baggage claim to drive us to the hotel in a brand new Audi, to the reception people who showed us three rooms at check-in and gave us our choice, to the staff at the executive lounge who provide three meals a day and cocktails gratis along with big screen tv's tuned to CNN and every important newspaper and magazine we can think of, to the three 20-something year olds who just spent an hour in our room at 10 at night because the hotel's broadband server went down and they wanted to make sure we knew how to get dialup access in the interim--even though they don't speak English and we can't speak a word of Chinese--we are duly impressed.

Shanghai is rolling out every stop to get the 2010 World Expo--the papers here report that all the citizens, from the elderly to the working class to the college kids are in favor of it. It truly is a city of the future and wants badly to compete in every sense with New York, London and Hong Kong. In our book it already does. Business and the economy here are robust and China tends to build things with an eye towards what will be needed ten years from now. The streets are safe and so is the drinking water--parks are filled in the early morning with people doing T'ai Chi--the art museum is world class, Placido Domingo played here last night with two other famous tenors...we're even more impressed with Shanghai than we were last year on our first trip.

Thanks to Lisa English of Ruminate This for spreading the word on our take of the China AIDS epidemic--we have been a big follower of Lisa's since she began Ruminate This--she always has a new take on the topic of the day, and her writing ability is second to none in our opinion.

We'll be back here Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, and don't forget to check out Altercation Tuesday.

ABC News reports that Mass. Democrat John Kerry will seek the Presidential nomination in 2004:

"Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry, a leading Senate liberal and decorated gunboat officer during the Vietnam War, said Sunday he is taking a first step toward running for president in 2004: He took aim at President Bush's policies on taxes, education, Iraq and the Middle East, saying, "There is a better choice for this nation."

"I'm going to file this week an exploratory committee, a formal committee, and I'm going to begin the process of organizing a national campaign," Kerry said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Kerry also said that an official announcement is months away.

Any word from Howard Dean yet?

A group of retired state and federal judges is urging clemency for Illinois's death row inmates "whose conviction was tainted by flaws in the state's capital punishment system."

"Individually, however, some justices said the system is so riddled with problems that the governor should grant blanket clemency."

"The only way to be fair, the only way to be just, the only way to be equal is for the governor to change the death sentences ... to life without the possibility of," said R. Eugene Pincham, a former state appellate judge."

"Retired state appellate Judge Anthony Scariano said that while there must be changes in the law to protect defendants in the future, "clemency is the proper way to address the problems of the past."

Outgoing Illinois Governor George Ryan has the matter under consideration. He has said he doubts he will grant blanket commutations, but will consider each case individually.

We support clemency for all current death row inmates. For background on the Illinois clemency issue, see our prior post here.

We are glad to see the coverage World AIDS Day has received.

It has been very organized in China. The main ceremonies were in Beijing, but there was also a large one here in Shanghai, on the main downtown shopping thoroughfare of Nanjing Road. Nanjing Road is six miles of stores, the last mile of which leads almost to the Bund and is a pedestrian mall paved with marble, lit up at night, vehicle free and very popular. It was along this mile that the ceremony was held--we watched the set-up, and saw hundreds of older teens in white medical-type coats with little red ribbons on their lapels wearing red hats or white visors saying World Aids Day as they were preparing for the event. There were registration tables set up all around to dispense information, and a stage had been erected, the size used for a rock concert, with huge speakers and tons of red lanterns. Hundreds of black folding chairs were set out.

As we mentioned, the main ceremony was in Beijing, at the Great Hall of the People. For the first time ever in China, which has been in denial about its HIV and AIDS problem, an HIV carrier spoke before a crowd of top health officials, experts and students. His message was "We want to love and be loved."

The theme of the international campaign this year, which is to promote awareness, to educate the populace about AIDS and prevention, and to reduce the stigma associated with it, thereby encouraging those affected to seek treatment, is "Live and Let Live." The campaign will last a month.

There are now over one million AIDS/HIV patients in China. The number is expected to increase to 10 million by 2010. The primary cause of AIDS in China is dirty needles.

Former President Bill Clinton has an op-ed in today's New York Times: AIDS Is Not a Death Sentence.

"Historians will look back on our time and see that our civilization spends many millions of dollars educating people about the scourge of H.I.V. and AIDS, which has already taken 25 million lives and could infect 100 million people over the next eight years. But what they will find not so civilized is our failure to treat 95 percent of people with the disease."

"Given that medicine can turn AIDS from a death sentence into a chronic illness and reduce mother-to-child transmission, our withholding of treatment will appear to future historians as medieval, like bloodletting."

The U.N. inspectors suspect an aircraft may have been converted for chemical weapons use. On the BBC world edition.

From CNN--Iraqi newspaers are saying that the U.S. and Britain are using the weapons inspections as a pretext to start war.

Don't miss Maureen Dowd today on Henry Kissinger in He's Ba-a-ack!

Via Atrios, the Washingon Post Sunday has an article on enemy combatants and the lesser treatment accorded them by the Bush Administration:

"The Bush administration is developing a parallel legal system in which terrorism suspects -- U.S. citizens and noncitizens alike -- may be investigated, jailed, interrogated, tried and punished without legal protections guaranteed by the ordinary system, lawyers inside and outside the government say."

"The elements of this new system are already familiar from President Bush's orders and his aides' policy statements and legal briefs: indefinite military detention for those designated "enemy combatants," liberal use of "material witness" warrants, counterintelligence-style wiretaps and searches led by law enforcement officials and, for noncitizens, trial by military commissions or deportation after strictly closed hearings. Only now, however, is it becoming clear how these elements could ultimately interact."

How so? Take this example:

"The administration, with approval of the special Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, could order a clandestine search of a U.S. citizen's home and, based on the information gathered, secretly declare the citizen an enemy combatant, to be held indefinitely at a U.S. military base. Courts would have very limited authority to second-guess the detention, to the extent that they were aware of it."

Here's two problems with Bush's system: When the Government gets a secret FISA warrant, the subject of the search or wiretap doesn't get a chance to have a federal court review the application for the warrant. And when the Government declares someone an enemy combatant, the Bush plan doesn't allow judicial review of the decision.

We think this is a deplorable stretch of the powers of the Executive branch of Government. In electing Bush as the chief executive, we seem to also have voted to change our name. Why not just reprint the stationary now: The United States of George W. Bush. Our motto has changed as well: By the President, For the President and Against the People.

Who elected this man? Oh, we forgot, no one.

[comments now closed]

"Kenyan authorities have released a Western couple who were being questioned in connection with the bombing of a resort hotel in Mombasa. Alicia Kalhammer, an American citizen, and her Spanish husband, Jose Tena, were released on Saturday after nearly two days in police custody. "

Check out the picture of the smiling couple -- they look incredibly good emerging from two days of custodial interrogation in Kenya.

In New York, a NYPD officer was suspended for refusing to arrest a homeless man.

"Amid growing complaints that the New York Police Department is singling out homeless people in anti-crime sweeps, police officials have suspended an officer who refused orders to lock up a homeless man sleeping in a private Manhattan garage. Officer Eduardo Delacruz was taken off the force for 30 days after telling superiors he would not participate in the arrest of Stephen Neil, 44. The man had refused a police request to immediately move on or report to a shelter."

It's Sunday just past dawn in Shanghai. We're off for our morning walk -- today we are starting at the historical Peace Hotel on the Bund , a few blocks from our new and shiny hotel.

"For decades, the Bund has been the center of Shanghai in economy and finance. A number of tall buildings stand alongside the Huangpu River like a multinational architectural show. Among them, Peace Hotel, with its Characteristic of the green pyramid, enjoys a glamorous attraction of the passers-by. The Peace Hotel faces the developing Pudong new area and soaring Orient Pearl TV Tower over the Huangpu River, and next to the Nanjing Road Shopping Area."

From the Shanghai website:

"Shanghai, the largest city in China, attracts people at home and abroad like a magnet. People come here for its culture, its history, its people and all the vigor and vitality it shows in its rush to international metropolis status. Like a pearl set in the west coast of the Pacific Ocean, Shanghai is the showcase of China's fast growth and a bonanza of tourist attractions, business opportunities and cultural activities..."

We'll be back sporadically throughout the day. We'll try to take some photos to upload. Looks like there will be some sun today. By the way, we love visiting at this time of year--the temperature is in the high 50's, cool and breezy but never cold. Light jacket (not sweatshirt or coat) weather.

Check out Bill Keller's op-ed in the New York Times Saturday, Reefer Madness:

"We interrupt our coverage of the war on terrorism to check in with that other permanent conflict against a stateless enemy, the war on drugs. To judge by the glee at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, the drug warriors have just accomplished the moral equivalent of routing the Taliban --helping to halt a relentless jihad against the nation's drug laws."