Democratic incumbent Tim Johnson, has won the South Dakota senate race by 524 votes. His opponent, Republican Rep. John Thune, will not seek a recount.

We just came across a magazine called JD Jungle. It has an article today by Ted Rose called Road to an Execution, "One hundred and sixty miles and one day stand between you and your client’s death. Now what?". Written like a novel, the article chronicles the day in Florida capital defender Peter Cannon's life that his client was scheduled to be executed.

The magazine also features an interview with Stephen Bright of the Southern Center for Human Rights titled Voice of the Dammed, in which Stephen says you have to be out of your mind to represent death row prisoners--not that he is going to stop. Stephen is a hero to defense lawyers, as he has been defending death row inmates for over two decades.

Stephen's reasons for opposing capital punishment:

"It's morally wrong for people to kill, whether it's the state killing people or whether it's people killing each other. When the United States was a frontier society, we had few alternatives with regard to punishment. If somebody stole your horse, you could shoot them, you could hang them, you could put them in the stocks, you could whip them. Basically, we didn't have the prisons that we have today. And it's interesting that of all those rather primitive forms of punishment, the only one we still have is the death penalty. But even if one didn't have moral objections to the death penalty, consider the fact that so many people get death because of the poor quality of their court-appointed lawyer. Consider the fact that race plays such a role in who's sentenced to death. Or the fact that so many of those sentenced to death are mentally ill, some mentally retarded. Those factors, and the fact that we are surely killing innocent people—all of those are reasons we shouldn't have an irrevocable punishment."

Stephen on George Bush's statement as Governor that he was confident no innocent people had been killed in Texas on his watch:

"Governor Bush—now President Bush—has no idea. I mean, he's been totally disengaged from the criminal justice process. He said that he spent 15 minutes to half an hour thinking about clemency or reprieves and the people who were executed—more than 150 people—over his six years as governor. George Bush has no more idea about the guilt or innocence of the people on death row than the average person reading this magazine does."

JD Jungle is not a death penalty or criminal defense magazine. Aimed mostly at younger lawyers, "our mission is to inform, entertain, and provide our audience with the tools they need to master the art of success."

We liked this article too: Java Justice about "Legal Grind, America’s cutting-edge purveyor of strong caffeinated beverages and storefront legal advice. Founded in 1996 by local attorney Jeff Hughes, Grind provides legal counsel to L.A. residents who might not otherwise have access to such help."

"A chalkboard behind the counter advertises “L.A. Law’ttes” and “Cop’accinos.” Another board offers $200 bankruptcies and $125 wills. The first patron orders black coffee. The next wants a latte and a notarized document. The third is jittery enough without caffeine: She’s here because of a child custody case."

"Visitors to daily “Coffee & Counsel” sessions pay $25 for the chance to ask a lawyer questions and quaff all the free coffee they can (the sessions last 15 minutes). Customers seeking more extensive advice can hire a Legal Grind attorney or seek a referral through the shop. "

The magazine has great graphics, and articles on a wide variety of topics, all conveyed with a spunky attitude. We highly recommend it, and if you are interested in clothes, don't forget to check out their fall "lineup" of suits. We'd wear number four.

The Bush Homeland Security Bill gained support in the Senate today "with GOP leaders embracing the deal and Democrats not standing in the way, the House could approve the legislation as soon as today. The Senate, under Democratic control for several more days, could grant final approval later this week or early next week."

"The agreement would give Bush nearly all the flexibility he sought to bypass civil service rules in hiring, firing and promoting the 170,000 workers from 22 agencies that would be combined into the new department. The president also could waive collective bargaining rights when national security was deemed to be at stake."

"The proposal drew a sharp dissent from the American Federation of Government Employees, the large union of federal workers. "The American public needs to know that the president's so-called compromise . . . is a Trojan horse," said union President Bobby L. Harnage. "It has nothing to do with improving security. All it does is strip federal workers of the right to defend themselves in the workplace."

Sen. John Breaux of Lousiana summed up the centrist's attitude: "the new proposal recognizes political realities while improving earlier White House positions. "This was the best we could get, knowing it would pass" anyway, Breaux said."

Is this resigned attitude what we have to look forward to for the next two years? Once again we say the Dems need to move to the left and get off center field. We are going to become a one-party nation.

This is not from the National Enquirer, but the London Times:

80 Miss World contestants arrived in Nigeria today while Amina Lawal, a 31 year old illiterate woman continued to wait out her fate of death by stoning, imposed by the Nigerian Goverment after finding her guilty of adultery.

Ms. Lawal's baby, the product of the alleged adultery, is now 10 months old. Ms. Lawal is stoic about her fate, being buried up to her neck and then stoned to death, but she worries about her child's future. “I appreciate the sympathy,” she told The London Times, but her immediate concerns are finding medical care for her daughter and wondering whether she will live to see Wasila walk. Unless her second appeal succeeds she will be executed as soon as Wasila is weaned or by 2004, whichever is sooner."

"There are four other cases of women sentenced to be stoned for adultery. There are also 11 children in Sokoto state awaiting amputation for stealing. Ms Lawal’s lawyer, Hauwa Ibrahim, said: “We have heard they are waiting for the amputation machine to arrive.” (our emphasis)

"Ms Ibrahim is a human rights activist who works pro bono defending victims of Sharia. Her first case involved pleading unsuccessfully against a woman’s sentence of 180 lashes for lying and having sex outside marriage."

"The victims have one thing in common: they are poor. They have all, according to aid workers, been used as examples by the court to frighten others into submission. “The rich do exactly the same thing but they are not punished,” said one worker. “One of the judges who tried these women got his girlfriend pregnant. Other members of the Sharia court had daughters who got pregnant. Nothing ever happens to them.”

"The Miss World contest has brought the plight of these victims to the world’s attention, but as Ms Ibrahim, says: “When the contest is finished everyone will go home and we will still be here.”

Dubem Onyiam, Nigerian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, told the Miss World contestants that no one would be stoned in Nigeria. “Relax and enjoy yourselves,” he said.

Post-script: For those who have the stomach for it, The Times provides another article with a description of the stoning process and it's history. We stopped reading after learning that victim's families are made to watch.

Bill Moyers today on Republican Politics, Then and Now:

For the first time in the memory of anyone alive, the entire federal government -- the Congress, the Executive, the Judiciary -- is united behind a right-wing agenda for which George W. Bush believes he now has a mandate.

That mandate includes the power of the state to force pregnant women to give up control over their own lives.

It includes using the taxing power to transfer wealth from working people to the rich.

It includes giving corporations a free hand to eviscerate the environment and control the regulatory agencies meant to hold them accountable. And it includes secrecy on a scale you cannot imagine. Above all, it means judges with a political agenda appointed for life. If you liked the Supreme Court that put George W. Bush in the White House, you will swoon over what's coming."

Moyers doesn't offer any solutions, but we'd do well to pay attention to the headlights flashing at us.

Let it Begin Here's Toby Sackton has a terrific post on The New McCarthyism: Secret Arrest and Detention instead of Blacklisting.

"We are entering a new dark age under the guise of fighting terrorism. Several people have commented to me in the week after the election that this feels to them like 1948, after Henry Wallace lost his battle with Truman, and the cold war was being consolidated in Washington. The next few years brought a communist witch hunt, the blacklisting of numerous artists, writers, and educators, and the firing of many government employees, plus consideration of nuclear war in Korea."

"What is scary today is how much radical improvements in technology and the embrace of totalitarian secrecy by the Bush administration has changed the balance of power- giving the government secret tools that are devastating to liberty and the rights of free speech and association. The new Homeland security bill will create a vast government department whose primary mission will be to closely monitor the actions of all individuals in the U.S. for signs that may point to terrorism. The powers are sweeping enough to allow even local governments the power to secretly read emails, to arrest people based on their unpopular thoughts as expressed in emails or telephone conversations."

Go read the whole thing. After that, check out Toby's son's Blog, M's Daily Ramblings, which we have added to our list of blogs. We love that he is young and so strong on constitutional rights and injustice--like in this line he wrote about the Government's treatment of Moussaoui: "The way Ascroft and the Justice Department seem to be seeking revenge and convictions over justice is terrifying."

The Atlantic Monthly plans to run an article by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "proclaiming the innocence of his cousin, Michael Skakel, who was convicted in June of the 1975 murder of Martha Moxley. Kennedy's article is expected to be published in the magazine's January/February edition."

Kennedy checked in frequently with Mickey Sherman, Skakel's defense lawyer, before and during the trial. He wrote a strong and unequivocal letter of support for Skakel to the Judge.

Skakel has been transferred from the Garner Correctional Institution in Newtown, CT to the Cheshire Correctional Institution, another high security prison.

"Claiming they are among the most overworked and underpaid lawyers in the country, court-appointed defense attorneys are suing Wayne County Circuit Court and its chief judges."

"Members of the Wayne County Criminal Defense Bar Association and the Criminal Defense Attorneys of Michigan are asking the Michigan Supreme Court to order a new fee schedule. The lawyers represent defendants in Wayne County who cannot afford to hire private attorneys."

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers recruited the nationally renowned law firm of Kirkland & Ellis to handle the suit pro bono. NACDL's Treasurer, Martin Pinales of Cincinnati, has represented NACDL in negotiations with the defendant-judges over the past few months.

This shocked us: "In 1982, defense attorneys representing the poor were earning $250 per cas. Now they are paid less! They get $225 a case. "That includes all the hours put into researching, preparation and other other duties."

The low pay has led to a decrease in the number of attorneys willing to take the cases. In 1999 there were 465 lawyers in Wayne County who accepted court appointments. Now there are 317.

The losers here are the public and the poor. Justice in Michigan is at risk. As an editorial in the Detroit Free Press said today,

"Scandalously low pay for court-appointed attorneys in Michigan is making a sham of the constitutional right to legal counsel.

"The criminal justice system works when truth emerges from the adversarial efforts of a competent prosecutor and a vigorous defense attorney. It doesn't work when an outgunned and underpaid defender is effectively encouraged to cut corners and coax guilty pleas from poor defendants."

"Part of the problem is that defense lawyers simply aren't paid enough. In Wayne County, where fees for court-appointed attorneys have been essentially frozen since 1982, court-appointed defense lawyers in many cases make what amounts to $6-$12 an hour. These are discount-store wages that yield discount justice -- cheap, but suspect in quality. "

"The Legislature should appoint a task force to study how best to get more money to all Michigan counties for criminal defense. Some states have created statewide Public Defender commissions or offices. In Michigan, local control with a mixture of local and state funding would probably work best. "

"Criminal defense attorneys and accused felons are simply not a public priority. But upholding everyone's constitutional rights and keeping innocent people out of prison certainly ought to be."

Via Atrios, Federal agents will begin randomly stopping traffic today, looking for illegal immigrants, terrorists and drug or weapon smugglers.

"Cars will be stopped at unannounced, rotating checkpoints within Michigan, including metro Detroit. U.S. Border Patrol agents at the checkpoints will ask passengers their citizenship and will have leeway to ask a host of follow-up questions."

"The effort is part of President George W. Bush's attempt to increase security along the northern border, said Immigration and Naturalization spokeswoman Karen Kraushaar."

Michigan is the first northern state to be subject to the program that is already in force in Texas and California. The authority is an old law that allows searches within 25 miles of the U.S. border.

Civil liberties groups rightfully are concerned:

"We believe it's going to be very hard for them to do this without violating people's civil rights, or profiling people based on their ethnicity or accent," said Kary Moss, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Michigan. "

There is only one solution to the vexing problem of Bush's far right nominations to the federal courts, according to law professors Erwin Chemerinsky and Catherine Fisk: use of the filibuster power.

Bush is intent on packing the lower federal courts with conservatives. It is likely that a few Supreme Court Justices will retire during his tenure.

"An enormous amount is at stake in the judicial confirmation process. A change in two votes on the Supreme Court could mean the overruling of Roe vs. Wade and a woman's right to reproductive choice. In the years ahead, federal courts will be deciding crucial questions concerning the federal government's power to provide remedies for civil rights violations, including employment discrimination based on race and gender.

"Also, the federal courts are the essential and only check against excessive government interference with individual rights in the name of the war against terrorism. Indeed, in every area of personal freedom, from freedom of speech to privacy, American law and policy will depend on the composition of the courts."

The judicial composition of the lower federal courts is similarly important. "Because the Supreme Court decides only about 75 cases a year, and hears fewer than 2% of the cases in which review is requested, who sits on the federal Court of Appeals is crucial."

Chemerinsky says that he was called by the Clinton White House Counsel and told he was a possible nominee for the federal Court of Appeals. Later he was told he could not be nominated because his liberal stands on affirmative action and reproductive freedom wouldn't fly in the Republican-controlled Senate.

"If outspoken liberals were unacceptable judicial nominees during the Clinton administration, then extreme conservatives are equally unsuitable now. Courageous Democrats in the Senate must announce their intent to use the filibuster to prevent a conservative takeover of the federal courts that could last long beyond our lifetimes."

To us, that's the scariest part. The legacy we will be leaving our children. We don't want our child to suffer at the hands of the radical right. We raised him to be appreciative of basic notions of fairness, equality, due process and individual liberties--we taught him that these are the rights that distinguish our nation and make it a beacon of liberty. Now at the hands of a president we didn't elect, the beacon is likely to be extinguished. So we echo Chemerinsky and Fisk, and call upon the Democrats in the Senate to filibuster until the cows come home, and preserve the integrity of our federal courts.

You won't find much comfort in the war effort after reading a news article in today's Washington Post, Officials Question FBI Terror Readiness .

Experts and government officials tell us we can expect retaliatory terrorist attacks if we invade Iraq. But...

"Fourteen months after the terror attacks on New York and Washington, the FBI does not have a detailed understanding of domestic terrorist networks that could fund, prepare and launch revenge attacks, said administration and congressional officials and outside experts."

"The FBI's ability to convert from a primarily case-oriented criminal justice agency into a domestic investigatory body is being questioned and debated with great urgency by the National Security Council, members of Congress and intelligence experts who have been called upon to help out."

History suggests retaliatory strikes are likely. During the Persian Gulf War, the number of terror attacks tripled. Intelligence analysts believe a backlash this time would be much stronger."

"An unclassified version of a recent National Intelligence Estimate, which includes the opinions of all U.S. intelligence agencies, predicted that an invasion of Iraq would prompt Hussein "to become much less constrained in adopting terrorist actions," including enlisting the aid of extremists."

During his October 17 congressional testimony, FBI Director Robert Mueller summed up the situation thusly:

"There is a substantial risk out there that they could undertake" attacks...."And by 'they,' I mean not just those associated with Iraq, but those associated with al Qaeda or [the militant Lebanese group] Hezbollah or somebody else." Mueller's testimony also included this sober view: "I would be uncomfortable in saying that you should relax and say, 'The FBI or the CIA is taking care of that issue.' " (our emphasis).

"Knowledgeable officials said the FBI's problems go beyond money and staff needs. Unlike the CIA, which has elaborate analysis of terrorist networks from Paraguay to Malaysia to Saudi Arabia, FBI officials "still aren't looking at this as an intelligence agency, but as cops," said one U.S. government official who has been briefed on FBI assessments and plans. "You get the sense they don't really have a clue" about domestic terrorists in the United States."

We feel like we're about to get on a runaway train, one that is likely to spiral out of control.

Immigrants sending cash back home will face strict new controls. Under the new rules,

"Anyone who sends money overseas now must be checked against government lists of suspected money launderers and terrorists, a task that also requires money transmitters %u2014 many of them storefront operations %u2014 to undergo training to spot suspicious movements of money."

Some of the new federal rules took effect this summer while others likely will be implemented in the next few months.

Many of the immigrants fear INS checks and reprisals. "Treasury Department officials, who administer the new federal regulations, have said people making ordinary transfers should not be worried. State Banking Department officials, however, began sharing money transfer information in March with the local office of the F.B.I. All names of customers are checked against lists of suspected criminals."

The new regulations may not be effective at catching terrorist money. The threshold reporting requirements that have been in place for many years were designed "to catch drug traffickers or criminal groups that have a lot of money to disguise or move quickly. Terrorist groups, investigators say, are more likely to move small amounts of money intermittently."