Our reading suggestions for the rest of the day:

We highly recommend Avedon Carol on war stuff over at The Sideshow, Jim Capozzola's Rittenhouse Review tribute to Paul Wellstone, and Atrios and Lisa English's Ruminate This on just about everything.

Eric at The Hamster quotes the best of the progressive web today (as he does everyday), especially Ralph Neas on the Bush judicial nominees, Eric Alterman who is back from Europe, and Joe Conasen. My DD is doing a great job with election coverage and Skippy has the links to the pros and cons on ballistic fingerprinting.

Congrats to Daily Kos who has made his site meter public and had over 4,000 hits yesterday, and has started a second weblog chronicling his wife's pregnancy.

A plea from Innocence Project co-founder Barry Scheck for donations of money and frequent flier miles to Send an Exoneree to Chicago, Help Save a Life:

"This is a fundraising plea for a tax deductible contribution you'll never regret -- help sponsor a trip to Chicago, using frequent flier miles or traditional money, by someone who was innocent but wrongly sentenced to death. On December 15th as many as 50 death row exonerees will assemble in Chicago in what will undoubtably be the most important event surrounding Illinois Governor George Ryan's decision as to whether or not to grant clemency to the nearly 160 people currently on the state's death row before he leaves office in January. We need your help! "

"As you know, the Governor declared a moratorium on IL's death penalty several years ago after 13 innocent persons who had been sentenced to death were exonerated, a total that exceeded the number of executions (12) in the state to date. Faced with this shocking error rate and his own crisis of conscience, Gov. Ryan not only declared a statewide moratorium on the death penalty, but convened a blue-ribbon commission of notables from across the political spectrum to study the flaws in Illinois' system and ensure that no innocent person would ever again be sentenced to death. The majority of the Commission stopped short of calling for an outright end to the death penalty, but recommended 86 comprehensive, meaningful reforms based on nearly two years of review of the system's flaws. Months later, however, the State Legislature has yet to act on these recommendations (and has, in fact, rejected many of the most fundamental ones). Governor Ryan's imminent departure from office thus presents what may be the final opp ortunity to obtain meaningful results from the Commission's painstaking work and his own courage in taking on this difficult issue. It also affords an unprecedented opportunity to save the lives of almost 160 people -- some of whom are likely innocent, and far greater numbers of whom were victims of grossly unfair trials and sentencing. "

"A coalition of groups in Illinois are about to launch a two-month campaign to remind the public about the arbitrariness and unfairness of the death penalty in system in Illinois that led to the moratorium in the first place. This message has been largely buried in recent weeks during public clemency hearings, which, as expected, have focused on the heartrending expressions of grief by members of the victims' families who testified and the horrible details of many of the underlying crimes. Once those hearings conclude, however, we hope and expect that the public may once again become receptive to the notion that IL's flawed death penalty system has also exacted a terrible human cost on others, including the families of those who were wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death, and that deciding to commute existing death sentences to life without is the best way to ensure that both fairness and justice are achieved. It is crucial that this message be disseminated and received as widely as possible in th e coming months -- not only to maximize the chances that the Governor will take meaningful action, but to prevent a public backlash on the issue of death penalty reform if and when he does so."

The most important single event in this upcoming campaign will be a historic gathering of innocent men and women who have been released from death row. The goal is to bring as many as 50 of the nation's 102 death row exonerees to Chicago on the weekend of December 15th, for two days of events that will both honor and allow them to speak out in favor of meaningful action by the Governor. As you may recall, the first such Conference on Wrongful Conviction and the Death Penalty was held in Chicago in 1998, and helped set the stage for the IL moratorium.

"Bringing the exonerees to Chicago will be not only the most crucial, but also the most expensive piece of the IL campaign. Organizers have estimated that it will cost an average of $1250 for each exoneree's travel, lodging, and expenses (while some are in major cities or in-state, others live in remote areas and/or need a companion's assistance to travel). As the campaign is already operating on a shoestring budget, this event will be difficult, if not impossible, to pull off without the generous support of others."

"Contributions in any amount will be welcomed to support an exoneree to attend the 2nd National Conference on Wrongful Convictions and the Death Penalty. The recipient is the Illinois Death Penalty Education Project, a 501©(3). The address is 850 N. Lake Shore Drive, 4th Floor, Chicago, Illinois 60611. Contributions will be deductible for federal income tax purposes to the full extent allowed by law."

"Please make out checks, frequent flier miles, etc. to the Illinois Death Penalty Education Project c/o NACDL, Attn: Steven Frazier, 1150 18th St. NW #950, Washington DC 20036."

Please help spread the word.

A new article in the Nov/Dec issue of Mother Jones titled Lie Detector Roulette takes on the question of why, if polygraphs are unreliable, government employees are subjected to them?

The article highlights the hypocrisy of government officials over their use:

"Some of those who have promoted polygraphs in the past have changed their tune when faced with the prospect of taking a lie detector test themselves. In August, several members of the House and Senate intelligence committees refused to submit to polygraphs as part of an FBI investigation of who leaked classified information regarding the September 11 attacks. "I don't know who among us would take a lie detector test," says Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala.). "They're not even admissible in court." Shelby's reticence was an about-face from his stance two years ago, when he spearheaded the expansion of the Department of Energy's polygraph program as the only effective way of tracking down moles."

"Whether the government will continue to have faith in the polygraph depends largely on an upcoming report from the National Academy of Sciences, which is intended to be the definitive evaluation of the test's validity as a screening tool. If the academy echoes other studies that have found polygraphs unreliable, it could lead to a scaling back of lie detectors."

We'll be interested in the report as well. As far as we're concerned, polygraphs are as reliable as voodoo. Their primary usefulness to law enforcement occurs during the pre-test interview process in which they convince people to confess before taking the test. The F.B.I. is famous for this.

We like Matt Yglesias' definition of a "chickenhawk" :

"One shouldn't advocate that your country go fight a war that you're not willing to fight in. If you told me, for example, that in order to invade Iraq successfully we were going to need to implement a draft and send fine young men such as Matthew Yglesias into combat, you can bet I'd start using my newfound free time to organize anti-war rallies. It's obviously a little hard to apply this line of thought to people outside a very narrow age-range, but since starting sometime in the early 1960s our country fought a very, very long war in Vietnam, we have a lot of historical examples of people's behavior we can look at. And we can see that Bush, Cheney, and many others in his administration failed it. They're "chickenhawks" because they supported that war, just not enough to actually go fight in it. That behavior, a willingness to sacrifice the lives of others for goals you recognize as not worth risking your own life over, is indicative of a reckless and immoral attitude toward war and peace in general, and that is a very legitimate issue to raise in this whole Iraq debate."

Political Wire reports today that Third Party Candidates May Tip Balance In Senate. The Strickland/Allard race in Colorado is one that could be affected. The Wire quotes the Wall Street Journal as reporting:

"The development is most notable in Colorado and Missouri." In Colorado, Rick Stanley is running as a Libertarian and "pulling crucial votes away from incumbent Sen. Wayne Allard, a Republican." In Missouri, Daniel Romano is running as a Green and "is vying for liberal votes with Democratic Sen. Jean Carnahan." Recent polls "show the races in both states are very tight, so the ebb and flow of a few thousand votes could be pivotal -- with national implications, since Democrats are defending a one-seat majority in the Senate and contests in five states are too close to call."

Mark Leno, who serves on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and is the author of California's Prop S, to be voted on by the public on November 5, asks for voters to approve the measure in an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle, Prop. S -- Medical pot, again

"Unfortunately, our federal government, through the Drug Enforcement Agency, has decided to stand between our most vulnerable, ill citizens and their physician-recommended medicine by shutting down cannabis clubs and arresting activists attempting to comply with our voter-approved law. It is interesting to note that national polls consistently reveal that at least 70 percent of Americans disapprove of the DEA's actions as they support the medical use of cannabis. "

"If the federal government continues to assault, intimidate and close our community-based cannabis clubs, leaving many unable to access their medicine, I believe that we must have an alternative distribution network prepared to serve their needs. That is why I have authored Proposition S on Tuesday's ballot. It asks voters if, in light of the DEA's continued policy, we should explore creating a program whereby the city of San Francisco grows and distributes cannabis so that patients can exercise their rights under Proposition 215."

"...here's an issue both the left and the right can embrace: For the very same reasons overnment should stay out of our bedrooms, it should also stay out of our medicine cabinets. Please join me in supporting Proposition S."

The President has a new plan to speed judicial confirmations.

"President Bush yesterday laid out an accelerated method for getting the judges he wants onto the federal bench, brushing aside longstanding traditions by trying to fill vacancies before they occur and demanding that the full Senate vote on all nominees."

"Bush said his plan would correct "a lousy record" in which vacancies have mounted and nominees have languished as the selection of judges has become highly politicized. The proposal gives him new ammunition on a favorite issue for conservatives as he begins a five-day campaign swing before Tuesday's elections.The Democrats who control the Senate are unlikely to approve such a plan, but for Bush, that is largely beside the point."

"Republican officials said the timing was designed to dramatize the stakes going into the elections, when just a few races will decide whether Democrats keep their majority. The strategy, drafting proposals for major changes in the way judges are chosen without consulting senators of either political party, suggested an eagerness by the White House to expand its powers rather than to broker compromise on a delicate issue."

Not only has former Vice President Walter Mondale officially been named as the replacement candidate for Paul Wellstone in the Minnesota senate race, but a poll published Wednesday shows Mondale with an 8 point lead over Norman Coleman, the Republican candidate "handpicked by the White House."

From the sponsors of the website Stop Prisoner Rape:

"The FBI just released its report on crime statistics, but it left out something important: All male victims are excluded from its numbers on rape. Why? Because the FBI’s classifications for crimes were developed in 1929 and have never been updated to reflect the reality that many men are victims of rape, especially in prison."

"Stop Prisoner Rape, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit human rights group, is calling on the FBI to reform this blatantly sexist approach to dealing with male rape victims."

You can read their press release here.

Via Atrios, a 2001 Village Voice article: The Castration of Wayne DuMond by Ward Harkavy.

The article reports DuMond's lawyer, John Wesley Hall, as saying:

"Bill Clinton is the only person in Arkansas without any balls," recalled John Wesley Hall, DuMond's attorney during their futile appeals and no enemy of Clinton. "He would fence-straddle to the extreme, and that created false expectations in some people."

John Hall is an excellent criminal defense attorney in Arkansas and author of legal text books for West Publishing on Ethics and on Searches and Seizures. We hope to see him at the NACDL board meeting this weekend and will ask him about the case, and report back here if there's anything to share. John was the recipient of the organization's prestigious annual Robert C. Heeny award this year.

Thinking it Through and Daily Kos have also been covering the Hucklebee-Dumond story. We need to do some research before we comment on this one.

This morning, Scott Turow will appear on NPR's Dianne Rehm show to discuss his new book, Reversible Errors, at 11 am. The lawyer and novelist talks about the fictional death-row case at the center of his new novel, and about his real-life role on the commission reviewing the use of the death penalty in the state of Illinois.

From the Los Angeles Times Tuesday, Bratton Takes Reins at LAPD:

"Bratton, who was officially sworn in at a private City Hall ceremony Friday, donned his midnight blue uniform for the first time Monday for an outdoor celebration that included a police band, bagpipes, officers on horseback, a choir and a helicopter flyover. Gov. Gray Davis, Mayor James K. Hahn, hundreds of dignitaries, including former chiefs, rank-and-file officers and members of the public and media attended."

"Speaking without notes, Bratton repeated his promise to make Los Angeles the safest big city in America--the charge given to him by Hahn. He called on LAPD officers to fulfill the promise "on the side of each and every one of your black and whites ... that world-famous motto: 'To protect and serve.' "

"It is a very thin blue line--9,000 for a city this large," Bratton said. "I want to talk very bluntly to you. The citizens of this city need you back in those streets. They don't need you smiling and waving. They need you out of those cars, on those corners, in those parks taking back those streets."

For me, attending the ceremonies was a window into an entirely new and foreign world. I'm grateful I was invited to catch a glimpse of it.

The day began at 9:00 am at the LA Police Academy with a two hour breakfast reception. As expected, there were hundreds of men in blue. There was also live music, supplied by a police band and huge amounts of food. The atmosphere was very jovial.

The entire event was more like a coronation than a swearing in. Bill and his wife, Rikki Klieman, arrived around 9:15. The tv cameras were everyhere, as were the sound booms the audio guys run around with that look like giant dustmops.

I enjoyed meeting the Mayor, James Hahn and the early 60's singer Bobby Sherman who has been an LA police officer for the past 15 years. (Photo here.)

The swearing in ceremony began with a changing of the color guard by the police. On the dais were LA Mayor Hahn, California Governor Gray Davis, the entire LA Police Commission, the entire LA city council (except for one who couldn't make it), the former LAPD police chiefs and some other folks.

All were introduced and applauded. I was right up front, in the VIP section, along with criminal defense lawyer friends Mickey Sherman of Connecticut and Murray Richman of the Bronx. The three of us were there because we are friends of Rikki's and Bill's, not because we are enamored with police. And the three of us believe that if anyone can turn the LAPD around, it's Bill.

Governor Gray Davis spoke first, inviting Bill to come to him for funding and resources to fix the beleagured police department. Mayor Hahn was next, and then came Rick Caruso, the head of the Police Commission, who pinned the badge on Bill.

A word about Caruso. I had assumed the police commission would be composed of cops, and that Caruso, as its head, would be a high-up cop. Totally wrong, as I found out by sitting next to Caruso's brother-in-law during the ceremony. The police commission in LA, which is the group that makes the recommendation of three finalists for Chief to the Mayor, is a citizen's group, one composed of very influential and politically minded citizens. Rick Caruso's real occupation is that of real estate developer and magnate. He is a very articulate speaker. And as I'll discuss later, when we get to the party, he is an incredibly gracious host.

The only disconcerting moment of the ceremony was when former police chief Daryl Gates, who I disliked intensely as police chief, was introduced. The cops clapped louder for him than for anyone else on the dais. If I hadn't known before, I certainly realized then that Bill faces some large obstacles in his new job.

Caruso introduced Bill. Bill is a great public speaker and one who doesn't use notes. Bill gave LA such a buildup that I was almost sorry I didn't live there to take pride in it. After the praise for LA, Bill said the cops would have to stop driving around in their cars waving and smiling at people and get back into the streets, interacting with the public and making arrests where warranted. He said the police have to learn to work with the community. He said the department can't succeed at fighting crime unless there is a partnership between the police and and the community. He said they would go into the streets and take them back from the gangs and that he would make sure the officers were safe by providing them with a lot more training.

That is a big issue in LA--the gangs. None of the LA residents I spoke to believe the gangs can be taken out. They say the gangs are too powerful and their members too willing to risk their own lives.

Bill thinks he can take down the gangs. He is going to start by going after graffiti artists. I certainly have some civil liberty concerns about this "broken windows" method of policing, but am willing to give Bill the benefit of the doubt because I know he strongly believes in constitutional rights. Maybe he can accomplish a reduction in crime and a dismantling of the gangs fairly without a wholesale violation of civil rights. I hope so.

After Bill's speech, the bagpipes played and the procession started off the field. It was a gorgeous, sunny day in LA which contributed to my overall feeling that the ceremony had been uplifting and a much needed shot in the arm for LA.

I could sense the crowd's support for Bill. It was fun seeing Rikki, such an independent career woman and a former tough criminal defense attorney, up there on the dais in the role of supportive wife. She was loving every minute of it.

If you want to read about the evening party, here's more: