The California Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday on whether Governor Gray Davis' refusal to grant to any killers violates the law.

"Soon after he took office, Gov. Gray Davis told a newspaper reporter that any inmate serving time for murder in California was not going to get out during his watch. "

He's kept his word. "What the governor is doing is fundamentally unlawful -- but politically astute," said Franklin Zimring, a criminal law professor at Berkeley's Boalt School of Law. Prisoners -- especially those convicted of murder -- don't have a large voter constituency, he said. "

"The governor's policy, his critics say, has turned every murderer's sentence into life without possibility of, regardless of any mitigating factors. "

The Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle have been particularly critical of Davis' no policy in recent weeks. Read, for example, Wasted Money, Wasted Lives

Last year the Board, hardly a conservative group, granted to 140 inmates. Davis vetoed all but two.

"When a judge issues a sentence that includes the words "with possibility of," it reflects our society's belief that a small number of criminals can be rehabilitated, as well as our constitutional right to a fair and impartial hearing."

"One of the important reasons for a system is to give inmates a strong incentive to follow the rules and to turn their lives around."

"The governor should uphold the board's ruling. If not, perhaps Davis could explain why Californians should continue to pay for the work of an agency and commission he repeatedly ignores. "

There will be no charges brought in the matter of the taping of a Republican strategy session of Rep. Greg Ganske by Des Moines businessman Brian Conley. Conley gave the tape to Harkin's re-election campaign, and the campaign released it to the media.

"State and federal prosecutors announced Monday they have dropped their investigation into the surreptitious taping of a campaign strategy session held by Rep. Greg Ganske, R-Iowa, after determining that no laws were violated."

The district attorney said since Conley was invited to the event, it was not illegal for him to record it.

It was another gruesome day at the Ira Einhorn murder trial Monday as a bookstore owner testified that Einhorn sought a book on mummification three to six months before his arrest. Einhorn's lawyer says the witness' timeline is off, and that according to prosecutors, Holly had been dead for months during that period. Ira's lawyer also said Ira denies seeking out such a book.

Then there was this testimony today from Ira's downstairs neighbor:

"Einhorn's former neighbor Paul Herre testified he heard screams and six loud thumps coming down from Einhorn's apartment in the fall of 1977. "I heard pounding and screaming coming from my living-room area, coming from the apartment above. . . . It was a female voice," Herre said."

"During that same autumn, an overwhelming stench took over Herre's kitchen. Herre said the smell was worse than the 1976 summertime garbage strike in the city, and was so bad that his roommate left for a time. He testified that he traced the stink to a storage area in his kitchen - directly below Einhorn's closet."

"Herre said he discovered the odor on Sept. 26, 1977, after returning home from a weeklong trip to his sister's wedding. " Holly was last seen alive two weeks earlier.

Then the police chemist testified about the decomposition of the body inside the trunk.

The prosecution expects to rest its case by Wednesday. After that, the jury may hear from defense witnesses, including Ira.

We didn't write a letter to Congress today as part of Open Letters Blogburst. We really couldn't think of anything original to add to the heart-felt, exceptionally written and passionate letters we read there, particular the one by Jeanne D'Arc of Body and Soul.

Since last week, whenever we think of the upcoming attack on Iraq, a song keeps running through our head, and it's not one that is likely to sway any member of Congress.

So, instead of writing Congress, we thought we'd reprint the lyrics here. It was performed for the first time in 1965, but became an anthem after it was sung (following a legendary cheer) at Woodstock.

Since then, many have changed the lyrics to fit their particular cause. We invite you to fiddle with a few words in the comments section here, to make it "a case on point" for the war in Iraq.

The last verse before the final chorus is the one that resonates with us the most: both because of those we knew back then who didn't come home--and because as a parent with a son of draft age now, there is no way we could support a war with Iraq without an imminent, credible and well-documented threat to the United States--and concrete evidence Iraq has the capability to carry it out.

Country Joe & the Fish. "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixing-To-Die-Rag." (You can listen to it here.)

Yeah, come on all of you, big strong men,
Uncle Sam needs your help again.
He's got himself in a terrible jam
Way down yonder in Vietnam
So put down your books and pick up a gun,
We're gonna have a whole lotta fun.

And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam;
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we're all gonna die.

Well, come on generals, let's move fast;
Your big chance has come at last.
Gotta go out and get those reds —
The only good commie is the one who's dead
And you know that peace can only be won
When we've blown 'em all to kingdom come.

And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam;
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why
Whoopee! we're all gonna die.

Well, come on Wall Street, don't move slow,
Why man, this is war au-go-go.
There's plenty good money to be made
By supplying the Army with the tools of the trade,
Just hope and pray that if they drop the bomb,
They drop it on the Viet Cong.

And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam.
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why
Whoopee! we're all gonna die.

Well, come on mothers throughout the land,
Pack your boys off to Vietnam.
Come on fathers, don't hesitate,
Send 'em off before it's too late.
Be the first one on your block
To have your boy come home in a box.

And it's one, two, three
What are we fighting for ?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam.
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we're all gonna die.

For a succinct, well-documented chronicle of anti-war efforts during the period of 1965-1975, we recommend this series from the BBC.

One other quote we found and appreciated:

"If you grew up in the 60s, you grew up with war on tv every night. A war that your friends were involved in...and I want to do this song tonight for all the young people, if you're in your teens... because I remember a lot of my friends when they we were 17 or 18, we didn't have much of a chance to think about how we felt about a lot of things. And the next time, they're gonna be looking at you, and you're gonna need a lot of information to know what you're gonna wanna do. Because in 1985, blind faith in your leaders, or in anything, will get you killed. Because what I'm talking about here is:
War!
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing....

--Bruce Springsteen, introducing his band's rendition of "War" by Edwin Starr, Los Angeles, September, 1985.

Daily Kos has some great insight into the Governor's race in Florida--See Reno pushing so hard for McBride,

"If McBride pulls off a victory at the end of the day, I predict the genesis will be traced to the Democratic primary campaign -- three opponents who refused to go negative on each other, and who are now working together in pursuit of this election cycle's ultimate prize -- Jeb's head on a platter."

Reno's classy support is great politics-- not to mention that the state of Florida will benefit far more with McBride at the helm than Jeb Bush.

The Supreme Court refused to review Terry Nichols' conviction in the OKC bombing case today. The basis of his appeal was the government 's withholding of information that could have helped his defense and improper jury instructions.

Nichols is serving a life sentence for the conviction. He is also facing a trial in state court in Oklahoma where he could receive the death penalty if convicted. The state case repeatedly gets stalled because the state won't pay his court appointed lawyers.

As we reported here, as of August his lead court-appointed lawyer had not been paid in over 11 months, hadn't made a house payment in four months, and reported his staff had deserted him.

"Son of Sam" laws prohibit criminals from receiving payments for their stories. The Supreme Court ruled in 1991 that the laws violate protected speech under the First Amendment.

California thought its law, enacted in 1983 and later revised, passed constitutional muster. The state courts disagreed and today the Supreme Court let stand the state court's ruling that the ban is unconstitutional.

"The U.S. Supreme Court let stand on Monday a ruling that a law that bars felons from cashing in on their crime stories violates free-speech rights, in a case stemming from Frank Sinatra Jr.'s 1963 kidnapping."

"The justices declined to review a California Supreme Court ruling that struck down as unconstitutional the law that requires convicted criminals to give all money earned from book, movie or other deals to their victims or to the state."

"The Supreme Court last addressed the issue in 1991, when it unanimously ruled that a New York law that bans payments to accused or convicted criminals for books about their crimes violates the First Amendment."

"The New York law was known as the "Son of Sam" law because it was adopted after disclosures that serial killer David Berkowitz had been offered large sums of money for the rights to his story. It was the nation's first such law."

"Protecting America's Freedom in an Information Age," is a 173 page bipartisan report scheduled to be released today, "by some of the nation's leading information technology and national security experts" that recommends information sharing among intelligence and state and local law enforcement agencies.

The report "recommends that the Bush administration develop a system to share intelligence gathered in the United States and abroad among local, state and federal agencies while developing guidelines to protect against abuses."

The Report calls for all such information to be analyzed by a "new domestic intelligence center inside President Bush's planned Department of Homeland Security" instead of the F.B.I.

"The study also calls upon President Bush to devise new guidelines on what information federal agencies may and may not collect about individuals in the United States and with whom, and under what circumstances, such data may be shared."

The task force that drafted the report was co-chaired by Zoë Baird, now the president of the New York-based Markle Foundation, and James L. Barksdale, a businessman and former chief executive of Netscape.

The Republicans are pleased with the report. We're don't know enough about it yet to give an opinion. But we are pleased with at least two reported findings: first, that the report affirms the need for the "fundamental separation " of criminal investigation and domestic counterintelligence activities.

And second, that "the people running criminal investigations should not be seeking all kinds of information from businesses, state and local officials all over the country."

Atrios posted this picture Sunday of the anti-war protests in LA and Skippy was there.

In New York, several thousand protested in Central Park. The event was organized by the group Not In Our Name and speakers included actors Tim Robbins and Martin Sheen and relatives of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks. The protests didn't seem confined to the war on Iraq as there were many signs and speakers protesting other issues, from the war on drugs, to police brutality, feminist issues, oil company complaints, and more.

In Seattle, 5,000 protesters rallied against the war and listened to U.S. Representative Jim McDermott, just back from Bagdad.

In Philadelphia, an email informs us that the press has been minimizing an anti-war protest and sit-in at Sen. Rick Santorum's field office on Thursday, mostly of Penn students. More than a dozen were arrested on disorderly conduct charges when they refused to leave at the building's closing time. The police are threatening additional charges on those they had to carry out of the building.

Denver had an excellent week as well. Earlier in the week 2, 000 people showed up during lunch hour with anti-war protest signs at a downtown hotel where the President was making a fund raising appearance for local Republicans.

And Sunday, a record 54,587 people laced up their running shoes and participated in the 10th Annual Race for the Cure for breast cancer, raising $2 million. You can watch a short video of the spirited crowd here.

It appears that activism is alive and well.

From the New York Times article today, Law Bars a National System for Tracing Bullets and Shells:

"The technology exists to create a national ballistic fingerprint system that would enable law enforcement officials to trace bullets recovered from shootings, like those fired by the Washington-area sniper, to a suspect."

"Such a system would have been of great use in the Washington case, in which six people were shot to death, because so far bullet fragments are virtually the only evidence."

"But because of opposition by the gun industry and the National Rifle Association, only two states have moved to set up a ballistic fingerprint system, and Congress has prohibited a national program, experts say."

A relatively new system " known as the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network, optically scans the markings on bullets or shell casings, converting them into an electronic signature. This information is stored in a database and can be retrieved by computers in 235 police departments around the nation."

Many in law enforcement as well as gun control advocates want to require "gun manufacturers to keep an electronic record of the markings from bullets and shell casings when new guns are test fired. This data would be kept with the serial numbers of the guns. With this information, the agency would be able to trace bullets and shell casings found at a shooting site to the gun maker and eventually to the buyer."

The National Rifle Association opposes such a measure saying it would be the equivalent of a national gun registry. The NRA was successful in having a provision included in the 1968 federal Gun Control Act banning a national gun registry.

Aileen Wuornos, the Florida woman whose stay of execution was granted a week ago by Governor Jeb Bush so that a psychiatric examination could be performed to establish her competency, has been found competent and is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday.

Ms. Wuornos wants to die. She fired her lawyers some time ago. But a lawyer recently appointed to represent her is convinced she is mentally ill. Others argue that by killing her, Florida is engaging in "state-assisted suicide."

"Wuornos is not the first female killer to be put to death in Florida since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 and Florida resumed executions 3 years later.
In 1998, the state executed Judi Buenoano, dubbed the "black widow," by prosecutors for the poisoning deaths of her husband, son and a boyfriend. Before that, the last woman executed in Florida was a slave girl named Celia, who was hanged in 1848 for beating her master to death."

Law Professor Jeff Cooper of the very articulate, sincere and well-reasoned blog Cooped Up comments on the Administation's promotion of the War on Iraq and his opposition to it:

"There is, in other words, plenty of reason to question the truthfulness of the administration's case as well as its motive for advancing the case at this time. My opposition to the administration's approach to Iraq is not based on partisanship pure and simple. It is not based on reveling in being in a political minority, sainted or not. It is based on a sincere belief that the administration's course of conduct will ultimately damage important American interests, even if the invasion of Iraq is quickly successful."