Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn is soon to receive the names of the three finalists selected by the city's Police Commission for the position of LA Police Chief. From this list of three, Hahn will make the final selection. To prepare the city for his choice, he is embarking on a media campaign.

In Monday's Los Angeles Times, he outlined what he is looking for and expects in the new Chief.

"My expectations for the new chief are very clear: reduce crime, improve morale and recruitment, implement the reforms mandated by the consent decree, expand community policing and embrace the role of civilian oversight."

"Among the new chief's top priorities must be to return the LAPD to its fully authorized level of 10,000 officers. Additionally, he or she must commit to getting the LAPD's highly trained officers, many of whom are sitting behind desks at headquarters, back out on neighborhood streets. The new chief must change the LAPD from a top-heavy command-and-control department into a proactive, community-based organization."

That sounds like former NY Police Commissioner Bill Bratton to us. Bratton has both the ability and the proven track record - that's exactly what he did for New York. We hope Mayor Hahn agrees that Bratton offers the city its best, if not only hope of turning around a police department so ravaged by scandal and distrust.

Diane Roberts opines that Katherine Harris has become the poster girl for Florida's dysfunctional elections in Notes From Tallahassee:Two Strikes and You're In Congress.

A special thanks to Cursor for making our Buffalo Eight post its lead story today--we've had over 1,400 hits since this morning.

For those of you who got here some other way, check Cursor out--it is a topical, relevant and essential read every day.

The battle over Bush judicial nominee Michael McConnell for a position on the the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit is heating up.

At a press conference with leaders of national civil, constitutional and women's rights organizations, People For the American Way President Ralph G. Neas called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject McConnell's confirmation.

Neas released a PFAW report analyzing McConnell's legal philosophy on a range of civil and constitutional rights issues. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a Confirmation hearing for McConnell on Wednesday, September 18.

Neas and the assembled groups assert "McConnell's record makes clear that as a lifetime appointee to the federal bench he would pose a serious threat to constitutional rights and liberties.... McConnell is highly intelligent and well-liked by his academic colleagues, but his extreme legal philosophy on too many issues raises serious questions about his ability to be a fair and impartial judge and make him utterly inappropriate for the federal appeals court."

The Associated Press has fired long-time reporter Christopher Newton for allegedly inventing sources, including those in a recent article on crime statistics.

"Chris Newton maintains these experts are real and accurately quoted, but our editors have been unable to verify that they even exist," said AP spokeswoman Kelly Smith Tunney."

Tunney said "15 questionable quotes have been found among hundreds of articles written by Newton and that AP is still reviewing his work. She added the news agency has discovered no instance where the questionable material was central to the story."

Newton has been writing for the AP since 1994. He had been based at the Justice Department, covering federal law-enforcement issues and activities since June, 2002.

Josh Marshall makes an excellent point today in Talking Points Memo about the way decisions are being made on how to treat those arrested or captured in the Terror War.

"John Walker Lindh, a US citizen, gets a straightforward civilian trial. Zacarias Moussaoui, a French citizen, gets a straightforward civilian trial. Jose Padilla, a US citizen, is held indefinitely and without counsel as an enemy combatant. Yasir Hamdi, another US citizen, is also an enemy combatant being held indefinitely, but he may get a lawyer. The folks down in Guantanamo, well, who knows? "

"A military tribunal, civilian trials, various sorts of detention -- cases can be made for each method of proceeding. But the essence of the rule of law is having rules in place for how you're going to deal with people before you catch them, not making them up afterwards."

Atrios/Eschaton takes the argument one step further:

"We can debate about what the rules should be and when, but most importantly there should be rules. When talking heads get on TV and say with a straight face that the government should choose this system of justice over another one because it would be easier to get a conviction that way, our justice system has become a complete farce. If only it were funny."

It's not just tv-talking heads. Check out the options and reasons set out by "legal and government experts" in this Washington Post article today:

"In the Moussaoui case, the government also may balk at calling Binalshibh as a courtroom witness because of concerns over disclosure of classified information and the need to provide him with counsel, several officials and legal experts said yesterday."

According to one legal expert, "Bringing him here as a witness raises real complications...The government's best scenario is to get information from Binalshibh that helps them gather evidence to be used against Moussaoui and others."

A senior law enforcement official agreed: "He will be most useful as a way to gather leads that could lead us to more evidence. Direct testimony might not be the best option."

A law professor at the University of Maryland's Center for Health and Homeland Security "noted that the government repeatedly has invoked the need for interrogation in arguing for the detention of foreign prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and American prisoners in U.S. jails. That argument is particularly strong in the case of Binalshibh. They're not going to be putting him in a situation where he will be subject to [legal] process or subpoena or anything of that nature."

So the choices at this juncture seem to be:

The case against the six Buffalo suspects recently charged with providing material support to terrorists is a strange one.

Michael Niman, a professor of American studies at Medaille College in Buffalo and Alternet contributor, asks Is the Buffalo, NY Terrorist Cell For Real?.

Niman charges that "the FBI has not yet presented any evidence, argument or charges that would indicate the Lackawanna men comprised an "al-Qaeda terrorist cell," as alleged by the Justice Department and countless newspaper headlines. "

According to Niman, at the press conference held after their arrest, the FBI special agent in charge reported that no weapons had been seized and "there was no evidence that the suspects were supporting or planning any specific terrorist actions. " (Since then, the agent in charge has corrected the statement to say two guns and a stun gun were seized.)

"The entire case against the five Americans consists of the fact that they allegedly, while on a pilgrimage to study Islam in Pakistan, took a side trip into Taliban Afghanistan and visited what later became known in the American media as the "al-Farooq terrorist training camp."

For a first-hand account of the partisan politics and stalling that go on in the judicial appointment confirmation process, read JUDGE NOT by Mike Shattman in the DFW Telegram.

Bottom Line: Both sides stall, but at least the democrats give the Republican choices a hearing and vote. Shattman, a Clinton nominee, got neither.

"I want to congratulate Priscilla Owen for getting a hearing and a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., for restoring the constitutional process that is the advice-and-consent role of the Senate."

"Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, abandoned that historical process. Under Hatch's regime, not one of even President Bush's 27 judicial nominees got so much as a hearing."

"It was not until the Democrats regained control of the Senate last summer and Leahy assumed the chair that hearings and confirmations resumed. As of this writing, the Democratic-led Senate Committee had held hearings on 82 Bush nominees, approving 80 of them -- including 16 women. The full Senate had already confirmed 73."

"This is normal -- traditional. It was not that way from 1994 to 2001."

"All we wanted for the nominees is what the Constitution expects: a hearing and a vote. No one is entitled to a favorable outcome." Shattman got none of them. He gave up his state judgeship when he was nominated for the federal post. Now he's a lawyer in private practice.

Steve Silberman has a new article Caught in the Kid Porn Crusade in the new issue of Wired.

It's about a high-profile FBI child-pornography dragnet called Operation Candyman. In the course of three months of reporting, Steve says he uncovered "some very unsettling discrepancies between what the Attorney General and the bureau told the press and Congress, and what the agents who ran the operation told me actually occurred, with profound civil liberties implications."

After five days of deliberation, the jury in the San Diego murder trial of David Westerfield (convicted two weeks ago for the murder of 7 year old Danielle Van Dam) came back today with a recommendation he be sentenced to death.

The jury returned this morning after four days off, deliberated two hours and sent a note to the judge saying they were deadlocked. Then they went to lunch. They came back from lunch and sent a note to the judge saying they wanted more time to deliberate. Ten minutes after that note they sent another note that they had reached a verdict.

The defense moved for a mistrial arguing the jury had to have discussed the case at lunch which the court's instructions forbid. The judge denied the motion.

The Judge could override the jury's verdict and sentence Westerfield to life without, but California experts say this is rarely done.

We hear Hannity and Colmes will be discussing this case around 9:30 ET on the Fox News Channel . Sean Hannity takes the position that the parents are "morally culpable" for their daughter's death due to their "swinging lifestyle" and pot use which resulted in their bringing strangers into their home.

We think life without ("lwop") was the more appropriate result. In weighing the aggravating and mitigating factors, you have the heinousness and brutality of the child's murder on the one side, and Westerfield's lifetime of no criminal conduct, kids who still love him and testified he was a good dad and his usefulness to society (through inventing and patenting medical devices for the ill and injured) on the other. We think the mitigators outweighed the aggravators, but we know we're in the minority on this.

The finalists for the 2002 Online Journalism Awards came out today. They are listed here. The winners will be announced during the Online News Association's third annual conference in New York City Oct. 18-19, 2002.

The awards are presented by the Online News Association & the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. They honor "Excellence in English-language Web Journalism Worldwide" and have categories for sites with user hits under 200,000 per month and over 200,000 per month.

Bloggers take note:

Congratulations to James Tarranto and Best of the Web for its selection as a finalist in the Online Commentary category. It is the one category that is not divided into affiliated and independent media.

"This category honors a body of work by a single writer for commentary original to the Web. (Print syndication after Web posting does not disqualify an entry.) Topics can range from news commentary to essays, reviews, criticism, opinion and humor. The writer should display an original voice, freshness of insight and clear writing. Creative use of the medium will be considered. "

The nomination forms for next year will come out in July, 2003.

We've been blogging all through the weekend. So much so that we just went in and edited the posts from the past few days to divide the really long ones into two sections so you don't have so much to scroll through. The second half of these posts now begin when you click on "more."

We're taking a break, probably until Monday night. We invite you to hang out as long as you want, click around the site, read, post comments, and check out the other blogs and sites we link to on the right side of the page.