Busy.

Open Thread.

Bump and Update: The Judge rejected the Government's request for a life sentence, and sentenced Viktor Bout to 25 years, the minimum term possible given the mandatory sentence requirement of the statute. Mr. Bout did address the judge:

"Your honor, I am not guilty...."I never intended to kill anyone. I never intended to sell arms to anyone. God knows this truth."

According to the Judge,

... Mr. Bout simply took advantage of the opportunity presented to him, rather than actively looking to commit a crime that could be prosecuted in U.S. courts. She also said the federal sentencing guidelines in the case called for too harsh a sentence.

Presumably, he will get credit for his jail time since March, 2008 in Thailand, since he was only being held on our extradition request. He will get credit for the time in custody since he got to the U.S. That would make the sentence 21 years, of which he will have to serve 85% or 17.8 years, if he doesn't win his appeals and Congress doesn't increase good time while he's serving the sentence. He'd be 66 when he gets out. The Judge made the right call in my view by refusing to sentence him to life or 30 years. [More...]

Schapelle Corby news: This week Indonesia's Justice and Human Rights Ministry officially recommended Schapelle Corby be granted clemency due to the decline of her mental health and that her sentence be cut by 10 years. The Director of Prisons joined in the request. With the 19 month sentence cuts she's received over the years, she could be released in 2014. Today, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard joined the recommendation.

The decision rests with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has opposed clemency in the past. A Supreme Court judge is said to have made the same recommendation. It may be months before Yudhoyono announces his decision.

[More...]

The five detainees charged with participating in the 9/11 attacks will appear in court at Guantanamo within 30 days to schedule proceedings in their trial by military commission. They include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Waleed bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi

An arraignment will be held at Guantanamo next month, and all of the pretrial issues that surfaced in the earlier case will have to be litigated again, including the issue of self-representation and the mental health and capacity of Binalshibh and Hawsawi.

All of them were held in secret overseas prisons until 2006 when then President Bush ordered them moved to Guantanamo. All alleged being tortured. The death penalty is being sought for all of them.

The 123 page charge sheet is available at the Military Commission's website here (click on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed et al (2), and then use the arrow to go to "Docket." They will also be tried on the charges returned in January, 2012, available at the same link. [More...]

Most Democrats are familiar with the story of FDR's battles with the Supreme Court regarding the constitutionality of his New Deal legislation. In 1937, the Court reversed course and recognized the Commerce power as empowering the Congress to enact the New Deal legislation.

In discussing the constitutionality of the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act, much has been made of the supposed unprecedented nature of the regulation of "inactivity." I have found the argument to be so specious (particularly when one considers the power conferred by the Necessary and Proper Clause), that I have devoted little time to rebutting this argument. But in passing on another subject, I reread NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel, 301 US Reports 1 (1937), the case that began the the "switch in time saves 9" process. A review of the case is instructive. Follow to the other side for the discussion.

I'm out tonight, and have missed most of the day's news.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

An official mea culpa and apology from NBC News for editing and distorting the meaning of George Zimmerman's 911 call in the Trayvon Martin case in a Today show segment that was repeated on MSNBC.

During our investigation it became evident that there was an error made in the production process that we deeply regret. We will be taking the necessary steps to prevent this from happening in the future and apologize to our viewers.

I wrote yesterday NBC was investigating the edit error. Good that they followed up swiftly. [More..]

Unseemly:

In the escalating battle between the administration and the judiciary, a federal appeals court apparently is calling the president's bluff -- ordering the Justice Department to answer by Thursday whether the Obama Administration believes that the courts have the right to strike down a federal law, according to a lawyer who was in the courtroom.

The order, by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, appears to be in direct response to the president's comments yesterday about the Supreme Court's review of the health care law. Mr. Obama all but threw down the gauntlet with the justices, saying he was "confident" the Court would not "take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress."

In case you were wondering, the President is officially a politician. Now we know that Republican judges are too.

Speaking for me only

Atrios celebrates 10 years of blogging with a declaration of Wankers of the Decade. Up first, Jane Galt:

[T]his particular award is really going back to the beginning, when the libertarian case for war in Iraq was strong, and the metaphysics of "pre-emptive war" was debated alongside the metaphysics of "firm, pre-emptive" use of 2x4s against protesters. Throw in a bit of confusion about just what a 2x4 is, the fact that people on the internet are mean, and pleas for civilitude from those of us not wanting to blow up a bunch of people over there just because, and you have the perfect McArdle mix.

Read the whole thing. Including the links. Very funny and spot on. The countdown for Wanker of the Decade will be fun. I'm thinking Tom Friedman can't lose, but maybe a surprise will be sprung.

Speaking for me only

How topical. The annual Voice Biometrics Conference begins today in New York. This year's theme: Benchmarks, Use Cases and Real World Experience.

Registration is $699., but maybe they have media passes available. One interesting talk may be that of Alexey Khitrov, of the Speech Technology Center which is a "gold" sponsor of the conference. (Its program is SpeechPro):

Reality Check #1: Lessons Learned from Forensics and Law Enforcement

What other programs do law enforcement use for speaker recognition? [More...]

Interesting New York Times story:

At the 76th Masters this week, there will be no club caddies required; only two black caddies started the season with regular jobs on the PGA Tour and one has since been fired. The great black caddies of the past, who carried the bags for Gene Sarazen and Jack Nicklaus and the game’s other greats, are dead or well into the back nine of their lives.

For a variety of reasons, no new generation has taken the bags from them. Caddying, once perceived as a menial job, has become a vocation for the college-educated and failed professionals who are lured by the astronomical purses driven by Woods’s immense popularity. In 1996, the year Woods turned pro, the PGA Tour purses averaged $1.47 million. This year, they average $6.20 million.

Yes, there is very good money in being a caddy of the professional golf tours now. I think we need not look for more in terms of explanations. If there was good money in picking fruit, there would be a disappearance of the Latino fruit picker. Yes, I am calling white privilege.

Speaking for me only

Link:

“It’s entirely up to [Hillary Clinton],” Clinton told “Good Morning America” of ABC News. “I believe that she’s being absolutely honest with you when she says she doesn’t think she’ll go back into politics. But if she comes home and we do this foundation stuff for the rest of our lives, I’ll be happy; if she changes her mind and decides to run, I’ll be happy.”

As I have stated, I don't think it's optional from the Dem point of view -- she's our best hope to hold the White House (assuming President Obama wins reelection.)

Speaking for me only