Another Republican debate? I'm not watching. Better Fare: Survivor, The X-Factor, Harry's Law, Restaurant Impossible or even America's Next Top Model.

Human Rights Watch has a new report on abuses by Mexican police and military in the war on drugs. Shorter version: Mexico's war on drugs is a failure that only serves to increase the violence and fear:

Mexico’s military and police have committed widespread human rights violations in efforts to combat organized crime, virtually none of which are being adequately investigated, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

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Don't fall for the new book on Australian Schapelle Corby, sentenced to 20 years in an Indonesian prison for bringing 4 kilos of pot into Bali. The book claims Schapelle's now deceased father put the pot in her boogie board .

While the book doesn't go so far as to claim there is evidence that Schapelle knew the pot was in her board (its premise seems merely to be that after she was busted, she took the fall for her father, who died in 2008,) multiple media outlets are leading with incendiary headlines that Schapelle's guilt is now established. The author, Journalist Eamonn Duff, who works for the Sydney Morning Herald, has been coming up with these Corby family guilt scenarios for years. [More...]

Herman Cain yesterday said he doesn't recognize Sharon Bialek or know her. But Bialak and witnesses say differently, since a month ago at a function, Bialak was seen approaching him, hugging him and talking to him. One of the witnesses is WIND radio co-host Amy Jacobson.

As Guantanamo detainee Abd al-Rahim Hussein Muhammed Abdu Al-Nashiri is arraigned on capital charges of masterminding al Qaida's 2000 bombing of the U.S.S. Cole, lawyers are also arguing some important motions. Chief among them is: If al-Nashiri is acquitted, will he be released? Miami Herald Reporter Carol Rosenberg is live-tweeting the proceedings. Here's a handy twitter link to many of the reporters' live tweets in one place.

What are the possible outcomes of al-Nashiri's trial? If there are only 3, guilty and a death sentence, guilty and a sentence less than death, acquittal followed by indefinite detention, probably for life, why bother with a trial? A trial with no possibility of release is nothing but a show trial.

The defense argues that the military jury that will decide al-Nashiri's fate should be told that an acquittal means continued incarceration, if that's the case. Its motion is here. [More...]

Russell Pearce, the state senator from Arizona who authored the discriminatory Arizona immigration bill, lost his seat in a recall election yesterday.

Pearce, a former Phoenix-area sheriff's deputy known for his tough stance against illegal immigration, sponsored the state immigration law that became the focus of national media and legal attention.

"With Sen. Russell Pearce's defeat in this recall election, everyone who practices the politics of fear and division was put on notice," said Rep. Raul Grijalva, a Democrat from Arizona.

Mississippi voters today defeated a personhood amendment.

[T]he full wording of the measure as it appeared on the ballot define[d] every human being as a person "from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the equivalent thereof."

The Amendment was largely an effort of Keith Mason, co-founder of the group Personhood USA, based in Colorado. The group tried and failed to get the Amendment passed in Colorado in 2008 and 2010. The ACLU says Arkansas, Montana, Florida, Oregon, Nevada may be the next battlegrounds.

Carol Rosenberg of McClatchy reports on the cost of housing inmates at Guantanamo in the Miami Herald. It costs $800,000 a year to house one detainee, according to a letter Eric Holder and Leon Pannetta sent Congress this summer. There are 171 detainees still at Guantanamo.

Congress, determined to keep Gitmo open, authorized provided $139 million for its operation last year. Why isn't it under consideration for part of the $1.5 trillion budget cut?

Herman Cain is now represented by prominent Atlanta libel/defamation attorney Linn Wood, who previously represented the parents of JonBenet Ramsey, Richard Jewell, Gary Condit and the accuser in the Kobe Bryant Case. (He did not represent Kobe, as reported by the National Journal and ABA Journal, which should know better.) The National Journal reports he represented "Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant, whom Wood served as co-counsel in a federal civil-action rape case." Here's the Complaint in the accuser's federal suit, signed on page 8 by Lin Wood.[More...]

Tonight has to be the exit for Nancy Grace, on DWTS. If not, the show will have some serious credibility issues. She should have been sent packing weeks ago, but her TV fans kept her alive. There's no one left who even remotely is as poor a dancer. Last night Judge Len said:

"For me, you've had kind of a Cinderella story here," he told Ms. Grace. "But it's midnight and it's time to go home."

The only good thing about Ms. UnGrace being on DWTS is it's kept her from spouting her misguided and poisonous opinions on her talk show.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Here's the transcript of today's oral argument in U.S. v. Antoine Jones, the case regarding warrantless GPS tracking devices. Basically,

The case concerned Antoine Jones, who was the owner of a Washington nightclub when the police came to suspect him of being part of a cocaine-selling operation. They placed a tracking device on his Jeep Grand Cherokee without a valid warrant, tracked his travels for a month and used the evidence they gathered to convict him of conspiring to sell cocaine. He was sentenced to life in prison.

The DC Court of Appeals reversed his conviction (opinion here.) [More...]

Despite diplomatic relations being restored with Bolivia yesterday, Vice President Vice President Alvaro Garcia said today the DEA is still unwelcome there.

[Garcia]says the Drug Enforcement Administration "was a mechanism of political blackmail" and is not welcome back.

The DEA was expelled from Bolivia in 2008 by by President Evo Morales.

Herman Cain gave interviews and a press conference today. He denied ever meeting Sharon Bialek, known now as "Woman Number 4." He said he doesn't know who she is. And, he's willing to take a polygraph.

Meanwhile, via the Washington Post, one of the women from the earlier accusations made in the 1990's who received a civil settlement has publicly come forward. (CBS reports her lawyer says she won't come forward, but she tells the Washington Post she will): [More...]