Back to work. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

300 protest rallies around the world are being held today over the planned execution of Troy Davis.

The petition delivered to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles had 638,000 signatures and support is growing daily.

Many say it's the most compelling case of innocence in decades. The Georgia Board has rejected clemency petitions for Troy before. It's also granted temporary stays of his execution.

There is simply too much doubt to execute Troy Davis. All of our coverage of his case is here. Listen to Troy in his own words in this interview from Death Row. [More...]

The New York Times reports the Obama Administrations' legal eagles are considering how far they can go in targeting and killing suspected terrorists in countries like Yeman and Somalia.

The debate, according to officials familiar with the deliberations, centers on whether the United States may take aim at only a handful of high-level leaders of militant groups who are personally linked to plots to attack the United States or whether it may also attack the thousands of low-level foot soldiers focused on parochial concerns: controlling the essentially ungoverned lands near the Gulf of Aden, which separates the countries.

[I]f a group has aligned itself with Al Qaeda against Americans, the United States can take aim at any of its combatants, especially in a country that is unable or unwilling to suppress them.

[More...]

Remember the big deal Attorney General Eric Holder made of the Administration's increased proposed funding for Prisoner Re-Entry programs? And Holder's touting the inauguratiion of a cabinet level "Reentry Council"? And how proud Obama and Holder were of the amounts in the 2012 proposed $28.2 billion Department of Justice Budget requested for Second Chance Act and reentry programs ?

The Budget provides $187 million in prisoner re-entry and jail diversion programs, including $100 million for the Second Chance Act programs and $57 million for drug, mental health, and other problem-solving courts.

Would you believe that yesterday, the Senate Appropriations Committee zapped the funding for prisoner reentry programs entirely, saying the money was needed for the Bureau of Prisons? It actually gave BOP an increase, to $6.6 billion. [More...]

President Obama issues a Presidential Memorandum on Major Illicit Drug Transit today.

Obama says he almost put Canada on the list for being a major transit point for Marijuana and Ecstasy. He also praised the African countries that worked on the DEA's Excellent African Adventures.

What effect does the Memorandum have? Legally, it's the same as an Executive Order, but this one doesn't seem to call for any action. It also doesn't seem to be tied to a denial or reduction in aid to these countries. Is it the opposite? A prelude to spending more money on the drug war in these countries? (Added: BBC News article on memo is here.)

Texas was set to execute Duane Buck last night. Texas held off until the last appeals had been decided.

Today, the Supreme Court has intervened, and granted a stay.

The issue:

At Buck's sentencing hearing, the jury that set his punishment was informed by a psychologist that black people had a higher rate of violent behaviour, a statement used by the prosecution as its key argument against giving him an alternative penalty of life imprisonment.

The victim's surviving relative asked for clemency.

Let's fight talk about sports.

Does Ochocinco tweet too much?

Tebow! Tebow!

Sneak peak at some of my "investments" this weekend - Denver Broncos (-3½), San Diego Chargers (+7), New Orleans Saints (-7), Manchester City (-1), Clemson (-3), Stanford (-10), Oklahoma (-3 1/2) and a Thursday night special - Miss St. (+4). (Entertainment purposes only.)

Open Thread.

Submitted for your consideration:

[Sen.] Tom Carper [D-DE] mouthing off from the comfortable environs of blue Delaware is a failure of Team Commie to be regarded as [a] serious political force. People who talk of primarying Obama need to pick smaller targets--and thus elicit bigger results.

Carper is up for reelection in 2012.

NOTE: I am not endorsing Coates' idea, just putting it out there for discussion.

Speaking for me only

Matt Yglesias writes:

This, right before our eyes, is a living, breathing example of why presidential speechmaking doesn’t do the things people say it does. It doesn’t even have the intended impact on its intended audience! Is Atrios fired up and ready to go? Prepared to stop writing sarcastic, depressed, and dismissive blog posts and instead go hard against the president’s critics, boosting the morale of the president’s audience? No, he’s sarcastic, depressed, and dismissive because the objective situation is depressing and everyone knows the jobs plan won’t pass.

I love Atrios but the prototypical voter he is not. Yglesias needs to find a more "representative" Friedmanesque cab driver.

Speaking for me only

Rep. Peter DeFazio said:

“I have been very unequivocal,” said Representative Peter A. DeFazio, a Democrat from Oregon. “No more tax cuts.”We have the economy that tax cuts give us. And it’s pretty pathetic, isn’t it?

MisterMix of Balloon Juice objects:

[L]et’s not forget the high-pitched cry of the safe-seat absolutist [. . .] Faced with the real possibility of losing the Presidency and both houses of Congress, in the worst recession in most of their lifetimes, this is how the Democratic Party reacts to the least objectionable piece of legislation that’s been sent to the hill in a long time. I’m sure Future President Perry, Future Majority Leader McConnell, and Continuing Speaker Boehner are all laughing right now.

I suppose some might call that a "pragmatic" analysis. I'm not one of them. Running against the Bush economic record, as DeFazio seems to suggest, seems like a pretty good political notion. YMMV.

Bad news:

Applications for unemployment benefits climbed to 428,000 in the week ended Sept. 10 from an upwardly revised 417,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said.

Exacerbating the problem is the rise in headline inflation:

The Labor Department said its Consumer Price Index increased 0.4 percent last month, after rising 0.5 percent in July. The reading was higher than the 0.2 percent rise expected, with food prices posting their biggest gain since March. Gasoline prices climbed 1.9 percent after jumping 4.7 percent the prior month. Food prices rose 0.5 percent after increasing 0.4 percent in July.

This is bad because the folks that want Austerity Now! get to yell Inflation! The reality is that core inflation is 2% due to slack demand. But energy and food prices go up more because demand for these items is inelastic. This is a toxic brew of economic news. Things are looking bleaker.

Time for a new season of Survivor South Pacific and the finale of Big Brother. of the three Big Brother finalists, two of them (Adam and Porsche) don't even belong there since they were total lightweights all season, so if you haven't followed the season so far, no reason to start tonight. They need to do some serious re-tooling for next summer. (Added: my very catty take on the season is here.)

Also on tonight: Restaurant Impossible, a quirky show on the Food Network that is oddly appealing. When Obama announced his job plan, I kept thinking of the failing restaurant owners on the show, wondering how they and business owners like them would feel about being told they could have a $1,500 tax credit, a payroll tax cut and more tax cuts if they hired new workers. They have no customers because of the economy and they are already throwing their retirement savings into the restaurants just to stay afloat and keep the few employees they do have. How are they going to hire new workers? They need income and business, not tax credits.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.