Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, along with companion Sarah Shourd, were hiking in Northern Iraq in 2009. They came across a dirt road near a waterfall and unknowingly crossed the Iran border. Bauer and Fattal have been imprisoned in Iran ever since, and today were sentenced to 8 years in prison for unlawful entry into Iran and spying for the U.S.

They have 20 days to appeal. Shourd was granted bond and returned to the U.S. Her case is still open.

Requests through the Swiss embassy in Tehran to free the men has fallen on deaf ears so far.

The West Memphis 3, Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin, have been freed from prison after 18 years. They agreed to plead guilty via Alford pleas, under which they acknowledge the state has sufficient evidence to prove their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, but they do not admit they committed the crimes and can maintain their innocence. Why the Alford pleas? So they can't sue the state for their wrongful conviction and confinement.

The hearings were closed to the media and public. The District Attorney is giving a press conference now, and says the three are being processed for release and will walk out as free men today.

From the press conference: The DA says: Moments ago, all three entered guilty pleas to murder. The deal was proposed by the defense. The D.A. consulted with the families but did not give the families veto power. [More...]

Travel day for me.

Another exciting day at the track in lower Manhattan expected.

Open Thread.

A surprise hearing has been scheduled tomorrow for the West Memphis 3 , Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin. A gag order is in place, but WREG reports that two of them, including Damien Echols who was sentenced to death, will be released. Reports are that a plea deal has been arrived at under which all three would plead guilty to lesser charges and two would be released. Some reports say all three would be released immediately. The reports emanate from the families of the murdered youths, who were told about the deal but asked not to discuss it until tomorrow. The three have already been moved from their respective prisons for tomorrow's hearing in Jonesboro:

The Arkansas Department of Corrections says all three have left their prisons and are now in the custody of the Craighead County Sheriff's Office, taking all their belongings with them.

The Court released this statement: [More...]

President Obama today issued an order authorizing undocumented residents to obtain work permits and avoid removal (deportation.)

The Obama administration said Thursday it will allow many illegal immigrants facing deportation the chance to stay in this country and apply for a work permit, while focusing on removing from the U.S. convicted criminals and those who might be a national security or public safety threat.

That will mean a case-by-case review of approximately 300,000 illegal immigrants facing possible deportation in federal immigration courts, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in announcing the policy change.

[More...]

Via Digby, here comes the Super Catfood Commission Dem team's embrace of Simpson-Bowles:

Together We Can Beat the Deficit

Over the past few months, in debating the debt ceiling and deficit reduction, that light of common cause has appeared to flicker at times in our nation's capital. As appointees to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction—12 members of Congress charged with finding $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade—we hope to remedy that.

How will they remedy that you ask? Take a guess:

I found the impotence "defense" of President Obama strange before, it seems incomprehensible to me now that we need to make an argument for why he should be reelected. I'm not going to rehash my arguments on the subject. Suffice it to say that in his discussion with Scott LeMieux, I think Glenn Greenwald has the better of the argument.

Speaking for me only.

My fourth and final day of court for the week. I'm way far behind at blogging. Things should ease up by next week.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the Manhattan DA's office decides next week on whether to dismiss or keep going with the Dominique Strauss Kahn case.

More bad news for Phil Spector, who at age 71 is serving a 19 year sentence. The California Supreme Court declined to hear his case yesterday, which means he's got one avenue left: a habeas petition in federal court.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

As a blogger, I have never been as unhappy with the coverage of an upcoming presidential election as I am now. What's different? I finally figured it out.

Talkleft began in 2002. The first presidential election was 2004. There was the same old GW Bush, versus a Democratic challenger, John Kerry. Kerry/Edwards was news to write about. Defeating George Bush was important enough to warrant covering the election.

In 2008, there was Obama vs. McCain. Both were new candidates, and there was extensive coverage of both. Getting a Democrat back in the White House and keeping the supremely unqualified Sarah Palin out warranted blogging about the race.

The 2012 election has no new Democratic candidate. Since the Republican candidate is unknown and there is only a field of contenders, the media is obsessively focused on them.

I don't care about Republicans. I don't want to read about their quest for the nomination and I certainly don't want to write about them. I don't care which one is ahead, I don't want to follow their debates or their campaigning for the nomination. There's no race now. It's all about which Republican gets the nomination. Maybe once one is nominated, and the Democrats are back in the story, I'll write about the election. For now, it's of no interest to me and I'm not going to pretend I care.

Via Atrios, HuffPo on OFA's idea of rallying the progressive troops:

The Obama campaign's point person in New Mexico recently sent an email to supporters defending the president's position on the debt deal and bashing the "Firebagger Lefty blogosphere," including the Nobel Prize winning New York Times columnist Paul Krugman.

That'll work.

Open Thread.

President Obama's Chicago campaign headquarters were the site of a protest today over deportations and Secure Communities:

Latino activists held a protest outside President Barack Obama's 2012 campaign headquarters on Tuesday to ask him to end a criminal deportation program they say is snaring large number of illegal immigrants who have not committed crimes. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE, established the Secure Communities program in partnership with local law enforcement agencies as well as the FBI to deport unauthorized immigrants with criminal convictions.

Denver police have agreed to a $200,000. settlement of a class action lawsuit brought by arrested protestors and others at the 2008 Democratic National Convention and the ACLU. A federal judge ruled a few months ago that the mass arrests were unconstitutional:

“This case identified serious flaws in Denver’s training and policies on crowd control and policing demonstrations,” said Mark Silverstein, ACLU Legal Director. “The settlement, and the resulting improvements to Denver’s crowd-control manual, underscores an important lesson for Denver police: They must have individualized facts showing that each separate person they arrest was violating the law. Police violate the Constitution when they simply arrest everyone who happens to be in the area.”

The agreement must be approved by the Judge and the Denver City Council.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.