Another travel day for me.

Open Thread.

I'll be busy the rest of the afternoon. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Update: The apartment house blocks Dominique Strauss-Kahn from moving in. Now what?

Instead, Mr. Strauss-Kahn will be staying at a corporate housing building used by the security company, Stroz Friedberg, that has been hired to guard him while he remains under 24-hour home confinement, according to the official at State Supreme Court in Manhattan.

Omer Ninham was 14 when he was part of a group of kids that killed a 13 year old by throwing him off the top of a parking garage. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The Wisconsin Supreme Court today upheld the sentence. The opinion is here. The defense argued:

Ninham mounts a categorical constitutional challenge, arguing that sentencing a 14-year-old to life imprisonment without parole is cruel and unusual in violation of the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 6 of the Wisconsin Constitution. In the alternative, Ninham seeks sentence modification on the grounds that (1) his sentence is unduly harsh and excessive; (2) new scientific research regarding adolescent brain development constitutes a new factor that frustrates the purpose of the sentence; and (3) the circuit court relied on an improper factor when imposing the sentence.

[More...]

[Update: Many of the reported details below about the background of the accuser have changed since this was written.]

I have always objected to the media naming the person accused of a rape crime, but shielding the name of his accuser. How is that fair? If the woman was stabbed, the U.S Media would name her.

There should be no stigma associated with rape. Rape should not attach a sense of shame to the accuser. But it does in many cases, and so these accusers are looked upon as perennial victims, when a much better word for them would be survivors. Keeping their names from the media perpetuates the antiquated myth that women who get raped are fragile and weak, and need someone to look after them. Releasing their names could empower them and remove them from being under a shadow of shame and the stigma that all too often accompanies women who are raped. By allowing them to be treated just like everyone else, perhaps society will come to accept that rape is an expression of violence, it is not really about the sex. Women have nothing to be ashamed of when dealing with the aftermath of a rape. They were the temporary victim of a violent crime, just like the person who got mugged. Naming the accuser, when the male suspect is similarly publicly named, levels the playing field and makes them equal. No one wants to be a permanent victim.

In the Dominique Strass-Kahn case, no one but the two of them know for certain what happened and didn't happen in that hotel room. [More..]

Tyler Hamilton, former teammate of Lance Armstrong, and a cooperator in the Government investigation into Armstrong's use of steroids, tells "60 Minutes" tonight that Lance Armstrong injected steroids many times. He said they all did. Lance Armstrong's lawyer replies:

Every cyclist who appeared on 60 Minutes has in the past sworn that they never doped. Now, their stories have suddenly changed out of desire for money and the need for attention. Just as eager for money and attention, 60 Minutes has embraced these falsehoods uncritically and enthusiastically. But greed and a hunger for publicity cannot change the facts: Lance Armstrong is the most tested athlete in the history of sports: He has passed nearly 500 tests over twenty years of competition. The time has long passed for this nonsensical investigation to stop, and for the enormous wasted resources to be re-directed to investigations that might actually protect Americans from wrongdoing.

Hamilton says Armstrong took the blood-booster EPO. He reportedly is writing a book. For more information from Lance's point of view, visit Facts for Lance.

Detainee Hajji Nassim, aka Inayatullah, committed suicide at Guantanamo yesterday. He is the sixth detainee to kill himself at Guantanamo.

He was captured in Afghanistan and sent to Guantanamo in 2007. He was represented by the Federal Defenders of Miami, who say at one point they arranged for a civilian psychiatrist to visit him.

Wikileaks has no documents on him, but his the pleadings in his habeas case, available on PACER, (Case No. 09-cv-01332-HHK) detail more than 60 interrogations, the first of which was on September 13, 2007. He was an Afghan national who co-owned a cell phone store in Iran. He was suspected of providing safe housing and/or transit from Iran to Pakistan to Turk/al Qaeda fighters. On one occasion he may have delivered a message. He had a wife and six children. He was very concerned about his brother Hidayatullah who he thought was imprisoned at Bagram. [More...]

IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn will be released on bail .

Judge Michael Obus set bail terms of $1m in cash as well as $5m in an insurance bond set against the international politician's properties in the US. He also demanded that Strauss-Kahn surrender all his travel documents and that he remain under house arrest in Manhattan under 24-hour armed guard.

On the armed security company: [More...]

52 votes for cloture not enough.

Joan McCarter has some precious quotes from the GOP on how they would NEVER filibuster a judicial nominee:

Senator Saxby Chambliss (GA): “I believe [filibustering judicial nominees] is in violation of the Constitution” (4/13/05).

Senator John Cornyn (TX): Judicial filibusters are “offensive to our nation’s constitutional design…. [S]eparation of powers principles strongly suggest that the Senate may not—and especially not by mere Senate rule—enhance its own power in such a manner without offending the Constitution” (2004). [More . . .]

Paul Krugman:

On health care costs, [Paul Ryan] declared that “Our plan is to give seniors the power to deny business to inefficient providers.” Remember, what the plan actually does is hand out vouchers whose value will fall well short of the cost of coverage. So how much power do those Americans who can’t afford decent health insurance have right now in their dealings with providers? If you think people who don’t get coverage through their employers have the upper hand, you believe that the Ryan plan is empowering.

(Emphasis supplied.) In what way is Krugman's criticism of RyanCare not applicable to the exchanges in ObamaCare?

Speaking for me only

Via Greg Sargent:

"It is a flag we’ve planted that we will protect and defend. We have a plan. It’s called Medicare.” - Nancy Pelosi

You know, this would be a winning political message for President Obama.

Joe McCarthy Lives:

Six years ago, Ninth Circuit judicial nominee Goodwin Liu published an op-ed in which he made the utterly banal point that a conservative interest group used the terms “free enterprise,”‘ “private ownership of property,” and “limited government” as “code words for an ideological agenda hostile to environmental, workplace, and consumer protections.” In a speech on the Senate floor yesterday, however, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) somehow managed to interpret this op-ed as proof that Liu wants to turn America into “Communist-run China”:

GRASSLEY: Does [Liu] think we’re the communist-run China? That the government runs everything? [. . .]

Ironically, Liu's family immigrated from Taiwan:

Grassley’s suggestion that Goodwin Liu is the second-coming of Mao Tse-tung would be utterly shocking to Liu himself. As Liu explains, his own commitment to American law stems from his experience as the child of Taiwanese immigrants [. . .]

But "they" all have "slant eyes," don't they?

Speaking for me only

Dominique Strauss-Kahn has submitted his resignation as head of IMF. In his statement, he also asserted his innocence of the charged crimes.

“I want to say that I deny with the greatest possible firmness all of the allegations that have been made against me.”

His new request for bail will be heard at 2:15 today by NY State Supreme Court Justice Michael J. Obus. Strauss-Kahn has also submitted a waiver of extradition, allowing the U.S. to return him to the U.S. from any country in which he is found.

“In the event I fail to voluntarily appear in the New York court for any such proceedings, I waive the issuance and service of the warrant provided by law for my extradition from the Republic of France or any other jurisdiction.”

Prediction: Bail will(and should be) granted.