Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has commuted the death sentence of Richard Clay. Clay is another defendant prosecuted by former Congressman Ken Hulshof.

Nixon was Missouri's Attorney General before becoming Governor. He's a staunch advocate of the death penalty. In the 2008 Governor's race, his opponent was...Ken Hulshof. Yet, Nixon said Hulshof was not a factor in the commutation decision.

Hulshof should have been a factor. In 2009, Josh Kezer was released from prison after serving 17 years, half of his life, in prison. He's another case of wrongful conviction prosecuted by Hulshof. In 2008, the Missourian described six more cases. [More...]

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Jon Stewart mocks the partisian media criticism of the Tucson Memorial Service. Mediaite's description:

Stewart takes the high road and allows the words of his subjects damn themselves with partisan sniping completely at odds with what seemed to be the whole point of Obama’s speech.

Don't miss Stewart's blast of Michelle Malkin.

I'm just catching up with the news today. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Dick DeGuerin, Tom DeLay's lawyer, is confident DeLay's conviction will be reversed on appeal. First there's the legal argument on the money laundering statute, which includes. [More..]

Jobless claims rise:

The number of first-time claims for unemployment insurance payments jumped in the first week of 2011 to the highest level since October as more Americans lined up to file following the holidays. Initial jobless claims rose by 35,000 to 445,000, according to Labor Department data released today. The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey called for 410,000 filings. The average number of applications over the past four weeks, a less-volatile gauge, increased to 416,500.

And just wait until Part 2 of the Norquist Strategy kicks in.

Atrios has long said, rightly in my opinion, that:

It's long been the case that what really gets the Republican base excited is anything that pisses off liberals. There are genuine policy differences, of course, but to get an audience of Republicans on their feet and cheering you need to mention something, no matter how pointless, which pisses of liberals. It's the glue that keeps them together.

For whatever reason, Sarah Palin seems to be the figure that most pisses of "The Left," to borrow Jennifer Rubin's construction. As I noted in my post below, the past 4 days have been disastrous for Sarah Palin. Does this qualify as a "victory for 'The Left'" by the Rubin metric? And a defeat for "The Right" using the Atrios metric?

Speaking for me only

One of the difficult aspects for the Media regarding the Tucson tragedy was that it was largely taken out of its it political score keeping comfort zone. To do so would of course have been "injecting politics" into a tragedy. Yesterday, the keeping score approach was unavoidable, as it started with Sarah Palin and ended with the President of the United States. The President and his party scored big yesterday. Which makes this post from Jennifer Rubin rather bizarre:

Why were the last four days a mini-disaster for the swampland of the left? It boils down to: facts, response and time. [. . .] So, for my friends on the left: facts count. You can't spin a narrative and not be expected to be called on the underlying, flawed premise.

I'm not sure what Rubin is talking about. "The Left" lost? I did not know "the Left" was playing. My appreciation of the week is that Sarah Palin and the Tea Party "lost" and President Obama and Beltway Dems "won." Put it this way, a few more "wins" like this and we won't have Sarah Palin to kick around anymore.

Speaking for me only

Glenn Greenwald documents the latest in the Media's continuing war on Wikileaks:

Last week, on January 3, The Guardian published a scathing Op-Ed by James Richardson blaming WikiLeaks for endangering the life of Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the democratic opposition in Zimbabwe. Richardson [. . .] pointed to a cable published by WikiLeaks in which American diplomats revealed that Tsvangirai, while publicly opposing American sanctions on his country, had privately urged their continuation as a means of weakening the Mugabe regime[. . . .] This accusation against WikiLeaks was repeated far and wide. In The Wall Street Journal, Jamie Kirchick [. . .] wrote under this headline: "Julian Assange's reckless behavior could cost Zimbabwe's leading democrat his life." [. . .] The Atlantic's Chris Albon [. . echoed the same accusation[.]

There was just one small problem with all of this: it was totally false. It wasn't WikiLeaks which chose that cable to be placed into the public domain, nor was it WikiLeaks which first published it. It was The Guardian that did that.

In an update, Greenwald writes:

In 2009, I supported Richard Aborn for District Attorney of Manhattan. I liked most of his stated policies (except the ones on gun control) and wrote about them often. Aborn lost to Richard Vance.

In the light of Jared Loughner, who while not a teenager, is still quite young, I started thinking about Richard's policies, which laid out concrete solutions that well could make a difference.

Again, I am not one of those calling for a gentler political discourse as I think the topic had little to do with Loughner's actions. I think his slide into mental impairment holds the key. The question becomes, since we know he's not the only unbalanced, unhinged, mentally impaired young person out there, how do we spot the next one and what do we do to turn him around?

This paper by Richard presents some excellent suggestions. I urge you to read it: BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE: A NEW STRATEGY FOR PREVENTING JUVENILE CRIME: [More...]

Adam Liptak of the New York Times reports on yesterday's Supreme court oral argument in Kentucky v. King, about when the police can enter your home without a warrant, claiming exigent circumstances.

police officers in Kentucky were looking for a suspect who had sold cocaine to an informant. They smelled burning marijuana coming from an apartment, knocked loudly and announced themselves.

Then they heard sounds from inside the apartment that they said made them fear evidence was being destroyed. They kicked the door in and found marijuana and cocaine but not the original suspect, who was in a different apartment.

Orin Kerr points out the facts of the case are not quite clear. [More...]

President Barack Obama is addressing the nation in Tucson at the memorial service for the victims of the Arizona shootings. You can watch live here.

"Bad things happen, and we must guard against simple explanations in the aftermath," Obama said at a memorial service for the victims.

"The truth is that none of us can know exactly what triggered this vicious attack. None of us can know with any certainty what might have stopped those shots from being fired, or what thoughts lurked in the inner recesses of a violent man's mind," he said.

"We cannot use this time to turn on each other." [More...]

Judge Larry A. Burns of the Southern District of California has been appointed by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to preside over the Arizona federal case of Jared Loughner. From the order (available on PACER)"

Based upon the circumstances occurring on January 8, 2011 in Tucson and the initiation of proceedings in conjunction with them, the impartiality of the District and Magistrate Judges in the District of Arizona might reasonably be questioned. It is therefore determined, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 455(a), all District and Magistrate Judges in the District of Arizona must be disqualified from presiding in this case and all related matters.

Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED all District and Magistrate Judges in the District of Arizona are recused from hearing case number 11-35M and all related matters.

The chief prosecutor will be Wallace H. Kleindienst. AUSA Patrick Cunningham has withdrawn. Entering their appearances to assist Kleindienst in the past few days are AUSA Mary Sue Feldmeier, Beverly K. Anderson, and Christina M. Cabanillas. So far the defense team consists of Judy Clarke, her associate Mark Fleming, and the Federal Defender's Office of San Diego.