I haven't written a word about political discourse and Jared Loughner because I don't think political discourse, or even politics, has anything to do with his motive for the Arizona shootings. Nightline attempted to explore some possible motivations last night, and had an interesting discussion on Loughner's obsession with lucid dreaming. (It starts about 3 minutes, 10 seconds into the clip above.)

Lucid dreaming is when a person becomes aware they are dreaming during the dream. Lucid dreamers believe they can manipulate and control the dream -- even change the plot and outcome of the dream. [More...]

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued an opinion in a much followed foreclosure case. The opinion is fairly straight forward and, frankly, if there is rule of law in this country, should have been completely predictable. But apparently it has sent shock waves. Consider the simplicity and fairness of the result, as described by Felix Salmon:

[H]omeowner[s] being foreclosed upon will as a matter of course challenge the banks to prove that they own the mortgage in question. If the bank can’t do that, then the foreclosure proceeding will be tossed out of court. This is likely to slow down foreclosures enormously, as banks ensure that all their legal ducks are in a row before they try to foreclose.

(Emphasis supplied.) Salmon muses about the SCOTUS maybe getting involved, which would be ironic, in light of the Twombly and Iqbal decisions, which make it very difficult to even get in the courthouse at all. More . . .

President Obama is going to Tucson tomorrow. Jared Loughner had his first court appearance in federal court in Phoenix. The New York Times has a profile of his attorney, Judy Clarke. (Mine is here.)

Outgoing Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, a former District Attorney, has granted a pardon to Joe Arridy, executed in 1939, on grounds he likely was innocent. Additional reason: Arridy was mentally disabled, with an IQ of 46.

[A]n overwhelming body of evidence indicates the 23-year-old Arridy was innocent, including false and coerced confessions, the likelihood that Arridy was not in Pueblo at the time of the killing, and an admission of guilt by someone else. In addition, it would be unconstitutional today to impose the death penalty on anyone as intellectually disabled as Arridy.

Arridy spent 18 months on death row, always smiling and always playing with a toy train. He requested just ice cream for his final three meals and stepped into the gas chamber still grinning like a little boy.

[More...]

Former House Speaker Tom DeLay was sentenced today to three years in state prison for his conviction on money laundering charges.

Senior Judge Pat Priest sentenced him to the three-year term on the conspiracy charge. He also sentenced him to five years in prison on the money laundering charge but allowed DeLay to accept 10 years of probation instead of more prison time.

The judge granted his request to be freed on bail after he is booked at the county jail. At sentencing, DeLay told the judge he was innocent and the charges were politically motivated.

"I can't be remorseful for something I don't think I did," DeLay said.

The appeal will take months, if not years.

Mahablog links to Michelle Malkin whining about "criminalizing conservatism." I'm not sure what Malkin is talking about, but if I were a conservative, I would not want Malkin leading the charge on this issue. Here's one reason why:

Right now, [Michelle Malkin] is happily wrapped in one of her typical controversies: a crew of students at UC Santa Cruz, my alma mater, protested some military recruiters, and Malkin got hold of a press release with their personal contact information -- a poorly conceived inclusion on the students' part, but then, these are undergraduates, not trained media flacks. Rather than calling and speaking to them herself, which is what members of the press are supposed to use such releases for, Malkin published their personal information on her website, prompting her hordes of orcish mouth-breathers to brandish their pitchforks and inundate the unsuspecting students with death threats [. . .] When the students frantically called on Malkin to remove their numbers, she posted their contact information again.

(Emphasis supplied.) If I was a conservative, I would not be choosing Malkin as my lead advocate on this issue right now.

Speaking for me only

Good piece from Gail Collins:

Today, the amazing thing about the reaction to the Giffords shooting is that virtually all the discussion about how to prevent a recurrence has been focusing on improving the tone of our political discourse. That would certainly be great. But you do not hear much about the fact that Jared Loughner came to Giffords’s sweet gathering with a semiautomatic weapon that he was able to buy legally because the law restricting their sale expired in 2004 and Congress did not have the guts to face up to the National Rifle Association and extend it.

Read the whole thing, which includes this story -- "In 2009, Gabrielle Giffords was holding a “Congress on Your Corner” meeting at a Safeway supermarket in her district when a protester, who was waving a sign that said “Don’t Tread on Me,” waved a little too strenuously. The pistol he was carrying under his armpit fell out of his holster."

Talk Left almost certainly disagrees with the views expressed in this post, thus I am speaking for me only.

Open thread.

Yglesias does a Oh the places you'll go post. Here's where I've been in the US, chronologically - Louisiana - Florida - DC - Virginia - Alabama - Massachusetts - Rhode Island - Connecticut - New York - New Hampshire - New Jersey - Maine - Illinois - Arizona - Colorado - California - Pennsylvania - Missouri - Georgia - Tennessee - North Carolina - South Carolina - Mississippi - Kentucky - Puerto Rico - Washington - Indiana - Ohio - West Virginia - Delaware. Obviously, I went to these states more than once and New York, Florida and Puerto Rico are places I am present almost every month.

Where do you want to go in the United States?

First, let me disclose my bias - a Florida Gator fan, I am firmly convinced that not only is the SEC the best football conference year after year, but that it is not even very close. Soooo, I'm picking Auburn tonight right? No. I think that Oregon is going to win the game easily and that this is one of the best betting propositions in some time. Let's look at the numbers - Auburn is a 1.5 point favorite (since I decided on Oregon, I shopped for the best line and have Oregon (+3) (15 units)). My view is that Jeff Sagarin has the most accurate computer rating system. Under the Sagarin system, Oregon is 7 points better than Auburn. More . .

Via rikyrah:

We have post after post on the Arizona shootings this weekend. Does anyone have anything else to talk about?

If you're watching TV, check out the premiere of Shameless on Showtime. (Free this weekend to Comcast subscribers -- even those who don't pay for Showtime.) It's really good.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Jared Loughner just caught the biggest break of his life. CNN reports the federal court says former Spokane federal defender (also National Capital Resource Counsel and Federal Community Defender in San Diego), Judy Clarke has been appointed to represent him. (Judy is now in private practice in San Diego.)Via CNN:

Veteran federal public defender Judy Clarke, who has experience in several high-profile cases including those of "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski and convicted terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui, was appointed to defend suspect Jared Lee Loughner, a federal judicial source said.

They don't make defense lawyers any better than Judy. You may remember her from the Susan Smith case in South Carolina, where Smith was charged with drowning her two sons; or the Unabomber case, or the case of Eric Rudolf. Thanks to Judy (and those who helped her), all avoided the death penalty. She also worked on the Zacarias Moussaoui defense team for a while. The AP called her "a one woman dream team."

Judy is a past-President of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), where she's affectionately called "Saint Judy" -- and a friend. She is both a great person and a great lawyer. [More...]

Here's the federal complaint filed against Arizona shooting suspect Jared Loughner. An Indictment will be returned within 30 days. The U.S. Attorney's Press Release is here.

Loughner is charged with the attempted assassination of a member of Congress, two counts of killing a federal officer or employee, and two counts of attempted murder of a federal officer or employee. The victims in counts 2 though 5 are Judge John Roll and Gifford staffers, Gabriel Zimmerman, Pamela Simon and Ron Barber.

As to Judge Roll being at the event in his official capacity, the Affidavit in support of the Complaint states: [More...]