Former Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham is speaking out from prison. He regrets his guilty plea. His lawyers took advantage of his weakened state in getting him to sign the plea agreement. (Translation: He didn't get as much of a sentence reduction as he hoped for.)

[T]he former congressman now says that at the time he was physically weak from having dropped close to 100 pounds from cancer treatments and other maladies. He said he had not eaten for two weeks when his lawyers came to him with the proposed 33-page plea agreement.

He said he balked at first, but lawyers Mark Holscher and K. Lee Blalack told him if he challenged the charges it would cost him millions to fight the case, and he would risk spending the rest of his life in prison.

Now, he realizes his votes for tougher sentencing as a Congressman were misguided, and he plans to make up for it once he's released. For example, he now thinks the severe crack cocaine penalties were wrong: [More...]

Charlie Sheen is fighting back. Via TMZ, he has filed a lawsuit against Capri Anderson for extortion and theft. He alleges Anderson, whom he refers to a p*rn star, demanded a million dollars not to go on national TV with her claims of what happened in a NY hotel room a few weeks ago. Sheen also says she threatened to try an have his probation revoked if he didn't pay. The demands were made by her lawyer. You can read the colorful complaint here.

Sheen says Anderson is a liar, and she admitted to police and others he acted like the perfect gentleman. He says she's a long time p*rn star in LA and had money troubles, so she moved to NY to become an escort (and, according to Sheen, a hooker.) [More...]

The Wall St. Journal reports on new regulations Colorado lawmakers are putting the final touches on, for medical marijuana:

The regulatory system — more rigorous and comprehensive than in any other state — will likely require pot growers to place tags on every plant and train security cameras on their cultivation rooms around the clock.

...Cannabis dispensaries, meanwhile, will likely be required to record high-resolution video of every customer's face and photo identification and then link that footage to a computer record of each purchase. Even the moment when the dried weed is weighed for sale will have to be captured on video, according to draft regulations now being finalized.

Cops can demand to see the tapes at any time, without a warrant.

"We don't ask. We just go look," said Matt Cook, senior director of the state's medical-marijuana enforcement division...."You give up a lot of your Fourth Amendment rights when you're dealing with a controlled substance," Mr. Cook said.

[More...]

Update: The Washington Post and ABC News conducted a poll. Results; Majority said Bristol Palin is still on DWTS because of "large-scale voting" by fans of her mother.

The poll was conducted among a random national sample of 514 adults, and interviews were conducted on conventional phones and cellphones. The results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

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DWTS says we shouldn't complain if we don't bother to vote. So I voted by text. I voted for the best dancers. Jennifer Grey knocked the socks off the competition. Kyle Massey was terrific and a solid second. Here's the numbers: [More...]

The jury in Tom DeLay's Texas money laundering trial deliberated three hours today, and will be back tomorrow:

Dick DeGuerin, DeLay's lead attorney, restated what he had often said throughout the trial: that prosecutors had failed to prove the ex-lawmaker committed a crime and the money swap was legal.

Throughout his closing arguments, DeGuerin repeated one phrase in particular: no corporate money went to candidates in Texas. He even included the sentence — in bold, black letters — in a slide show he presented to jurors.

He also used his partisan politics theme: [More...]

I'll be in court the rest of the day. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

The American Music Awards are on tonight. Some red carpet photos are here and here. Are there any performances you want to see or thought were good? Kid Rock is on now and Bon Jovi will be on in about 40 minutes.

There's also the finale of the Next Iron Chef and a new Boardwalk Empire.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today on Face the Nation:

"I don't believe so ... The terrorists who are serving time in our maximum security prisons are there because of civilian courts, what are called Article Three Courts. Our Article Three Courts have a much better record of trying and convicting terrorists than military commissions do, and in fact this defendant having been convicted will be sentenced somewhere between 20 years and life."

But she also seemed to defend military commission trials, at least in some cases:

"The civilian courts have a better record of actually convicting and imprisoning than we do yet have in the military commission. But we also don't want to have security problems or publicity problems for particularly dangerous leading terrorists. So we should look at the military commission."

So will this be Obama and Holder's final decision and justification? That security and publicity justify the use of military commissions? I hope not. Another lame idea, this time by Rep. Steny Hoyer: Holding a federal criminal jury trial at Guantanamo. Who's there to serve? Guards and their spouses? Or would they fly in a jury from New York? The security and surroundings would obliterate the presumption of innocence. Who would agree to move to Gitmo for the many months or longer the trial would take? Certainly not a cross-section of the public. [More...]

AQAP has released the third issue of Inspire Magazine. (Inspire is the "al Qaeda for Dummies" version of their propoganda releases.) You can read it here. (H/T Jihadology and IntelWire.)

In it, they explain how they made the cargo bombs and why. It wasn't to kill people. Their motives are economic. They want to cause a hemorrhage in the airline industry. They knew our predictable response would be to spend billions ramping up ineffective airline security measures. They are laughing at us, and on this point, with good reason. They also promise many more of these operations, by sharing their findings with their followers in other countries, so they can mail packages and get them on civilian planes going to the U.S. [More...]

National Opt-Out day: If you're flying Wednesday, will you refuse the scan? Here's the latest: A bladder cancer survivor is left soaking in his own urine after a humiliating pat-down.

Anyone online tonight? If so, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

I'm not the only one who thinks politics has run Dancing With the Stars into the ground. According to Popeater, AOL's online entertainment news site, Dancing With the Stars producers and ABC and other TV insiders believe the show will be permanently ruined if Bristol Palin wins, and they fear she might, due to her mother's fan base and campaigning. Insiders give three reasons:

• It will go from being a dancing competition to a popularity competition where whoever has the most rabid fan base will always win no matter how little talent they have."

• "[A]fter Bristol wins no one in Hollywood will ever want to be on the show again," a well-placed ABC source tells me. "Why would a real star want to compete and lose against someone like [former U.S. Senate candidate] Christine O'Donnell or Levi Johnston. It's humiliating. The producers know they are in big trouble for sure."

• "A friend of one of the judges [says] Bristol has made a fool out of all of them. It's now painfully obvious that the judge's scores and opinions mean nothing."

Here's how the voting is supposed to work: [More...]

This week's picks:

Penn St (-10) over Ind., Wisconsin (-3) over Michigan, South Florida (+4) over Pitt, Okla St(-24) over Kansas, Louisville (+4) over W. Va., K. State (-2) over Colorado, Utah St. (-2) over Idaho, Iowa (+4) over Ohio State, Illini (+9) over Northwestern, Stanford (-7) over Cal., Miami (+3) over Va Tech, Ole Miss (+17) over LSU, Arkansas (-2) over Miss State (5 units), Maryland (+5) over FSU, Ore. State (+4) over USC, Notre Dame (-8) over Army (3 units.).

Open Thread.