Teresa Lewis didn't pull the trigger. She confessed, pleaded guilty and cooperated with authorities. She has an IQ of 70, right on the border of mental retardation. She has no prior criminal record, and no prior history of violence. The triggermen in the murder got life without parole. Yet she's scheduled to die by lethal injection. She is the first female sentenced to death in Virginia since 1912.

John Grisham weighs in. A writer in the Sydney Morning Herald says Iran does not have a monopoly on barbarism and reminds the U.S. that humanity begins at home.

The execution is set for September 23. Save Teresa Lewis. More here.

Josh Gerstein has a long piece at Politico on Obama and crime policy.

Shorter version: Don't look to Obama for help in making the crack cocaine penalty reductions retroactive to help those already serving the unfair, draconian sentences:

Asked whether Obama might grant requests to commute the sentences of those who would have gotten less punishment if they committed their crimes today, an administration official said the crack-disparity bill “reflected Congress’s judgment that the law should not be retroactive, [and] the President believes that the Fair Sentencing Act will go a long way toward ensuring that our sentencing laws are tough, consistent, and fair.”

The official also downplayed the notion Obama might offer some kind of blanket clemency for earlier crack-cocaine offenders, saying that “as a general matter, the President agrees with the Department of Justice’s long-held view that commutation is an extraordinary remedy that should only be granted in extraordinary circumstances.”

Obama has been in office 18 months and not granted a single pardon or clemency.

Los Angeles is gearing up for tomorrow night's MTV Video Music Awards. Lady Gaga is up for 13 awards. She's nominated twice in the music video of the year category, for Telephone and Video Phone. "Telephone" is a video of her getting thrown in jail. Beyonce bonds her out, and then they go on a homicidal rage killing people in a diner. Thelma and Louise, it's not.

Beyonce is nominated five times for her video, Video Phone, made with....Lady Gaga. (Both videos are also up in the Best Collaboration category.)Then there's the Glitter Queen, Ke$ha, who is up for three awards, including Best Female Video, Best Pop Video and Best New Artist for "Tik Tok." I am clueless as to how it counts either as music or award material. What am I missing? [More...]

President Obama addressed the nation today on the 9/11 anniversary. His message: Stay true to who we are as Americans.

“The highest honor we can pay those we lost, indeed our greatest weapon in this ongoing war, is to do what our adversaries fear the most – to stay true to who we are, as Americans; to renew our sense of common purpose; to say that we define the character of our country, and we will not let the acts of some small band of murderers who slaughter the innocent and cower in caves distort who we are,” he said.

Thoughts?

I was 5-6-1 last week. Here are my picks for today - Ga Tech (-14.5) over Kansas, South Carolina (-3) over Georgia, Florida (-16.5) over South Florida, Cal (-10) over Colorado, Notre Dame (-3.5) over Michigan, Miami (+8.5) over Ohio State, LSU (-10) over Vandy, Tennessee (+10) over Oregon, Washington (-13) over Syracuse, Penn State (+13) over Alabama, Stanford (-6.5) over UCLA, and UVA (+20.5) over USC, Also an EPL special - Chelsea over West Ham.

Go Gators!

Open Thread.

Gainesville disowns Terry Jones. What the residents think: He's "a lunatic", "a publicity hound" and "a weirdo."

In New York, supporters of the Islamic Center held a vigil near Ground Zero.

"Stand Up To Cancer" dominated the airwaves tonight, did anyone see it? Thoughts?

New York Magazine has a very funny recap of last night's Jersey Shore, which was the best episode of the season (if that's not an oxymoron): "It Puts the Lotion on the Butt."

This week's episode was for the ladies. The plate-throwing, hair-pulling, sex-having, plastic-bag-wearing ladies, who were uniformly on their absolute worst behavior, in the most incredible way.

The recap is funnier than the episode, but there were some gems. First there's a knock-down fight between Sammi and Jenni in which they lost their fake fingernails, later found in the kitchen, along with their pulled out hair extensions. Then Snooki's getting ready to "get intimate" with her new guy, and she's putting extra hairspray, perfume and lotion on: “If it's a smoosh, you gotta put lotion on your butt.” Then she dresses up like an exterminator to clean the "communal smoosh room."

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

I don't know what they are drinking over at The American Prospect, but this is a strange post:

It also, should be clear, what the stakes are here for progressives. As frustrating as Lincoln is, there's unlikely to be a true progressive representing Arkansas. Keeping the likes of Boozman out of the Senate is a as good a goal to have as any.

I can hardly think of a less intelligent goal. Setting aside Lincoln's record, which is awful (her opponent's is worse), Lincoln is down 30 points. She is done. Any dime or minute spent on Lincoln is a dime or minute wasted. A true progressive champion, Barbara Boxer, is fighting for her political life in California. If progressives have any money or time to spare, it should be going to fight for Barbara Boxer, not Blanche Lincoln. That TAPPED post is nuts.

Speaking for me only

President Obama's today:

"I’m prepared to work on a bill and sign a bill this month to ensure that middle class families get tax relief.” But he says Republicans are “holding middle-class tax relief hostage” in order to “give tax relief to millionaires and billionaires.”

This is the message. It resonates with me.

Speaking for me only

Open thread.

Andrew Sullivan:

In New York, this [the Koran burning Christian cleric] is demanding a meeting with the Imam of the Park51 mosque, while not quite canceling plans for a Koran burning. And so one group of fanatics reveals a religious mindset that immediately threatens mass violence if one nutjob in America performs a foul stunt of bigotry; and another group of fanatics tries to leverage that violence to prevent a perfectly legitimate religious center being built in New York City, a position actually endorsed by the leading figures of one US political party.

So Islamism, via Christianism, threatens Islam, while Christian extremism deeply wounds and slanders actual Christianity. All of it brings the world to the edge of violence and war that kills innocents and makes the work of the troops even harder than it already is. Now, of course, Jones has every right to do whatever he wants in an America with a First Amendment. But think of a GI in Kandahar right now. You really think he needed this?

How very intemperate of Sullivan.

Speaking for me only

Americans oppose tax cuts for the wealthy:

A majority of Americans favor letting the tax cuts enacted during the Bush administration expire for the wealthy. While 37% support keeping the tax cuts for all Americans, 44% want them extended only for those making less than $250,000 and 15% think they should expire for all taxpayers.

81% support the Obama tax cuts for the middle class. This is a winning issue for Dems and, incidentally, good policy. Gallup:

[T]he middle ground of extending tax cuts for low- and middle-income Americans but allowing them to expire for wealthy Americans -- the Democrats' most likely proposal -- is the specific option the public prefers most.

Speaking for me only

Big Brother is down to the Final Three. Anyone but Enzo please. Project Runway is also on. And a new Jersey Shore.

Is there any news besides Pastor Terry Jones today?

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.