The House of Representatives today passed the Crime Commission bill, now known as H.R. 5143, the National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2010 (originally the idea of Sen. Jim Webb.) Despite the praise by progressive groups for the creation of a bi-partisan committee to spend 18 months studying what's wrong with our criminal justice system, I remain unimpressed.

We don't need an 18 month moratorium on the passage of much needed crime bills that have been languishing for months and years, like bills to equalize the penalties for crack and powder cocaine (unlikely to happen at all now that the House is set to vote to make them 18:1 instead of 100:1 with the reduction being prospective only, doing nothing for the thousands already sentenced), bills to reduce or eliminate mandatory minimum sentences, or increase federal good time. Or even a bill to reduce the draconian child p*rn guidelines. It will be just more "hurry up and wait."[More...]

The ACLU reports that the city council in Fremont, NE has suspended the enactment of its anti-immmigrant resolution that would requires prospective renters to provide the Fremont Police Department with information about their citizenship or immigration status prior to renting any home.

The ACLU filed suit (documents here.) The law passed on June 21 and was scheduled to go into effect on July 29. It's a law that, like SB 1070 in Arizona, invites discrimination against those "who look or seem foreign." [More...]

Bump and Update: Closing arguments are over. The jury will be instructed and begin deliberating tomorrow. After court was over, Patti Blagojevich burst into tears and Rod told reporters as he was leaving, ""I hope you have a prayer left for us."

Another line from Sam Adam, Jr. in closing: "“As much as I like him, and as much as he’s loved around the world, this is a man who considered appointing Oprah Winfrey (to the U.S. Senate),” Adam said. “No one’s going to say he’s the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he’s not corrupt.” [More...]

At least according to Ian Welsh, who recently attended this year's version of Netroots Nation:

To put it crudely and unfairly to both sides, it’s the sell-outs without principles against the purists without realism. And many of them do put it that way. The netroots are split, in a very real way. [. . .] It’s not all-out war, not even close, but there is a disdain, bitterness and contempt between the two sides which is very real, and very dangerous.

That would have been fun to watch, but it sounds too simplistic to me. I'm certainly disappointed with both Democrats and the progressive blogosphere, but I do not think anyone is a sellout without principles or a purist without realism. But I place the disappointment on my own shoulders. My expectations were not realistic, indeed they probably were delusional. More . . .

Markos bizarrely calls this post, which disparages progressive pressure on Democrats, "compelling." Coming from Markos, it really makes no sense, given his constant (and mostly correct) haranguing of Democratic pols for the last 7 years. More importantly, the post is not only not compelling, it makes no sense. I wrote about it yesterday:

[Arch social conservative Richard] Viguerie and people like him were in fact shunted aside [when Reagan chose Sandra Day O'Connor for the Supreme Court] because Reagan wanted to nominate the first woman to the Supreme Court. [. . . Steve Benen] says the moral of the story is "that perceptions can change over time." That is silly. Some folks seem incapable of getting out of focusing on the pol, not the issue. Vigeurie was commenting on one event - the nomination of O'Connor. I am sure if he wanted to, Benen could find many instances of Viguerie praising Reagan at the same time (tax cuts anyone?). It is not all of one thing or another. Here's the real moral of the story in my opinion - who did Reagan nominate for the Supreme Court after O'Connor? Antonin Scalia. For those who decry pressure on their hero pols, the lessons of Richard Viguerie's complaints about Reagan's nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor are that they worked. Viguerie got what he wanted the next time.

Richard Viguerie understood what too many do not want to these days - pols are pols and do what they do. Your loyalty should lie with the issues you care about, not the pols.

((My emphasis.) What's really weird about Markos' shout out for that post is he's busy gearing up pressure on Obama to nominate Elizabeth Warren to the new consumer finance agency. If he really thought it was compelling, he'd stop that immediately.

Speaking for me only

Warren Steed Jeffs, the leader of a Utah polygamy sect convicted of two counts of accomplice rape, will get a new trial. The reason: errors in jury instructions.

The opinion is here. Jeffs was convicted for his role in the compelled marriage of fourteen-year-old Elissa Wall to her nineteen-year-old first cousin, Allen Steed, and the resulting sexual intercourse between them. [More..]

It was clever, took you into a world (a key element of success for every movie, often achieved in different ways - see, e.g. Avatar which got me with its revolutionary film technology) and held your interest. Did I care much about Leonardo DiCaprio's character? Not especially. But I was intrigued with Nolan's creation. And that makes it a success in my view. As Drum writes:

Not every film has to rely on making us identify with the characters. Sometimes a humanistic austerity is OK. And the visuals were arresting and the story was clever.

Was it the "greatest film ever?" Of course not. Heck, it was not Nolan's best film - that is Memento. But it was good. A film success in my view.

Speaking for me only

Booman:

[Progressive dissatisfaction with Democrats] is mainly a problem not of style but of an infantile need to be hugged and patted on the head on the part of a bunch of cry babies. But the cry babies are also an important constituency[. . .]

Yep. That's it. It's the crybaby thing. Sheesh. And coming from the all time Clinton hating crybaby, it is just rich.

Speaking for me only

National Journal:

30 percent of Americans believe all of Bush's 2001 and 2003 cuts should stay in place. That compared to 31 percent who believed that all of them should be repealed. Twenty-seven percent take the route Obama campaigned on: Tax cuts for the wealthy should be repealed, while the others should stay in place. [. . .] Independents hewed closest to the overall sample. Twenty-seven percent said all the tax cuts should be kept in place. Thirty-two percent said they all should be repealed. Twenty-seven percent said the tax cuts for the wealthy should be repealed, but the middle class cuts should be kept in place.

It's a no brainer politically. No tax cuts for the rich. Dems should try and make this the central issue of the midterms.

Speaking for me only

Here's former Governor Rod Blagojevich, his wife Patti and daughter Amy arriving at court today. Rod seems composed and is still signing autographs. There were people in line to get in at 3:45 a.m. Here's a picture of the line from the local NBC affiliate. Everyone wants their seat in the front row of history.

Court's back in session in Chicago. Sam Adam, Jr. is there. The judge told Sam Adam he can't argue missing witnesses, but gave him a hint how to get around his ruling: Do it in the final minutes of his closing, so when the Judge makes him sit down, he'll have gotten everything else in.

Zagel tells Adam that if he steps over the line in his closing argument, the judge will sit him down in the middle of his remarks. So, Zagel suggests, if Adam wants to step over this line, he should reorganize his argument and put that part at the end -- so the judge can sit him down when it's about to be over.

At that, Sam Adam Jr. stops and looks around the courtroom, slowly scanning as if in amazement. The judge calls a 10-minute recess to give Adam time to rework his argument.

The Judge also told Adam he wasn't going to get thrown in jail for contempt: [More...]

After the dust-up yesterday between Sam Adam, Jr. and the Judge in the trial of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, in which Adam was warned not to reference the witnesses not called by the Government in his closing argument, which resulted in Blago's closing being postponed until today, a new lawyer entered an appearance for Blago. He's Marc Martin, and his entry says his appearance is limited to jury instruction issues.

Martin also worked on the R.J. Kelly case and Conrad Black cases. His website says he was responsible for most of the pleadings in the Kelly case. Team Blago filed jury instructions on Saturday, July 24 (available on PACER). This is the instruction the Judge refused to give and won't let Adam raise: [More...]