Maurice Clemmons, the suspected killer of four police officers in Seattle, was shot and killed early this morning by a police officer. The officer noticed an unoccupied car with its engine running. Clemons was outside the car.

The officer approached Clemmons outside the car and asked him to show his hands, but the suspect refused and started to run around the car, Pugil said. The police officer, who recognized Clemmons from photographs, then shot and killed him, the assistant chief said.

Was it really necessary to shoot and kill him? Had he displayed a weapon? Wouldn't a stun gun have done the trick? After killing him, police found a weapon on him that belonged to one of the slain officers. Did the police see it before shooting? More details here.

The authorities sound relieved Clemmons is dead. I'm sure a lot of people agree. But I hope the shooting is legally justified. (Update: Here's the report of the shooting on the Seattle police website.)

As Jeralyn wrote:

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This is an Open Thread.

Candidate Barack Obama famously said in 2008:

I don't want to present myself as some sort of singular figure. I think part of what's different are the times. I do think that for example the 1980 was different. I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it. I think they felt like with all the excesses of the 1960s and 1970s and government had grown and grown but there wasn't much sense of accountability in terms of how it was operating. I think people, he just tapped into what people were already feeling, which was we want clarity we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing.

(Emphasis supplied.) Today, Ezra Klein celebrates President Obama's abandonment of transformationalism:

In private, Reid is still alluding to the use of reconciliation on HCR reports The Hill:

During a Nov. 19 news conference, Reid told reporters: “I am not using reconciliation.” But centrists are skeptical that Reid’s public stance means the threat of reconciliation has passed. “Some, citing comments from Sen. Reid, say reconciliation is off the table,” [Nebraska Senator Ben] Nelson wrote [in a Omaha newspaper Op-Ed]. “But it will be right back on the table if we allow the normal Senate parliamentary procedures to break down.”

Perhaps Reid is playing this properly. As Roland Hedley, Jr. says, time will tell.

Speaking for me only

The Village Blogs have adopted Jacob Weisberg's clarion pom poms in arguing that President Obama is having the most transformative first year any Democrat has had since FDR. This strikes me as a ludicrous claim. Chris Bowers discusses Nathan Newman's much more reasonable claim that President Obama has achieved small progressive victories. Chris makes the salient point that Newman's list of achievements are largely a part of a temporary stimulus bill, not lasting, transformative change. I want to add a point I have made before - the biggest change in the first year of a Democratic Presidency since FDR was President Bill Clinton's revamping of the U.S. tax structure. Clinton has been labelled by these same pom pom wavers as an incrementalist, small bore President, but they always ignore, as they must, the most important progressive accomplishment of the past 40 years - the raising of taxes on the well off and the lowering of the tax burden on the less well off enacted by President Clinton. I'll repeat from my earlier post on the subject here:

Glenn Greenwald writes:

In order to prepare Americans for Obama's Afghanistan escalation speech tonight at West Point (at least he's not wearing a fighter pilot costume), White House officials have been dispatched to speak to the media (anonymously, of course) to preview all of the new and exciting aspects of the President's plan. [. . .] [A]nyone with a memory that extends back for more than a few weeks, all of this seems anything but new. In December, 2007, George Bush delivered a speech to the nation announcing his escalation in Iraq -- that one only 20,000 troops, compared to the 30,000-40,000 Obama has ordered for Afghanistan. [. . .] I'm not comparing the Iraq and Afghan escalations: only the rhetoric used to justify them.

(Emphasis supplied.) I think the end of the quote is the rub. Afghanistan is not Iraq. And indeed, that may make Bush's policy defensible and Obama's indefensible. I do not think so. I think the reverse. I understand Glenn's point - do not accept at face value the justifications presented by the government - any government. But let's evaluate the arguments on the merits. Tonight we'll all listen to President Obama and then we can argue the merits.

Speaking for me only

The big crime in the news story for the day is the arrest of Florida Gator defensive star Carlos Dunlap on a DUI charge:

Florida defensive end Carlos Dunlap was arrested at around 3:30 a.m. for driving under the influence after falling asleep at the wheel. Police found Dunlap, 20 -- a key part of Florida's national title push this week against Alabama -- slumped over in his 2000 Chrysler at a complete stop through multiple green-light traffic cycles at the 200 block of Southwest 34th Street, according to the police report. Officers reached into the car to turn off the ignition while the clutch was still in gear and finally awoke a "very groggy" Dunlap, the report states.

Oy. This should end his college football career (he was going to the NFL at the end of the season anyway.) One interesting thing is Dunlap seems to have taken his cues from TalkLeft - never cooperate with the cops:

Dunlap was arrested and eventually booked at 5:52 a.m. after refusing to submit a breath test, according to the report.

This is an Open Thread.

The Third Annual ABA Jornal Blawg 100 nominations are out. Voting has begun.

TalkLeft has made it again, no small feat since 40 of the 100 are new this year and some past winners were dropped.

The A-team at TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime—Jeralyn Merritt of Denver, T. Christopher Kelly of Madison, Wis., and Armando Llorens of San Juan, Puerto Rico—take a shamelessly liberal view of crime and justice news and issues.

Quick Take: When Merritt just has to stray off topic, she spares her politics-hungry readers and posts at PopLeft.

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Drum writes:

[I]f free traders really want to keep protectionist sentiment tamped down, they'd be well advised to start supporting domestic policies that create jobs, bring down unemployment, and reduce the kind of financial fear that drives protectonist sentiment in the first place.

Let me see - free trader? Check. Supported domestic policies to bring down unemployment? Check. I got this covered since, oh September 2008. President Obama? Not so much. Though he was a "fair trader" for a couple of weeks in Ohio. Uh oh. No pom poms.

Speaking for me only

Derek Jeter has been named Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year.

The Charlie Weis Era at Notre Dame is over.

I am going to talk to Jeralyn about starting a TalkLeft Sports blog (e.g. - Did you know Cincinnati football coach (and maybe the next Notre Dame coach) Brian Kelly worked for the Gary Hart presidential campaign?)

This is an Open Thread.

ABC is already moving from the Seattle suspect to Mike Huckabee's pardon of Wayne Dumond with "Huckabee Helped Set Rapist Free Who Later Killed Missouri Woman."

ABC didn't seek out Wayne Dumond's attorney for information about the case. That's okay, I did, in 2007.

Former TalkLeft contributor, Last Night in Little Rock also known as John Wesley Hall (immediate Past President of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers), was Wayne Dumond's post-conviction attorney. (The Arkansas Times profiled him here earlier this year. )In addition to seeking post-conviction relief in the state courts, John represented Dumond in his federal habeas actions, the pre-Huckabee clemency request and in the civil case against Sheriff Coolidge Conlee, who displayed Dumond's castrated testicles on a jar on his desk. John obtained a $150,000.00 verdict for Dumond for the tort of outrage. The Sheriff later died in prison while serving his own 20 year sentence for extortion, gambling and other crimes. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 9/26/96, available on Lexis.com)

We covered Huckabee's pardons extensively during the last presidential campaign. I posted a list of notable ones here. More here. [More...]

Ezra Klein can not get away with writing this:

As the Internet becomes more and more pervasive and job applicants have a longer and longer paper trail, prospective employers are going to have to overlook a public record containing opinions that, in previous eras, they would never have seen, and would never have tolerated. Come to think of it, my presence at The Washington Post is probably a good example of this, too.

Ha! One thing for sure, nothing Ezra has written since he joined the WaPo has given Fred Hiatt a moment of concern. The Village is safe from Ezra's pen. Indeed, it has a potent new weapon - the Village Blogger.

Speaking for me only