Ernest Sonnier served 23 years of a life sentence for rape. Yesterday, he was released from prison after DNA testing and his lawyers from the Innocence Project established his innocence.

Over the last 18 months, genetic testing of evidence found on the victim’s clothing and at the scene of the attack had yielded no trace of Mr. Sonnier, the Harris County district attorney’s office said. Instead, it has implicated two other men. Both are felons and known associates. One is awaiting trial for a different rape.

Prosecutors are not conceding Sonnier's innocence, "though prosecutors acknowledge that the new DNA tests cast strong doubt on the conviction." Now they want to do more investigation. Why didn't they do it when the claims of innocence were first raised?

Texas leads the nation in exonerations of the wrongfully convicted: [More...]

There's an interview with former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in tomorrow's New York Times Magazine.

He has finally landed a new job. He'll be teaching at Texas Tech University. Among his courses will be one in political science, "Contemporary Issues in the Executive Branch."
Among his other disclosures:

• No company or law firm has offered him a job since he resigned
• He hasn't spoken to former President G.W. Bush since Bush left office.
• He has substantial legal bills (and people are raising money for them, but he hasn't asked Bush or Cheney for help
• He's writing a book on his time in office but has no publisher yet.

Ryan Grim, in tomorrow's Washington Post, rebuts five myths about drug legalization and the war on drugs. The myths:

• 1. America's drug problem began in the late 1960s.
• 2. Nixon is to blame for the war on drugs.
• 3. Legalization will increase teen drug use.
• 4. In foreign countries, legalization has been disastrous.
• 5. Americans aren't ready for legalization.

Grim, who is also a Congressional correspondent for Huffington Post, is the author of This Is Your Country on Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America.

A small plane and helicopter collided today above the Hudson River. Both went down. The massive media coverage begins, Mediaite says look to Twitter for eye witness accounts and pics.

What I'm seeing on Twitter: 8 dead, including 1 child. Mayor Bloomberg says effort has changed from rescue to recovery. ("Pilot plus 2 others incl child in small aircraft; 6 Italian tourists + pilot in helicopter.")[More...]

Wingnut Dan Riehl on President Obama:

He's an idiot. And a self-centered one, too. And that is always a dangerous combination. In a POTUS, it could be a disaster.

Indeed, it WAS a disaster. But the extreme right wing view of George W. Bush was (is?) this:

It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can't get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile.

Oh BTW, Andrew Sullivan is still a sexist.

Speaking for me only

Really bringing the stupid - the new leader of the idiots - Sarah Palin:

As more Americans delve into the disturbing details of the nationalized health care plan that the current administration is rushing through Congress, our collective jaw is dropping, and we’re saying not just no, but hell no!

. . . The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

These people have the "collective" brain of a 4 year old. And I bet he was glad to get rid of it.

Speaking for me only

Victim is such a subjective term. In the John Edwards/Rielle Hunter saga, who's the victim of their tryst? Rielle? John? Elizabeth? The baby? The Democrats?

With Cameron and Michael Douglas, did being the son of a divorced celebrity dad contribute to his becoming a meth user, or is his famous father the victim because even if he did everything possible to help his now-adult son, his privacy is blown for months to come as he inevitably undergoes the glare of the media spotlight?

Maybe everyone's a victim. Or thinks they're one.

I'm headed out to dinner on this lovely Friday evening. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Actor Michael Douglas' son, Cameron Douglas, arrested July 28 at a New York hotel for a methamphetamine offense, could be facing some serious time.

The federal complaint against him was released yesterday. I'm not linking to it because it still says "sealed" on the court's docket. (You can find it on the internet.) It contains two charges, both of which carry ten year mandatory minimum sentences if convicted.

The first count charges him with conspiracy to distribute more than 500 grams of ICE since 2006. The second count charges the July, 2009 transaction and involved 215 grams of ICE. Any mixture containing over 50 grams of ICE carries a 10 year mandatory minimum sentence. The maximum penalty is life. [More..]

John Edwards' former lover, Rielle Hunter, spent 9 hours at the federal courthouse in Raleigh, N.C. yeterday. She brought her daughter and was escorted into the courthouse by two F.B.I. agents.

Maybe she couldn't get a babysitter, but this seems a little over-the-top.

The grand jury is investigating whether Edwards' campaign misused funds in paying Hunter for her video work. [More....]

"Adolf Hitler issued six million end of life orders--he called his program the final solution. I kind of wonder what we're going to call ours." - Right wing opponent of health care reform

Via Brian Beutler:

Speaking for me only

The Gators are ranked #1 in the preseason Coaches College Football Poll.

The Yankees lead the Red Sox by 3.5 games after beating them last night 13-6.

All is right in the world of sports.

This is an Open Thread.