Via TPM, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) lashed out at Democrats for supporting Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court. AP reports:

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the head of his party's Senate campaign committee and a Sotomayor opponent, shot back that Reid and other Democrats were trying to exploit the nomination and "giving cover to groups and individuals to nurture racial grievances for political advantage." "I don't think it influences people's votes, but what it does encourage is a very poisonous — indeed a very toxic — tone of destructive politics," Cornyn told The Associated Press. "They ought to be ashamed of themselves."

(Emphasis supplied.) I think he is talking about "giving cover" to people like me, Latinos. Let me inform Senator Cornyn that, speaking for me only, I do not need Harry Reid to "give me cover" to understand that the Republican Party is hostile to me and people like me. Look in the mirror. You are the problem with regard to how Latinos feel about the GOP. Not Harry Reid.

Speaking for me only

Late last year, TalkLeft called attention to Benton Harbor, Michigan police officer Andrew Collins, who invented facts that he swore to be true in applications for search warrants. His misconduct caused seven convictions to be reopened and dismissed.

Benton Harbor police officer Bernard Hall apparently decided to emulate Collins. Like Collins, Hall fictionalized the affidavits upon which he relied to obtain warrants. Like Collins, he also stole from the people he searched. Six people have had their charges dismissed or their convictions set aside, and arrest warrants against three others have been withdrawn, as a result of Hall's wrongdoing.

Glenn Greenwald:

In May, The Washington Times' Eli Lake reported that an extraordinary letter sent to the British by the Obama administration proved that "the Obama administration [said] it may curtail Anglo-American intelligence sharing if the British High Court discloses new details of the treatment of a former Guantanamo detainee." . . . [N]ow, The Guardian reports that . . . threats were issued by the Obama administration not only in the form of that previously disclosed letter, but also personally by Hillary Clinton in a May meeting with him and other British officials:

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, personally intervened to suppress evidence of CIA collusion in the torture of a British resident, the high court heard today. . . . David Miliband, the [British] foreign secretary . . . met Clinton in Washington on 12 May this year.

The most amazing thing about this to me is, except for Dan Froomkin when he blogged for the Post, this story has been completely ignored by the American Media. Watchdogs indeed.

Speaking for me only

The evidence left little doubt that the man who shot and killed Carl White Jr. was the same man who, four days earlier, shot another man and raped that man's wife. Cedric Willis was arrested for those crimes. When the results of DNA tests finally arrived, however, they proved that Willis wasn't the rapist. The prosecution dismissed the rape charge but inexplicably proceeded with the homicide prosecution. Even worse, Assistant District Attorney Bobby DeLaughter and his boss, District Attorney Ed Peters, convinced a newly-appointed judge that the jury shouldn't hear evidence that the rapist and the murderer were the same person, and that White wasn't the rapist.

Willis' lawyer filed a motion for a new trial but it languished without a ruling for 12 years. Willis spent those years in the brutal Mississippi prison at Parchman, serving nearly half his time in solitary confinement. With the help of the Innocence Project, his request for a new trial was finally heard and granted. A different judge later ruled that the only evidence against Willis, an eyewitness who identified Willis in court at his first trial, was tainted and couldn't be used against him. The homicide charge was finally dropped in 2006. [more ...]

Richard Cortes at Vanity Fair has an illustrated history of U.S. Drug Czars in the War on Drugs. It begins:

The United States spends nearly $50 billion each year on the war on drugs, to little avail: illegal drugs remain prevalent, and drug-funded groups continue to spread violence from Mexico to Afghanistan. The new White House drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, says he wants to end the drug war, but other men in his position have tried and failed to do just that. In this illustrated history, Ricardo Cortes shows how science, politics, ego, and scandal transformed a public-health initiative into a century-long military campaign.

He begins in 1914 with the Harrison Act, but the first sketch is of Henry Anslinger, Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics from 1930 to 1962, who led a public campaign against marijauana. [More...]

Last week, a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee passed H.R. 3245, Rep. Bobby Scott's bill to equalize crack and powder cocaine penalties and eliminate the 5 year mandatory minimum sentence for simple possession of crack.

Today, the full House Judiciary Committee passed the bill, by a vote of 16 to 9. This is the good bill -- other versions would equalize the penalties but also add new crimes and throw more money into the War on Drugs.

The bill will now go to the full House for a vote. Let's hope it passes without Amendments (unless it's one that would make it retroactive.)

Khaled Al-Mutairi, a Kuwaiti detainee held at Guantanamo for the past 8 years, was ordered released today by U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly. Al-Mutairi was seized in Pakistan in 2001.

Judge Kollar-Kotelly ruled the Government has insufficient evidence to continue his detention and ordered him released. It's a final order, which means the Government can appeal. A declassified opinion should be issued within days.

Three more Kuwaitis remain in Guantanamo. All have been represented by David Cynamon of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman. Fawzi Al-Odah and Fouad Al Rabiah will receive habeas hearings in August, and Fayiz al-Kandari’s hearing is scheduled for September 2009.

Originally, there were 12. The U.S. released 8 back to Kuwait in 2005-2006. According to an email from the Kuwaiti Family Committee, upon their return to Kuwait, they were charged, tried and acquitted.

Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano gave a major address today. Shorter version: It's time to ramp up the war on terror, give more money to cops and tweak but not eliminate some Bush policies, and encourage citizens to report suspicious activity. From the Wall St. Journal this morning:

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is expected to outline Wednesday the Obama administration's domestic approach to preventing terrorist attacks -- a strategy that will rely in large measure on refining and expanding initiatives launched under President George W. Bush.

We can't afford a health care plan, but we can afford more cops for New York City.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says the city will get $35 million in transit security stimulus money that the city can use to hire more police officers. She says the money will put more than 100 additional cops on city subways and busses.

[More...]

How many ways can Congress find to scr*w the elderly? As a result of a compromise today, the Dems conceded more ground to conservatives on the health care bill.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee, which expects to approve the new version of the legislation by Friday, unveiled the newest version of the proposal at a legislative markup Wednesday. It would cut the cost of health-care reform by $100 billion and provide payment guarantees to rural hospitals.

...Across Capitol Hill, Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) announced that a draft of the reform package would provide coverage to 95 percent of Americans, be fully offset by tax increases and Medicare savings...

... The draft bill would provide more cost savings through Medicare than did previous versions, reducing the need for new revenue from about $500 billion in earlier drafts to "somewhat over $300 billion," according to Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), who is working with Baucus on the bill. The draft also would scale back Medicare payments to physicians, a long-promised but costly provision.

If you scale back Medicare pay to doctors, it seems to me you scale back the number of doctors willing to treat the elderly. If I'm wrong, then it's just another sign our elected officials are doing a lousy job of explaining the bill in terms the public can understand. [More...]

I'm busy writing motions and haven't been able to catch much news today. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

The House agreed today to put off a vote on health care reform until September.

Under the deal, the last of three House committees will be able to finish work on the legislation this week. But lawmakers will have time to review the 1,000-page bill before a floor vote in September.

I think that's wise. Act in haste, repent at leisure. That's what happened with the Patriot Act. I want to be sure every elected official knows exactly what's in this 1,000 page bill and what's been removed. And I wish journalists would take the time between now and September to explain it in lay terms to the public.

Just saw this.

The Al Franken Decade off to a great start.

Speaking for me only