The Senate today rejected Sen. John Thune's amendment to the defense spending bill that would allow people with concealed weapons permits in one state to bring them into another state that allows concealed weapons permits. 48 states (all but Illinois and Wisconsin) provide concealed weapons permits.

The measure failed by 2 votes, 58 to 39. (60 votes were needed.) Score one for the gun control lobby. I think the objections to the bill are specious -- and in the case of NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg, verge on hysteria.

"This is about as anti-police, pro-gun trafficker piece of legislation that has ever come before the United States Senate," said New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg Tuesday.

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President Obama wanted his press conference on health care tonight at 9pm ET. NBC said no, it's spent weeks getting an interview with singer Susan Boyle which is airing tonight on America's Got Talent. The result: Susan Boyle trumps Obama. Obama moved the time of his conference to 8pm ET.

But, Fox (not the cable news network, the other one) will skip Obama's news conference as the new time conflicts with "So You Think You can Dance."

Here's Susan Boyle on the Today Show this morning. Now let's forget about her and get back to health care.

A report by the Immigration Justice Law Clinic at Benjamin Cardozo law school has found, based on a review of 700 arrest reports, that immigration agents broke the law and the constitution in conducting immigration raids.

Armed federal immigration agents have illegally pushed and shoved their way into homes in New York and New Jersey in hundreds of predawn raids that violated their own agency rules as well as the Constitution, according to a study to be released on Wednesday by the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

...The raids were supposed to focus on dangerous criminals, but overwhelmingly netted Latinos with civil immigration violations who happened to be present, the study said. Raiders mistakenly held legal residents and citizens by force in their own homes while agents rummaged through drawers seeking incriminating documents, the report said.

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Jon Kyl (R-AZ) announced his opposition to the confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotmayor for the Supreme Court. Certainly his right to do so. I have argued that the Senate owes the President no deference on judicial appointees. And this is not the first time Kyl blocked a Latino nominated by a Democratic President. Kyl was a part of the GOP cabal that blocked the confirmation of Clinton nominated appeals court judge Richard Paez (Paez was eventually confirmed.) But it is a reversal from Kyl's stated views on the deference due to a President's choice for the Supreme Court. When it was Judge Alito, Kyl was outraged that Democrats would vote no:

Stage 17 of the Tour de France is being contested in the French Alps and features 6 mountain climbs. While most of the attention is on the battle for the yellow jersey, where Alberto Contador will be attacked by Andy Schleck's team Saxo Bank, a lot of attention will be focused on Lanterne Rouge "leader" Kenny Van Hummel. Can he survive 6 mountain climbs?

Here is more on the Lanterne Rouge Tradition.

This is an Open Thread.

Colorado has had a medical marijuana law, passed by voters as an amendment to the state constitution, since 2000. Recently, someone got the idea to have the Colorado State Board of Health try and limit dispensaries from supplying more than five patients.

Monday, there was a hearing. 500 activists, from police officers who support medical marijuana to those in wheelchairs and Iraq vets with PTSD, showed up to try and defeat the proposal. It worked.

For starters, they motivated off their couches and packed the Tivoli Student Union on the Auraria campus to protest a proposal to limit medical marijuana providers to five patients each. The audience was made up of persons in wheelchairs and crutches, reefer-promoting police officers, AIDS and cancer patients, and a woman who described herself as a “pro-life Republican mother.”

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Jackson Browne prevailed over John McCain in his lawsuit for McCain's use of "Running on Empty" during his presidential campaign. They settled, the amount wasn't disclosed and McCain apologized.

Funny, that of all the songs McCain could have chosen, he picked the one that most resembled his own campaign.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

The Washington Post and Associated Press report they have received an independent investigator's report into whether Sarah Palin violated ethics laws by seeking money from the Alaska Trust Fund to pay her legal bills:

The report obtained by The Associated Press says Palin is securing unwarranted benefits and receiving improper gifts through the Alaska Fund Trust, set up by supporters.

An investigator for the state Personnel Board says in his July 14 report that there is probable cause to believe Palin used or attempted to use her official position for personal gain because she authorized the creation of the trust as the ''official'' legal defense fund.

Palin responds "''There is no final report. The Investigator is still confidentially reviewing this matter. " The investigator responds, "[H]is report was final. [More...]

Two things I already knew: Sen. Jeff Sessions is a danger as the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate's Hate Crimes bill is ill-conceived legislation.

Things I now know: It's worse than I thought. The ACLU reports the Senate yesterday approved an Amendment by Jeff Sessions expanding the use of the death penalty for hate crimes. (Why not just life plus cancer as a penalty while he's at it?)

From the ACLU and then an action alert to get this removed.

The U.S. Senate yesterday passed an amendment extending the death penalty for certain hate crimes. The amendment, sponsored by Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), was added to the hate crimes amendment to the Defense authorization bill that passed last Thursday. In a letter sent to Senators, the American Civil Liberties Union urged lawmakers to oppose this misguided and wrong expansion of the federal death penalty.

Lawyers working. Your turn.

This is an Open Thread.

Agnes Lawless was rear-ended while driving in northeast Philadelphia. Fortunately, the car that collided with hers was traveling slowly and did little damage. Unfortunately, the driver (who left without stopping) immediately drove to the police department, where he apparently told his father, Officer Alberto Lopez Sr., that it was Lawless who caused the collision. Officer Lopez, accompanied by his son, drove around in his patrol car until they spotted Lawless' car at a convenience store.

Lawless was standing at the counter of the store, at Comly Road and Roosevelt Boulevard, smiling and chatting with the clerk, when she was grabbed from behind and violently pushed back with a police officer's gun in her face.

"He hit me with his left hand, and he had his gun in his right hand," Lawless said. "He pushed his gun into the left side of my neck. It caused a scrape-type bruise on my neck." After a chaotic struggle, Lawless was arrested and charged with assaulting the officer.

Lawless spent the night in jail. [more ...]

For several months, a police supervisor in Portsmouth, New Hampshire used a bugging device to listen to civilian employees in the police records office as they conversed with each other and with visitors. The device was apparently installed to help supervisors investigate complaints about the employees' rudeness when interacting with the public. Although a sign in the police department warns visitors that their conversations in the lobby might be recorded, no notice was given to the employees that a recording device had been installed inside their office.

Why police supervisors thought it was necessary to eavesdrop instead of telling the employees that they were being recorded is unclear. Perhaps it was simply their nature to seek to "catch the bad guys" who violated work rules rather than giving the employees information that would probably have prevented the violations. [more ...]