Alan Dershowitz says Virginia Roberts, aka Jane Doe #3 and 102 in the Jeffrey Epstein civil suits) is a "serial liar." (For background, see here). Yesterday, Roberts told the Daily Mail she is writing her memoirs and will name all the powerful people Epstein directed her to have sex with while she was employed by him.

Since she has publicly accused Dershowitz and Prince Andrew of engaging in criminal acts in a court pleading (available here), and threatens to make similar accusations against other prominent persons, I think she has put her credibility in issue. What has she said in her various interviews over the years and are there discrepancies? What was her life like before she met Epstein? Was she an average teen, or did she have severe problems? Her lawyers' statements should also be examined. Are their statements consistent with hers, and if not, why not? Is it just sloppiness? [More...]

It has been 17 months since the public has seen Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. At the request of prosecutors, he will make his first court appearance since July, 2013 this week. I wrote a long post on his incredibly restrictive jail conditions back in April, 2013, describing the SAMS ("special administrative measures") imposed on him.

Yahoo News has a detailed update, which I highly recommend reading. [More...]

Who's going shopping today?

I'm taking the day off, which means I won't be on line much.

I hope all Talkleft visitors had a wonderful holiday. I looked at so many store ads my eyes are blurry. At least I forgot about ISIS for a few days.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome

TalkLeft wishes you all a Happy Thanksgiving. Don't forget to check in with your local radio station to find out what time they will play Alice's Restaurant. It was November 28, 1965 that Arlo was convicted of littering in Stockbridge, MA. You can read the backstory here.

I will be busy setting up my new Desktop computer. I spent 8 hours Sunday reading up on every feature of every Dell and HP, I ended up with a great deal on a very powerful Dell. Of course, now comes the agony of transferring stuff over and hoping it works. I used a program last time and it caused a lot of problems, so this year I will do it by hand. My 2 GB hard drive is filled on the old one, and windows installer hasn't worked in year and a half --which means I haven't been able to add or remove any programs. Black Friday is definitely the day to do swap it out.

It's also that time of year to ask those of you who appreciate TalkLeft to send us a little thanks, via paypal or snailmail

I'll be back to normal schedule next week, my last day of an 8 day court run was today.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, everyone. This is an open thread, all topics welcome. (Alice's Restaurant is below.)[More...]

Via Andrew Romano:

Until last night. Gardner isn’t a moderate; he’s a pro-life Republican who ranked as the 10th most conservative House member in 2012. He has opposed Republican immigration reform efforts, voted to shut down the government unless Planned Parenthood was defunded and supported Cruz’s efforts to gut Obamacare.

Romano says Corey Gardner "repackaged" himself for yesterday's election: [More...]

Votes from Denver and Boulder pushed Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper over the top early this morning. He has been re-elected.

This race was too close for comfort. Bob Beauprez, as of this writing, has refused to concede defeat.

Congrats to Governor Hickenlooper.

Update: Susan Bibeau and Bulgasem Zehaf have made a statement expressing their devastation at their son's actions and their sorrow for the victim, his family and people of Canada. His mother says she grieves for the people, not her son. She spoke with him last week, for the first time in five years.

Susan Bibeau said she was devastated for the victims of the attack. "If I'm crying it's for the people," she said, struggling to hold back tears. "Not for my son."

...."I am mad at my son, I don't understand and part of me wants to hate him at this time."

"I his mother spoke with him last week over lunch, I had not seen him for over five years before that...."So I have very little insight to offer."

[More...]

Jared Polis is one of my favorite Congresspersons. (Unfortunately, I don't get to vote for him because he's not in my district.) Kevin Collier of the Kernel and The Daily Dot writes about Jared today:

Jared Polis (D-Colo.) may be the most Internet-friendly congressman in history. He certainly has the credentials: A former Web entrepreneur, he’s the first openly gay parent in congressional history, a proponent of legalizing marijuana, an active redditor, and a League of Legends gamer. He’s also long accepted campaign contributions in Bitcoin, the booming cryptocurrency.

He says Jared has "assembled what is essentially the best Internet freedom voting record possible" and then lists Jared's accomplishments. They are too long too quote, but quite impressive, so please read the article. [More...]

It's that time of year again...this year it's a big one. I should be happy because I'm done with outrageous heath insurance premiums (now it's just Medicare, a supplemental policy, and a drug plan which together cost 1/3 of my monthly health insurance premium last year.)

But aging is never really a happy experience, even when you have good health and a good life. Every day there's a reminder of some part of the face or body that used to be "up to here" and has now shifted "down to there." [More....]

Joe Biden went to Aspen this weekend to speak at a private corporate event. Local law enforcement, including the sheriffs of Pitkin County (Aspen) and Garfield County (Glenwood Springs) are justly critical. It cost them thousands of dollars in overtime and security, the Secret Service didn't chip in (either did the corporation), he was only there for 24 hours and his speech wasn't open to the public. On top of that, he had a 40 car motorcade they had to monitor for 70 miles between the Eagle County Airport (near Vail) and Aspen, both for his Friday arrival and Saturday departure.

Helicopters buzzing above Aspen and multiple road closures along Highway 82 and Interstate 70 on Friday and Saturday accompanied Biden’s entourage, which involved a 40-car motorcade and at least nine local law enforcement agencies.

[More...]

Colorado is spending $2 million on a campaign called "Don't Be a Lab Rat" to warn teens about possible brain damage from marijuana. As part of the campaign, life size rat cages have been set up at the Denver Public Library and Denver Skate Park (Photo via CBS Denver.) More are planned. The cage at the skateboard park has already been defaced. [More...]

The Colorado Department of Revenue has released the June, 2014 figures for marijuana sales and tax revenue. The Denver Post reports retail recreational marijuana sales were $24.7 million, the highest since January when sales began. June's figures were 19% higher than May, possibly due to the opening of additional retail stores.

Legal marijuana (both medical and recreational, taxes, licenses and fees) generated $29.8 million in taxes from January to June. [More...]