• Former CIA Agent Larry Johnson has a blog and a new article today on the Valerie Plame Outing, Mr. Bush, Have You No Shame?

• Heretik has great new very topical graphics today.

• Randy at Beautiful Horizens, the liberal blog concentrating on Latin American Affairs, provides some personal experience with the death penalty, through a brother-in-law who was murdered whom he never had a chance to meet. Please, read his posts. He and his wife, notwithstanding the murder of her brother, continue to oppose the death penalty.

• Mahablog is profiled in the Washington Post Magazine. "Take two bloggers from opposite ends of the overheated political debate, put them on a Washington tour bus together, then ponder the fate of an increasingly uncivil society."

Your turn to pick the topics and speak your minds.

Happy Blogiversary to Skippy and we wish him many, many more.

He brings a smile on every visit.

(Thanks to Julia at Sisyphus Shrugged for making the picture)

Digby says go here. For more reasons, go here and here.

This article on Rep. James Sensenbrenner by Maurice Possley in the Chicago Tribune is a must. Sensenbrenner is rapidly becoming Public Enemy Number One.

In an extraordinary move, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee privately demanded last month that the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago change its decision in a narcotics case because he didn't believe a drug courier got a harsh enough prison term.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), in a five-page letter dated June 23 to Chief Judge Joel Flaum, asserted that a June 16 decision by a three-judge appeals court panel was wrong. He demanded "a prompt response" as to what steps Flaum would take "to rectify the panel's actions" in a case where a drug courier in a Chicago police corruption case received a 97-month prison sentence instead of the at least 120 months required by a drug-conspiracy statute.

Sensenbrenner is behind the "five years for a joint" and "snitch or go to jail" bill pending in Congress. As TChris wrote, it's time to "just say no" to Sensenbrenner.

Reuters has a good article today on the influence blogs will have in the upcoming battles over Supreme Court nominations.

"A key part of our strategy is reaching out to the Internet community," said Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada..... Reid and other political leaders now hold conferences with bloggers in the same way they meet with traditional press.

"I think they are instrumental in getting information out and deconstructing spin," said Eric Ueland, chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican. "They are much defter and swifter than the mainstream media," he said, adding that blogs are also "very clear in their philosophical and ideological leanings."

Say Hello to a new TalkLeft guest blogger, Last Night in Little Rock. Like TChris, he is a criminal defense lawyer of the highest caliber, whose politics match those of TalkLeft.

Last Night in Little Rock is known in real life as John Wesley Hall. John is the author of two seminal texts, Search and Seizure (3d ed.) and Professional Responsibility in Criminal Defense Practice. Each book has a website with daily updates of court decisions: FourthAmendment.com and LawofCriminalDefense.com. He is also the author of Trial Handbook for Arkansas Lawyers, now in its 6th edition.

Say Hello to the National Journal's Hotline Blogmeter...previously available only by subsription. It's a great daily roundup of blog coverage. It also carries interviews with bloggers. Mine is here (scroll down.)

John Wesley Hall writes on TalkLeft as "Last Night in Little Rock."

A criminal defense lawyer from Little Rock, Arkansas, he has tried hundreds of jury trials, and argued hundreds of appeals, including two before the U.S. Supreme Court. The second of those cases was Wilson v. Arkansas, holding that the Fourth Amendment at common law required police to knock-and-announce before entry.

He is the author of three legal treatises:

• Search and Seizure (3d ed. 2000), which is supplemented daily at Fourth Amendment.com.
  
• Professional Responsibility in Criminal Defense Practice (3d ed. 2005), which includes this virtual appendix and supplement and
• Trial Handbook for Arkansas Lawyers (4th ed. 2004-05)

John is an active member of the Special Court for Sierre Leone, where he is representing a defendant charged with war crimes.

He is President of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and listed in Best Lawyers in America for criminal defense. He is actively involved in promoting ethics and professionalism for the criminal defense bar.

E-mail John Wesley Hall.

John Aravosis of America Blog is a credentialed blogger for G-8, blogging from Scotland. He's got great photos up. The bloggers flew over on the Live 8 plane from JFK, Bob Geldof met them at the airport and gave an impassioned speech. The protesters were also there.

Your choice, all topics, whatever's on your mind.

[Monday's over, comments closed]

Some readers are reporting problems posting comments. There was a problem at TypeKey's end a few days ago that supposedly is fixed. But Mike Ditto will take a look soon, so bear with us.

Also, one reader complained that the gray font used in the text of the comments section isn't dark enough - is anyone else having a problem with that? Any suggestions?

Just a reminder...

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