Three good news stories from LA Weekly:

LAPD wants to ban ski masks from demonstrators’ wardrobes reports that the Los Angeles Police Department is seeking the fast track for new laws to ban face coverings, gas masks or even goggles at public demonstrations.

Second and Long about the retrial set to begin Monday for the Inglewood California cop who was videotaped slamming a teenagrer's head into a car. The last jury deadlocked when the prosecution's witness went south on them.

Exiled by Love about how the immigration laws discriminate against gay partners.

We'll be adding to this thread with posts from bloggers and other alternative news sources as the weekend progresses. Feel free to add your favorites in the comments, just use the html formatting instructions provided. Long urls not in html code skew the site and aren't hot linked.

What we're reading today:

Agonist:

UK Government to scale back emergency laws under pressure from civil liberties groups. The United Kingdom's plans to give the police and the Army sweeping emergency powers to ban street demonstrations and seize property were diluted by the Government yesterday in the face of a civil liberties outcry. The Civil Contingencies Bill, the biggest shake-up of emergency laws since early last century, will cover terrorist attack, natural disasters and epidemics. But the Government backed off from an earlier proposal that the powers could be triggered by an event that threatened "political, administrative or economic stability", which critics claimed could have been used to outlaw marches against the Iraq war or to combat the fuel protests of 2000. The text of said bill, courtesy the UK government.

Warblogging:

Mr. Ashcroft belongs to a sect of religious extremists that believe that dancing is immoral. Mr. Ashcroft is scared of calico cats because he feels they are associated with the devil. Mr. Ashcroft feels that gambling is the height of immorality, and that sex outside of marriage is evil. Mr. Ashcroft truly stands as the polar opposite of Las Vegas.

Pandagon:

They are ex-felons. In that they are free. In that they have served their time. In that whatever transgression, they made, they have paid their debt to society, and as such their very basic rights as American citizens are due them.

One can argue that ex-felons who committed violent crimes shouldn't be able to own guns. But what is the argument that those who aren't imprisoned any longer should no longer be allowed the franchise?

We're glad to see that a lot more readers are commenting on TalkLeft. We read every one of the 300 + comments a day. We also pay a lot for the bandwidth. Tips are appreciated--see the Amazon and (paypal) donation buttons on the left side of the site. Amazon is anonymous and paypal lets us know your email address so we can send a thank you note.

Media Horse is back--go over and vote on Media Whor! of the Year.

Update: Jim at Rittenhouse Review dissects the nominees.

Update: The nominees for best single issue blog are now up and we've been included. So we're proud to be semi-finalists in both this category and best blog. We hope to make it to the finals in at least one, so we hope you'll go over and vote!

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The list of semi-finalists for nominees for best blog are up at Wampum for the 2003 Koufax awards. Last year, TalkLeft won for being the best single-issue blog. While the nominees for best single issue blog have not yet been announced, this year we are a semi-finalist for a nominee for best blog. The competition is awesome. What does best blog encompass? According to Wampum,

The category seeks to recognize the best overall work across the entire year, in writing, focus, relevance, accessibility, etc. In other word, who do you consider indispensable?

Wampum is taking votes from among the following list of semi-finalists:

A major thanks to TChris who posted some great stuff on TalkLeft yesterday while we gave our wrist a rest. If you haven't read his stuff, please scroll down and do so now. He's smart, articulate, writes really well and shares our views on just about every issue. Leave some comments, so he'll want to come back and post some more!

Avedon Carol of Sideshow , one of our favorite blogs, had her laptop swiped. She has a paypal button on her main page, it you can help her out, please do.

Hamster's back. Now we're just waiting for Jeanne at Body and Soul.

Jim Capozzola of Rittenhouse Review adds some new bloggers to his blogroll. He also wants you to torture the American Family Association in its marriage poll.

Skippy is taking the "jobs will be plentiful in 2004" line with at least one pound of salt.

Demagogue on Joe Lieberman, with examples:

Time and time again, Lieberman has shown himself willing to compromise on the most fundamental social and economic issues that most progressives care about.

Warblogging has a story about his debit card that didn't work, his trip to the bank, civil liberties and the Patriot Act [link via Pacific Views, who also has a recap of the latest international news stories.]

Thanks to TChris who has agreed to post here on TalkLeft tomorrow. It's always nice to hear another voice.

Rocky Mountain News columnist Dave Koppel (also the research director for the Independence Institute and a National Review columnist) announces the winners of the best Colorado weblogs in 2003. Our hearty congratulations to Walter in Denver, who is number one.

Here in Colorado, Web logs haven't reshaped the media landscape - yet. Even so, Colorado's best Web logs provide a very useful supplement to your media diet, providing you with news you may never find in the Denver dailies. So it's time to announce the winners of Colorado Best Web Logs, 2003.

At the top of the heap is Walter in Denver .

We're proud to be the runner-up:

Runner-up for best Colorado blog is the aptly named TalkLeft.com, run by criminal defense lawyer Jeralyn Merritt. TalkLeft provides excellent summaries and links to national news stories about the criminal justice system - from the perspective of people who believe that we need more civil liberties and fewer people in prison.

The site provides a consistent critique of the War on Terror, particularly the civil liberties infringements such as the Patriot Act.

The award is particularly meaningful to us since Mr. Koppel is a devout Libertarian, whose political views sometimes, but certainly not always, match our more liberal ones.

Mark Gisleson of BushWars has a good wrap up of New Year's blog offerings.

Atrios has a New Year's resolution.

Lisa English of Ruminate This has an activist agenda up with a cheat-sheet.

Damn Foreigner has the latest Maher Arar updates, including a possible new smear campaign against him. Arar is the Canadian who was seized by the U.S. at JFK and shipped off to Syria where he was imprisoned for a year during which incarceration he says he was tortured.

Patrick Nielsen Hayden of Electrolite and David Neiwert of Orcinus are onto the U.S. neglect of domestic terrorists. David says,

If anyone wanted evidence that the "war on terror" is primarily a political marketing campaign -- in which war itself is mostly a device for garnering support -- they need look no farther than the startling non-response to domestic terrorism by the Bush administration.

He offers the Texas cyanide bomb plot up as an example. More here, including this quote from Daniel Levitas, author of The Terrorist Next Door: The Militia Movement and the Radical Right:

"Excuse me, a chemical weapon was found in the home state of George Bush," says Levitas. "I'm not saying the Justice Department deliberately decided to downplay the story because they thought it might be embarrassing to the US government if weapons of mass destruction were found in America before they were found in Iraq. But I am saying it was a mistake not to give this higher profile."

Oliver Willis makes it into Discover Magazine. We hope it's MSNBC next for Oliver.

Ezra Klein at Pandagon is angry over a Dean supporter referring to Josh Marshall and Matt Yglesias as "Heathers." We have to agree that labeling Josh and Matt as conservative media is off-base.

Josh Marshall provides some possible explanations for why Ashcroft recused himself in the Plame investigation. We still think the most likely one is to avoid claims of whitewash and conflict of interest when it turns out that a certain high level White House official is found to be the leak but the Justice Department announces it will not prosecute because it cannot prove a crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Instapundit has a variation of this view: "Instead, it seems that his recusal would make more sense if people were likely to scream "whitewash" because Rove wasn't involved."

Skippy gives thanks for the New Year. We'd like to thank Skippy back, for bringing us so many smiles over the past year.

South Knox Bubba has the Freepers on Parade: the best of 2003. Here's a sample:

Constitution? What is that? Oh I remember. That is the document that protects pornography and the media.

Avedon Carol of Sideshow has this from Media Free America:

Found over at Lucas Doolin's Deer Camp:

Hope everyone is prepared for the coming year with the proper survival gear:

• Five rolls of colored duct tape (red, orange, yellow, green, blue)
• One copy of the "World Almanac" to keep in your car
• One copy of Edward Abbey's "Hayduke Lives" to put in your carry-on baggage when you fly
• Piggy bank, for saving your new Reagan dimes
• Ann Coulter action figure
• A good supply of Oxycontin, to take while you listen to the Rush Limbaugh Excellence in Broadcasting Network

We're off to a wedding tonight. It's a tale of cyberfriends making real friends. Those of you who read Eric Alterman's Altercation undoubtedly are familiar with one of his guest Altercators--Eric Rauchway. We occasionally altercate for Eric A. as well. About a year ago, Eric R. emailed us that his brother Jon and fiance Cleo were moving to Denver and suggested we get together. We did, and we've become great friends and their wedding is tonight. Eric R. and his wife and kids are in town for it (we all spent Christmas evening together as well) and we're very much looking forward to the celebration. What a fun night to get married.

Whatever your plans tonight, whether going out to celebrate or staying in with friends or even just reading the blogs and watching tv, we wish you a happy and safe New Year.

Update: The wedding was awesome--beautiful--what a happy night it was!