The discussion has been somewhat neutralized by the assertion that this action by the Israelis is in retaliation for bombings by the Palestinians. But I can't escape the feeling of being horrified by the savagery of the Israeli action - retaliation or not.

The second issue I have felt is under-discussed is the war in Iraq.
To the best of my knowledge, it is ongoing. Civilians and our soldiers are continuing to die. Is Obama committed to withdraw them on a fixed timetable - or is it to be vague and left "up to the commanders on the ground"?
Is there any movement or plan by anti-war groups or "progressives" to prod Obama to quickly put and to end this horrific stain on our national identity?

13302 of 100000 people have signed the Petition for a Special Prosecutor for Bush War Crimes, so far, and Bob Fertiks "question" to Obama and the transition team at change.gov under "Additional Issues" is now in the lead spot...

"Will you appoint a Special Prosecutor [...] to independently investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush Administration, including torture and warrantless wiretapping?"

Mainstream media is ignoring this issue like it's leprosy. I would hope left blogs wouldn't. We need to force it into the media.

A capital defendant has to sue to get a lawyer.  It's Georgia (you're surprised?) and he's represented by their (woefully underfunded) public defender's office.

But he's only gone all of 8 months without a lawyer....

Then, there's this interesting story on progress on resentencing people convicted and sentenced under the crack-powder disparity rules.  From the story, it appears that in the Eastern District of Virginia, about 2/3 get a sentence reduction.  In the District of the District of Columbia, about 16/17 get a sentence reduction.

More on the capricious nature of Bush and his pardon power.  It's clear it helps to know someone, and even more to hire someone, who works in the Bush WH.  From the article:

Of the 20 felony offenders to whom Mr. Bush granted clemency on Dec. 23, most of the attention has focused on Isaac R. Toussie, the New York real estate swindler who had hired a lawyer with political connections and bypassed the normal review process. A day later, the White House took the unusual step of saying it was stopping his pardon.

But Mr. Toussie, who was represented by a former associate counsel to Mr. Bush [Bradford Berenson], was just one of at least four people who gained special access. Two others were also represented by former associate counsels to Mr. Bush. And a White House meeting was devoted to Mr. Prior's case in part because his lawyer knew the wife of Gov. Chet Culver of Iowa.

. . .

But over the last few presidencies, the incentive to try to go around the normal process has increased, said P. S. Ruckman Jr., a political scientist who specializes in clemency.

A huge backlog at the Justice Department's pardon review office combined with the relatively small number of clemency grants by recent presidents, Professor Ruckman said, "encourages people to try to end-run the process -- to try to cheat, for lack of a better word, to gain access to the White House directly."

. . .

Alan S. Maiss, once president of Bally Gaming Inc., was convicted in 1995 in a case related to a video-poker scandal in Louisiana. In seeking a pardon, Mr. Maiss was represented by H. Christopher Bartolomucci, an associate White House counsel from 2001 to 2003.

Mr. Maiss applied on Dec. 26, 2007, far later than most of the other pardon recipients. A Justice Department spokeswoman, Laura Sweeney, said Mr. Maiss did not get through quickly because of special treatment. Ms. Sweeney noted that two others who were granted pardons in December had applied recently -- in August 2007 and February 2008.

. . .

One [otherwise ineligible for a pardon] case was that of the late Charles T. Winters, to whom Mr. Bush granted a posthumous pardon for a conviction stemming from illegally sending arms to Israel in 1948. The department normally does not process applications for deceased people.

Mr. Winters was represented by Reginald Brown, an associate White House counsel from 2003 to 2005. Mr. Brown said the volunteer team also included Frank Jimenez, the Navy general counsel and a friend of Mr. Winters's son, and Noam Neusner, a former White House aide to Mr. Bush.

. . .

The other case that was ineligible for a pardon under normal circumstances was that of Mr. Toussie. The Justice Department requires five years to have passed since the end of a sentence before it will consider a pardon application, and that time period was not yet up.

Mr. Toussie hired Bradford Berenson, an associate White House counsel from 2001 to 2003. Mr. Berenson declined to comment, but Mr. Fratto said that Mr. Berenson had visited the White House to discuss the case.

. . .

Justice Department officials say clemency should be rare. They say the review process is fair, but Karen Orehowsky, a volunteer clemency consultant who advised Mr. Prior's commutation team, said that ordinary people going through the department process have virtually no chance.

"It takes a `Hail Mary' from people who have a lot of connections and who are willing to put their neck out for people they care about, and it's unfair to people who don't have those connections," Ms. Orehowsky said.

This is probably the biggest catastrophe of our day.

He was only 12 years old, but he knew how to sling invective.

"You Americans are infidels, and you deserve to die." A skinny kid with a black head of hair and soft brown eyes, Naji had been brought to the Iraqi prison where I worked as an interrogator after his parents were killed. They died when the suicide bombers they'd been hosting blew themselves up to avoid being arrested. But Naji didn't yet know that he was an orphan, and he was furious at having been captured by the Americans.

Steve, one of a team of interrogators who worked for me, responded to the boy's tirade politely.

"Don't you think we're all just people and we need to get along?" Steve asked, speaking through our interpreter, Biggie. Naji, who's name I have changed to protect his identity, shook his head violently.

"No," Biggie translated. "You're all infidel pigs! I can't wait until I'm old enough to cut your heads off!"

There is more than one approach to extracting information from a captive. Interrogators are often encouraged to use threats and intimidation -- and even harsher methods. But my small group of Air Force investigators, along with several military and civilian interrogators on my team, were committed to a different way. We believed that interrogation methods based on building a relationship and on intellectual engagement were far more effective than intimidation and coercion.

As I watched the interrogation from the monitoring room, Naji's invective seemed almost funny coming from such a scrawny kid. But it was a sign of how thoroughly he had embraced the Al Qaeda propaganda he had heard at home. We had to hope he was not the face of Iraq's future.

"Do you know who this is?" Steve asked, showing Naji a photo of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

"Of course, that is Abu Musab Zarqawi. He is our hero."

"Your hero?"

"Of course! When we play, the tallest, biggest kid gets to be Zarqawi."

In response to Steve's probing questions, Naji proudly explained that his father was grooming him to be a mujahedin and a future leader of Al Qaeda. He also said that his father took him to important meetings.

A veteran interrogator the night before had told us we "should show the little punk who's in charge." This was the attitude of many of the old guard, the interrogators who had been at Guantanamo Bay and in Afghanistan and Iraq early in the war, when the "gloves were off." They mocked those of us who didn't imitate their methods of interrogation, which were based on fear and control. There was tremendous peer pressure to follow in their footsteps and not appear soft on our enemies.

We ignored the pressure. We believed that, particularly with a child, interviewing rather than interrogation got better results. Steve had been trained in interviewing children, and he used those skills with Naji, gently stroking the child's ego and noting that he must have been a very important boy to have attended meetings. Soon, Naji started rattling off places where meetings had taken place. He detailed who was at the gatherings, how many guns were stored at the houses, what was discussed and what plans were made. Naji talked because Steve was sympathetic and made him feel good.

can housing hold on that long? are they waiting for cloture number? ie february Coleman challenge settled and quinn appoints another DEM in IL to get to 60??