TGIF

TGIF Heading into another Weekend here is a newsy update. So we'll poison the well in order to save the water. That's right, send more troops says Sen. McCain. Of course the generals need a bigger standing army to do this. I respectfully disagree. Do not throw good money after bad.
Here's the plan: draw a perimeter, tell the Saudis to mind their own business and simmer down. We'll save money, lives (ours), and credibility. No matter who controls Iraq it will still be Muslim, anti-American and non-democratic. We need to go back to "self-determination". We lost before we even started. They can sort it out better than we can. Keep terrorism inside/contained AND away from our troops.

The sad story of the Botched execution(s) is here.

Baseball Fans: new import from Japan is the Type O Warrior (hat tip NYT)
In Japan, people with Type O are commonly referred to as warriors because they are said to be self-confident, outgoing, goal-oriented and passionate. According to Masahiko Nomi, a Japanese journalist who helped popularize blood typology with a best-selling book in 1971, people with Type O make the best bankers, politicians and — if you are not yet convinced — professional baseball players.

Poll Says the New Congress is Trusted: Americans trust Democratic lawmakers more than President Bush to handle the nation's toughest problems, including the Iraq war, and a quarter of Republicans are glad that Democrats have won control of Congress, a Washington Post-ABC News poll finds.


A good blurb on Terrorism and Security (by Tom Regan of Christian Science Monitor)

Here you will find a good roundup of the blog and media coverage of the Musladin Supreme Court decision. Hat tip Kent at Crime and Consequences.

Too Good to Pass: Mike at Crime and Federalism (link below at "Mike says")has this called "How Scalia Views the "Little People" -- juicy, for "populist conservatives" -- Here is how Justice Antonin Scalia views 99% of people:

"If you become a federal judge in the Southern District of New York (Manhattan), you can't raise a family on what the salary [$165,200] is," Scalia said during a speech to the Northern Virginia Technology Council.

Mike says: Ninety-nine percent of people make much less money than that. According to Justice Scalia, they must not be raising their families properly. Only the little people make less than 150K. I would love for someone to explain why someone who holds such viewpoints about Americans is considered a populist hero by lower-income conservatives.

Open Letter to Justice Scalia by Keith S. Hampton is here.

More on Hamdan (hat tip Kent at Crime and Consequences)
District Court has dismissed for lack of jurisdiction the habeas petition of Guantanamo detainee Salim Hamdan, whose case went to the Supreme Court in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld.

The opinion has three main points. First, the statute did repeal the court's habeas jurisdiction. The court brushed aside rather easily the shaky statutory interpretation argument that it did not.

Second, Congress has not validly suspended the writ of habeas corpus. The constitutional conditions for suspension, rebellion or invasion, are not present. "If and to the extent that the MCA operates to make the writ unavailable to a person who is constitutionally entitled to it, it must be unconstitutional."

Third, Hamdan is not constitutionally entitled to it. Here Judge Robertson has an analysis of the historical cases of habeas for aliens that is quite consistent with our brief in Hamdan and rejects the superficial citation of these cases by Justice Stevens in Rasul v. Bush, n. 11.

Hat tip also Crime and Consequences re the Duke rape case. David Scott of AP reports on a defense motion in the Duke Lacrosse team rape case alleging that a DNA test by the prosecution showed multiple males' DNA but none of the team members' and that the result was not disclosed to the defense. The story doesn't say what relief the motion is requesting. Given that they do have the information months before trial, there doesn't seem to be a Brady violation here.

RE Counsel, Medellin and Acker in CCA by Austin American Statesman, here (Nov. 20).

"This state's highest appeals court for criminal cases consistently ignores justice, even when the evidence of injustice is clear. True to its recent history, the court last week rejected two appeals from condemned inmates whose trials were travesties of justice."
"The most ardent death penalty advocate understands that a capital murder proceeding must guarantee a fair trial. One of the strongest arguments against capital punishment in Texas is that the judicial system is so broken that innocent defendants can be condemned and executed."

Cause and effect: The AP reported 12/12--that CCA set new rules to ensure better performance of lawyers for death row. Rules were adopted Monday, (12/11?).