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Raw Story: (h/t Existentialist Cowboy)

Hope Steffey's night started with a call to police for help. It ended with her face down, naked, and sobbing on a jail cell floor. Now, the sheriff's deputies from Stark County, Ohio who allegedly used excessive force during a strip search 15 months ago face a federal lawsuit, and recently released video won’t help their case.

Steffey's ordeal with the Stark County sheriff's deputies began after her cousin called 9-1-1 claiming Steffey had been assaulted by another one of their cousins. When a Stark County police officer arrived, he asked to see Steffey's driver's license. But instead of handing over her own ID, she mistakenly turned over her dead sister's license, which she contends she keeps in her wallet as a memento. That's when the situation became complicated. Read on...

Bad Astronomer: Some Creationists are still dangerous even when they're in jail for tax evasion.

Mother Jones: Laura Rozen War and Piece interviews journalist Douglas Farah, co-author of a new book on Viktor Bout Farah tells how the Tajik-born arms dealer forged a lucrative career skirting U.N. embargoes to sell weapons and air transport services to warlords and despots—not to mention the U.S. military and its contractors in Iraq.

Truly Equal: Iraqi refugees forced into prostitution.

James Fallows: The Iraq speeches, take two...

Balloon Juice: John Cole provides a dandy analysis of the latest faux controversy roiling wingnuttia...

guest round-up by Blue Gal.

Via The Raw Story:

As if it wasn't bad enough for the Bush Administration already, contempt charges are flying in Montana.The Administration's top forestry official has been ordered to explain why the US Forest Service failed to analyze the environmental impact of dropping a fish-killing flame retardant on wildfires -- or face contempt of court.

Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey would then face jail unless the Forest Service assented to a court order enjoining the environmental review.

"Noting that Rey had blocked implementation of an earlier review, U.S. District Judge Donald W. Malloy ordered Rey to appear in his court Oct. 15 unless the Forest Service completes the analysis before that time," Associated Press reporter Jeff Barnard wrote.

Forest Service spokesman Joe Walsh told AP the agency was working on the analysis, but couldn't say if the Secretary would meet the deadline; Rey did not respond to requests for comment. Read more...

KEYEtv.com (CBS): (h/t JazzTrombone)

A 74-year-old retired mathematician who sells anti-Bush buttons at a Maryland farmers' market has become a symbol of free speech to some people. Others say Alan McConnell is a nuisance.

McConnell was at the market in Kensington as usual yesterday, selling buttons that say "Impeach Him" He has sold the $1 buttons for months; he told The Washington Post he uses the money earned to pay for "Impeach Them Both" yard signs.

Town officials had previously warned McConnell about peddling his political wares at the market (he is accused of being "aggressive" in his pitch), and had cited him for selling merchandise without a proper permit.

McConnell was also warned that he would be arrested if he returned to the market, even though it is public property.

McConnell showed up this weekend, when police arrested him and forcibly carried him to a squad car. A crowd of about 40 McConnell supporters booed the arrest, chanting "Free speech!"

McConnell was charged with trespassing; he faces 90 days in jail and a $500 fine

Officials said kicking him out has nothing to do with politics but with fears that the atmosphere fostered by McConnell and his supporters would create a safety hazard. (Mayor Peter Fosselman even cancelled last Saturday's market.)

It's getting harder and harder to recognize this country some days...

 It's just hitting CNN and MSNBC. Bush just obstructed justice.

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The official said Bush "has commuted the prison sentence ... leaving intact the probation and fines handed down by the court.""That means he is not going to jail," the official said.

The rule of law Conservatives are a joke..

The Bush Statement:

Mr. Libby was sentenced to thirty months of prison, two years of probation, and a $250,000 fine. In making the sentencing decision, the district court rejected the advice of the probation office, which recommended a lesser sentence and the consideration of factors that could have led to a sentence of home confinement or probation.I respect the jury’s verdict. But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby’s sentence that required him to spend thirty months in prison.

My decision to commute his prison sentence leaves in place a harsh punishment for Mr. Libby. The reputation he gained through his years of public service and professional work in the legal community is forever damaged. His wife and young children have also suffered immensely. He will remain on probation. The significant fines imposed by the judge will remain in effect. The consequences of his felony conviction on his former life as a lawyer, public servant, and private citizen will be long-lasting….

What crap. Marcy Wheeler:

Well, George did it. Made sure that Scooter wouldn’t flip rather than do jail time. He commuted Libby’s sentence, guaranteeing not only that Libby wouldn’t talk, but retaining Libby’s right to invoke the Fifth.This amounts to nothing less than obstruction of justice.

The Sunday Talking Head line-up is ready for perusal. Thought I'd kick off everyone's morning today with a little Squeeze and some Black Coffee In Bed.

Lots of Tony Snow — lots and lots and lots. The Colin Powell interview on Meet the Press could be interesting - or nothing but a lot of hot air and equivications. I’m betting on the latter, but will be very happy indeed if it is the former because who couldn’t use a bit of truth on a Sunday morning? It would be a nice change from the usual, anyway.

Bob Geiger has some spot-on political cartoons ready for the browsing — my personal favorite is the pass off of the “go directly to jail card.” So, what's catching your eye on the blogs or in the news this morning?

The Falwell Bomber was only the latest....Rick Perlstein:

(It was only later, when I stared studying Watergate, when I wondered about the moral compass of a movement that would elevate as a spokesman a man who was literally thrown in jail for his eagerness to commit violence in service to subversion to the Constitution.) I felt, at a certain point, that something very ugly would soon happen.

Something ugly did soon happen: Timothy McVeigh bombed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. What is the line between vigilence and paranoia? I really don't know. I only know this, to return to my original point: it's far past the time for the media to start tracking these arrests as a trend—before the next arrest comes post-explosion, not pre.

Digby: I predict that we are going to see a remarkable resurgence of rightwing violence if the Democrats take full control of the government.

How quickly Eric Rudolph has been forgotten.

How much airplay is this getting in American press? I talked about this case with a conservative friend of mine who completely denied it. When I emailed this story to him, he was literally shocked to think that the US is torturing people who are NOT terrorists. I truly believe that I'm starting to get him to stop his unconditional support for Bush and his war. Why it's not okay to torture terrorists either will be our next discussion. But it made me wonder how many of the 29%ers just don't have any clue what's being done in their name.

BBC:

A Lebanese-born German, who accuses the CIA of having kidnapped and tortured him, says he is determined to get an apology from the US authorities.

Khaled al-Masri alleges that he was seized in Macedonia, flown to a secret jail in Afghanistan and tortured there.

"I'll pursue the case until the Americans admit what they did to me, give an explanation and make an apology," he told the BBC News website.

Munich prosecutors have ordered the arrest of 13 suspected CIA agents.

Mr Masri says he was abducted at the end of 2003 and detained for five months before being released in Albania after the Americans realised they had got the wrong man.

UPDATE: David sent in this clip from CNN discussing the arrest orders

As a progressive, I tend towards a more libertarian view of things. I don't believe the government has any right getting into our personal lives. That's why stories like this just fill me with so much anger.

BizmarckTribune: (h/t OK)

North Dakota's Legislature is encouraging disrespect for the law by making it illegal for a man and woman to live together without being married, a legislator says.

If North Dakota prosecutors began enforcing the anti-cohabitation law, which provides a 30-day jail term and a $1,000 fine, the state would need a "$10 billion prison," Sen. Tracy Potter, D-Bismarck, said Wednesday.

[..]North Dakota is one of the few states that outlaws cohabitation, which is defined as a man and woman living together "openly and notoriously" as if they were married.

It is listed as a sex crime in state law, alongside adultery and incest. There are few records of a cohabitation case being prosecuted, aside from a North Dakota Supreme Court appeal in the 1930s.

San Jose Mercury News:

The state Legislature is about to weigh in on a question that stirs impassioned debate among moms and dads: Should parents spank their children?
Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Mountain View, wants to outlaw spanking children up to 3 years old. If she succeeds, California would become the first state in the nation to explicitly ban parents from smacking their kids.

Continue reading »

AP via MercuryNews :

State investigators have linked a Republican campaign to letters sent to thousands of Orange County Hispanics warning them they could go to jail or be deported if they vote next month, a spokesman for the attorney general said.

"We have identified where we believe the mailing list was obtained," said Nathan Barankin, spokesman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer.

He declined to identify the specific campaign, citing the ongoing investigation. The Los Angeles Times and The Orange County Register both reported Thursday that the investigation appeared to be focused on the campaign of Tan D. Nguyen, a Republican who immigrated to the U.S. from Vietnam as a child and is now challenging Democratic U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez. Nguyen's Web site says he opposes illegal immigration.

The letter, written in Spanish, tells recipients: "You are advised that if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time." Read on...