O habeas corpus, we hardly knew ye.

Molly Ivins is at it again, with a brilliant piece on the detainee/torture bill working its way through Congress. Not only does it allow a lot of torture (but slightly less than the White House would like), but apparently it does away with habeas corpus relief. Which is a Big Deal in criminal law. My head hurts. To me, the only debate left is over the kind of container in which this country is going to Hell (point to Joe W. for coming up with that line). Here's a snippet from Ms. Ivins:

The bill simply removes a suspect’s right to challenge his detention in court. This is a rule of law that goes back to the Magna Carta in 1215. That pretty much leaves the barn door open.

As Vladimir Bukovsky, the Soviet dissident, wrote, an intelligence service free to torture soon “degenerates into a playground for sadists.” But not unbridled sadism—you will be relieved that the compromise took out the words permitting interrogation involving “severe pain” and substituted “serious pain,” which is defined as “bodily injury that involves extreme physical pain.”

Poaching salmon in a dishwasher

I love finding new recipes, like this one. If I had a dishwasher, and if water wasn't at such a premium, I would totally make this!

Know what else is cool? Every single episode of Futurama (except for the forthcoming new ones). I love stealin', I love takin' things.

Making "Marmaduke" funny

I found this incredibly amusing. Not that it takes much. That comic strip is not at all dog-gone funny. This one's my favorite:

In Soviet Russia, you find court guilty!

This article in yesterday's Anchorage Daily News caught my eye because of its local flavor, and because I wrote a big long paper about judicial reform in Russia last winter. A delegation of judges from Khabarovsk, Russian Far East, recently paid a visit to Anchorage as part of an ongoing exchange. Apparently 90% of criminal cases go to trial in Russia, as opposed to 5-10% in the states. There are problems with access to records, along with problems getting public files online. And judicial discretion is much narrower.

Vladimir Putin made a big show of judicial reform a few years back, then got to work quietly undermining it, most visibly by trying to move some of the high courts from Moscow to St. Petersburg. He's had a few other moves behind the scenes to undermine judicial independence and due process of law. Change doesn't come overnight, but hopefully Russian courts won't be mere conviction factories forever.

What kind of week has it been?

Well, a mixed bag, really. A breaking and entering (4:00 a.m. door-kicking) in my apartment building; working hard to put a client into jail (rather than the opposite); Best Buy and Alaska Airlines competing to see who can take the least responsibility for the loss of the shiny, expensive TV I purchased; and the youngest of the little kids I used to babysit and teach in Sunday school is now checking out colleges--I'm so old! Not to mention the fact that the White House and a group of "renegade" Republicans have been arguing over how much torture should be legal: a lot or an awful lot. Very troubling. Read Ted Rall's latest column. Go ahead, I'll wait.

On the plus side, I loooooove my job and have had no shortage of interesting and fulfilling casework, I went on a couple of really good long runs this week, and I made some totally badass gingersnaps the other night. There's about 3 of them left in the office conference room.

Insert your own "Russian chipmunk voice" joke here.

Russian energy behemoth Gazprom thinks there's a chance that Russia will overtake the U.S. to become the world's leading helium producer by 2025-2030. If the FTD balloon bouquet trend continues, heyyyyy . . .

Hugo Chavez giving heating oil to Bush villages

In an interesting turn of events, Citgo is giving 100 gallons of heating fuel to every family in 151 rural Alaskan villages. Citgo is owned by Venezuela's national oil company, and Hugo Chavez probably couldn't resist an opportunity to make George Bush look bad by alleviating his constituents' suffering. Fuel oil is quite expensive, and rural Alaskans are feeling the pinch. What's interesting is the article's tone: "But the gift worth roughly $5 million comes courtesy of a country whose leftist president is pals with America's enemies and supports Iran's nuclear ambitions. . . . Hugo Chavez also calls our president mean things, such as 'genocidal murderer' and 'madman.'"

"Mean things?" Are we still on the playground? Chavez is a high-profile Fidel Castro buddy, and perhaps not a nice man, but when was the last time a news story about out our president said something like "America's right-wing president is pals with some of the world's worst polluters and supports brutal dictatorships in Central Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. George W. Bush also has his underlings call people who don't agree with him mean things, such as 'terrorist sympathizer,' and 'unpatriotic.'"

I'm just saying . . .

Stanford Football Roundup

The roundup is basically "we suck." We're off to an 0-3 start, at the bottom of the Pac-10, and it doesn't get any easier. Half of our remaining games are against ranked teams (USC, Notre Dame, Arizona State, and Cal), and our brand new stadium got an inauspicious christening last weekend with an ass-whooping by Navy. The Band is on probation, which surely isn't helping things--no halftime show, no "All Right Now," and no Tree until at least the end of the month. Can we turn it around, or must we console ourselves with yet another Director's Cup this year?

Pet trusts in Virginia

Virginia is now the thirty-eighth state with a pet trust statute, in a story that is more in the vein of "laws are wacky" than hard news. Basically, animals are considered chattel (personal property) under common law, and can't inherit, but owners can set up trusts for the welfare of their orphaned pets. Should I set up a trust for my favorite clipboard-surfing cat in case something should happen to me? Or does he go to the home for troubled teenage cats?

When you sleep . . . where do your taxes go?

It doesn't load easily on my G4 Powerbook, but this graph shows quite, umm, graphically how your federal income tax dollars are allocated. The big picture? $632 billion (64%) for military and national security, and $350 billion (36%) for everything else. But when you're five times more likely to die from a hernia than from a terrorist attack, is it really worth it? Or should we throw a few more dollars at public health?

Russia's Resource Ministry gets a takeback

More from my former playground, the Russian Far East: The Resource Ministry has withdrawn its approval for Shell's drilling operation off of Sakhalin Island. True, it's probably a cheap ploy by the Kremlin to control more of the Russian oil reserves, but can anyone imagine the EPA shutting down any drilling operations in the United States, particularly under the current regime? I just can't imagine my government slapping ExxonMobil for not being up to code, ecologically speaking.

Say it ain't so!

If Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown can't stay together, what chance do the rest of us have? I'm frankly amazed that they made it this far without the death or grievous bodily injury of either party. Man, why did this have to happen when "The Boondocks" is on hiatus? Aaron McGruder loves making fun of those two. Looks like the strip's coming back around the same time I get my bar results.

Do-it-yourself legal advice

Although I make my living selling legal services, I do think this is cool: Law Underground is a community-edited legal information project that endeavors to give users the relevant law by asking them a series of questions (reminiscent of the game that got me through many a law school class: Guess the Dictator and/or Television Sit-Com Character). It'll be only as good as its editors, of course, and it's pretty sparse so far. Like no Alaska law. Booo! Perhaps I should volunteer.

Dark Milestone indeed

As of September 9, 3,015 Americans have died in the Iraq War, compared to 2,973 who died in the September 11 attacks. To say nothing of the at least 20,000 non-fatal American casualties, or the uncounted tens of thousands Iraqi dead and wounded. It's old news now, but it bears repeating that Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11, despite the Administration's constant drumbeat of propaganda, aided by the corporate news media. Sigh--it angries up the blood. Story here.

CIA employees buying legal insurance

According to tomorrow's Washington Post, CIA counterterrorism officers are signing up for a legal insurance benefits program, due to concerns that they may be personally liable to torture victims at secret CIA prisons, according to "agency officials."

Under agency theory, the federal government would ultimately be liable, assuming the officers were acting within the scope of their employment. It seems to me that they were within the scope--when the same abuses take place at facilities all over the world, signs point to a governmentwide policy. Although that doesn't absolve the officers of personal liability, the Justice Department should represent them. The Bush administration is pretty good at hanging the rank and file out to dry, so who knows what's going to happen?

Top censored stories of 2007

Waiting for a flight at Portland airport, after spending a few days down here for my grandpa's memorial service. Despite the somber occasion, it's really been nice to be back here! Not much to report, although I commend to you Project Censored's "Top 25 Censored Stories of 2007." Some highlights:

#4 Hunger and Homelessness Increasing in the US

#6 Federal Whistleblower Protection in Jeopardy

#8 Pentagon Exempt from Freedom of Information Act

#9 The World Bank Funds Israel-Palestine Wall

#12 Pentagon Plans to Build New Landmines

#25 US Military in Paraguay Threatens Region

But they're all highlights, really. Read the whole thing!

Shooting doves with Republicans

Folks, I couldn't make this stuff up. Shooting doves. On September 11. To raise money for a Republican campaign. Thanks, BoingBoing.

Click image to enlarge.

"Let's Make a Deal," Chukotka style

I have a special affection for the Chukotka region of the Russian Far East, having lived there for a semester of high school, so "3 Ways to Survive With No Governor" in yesterday's Moscow Times caught my eye. Long story short, it's one of the poorest provinces in Russia, whose governor is oil billionaire and English soccer club owner Roman Abramovich. Abramovich, who mostly lives in London, has spent a bunch of his own money on infrastructure in Chukotka.

The problem? According to the article, Abramovich won't be governor forever, so what to do after he's gone? Fortunately, the governor's staff has prepared a manual for governing Chukotka after his term ends in 2009. The manual outlines three options for the future:

The first proposal would be to convert Chukotka into a national park. This would mean relocating most of the non-native population to more developed parts of Russia and maintaining minimal infrastructure, mainly to assist the natives.

Under the second proposal, things would be left as they are now and federal subsidies would be increased to cover the costs of maintaining existing infrastructure. Subsidies accounted for 30 percent of the region's budget of 13.5 billion rubles ($505 billion) last year.

The third option -- by far the most ambitious and the one preferred by the regional administration -- would be to secure a wave of investment that would be used to explore Chukotka's under-researched natural reserves and build its underdeveloped infrastructure.

I think we can rule out Door Number One. Parks are great, but mass relocations are not. As for the second and third doors--well, Moscow has neglected Chukotka for decades. And investment in infrastructure and responsible resource development would be welcome. Although I wonder how big a voice the indigenous Chukchi themselves will have in any of this, considering the region is officially called the "Chukchi Autonomous Republic." OK, more on this later. Probably.

"Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip"

OK, waaaay off topic here, but I just watched the pilot for "Studio 60" (thank you, Netflix). Brilliant. So glad to see Aaron Sorkin back on TV. Beautifully written dialogue and great camera work--lots of those long following shots I grew to love on "The West Wing." But yeah, smart writing, great cast, and off to a strong start. Hope the rest of the season is this good, and that NBC doesn't find a way to ruin it.

For those who don't watch an insane amount of TV, the show is a behind-the-scenes drama on the set of a "Saturday Night Live"-style sketch comedy show. "Sports Night":"SportsCenter"::"Studio 60":"Saturday Night Live"

Katrina Vanden Heuvel on Labor Day

On the eve of the holiday that makes most of us think about barbecues and going back to school, I commend to you, dear readers, "Lessons for Labor Day" by the esteemed editor of The Nation. She notes the widening gap between rich and poor Americans, paying special attention to defense contractor and oil executives at the top, and soldiers in Iraq and other working families at the bottom. Polls indicate that working Americans aren't buying Pres. Bush's glowing reports of the economy, apparently in its fifth year of recovery.

I found myself nodding my head as I read each paragraph, so I'd say it's worth reading the whole thing. If you're pressed for time, though, here's the punchline:

So, on this Labor Day 2006, let's support policies and ideas that will make this economy work for those who have helped create this country's wealth. For a start: Stop the assault on labor and strengthen collective bargaining. Then, let's pass universal health care and a living wage, craft trade and industrial policies that create jobs and restore workers' rights, and rebuild our ravaged pension system. These are just a few steps toward a more humane, decent and rational system that would fulfill America's promise.

While too many "New" Democrats have forgotten how to stand up for the working class, there are still enough that this November taking back Congress will mean taking back our country from the GOP's callous policies that have sped the decline of workers in America.