Jon Stewart proimises, “The Daily Show news team will bring you all the news stories first, before they’re even true.”

…the consequences of his actions could be severe. The comments on my Sunstein post are terrific. Thanks to everyone involved. Certainly worth remembering is that impeachment is hardly the only option. And even if we do nothing at all (and I am not suggesting that!!!) there is still the whole wide world to consider. In early June Attorney Philippe Sands talked with Dave Davies on Fresh Air about interrogation techniques and how Britain’s handling of the IRA could teach the U.S. a thing...

We dropped our phone service but kept DSL, high speed Internet that comes through a phone line. If you take just that service, you’ve got “naked” DSL: Analysts say there is a high demand for naked DSL, especially among young college grads who are dumping landlines in favor of cell phone service. A recently released federal survey says nearly one out of every six American homes had only cell phone service in 2007, up significantly from the year before and that means the demand for...

Cass Sunstein, a legal scholar and adviser to Barack Obama, has been attracting a good bit of critical notice mainly from the liberal side of the blogosphere. I’ve read much of it with interest; I’ve seen no defenders. After finishing KathyG’s post on Sunstein (Ken Houghton says it’s a “must read”), I took to the keyboard. A storm (a sign) knocked out my Internet and delayed this post.… I am and have been a fan of Sunstein’s since at least the early...

Atlanta has long been a hub of child prostitution. Yesterday it was featured in a NY Times editorial on prostitution and prevention: State lawmakers will be tempted to ratchet up penalties for the crime of child prostitution and declare the problem solved. But Georgia already has very tough laws in this area. Like the rest of the states, it needs to significantly expand treatment programs for sexually exploited children. And even more important, it needs to broaden community-based prevention programs...

Last week the media bias story was the absence of the John Edwards Love-Child saga. I got that one wrong, saying that the press is doing the dance they always do and predicting that the story would make the next day’s morning news shows. It didn’t. (And Slate’s Mickey Kaus is among those keeping on it.) Today I was wrong again. I was certain that the Knoxville, Tennessee, shooting of 8 people, leaving two dead, during Sunday services while a group of children were performing would...

Andy Zajac, The Swamp: Monica Goodling and D. Kyle Sampson, key aides to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, violated federal law and departmental policy by considering political affiliation and other improper factors in Justice Department hiring decisions, according to another devastating report from DOJ’s Inspector General and the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility, issued this morning. The report can be accessed here. Here’s a summary of findings: Goodling.doc Here’s...

The Chicago Tribune had a big story about new battles erupting over gun laws across the country: ATLANTA—Following the U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down a ban on handguns, gun opponents are fighting to preserve or expand gun-free zones, igniting battles over whether civilians should be allowed to carry loaded weapons to places such as airports, public parks and even the Magic Kingdom. The same day a new law went into effect in Georgia allowing people who have obtained a legal license to...

With a Macon, GA, byline the story finds some daunting challenges: If 95 percent of black voters support Obama in November, in line with a recent Washington Post-ABC News national poll, he can win Florida if he increases black turnout by 23 percent over 2004, assuming he performs at the same levels that Democratic candidate John F. Kerry did with other voters that year. Obama can win Nevada if he increases black turnout by 8 percent. Ohio was so close in 2004 that if Obama wins 95 percent of the...

Last week a California judge ruled that trying a 14-year-old boy accused of murder in an adult court does not violate the constitution: “I cannot say that this is unconstitutional,” said Ventura County Superior Court Judge Douglas Daily. Teenage defendant Brandon McInerney of Oxnard is charged with first-degree murder and a hate crime in connection with the Feb. 12 killing of classmate Larry King, 15, who sometimes wore makeup and told friends he was gay. Today a Ventura County Star editorial...

Talk Left’s TChris points to Julia Sudbury’s utopian imaginings of a world without prisons before acknowledging our prisons will remain a necessary evil. That said, he launches into a riff on what our criminal justice system absolutely should be: Rather than devoting a larger share of our shrinking resources to incarceration, society’s dollars would be better spent on crime prevention. Reducing poverty and providing meaningful opportunities for a sound education, affordable housing,...

A gay man, I had lots of interest in the Larry Craig story; far less in the John Edwards story. But I don’t see the double standard that my co-blogger Shaun does (be sure to check out the comments); or that Jack Shafer articulates in his Slate piece. In fact, I see Schafer stipulate the differences that count: A cop charged Craig with a misdemeanor, and he pleaded guilty. [Emphasis mine.] There’s no denying the police blotter is always news, and there’s no denying that Craig deserved...

So says a new report: Drivers in the South have been hit hardest by soaring U.S. gasoline costs and state governments there should take more steps to help cut fuel consumption, said a report released on Tuesday. Average motorists in Mississippi spent nearly 8 percent of their incomes on gasoline in 2007 and drivers in South Carolina and Georgia spent more than 7 percent, according to the report released on Tuesday by environmental group the Natural Resources Defense Council. Meanwhile, drivers in...

Color me skeptical… Yet another new study with yet another new tech affliction: According to new research, one person in five now suffers from the problem so badly that their careers, relationships and health are threatened. Many researchers blame computers and mobile phones for providing too many distractions for people. ‘The subject is seen as joke,’ said Professor Joseph Ferrari of DePaul University in Chicago. ‘But the social and economic implications are huge. These people...

A bedrock of the traditional broadcasting model has long been localism. Among the best ways to meet the FCC mandate to serve the “public interest, convenience, and necessity” is to produce quality local programming. To that end the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking last November proposing a range of options that encourage more locally-oriented radio. Ars Technica tells us that Save Christian Radio (SCR) has put out a statement (pdf) claiming the proposals threaten their First...

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Chris Satullo had a column Sunday looking at Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein’s Nudge: Been nudged lately? You have, whether you know it or not. If you’ve ever obeyed your computer’s invitation to install some software in the “standard (recommended)” mode, you’ve been nudged, in a helpful way. If you’re still paying for that magazine subscription you got in a “free trial” three years ago, you got nudged less benignly. Unless...

In this morning’s civil rights roundup David brought us the headline — doctors in South Dakota are now required to tell a woman seeking an abortion that the procedure “will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique living human being.” The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit last week lifted a preliminary injunction handing a victory to antiabortion forces: The doctors’ script that officially took effect Friday has been tied up in court since 2005, when Planned...

This from a Washington Post-ABC News poll (July 10-13, 2008) out Saturday: Public attitudes about gays in the military have shifted dramatically since President Bill Clinton unveiled what became his administration’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy 15 years ago today. Seventy-five percent of Americans in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll said gay people who are open about their sexual orientation should be allowed to serve in the U.S. military, up from 62 percent in...

I may be the last blogger to finish Ryan Lizza’s 15,000 word New Yorker article on Obama’s roots in Chicago politics. My chosen quote: Many have said that part of the appeal of “Dreams” is its honesty, pointing out that it was written at a time when Obama had no idea that he would run for office. In fact, Obama had been talking about a political career for years, musing about becoming mayor or governor. According to a recent biography of Obama by the Chicago Tribune reporter David...

Political Wire is pointing to Robert Novak today: GOP strategists “are privately conceding that the GOP could lose Georgia’s 15 presidential electors for the first time since 1992 because of Bob Barr’s ballot position as the Libertarian Party presidential candidate.” “Third-party presidential candidates almost always run more poorly in the actual election than their showing in the polls, but Barr, as a former Republican congressman from Georgia, might sustain support...

Facing South says the collective reaction to Jesse Helms’ death speaks volumes about the state of race relations and social progress in our country. They set the record straight in three myths about Jesse Helms (and what they say about us): To say Sen. Helms held deep prejudices against many — especially African-Americans and gays and lesbians — isn’t a matter of opinion; it’s all part of the historical record. As Gary Robertson of the Associated Press reported, Helms...

Dan Ariely thinks we’re paying paying too much attention to the price of gasoline. He says we can’t help it because the price is plastered on every street corner, reported in every newscast, and we stand there day in and day out filling up our cars while staring at the meter: For the several minutes that I stand at the pump, all I do is stare at the growing total on the meter — there is nothing else to do. And I have time to remember how much it cost a year ago, two years ago and even...

Wired’s David Kravets: Sean Cairncross, the party’s chief counsel, wrote (.pdf) the Foster City, California online vendor that the GOP “takes infringements upon its trademarks seriously.” “Please cease and desist from allowing vendors to utilize the federally registered trademarks of the RNC or we will be forced to consider a legal remedy,” Cairncross wrote CafePress. CafePress attorney Paul Alan Levy, of Public Citizen, noted Thursday that some uses of the party’s...

CNet calls it a long-shot bid for the geek vote: Speaking [in Las Vegas] at a political conference on Friday, Barr focused almost exclusively on privacy and eavesdropping–and argued that both major parties are far too surveillance-happy. “Both of them will continue down the same track,” Barr said, noting that both McCain and Obama supported last week’s bill to immunize telecommunications companies that illegally opened their networks to government snoops. Congress’ legislative...

John Stossel reprises Friday’s 20/20 report on TownHall today. He says it’s time to get rid of stop signs: Rolling through a stop sign in Michigan puts two points on your driving record. That hikes your car insurance premium. Fighting the ticket could cost even more. So to avoid the points and legal fees, most people plead guilty to a lesser offense: impeding traffic. The court sounds like an assembly line, ” … no points … $135 … ” Last year, the town made...