Which leads me to the case of Rick Perry and Cameron Todd Willingham. The background to the case can be found here or on Frontline (where I first heard about it).

The evidence seems to indicate that Rick Perry had someone killed under murky evidence at best, and in all likelihood he had an innocent man executed while also bigfooting the investigation.

I still support the death penalty, but guys like Perry make it difficult. It should be hard for the state to execute someone. The evidence should be ironclad and airtight (if you remember, there was a delay in McVeigh’s execution in order to deliver documents to McVeigh’s lawyers).

When someone like myself supports the harshest penalty the state can hand down, you have to trust your elected leaders to take that power seriously. Rick Perry doesn’t seem to have done that.

I don’t like what I’m seeing across the pond. The rioters are running wild. And even worse, the authorities are acting with far too much restraint.

The Home Secretary appeared to rule out sending water cannon or the Army onto the streets of the capital, despite a third night of violence.

Speaking on Sky News, she said that police intelligence and the support of local communities would help quell the disturbances.

“The way we police in Britain is not through use of water cannon,” she said. “The way we police in Britain is through consent of communities.”

That seems… insane. I am not arguing that London needs to unleash its police force to do something like cracking skulls, but the response to this level of civil disobedience can’t be the usual business.

It’s unacceptable that a major, modern, capital city like London isn’t doing more to reign this in. In order to have a functioning society, some level of order has to be maintained. You can’t let thugs and fear of thugs run your city like this.

Maricopa County Sheriff’s deputies served search warrants throughout the county Tuesday morning and made a series of arrests as part of an investigation involving at least three Maricopa County Sheriff’s employees suspected of being involved in human and drug smuggling operations.

An officer at the scene where one of the warrants was served confirmed to a 12 News reporter that the operation involved a Maricopa County Sheriff’s deputy suspected of smuggling drugs or humans.

The targets of the investigation, conducted by a task force of state and local agencies, include a Sheriff’s deputy and a pair of detention officers.

A District of Columbia grand jury on Tuesday indicted Redskins defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth on a charge of misdemeanor sexual abuse in connection with an alleged assault on a waitress at a downtown hotel in February.

The indictment stems from an incident in which the embattled football player allegedly caressed the breasts of a waitress at the W hotel as she was clearing the table.

Ms Burns, 53, from Virginia, told police she thought the painting should be burned, according to court records viewed by the Associated Press news agency.

‘I feel that Gauguin is evil,’ she was quoted as telling police.

‘He has nudity and is bad for the children. He has two women in the painting and it’s very homosexual.’

Two more priests have been placed on administrative leave by the Philadelphia Archdiocese as part of an ongoing investigation into the sexual abuse of children by clergy.

Cardinal Justin Rigali, the archbishop of Philadelphia, announced that the two unnamed priests, who are currently retired, have been placed on administrative leave, effective immediately, pending a more thorough independent investigation.

Again – multiple crimes in multiple states, an internetworked effort to hide those crimes. Why has the federal government not looked into this?

Jesuit leaders in Chicago largely ignored or kept secret numerous reports, spanning four decades, that a prominent priest was sexually abusing teenage boys, lawyers for victims charged on Monday in a motion for punitive damages in a Chicago court.

Included in the motion were more than 65 recently obtained church documents and depositions that, the lawyers said, demonstrated ‘a reckless disregard for the safety of others in the face of repeated reports of sexual misconduct’ on the part of Chicago Jesuit leaders.

UPDATE: Saudi Arrested On WMD Charge May Have Targeted Bush

In e-mails Aldawsari apparently sent himself, he listed the names of 12 reservoir dams in Colorado and California. He also wrote an e-mail that mentioned “Tyrant’s House” with the address of President Bush’s home.

From the Department Of Justice:

Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, 20, a citizen of Saudi Arabia and resident of Lubbock, Texas, was arrested late yesterday by FBI agents in Texas on a federal charge of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction in connection with his alleged purchase of chemicals and equipment necessary to make an improvised explosive device (IED) and his research of potential U.S. targets.

The arrest and the criminal complaint, which was unsealed in the Northern District of Texas, were announced by David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; James T. Jacks, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas; and Robert E. Casey Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Dallas Field Division.

Aldawsari is expected to make his initial appearance in federal court in Lubbock at 9:00 a.m. on Friday morning. Aldawsari, who was lawfully admitted into the United States in 2008 on a student visa and is enrolled at South Plains College near Lubbock, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.

According to the affidavit filed in support of the complaint, Aldawsari has been researching online how to construct an IED using several chemicals as ingredients. He has also acquired or taken a substantial step toward acquiring most of the ingredients and equipment necessary to construct an IED and he has conducted online research of several potential U.S. targets, the affidavit alleges. In addition, he has allegedly described his desire for violent jihad and martyrdom in blog postings and a personal journal.

Redskins defensive lineman Albert Haynesworth has been charged with simple assault for a road rage incident with another motorist on the Fairfax County Parkway in Reston, Fairfax police said.

Haynesworth, 29, has not been arrested but is planning to turn himself in next week, Officer Shelley Broderick said.

A Redskins executive said the team was unaware of the incident or the charge. “This is the first I’m hearing about this,” Tony Wyllie, Redskins senior vice president, said in a phone interview with Redskins beat reporter Jason Reid. “At this time, we need to gather information.”

No doubt this woman got between Haynesworth and somwhere to flop and lay down.

Even worse, the police department tried to keep the video under wraps.

Chad Holley, 16, accused eight officers of beating him while he was in custody on a burglary charge, on which he was later convicted. Holley claimed he was hit by a police car then beaten and kicked by police officers near a self-storage facility on Cook Road on March 24. Holley was 15 at the time.

Surveillance cameras caught the incident on tape. The tape was not released to the public by federal injunction.

However, Quanell X, the leader of the New Black Panther Party in Houston, decided to release it after he obtained a copy as part of a defamation lawsuit filed against him by one of the officers.

The video showed one officer delivering at least seven kicks to Holley while another officer punched Holley five times, KPRC Local 2 reported.
Holley is not seen on tape struggling with the officers, the station reported.

Seven police officers were terminated in connection with the incident. Four officers were also charged in connection with the incident

The Bush White House, particularly before the 2006 midterm elections, routinely violated a federal law that prohibits use of federal tax dollars to pay for political activities by creating a “political boiler room” that coordinated Republican campaign activities nationwide, a report issued Monday by an independent federal agency concludes.

The report by the Office of Special Counsel finds that the Bush administration’s Office of Political Affairs — overseen by Karl Rove —served almost as an extension of the Republican National Committee, developing a “target list” of Congressional races, organizing dozens of briefings for political appointees to press them to work for party candidates, and sending cabinet officials out to help these campaigns.

ALSO:

The investigators also found evidence that the Bush White House improperly classified travel by senior officials as official government business, “when it was, in fact, political,” and the costs associated with this travel were never reimbursed.

Worst President Ever strikes again.

(You can see the report for yourself here)

This chapter addresses how OPA employees violated the Hatch Act by giving political briefings to agency political appointees during the Bush II administration. The briefings typically were given by the OPA Director or Deputy Director, who testified that the briefings were intended to boost morale among political appointees and provide an overview of the “political landscape.” However, witness testimony, e-mail messages, and PowerPoint slides used at some of the briefings indicate that the electoral success of the Republican Party, and
possible strategies for achieving it, were often on the agenda. As such, these briefings constituted political activity. Because most of the briefings took place during normal business hours and in government buildings, many of the briefings implicated the Hatch Act’s prohibition against engaging in political activity while on duty or in a federal workplace.

The abandoned backpack found Monday along the route of Spokane’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. march contained a bomb capable of inflicting “multiple casualties,” the FBI has confirmed.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s terrorism task force is offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for planting the bomb. The FBI on Tuesday issued a bulletin asking for the public’s assistance.

Frank Harrill, special agent in the charge of the Spokane FBI office, would not discuss what specifically made the bomb so dangerous but said the investigation has become a top priority.

Used his body weight to hold down Miss A in a sexual manner.

Had unprotected sex with Miss A when she had insisted on him using a condom.

Molested Miss A “in a way designed to violate her sexual integrity”.

Had unprotected sex with Miss W while she was asleep.

*The headline is a reference to Whoopi Goldberg’s distasteful comments on rapist Roman Polanski.

Not great news for T-Paw.

Two years ago, Gov. Tim Pawlenty and two other officials pardoned Jeremy Giefer, who had served a short time in jail in the 1990s as a young man for having sex with a 14-year-old girlfriend whom he later married.

Blue Earth County prosecutors now say Giefer was sexually assaulting another young girl hundreds of times before and after he received his pardon.

This brings to mind Mike Huckabee’s similar problem with Wayne Dumond.

Link:

A Somali-born teenager plotted to carry out a car bomb attack at a crowded Christmas tree lighting ceremony in downtown Portland on Friday, but the bomb turned out to be a dud supplied by undercover agents as part of a sting, federal prosecutors said.

Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, was arrested at 5:40 p.m. just after he dialed a cell phone that he thought would blow up a van laden with explosives but instead brought federal agents and Portland police swooping in to take him into custody.

The thwarted attack occurred at Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square before the annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony, The Oregonian reported.
Mohamud yelled “Allahu Akhkbar” and tried to kick agents and police as the arrest came, according to prosecutors.

He was charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.