New York City is convinced the terror alert threat is real. It is closing the Holland Tunnel tomorrow.

The Holland Tunnel is expected to close to commercial traffic heading to New York at 12:01 a.m. Monday, officials said Sunday evening. The ban was "correlated to the warning about the downtown financial districts," said Tony Ciavolella, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He said commercial vehicles should use the Lincoln Tunnel and George Washington Bridge as alternative routes.

[link via Drudge.]

SK Bubba thinks the terror threats are a ploy.

These alleged terrorist threats to U.S. financial institutions today are a transparent, cynical ploy to make the stock markets tank tomorrow. Then next month the GOP and their talking wobbly bobble-heads can be all serious and somber about how the markets reacted to the Democratic convention and Kerry's plan for America.

Oliver Willis is willing to credit the threats.

I don't know but my instincts tell me, mostly due to their specificity, that the threats are real and not a ploy. Better a false alarm than no notice.

I also wonder whether we are getting the whole story. For example, Secretary Ridge said in his remarks (text available here), “We’re concerned about targets beyond these and are working to get more information.” He also referred to security measures being taken “in our public places and cyber space; on air, land, and sea.”

The "beyond these" and the "in cyberspace" caught my attention. Is the threat broader than the New York area? Does it involve electronic sabotage of our financial markets? Is there an "electronic Jihad" on the way? Is it just a coincidence that American Airlines and U.S. Air were grounded today by "computer glitches?" Or are conspiracy theorists at work again?

Secretary Ridge also mentioned that “thousands of radiological pagers” would be distributed to law enforcement to enable the detection of radiological disbursement. Is there a real concern that conventional explosives will be mixed with radiological ones, which, if it's the case, would increase the damage that would be inflicted?

How serious is the new threat to U.S. assets? What other cities might be involved? Chicago has the Chicago Board of Exchange. Miami, Seattle and Houston could also be targets according to intelligence alert services to which we subscribe.

Oliver asks, if it is a real alert, what can we do? I always tell the TL kid who lives in New York to keep lots of bottled water on hand. Obviously, in a real emergency, that won't be enough. According to the Northeast Security Network, here are the instructions to follow for emergency preparedness--a Major Disaster Survival Kit. You might want to print them and keep them handy. Just in case. And one other thought. If the internet and television go down, you might want to have a short-wave radio on hand.

For two years, TalkLeft has published using the "editorial we." There have been many reasons for this, not the least of which is the "six degrees of separation" I hoped to keep between the blog and my law practice. Nobody should seek my legal services because they like what I say on TalkLeft. One has nothing to do with the other. In fact, clients should beware any lawyer who interjects his or her political beliefs as to what the law should be in an argument to a court. If you want the law changed, take it to Congress, not the courts.

I also use the "editorial we" because TalkLeft speaks from the viewpoint of many, although certainly not all, criminal defense lawyers, whose top priority is defending the citizen accused. The main reason criminal defense lawyers comment on cable news shows and give interviews to the print media is to enable the public to view laws and court proceedings through the lens of the Constitution. "We" has a lot more impact than "I" in this regard.

Of course I realized that blogging at the DNC in Boston would call more attention to me, Jeralyn, and that while my identity as TalkLeft's creator and principal author is readily available though TalkLeft's "about page," that after the DNC, more people would associate TalkLeft with me. I decided it was worth the risk because the opportunity to go to Boston was such a special one. And now, it seems like that's exactly what has happened. Other bloggers are now referring to TalkLeft as "Jeralyn"--see here and here and here.

Many readers have criticized TalkLeft's use of the "editorial we" in the past and I've always found that the reasons stated above justify disregarding them. Now, I'm not so sure.

So, as an experiment, even though it seems unnatural, self-absorbed and insanely non-private, I'm going to post for a week using "I" instead of "we." It's only an experiment, so don't go ballistic if I change back to the more comfortable "we" next week. Our contributing blogger TChris will continue to post as TChris--unless the Supreme Court agrees to hear his Blakely case, in which case it may be months before he has time to blog again.

Hey, if Atrios can come out of "the closet,", so can I. Feel free to let me know in comments which way you like it better--"we" or "I." Everyone's opinion matters here.

The past few months, the media has been abuzz with the story of FBI translator Sybil Edmunds. Now, there's a second FBI agent who has come forward alleging that the FBI ignored his warnings.

... in early 2002, when [FBI agent Michael] German got word that a group of Americans might be plotting support for an overseas Islamic terrorist group, he proposed to his bosses what he thought was an obvious plan: go undercover and infiltrate the group.

But Mr. German says F.B.I. officials sat on his request, botched the investigation, falsified documents to discredit their own sources, then froze him out and made him a "pariah." He left the bureau in mid-June after 16 years and is now going public for the first time - the latest in a string of F.B.I. whistle-blowers who claim they were retaliated against after voicing concerns about how management problems had impeded terrorism investigations since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Rolling Stone has an article analyzing the newly declassified documents on Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

New classified documents implicate U.S. forces in rape and sodomy of Iraqi prisoners....The new classified military documents offer a chilling picture of what happened at Abu Ghraib -- including detailed reports that U.S. troops and translators sodomized and raped Iraqi prisoners. The secret files -- 106 "annexes" that the Defense Department withheld from the Taguba report last spring -- include nearly 6,000 pages of internal Army memos and e-mails, reports on prison riots and escapes, and sworn statements by soldiers, officers, private contractors and detainees. The files depict a prison in complete chaos. Prisoners were fed bug-infested food and forced to live in squalid conditions; detainees and U.S. soldiers alike were killed and wounded in nightly mortar attacks; and loyalists of Saddam Hussein served as guards in the facility, apparently smuggling weapons to prisoners inside.

The files make clear that responsibility for what Taguba called "sadistic, blatant and wanton" abuses extends to several high-ranking officers still serving in command positions.

Just a few bad apples, right? [link via Just a Bump in the Beltway]

Check out the case Ron Reagan makes against President Bush in the September issue of Esquire.

Instapundit links to Yuppies From Zion who relies on a Matt Taibi article to claim Kerry will be tougher than Bush on drug offenses.

We disagree--we've been reporting on Kerry's (and all the Democratic candidates') positions on drug offenses and crime for the past two years on Talkleft. Here's a quick recap on Kerry:

Kerry voted "No" on increasing penalties for drug offenses (Nov 1999). The amendment he voted against would have specifically targeted the manufacturing or trafficking of amphetamines & methamphetamines and possession of powder cocaine, and set stronger penalties for dealing drugs. He voted "No" on spending international development funds on drug control. (Jul 1996) In 1994, he voted against mandatory minimum penalties for firearms offenses committed during the course of a drug crime.

He would end Ashcroft's raids on medical marijuana patients and providers.

Here are more of Kerry's views on marijuana. See also here.

As to John Edwards, check this out:

He also would have us shrink our bloated prison population and return its present members more successfully to society by better distinguishing non-violent drug crimes from other offenses; restoring abandoned treatment and training options; and re-enfranchising those who have done their time.

And, don't forget, Kerry opposes the death penalty, except for foreign terrorists; He has called for a federal moratorium on the death penalty pending further study; and he advocates DNA testing for every inmate facing execution.

So, don't believe it. Kerry is not going to be worse than Bush and Ashcroft on the drug war--or on crime.

Just in by e-mail, here is part of John Kerry's response to today's announcement by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge that New York is facing a new terror threat from Al Qaeda:

“The Department of Homeland Security called to notify our staff in advance of Secretary Ridge’s news conference. They offered Senator Kerry a briefing on this new information. It is being scheduled now. We have a message today for al Qaeda or any terrorist who may be thinking of attacking our country: John Kerry and John Edwards will bring all aspects of our nation’s power to crush al Qaeda and destroy terrorist networks. No matter what threats we may face, the terrorists will not divide us. Our nation is united in its determination to defeat terrorism.”

The official Kerry-Edwards blog is here and it takes comments.

Natasha at Pacific Views interviewed the the chief of Act Blue at the convention. She reports:

Enter Act Blue. People interested in supporting Democratic candidates can set up an account, and just start picking candidates they'd like to channel money towards. After picking your set of candidates, Act Blue sets up a single web page for you that lists all of them. When your visitors click through to the page, they can check off one or all of your chosen candidates, and enter an individual donation amount next to each one. When you finish the transaction, one total charge is made to the donor's card, and Act Blue gets the cash to its destination. Rahn says that anyone who uses email or makes purchases on Amazon can use this system.

We're setting up TalkLeft's list. If you have a special candidate that you think deserves TalkLeft's support, let us know in the comments.

We get a lot of calls from reporters asking whether we can point to instances of Attorney General Ashcroft using the Patriot Act to charge non-terror crimes. Here's an example from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

The U.S. attorney in Seattle has used a Patriot Act provision to charge 15 people with smuggling marijuana money out of this country as part of a multimillion-dollar drug operation based in Canada. It is the first time the provision has been used in a major case in this district, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg. The indictments say an undercover agent spent nearly a year working with the alleged smugglers, accused of helping to deliver $3.4 million illegally into Canada in 2003. The money came from the sale of marijuana in the states, Greenberg said.

The 15 each were charged under the Patriot Act with one count of bulk-cash smuggling. Nine others were charged earlier with international money laundering and marijuana trafficking under a separate law. It has long been illegal to take more than $10,000 out of the country without reporting it. But the Patriot Act strengthened that law and "took it out of just being a reporting violation to be a smuggling, trafficking type of offense," Greenberg said. The crime carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and the forfeiture of the illegally transported money.

The U.S. Attorney conceded these defendants have no connection to terrorism.

Lots of new folks we've discovered to give a shout-out to today:

Green Pass by Zoe Vandervolk, whose day job is to work as an intern for Gadflyer. She also studies statistics and music at Harvard. We talked to her a lot at the convention, she's great friends with Jesse and Ezra of Pandagon, and she got frustrated having to be careful what she wrote on Gadflyer, so she's created her own blog.

Newsfeed: Submit your blog and help spread the word.

NEWSFEED is for bloggers, news junkies, commentators, drudgereporters, and all who take interest in the wild world of news reporting. 1,000s of news sites, culled every day for the most interesting reading.

Fafblog, also blogging on the convention and related matters.

Post-convention polls show a solid boost for John Kerry.

The Newsweek poll released on Saturday said Kerry, who has been running in a virtual dead heat with Republican President Bush, gained a four-point boost in the polls from the Democratic National Convention held last week in Boston.

In the poll conducted on Thursday and on Friday, Kerry received 49 percent of the vote to Bush's 42 percent and 3 percent for independent candidate Ralph Nader. In early July, Kerry led Bush 47 percent to 44 percent, with Nader at 3 percent. Without Nader in the race, Kerry led Bush in the new poll by 51 percent to 45 percent. The poll of about 1,000 registered voters had a 3 percent margin of error.

Kerry told Fox News Sunday this morning he's not paying attention to the polls because they are bound to go up and down. Everyone expects Bush to gain a few points after the RNC.

Many pundits believe that the key to this election lies with 7% or so of undecided voters. That's a very small number. According to this article, only 2 out of 10 voters say they might change their preference.

We think it also will turn on getting out the vote. While we were at the convention, we spoke with a Rock the Vote staffer at a Comcast/MTV party who told us that by Wednesday, they had registered over 400,000 new voters. Their goal is one million. Obama resonates so well with youth that he will be a big key. Both John Edwards and Obama attended the Rock the Vote party in Boston and were treated like rock stars. But, P.Diddy isn't impressed with Kerry or Bush's outreach to young voters.

If the Dems can get out the youth, particularly in urban areas, and minorities and former felons, we think that will put him over the top. Of course, we don't expect the campaign to be enlightened enough to seek out the former felon vote--it would be perceived as being soft on crime--so keep your eye on the polls that show which way the youth and minorities are leaning.

Update: USA Today says Kerry got no bounce. Digby has the analysis.

The New York Times calls Iraqi criminal defense lawyer Fuaad Ahmed al-Jawary, "the Johnnie Cochran of the Insurgency." The article portrays the Iraqi criminal justice system, a type of french inquisitorial process with roots in the 3,800 year old Hammurabi code, and one of the lawyers working within it.

It might be hard to imagine that in a place where bombs keep blowing up and raw sewage splashes in the streets there would be a functioning legal system, complete with subpoenas, autopsies, objections, search warrants, evidence reports and public defenders. But there is, and American officials are increasingly turning to the Iraqi courts to prosecute suspects still being held in Abu Ghraib and other prisons.

Hundreds of detainees are being shuffled from American custody into one of the three tiers of the Iraqi criminal justice system: a special tribunal for Saddam Hussein and high-ranking Baath Party members; a new national criminal court for terrorism suspects; and local courts for run-of-the-mill crimes. American officials said that right now, of about 2,300 inmates at Abu Ghraib, 580 had been scheduled for prosecution in Iraqi courts.

Mr. Jawary is the current star of the legal system. Two of his mottos: "Every man is born innocent" and "I try to take cases only where there is some doubt." The article describes his typcial day and a few of his "tricks." It's a very interesting protrait, one that makes us glad we have court in Denver tomorrow, not Iraq.

by TChris

Judge Terry Ruckriegle, presiding in the Kobe Bryant prosecution, apologized to Bryant's accuser for the court's errant disclosure of her identity on its website. The mistake was quickly recitified and the mainstream media haven't published her name.

There's a larger issue that isn't addressed in press coverage of the judge's apology. Is it fair for Bryant -- who is, after all, presumed innocent -- to have his face and name spread across the news? Is it fair to publish the accusations against him without identifying the accuser? Isn't her name (and any information legitimately affecting her credibility that might flow from the dislosure of her identity) just as important to fair coverage of the story as Bryant's?

by TChris

A judge in Maryland views a sandwich board as the modern equivalent of a scarlet letter: shame as punishment.

A woman who stole $4.52 worth of fuel was ordered to stand outside the gas station Friday wearing a sandwich board sign that declared: "I was caught stealing gas."

One of the bystanders who watched the woman endure catcalls and blaring horns from passing cars asked the right question: "What is this, the Middle Ages?"

I'm back from the Democratic National Convention. It was one of the best experiences I've had in years. Seriously. There was not a moment of downtime or boredom. The comraderie among the bloggers, most of whom had never met in person before this week, was outstanding. I give the adventure/experiment an A-.

Weblogs are as diverse as their authors. Their goals in covering the convention varied. Some wanted to cover the media. Some wanted to cover the delegates and speeches. Others wanted to make the convention alive for readers, so they could feel they were present. Most of the bloggers announced their goals before arriving in Boston. Here were mine, followed by some personal thoughts as to whether I achieved them:

Washington Post:

"I'm committed to seeing Bush out of office in November and want to do what I can to help," says Jeralyn Merritt, a Denver defense lawyer who writes the TalkLeft blog. "To me the purpose of a convention is solidarity and getting strength from each other and renewed commitment to a joint purpose. I am a cheerleader. I am a partisan. I am an advocate. My goal is to get everyone else stirred up."

Newsday:

My general strategy is to provide news with attitude and enthusiasm. I want my readers to feel like they are there with me. I hope to capture and convey the sense of unity, enthusiasm and resolve among Democrats to win in November. I will concentrate on civil liberties, terrorism, criminal-justice issues and the war in Iraq. I also will report on the convention process and the mainstream media. I will be an advocate and critic rather than a neutral observer of what I report.