A series of debates between David Horowitz and “Chuch” (aka Ward Churchill, about whom, by the way, it should be asked–why does this creature continue to suck money from Colorado taxpayers?).

In continuing to report on the apparent injustice in the case of Cory Maye, Radley Balko reminds us of the ongoing war on our civil liberties in the name of the War on (Some) Drugs:

On my first day in Prentiss I met Debra Brooks, a 28-year-old white woman who says that in March 2004, officers from the Task Force raided her home after a confidential informant said she and her family were running a meth lab inside.

At around midnight, police kicked down her two outside doors without first announcing themselves, then stormed her home when her boyfriend opened the inner door to see what what going on. They trained their guns on the three young children inside, still in their beds, and held Brooks in a bedroom at gunpoint while they searched the house for contraband. They found no drugs, or evidence of meth manufacture. They did find a bong, brand new and unused, and a bottle of vodka, illegal in dry Lawrence County (Lawrence is adjacent to Jefferson Davis County). Police never produced a search warrant.

Police arrested Brooks’ boyfriend at the time, Landas Pate, and her brother, James Wesmorland. Pate would be held in prison for several months before his family could post bond. Wesmorland’s family couldn’t make the $40,000 bond. So he was held in the Lawrence County jail for 280 days, until December 2004. Remarkably, on December 30 of that year, Wesmorland was released. No charges. No explanation. He had been held on suspicion of selling meth and pills within 1,500 feet of a church. Police told him they had video surveillance of these alleged sales. They never showed him any video.

“…Words and music by Scooter Libby. From a true story about a D.C. trainwreck and the half-cocked engineer who failed to brake in time.”

A great description of (see comment #33) the current state of the l’affaire Plame/Wilson, based on the latest reporting from Byron York. It looks like Libby is going to force the trial to be about what Fitzgerald was originally hired to investigate–who gave Plame’s affiliation to the press? I have a hunch that the press and the Dems won’t be happy with the outcome (as the man once said, they can’t handle the truth).

Worst. Fitzmas. Ever.

And Tom Maguire has further thoughts.

I’d love to see a class-action suit against Elliot Spitzer.

That’s what a supposed spokes(wo)man for the Donkeys says:

It was thus curiously refreshing to hear a Democrat admit what everyone knows: the Dems have no policy and see no reason to offer one. The particular context was the war in Iraq. Interviewing Rosen on this evening’s Hardball, Chris Matthews asserted: “I don’t think your [your?] party has a policy.”

Acknowledged Rosen: “It doesn’t have a policy. It doesn’t need to have a policy. What’s the point of a Democratic policy?”

Going to break, a palpably shocked Matthews exclaimed: “I can’t believe you said that!”

Believe it, Chris.

That’s what a supposed spokes(wo)man for the Donkeys says:

It was thus curiously refreshing to hear a Democrat admit what everyone knows: the Dems have no policy and see no reason to offer one. The particular context was the war in Iraq. Interviewing Rosen on this evening’s Hardball, Chris Matthews asserted: “I don’t think your [your?] party has a policy.”

Acknowledged Rosen: “It doesn’t have a policy. It doesn’t need to have a policy. What’s the point of a Democratic policy?”

Going to break, a palpably shocked Matthews exclaimed: “I can’t believe you said that!”

Believe it, Chris.

That’s what a supposed spokes(wo)man for the Donkeys says:

It was thus curiously refreshing to hear a Democrat admit what everyone knows: the Dems have no policy and see no reason to offer one. The particular context was the war in Iraq. Interviewing Rosen on this evening’s Hardball, Chris Matthews asserted: “I don’t think your [your?] party has a policy.”

Acknowledged Rosen: “It doesn’t have a policy. It doesn’t need to have a policy. What’s the point of a Democratic policy?”

Going to break, a palpably shocked Matthews exclaimed: “I can’t believe you said that!”

Believe it, Chris.

Why, when one is looking for this site on Google, does one get the following message?

Sorry, no information is available for the URL thepeoplescube.com

They’d like to know, too.

Jason Zengerle isn’t impressed with Markos Moulitsas Zuniga’s attitude about “winning”:

If there’s one animating idea that’s shared by liberal bloggers like Kos and Atrios and all the others, it’s, as Wallace-Wells called it, “the ideology of winnerism.”

Which is why it’s bizarre that these very same bloggers are always so eager to celebrate moral victories. After Howard Dean went down to defeat, they boasted about how they took a virtual nobody to the precipice of victory. Ditto for Paul Hackett. And the same thing is happening today now that Ciro Rodriguez–the former Texas congressman who became a blog darling after his Democratic primary opponent, incumbent Congressman Henry Cuellar, was shown hugging President Bush at the State of the Union–has apparently lost…

…But more often than not, these liberal bloggers (especially Kos) act like they already have taken over the world–writing manifestoes, issuing threats, and engaging in all sorts of chest-thumping behavior. But, like I said, their batting average is still a big fat zero.

What was it I called people who win “moral” victories? Oh, now I remember…

So I was looking at the Amazon page for Kos’ and Armstrong’s book, Crashing The Gate, which is about how to use the net to take back America for progressive politics (or at least I’m surmising that’s the theme, based on reviews and who wrote it), and I noticed something about the reviews. When a so-called “right-wing” book goes up (like by Michelle Malkin, or Ann Coulter, or even non-bombthrowers), the review section quickly becomes flooded by “reviews” from people who have obviously neither purchased or read the book, and are usually ad hominem attacks on the authors. Such “reviews” generally get one star in terms of their utility to the other Amazon visitors.

But I saw none of that among the reviews for Crashing The Gate. Admittedly, most of the reviews were by fellow Democrats, but I suspect that if there are any negative reviews, they’ll at least be by people who’ve actually read the book, and have something intelligent to say about it.

I’m going to keep an eye on it, and see if my prediction is born out, over the next few days. And if it is, what does it say about the civility level of the two sides of the political spectrum?

[Update a few minutes later]

It’s not at Amazon, but here’s an example of a negative review by someone who has actually read the book. It’s certainly not laudatory (though Trevino does have some good things to say about it), but it’s also not the mindless feces flinging that often passes for many “progressive” reviews of “non-progressive” books at Amazon.

[Late evening update]

There’s one other interesting characteristic of these drive-by trolls. They not only haven’t read the book, but they aren’t prolific reviewers in general. For example, consider the reviewers for Glenn’s latest book. The majority of the reviews so far are one-star, never-read-the-book reviews. And when one clicks on “other reviews by this reviewer,” one comes up almost empty in all cases.

This seems like something that Amazon could do something about. It’s almost like spam, except it’s a lot more personal.

Ideas as to how Amazon could (fairly and objectively) do something about it are welcome.