Important news for progressives everywhere seems to have just been a blip on the radar here tonight and it's a little disconcerting.

New Jersey became the first state in the US since 1965 to repeal the death penalty and few people seemed to care.

This is seriously big news and really, do we need to see another John Edwards diary in the recommended list? Please...

I'm not here to argue pro or con, tonight, those arguments don't usually go very far here and I'm not interested in that kind of thing.

But everyone here should be encouraged about this.

There have been plenty of predictions as to what the Petraeus report will be tomorrow. We've plenty of evidence that Petreaus will be claiming that the "surge" is working and that if we just stick it out for another few years everything in Iraq will be hunky dory and we will have beaten the bad guys.

I think the evidence that they will continue the lies concerning the success of the "surge" is overwhelming and I don't know that anybody's predictions on that score will be wrong.

But I suspect there will be more to the testimony over the next two days that I haven't seen predicted.

It's all about Iran.

I was asked in another venue why I think people are especially touchy about things right now. I responded with this:

I'll post it here and see what other people think.

Does anybody here remember Carter's malaise speech? He was pilloried for that. The sad part about that is that he was right. At that time people in the US were just drained, for various reasons.

Cross-Posted at Thinkheavyindustries

Yes, I think the next president will be a Democrat. I like that idea. Whether or not it’s going to be Hilliary is another story. I would put money on her being the next president. But I put money on Kerry, so my predictions on this kind of scale are suspect.

She’s not my first choice, but she’s very far from my last choice. She could very well be an awful president. But the definition of a bad president has moved so much into the area of disaster that it would take superhuman effort to be as bad as we’ve got. Unfortunately, all of the Republicans seem to have embraced that path of disaster. None of them have made enough promises that make them seem worth my time. None of them seem to have any reasonable understanding of the Constitution and the very foundations of the country they want to lead.

A new poll conducted by national polling firm Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates September 20-21 shows that the 3rd District congressional race is up for grabs as we enter the last six weeks of the campaign. When asked who they would vote for "if the election were held today," 41 percent of definite voters said they would vote for Adrian Smith and 37 percent said they would vote for Scott Kleeb. The margin of error for the entire sample is ±4.87%. Considering the margin of error and the high percentage of undecided voters - this race is most definitely in play.

I'm not so flush now, I'm afraid, what with medical bills and student loan payments screaming over the transom. But I got a call today. It was from the Maxine Moul campaign. I've already given Maxine about $200.00 and I want to give more. They wanted me to give them $100.00 to help get a jump on the bad guy. In two weeks, I should be able to cover that. Now, not so much. So I need a little help here. This week is crunch time.

I set up an Actblue page several months ago for the candidates I knew I could help out.

http://www.actblue.com/...

I apologize if it's a bit disjounted.

The article that inspired it has been mentioned here before.

http://www.time.com/...

It's interesting to think about the amount of visual information about a war and it's length. We've almost been in Iraq as long as we were in WWII. The Vietnam War lasted a long time.

Are these images slowing us down? Are they keeping us from "winning the war?"

One important thing we have to do when any nation makes a claim is decide if what they are doing actually fits that claim. By this, I think I mean, is it actually working?

Certainly any nation has a right to defend itself. This is inherent in the idea of nationhood. It is particularly important in the case of Israel, as they have been in a constant state of war since they became a nation. However you may feel about the circumstances of the creation of the nation of Israel, it's important that we accept that they are a sovereign nation, with all of the rights that that entails.

But are the Israelis actually defending themselves?

My post is below the fold. Tell me what you think.

That's when Nebraskans Against the Death Penalty was founded.

In 1999 the legislature passed a moratorium that was vetoed by the then governor, Mike Johanns.

The legislature was able to pass legislation that approved a study that eventually showed that the death penalty was applied in an inequitable manner in Nebraska.

Nebraskans Against the Death Penalty have also been influential in getting legislation passed that made it illegal to execute the mentally retarded and juveniles. These laws influenced the supreme court to eventually decide that executing those two classes of individuals should not be executed in any state in the US.

If Andrea Yates hadn't been facing the death penalty she would either be in jail or in treatment and this case would be done by now.

Her case points out a perfect opportunity to reform our laws.

More on the flip.

A true 50 state strategy is a good start for this.

I've seen on many occasion people make offhand remarks about Nebraska being conservative to the point that we get written off by Democrats on the coasts. The party does this only to its own detriment. Send a message to the rest of the country and help get democrats get elected in the heartland of America.

WASHINGTON - New Supreme Court Justice
Samuel Alito split with the court's conservatives Wednesday night, refusing to let Missouri execute a death-row inmate contesting lethal injection.

Alito, handling his first case, sided with inmate Michael Taylor, who had won a stay from an appeals court earlier in the evening. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices
Antonin Scalia and
Clarence Thomas supported lifting the stay, but Alito joined the remaining five members in turning down Missouri's last-minute request to allow a midnight execution.

The summary of the report can be found here.
The full report is here.

I cannot believe that capital punishment is a solution - to abolish murder by murdering, an endless chain of murdering. When I heard that my daughter's murderer was not to be executed, my first reaction was immense relief from an additional torment: the usual catastrophe, breeding more catastrophe, was to be stopped - it might be possible to turn the bad into good. I felt with this man, the victim of a terrible sickness, of a demon over which he had no control, might even help to establish the reasons that caused his insanity and to find a cure for it...
Mother of 19-year-old murder victim, California, November 1960

The report mentions that 1 in 10 of the executions in the United States were of people who were severely mentall ill.

Why did Hagel not vote today?

I live in Nebraska and never would have expected an abstention from Hagel. I doubt that anyone would have expected it.

He consistently votes party line and I very conservative.

The only other Senator who didn't vote today was Ensign. He was in a car accident. I have heard no news about Hagel having any emergency. So what gives?

There's more, too.

I'm thinking there was a concerted effort on the part of Democratic leaders to wait to respond.

I'm thinking that was probably a good idea.

Over the centuries nations have come up with intricate sets of laws and rules concerning how soldiers should behave. These rules, however well intentioned and good they may be, will always be broken.