• A Florida judge refused to block the prosecution in Casey Anthony's murder trial from seeing the death penalty. Lawyers for Anthony, who is accused of murdering her 2-year-old daughter, claimed that the state seeking the death penalty violated her constitutional rights. The judge said whether or not Anthony should face the death penalty is a decision for the jury to make. • Banita Jacks, who was found in her Washington, D.C. home last year with her four daughters' decomposing bodies, was sentenced to 120 years in prison today for murdering the girls. The judge rejected the defense's suggestion that the four 30 year sentences be served concurrently, and their claim that she's wasn't competent when she rejected their advice to plead insanity. • Two British boys have been charged with the rape of an 8-year-old girl. At 10 years old, they are the youngest children to be charged with rape in the history of England. The assault occurred at a park, where the three children had gone to play on the jungle gym. The boys have been released on bail, and will return to court on January 2nd. • Members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights voted today to subpoena data from 19 colleges to investigate whether some schools favor men in their admission process. The probe is based on news reports and anecdotal evidence that colleges discriminate against women to maintain an even gender balance. A mix of schools near D.C. were chosen as a sample of U.S. colleges, not because they're specifically suspected of discrimination. •  A new book, The Death of American Virtue, reveals that Monika Lewinsky believes Bill Clinton lied to a federal jury about their affair. The author quotes a letter from Lewinsky, which reads: "There was no leeway on the veracity of his statements because they asked him detailed and specific questions to which he answered untruthfully." •  According to a new study from Canada, 10 to 15% of women have maladaptive eating behaviors. However, out of the 1,500 women interviewed, not one had anorexia, and the most common disordered behavior was binge eating. 2.5% also admitted to using laxatives, diuretics or vomiting to purge. • The Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected a motion from Marion Jones' relay teammates at the 2000 Olympics to overturn the International Olympic Committee's decision to strip them of their gold medals after Jones admitted to doping. The ruling was a setback, but the court will hold a full hearing on the case next year. •  Billie Piper, the actress who played Belle in the TV series The Secret Diary of a Call Girl and Dr. Brooke Magnanti, the woman behind the Belle du Jour blog and book, will meet in person on a television documentary, Billie and the Call Girl Bare All. It will be "the last world on what it was like to be Belle - how my sexuality was formed, how I came to the work and what it's like to be portrayed on TV," said Dr. Magnanti. •

Workers at Tiller's clinic had seen Roeder supergluing its locks a total of four times, beginning in 2000, and reported these incidents to the FBI. The FACE act, signed into law by President Clinton, makes it a federal crime to vandalize an abortion clinic. Roeder could have been prosecuted under this law, but the FBI told a clinic worker that it was unwilling to start proceedings against Roeder because this would require a grand jury and a warrant.

Rowley agrees, perhaps surprisingly, that the supergluing wasn't enough for the FBI to pay attention to Roeder. But, she says, they should have taken action once they realized that Roeder had already been arrested in 1996 with bomb-making materials in his car and the intent to blow up an abortion clinic. With this information, they could have visited Roeder's home and warned him not to come back to Tiller's clinic. Mild as this move seems, it apparently worked in 2000, keeping Roeder away from the clinic for years. It might have saved Tiller's life.

TPMmuckraker adds,

There's also a larger story here, which involves what appears to be a sharp drop off, during the Bush years, in efforts to enforce the FACE Act and otherwise to ensure the safety of abortion providers. Could the general turn by law enforcement in recent years toward a focus on Islamic and environmental terrorism, and away from right-wing terrorism, have played a role in what looks like the FBI's casual response? And is it time to rethink that shift? It's certainly worth asking.

Meanwhile, Scott Roeder awaits his trial. The man whom eyewitnesses saw shoot Tiller, and who was seen vandalizing Tiller's clinic on four occasions, and who was caught in 1996 with explosives in his car, says, ""I haven't been convicted of anything, and I am being treated as a criminal." He also says "I appreciate your prayers."

One thing he doesn't have to pray for is being spared the death penalty. That's already off the table, because his crime doesn't include any of the seven special circumstances required for the death penalty under Kansas law. While it's hard to see why killing a man so many women in need depended on is less heinous than, say, a contract killing (one of the circumstances), we should think hard before we wish death on Roeder. One of the most upsetting inconsistencies in American politics is that those who trumpet the sanctity of life also often support the death penalty. Now is an important time to show that being pro-choice doesn't mean being pro-death, and that abortion rights are about the right of a woman to control her own body, not about a callous attitude toward human life. Just because you believe that a woman should be able to choose to terminate her fetus doesn't necessarily mean you also have to believe that the government should be able to kill a born, living human being.

FBI 9/11 Whistleblower: Bureau Dropped The Ball On Tiller Case [TPMmuckraker]
Abortion Doctor Slay Suspect Chides Media [CBS]
Why Kansas D.A. Can't Seek The Death Penalty In Tiller case [AP, via Miami Herald]
Before Tiller Murder, FBI Got Detailed Info On Roeder's Illegal Activity [TPMmuckraker]
Freedom Of Access To Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act [National Abortion Federation]

Earlier: Dr. George Tiller's Assassin, Scott Roeder, Speaks
Man Charged In Murder Had Ties To Anti-Abortion, Anti-Government Organizations

Sure, some differences are obvious, like the fact that Carrie Prejean posed for racy photos, while Sister Helen Prejean is a nun — but let's look at how this right-wing darling and left-wing activist stack [sorry] up in other ways.

Hair (because this is obviously an important issue):
Carrie — long flowing blond mane
Sister Helen — a serviceable grey bowl cut

Interests:
Carrie — "Running on the beach, playing sports, shopping, relaxing, reading a good book, and spending time with her big Italian family;" her alma mater unfortunately describes her charity work as "her passion for young women"
Sister Helen — abolishing capital punishment, writing

Played onscreen by:
Carrie — perhaps this could be Heidi Montag's movie debut?
Sister Helen — Susan Sarandon

Views on freedom:
Carrie — "We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage. And you know what? I think in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised."
Sister Helen — "[...] there are basic human rights I believe that every human being has. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the United Nations says it for me. And it says there are two basic rights that can't be negotiated that government doesn't give for good behavior and doesn't take away for bad behavior. And it's the right not to be tortured and not to be killed."

Views on religion:
Carrie — "I felt as though Satan was trying to tempt me in asking me this question [about gay marriage]. And then God was in my head and in my heart saying, "Do not compromise this. You need to stand up for me and you need to share with all these people . . . you need to witness to them and you need to show that you're not willing to compromise that for this title of Miss USA."
Sister Helen — "[...] I know that in the Bible there are many, many references to very harsh punishments but the Bible was written over 2000 years, a lot it comes out of the Mosaic Code where people didn't have alternatives. By the time you get to Jesus Christ the thrust of his life and his message is not to return hate for hate. I don't believe in that kind of God and I personally believe that's a monster God who wants pain for pain and suffering and suffering like we do. I think that's making God in our own image. And I disagree with that image of God."

Testimonials:
Carrie — "I respect Carrie for standing strong and staying true to herself, and for not letting those who disagree with her deny her protection under the nation's First Amendment Rights. [...] Our Constitution protects us all - not just those who agree with the far left." - Sarah Palin
"The violent reaction to Prejean's remarks illustrates once again not only the intrinsically violent character of homosexual activism — it rallies around a sexual act that violates nature, after all — but also its deep fear of fertile, heterosexual women." - George Neumayr for The American Spectator
"In some cases the pictures were lovely." - Donald Trump
Sister Helen — "Her arguments against capital punishment are well known but preached with passion: The death penalty is racist, barbaric, and doesn't deter crime; innocent people get killed, etc. But her real brief lies in the grim details of execution, both in the degradation of the long weeks of waiting and in the torture of the execution itself—which involves, says Prejean, extreme physical and mental pain" - Kirkus Reviews
"Sister Helen Prejean remains the preeminent witness to our most persistent barbarism. Her eloquent testimony on behalf of the condemned and the wrongly convicted–and the example of her fellowship–can inspire all Americans to find a better way" - Ted Conover

Sister Helen Prejean Interview [PBS]
Helen Prejean [Official Site]
Dead Man Walking [Amazon]
The Death of Innocents [Random House]
Carrie Prejean: 'Satan Was Trying To Tempt Me,' Plus New Pics With Michael Phelps [Huffington Post]
Sarah Palin backs, relates to, Miss California [Politico]
Anti-gay beauty queen Carrie Prejean keeps her tiara [Times of London]
Timeline of the Carrie Prejean Controversy [FOX]
Carrie Prejean [San Diego Christian College]
Carrie Prejean [Miss California USA]
My Left Breast: The Carrie Prejean Story [The American Spectator]

MEGAN: Hey, there, what's up?
MOE: I'm getting coffee. I'll be online in 5. I really feel like its the seventies today. Even the good news on the front of the Times about the natural gas in Louisiana is kind of dark.
MEGAN: Sure, no worries
MOE: Well the good news is that former Defense Policy Board chairman Richard Perle is in on some Kurdish oil deal. That is bound to make him a lot of money and he sure deserves it having had the foresight to liberate The Iraq and also suck up to Bill Clinton's friend that dictator guy across the border in Kazakhstan, even as Seymour Hersh and his cabal of elite treason-loving freedom haters were knocking that for being a "conflict of interest" or whatever. Thanks to Wikipedia, we know Richard Perle explained back in 2003 that Sy Hersh was basically a terrorist, so we probably don't need to spend much more time on his smears. Especially with such other positive energy deals in the works as this one that is making everyone in De Soto Parish, Louisiana, suddenly a card carrying Cadillac owning rich person! And that makes 1 place GM might make a profit this year.
MEGAN: Well, unless they bought it outright, I'd say GMAC bought a bunch of Caddies more than people in DeSoto did, but no matter.
By the way, Bush has signed off on the first military execution since 1961. It's also the first actively-pursued execution since then. Can we all take a moment to be unsurprised that the soon-to-be executed man is black?
MOE: There are six other men on military death row. Are you saying that's why he got to go first? Incidentally, I never thought much about the death penalty before The Idiot wherein the lead character is this charismatic Christ figure named Mishkin, which happens to be the name of the retiring Federal Reserve board governor who apparently wants to set inflation targets, something I don't have much of an opinion on today, although I read somewhere else that only about a third of jobless are receiving unemployment benefits these days, down from 44% in 2001 and 52% when all "social safety net" stuff was actually taken seriously, before the breakdown of the family made us all stupid and neighbors started locking their doors at night and buying homes in ever farther-flung suburbs, a trend no one thought would ever ever end but boy were they wrong, but hey, on the bright side, it's a good thing we didn't turn out Berlin, right? All opera and free education and cheap rent and richly endowed cultural institutions and SO LITTLE GDP GROWTH??? Anyway, we were supposed to "weigh in" on that Tennessee guy. Um, he sucks is my opinion.
Because all the drawbacks of breakneck economic growth are so easily reversible! Oh wait.
MEGAN: Yeah, I'm sort of all like, meh, whatever, another crazy person went on another crazy shooting and we're supposed to go, ohhhh, it's because he hated liberals? Well, maybe he just hated Unitarians, it's not like he went to the local Democratic Party offices. Why would anyone expect that the guy's homicidal/suicidal rantings would make sense? It was like 4 pages long. I haven't written a letter that long since my best friend in junior high moved to Canada, not even the one time that I got a letter from a guy I'd been dating in college 3 weeks after the school year ended telling me what a stupid, slutty, vicious cunt I was but that he was only writing to make sure that he hadn't knocked me up so then he really wouldn't have to have speak to me again. God, damn, I wonder if I still have that letter somewhere. Anyway, even he didn't merit a 4 page reply. But God knows what Mr. Crazypants in Tennessee will write when he learns GOP hero Dan Quayle is about to turn Mr. Fancypants and is in talks to join Dancing With the Stars.
MOE: Yeah, oh god, Dan Quayle, it's the nineties again all right. Except insofar as the pollution in China is hella worse.
MEGAN: They're even still defending their human rights record. Seems like it would've been easier to try harder not to be human-rights violators in the last 20 years or whatever, but whatever.
MOE: Pitchfork crapsters: previous link contains JARVIS COCKER, J MASCIS, SEBADOH, LIZ PHAIR, BUILT TO SPILL, MISSION OF BURMA annnnnnnd Flava Flav, referencing his popular reality TV show! To get us back on the Dan Quayle angle. Lou Barlow does not sound like he held up too well, but we'll forgive him because his cover of Ratt's "Round And Round" was such a sparkling contribution to the culture. Okay, and also, pollution. because it's kind of a really good story with implications for the whole next century.

Shougang Steel Group, the giant steelmaker whose name translates as "Capital Steel," was ordered to relocate most of its operations hundreds of miles away to a partly manmade island. Xiang Dong, who worked at the company for 16 years, says he cried when his unit was shut down on March 31. Most of his 600 or so colleagues were transferred to the new facility. "Of course I was sad. A lot of coworkers cried when it stopped," says Mr. Xiang, who continues to work as a caretaker at the mothballed production line. "But this is for the Olympic dream. We do some sacrifices for that."

MEGAN: Speaking of human rights records, did you know the American Medical Association didn't support the 1964 Civil Rights Act? That they deliberately shut down black medical colleges, understaffed black hospitals while forcing the segregation issues, allowed affiliates to keep black doctors out and are only just now apologizing? Because I didn't.
MOE: Oh God, I looked at that story and had no idea what it was about, other than I didn't feel like I needed another reason to disrespect doctors this week. Holy shit.
MEGAN: Ahem. I'm feeling a little disrespectful to the medical establishment this morning, though, but I will change the subject before I rage out for the 2nd time in as many days and so we can talk about the Doha talks in which they're still debating the same fucking issues they did 2 years ago when I got my writing start authoring a "humorous" round-up of the week's events in the WTO negotiations. No, for real.
MOE: Oh, great last graf:

Consider this statistic: In 1910, when Abraham Flexner published his report on medical education, African-Americans made up 2.5 percent of the number of physicians in the United States. Today, they make up 2.2 percent.

MEGAN: Yeah, that was the best kicker I'd read all day.
MOE: Anyway, I have to go sort of. But the buzz today is Obama closing in maybe on Tim Kaine for VP. Do you think Obama could win your state? Maybe I could go home and vote there since Philly seems to have forgotten I existed. Garry Kasparov thinks O needs to go hard on Russia, not a shock, the Ataturk Thought Association is worried the country is turning into Iran following a raid on their headquarters. And I'm still hung up on China, because at some point the world needs to figure out how to make the whole green collar jobs thing work, and just to spite the fucking Republicans I hope they do it in Berlin.
MEGAN: One of my friends just took a green collar job! He mostly took it, though as a third job because his former employer outsourced a bunch of their work and his second job as a tattoo apprentice doesn't pay the bills either so now he's working at a recycling plant. He says he doesn't feel very green except on the really hot days and then he does, but only around the gills.
As for Virginia, polls show it's tight, so who knows. The Washington Post keeps running stories I'm too lazy to find at the moment that Obama's operation in the state just keeps expanding and expanding so maybe? I don't think Kerry was within a point or two of Bush, like, ever in 2004.