The New York Times has an editorial today devoted to subject of bloggers attending the Democratic Convention. It credits bloggers for raising the awareness that led to the ousting of Trent Lott and their fundraising help to candidates.

People who think the mushrooming world of wannabe polemicists and their Web logs, or blogs, is merely a high-tech amusement should talk to Senator Trent Lott, the Mississippi Republican. In Web lore, bloggers are credited with relentlessly drilling Senator Lott after he expressed segregation-tinged nostalgia for the Strom Thurmond presidential campaign, a story that the major news media initially missed. Mr. Lott was subsequently forced to quit as majority leader.

Beyond its power as a source of news and commentary, the Internet has proved itself to be the ultimate fund-raising tool. Bloggers can be crass and biased, but politicians no longer scoff at their rich online realm. Hence the red carpet at the conventions — at least for some of them.

The Times cites earlier articles reporting that 50 bloggers applied and 30 were accepted. The DNCC says 200 applied, 50 were accepted at first, and that number was later reduced to 50.

We're excited to cover the convention with press credentials. Thanks to all of you who have contributed and taken out ads to send us there. As the Times says:

Will bloggers be tamed into centrism? Or, like Mencken, will they gleefully report that the convention's main speechmakers are "plainly on furlough from some home for extinct volcanoes"? Log on to find out.

by TChris

Doctors in Myrtle Beach who received ridiculously harsh sentence for overprescribing pain medication may be resentenced in light of Blakely.

[Dr.] Bordeaux, for example, was specifically charged with writing four prescriptions to two patients but was assigned a share of responsibility for the entire amount of drugs prescribed at the clinic.

Dr. Bordeax was sentenced to eight years and one month in prison. Two co-defendants were sentenced to 24 years, four months and 19 years, seven months.

The Judge in the Kobe Bryant case has ruled on the defense motion to suppress his statements and the clothing he turned over to the detectives in his hotel room. Motion denied. Why? In a nutshell, and we just finished reading the very long ruling which is not yet available online because of a court website malfunction, here's why. The Judge found:

1. Kobe was not in custody and a reasonable person in his situation would have felt free to leave.

2. He consented to talking to the police officers and allowing them to accompany him to his room and he voluntarily turned over the clothing they were seeking.

3. There was no need to rule on whether the search warrant was valid or not because the cops said they never executed it. The prosecution relied solely on consent, and the Judge sided with them.

4. As to credibility issues, there were some differences between what Kobe's bodyguards said happened and what the detectives said happened with respect to how the questioning came about, and the Judge sided with the detectives.

by TChris

Another district judge, Stewart Dalzell, weighs in on Blakely's impact on the federal sentencing guidelines:

A federal judge yesterday halved the recommended 30-year prison sentence for a West Philadelphia drug dealer, ruling that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision voiding Washington state's sentencing guidelines had doomed the federal guidelines as well.

Yesterday, following the Supreme Court's theory in Blakely, Dalzell stripped away any sentencing enhancements not based on facts included in the charges to which Leach himself pleaded guilty.

The Sixth Circuit today ruled that the Supreme Court's Blakely Decision. invalidates the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. Law Prof Doug Berman reports:

,,,,and now in US v. Montgomery, 03-5256 (6th Cir. July 14, 2004), the Sixth Circuit becomes the second federal circuit court to hold that Blakely invalidates invalidates the federal guidelines. The Court found:

In order to comply with Blakely and the Sixth Amendment, the mandatory system of fixed rules calibrating sentences automatically to facts found by judges must be displaced by an indeterminate system in which the Federal Sentencing Guidelines in fact become "guidelines" in the dictionary-definition sense ("an indication or outline of future policy," Webster's International Dictionary (3d ed. 1963)). The "guidelines" will become simply recommendations that the judge should seriously consider but may disregard when she believes that a different sentence is called for....

Here's another line from the opinion:

In light of Blakely, and the language of the enabling act itself, a district judge should no longer view herself as operating a mandatory or determinate sentencing system, but rather should view the guidelines in general as recommendations to be considered and then applied only if the judge believes they are appropriate and in the interests of justice in the particular case.

The Kerry campaign has announced that Barack Obama, Illinois state senator and the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, will deliver the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, July 27.

Here's an interesting statistic we received from the campaign by e-mail:

According to statistics compiled by the Democratic National Committee, 39.1 percent of the 4,341 delegates to this month’s Convention in Boston are minorities. More African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Native-Americans, and Hispanics will attend the Convention than ever before.

Update: Some are upset that Hillary wasn't invited to speak.

We doubt John Kerry or John Edwards has time to go online. But Elizabeth Edwards does, and she reads blogs. Here's a comment she left on Ed Cone's blog a few days ago:

Hello, Ed. Not much time for blogging -- or much else in the last days. Even when I get to a computer, it is for just a minute -- usually too short to check mail. (I am going to start using my daughter's old laptop -- I am a diehard old-fogey desktop girl -- when I hit the trail next, so that mught improve.) This week has been incredible. The energy seems like October levels, not early July levels. I feel a change a-comin'. Elizabeth Edwards • 7/10/04; 10:24:13 PM

Here's one she left a while back on Jack O'Toole's blog. O'Toole designed a website for the Edwards campaign:

Thanks, Jack. The beta looks terrific. And I can't tell you how great it is to come across efforts like this on the web. John and I really appreciate your support. Posted by: Elizabeth Edwards on November 18, 2003 10:07 PM

Here's another flattering profile of Elizabeth Edwards--from the Christian Science Monitor--"The Modest, Impassioned 'Anti-Barbie.'

We got our invitation today to the Blogger Welcome Breakfast being sponsored by the DNCC. It's Monday morning at 10 am and there will be a guest speaker. This will be our first chance to meet many of the bloggers who have been granted press credentials to cover the convention. While no official list of these bloggers has been released, it was pretty easy for us to determine who they are since the invitation came by "mass e-mail" with all of our email addresses in it. There are nine bloggers we read regularly. Two of the blogs we check in with more than once a day. We have met and spent time with only one of the bloggers, Markos of Daily Kos, whom we consider a good friend. (Here's a picture from May. We're in the middle, holding the baby)

It's always fun to be able to put a face with a blog. We have attended a few Rocky Mountain blogger bashes and found that meeting the blogger in person adds a whole new dimension to reading the blog afterwards.

We're still on our fundraising drive to help us cover the costs of the trip. We've raised $900.00 so far and expect the trip will cost us about $3,000.00. So, if you can help us out, we'd really appreciate it. Every few bucks helps. Here's how:

• Amazon (anonymous)
• PayPal

We're still hoping one of the campaigns or a media outlet or corporation will spring for one of our premium ads --that would pay for the trip and we could stop asking readers for contributions. Should that happen, we'll let you know.

The major tv networks may not be broadcasting much of the political conventions on television, but a few will provide extensive coverage on the internet, with interactive features. Among them: CBS and ABC. Here's what they have in store for you:

ABC-TV's Peter Jennings will anchor convention sessions on abcnewslive.com, the 24/7 streaming news channel operated by the Walt Disney Co. subsidiary, available through America Online and the RealNetworks content subscription service. CBS plans free coverage of the sessions on CBSNews.com, plus on-demand clips and news reports.

A highlight of the ABC Web channel's coverage of will be a one-hour, live interactive program conducted at 7 p.m. each night of the conventions. Guests will discuss issues, answer e-mailed questions from AOL subscribers, and comment on live online surveys. "During a period of heightened interest in politics and news, we're able to engage voters in the political process like never before," said Bernie Gershon, senior vice president and general manager of ABC News Digital Media Group.

It's not just tv networks either:

AOL's broadband subscribers can get live gavel-to-gavel coverage and express opinions on convention issues via online InstaPolls, the unit of Time Warner said.

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing this morning on the Supreme Court's Blakely decision. Law Prof Doug Berman of Sentencing Law and Policy has textual summaries and written testimony.

The Blakely blog has the testimony of Alan Vinegrad and Rachel Barkow (pdf).

Ron Reagan, the son of the late former President Ronald Reagan, will be speaking at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. His purpose: generating support for stem cell research.

Good for him. Ron Reagan delivered one of the best eulogies to his father--getting in a jab at President Bush in the process.

Dad was also a deeply, unabashedly religious man. But he never made the fatal mistake of so many politicians wearing his faith on his sleeve to gain political advantage. True, after he was shot and nearly killed early in his presidency, he came to believe that God had spared him in order that he might do good. But he accepted that as a responsibility, not a mandate. And there is a profound difference.

He also has been critical of Bush and his Administration on the war in Iraq. Check out this interview with him in the New York Times. And his comments on Larry King Live.

Ron says he won't be critical of the Administration in his DNC speech. We bet he delivers at least one more jab--with charm.

There's now a split in the circuits. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has held the federal sentencing guidelines constitutional in US vs. Pineiro, no. 03-30437. (pdf.) The panel was unanimous. One of the panel members was Bush recess appointee Charles Pickering. Link via Sentencing Law and Policy which has analysis up already.

Also, check out Blakely Blog. Looks like we're headed back to the Supreme Court on this one.

Update: The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers' (NACDL) letter to Sen. Hatch on Blakely is here.

Update: ABA President Dennis Archer sent Sen. Hatch this letter today in advance of tomorrow's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Some quotes: