GIVE ME THE NEWS

The reform bulletins are in and there's a lot worth reading this week.

DRC NET's Drug War Chronicle reports that US Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist pointedly criticized Congress Wednesday for passing a law this spring intended to prevent federal judges from granting softer sentences than required by federal sentencing guidelines.

The legislation "could appear to be an unwarranted and ill-considered effort to intimidate individual judges in the performance of their judicial duties," Rehnquist said. "It seems that the traditional interchange between the Congress and the judiciary broke down" when Congress passed the amendment without any input from the bench, he added. "By constitutional design," said the chief justice, judges have had "an institutional commitment to the independent administration of justice and are able to see the consequences of judicial reform proposals that legislative sponsors may not be in a position to see."

Oyez, Oyez.

They also have a followup story on Kenneth Walker, innocent victim of the drug war recently executed by a state trooper on the side of a Georgia highway during a traffic stop. It seems Rev. Al Sharpton has taken an interest in this case and is demanding a thorough investigation.

The killing is currently under investigation by the FBI and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and Sharpton put both on notice that the case is being followed. "We are watching this case... and if the report is not right, we will be back," said Sharpton to roaring applause. "I've seen enough here to see that this warrants national attention."

Hmmm, if the right Reverend keeps the heat turned up, justice may be served in this case yet.

And I haven't seen this story anywhere else. Members of the Bush administration are using alleged links between the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and leftist guerrillas in neighboring Colombia to press for stronger action against Chavez.

The clique of Bush hard-liners, led by Assistant Secretary of State for Hemispheric Affairs Roger Noriega (a former Sen. Jesse Helms staffer) and special envoy to Latin America Otto Reich (a key architect of the Reagan interventions in Central America in the 1980s) claim that Chavez's left-populist policies have at least created an atmosphere supportive of Colombian rebels and other US bogeymen and that Chavez isn't doing enough to support the US in its global "war on terror."

But despite numerous reports of Colombian rebels crossing into Venezuelan territory and back, even the hard-liners concede that there is no hard evidence Chavez approved any assistance to them. "There is no smoking gun on Chavez's personal intervention or direction on this," one US government source told Tamayo, describing his words as the consensus in Washington.

To anyone following the events in Venezuela, the allegations are absurd of course. The Bushites are just punishing Chavez for failing to fall willingly under their thumb at the WTO conference among his other transgressions such as criticizing the US on its military policy.

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Media awareness Project's Drug Sense Weekly as always serves up their long but well organized list of tasty links. Be sure to check out their coverage on a pending initiative in Alaska where voters will get a chance to decide whether to legalize private use of marijuana for Alaskans 21 and older.

"We have enough signatures," said initiative sponsor Linda Ronan of Anchorage. "The problem is that it hasn't been certified. We don't know what the holdup is." Annette Kreitzer, Leman's chief of staff, said she expects the initiative to be certified within the next two weeks.

They also report on Dylan B. Hooser, 21, Hawaiian state Sen. Gary Hooser's son, who was arrested earlier this month for marijuana possession and the absolute silence of the Gore family on young Al's recent bust on the same charges.

As a aside, I'd like to talk about the Media Awareness Project itself for just a moment. My regular readers I'm certain have noticed that I often link to them rather than the original source. I do this because their links never expire and their transcriptions are completely reliable. And while we're on the subject, their fundraising drive is ongoing and they are still just under $2,000 short of their matching funds goal. These folks provide an invaluable archive and donate thousands of hours of their own time to this project. Please contribute what you can.