PR DEATH PENALTY CASE PUTS ISLAND AT ODDS WITH US
The last execution in Puerto Rico, a hanging, took place in 1927. Two years later, Puerto Rico's legislature — like those throughout much of Latin America — outlawed the death penalty. The 1952 Constitution, which defined Puerto Rico's status as a self-governing commonwealth associated with the United States, reiterated the unconditional ban on capital punishment.
(TalkLeft, unearthed by Paul Whitehurse)

ACLU MEMBERSHIP SOARING
Membership in the American Civil Liberties Union is soaring and its leaders attribute the growth to one of their chief opponents: Attorney General John Ashcroft.
See also, Ashcroft Wants Partiot Act Widened (ATLANTA JOURNAL, unearthed by Kate Varner)

THE BOYS WHO CRIED WOLFOWITZ
Allegations keep piling up that the Bush administration tried to scam the world into war by exaggerating evidence of the Iraqi threat. One critic has pronounced it "arguably the worst scandal in American political history." So you might reasonably ask a supporter of the war, How do you feel about that war now?
Thanks for asking.
(NYT)

THE HERESY THAT SAVED A SKEPTIC
"Belief was not an issue anymore," she said. "It offered a different version of faith. The other versions had become univocal. We read the Gospels as if they all say the same thing."
(NYT)

PROTESTS IN IRAN
What started as a small student march against the issue of university privatization on Tuesday has snowballed into violent nightly protests by demonstrators from across the social spectrum demanding more social, economic and political freedom.
See also, A Growing Fury in Iran(NYT)

CAN IRAQ BECOME A DEMOCRACY?
And, Will American Remain One?
Ironically, as America purports to attempt to spread liberal democracy abroad, it has for years - and most intensely, over the last two years, been threatening liberal democracy at home.
(FINDLAW)