KIDS STILL BEING HELD BY US
military interrogators say three teenagers held as suspected terrorists at the Guantanamo Bay naval base have no further intelligence value and should be sent home.
(Globe and Mail, unearthed by CubaNews Digest)

TRULY HEROIC
Alabama residents are wreaking a nasty revenge on the woman who took their state’s chief justice to court over his religious monument
(NEWSWEEK, unearthed by Paul Whitehurst)

MOORE'S CHARGES
Here is the JIC complaint filed against Justice Moore
(FINDLAW, unearthed by Paul Whitehurst)

DOES THE CONSTITUTION HATE GOD?
One of the hard lessons of the religion cases is that if the public square is going to welcome everyone, it cannot necessarily welcome all of their gods. Perhaps the most American sentiment of all is the faith that somehow, He will be there anyhow.
(SLATE, unearthed by Kate Varner)

DUMB LAWS
Sure, you know you're going to get a ticket for driving over the speed limit or a fine for littering. I'll bet you didn't know though that in Wyoming it is illegal for women to stand within five feet of a bar while drinking; that in Richmond, VA it is illegal to flip a coin in any eating establishment to determine who buys a cup of coffee; or that in Alabama it's illegal to wear a fake mustache that causes laughter in church.
(unearthed by Bill Messick)

Photo by William Blanchard

LE ROCK REDUX
"The Montgomery Advertiser reports here that 'Protesters removed, monument stays.' The Birmingham News reports here that 'Court won't stop monument move.' A related editorial is entitled 'Test of courage: Other state officials must act if Moore will not.' The Mobile Register contains an article headlined 'They came from all over for glimpse of the drama.' And The Crimson White reports here that 'Monument defenders undeterred.'"
This morning's edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports here that "Commandments feud spurs arrests; Supreme Court stays out of dispute in Alabama." And CNN.com reports that "Alabama justice not giving up monument fight; Ten Commandments still in place as deadline passes."
(HOW APPEALING, unearthed by Paul Whitehurst)

THE ROCK HASN'T MOVED!!!
"Security guards looking worried, police officers here and there around the building, with several motorcycle cops out front. Yellow traffic cones have been placed near the street. I wonder if they are going to cordon off the area when the time comes to move the Rock. I think it will only get busier as the day goes on. I imagine there's no freight elevator that could handle the thing if they (the people charged with moving it) hoped to take it out some other way than the front entrance."
(HOW APPEALING, unearthed by Paul Whitehurst)

THE TRIBES OF YALE
Tip O'Neill, the former Speaker of the House, used to say that all politics is local. He learned his lessons in taverns and church basements and political clubs in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His local was a working-class neighborhood where relationships mattered, where promises were remembered, and where memories were long. It was a physical place that changed only slowly over time.
The current crop of political figures—the Howard Deans and Hillary Rodham Clintons, the George Bushes and Karl Roves, already squaring off for the presidential prizes in 2004 and 2008—has a very different sense of "local."
...To the extent that they are the product of a place, a time, and a people, the place would be college campuses and high-powered law schools.
(VILLAGE VOICE)

OH GOD!
Poor God. Just when it seems he finally might make a break from Alabama, another politician grabs the hem of his robe and drags him back in.
(COX NEWSPAPERS, unearthed by W. Anderson Ward)