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Brad Renfro, the young actor from Knoxville, Tennessee who broke into the movies from a DARE theater program for troubled kids in the 1990s with a major role in "The Client," based on John Grisham's novel, was found dead Tuesday morning in Los Angeles. He was 25.

The cause of death was not immediately determined, according to sources, but an autopsy was planned. Renfro had reportedly been partying with friends the night before, which is not surprising, since that's how he spent a lot of his time based on my experience knowing him in Knoxville from 1996-2000.

He was a nice, soft spoken and even shy young man. As well as showing some talent as an actor, he was a decent guitar player who showed up for the Wednesday night weekly blues jam at Sassy Ann's on a regular basis. I played the drums several times in the same ad hoc combination, and partied with him a number of times, but never really got close to him. He came from a relatively poor and troubled home and could be quite distant when asked questions about himself and his family.

I tried several times to do a formal interview with him but he always declined.

Renfro's lawyer, Richard Kaplan, told the Associated Press he was on the road to recovery from addiction.

"He was working hard on his sobriety," Kaplan said. "He was doing well. He was a nice person."

Renfro recently completed a role in "The Informers," a film adaptation of a Bret Easton Ellis novel that stars Winona Ryder, Brandon Routh and Billy Bob Thornton, according to the AP.

"Brad was an exceptionally talented young actor and our time spent with him was thoroughly enjoyable," Marco Weber, president of the film's production house, Senator Entertainment, said in a statement.

Renfro had his share of run-ins with the law over the years. He served 10 days in jail in May 2006 after pleading no contest to driving while intoxicated and guilty to attempted possession of heroin after being arrested on Skid Row while attempting to buy heroin from an undercover agent in 2005. He was placed on probation in January 2001 and ordered to pay $4,000 for repairs to a 45-foot yacht he and a friend tried to steal in Florida in August 2000, the month I left Knoxville for New Orleans.

I was told a wave of crack addictions hit Knoxville about that time and destroyed the lives of a number of talented musicians from East Tennessee.

He was arrested again in May 2001 and charged with underage drinking, violating the terms of his probation, and was ordered into alcohol rehabilitation the following March.

In 1998, Renfro was charged with possession of cocaine and marijuana. He avoided jail time in that case due to a plea deal, aided in part by his sponsors in the DARE program and in Hollywood.

His other movie credits included "Sleepers" and "Deuces Wild," as well as "Apt Pupil" and "The Jacket."

AP: Troubled Actor Brad Renfro Dies at 25

Have you ever wondered why so many movies depicting the South also contain an underlying crazy theme?

I guess that's what they think of us in New York and LA.

One of my favorites is Crazy in Alabama, featured on HBO recently. It's a comedy-drama released in 1999 written by Mark Childress, based on his own 1993 novel of the same name. It stars Melanie Griffith as an abused wife who flees small town life in the South for California to become a movie star - with her dead husband Chester's head in a hat box.

Meanwhile back in Alabama, her nephew, the story's narrator, has to contend with a racially-motivated murder involving a corrupt sheriff during the Civil Rights Era.

It's an interesting model for any would-be Southern writer thinking of trying to get New York editors interested in stories that will also play well on the big screen.

I've been mining the movie field of late thinking of stories to tell myself.

One of my favorite books written by a Southern author and then made into a movie is The Prince of Tides, based on a 1986 novel by Pat Conroy.

It tells the story of the narrator's struggle to overcome the psychological damage inflicted by his dysfunctional childhood in South Carolina and stars Nick Nolte as a football coach and Barbra Streisand as a New York psychiatrist. While changes to the film upset some Conroy purists, it was a box office smash and put Streisand on the map as a director. It was also recently featured on HBO.

Conroy is probably the premier Southern author of the late 20th century whose work has been both financially successful and also acclaimed in literary circles, unlike John Grisham's work, which is relegated to the legal thriller genre. In spite of the film's flaws, The Prince of Tides does capture both the character of the South and New York in the introspective times of the 1980s, making it an irresistible tale that will last - like Robert Penn Warren's All The King's Men.

But neither of those movies is what draws me to the keyboard tonight.

I doubt if it qualifies for the National Film Registry, but another innocent little tale caught my attention today. Sometimes when the cable offerings are weak, it's worth stopping on the story of Doc Hollywood, or Dr. Ben Stone, played by Michael J. Fox, not my favorite actor by a long-shot.

My first column mug shot: Hotter than MJF?

But in this one, which reminds me of a story from my own life, he plays a hotshot young doctor who longs to leave the drudgery of the emergency room and finally leaps at his chance at more money and less work on the West Coast. But along the way he gets off the Interstate and smashes his 1956 Porsche Roadster into a judge's fence and is forced into community service at the small town of Grady, South Carolina's general hospital.

There he meets and falls in love with an ambulance driver named Viloula but called "Lou," sexy and smart and played by Julie Warner, who has in incredible nude scene emerging from one of Grady's famous fishing lakes. The town is also known for its squash, which the mayor uses to explain a slice of life in his attempt to lure the doc to stay in town - as he bets him $10 that he will not score with Lou.

The story is perhaps just a bit too cute for serious movie critics. But it reminds me of a time when I was 23-years-old and just out of college working in a small town at my first professional newspaper reporting job.

It was 1984. The town was Bay Minette, Alabama. The paper was The Baldwin Times.

Upon graduating from the University of Alabama in Bear Bryant's last year, I had lofty goals of one day working for a great newspaper like the New York Times. But in those days, the mobility of college students was far more limited than it is today.

I advised students at Loyola New Orleans from 2000-2002 who were able to make the leap to New York, DC and LA. But being poor and from Alabama during Ronald Reagan's first term as president, and George Wallace's last term as governor, some of the best opportunities to break into newspapering came working for weeklies in small towns across the South.

The movie about Grady reminds me of those times, not because the stories are totally similar, but because some of the experiences and emotions ring true of being a young person trying to decide whether to make a life in a small town, where the living can be easy but perhaps not so lucrative, or making a break for the big city life and the big time bucks.

I also have to laugh at all the machinations people in small Southern towns will go to trying to lure young professionals to stay. This kind of scene plays out, still, in many towns across the country, as the out migration of the young and educated continues apace today. It is as true of Alabama today as it was in 1984, I'm sure, and can lead to some incredibly funny stories.

There's not enough space and time here to tell them all. Maybe one day if I get around to writing a memoir.

Let's just say I had a number of experiences with young women there, like Lou, who either wanted to seduce me to stay in Bay Minette - or to hook up with someone who could get them out.

I'm thinking of one particular young woman now about my age at the time who openly displayed a crush on me. I won't reveal her name. She may still be there - or maybe she got out.

One night she displayed this crush a little too openly at a Christmas party, held at the Holly Hills Country Club, when, after a few too many glasses of wine, she tripped on the hem of her long dress and fell right into my arms. It was a classic scene of a drunken Southern debutante right out of an F. Scott Fitzgerald or Tom Wolfe novel. As she fell toward me - and I still recall the scene in real-life slow motion, in part probably due to my own inebriation - the top of her bright red dress slipped down off her left breast, fully exposing the nipple for virtually everyone at the party to see.

It bordered on a scandal, since she also happened to be the chamber of commerce president's daughter, making her the perfect ambassador to try grabbing me for life. Perhaps like Doc Hollywood I should have more actively pursued that road, but there were complications.

Now at 50, do I harbor any regrets about leaving small town life there?

Only one. And it happened many years later.

In 2002, back when it was announced that the Alabama governor's race results came down to 3,000 votes in Bay Minette, I went back there from New Orleans for The New York Times - to investigate the election.

But when Siegelman conceded, I was pulled out of Bay Minette and sent back to New Orleans.

Knowing what I know now, since the Jill Simpson affidavit came to light, I wish I had stayed and worked my sources. I learned how to cover a courthouse and develop sources there, in that courthouse. It was the best school in the world for getting hands-on experience in that world, in more ways than one. Don't even ask about the secretaries in those days.

But of course it takes time and money to really work a story like the election, just as it takes time and money to work up a full scale relationship with a fine smart woman - in a small town or anywhere else.

And in the news game, there ain't never enough time - or money.

Life blogs on…

Now that I think about it, there's plenty of craziness to go around and write about in this world. And it's not all in the South.

I'm thinking now of a crazy New York editor, a woman, in part a figment of my imagination.

And I'm also thinking, if I had stayed in Bay Minette, either time, none of this would have ever happened - the good or the bad. Perhaps there is no stopping fate in any event - if there is such a thing.

I'm not convinced.

Life is not like a box of chocolates or cherries. It's more like a full-blown meal.

How good it turns out to be any given time is complicated and turns on choices and chance, luck and timing.

It can be as scrumptious as the fried green tomatoes in mushroom sauce at Jacquimo's in New Orleans, or as spare as the BLT at the drugstore in Bay Minette.

And I'm convinced, politics and government do matter - in all kinds of ways many people don't even seem to fathom, certainly not in a crazy place like Alabama. Maybe you have to be a little crazy to try to break out - or to try making a difference here.

Maybe you have to be a little crazy to try making art - or a living - as a writer in this world, if you didn't start out in it rich.

I can only wish good luck to the striking writers in New York and LA. I hope they win that fight to get part of the proceeds from sales on the Web Press. One of these days maybe I'll get a share of my own in that world, after we get rid of George W. Bush.

I understand Childress did it while working a day gig at Southern Living, not exactly a bastion of great journalism.

Long live the movies…

Earlier in the day, the same storms fed by warm weather continued spinning off unusual January tornadoes, killing a man in Arkansas and carrying a cow close to a mile, according to the Associated Press.

More Tornadoes Interrupt A Warm January

Meanwhile in science, scientists have discovered genetic information that helps explain how monarch butterflies find their way from Canada to winter nesting grounds in the mountains of Mexico in a study published online Tuesday in the PLoS Biology Journal and the Public Library of Science, which found that the butterflies' biological clocks help them use the sun as a compass.

Inner Clock May Lead Monarch Butterflies

PloS Biology Journal

Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman probably thought U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller never would do him a favor. But Fuller has inadvertently done just that.

The point of Fuller's recent 30-page memorandum opinion was supposed to be that Siegelman should remain in federal prison pending appeal. But the opinion does just the opposite. In fact, Fuller actually makes Siegelman's case for him--showing that, under the law and the facts, Siegelman must be released from prison pending appeal.

How could a federal judge, someone you assume to be rather intelligent, make such a gaffe? My only explanation is this: People who are attempting to cover up wrongdoing are prone to step in doo-doo. And if you actually read Fuller's opinion with a somewhat critical eye, it becomes clear that the judge has stepped in doo-doo big time with this one.

And that makes me think he is doing his darnedest to cover up a sham of a prosecution.

With two recent posts, we have shown that Fuller's own memo proves that Siegelman, by law, should be released from prison pending appeal. And it's not even a close call.

Fuller worked up a 30-page memo in an apparent effort to make this look like a complicated matter. Well, it isn't. All you need to do is read roughly three pages of his opinion, conduct some quick legal research and . . . presto, you see that Judge Mark Fuller is blowing some serious smoke.

Here's an easy way to sum it up:

* The key question is: Does the appeal raise a substantial question of law or fact that, if found in the defendant's favor, would result in reversal or an order for a new trial.

* Fuller's own words show there is a substantial question of law on both key charges--federal-funds bribery and honest-services mail fraud.

* On bribery, Fuller indicates there is some question whether 11th Circuit law requires a quid pro quo, a "something-for-something" arrangement, in order to have a conviction. And as we have shown from a 2007 case--U.S. v. McCarter, 219 Fed. Appx. 921--there is no question about it. The language in McCarter is clear: "To prove a defendant is guilty of bribery, the government must prove there was a quid pro quo--a specific intent to give or receive something of value in exchange for an official act." And McCarter is based on a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court decision, so its grounded in pretty solid stuff. So there you have it: The judge's own words show there is a question of law that should be decided in Siegelman's favor. Score: Siegelman 1, Fuller 0.

* On honest-services mail fraud, Fuller indicates that he has no clue what he is talking about. He states that there is some question whether a quid pro quo is required for a mail-fraud conviction. And as we have shown, a quid pro quo has nothing to do with mail fraud. It is not remotely an element of the crime. Once again, the judge's own words show there is a question of law that should be decided in Siegelman's favor. Score: Siegelman 2, Fuller 0.

* As for questions of fact, all facts are in question because there is no transcript of the case--and there won't be one for at least another two months. Fuller spends almost 16 pages of his memo reciting his version of facts in the case. But those are not facts, in a legal sense, at all. And one can only wonder what dark crevice he pulled them from. Score: Siegelman 3, Fuller 0.

I would say Siegelman is pitching a shut out, and Fuller is toast.

Does this mean the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals will be releasing Siegelman from prison any moment? Of course not. That court is made up of judges, and the whole point of this blog is to show that judges often are the last people you want to trust with the law. And for all I know, the 11th Circuit might consist of justices whose respect for the law may be no greater than Fuller's.

But if the law still means anything in the Age of Rove--and that's a mighty big if--Don Siegelman should be out of prison pretty darn soon.

Mark Fuller's own words prove it.

Originally posted at LegalSchnauzer.com

Locust Fork News and Journal editor and publisher Glynn Wilson is still in holidaze vacation mode, thinking about a novel idea...

This is a national disgrace. Wake up people!

PI

Key Findings on the U.S.

1. No right to privacy in constitution, though search and seizure protections exist in 4th Amendment; case law on government searches has considered new technology

2. No comprehensive privacy law, many sectoral laws; though tort of privacy

3. FTC continues to give inadequate attention to privacy issues, though issued self-regulating privacy guidelines on advertising in 2007

4. State-level data breach legislation has proven to be useful in identifying faults in security

5. REAL-ID and biometric identification programs continue to spread without adequate oversight, research, and funding structures

6. Extensive data-sharing programs across federal government and with private sector

7. Spreading use of CCTV

8. Congress approved presidential program of spying on foreign communications over U.S. networks, e.g. Gmail, Hotmail, etc.; and now considering immunity for telephone companies, while government claims secrecy, thus barring any legal action

9. No data retention law as yet, but equally no data protection law

10. World leading in border surveillance, mandating trans-border data flows

11. Weak protections of financial and medical privacy; plans spread for 'rings of steel' around cities to monitor movements of individuals

12. Democratic safeguards tend to be strong but new Congress and political dynamics show that immigration and terrorism continue to leave politicians scared and without principle

13. Lack of action on data breach legislation on the federal level while REAL-ID is still compelled upon states has shown that states can make informed decisions

14. Recent news regarding FBI biometric database raises particular concerns as this could lead to the largest database of biometrics around the world that is not protected by strong privacy law
    

Links

Harper's: What do Vladimir Putin, George W. Bush and Hu Jintao have in common?

Wired Magazine: World's Top Surveillance Societies

The 2007 International Privacy Ranking Report

PrivacyInternational.Org

Edwards Second Place A Boost, Clinton's Third A Blow

by Glynn Wilson

File photo by Glynn Wilson

Illinois Senator Barack Obama campaigning in Birmingham last July

If politics is like a series of horse races, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois just ran away with the Kentucky Derby in the first actual vote in the critical presidential race of 2008, taking the Iowa Caucus with 38 percent of a record turnout vote. In one of the best stump speeches in modern times, Obama argued in his Iowa Caucus victory address that it was a historic moment in American political history - and he may be right.

The record turnout among Democrats, especially young Democrats - and far and away more than the Republicans could turn out in a Republican state of white Protestant farmers, ethanol producers and insurance salesmen - could be a good indication of how fired up Democrats are to end the rein of establishment Republicans like George W. Bush.

Former Arkansas Governor and Baptist preacher Mike Huckabee's Christian populist win among Republicans over rich former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is also a clear indication that Americans are ready for change.

"This is a defining moment in our history. We did what the cynics said we couldn't do," Obama said in a confident speech with perfect cadence. "We are one nation, we are one people, and the time for change has come."

"They said this day would never come. They said our sights were set too high," Obama said. "They said this country was too divided, too disillusioned to come together around a common purpose."

Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards' second place showing at 30 percent gives his populist candidacy a major boost, while former First Lady and Senator Hillary Clinton's third place showing with 29 percent should give pause to those who have considered her the run-away front-runner for the past six months, including most of the national media.

Senator John McCain's low third place finish at 13 percent to Huckabee's 34 and Romney's 25 percent, may make it harder for him to make the case in New Hampshire that he is the guy who can beat former New York Mayor Rudi Giuliani, lounging down in sunny Florida, in the fear mongering pro-war, anti-terror campaign.

An estimated record number, 220,000 Democrats and independents, showed up at caucus sites, compared to 124,000 who voted for the Democrat in 2004. By contrast, only about 114,000 Republican voters turned out. The last contested Republican caucuses drew about 88,000 when George W. Bush won in 2000.

The surge of young and independent voters to Obama, as indicated in caucus entrance polls, could suggest he has major crossover strength in a general election campaign.

"The one thing that’s clear with the results in Iowa tonight is the status quo lost and change won," Edwards said in his speech, which focused largely on attacking poverty and providing health care for all Americans.

Senator Clinton, flanked by her husband and one of the best presidents in American history, Bill Clinton, along with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, congratulated Senator Obama and Edwards, saying the message from Iowa was clear.

"We are going to have change, and that change is going to be a Democratic president in the White House in 2009,” she said, even though from her demeanor, it appeared to dawn on her that she is not the leading change agent in this race.

Whew! Now that we are finally voting and the race is on, Obama proved he is a major threat to the status quo in American politics. He's by far the best orator in the race, and maybe the best politician with the best campaign team in place with a real chance to go all the way. We'll see what New Hampshire voters have to say next Tuesday - in the Preakness of American presidential politics.

Text and Video link

A new year has begun. And before we've had a chance to break our New Year's resolutions, we find ourselves with a little more than 24 hours before the good people of Iowa tell us whom they would like to replace the man who now occupies three countries and a white house.

Twice before, we have begun the process to stop this man, and twice we have failed. Eight years of our lives as Americans will have been lost, the world left in upheaval against us... and yet now, today, we hope against hope that our moment has finally arrived, that the amazingly powerful force of the Republican Party will somehow be halted. But we know that the Democrats are experts at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, and if there's a way to blow this election, they will find it and do it with gusto.

Do you feel the same as me? That the Democratic front-runners are a less-than-stellar group of candidates, and that none of them are the "slam dunk" we wish they were? Of course, there are wonderful things about each of them. Any one of them would be infinitely better than what we have now. Personally, Congressman Kucinich, more than any other candidate, shares the same positions that I have on the issues (although the UFO that picked ME up would only take me as far as Kalamazoo). But let's not waste time talking about Dennis. Even he is resigned to losing, with statements like the one he made yesterday to his supporters in Iowa to throw their support to Senator Obama as their "second choice."
So, it's Hillary, Obama, Edwards -- now what do we do?

Two months ago, Rolling Stone magazine asked me to do a cover story where I would ask the hard questions that no one was asking in one-on-one interviews with Senators Clinton, Obama and Edwards. "The Top Democrats Face Off with Michael Moore." The deal was that all three candidates had to agree to let me interview them or there was no story. Obama and Edwards agreed. Mrs. Clinton said no, and the cover story was thus killed.

Why would the love of my life, Hillary Clinton, not sit down to talk with me? What was she afraid of?
Those of you who are longtime readers of mine may remember that 11 years ago I wrote a chapter (in my first book) entitled, "My Forbidden Love for Hillary." I was fed up with the treatment she was getting, most of it boringly sexist, and I thought somebody should stand up for her. I later met her and she thanked me for referring to her as "one hot s***kicking feminist babe." I supported and contributed to her run for the U.S. Senate. I think she is a decent and smart person who loves this country, cares deeply about kids, and has put up with more crap than anyone I know of (other than me) from the Crazy Right. Her inauguration would be a thrilling sight, ending 218 years of white male rule in a country where 51% of its citizens are female and 64% are either female or people of color.

And yet, I am sad to say, nothing has disappointed me more than the disastrous, premeditated vote by Senator Hillary Clinton to send us to war in Iraq. I'm not only talking about her first vote that gave Mr. Bush his "authorization" to invade -- I'm talking about every single OTHER vote she then cast for the next four years, backing and funding Bush's illegal war, and doing so with verve. She never met a request from the White House for war authorization that she didn't like. Unlike the Kerrys and the Bidens who initially voted for authorization but later came to realize the folly of their decision, Mrs. Clinton continued to cast numerous votes for the war until last March -- four long years of pro-war votes, even after 70% of the American public had turned against the war. She has steadfastly refused to say that she was wrong about any of this, and she will not apologize for her culpability in America's worst-ever foreign policy disaster. All she can bring herself to say is that she was "misled" by "faulty intelligence."

Let's assume that's true. Do you want a President who is so easily misled? I wasn't "misled," and millions of others who took to the streets in February of 2003 weren't "misled" either. It was simply amazing that we knew the war was wrong when none of us had been briefed by the CIA, none of us were national security experts, and none of us had gone on a weapons inspection tour of Iraq. And yet... we knew we were being lied to! Let me ask those of you reading this letter: Were YOU "misled" -- or did you figure it out sometime between October of 2002 and March of 2007 that George W. Bush was up to something rotten? Twenty-three other senators were smart enough to figure it out and vote against the war from the get-go. Why wasn't Senator Clinton?

I have a theory: Hillary knows the sexist country we still live in and that one of the reasons the public, in the past, would never consider a woman as president is because she would also be commander in chief. The majority of Americans were concerned that a woman would not be as likely to go to war as a man (horror of horrors!). So, in order to placate that mindset, perhaps she believed she had to be as "tough" as a man, she had to be willing to push The Button if necessary, and give the generals whatever they wanted. If this is, in fact, what has motivated her pro-war votes, then this would truly make her a scary first-term president. If the U.S. is faced with some unforeseen threat in her first years, she knows that in order to get re-elected she'd better be ready to go all Maggie Thatcher on whoever sneezes in our direction. Do we want to risk this, hoping the world makes it in one piece to her second term?

I have not even touched on her other numerous -- and horrendous -- votes in the Senate, especially those that have made the middle class suffer even more (she voted for Bush's first bankruptcy bill, and she is now the leading recipient of payoff money -- I mean campaign contributions -- from the health care industry). I know a lot of you want to see her elected, and there is a very good chance that will happen. There will be plenty of time to vote for her in the general election if all the pollsters are correct. But in the primaries and caucuses, isn't this the time to vote for the person who most reflects the values and politics you hold dear? Can you, in good conscience, vote for someone who so energetically voted over and over and over again for the war in Iraq? Please give this serious consideration.

Now, on to the two candidates who did agree to do the interview with me...

Barack Obama is a good and inspiring man. What a breath of fresh air! There's no doubting his sincerity or his commitment to trying to straighten things out in this country. But who is he? I mean, other than a guy who gives a great speech? How much do any of us really know about him? I know he was against the war. How do I know that? He gave a speech before the war started. But since he joined the senate, he has voted for the funds for the war, while at the same time saying we should get out. He says he's for the little guy, but then he votes for a corporate-backed bill to make it harder for the little guy to file a class action suit when his kid swallows lead paint from a Chinese-made toy. In fact, Obama doesn't think Wall Street is a bad place. He wants the insurance companies to help us develop a new health care plan -- the same companies who have created the mess in the first place. He's such a feel-good kinda guy, I get the sense that, if elected, the Republicans will eat him for breakfast. He won't even have time to make a good speech about it.

But this may be a bit harsh. Senator Obama has a big heart, and that heart is in the right place. Is he electable? Will more than 50% of America vote for him? We'd like to believe they would. We'd like to believe America has changed, wouldn't we? Obama lets us feel better about ourselves -- and as we look out the window at the guy snowplowing his driveway across the street, we want to believe he's changed, too. But are we dreaming?

And then there's John Edwards.

It's hard to get past the hair, isn't it? But once you do -- and recently I have chosen to try -- you find a man who is out to take on the wealthy and powerful who have made life so miserable for so many. A candidate who says things like this: "I absolutely believe to my soul that this corporate greed and corporate power has an ironclad hold on our democracy." Whoa. We haven't heard anyone talk like that in a while, at least not anyone who is near the top of the polls. I suspect this is why Edwards is doing so well in Iowa, even though he has nowhere near the stash of cash the other two have. He won't take the big checks from the corporate PACs, and he is alone among the top three candidates in agreeing to limit his spending and be publicly funded. He has said, point-blank, that he's going after the drug companies and the oil companies and anyone else who is messing with the American worker. The media clearly find him to be a threat, probably because he will go after their monopolistic power, too. This is Roosevelt/Truman kind of talk. That's why it's resonating with people in Iowa, even though he doesn't get the attention Obama and Hillary get -- and that lack of coverage may cost him the first place spot tomorrow night. After all, he is one of those white guys who's been running things for far too long.

And he voted for the war. But unlike Senator Clinton, he has stated quite forcefully that he was wrong. And he has remorse. Should he be forgiven? Did he learn his lesson? Like Hillary and Obama, he refused to promise in a September debate that there will be no U.S. troops in Iraq by the end of his first term in 2013. But this week in Iowa, he changed his mind. He went further than Clinton and Obama and said he'd have all the troops home in less than a year.

Edwards is the only one of the three front-runners who has a universal health care plan that will lead to the single-payer kind all other civilized countries have. His plan doesn't go as fast as I would like, but he is the only one who has correctly pointed out that the health insurance companies are the enemy and should not have a seat at the table.

I am not endorsing anyone at this point. This is simply how I feel in the first week of the process to replace George W. Bush. For months I've been wanting to ask the question, "Where are you, Al Gore?" You can only polish that Oscar for so long. And the Nobel was decided by Scandinavians! I don't blame you for not wanting to enter the viper pit again after you already won. But getting us to change out our incandescent light bulbs for some irritating fluorescent ones isn't going to save the world. All it's going to do is make us more agitated and jumpy and feeling like once we get home we haven't really left the office.

On second thought, would you even be willing to utter the words, "I absolutely believe to my soul that this corporate greed and corporate power has an ironclad hold on our democracy?" 'Cause the candidate who understands that, and who sees it as the root of all evil -- including the root of global warming -- is the President who may lead us to a place of sanity, justice and peace.

Michael Moore is not an Iowa voter, but he is appreciative of any state that has a town named after a sofa...MMFlint@aol.com

MichaelMoore.com

Viewers discover that Jackson:

1. Fought in the Revolutionary War when he was 13 years old and that he used the skills learned in battle to kill a man over a gambling debt.

2. Led the American army to the most surprising victory in its history in the Battle of New Orleans, but that he also launched an unauthorized invasion of Florida,

3. He was the first great champion of the common white man and owned more than a hundred black Americans.

4. Dramatically expanded the United States and did so by brutally wresting vast regions of the south from Native Americans.

5. In one of the boldest political strokes in history, founded the Democratic Party, yet was viewed by his enemies as an American Napoleon.

The film, narrated by Martin Sheen, concludes with the words of Jackson's first biographer, James Parton.

"Andrew Jackson was a patriot, and a traitor. He was the greatest of generals, and wholly ignorant of the art of war. He was the most candid of men, and capable of the profoundest dissimulation. He was a democratic autocrat, an urbane savage, an atrocious saint."

2008 Iowa Democratic Presidential Caucus

It's not going to matter, but we predict a win for Edwards by a nose at the last minute, with Obama coming in a close second and Hillary right behind them in third.

We won't bet the Yuengling on it, but if I was going to the betting window, I would put all the money on a three-way tie - bet on all three front runners to win, place and show.

The CIA acknowledged last month that it destroyed videos of officers using tough interrogation methods while questioning two al-Qaida suspects. The acknowledgment sparked a congressional inquiry and a preliminary investigation by the Justice Department.

"The Department's National Security Division has recommended, and I have concluded, that there is a basis for initiating a criminal investigation of this matter, and I have taken steps to begin that investigation," Mukasey said in a statement released Wednesday.

Mukasey named John Durham, a federal prosecutor in Connecticut who has a reputation as one of the nation's most relentless prosecutors, to oversee the case. He served as an outside prosecutor overseeing an investigation into the FBI's use of mob informants in Boston and helped send several Connecticut public officials to prison, according to the Associated Press and other news organizations.

Criminal Probe Opened Over CIA Tapes

Attorneys filed papers Monday with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta citing a horrendous delay in the trial transcript and U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller's failure to provide the appeals court solid, legal reasons for denying Siegelman an appeal bond.

The appeal of Siegelman's conviction on bribery and obstruction of justice charges can't go forward without a transcript of the 10-week trial that was concluded more than a year ago, in 2006. And Judge Fuller has so far refused to comply with an order of the appeals court to submit a detailed, written response on why he should not be released like every other white collar defendant while the case of his appeal is heard.

"Governor Siegelman's continued confinement, pending appeal, coupled with the trial court's continued refusal to provide any legal explanation for incarcerating Governor Siegelman on appeal, has denied Gov. Siegelman's constitutional right to due process," his attorneys argued in court papers, according to the Associated Press and other news organizations.

The trial transcript was delayed by the death of court reporter Jimmy Dickens in August, according to reports, and court reporter Risa Entrekin asked the 11th Circuit in November to extend the deadline for completion to March 31, citing her workload and the size of the transcript. Fuller said last month he expects a completed transcript by Jan. 31.

Attorneys for Siegelman said Monday they understand the unusual circumstances but the delays do Siegelman no good.

"When you've got a client in prison, and it's been six months with no explanation for why he's sitting there - the way to eliminate that issue entirely is to let him out," attorney Vince Kilborn told the Mobile Press-Register.

Siegelman's Attorneys Ask Court to Release Him on Appeal

Due to the clearly political nature of Siegelman's prosecution, which has been shown over and over again by news organizations with more investigative power and objectivity than the conservative, monopoly newspapers in Alabama, this request should get a quick and favorable ruling from the three-judge appeals court panel in Atlanta, legal sources say.

It's sort of like hell to be a writer and find yourself almost without words as one year gets ready close with explosions and another is about ready to come in with a bang. Keeping up with all the scandals is mind numbing enough after a while, and all you want to do is munch through a big jar of chocolate chip cookies - and ignore the shocks with very little awe on the TV news.

Who wants to spend the Christmas Holidays worrying about nukes getting into the hands of madmen in Pakistan, while right here at home, we have democracy to save and an all important election hanging in the balance in a field of genetically altered corn?

Is it the role of a newspaperman blogger to give us the video of his grandmamma saying grace at Christmas dinner? Or is the role of the independent Web Press columnist to ruin your dinner by telling you all that is wrong with the world?

Picasso's depiction of Don Quixote

The reliable old army of reporters over at the Associated Press will tell you all about how global warming, strange weather and the drought are the top stories of the year. You have to dig a littler deeper into Web journalism to see an inkling that the Bush administration's lying about knowledge of destroying CIA torture tapes could be the scandal with a cover-up that trumps all other scandals.

We still don't have those gay sex tapes from Jeff Gannon in the Lincoln bedroom. But if Bush is lying about viewing those tapes, he may need to think about escaping to that ranch in Paraguay, although we suspect the much maligned CIA would not let that happen.

No American president has ever been forced to live in exile. Here we just shoot them - or allow them to retire as bumbling fools with Alzheimer's who "can't recall" any wrongdoing.

Will Bush be so lucky? We will see…

If you come asking around Locust Forkland about the top story of 2007 in Alabamaland, there's no contest. The affidavit of North Alabama attorney Dana Jill Simpson shook the earth in the Southland, giving legs to the story that former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman was railroaded politically after all.

The drought will continue to be a story into 2008, but so will the falling house of cards built by Karl Rove running from the Texas statehouse through Alabama's courthouses to the White House.

One of Rove's good old buddies down in Montgomery, Bob "Cowboy Boots" Riley, must be feeling at least a mild case of indigestion from the Christmas feast, what with new allegations about misusing planes and hiding corporate campaign contributions under individual names. That's the easiest investigative story for any Alabama newspaper to do on any governor here, and if anyone had been truly interested, they could have gotten former Alabama Governor Guy Hunt for worse abuses than "love offerings" and taking inaugural money.

There's more on the editorial calendar about the Riley's coming up in 2008, but we're mostly waiting patiently on the lawyers and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to see how long a leash they will give federal judge Mark Fuller to stall in the Siegelman case. And we're waiting to see the House Judiciary Committee juggle all the investigations on its plate, including the Bush Justice Department scandal.

We also have a surprise or two in store for the local press and Alabama Power Company, along with the Alabama Department of Public Safety's "Take Back the Highways" campaign.

And with any luck, we'll avoid the homegrown terrorism act's provisions killing dissent here in the US of A and get on down the road for more van camping trips and our never ending search for beautiful birds to document with a digital camera - before they all disappear.

If the muse strikes again anytime soon here in Picasso's bunker, where we love to tilt at windmills, we'll let you know…