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California Supreme Court Watch: Judge Corrigan Confirmed and Sworn Onto California Supreme Court
Carol A. Corrigan, left, smiles while being sworn in by Supreme Court of California Chief Justice Ronald M. George, right, as an associate justice to the Supreme Court of California in San Francisco, Wednesday Jan. 4, 2006. Corrigan was selected by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to succeed Janice Rogers Brown, the seven-member court’s most conservative judge, and only black member. Brown resigned June 30 after the U.S. Senate confirmed her to a federal appeals court in the District of Columbia.
San Francisco Chronicle: Corrigan sworn in to California Supreme Court
Appellate Judge Carol A. Corrigan, a former prosecutor, was sworn in Wednesday to the California Supreme Court after being confirmed to replace the most conservative justice on the state’s highest court.
Corrigan, 57, who until her confirmation was on the 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco, is a former trial judge and Alameda County prosecutor and was elevated to the appeals court in 1994 by former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson after changing her voter registration from Democrat to Republican.
Immediately after her confirmation, she told reporters she was a “centrist,” that she could not discuss upcoming cases and said judges “do not own the law.”
“Generally, Americans think everybody should be equal before the law,” she said, noting she changed her party affiliation to Republican because it was a more “accurate” designation of her political beliefs.
Congratulations to Justice Corrigan.
By the way, she stands for confirmation by California voters in November.
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California Supreme Court Watch: Judge Corrigan Rated “Well Qualifiedâ€
California Supreme Court Watch: Schwarzenegger Names Carol A. Corrigan to High CourtTechnorati Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carol Corrigan, California Supreme Court, Janice Rogers Brown, Ronald George, Bill Lockyer, Joan Dempsey Klein, Commission on Judicial Appointments
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Clarence Ray Allen Watch: NO Clemency Hearing Vs. NO PUBLIC Clemency Hearing
Reuters: No clemency hearing for condemned man
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ruled out a clemency hearing on Wednesday for the state’s oldest death row prisoner, who is scheduled to be executed on January 17 for ordering three murders while serving a life sentence in prison.
Clarence Ray Allen, 75, would be the second-oldest man executed in the United States in recent decades. In December, a 77-year-old Mississippi man became the oldest prisoner executed in the United States since it resumed capital punishment in 1977.
Citing the failing health of their client, who suffered a heart attack in September, Allen’s lawyers have sought to stay his execution. A federal judge last month declined their request.
The lawyers are also seeking a clemency review, where the governor would make a decision based on documents rather than on oral arguments in a hearing. Schwarzenegger has not yet made a decision on their request, an aide said.
It was previously reported that Schwarzenegger would not grant a PUBLIC clemency hearing.
Now, NO CLEMENCY HEARING PERIOD.
If Allen had only written children’s books about the Crips……..
Will Governor Arnold grant Williams clemency?
Stay tuned……….
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Clarence Ray Allen Watch: NO Clemency Hearing
Clarence Ray Allen Watch: Americans With Disabilities Act – The Latest ExcuseClarence Ray Allen Watch: Asks for STAY of Execution
Clarence Ray Allen Watch: Petitions California Governor Schwarzenegger for Clemency
Technorati Tags: Clarence Ray Allen, Joseph Grodin, Arnold Schwarzenegger, San Quentin
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Dentistry in the News Watch: BriteSmile Agrees to Sell Its Associated Center Business to Discus Dental, Inc.
Flap supposes one way to beat a lawsuit is to acquire the plaintiff.
BriteSmile, Inc. (Nasdaq: BSML – News), a leading international provider of state-of-the-art teeth-whitening systems, today announced that it has entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement with Discus Dental, Inc., a California corporation, in which Discus Dental has agreed to purchase that part of BriteSmile’s business consisting of offering teeth-whitening procedures and products through existing independent dental offices known as BriteSmile Professional Teeth Whitening Associated Centers — its Associated Center Business. Through the Associated Center Business, teeth whitening procedures are performed by independent dentists using BriteSmile’s whitening technology in more than 5,000 Associated Centers located in the United States and in more than 75 countries worldwide. The sale will also include substantially all of BriteSmile’s intellectual property, consisting of patents, patent applications, trademarks and copyrights.
The Bleach Wars conclude with consolidation.
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Dentistry Today: BriteSmile Files New Suit Against Discus DentalTechnorati Tags: dentistry, dental, dentist, tooth, teeth, teeth bleaching, BriteSmile, Discus Dental
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Judge Samuel Alito Gains the American Bar Association’s Highest Rating for a Supreme Court Nominee
USA Today: Alito gets ‘well-qualified’ rating from American Bar Association
Judge Samuel Alito on Wednesday gained the American Bar Association’s highest rating for a Supreme Court nominee, giving him a boost before next week’s Senate confirmation hearings.
The “well qualified” rating — the highest — is the same one that Alito earned in 1990 when President Bush’s father, George H.W. Bush, nominated him to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Embracing the latest rating, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said, “Leading Senate Democrats have said in the past that the ABA is the — quote — gold standard for evaluating judicial nominees.”
Michelle Malkin has a copy of the letter from the American Bar Association here.
The confirmating hearings for Judge Alito begin on Monday.
Flap handicaps Alito WILL be confirmed but Senate Republicans will change the Senate Rules to overcome a Democrat filibuster (Nuclear Option)
The negative ad campaign from People for the American Way and Moveon.org has just begun……
People for the American Way President Ralph Neas (L) leaves a news conference with the Alliance for Justice President Nan Aron after announcing their opposition to the U.S. Supreme Court’s nomination of Judge Samuel Alito in Washington January 4, 2006.
Technorati Tags: Samuel Alito, People for the American Way, Moveon.org, ABA, American Bar Association
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NSA Surveillance Leak Case Watch: Vice President Cheney Strongly Defends Eavesdropping Operation
U.S. President George W. Bush speaks about Iraq and Afghanistan after being briefed by top brass at the Pentagon January 4, 2006. Standing with Bush from left are National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney.
Reuters: Cheney strongly defends eavesdropping operation
Vice President Dick Cheney strongly defended a secret domestic eavesdropping operation in use since the September 11, 2001, attacks, saying it was not violating American civil liberties and has helped fend off potential terrorist attacks.
“The enemy that struck on 9/11 is weakened and fractured yet it is still lethal and planning to hit us again. Either we are serious about fighting this war or we are not,” Cheney said in remarks prepared for a speech at the Heritage Foundation think tank.
Outside the raising of questions of impropriety by the MSM (spelled New York Times) and the call for Congressional hearings the American left has been craven in their attacks on the NSA Program.
Why NO lawsuit before the United States Federal Courts for injunctive relief?
The Quotes from the Vice President:
Cheney, in speech excerpts released by the White House, called President George W. Bush’s decision to intercept “a certain category of terrorist-linked international communications” a vital step.
“There are no communications more important to the safety of the United States than those related to al Qaeda that have one end in the United States. If we’d been able to do this before 9/11, we might have been able to pick up on two of the hijackers who flew a jet into the Pentagon.”
On protecting civil liberties: “He has made clear from the outset, both publicly and privately, that our duty to uphold the law of the land admits no exceptions in wartime.”
Cheney said as more time passes since the September 11 attacks, “some in Washington are yielding to the temptation to downplay the ongoing threat to our country, and to back away from the business at hand.”
“This is perhaps a natural impulse, as time passes and the alarms don’t sound,”“America has been protected not by luck but by sensible policy decisions by decisive action at home and abroad and by round-the-clock efforts on the part of people in law enforcement, intelligence, the military, and homeland security.”
All of this BLUSTER about this previously secret anti-terrorist program is American politics at its worst.
The America people support the President in this program. The Rasmussen poll has American overwhelmingly supporting this program:
Sixty-four percent (64%) of Americans believe the National Security Agency (NSA) should be allowed to intercept telephone conversations between terrorism suspects in other countries and people living in the United States. A Rasmussen Reports survey found that just 23% disagree.
The New York Times and some Senate Democrats (spelled Charles Schumer) may attempt to develop this story into more than it is.
In the meantime, the NSA will continue its intercepts and America will be safer for it.
Stay tuned for more bluster……..
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Cox & Forkum: One Man’s Whistleblower
Global War on Terror Watch: Why the NSA Monitors Communications of Al-Qaida
NSA Surveillance Leak Case Watch: President Bush Defends NSA SurveillanceNSA Leak Case Watch: New York Times’ Reporter James Risen
NSA Leak Case Watch: Justice Deptartment Probing Domestic Spying LeakNSA Surveillance Watch: President Had Legal Authority to OK Taps
NSA Surveillance Watch: Calls for Congressional HearingsTechnorati Tags: NationalSecurityAgency, NSA, NSALeakCase, NewYorkTimes, PatrickFitzgerald, CIA, CIALeakCase, ValeriePlame, JudithMiller, AlbertoGonzales, BillKeller, ByronCalame, MichelleMalkin
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Day by Day by Chris Muir
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Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Seeking Components to Manufacture Nuclear Bombs and Ballistic Missle Capability
Two Iranians work at the zirconium production plant, part of the nuclear facilities in Isfahan, 295 km from Tehran. Iran has been scouring Europe for nuclear bomb technology, a British newspaper said, citing a report by Western intelligence agencies.
The Guardian Unlimited has Secret services say Iran is trying to assemble a nuclear missile
Document seen by Guardian details web of front companies and middlemenThe Iranian government has been successfully scouring Europe for the sophisticated equipment needed to develop a nuclear bomb, according to the latest western intelligence assessment of the country’s weapons programmes.
Scientists in Tehran are also shopping for parts for a ballistic missile capable of reaching Europe, with “import requests and acquisitions … registered almost daily”, the report seen by the Guardian concludes.
The warning came as Iran raised the stakes in its dispute with the United States and the European Union yesterday by notifying the International Atomic Energy Authority that it intended to resume nuclear fuel research next week. Tehran has refused to rule out a return to attempts at uranium enrichment, the key to the development of a nuclear weapon.
Flap: Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Resumes Nuclear Fuel ResearchThis piece in the Guardian helps to confirm the speculation in the blogosphere that the United States and Israel may be planning a military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Flap: Iran Nuclear Watch: Is Washington Planning a Military Strike?The 55-page intelligence assessment, dated July 1 2005, draws upon material gathered by British, French, German and Belgian agencies, and has been used to brief European government ministers and to warn leading industrialists of the need for vigilance when exporting equipment or expertise to so-called rogue states.
It concludes that Syria and Pakistan have also been buying technology and chemicals needed to develop rocket programmes and to enrich uranium. It outlines the role played by Russia in the escalating Middle East arms build-up, and examines the part that dozens of Chinese front companies have played in North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme.
It is a dangerous world with too many rogue states, like North Korea and Iran developing nuclear Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Where is the outcry from the Europeans and the European Union? Certainly, if Iran completes their program they will be able to nuclear blackmail Austria or Italy or France. Is their governmental silence purchased by their lack of resolve to “OFFEND” their immigrant Islamic communities who help pay for their socialist largess?
The assessment declares that Iran has developed an extensive web of front companies, official bodies, academic institutes and middlemen dedicated to obtaining – in western Europe and in the former Soviet Union – the expertise, training, and equipment for nuclear programmes, missile development, and biological and chemical weapons arsenals.
“In addition to sensitive goods, Iran continues intensively to seek the technology and know-how for military applications of all kinds,” it says.
The document lists scores of Iranian companies and institutions involved in the arms race. It also details Tehran’s growing determination to perfect a ballistic missile capable of delivering warheads far beyond its borders.
It notes that Iran harbours ambitions of developing a space programme, but is currently concentrating on upgrading and extending the range of its Shahab-3 missile, which has a range of 750 miles – capable of reaching Israel.
The Shahab-3 missle: and more information here.
The Shahab-3’s Range:
Note that the range of this existing missle threatens Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Israel. By extending its range Europe would be threatened.
Iranian scientists are said to be building wind tunnels to assist in missile design, developing navigation technology, and acquiring metering and calibration technology, motion simulators and x-ray machines designed to examine rocket parts. The next generation of the Shahab (“shooting star” in Persian) should be capable of reaching Austria and Italy.
This story is developing.
Flap notes well that the USS Ronald Reagan nuclear aircraft carrier has been deployed today from San Diego for the Global War on Terror.
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Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Resumes Nuclear Fuel Research
Iran Nuclear Watch: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – “Israel Completed Holocaustâ€
Drudge Report Watch: ‘United States planning a military strike against Iran’
Iran Nuclear Watch: Is Washington Planning a Military Strike?
Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Says Still Wants to Enrich Uranium in IRAN
Iran Nuclear Watch: Russians Helping with Missle Threat to EuropeIran Nuclear Watch: Holocaust Is a “MYTHâ€
Iran Nuclear Watch: Israel Readies Forces to Strike Nuclear Iran
Technorati Tags: Iran, Russia, Israel, Javad Vaeedi, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Peter Goss, Turkey, Ali Larijani, Global War on Terror, France, Italy, Austria