Archive for November, 2010
Well, maybe. But, I would not hold my breath for the resumption of California executions anytime soon.
California reportedly has enough of a scarce lethal injection drug to go ahead with up to four executions.
The U.S. maker of sodium thiopental has said the company will not make any more batches until next year, and opposes its use for capital punishment. But somehow California procured some. Seven of the 700-plus death row inmates have exhausted all of their appeals and are eligible to be executed.
Somewhere in San Quentin, the state has locked up a new supply of scarce sodium thiopental, one of the drugs used to execute death row inmates.
All the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation would say is the department obtained it legally and within the United States.
Even Governor Schwarzenegger isn’t saying.
“Have I seen it? The drug? No. But apparently we have it in the state,” said Schwarzenegger.
In court filings, the state says it has obtained 12 grams with an expiration date of 2014, enough to execute four inmates. The expiration date was an issue when convicted rapist and murderer Albert Greenwood Brown was set to be executed September 30, but wasn’t.
Because the last stock of sodium thiopental the state had expired that day, a judge called off the execution, citing the drug’s shelf life as one of the reasons.
Now death penalty advocates are calling on executions to resume. They say it doesn’t matter where the drug came from.
With Jerry Brown as the new California Governor, I doubt he will push for any speedy application of the death penalty (since he is personally opposed to it and remember he appointed Rose Bird as Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court). However, Los Angeles County District Attorney, Steve Cooley is currently ahead in the recent race for California Attorney General and unlike his opponent, San Francisco District Attorney, Kamala Harris, he supports the death penalty.
Should Steve Cooley win election, the foot dragging from the State of California should cease unless Governor Jerry Brown elects to pardon or grant clemency to these inmates – some who have been waiting for decades to be executed.
But, then again, the courts both federal and state will be used to delay the process.
Come on, why does it matter where the sodium thiopental comes from?
How about some justice for these criminal’s victims?
Previous:
California Calls Off the Scheduled Execution of Albert Greenwood Brown – FINALLY
Shocker: Federal Judge Jeremy Fogel Stays Thursday Execution of Albert Greenwood Brown
Updated: U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Orders a New Hearing for Albert Greenwood Brown – U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel Calls for Briefs
Albert Greenwood Brown’s Execution Delayed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel Clears Path for California Executions to Resume But Will They?
California Executions to Resume? Albert Greenwood Brown Would Be Next
California Executions May Resume By the End of 2008
Michael Morales Watch: US Supreme Court Upholds Lethal Injection Executions
Michael Morales Watch: Lethal Injection Hearings Delayed Again
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Halts Construction of San Quentin Death Chamber
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: New San Quentin Death Chamber Under Construction
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: California Governor Schwarzenegger Proposes Revised 5-Point Lethal Injection Protocol
Michael Morales Watch: Judge Jeremy Fogel Rules California Method of Lethal Injection Violates a Constitutional Ban on Cruel and Unusual Punishment
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Postponed INDEFINITELY
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Tonight?
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Execution Delayed by Doctor Walk Out
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: United States Supreme Court Refuses to Halt Morales Execution
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Denies Clemency Petition
Michael Angelo Moreno Watch: State Agrees to Place Anesthesia Expert in Death Chamber
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Lawyers Withdraw Allegedly Faked Juror Statements Supporting Their Clemency Bid
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Federal Judge May Delay Execution
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Ventura County Judge Asks California Governor Schwarzenegger for Clemency
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Kenneth Starr to Assist Death Row Clemency Bid
Comments Off
Day By Day by Chris Muir
The problem with President Obama is there appears to be NO rhyme or reason to his administration. Is it the economy, ObamaCare, education or what does he wish to emphasize? Obama is floundering while American loses standing in the world. Isn’t this what Obama was elected to correct from the George W. Bush years.
Now that President Bush is getting the “press play” for his memoirs, Americans are reminded that their lives were better under Bush.
So, what happened?
American voters made a “rookie” mistake.
Previous:
The Day By Day Archive
Comments Off
-
Basically, .. After talking a good game about fiscal conservatism for months, the GOP is going to take its cues in the Senate from a guy who basically doesn't give that much of a crap, and very likely empower a guy in the House whose top priorities have previously included money pit swimming pools into which he likes to dump massive, great, heaping piles of your hard-earned cash because, hey, he's in charge here, dammit.
I don't like it; you don't like it. Let's hope that by some miracle, folks calling the shots up on the Hill might possibly be paying attention to what everyone from the Tea Partiers to me, your local candy-ass RINO, thinks: Quit with the earmarks, and let's not just empower the people who pursued them with zeal last time the GOP was in charge, because well screw it, we won… kind of…
Please… for the love of God… the GOP should be capable of getting some basic stuff right for at least a couple months before we descend into the usual silliness, shouldn't we?
-
Less than an hour after the period began for filing bills for consideration in the 2011 Legislative session, State Rep. Debbie Riddle (R-Tomball), a leader of the newly muscular conservatives in the Legislature, filed an 'Arizona style' measure that would crack down on illegal immigration, 1200 WOAI news reports.
Riddle says her measure is a response to what she says is the escalating violence caused by Mexican and Latin American gangs in Texas.
"It is absolutely out of control with the gang related crime, which is going through the roof, so, yes, we are addressing this, and quite frankly, I am not worried about political correctness," Riddle told 1200 WOAI news.
+++++++
About damn time.
-
More Utahns want Sen. Orrin Hatch replaced than want to see him re-elected to another six-year term, according to a Salt Lake Tribune poll of likely voters conducted the week before Tuesday’s vote.
The survey noted that Hatch isn’t up for re-election until 2012, but asked if the vote were held today, would voters back him or someone else? Forty percent of likely voters would give him a seventh term, while 48 percent say they were inclined to favor another candidate. Twelve percent remained unsure. The poll, conducted by Washington, D.C.-based Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
Hatch — who knows he’s a potential target by tea party Republicans on the right and someone like Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson on the left — is confident past supporters will return to the fold.
++++++
A seventh term?
Orrin Hatch should retire.
-
The recession and housing bust have accomplished what no other economic slump has managed to in the past century: end Nevada's population-growth streak.
The USA's fastest-growing state for 19 consecutive years until 2006 will see its population drop an estimated 70,000 or 2.6% this year to 2.64 million, Nevada's state demographer predicts. It would be the largest annual drop for a state since thousands of Louisiana residents were displaced by Hurricane Katrina, slicing that state's population 5.7% to 4.2 million in 2006.
+++++++
Folks are just leaving – can you blame them?
-
An eerily prescient report by CQ-Roll Call prior to the election predicted that the RNC's GOTV decision would cost the party several seats:
"We will lose races because of this," said one senior Senate GOP aide, referring to the Republican National Committees inability to coordinate the traditional 72-hour GOTV effort for House and Senate races. Though its name implies a three-day deployment, in past years Capitol Hill staffers left as soon as Congress adjourned in order to help in tight races.
Contrary to the conventional wisdom that unfit candidates caused the GOP to forfeit several Senate seats, it appears that a party-wide failure to fund and implement previously successful GOTV efforts was the true cause of the Republican party's inability to capture a larger share of the U.S. Senate.
++++++
And, in California, I never did see Meg Whitman's supposed superior ground operation.
Comments Off
Posted by Flap in Animals
Illegal immigrants crossing into the United States
The short answer is YES.
That policy ought to begin with serious steps towards border security and the completion of the fence that has been first delayed, then proposed in an unworkable “virtual” form, and now at approximately 650 miles of 2,000 along the southern border. Until the border is secured and the visa program made enforceable, the issue of what to do about the millions of illegal aliens in the country cannot be resolved because of the continued migration of hundreds of thousands each year across a porous border. 80 to 90% of the country agrees on the basics of immigration policy, but the consequences of the paralysis engendered by the extremes is first and foremost a national security threat that gets worse every month.
I don’t know about the completion of a border fence as a cornerstone of a revised immigration policy but certainly enhanced employer sanctions and enforcement are areas where quick change can be facilitated.
What might happen to the GOP, if illegal immigration is ignored? Well, look what happened in the Southwest where massive number of illegal aliens have been tolerated and/or encouraged for decades vis a vis elections.
A look at the electoral map shows that, outside selected parts of the Southwest, few Republican candidates this year paid a price for adopting a hard-line immigration stance.
The reason is that most of the historic wave that swept Democrats from office last week was in Midwestern or Rust Belt states, where Latinos make up only a fragment of the voting population. For example, Democrats lost five House seats, a Senate seat and the governorship in Pennsylvania, where only 3% of eligible voters are Latino.
Jennifer Duffy, a senior editor at the Cook report who tracks congressional races, has a message to activists who contend immigration is the Democrats’ salvation: Don’t hold your breath.
“You’ve got to have states where [immigration] matters, where that Latino vote is enough to tip races,” Duffy said. “Those states are in the West.”
Although Latinos have been moving to more remote parts of the country in recent years, many may be too young to vote or may lack citizenship status. That makes it even tougher to replicate the Western experience in places such as Pennsylvania, she said.”Not only do they not have the Latino vote to help, they have an illegal immigrant problem,” Duffy said of Democrats. “It’s a double whammy.”
But, although Midwestern and Southern states GOP do NOT now have an electoral problem. They will, if the issue is ignored. Look at the balkinization of the recent US Senate race in California.
Illegal immigration has been ignored in California for decades. While many immigrants from Mexico, Central and South American were encouraged to illegal cross into the United States to work as cheap labor in agriculture, meat packing, domestic/service industries and construction, their numerous children were born here and became American citizens who can vote – and who vote 2 or 3 to 1 for Democratic candidates. Much like the African-American voters who vote almost 4 or 5 to 1 Democratic, the Latino/Hispanic voting block has started to influence elections in the Western United States – to the detriment of the GOP.
So, obviously, it is to the benefit of the GOP to stop the in-flow of illegal immigrants who will squeeze them in elections in the decades to come.
The GOP House in January should immediately hold hearings and attach border securing riders to major appropriations bills. Forget about the “Anchor Baby” nonsense and pass tough employer sanctions on illegal alien supporting industries, including California agriculture. When agri-business starts to scream because their supply of cheap labor dries up, then a “Guest Worker” program can be passed with the provision and emphasis on “Guest.”
The Congress can force the building of more walls and other hard asset border securing methods. They can fund grants to states for additional law enforcement efforts along the border since Obama will probably never order more National Guard or Army to protect the Mexican border.
Once the Mexican border is secure and tough enforcement of immigration laws occurs, then and only then should the Congress deal with the issue of illegal immigrants who remain. I bet most will self-deport themselves, in any case, since there will be few jobs available for them.
The illegal immigration problem can no longer be ignored and should be a priority for the GOP when the new Congress convenes in January.
Comments Off
Day By Day by Chris Muir
Chris, President Obama’s Afghanistan/Taliban/Pakistan policy is failing and his July 2011 deadline for withdrawal looms. I know Zed is an outstanding operative but sending him into the combat arena in Afghanistan is a waste since Obama will be withdrawing all troops within six months anyway.
As American’s economy has crash and burned under Obama, his foreign policy of blaming Bush and America has been equally a disaster.
In the meantime, the President dances is India and is planning to visit a Mosque in Indonesia where Obama was raised.
Wonderful…..
Previous:
The Day By Day Archiv
Tags: Afghanistan
Comments Off
Day By Day by Chris Muir
Chris, I don’t think President Obama’s trip to India and then later Asia will buy him much love from the American people.
U.S. President Barack Obama started his second day in India on a lighter note: pulling a few dance moves and celebrating a major religious festival with local students.
Obama and first lady Michelle Obama spent Sunday morning at a local school, where students were celebrating Diwali. Youngsters performed dances in colorful saris to mark the festival of lights. The president bobbed his head to the music and clapped.
Young girls danced with baskets on their heads as the room erupted in cheers.
At one point, students pulled the first lady on stage and taught her how to twirl.
“Notice they didn’t ask me,” the president said.
Students later extended the offer to the president, who joined them and towered over the youngsters as he danced.
When many Americans are seeing their jobs disappearing to a lower standard of living labor force in India and Asia, I don’t the vision of our President dancing on a taxpayer funded junket can really be viewed as appropriate.
The President and the lame duck Congress should get immediately to work on some fair-trade agreements which were started under the Bush Administration to increase the exports of our American goods and services.
And, re-evaluate immigration visa policies that allow American companies to import college educated foreigners so as to save the expense of hiring Americans who will command higher salaries and benefits.
A re-evaluation of illegal immigration and its impact on flooding America with under-educated, lower cost workers which displace Americans is also long overdue. The federal government can start with tough employer sanctions, particularly in California agriculture and Midwestern meat packing.
So, Mr. President dance around these issues. Previous:
The Day By Day Archive
2 Comments »
-
A newly empowered House GOP lawmaker said he hopes to advance legislation to end the right of U.S. citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants who are born in the United States.
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), a staunch opponent of illegal immigration who will become chairman of a key subcommittee handling immigration rules, said that he thinks he'll be able to pass a bill out of the House to end the U.S. Constitution's birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants.
"I think we are at least in the House," King told the conservative website Newsmax when asked if the new Congress would pass legislation to address so-called "anchor babies."
++++++
Illegal immigration has to be stopped or the rest of the country will end up like California and Nevada = balkanized with third world populations
-
Here in California, we've grown accustomed to voters from all parts of the country — some of them more consequential than others -– second-guessing our elections (perhaps because we have so many). This election, in which California somehow missed the cresting anti-Democrat wave, was no exception.
Several writers to letters@latimes.com accused Californians of electing the very people who imperiled our state in the first place. Many also expressed dismay that California took a pass on two prominent business executives (Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina) in favor of Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer.
Albert Einstein once said insanity is "…doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Congratulations, California, for becoming the largest mental hospital on Earth (or shall attempt California-style political correctness and call it a special needs facility).
Voters in the state keep electing the same politicians into office and expect different results?
+++++
LOL
-
Keith Olbermann, MSNBC's primetime firebrand host, has been suspended indefinitely for violating the ethics policies of his employer earlier this year when he donated to three Democrats seeking federal office, MSNBC announced Friday.
"I became aware of Keith's political contributions late last night. Mindful of NBC News policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay," MSNBC President Phil Griffin said in a statement.
First reported by Politico and confirmed by Federal Election Commission filings, the primetime television host gave $2,400 – the maximum individual amount allowed – to each of the campaigns of Kentucky Senate candidate Jack Conway, and Arizona Reps. Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords
++++++
Couldn't keep it in his pants, eh?
-
* Senator Harry Reid was trailing Tea Party icon Sharron Angle going into Tuesday's election. In fact, Reid beat Angle by over 6 percent.. The big difference was the Latino vote. Reid beat Angle among Latinos a whopping 90% to 8%, and Latino turnout was up from 12% of the electorate in the 2006 Mid-Terms to 15% in 2010.
* In Colorado's Senate race, the consensus polls showed Democrat Michael Bennet losing by about 1% in a close race. Instead he won by 1%. His margin among Latinos was 81% to 19% and Latino turnout was up from 9% of the electorate in 2006 to 13% in 2010.
* In the California Senate race, Barbara Boxer beat Carly Fiorina among Latinos 86% to 14%, and Latino turnout was up from 19% of the electorate in 2006 to 22% in 2010. Fiorina lost despite having spent a record-setting140 million of her own money on the campaign.
+++++
Fiorina did not put in $140 million of her own money but Latinos turned out for the Dems – a warning for GOP
-
In interviews in New Zealand, the failed 2008 presidential candidate made clear she had no plans to run again despite talk — fueled partly by her fellow Democrats' losses in Tuesday's U.S. mid-term elections — she might embark on a new race.
Asked by TV3 New Zealand whether she ruled out standing for the top U.S. office through 2016, Clinton, according to a U.S. reporter, replied: "Oh yes, yes. I'm very pleased to be doing what I'm doing as secretary of state."
In a separate interview with TV New Zealand, Clinton said she hoped the United States was ready for a female president, adding "it should be."
Asked if it might be her, she replied: "Well, not me. But it will be someone and it is nice coming to countries that have already proven that they can elect women to the highest governing positions that they have in their systems."
+++++++
Don't believe a word…..
-
Every election cycle has its winners and losers: not just the among the candidates, but also the pollsters.
On Tuesday, polls conducted by the firm Rasmussen Reports — which released more than 100 surveys in the final three weeks of the campaign, including some commissioned under a subsidiary on behalf of Fox News — badly missed the margin in many states, and also exhibited a considerable bias toward Republican candidates.
Other polling firms, like SurveyUSA and Quinnipiac University, produced more reliable results in Senate and gubernatorial races. A firm that conducts surveys by Internet, YouGov, also performed relatively well.
++++++
Read all of the analysis. Rasmussen must tighten up their operations.
-
Cynics will argue that, even if Obama can be given the bum's rush in 2012, that doesn't guarantee the success of this three-stage vaccine. And it is certainly true that it didn't permanently inoculate the Bay State from new and more virulent strains of health "reform." But that's hardly an argument for supinely allowing the PPACA to spread or waiting for the Supreme Court to provide a miracle cure. This contagion must be eradicated now. John Boehner was right when he said, "[W]e have to do everything we can to try to repeal this bill…" And, if outright repeal isn't possible, then the MA vaccine is the next best alternative.
++++++
Read it all.
Comments Off
|
Entries (RSS)