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links for 2010-12-16
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Earlier today it was reported that far left Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) proposed a $48 billion earmark to redistribute taxpayer money to the inner city.
It was the Mother of All Earmarks…
Liberal Rep. Emanuel Cleaver proposed a whopping $48 BILLION EARMARK that would redistribute wealth to the inner cities and gift money to the poor and thereby produce a much larger consumer class to buy the goods and services produced in this country.++++++
Criminal if this Omnibus Spending bill passes.
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Incoming House Speaker John Boehner's recent interview on "60 Minutes" with Lesley Stahl, where he once again cried publicly, has created a minor controversy among pundits, with observers trying to figure out the cause of his unusual behavior.
Is it depression? Or is Boehner simply in touch with his emotions? Does he wear his heart on his sleeve, or does he cry on a dime because he has a tender spot for all things American?
While it's impossible to know, some are beginning to speculate that Boehner's penchant for turning on the waterworks might have some connection to his consumption of wine. Liberal MSNBC host Ed Shultz, half-jokingly, called Boehner a "cheap drunk" the other day, Capitol Hill aides of both parties are wondering, and there's even a web page devoted to it.
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Well, if he has a problem then the GOP Caucus should find another Speaker -
Republicans will paralyze the Senate floor for 50 hours by forcing clerks to read every single paragraph of the 1,924-page, $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill.
Senate clerks are expected to read the massive bill in rotating shifts around the clock — taking breaks to drink water and pop throat lozenges — to keep legislative business on track, according to a Democratic leadership aide.
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The GOP should do nothing but a short continuing resolution to keep the government open and then go home
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Democrats will try one more time to bring up a controversial immigration bill in the lame-duck session of Congress, a key Senate chairman said Wednesday evening.
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, said that Democrats would make one last stab at passing the DREAM Act in the Senate.
"We are going to try to bring the DREAM Act up one more time. And again, that may be filibustered by the Republicans," Harkin said last night on MSNBC. "If it is, well then, we'll have to be in here after Christmas."
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As expected – so melt the phones to squishy GOP Senators to filibuster -
California air quality regulators are poised to adopt the nation's most sweeping regulations to give power plants, refineries and other major polluters a financial incentive to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
The Air Resources Board was expected to pass this key piece of the California's 2006 climate law, called AB32, at its meetings Thursday or Friday, with the hope that other states and nations will follow the lead of the world's eighth largest economy.
"AB32 was passed primarily to fill the vacuum created by the failure of Congress to pass any kind of climate or energy legislation for many years now," said Mary Nichols, the air board's chairwoman. "The goal was to lead by example, and being a leader you have to bring others along with you."
California's cap-and-trade rules would set up the largest U.S. carbon trading market as the way to enforce the state's gradually tightening cap on emissions.+++++
More business will leave and more unemployment. Budget deficits increase
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Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is setting a deadline for when he must decide whether to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.
Daniels, a favorite among Republican insiders who respect his fiscally conservative record, said Wednesday that he must figure out his plans by the end of April, when Indiana's legislative session is slated to wrap up."I think the decision has to come at the end of this General Assembly session, if not before. No later than that," Daniels told Fort Wayne television station WANE. "In fairness to people from all over the place – many of whom I've only read about before – who like this idea [of Daniels running for president], I owe them some kind of an answer."
Daniels has remained mostly cagey about his intentions. Though the governor has resisted invitations to visit key primary states, he's also welcomed national reporters to Indiana to discuss the possibility.+++++++
Well, DUH! He will need to ramp up fundraising.
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It's been a whirlwind of excitement since the first rumors that Sen. Harry Reid would be passing online poker legislation during the lame-duck session of Congress, but that excitement halted immediately Wednesday night. According to multiple sources, the bill will not be voted on or attached to another bill during the last few days of this session.
"We are disappointed that Congress failed to act and provide the necessary consumer protections and sensible oversight over this multi-billion dollar industry," John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, wrote in an e-mail to ESPN.com. "Sadly, some politicians remain with their heads firmly in the sand. The leadership of the Poker Players Alliance got the debate this far and we are determined to see this through."
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This is not a surprise since the bill is a blatant payback to Harrah's and MGM who contributed so heavily for Reid.
Online poker looks almost dead especially if the feds enforce UIGEA
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Chuck DeVore to Challenge Senator Dianne Feinstein in 2012?
Termed out California Assemblyman Chuck DeVore
Yes, and I received an e-mail from Chuckles last week saying he will be running for something in 2012 and asking for money to get his California state campaign account out of debt.
If he thinks he can beat long time Senator Dianne Feinstein who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, he is suffering from delusions of grandeur. Even the LEFT is skeptical and they are not greats fans of DiFi.
Despite getting only a small vote share in the GOP Senate primary this year (as conservatives decided to go with the slightly-more-electable Carly Fiorina), Chuck DeVore is talking Senate again, for 2012, when Dianne Feinstein will presumably run for re-election. Or is he? All he’s saying is that he’s likely to run in 2012, but hasn’t decided what office. Senate is the only thing that’s available, though, which makes his statement seem kind of strange (unless he’s talking about trying to rejoin the state Assembly). If Barbara Boxer could still win by 10 points in a terrible year, the more-popular Feinstein in a presidential year is an even more daunting target, meaning that DeVore may be the only prominent GOPer crazy enough to take on the task.
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Ground Based Missile Defense Test Fails Over Pacific
The Missile Defense Agency was unable to achieve a planned intercept of a ballistic missile target during a test over the Pacific Ocean today. The flight test included the successful flight of an intermediate-range ballistic missile target from Ronald Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands and a long-range interceptor missile launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.
I am not feeling any more secure as the Missile Defense Agency acknowledges yesterday’s failure.A test of the sole U.S. defense against long-range ballistic missiles failed on Wednesday, the second failure in a row involving the system managed by Boeing Co (BA.N), the Defense Department said.
“The Missile Defense Agency was unable to achieve a planned intercept of a ballistic missile target during a test over the Pacific Ocean today,” Richard Lehner, an agency spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement. No preliminary explanation of the failure was provided.
The miss brought the so-called ground-based midcourse defense’s batting record to eight intercepts out of 15 tries, as reckoned by the Missile Defense Agency.
“This is a tremendous setback for the testing of this complicated system,” Riki Ellison, head of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, a booster group, said in a statement. He said it raised troubling questions about the reliability of the 30 or so interceptor missiles deployed in silos in Alaska and California.
The test was a repeat of a Jan. 31 exercise in which an advanced sea-based radar had not performed as expected.
Well, more testing and development is in order and at least with the GOP control of the House there will NOT be an attempt to defund the Missile Defense Agency. Being that the Democrats and President Obama have been reluctant to support missile defense, the GOP success in November looms even bigger.
But, there is nothing better than success and Boeing will have to demonstrate it or make way for other contractors. Missile defense is too important for failure.
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2012 GOP Presidential Debates Should NOT Begin Prior to Fall 2011
I agree with Hugh Hewitt here.
It does not benefit the Republican Party to have its candidates beat up my the left-wing MSM so early. You know they will be in the tank for President Obama anyway. Why give them extra time?
So, Mitt Romney and the GOP leadership should tell NBC News and CNN thanks but no thanks.
The first debate in October 2011 with Fox News is soon enough. – especially since the GOP Presidential Primary Calendar has been changed to reflect a later start in 2012.
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California Finds Sodium Thiopental to Execute Albert Greenwood Brown – But, So?
Well, at least the State of California has found sodium thiopental to execute Albert Greenwood Brown.
Good news for those who believe in the concept “lex talionis” is bad news for Albert Greenwood Brown.
California’s prisons have located an elusive drug needed to resume executions. That is the last thing that convicted killer and rapist Albert Greenwood Brown wanted to hear.
The San Quentin inmate has had his execution on hold since Sept. 29 when a national shortage of the drug sodium thiopental forced delays in lethal injection killings across the country.
The drug is the first of three drugs administered during capital punishment sentences in California. But the country’s only domestic supplier of the drug had production problems that search state prison systems to search globally for supplies.
California’s prison department ultimately ended up giving a British company $36,415 for 521 grams of the drug that expire in 2014. Brown’s execution has been rescheduled.
But, Brown will NOT be executed anytime soon due to the anti-death penalty Federal Judge Jeremy Fogel who started the charade of the three drug cocktail “cruel and unusual punishment” argument to prevent California executions years ago.
Here is the latest on the appeals:
A federal judge in San Jose refused a state request Friday for dismissal of part of a lawsuit challenging California’s lethal injection procedures for executions.
But U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel said he intends to resolve the lawsuit by two death row inmates “as expeditiously as possible.” He scheduled a status conference on the case for Dec. 17.
Inmates Michael Morales and Albert Greenwood Brown, who both face death sentences for murders of teenage girls in the early 1980s, claim the state’s three-drug execution procedure carries a risk of causing unconstitutional severe pain.
The state contends that any problems were corrected in a revised lethal injection protocol completed earlier this year.
State attorneys had asked Fogel to dismiss two out of three claims in the lawsuit. The first claim is that the revised protocol is unconstitutional “on its face,” or under all circumstances. The second claim is a contention that there is a reasonable alternative to the current procedure.
The state did not seek early dismissal of a third claim that the procedure is unconstitutional when actually applied by corrections officials.
Fogel said in a 15-page ruling that lawyers for Morales and Brown had presented enough preliminary information to allow the two challenged claims to remain in the case along with the third claim. He wrote that the claims “cannot simply be dismissed as implausible.”The judge also said the inmates had presented an adequate minimum basis for arguing in later proceedings that a single-drug execution, using only the sedative sodium thiopental, might be a reasonable alternative.
Three drugs, one drug – what difference does it really make? Other states have been executing murderers for the over five years that California has been frakking around with drug cocktail combinations and drug availability.
I have to say the administration of Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger has been diligent in pursuing the California Death Penalty Law. Read about how the California Department of Corrections secured their stash of sodium thiotental (sodium pentothal). The original ACLU document dump is here.
But, Albert Greenwood Brown will NOT be executed anytime soon – after almost 30 years of appeals. Anti-death penalty Governor Jerry Brown and Attorney General Kamala Harris were elected in November and they both will drag their feet on executing anyone.
As the Albert Greenwood Brown case languishes in the courts, the death penalty law will not be enforced in California. Moreover, I am waiting for the initiative to come before California voters to change the law using costs as the prime argument.
There will be NO justice for the victims of Albert Greenwood Brown and Michael Morales, et. al on Death Row.
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Shocker: Federal Judge Jeremy Fogel Stays Thursday Execution of Albert Greenwood Brown
Albert Greenwood Brown’s Execution Delayed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
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: New San Quentin Death Chamber Under Construction
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: Federal Judge May Delay Execution
Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Kenneth Starr to Assist Death Row Clemency Bid
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Day By Day December 16, 2010 – Black on White
Day By Day by Chris MuirChris, it is called political payback. After all, African-Americans vote 90 per cent for the Democratic Party and now that they have one of “their own” in the White House. You know what I mean?The same political scenario is playing out with the Hispanics/Latinos with the DREAM Act. Harry Reid is paying back the “Brown vote” for his recent re-election. So, why not grant amnesty (and eventually the ability to vote) to a racial group who will then in turn vote 80 per cent or so for your Democratic candidates?
Pretty ingenious, isn’t it?
But, it balkanizes America and besides California which is already becoming a third world country because of illegal alien immigration from Mexico, the rest of America is wise to the ploy.
Now, do they other states and voters have the political resolve to stop the game?
America, as we know it, is at stake.
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