• California,  Death Penalty

    Obama Administration Watches as States Scramble for Sodium Thiopental

    The old San Quentin Prison Gas Chamber

    Here is another story about the Obama Administration and their involvement in states desperately seeking to acquire sodium thiopental in order to comply with state court execution orders.

    The highest levels of the United States government were initially unsure how to respond last year when California and other states began a worldwide scramble for a scarce lethal injection drug, e-mails between federal officials show.

    Ten states went abroad to purchase sodium thiopental, an anesthetic and part of the three-drug cocktail frequently used for executions, Drug Enforcement Administration records show. California was one of eight that made their transaction with Dream Pharma Ltd., a one-man London drug wholesaler operating from the back of a driving school.

    In November, as states filed paperwork to import the anesthetic, e-mails between officials at the DEA, the Food and Drug Administration, and Customs and Border Protection document the federal agencies fretted [PDF] over how to respond.

    “The White House is involved and trying to sort things out,” wrote a DEA official to unknown recipients in a Nov. 11 e-mail.

    The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California obtained the records last week through a Freedom of Information Act request. The organization has filed numerous records requests with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and various federal agencies.

    Records released to the ACLU have served as the primary source of information about states’ frantic international search for sodium thiopental as domestic supplies of the drug expired or ran out.

    Last week, the DEA released 90 pages of internal correspondence to the ACLU. Fifteen of those pages were completely redacted, along with the names of a majority of officials sending and receiving notes.

    What remains of the exchanges casts the federal government as worried about the drugs states were brining home for executions.

    Read the entire piece.

    As I have written before
    , the federal government and anti-death penalty California POLS are obstructing the use of sodium thiopental for use in executions.

    The fact is switching to other drugs will only lead to a circular argument method of obstructing enforcement of the death penalty. Then, there will be the physicians who will need to administer the drugs and the ethics involved with that.

    So, just go back to the old gas chamber like the one above, which does not require a physician to administer the drugs or you could hang the convicted criminals.

    Those methods are good enough and much more humane than these felons deserve anyway.

    How long do you think it would take California to change the law with Jerry Brown as Governor and Kamala Harris as California Attorney General?

    Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the conservative Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, thinks one way to impede stall-inducing litigation would be to reinstitute the gas chamber, but use nontoxic gas to replace oxygen. “It gets rid of this whole notion of a quasi-medical procedure,” he explained, when execution is in reality “a punishment” for horrific crimes.

    Of course, first Sacramento would have to pass a law. Then there’d be administrative law reviews. Add another decade.

    Don’t look for any California executions anytime soon.

  • Mitch Daniels,  President 2012

    President 2012: Why Mitch Daniels Did NOT Run for President

    Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and wife Cheri

    Obviously, it was for the sake of his family.

    Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels received encouragement to pursue the presidency from all over the country, from tea party activists to Republican Party elites. But after months of deliberation, Daniels could not overcome the barrier that he warned supporters about from the start: family concerns stood in the way.

    Daniels’ unusual marital history was apparently the issue. He’s only been married to one woman — but twice, and the gap in that marriage in the 1990s was the sore spot. Cheri Daniels left Mitch when he was in private life in 1994 and moved to California with a doctor. The Danielses would later remarry, but the pain it caused the people involved, including their four daughters, was too much to bear.

    A whisper campaign already making the rounds among political activists revealed how tough some of the scrutiny was going to be: What kind of first lady would leave her children at home for her husband to raise? Why did Mitch Daniels take her back?

    Many Washington GOP strategists have said for months that that one issue would be too much for Daniels. In the end, it was — according to Daniels’ himself.

    And, then there was the other wife who Cheri Daniels ruined her family (marriage and children with the California doctor). You know that would have come out and it has – even with Mitch out of the race.

    RealClearPolitics was approached by the ex-wife of the doctor with whom Mrs. Daniels fled to California. The other couple was married at the time, and the woman said in a phone interview that the move “blindsided” her.

    While she said she’s over the breakup of her marriage, in an email she characterized Cheri Daniels as “vengeful.”

    The doctor’s ex-wife continued: “What I will say is they remarried for political reasons. She didn’t care what she did to her children or mine in 1994. And she doesn’t care about what she does now. Look up ‘narcissist.’ I really question her character, and her motives.”

    The media scrutiny would have been overwhelming. If you think the tabloids have gone after Bristol Palin, can you imagine what they would have done to the four Daniel’s daughters and their friends?

    Politically, the Independent Expenditure groups would have beaten up Mitch, Cheri and especially their children. And, then there is the Obama campaign, if Daniels happened to beat Mitt Romney who would have beaten Mitch senseless – all through IE expenditures.

    So why is this happening? Simple. You’ve probably heard that the president and his team are looking to raise $1 billion to run on in 2012. They may make it; they may not. But what is that money to be spent on? He won’t have to spend it in a primary, it looks like. So that means the Obama team will have hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars to spend with one object and one object only: Destroy the eventual Republican nominee. Go after him. Drag his name through the mud. Run commercials every 15 seconds in six battleground states in which he removes wheelchairs from Medicare patients and grabs checks from Social Security recipients. And should there be a personal problem, a marial difficulty…well, Katie, bar the door. Imagine being Mitch Daniels, with your complex marital history, contemplating the onslaught of a negative campaign that cascades over you beginning in June 2012, just as you’re trying to “define” yourself to the American people. Pretty horrible to contemplate.

    Mitch Daniels is 62 years old, has two more years on his term as Indiana Governor, and why put up with all of this crap running for the Presidency.

    Daniels made a wise decision.

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for May 22nd on 18:41

    These are my links for May 22nd from 18:41 to 19:01:

  • Twitter

    @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-05-23

    • Flap’s Links and Comments for May 22nd on 10:19 http://bit.ly/mCwoXb #tcot #catcot #
    • Updated – President 2012: Tim Pawlenty Has Serial Child Molester Pardon Problems http://bit.ly/myIR44 #tcot #catcot #
    • President 2012 Video: Sarah Palin Buys a House in Scottsdale, Arizona? | Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog http://bit.ly/ilu65e #
    • President 2012: Tim Pawlenty Has Serial Child Molester Pardon Problems | Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog http://bit.ly/jWYNZt #
    • President 2012 Video: Tim Pawlenty’s A Time for Truth – Preview of Tomorrow’s Announcement in Iowa | Flap's Blog… http://bit.ly/iN1n5w #
    • President 2012 Video: Sarah Palin Buys a House in Scottsdale, Arizona? http://bit.ly/jrZSBY #tcot #catcot #
    • President 2012: Tim Pawlenty Has Serial Child Molester Pardon Problems http://bit.ly/iKrMOr #tcot #catcot #
    • President 2012 Video: Tim Pawlenty’s A Time for Truth – Preview of Tomorrow’s Announcement in Iowa http://bit.ly/jkpyc4 #tcot #catcot #
    • Will California Become Another Michigan? http://bit.ly/iXZxCt #tcot #catcot #
    • President 2012: Daniels is Out – So Who is Left? http://bit.ly/lnHrHA #tcot #catcot #
    • Flap’s Links and Comments for May 22nd on 02:26 http://bit.ly/mRQ5ut #tcot #catcot #
    • @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-05-22 http://bit.ly/jI1192 #tcot #catcot #
    • Flap’s Links and Comments for May 21st on 22:38 http://bit.ly/jeDTom #tcot #catcot #
    • President 2012: Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels Will NOT Run for President | Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog http://bit.ly/kwwUK5 #
    • Flap’s Links and Comments for May 21st on 22:36 | Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog http://bit.ly/jeEkM4 #
    • Mitch Daniels won't run in 2012 – Maggie Haberman and Jennifer Epstein – POLITICO.com http://politi.co/m9WwhV #
    • President 2012: Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels Will NOT Run for President | Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog http://bit.ly/jvYFBc #
    • Mitch Daniels won't run in 2012 – Maggie Haberman and Jennifer Epstein – POLITICO.com http://politi.co/kAUb9e #
    • Flap’s Links and Comments for May 21st on 22:36 | Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog http://bit.ly/ini4o5 #
    • President 2012: Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels Will NOT Run for President http://bit.ly/jLeHzC #tcot #catcot #
    • Mitch Daniels won't run in 2012 http://politi.co/ktw2E2 #
    • Flap’s Links and Comments for May 21st on 22:36 http://bit.ly/kBPQgV #tcot #catcot #
    • Watch the Bush donors over the next week. There will be a DRAFT of some sorts – Christie or Ryan = likely suspects.Money has to go someplace #
    • The midnight Daniels e-mail from Eric Holcomb RT @MattMackowiak: The email: http://yfrog.com/h0xsiicj #
    • Mitch Daniels did fish or cut bait and is out. He could NOT resolve his family issues – so on to the next anti-Romney candidate #tcot #
    • President 2012: Is the race now between Romney, Pawlenty, Bachmann and Huntsman? #tcot #
    • With Daniels out, where will the Bush donors who are scared of Sarah Palin go? Draft Christie or Ryan? #tcot #
    • RT @maghabepolitico: Daniels' email to supporters, sent from IN GOP chief Eric Holcombe, cites his family concerns as his reason #
    • So, who will benefit with Mitch Daniels NOT running for President? Pawlenty and Huntsman = no doubt – Palin coming in? #tcot #
    • Wow, shocker RT @MattMackowiak: BREAKING: In an urgent email, Gov. Mitch Daniels (R-IN) has announced he will NOT run for President. #tcot #
    • Day By Day May 19, 2011 – Backup http://bit.ly/kiOMQX #tcot #catcot #

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