O’Reilly To Huckabee For Commuting Suspected Cop Killer’s Sentence: "It’s Not Your Fault, Governor" (VIDEO)
November 30, 2009 by Huffington Post
Filed under Videos
On Monday night, former Governor Mike Huckabee went on BIll O’Reilly’s show to discuss the clemency he granted nearly a decade ago to Maurice Clemmons — now a suspect in the fatal shooting of four police officers.
Although many conservative bloggers hammered Huckabee for commuting Clemmons, O’Reilly was forgiving. After thanking Huckabee for “being a stand-up guy,” O’Reilly went on to offer Huckabee a pardon: the cop killings were “not your fault, governor.”
Transcript and video below:
O’REILLY: Thanks for being a stand-up guy, Governor. A lot of people want an explanation. This is a bad hombre, and you let him out. Why?
HUCKABEE: Well, Bill, first of all — the tragedy of this — if I could have known 9 years ago this guy was capable of something of this magnitude, obviously I would have never granted the commutation.
It’s sickening. The two people I value most in this country are soldiers and police officers, because they’re the only things standing between our freedom and total anarchy. And in the case of this particular individual — he was sentenced to 108 years for two crimes when he was 16. The post-prison transfer board — I’ll be very brief about this, but to understand — they recommended to me as governor for his commutation, which didn’t release him. It simply cut his sentence to 47 years. That would give him parole eligibility.
That was the commutation. I’m responsible for that. And it’s not something I’m happy about, at this particular moment.
O’REILLY: Now did you study it…
HUCKABEE: Yes…
O’REILLY: I mean, look. Governors have a lot of this stuff. Did you study this guy? Did you spend a lot of time on it, or did you just take the advice of your advisers?
HUCKABEE: No, I looked at every case file, and I had about 1,200 of these a year. This is what people need to understand. 92% of the time, they were denied. But in this case, the judge in the case was also recommending, and the parole board — on a 5-0 vote — because at the age of 16, the sentence he got for the crimes he committed back in 1989 was excessive for anything else that….
O’REILLY: [interrupting] Okay he was a bad guy in prison, and the prosecutors told you. So they say “Hey, this is a hard-core guy. This isn’t some kid who went wrong”.
HUCKABEE: We didn’t have any information from the prosecutors. We sent notices, which is the practice in Arkansas, to five different people: The Attorney General, the Secretary of State, the prosecutor, the judge, and law enforcement. The only official we have record of getting notification of from was the judge, who agreed with the recommendation of the parole board.
So that’s what we acted upon. What I acted upon — I’m responsible for that, and you know, my heart is broken for four families tonight…
O’REILLY: [interrupting] Well, it’s not your fault, Governor. I mean, look, you’ve got 1,200 of these cases a year. You gotta look at them. I’m not saying it’s your fault. I don’t think anyone watching thinks it’s your fault.
But the judges in Washington state, come on. I mean, this guy moves from your state — Arkansas — to Washington state and then he racks up 8 felony charges. Eight felonies!
Obama to send 34,000 troops to Afghanistan
November 30, 2009 by The Washington Post
Filed under TOP HEADLINES
President Obama will outline Tuesday his intention to send an additional 34,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan, according to U.S. officials and diplomatic sources briefed Monday as Obama began informing allies of his plan.
Osteoarthritis Costs U.S. Over $185 Billion a Year (HealthDay)
November 30, 2009 by admin
Filed under Health News
HealthDay – MONDAY, Nov. 30 (HealthDay News) — Medical care for osteoarthritis
patients in the United States costs $185.5 billion a year, according to a
new study.
Read original article here
Alec Baldwin: I’m Quitting Acting In 2012
November 30, 2009 by Huffington Post
Filed under TOP HEADLINES
Enjoy ‘30 Rock’ while you can because Alec Baldwin is threatening to quit Hollywood altogether when his contract expires in 2012.
“I don’t have any interest in acting anymore,” the Emmy winner, 51, said in an interview for the December issue of Men’s Journal. “Movies are a part of my past. It’s been 30 years. I’m not young, but I have time to do something else.”
Baldwin stars alongside Meryl Streep in the upcoming holiday comedy ‘It’s Complicated’ and will co-host the 2010 Oscars with Steve Martin. He was nominated for an Oscar for his 2003 performance in ‘The Cooler.’ Still he avoids his own movies and insists he has no future on the big screen.
“I consider my entire movie career a complete failure,” he told the magazine. “The goal of moviemaking is to star in a film where your performance drives the film, and the film is either a soaring critical or commercial success, and I never had that.”
So what will he do next? Baldwin has flirted with the idea of running for public office. He’s also mentioned he would like to remarry–to “a really rich woman so I can stay home and read books all day.”
The December issue of Men’s Journal hits newsstands Friday.
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Meet the (Real) Future Death Panel Czar
November 30, 2009 by Hyscience
Filed under Idiot Ideas, Total Nonsense
According to Susan Ferrechio, Chief Congressional Correspondent for the Washington Examiner, a serach of the Senate health bill will bring up “secretary” 2,500 times, and under the Senate health bill she will determine what medical treatments are and are not available to you. It is also quite possible the “secretary” will determine if you live or die.
Meet the “real” Death Panel Czar – Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
Ferrechio writes:
[...] Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius would be awarded unprecedented new powers under the proposal, including the authority to decide what medical care should be covered by insurers as well as the terms and conditions of coverage and who should receive it.
“The legislation lists 1,697 times where the secretary of health and humans services is given the authority to create, determine or define things in the bill,” said Devon Herrick, a health care expert at the National Center for Policy Analysis.
For instance, on Page 122 of the 2,079-page bill, the secretary is given the power to establish “the basic per enrollee, per month cost, determined on average actuarial basis, for including coverage under a qualified health care plan.”
The HHS secretary would also have the power to decide where abortion is allowed under a government-run plan, which has drawn opposition from Republicans and some moderate Democrats.
And the bill even empowers the department to establish a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation that would have the authority to make cost-saving cuts without having to get the approval of Congress first.
“It’s a huge amount of power being shifted to HHS, and much of it is highly discretionary,” said Edmund Haislmaier, an expert in health care policy and insurance markets at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
Haislmaier said one the greatest powers HHS would gain from the bill is the authority to regulate insurance. States currently hold this power, and under the Senate bill, the federal government would usurp it from them. This could lead to the federal government putting restrictions and changes in place that destabilize the private insurance market by forcing companies to lower premiums and other charges, he said.
Robert Wenzel suggests at EconomicPolicyJournal.com that destabilizing the private insurance sector is part of the plan to “nudge” everyone into a public plan.
It will take time to pull off, but that is the goal. In the meantime, Sebelius will be able to control treatments via capping of price, any treatment she deems unnecessary she can mark the price down so low that any health provider won’t be able to provide it without losing money. Once most are in the public plan the real cost cutting will begin, including cutting back on treatments that will prolong your life.
Morgan Richman says essentially the same thing in his must-read piece at Big Government since a single-payer system would give the federal government total control over our lives:
The truth is that the public plan is a carefully devised scheme, a sneaky strategy, to deceive American voters. It’s a political marketing ploy designed to move the nation to a single-payer system – like the one in Canada – over the next decade. The public option is the Trojan horse. On the outside it’s all about “choice and competition”, but once it has been dragged within the walls of American medicine it’s true nature will become evident. By that time, it’ll be too late.
Richman offers “plenty of proof” in his piece, including a pont to this damning video of the original architect of the public option, Yale professor Jacob Hacker, describing how it was designed to not “frighten people into thinking they are going to lose their private insurance” even though that is the inevitable result (via Verum Serum):
In another clip he denies the plan is a Trojan horse saying, on the contrary, “it’s right there”. In other words, it’s not even a secret. Most relevant of all, Hacker admits in another clip that the real advantage of his plan is that “at least you can make the claim that there is competition between the public and private sectors”. In other words, this is all a marketing strategy designed to get around public resistance to government-run health care.
Death panels? What death panels! They’re hidden in plain sight. And the Czar has been identified in the Senate bill.
Read original article here
Goncourt winner Littell wins Bad Sex Award (Reuters)
November 30, 2009 by admin
Filed under Clueless, Humor, Total Nonsense
Reuters – Jonathan Littell, who won France’s prestigious Prix Goncourt in 2006 for “The Kindly Ones,” has picked up another prize for the same work — the Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction Award.
Read original article here
Tiger Woods Cancels Appearance in Golf Tournament
November 30, 2009 by admin
Filed under Celebrity Nonsense, Media Fools
Tiger Woods will not be participating in the 2009 Chevron World Challenge as scheduled, citing injuries sustained from his one-car accident that occurred last week.
"I am extremely disappointed that I will not be at my tournament this week," the acclaimed golfer said. "I am certain it will be an outstanding event and I’m very sorry that I can’t be there."
"We support Tiger’s decision and are confident the strong field and excellent course will provide an exciting week of competition at the Chevron World Challenge," said Greg McLaughlin, Tiger Woods Foundation President & CEO.
In California’s IE the Realty Reality is All Too Real
November 30, 2009 by admin
Filed under Mortgage Mess
The turnout was staggering: close to 45,000 desperate homeowners showed up during NACA’s five-day stand at the Cow Palace for the chance to renegotiate their disastrous subprime mortgages or sky-high interest rates or interest-only payments. For them, this event beat any chance at a star-studded concert — and best of all, it was free. – Andy Kroll1
It wasn’t long after we’d posted to the sidebar that quote from the CBS.com version of the story that the author himself dropped by the Castle to invite Doomers to take a closer look. Well, tomorrow’s class prep will just have to wait. This is an amazing text.
As a Doomer of a certain baldness, I remember a 50s TV program, one of the original "reality" shows, called Queen for a Day. Well thinking back to those "competitions" gave me quite a hollow feeling in the gut when I read this …
The process would save many of them thousands of dollars, defuse an explosive mortgage, even avert foreclosure. To boost morale, NACA officials occasionally ushered chosen homeowners to a makeshift lectern where each offered a glowing testimonial over a PA system to the work taking place. They spoke fervently of new fixed-interest loans and fought back tears, while thanking their counselors, friends, NACA, and — regularly — God.
The post is long and detailed, ranging as it does along a number of the eastern suburbs of the great CA cities. After an exhausting tour through green-painted lawns and damaged community, Andy takes on some of the insiders and finance types who’ve profited handsomely from the backwash of all this misery. Oddly enough, that brought to mind the theme of Marcy’s newly released satirical song.
So I heartily recommend that our readers think long and hard on these issues, because our politicians have got some pretty heavy policy choices to make to keep this stuff from flying apart into something nobody wants to see.
——————
[1]: "Tomgram: Andy Kroll, The Illusion of Recovery", by Andy Kroll (intro by Tom Engelhardt), TomDispatch, November 30, 2009.
Early Intervention Very Effective For Toddlers With Autism, Small Study
November 30, 2009 by Medical News
Filed under Health News
A small US study involving toddlers diagnosed with autism, some as as young as 18 months old, showed that intensive early intervention delivered by trained specialists and parents was very effective and improved IQ, social interaction and language ability…
Read original article here
Daniel Krotz: The Secret Lives Of Dentists
November 30, 2009 by Huffington Post
Filed under Humor
I was informed this week that a local church here in Berryville, Arkansas–which back home in Minnesota is considered a cult–is widely considered to be the “elite” church in town. Elite was defined by my informant in the usual ways, but also included the phrase “upwardly mobile.”
I was so surprised by the linking of this group to the words “elite” and “upwardly mobile” that stuff came out of my nose the way it does when reason is abruptly derailed and you are made helpless by an involuntary and spontaneous eruption of laughter.
However: the source of the information, and of the associated characterizations of the group in question, is a reliable source insofar as matters of church and church politics are concerned. Moreover, I’m admittedly a bit of a dunce when it comes to Protestantism in general and to Southern Protestantism in particular. And so it was that, after weighing these two facts, I was able to convince myself to take the absurdity of “elite” at face value.
I still, however, was unable to get my head around “upwardly mobile” since there is no obvious “up” in Berryville. Here “mobile” is invariably associated with either “home” or Razorback linebackers–in which case it is pronounced mo-Bile–and there aren’t any Mobile filling stations left. So how does one become upwardly mobile in such circumstances, especially when there is no upward there?
Don’t get me wrong. There are plenty of millionaires in town, and plenty of Ph.D.’s, but the money is either old money or retired money and the Ph.D.’s are retired imports or this week’s Superintendent of Schools. When a kid leaves town to go off to college he doesn’t come back unless his dad owns the local bank. Mobility is therefore out of town, sideways and horizontal, and if it is ever upward it is defined so by parental anecdote; we don’t really get to observe it firsthand.
One sure sign of whether one is elite or not elite is the condition of one’s teeth. So sensitive are Arkansans over media depiction of them as hillbillies of the Al Capp variety that they forego many luxuries and some necessities to negate the canard and subsequently acquire the sort of teeth common to Hollywood, California. Truly, the streets of my town are so filled with folks with Elvis Presley and Ann Margaret smiles that you might think that you’re on the set of Viva Las Vegas. Yes: we have some fine teeth in Arkansas.
If you do see a dental backslider the culprit is usually a retiree from Minnesota. Although Minnesota is rated as the most literate place in the United States (number one on at least four different scales), most Minnesotans have a stoic “ashes to ashes and dust to dust” view of their teeth. Sure, they brush twice daily, floss, and visit the dentist at least annually, but they do these things because those are the rules, and Minnesotans follow rules. But it is hard for them to go beyond the rules to consider big investments in crowns or implants or such cosmetic folderol…because they believe in their heart that when a thing is gone, it’s gone.
Minnesotans might invest more in their teeth if dentists heroically appeared once in a while in the bales of that stuff that they read. But they hardly appear at all; it almost seems as though dentists are blacklisted from holding even part-time jobs in literature. In fact, I can recall only a couple of stories involving dentists. One is Ann Hornaday’s story, “Secret Lives: The Aching Cavity of a Marriage,” and the other is Lisa Schwarzbaum’s “The Secret Lives of Dentists: A polished and artful examination of marital decay.” Not really inspiring titles, are they? And what’s with this ‘”secrets” business?
If Minnesotans and Arkansans are opposites in the matter of teeth they are also opposites when it comes to reading. With the exception of Mississippi–of course!–Arkansans read less than anyone in America. That may partly answer the “upward mobility” riddle I’m trying to muddle through, but it fails to satisfactorily engage “elite.”
And so it is that on the very next available Sunday I plan on attending services at the church in question and meet the elite. I want to assess their upward mobility and, most of all, check out their teeth. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Read more: Daniel Krotz, Berryville, Bookseller, Book, Books, Arkansas, Satire, Living News
