Too Big To Fail - What About Too Big To Exist?

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By Chico Brisbane -

Since the 1980's, Washington D.C. has gambled away American manufacturing through trade negotiations that cannot be described any better then comparing them to roulette or a 3-card monty. The phrase "Made in America" for all intents and purposes, no longer applies to consumer goods. Yes! - There are still many Americans that will go out of their way to by domestic products, but even that has become very difficult and often misleading.

Many Americans would be surprised to learn that a few of those cold bottles of Bud they've tossed back might have actually been brewed in Japan, China, or Germany. When was the last time that you played Monopoly? - This game is the symbol of American Capitalism, but it's "manufacturer" Hasbro, Inc. is just a wholesaler. The game itself is actually maufactured in Warterford, Ireland, not in the U.S. - How many American cowboys are running around feeling patriotic in their skin tight Wrangler Jeans? - How many would still feel that way if they knew that Wrangler Jeans for the U.S. market are manufactured in Central America and Mexico.

My own personal wake-up call to this trickery came when I stumbled across a bin of Confederate flags at a large supply outlet in Spartenberg, South Carolina. It was the first time that I ever held one in my hand, but I damn near pissed my pants from laughing when I saw "Made In China" on a tiny tag on the corner of the flag. In all fairness, this store did a good job promoting domestic goods by placing "Made In USA" stickers on everything that was American made.

That brings us to Wal-Mart. Regardless of how iconic the founding of this company is in American history, it is no longer what it's founder Sam Walton invisioned. Some argue that Walton himself was well aware of the growing negative perception of Wal-Marts treatment towards it's employees and vendors. Whatever the case my be, anything that was ever good about Wal-Mart died along with Sam Walton on that Sunday back in April of 1992.

Fast forward 17 years and Wal-Mart has gone from being a retail giant to being the first private, for-profit company in history to have the economic scope and impact on the American economy that Wal-Mart has. It is the largest private employer in the U.S. and for nearly 2/3 of all 50 States, Wal-Mart is the largest single employer in those states.

Nobody will argue the fact that most companies have been successful be changing the way that they do business with their customers, but you cannot allow companies to become so big that they begin to define the way that we do business as a country. We've already dodged this bulliet by breaking up the regional Bell Telehpone Companies. It was done again when AT&T underwent a divestature to spin off Bell Labs into Lucent Technology who know where NCR went?

Wal-Mart has changed the landscape of the local shopping center, but not in the spirit of compatition. It's mega super stores are designed to stilfe compatition entirely and in many communities, Wal-Mart has become the only option for local consumers. Add all of this with the fact that Wal-Mart has also become the largest single outlet for imported goods in the United States. No vendor or supplier can negotiate with Walmart on an equal footing.

We've all heard the term "To big to fail" in the recent bail-out of our financial markets and particularly AIG. But apply the same scenario to the retail sector and a global giant like Wal-Mart. There are now too many companies that find themselves in the position of Wal-Mart being the majority percentage of their business or in some cases, an exclusive supplier to thier master.

Instead of worring about companies becoming to big to fail, there needs to be regulations to ensure that companies never become too big to exist. In my younger years I worked for Wal-Mart for about a year and then Target for just over 3 years. For a small vendor, doing business with Target might seem like doing business with David and Golieth. But with Wal-Mart, it's more like David, Golieth, and Golieth's whole god damn family. It's as scary as it is unceessary. I am offically changing the term "Buy American" to "Buy American When Available."

Now I know why paper it the biggest U.S. export to China. They need it to make boxes to ship all of their crap back to the United States. It's sad when you look at it in the abstract.

Televisions - Invented in America. Now made in elsewhere.

Personal Computer - Invented in America. Now made elsewhere.

Just about every modern kitchen applience - Invented in America. Now made elsewhere.

Here are just a few of small number of American manufactures who refuse to give up against a titlewave of Chinese crap that is flooding our docks.

Boots:

Red Wing Shoes (Red Wing, MN)
Appliances: KitchenAid Appliances (Benton, MI)
Outdoor Gear: Cabela's, Inc. (NYSE: CAB) (Sydney, Nebraska)
Bicycles: Aegis Bicycles (Camden, ME)
Kitchen cabinets: Merillat Industries (Adrian, MI) (Mfg. in 11 U.S. plants)

Secret Service Investigates "Should Obama By Killed?" Poll

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With Fox News Channels Bill O’Reilly consistently sewing the seeds of hate against Kansas Dr. George Tiller, you can’t help but wonder to what extent his never ending “Tiller The Killer” tirades may have played in prompting loan assassin Scott Roedar to walk up on Tiller inside of his church and execute him at point blank range.

Even less wondering is required in the case of a U.S. Census worker who was found hanged from a tree on Sept.12 in rural Clay County Kentucky. In the weeks and months leading up to the lynching of 51-year-old Bill Sparkman, it was Fox News Channels Glenn Beck who was stirring the pot of fear and conspiracy regarding the U.S. Census. During a segement, Beck asked guest Judge Andrew Napolitano:

“Who will be first to grab the pitch-fork? – Who will be the first TO SNAP if these people (Census Waorkers) don’t stop playing these games!?!?”

Beck wasn’t alone in his crusade. And Minnesota congresswoman
Michelle Bachmann (MN-R) was raised the rhetoric bar way out of my reach.
She always made a point of distributing a consistent message of fear by always reminding others that The U.S. Government used census data to round up all of the Japanese

On Saturday, a user on Face book posted a poll asking, “Should Obama be killed?” The blogger GottaLaff spotted the poll yesterday and called the Secret Service, which has now launched an investigation. “We are aware of [the poll], and we will take the appropriate investigative steps,” said Darrin Blackford, a Secret Service spokesman. “We take these things seriously.”

Face book has taken down the offensive poll and disabled the third-party application that was used to create it. Barry Schnitt, Facebook’s spokesman for policy, also told ThinkProgress that the company was following up with the developer to make sure that the application has “better procedures in place going forward to monitor their user-generated content.”

Obama Team Clears 75 Detainees For GITMO Release

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An Obama administration task force has so far cleared 75 of the remaining 223 Guantanamo prisoners for release as part of its effort to close the detention camp, a military spokesman said on Monday.

The review team is examining each prisoner's case to decide who will be held for trial and who can be sent home or resettled in other nations. President Barack Obama had set a January 22 deadline to shut the detention camp although Defense Secretary Robert Gates told ABC News in an interview broadcast on Sunday that "it's going to be tough" to meet the deadline.

As the review team makes its decisions, military officials at Guantanamo post an updated list in the camps to let the prisoners know how many from each nation have been judged free to go.

"It was an opportunity to just provide better communication," said Navy Lieutenant Commander Brook DeWalt, a spokesman for the Guantanamo detention operation.

"There's a lot of information out there and you get a lot of things from a lot of different angles. It helps put it in a more succinct context for them."

The prisoners are well aware of Obama's announcement that the camp would be closed and have heard piecemeal information from their lawyers and relatives during phone calls arranged by the International Committee of the Red Cross, he said.

The list is posted in Arabic, Pashto and English. The latest list of 78 prisoners includes two Uzbeks sent to Ireland and a Yemeni returned to his homeland on Saturday, an indication that some progress is being made in thinning the camp population of those who are not considered a threat.

"We are not focused on whether the deadline will or won't be met on a particular day," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. "We are focused on making ... the most progress that is possible."

Some on the list are among the 30 ordered freed by U.S. courts but still awaiting transfer, including 13 Chinese Uighurs. The Pacific island nation of Palau has agreed to accept most of them.

Also on the list are 26 other captives from Yemen, nine from Tunisia, seven from Algeria, four from Syria, three each from Libya and Saudi Arabia, two each from Uzbekistan, Egypt, the West Bank and Kuwait, and one each from Azerbaijan and Tajikistan.
Most were captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan after U.S. troops invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to oust al Qaeda in response to the September 11 hijacked plane attacks on the United States.

Source: Reuters US Online Report Politics News

Pastor To Slain Dr.Tiller's Church: Killing Justified

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The Rev. Donald Spitz, a longtime anti-abortion activist has sent a scathing letter to the church of slain Wichita abortion provider George Tiller, telling pastors they "brought damnation" onto themselves for failing to rebuke the "babykilling."

of the belief that killing abortion doctors is an act of justifiable homicide, said he also mailed a letter to College Hill United Methodist Church, which offered its larger sanctuary to Tiller's family for his funeral.

Tiller was shot to death in his church on May 31 while serving as an usher. Scott Roeder of Kansas City awaits a Jan. 11 trial on a charge of first-degree murder. Spitz, who is the head of Pro-Life Virginia, runs a Web site called the Army of God. He has praised Roeder’s actions and calls him a "true American hero."

"If Reformation Lutheran Church had done its job and brought George Tiller to repentance, he would be alive and the babies he killed would be alive," Spitz said in a phone interview. "But George Tiller received his just reward, and Reformation Lutheran Church is to blame for his blood, and the blood of the children he murdered is on their hands."

Abortion-rights advocates condemned the letters.

"Unbelievable," said Kathy Spillar, executive vice president of the Feminist Majority Foundation. "After they vilified Dr. Tiller, after they viciously attacked him in writing and in person and tortured him for years, it's beyond the pale."'

In his letter to the pastors of Reformation Lutheran Church, Spitz wrote: "Why would you allow a babykilling abortionist like George Tiller to serve as an usher in your church without informing him his eternal soul was at stake for the sins he was committing?"

You "have failed in your responsibility towards the position He has placed you in and have brought damnation onto yourselves," Spitz told the pastors. The Rev. Lowell Michelson, senior pastor at Reformation Lutheran Church, confirmed receiving the letter. He said he didn't intend to respond.

Read more at KansasCity.com

Mexican Pot Growers Elude Border Security By Planting It Here

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Mexico’s nimble drug cartels are leapfrogging tightened border security and establishing sophisticated marijuana-growing operations in North Texas and Oklahoma, law enforcement officials say.

"There is no doubt" that three big marijuana fields uncovered this month in Ellis and Navarro counties "have a tie to the border and a Mexican drug cartel," said a drug investigator for the Department of Public Safety. "They brought the tenders up here from Mexico to do the work.

"This is not Joe Bob growing some marijuana to smoke. These are professional drug operations," said the investigator, who asked not to be identified for security reasons.
The traffickers’ farming operations, known as "grows," have been an increasing problem on public lands in California and other Western states for some time. But it’s only been in the last two years that the cartels have started to cultivate densely planted plots in North Texas and eastern Oklahoma, law enforcement officials say.

Oklahoma officials got their first glimpse of the trend this summer when an aerial surveillance crew spotted "a buck-naked Mexican in red boots," bathing in a creek in a remote section of the Kiamichi Mountains, said Mark Woodward, spokesman for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics.
Police rappelled into the area from helicopters and found 30,000 marijuana plants spread around multiple plots in the forest, Woodward said. He said the growers used all-terrain vehicles and horses to access the site.

This month alone, sheriff’s departments in Texas’ Ellis and Navarro counties found three irrigated, fertilized and manicured pot-growing operations near Ennis and Corsicana.
More than 16,000 plants have been uprooted from the sites, said Duane Steen, an assistant commander of the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Narcotic Service in Austin.

Last year, a 12,000-plant operation found in Ellis County was the first sign that Mexican drug cartels have branched out from smuggling marijuana to cultivating it in Texas, Steen said.
The Piney Woods of East Texas was where investigators usually found pot patches, Steen said. "The old operations were local: The guy grew up in East Texas and decided to grow a little weed," he said. What’s being found now is on a different scale.

Read more at StarTelegram.com

MLK Jr. Children Ordered To Court Over Estste Battle

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ATLANTA, Georgia. — The three surviving children of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. complied with a court order to meet Monday as shareholders of the civil rights leader’s estate. The court-ordered meeting was the latest step in a legal battle involving the civil rights leader’s estate. Bernice King and Martin Luther King III have sued their brother, Dexter King, accusing him of taking money from their parent’s estates.

The three surviving children of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King are shareholders of a corporation that controls King’s estate. Yet the corporation had not held a shareholders meeting since 2004, one of several issues that worried Judge Ural D. Glanville of Fulton County Superior Court here. The judge said this month that “the court is extremely troubled about the governance” of the estate. He ordered the three siblings to meet as shareholders Monday.
“Parties to the case are continuing to negotiate differences in an effort to resolve the litigation,” the judge said in a statement from the court.

The judge had warned that the court could dissolve the corporation that controls the estate if the siblings did not operate it according to state law. Bernice King and Martin Luther King III sued Dexter King in 2008, a year after the death of a fourth sibling, Yolanda King. They accused Dexter King of wrongfully taking money from their parents’ estates.

Dexter King and the corporation filed a counterclaim, asking the court to force the other two siblings to turn over some documents that belonged to their parents.Lawyers for Dexter King have said in court that they would like previously unpublished love letters between Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King; they also have argued that Bernice King was trying to derail a book deal the estate was pursuing based on the letters.

Numerous “assertions, filings and arguments” in the case “have contained unfavorable allegations” about all three siblings, Glanville wrote in a recent court order. He warned that the siblings could lose control of the estate if they are unable to resolve their differences.

Bush Admin Documents On Detainee Deaths Missing?

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Classified Bush-era documents related to the deaths of detainees in U.S. Military custody, their treatment, the administration's controversial interrogation and rendition programs are missing according to a recent court filing submitted by the Obama Justice Department. But a Justice Department spokeswoman says the documents may not actually be gone; they may never have existed—even though Bush administration records say that they do.

The potential disappearance of these Torture Documents is more than just a bureaucratic whodunit. There's a possibility that government officials purposely destroyed records pertaining to detainee abuse. Here's what happened: In 2007, the Bush administration was fighting a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which was seeking records related to detainee deaths, there treatment, and the administration's rendition policies.

CIA lawyers drew up a list [PDF] of 181 documents that they considered exempt from release. Some of these records, which were stored in a secure facility, were so sensitive that Justice Department lawyers lacked the clearances to handle them. After President Obama took office, he issued a new FOIA policy, instructing executive branch agencies to "adopt a presumption in favor" of releasing information. The Obama Justice Department reprocessed the ACLU's earlier request under the new guidelines. But when they did so, department officials discovered that 10 documents listed on the index compiled by the Bush administration were nowhere to be found.

The Justice Department noted this in a filing [PDF] by David Barron, an acting assistant attorney general, which was submitted last week as part of the ongoing ACLU case and first highlighted by Firedoglake blogger Marcy Wheeler. Barron acknowledged in the filing that even more documents could be missing, because "many" of the documents the Obama team did find were "not certain matches" to the ones on the Bush administration's list.

"It was impossible to ascertain whether the discrepancy was the result of an error by the prior administration when it created the original…index or whether the prior administration misplaced the documents in question," Tracy Schmaler, a Justice Department spokeswoman, told Mother Jones. In other words, CIA and Justice Department lawyers might have mistakenly listed documents that never existed in the first place.

But is it plausible that the inconsistency could be merely a clerical error? After the Bush administration created the index, a CIA official swore under oath that she had reviewed the documents on the original list. And one of the disputed documents was listed on the original index as a 46-page memo "providing legal advice," classified as top secret and dated 25 July 2002.

Schmaler says the Obama administration's search never found a document matching that description. Could the CIA and Justice Department lawyers who composed the original list have mistakenly included a non-existent memo—complete with a date and precise page count?
According to Barron's filing, the documents on the original list were stored in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF, a specially secured room that is protected not only against unauthorized entry but also against electronic surveillance or monitoring by foreign intelligence services.

If documents went missing from a SCIF, says Steven Aftergood, a government secrecy expert at the Federation of American Scientists, that raises serious questions about the government's ability to keep sensitive documents secure. "If there is any indication of sloppiness in security procedures at one of these facilities, that's worrisome all by itself," he says. "It suggests that some of the nation's most sensitive information is not being properly protected."

Aftergood says he expects the court will try to determine if the discrepancies between the two indexes are due to an error or whether the documents actually disappeared. "The government will have to do better than shrug its shoulders and say 'I don't know' if they want to persuade the court that this was not an act of bad faith," he says.

Sean Hannity Blast Charges Against ACORN Video Couple

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On tonight's edition of Hannity's America, Hanna Giles who is the girl that pretended to be a prostitute in an amateur undercover video sting at the Baltimore offices of ACORN found a sympathetic shoulder in Sean Hannity.

Giles and James O'Keefe who played her pimp managed to engage ACORN staffers into conversation about running an illegal brothel where girls as young as 13 would be imported from out of the country. The videotape clearly captures two ACORN workers suggesting suspicious tax advice while completely overlooking the fact that Giles and O'Keefe had verbalized their intent to force juveniles into prostitution.

Due to expectation of privacy laws in Maryland, Giles and O'Keffe are now being sued by ACORN and my even face criminal charges at the hands of the Maryland State Attorney as well as the Baltimore City Attorney. However, during the segment Hannity and Giles attempted to portray her legal troubles as some sort of government attack to stifle dissent and violate her first amendment rights to freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

There seems to be a common belief among the right-wing that the rule of law is just a guideline that can be ignored if the end result serves a greater purpose. Like how the Bush Administration concluded that waterboarding was okay as long as it resulted in getting vital information to serve some greater cause. The law is the law and either you follow it or you do not. Secondly, ingornace of the law is neither a defense or an excuse.

Maryland law strictly prohibit these types of hidden recordings without two party consent. However, there are plenty of ACORN offices in states where these expectation of privacy laws do not exist and would have been perfectly legal. You can assume that either O'Keefe and Giles honestly did not know that it was illegal or that they did know and simply didn't care. Either way they committed a crime and you cannot simply overlook that fact because they captured a bigger crime on videotape in the process.

That would be like someone going out and capturing a drug deal on videotape and then taking the dope and the video to the police and expecting a pat on the back. It just doesn't work that way and you would think that two people that appear to be as intelligent as Giles and O'Keefe would know that. Most of us learned very early on in life, as children perhaps, that you cannot take the law into your own hands.

Baltimore, MD – September 11, 2009 – We have received inquiries from citizens and the media asking whether the Baltimore City State’s Attorneys Office would initiate a criminal investigation for acts allegedly committed at ACORN offices located in Baltimore. The only information received in reference to this alleged criminal behavior was a YouTube video. Upon review by this office, the video appears to be incomplete. In addition, the audio portion could possibly have been obtained in violation of Maryland Law, Annotated Code of Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article §10-402, which requires two party consent.
If it is determined that the audio portion now being heard on YouTube was illegally obtained, it is also illegal under Maryland Law to willfully use or willfully disclose the content of said audio. The penalty for the unlawful interception, disclosure or use of it is a felony punishable up to 5 years.

It seems that Giles and O'Keefe couldn't wait to get these videos out into the news cycle, I presume, hoping that they would be seen as heros and civic minded individuals. It's more likely then not that they never considered the legal trouble that they would bring upon themselves.

If the goal was to capture dishonest or illegal activity going on within ACORN, why not go directly to the District Attorney to try and seek ammunity while prompting the Public Integrity Unit of the District Attorney's Office to go out and conduct a similar sting, with a warrent of course, to gather evidence that could be used in a court of law.

Despite the long list of laws possibly broken by these ACORN representatives, the Baltimore city attorneys office is now looking into whether or not Giles and O'Keefe violated statutes concerning taping people without their consent. And why not since Giles and O'Keefe have only succeeded in assuring that no charges will be filed against the two women shown in the videotape because they have broken the law and commited a crime in the process of trying to document a bigger crime.

They have also significantly compromised any chance of shutting down ACORN once and for all and sending both of those women to prison.
Nevertheless, it is catagorically dishonest to even assert that the criminal and civial actions against Giles and O'Keefe are some sort of Government attempt to silence dissent or to deprive then of their civil rights under the First Amendment of The Constitution.

Is it unfair what is happening to Giles and O'Keefe? -YES!

Should we ever ignore violations of the law because it's unfair? - NO!

There are so many people out there saying that any criminal charges against Giles and O'Keefe would be an act retaliation. They blame the media for being unwilling to report the misdeeds of ACORN and that there is a conserted effort by the "authorities" to go after those that dare to uncover such acts.

People all over the country have turned whistle blower without violating the law in the process. And in those cases where laws would be broken to uncover these activities, law enforcement has always been willing to grant ammunity if it results in uncovering a more significant crime.

I mean come on! - How many murders did the FBI overlook at the hands of "Sammy The Bull" in order to put John Ghotti away for life? - I believe the answer is 14. But it seems that Giles and O'Keefe where more interested in 15 minutes of fame rather then actually bringing ACORN down in flames.

But you have to give Giles and O'Keefe credit for getting ACORN defunded. Eventhough ACORN will most likely not survive this event in the longrun, it might be a year or so before they succumb to the loss of funding.

Census Worker Death Suspicious 9/12 Connection

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Clay County Kentucky - Investigators are not overlooking the significance of the 9/11, 9/12 timeline surrounding the suspicious death of a United States Census Worker. The 51 year Bill Sparkman was last seen on September 11, 2009 but drew concern when he did not show up for an afternoon school event where he worked as a substitute teacher.

The following day the body of the missing man was found hanging from a tree nude and with the word "FED" written on his chest. Sources close to the investigation say that the FBI is looking into the 911, 912 connection and if Sparkman was a victim of anti-government and the large congregation of anti-government protesters in Washington D.C. - Although asphyxiation has been determined as the immediate cause of death, the death itself remains unspecified. However, from all indications the investigation appears to be proceeding as a homicide due to the victim being bound by hands and feet.

Typically, homicide investigations would look at locals who have suddenly left the area and traveled to another location to establish an alibi, particularly to a crowded public venue where an individual(s) could be seen by many people of captured on surveillance cameras.

The distance between Clay County Kentucky and Washington D.C. fits just such a scenario, especially in light of the fact that on Sept. 12 the day the body was found, Washington D.C. was flooded with Tea Party Protesters and Supporters of Glenn Beck's controversial 9/12 project. The video below highlights the fear mongering over the very subject of the U.S. Census and it's workers by public figures like The Fox News Channels Glenn Beck, and Minnesota Rep. Michelle Bachmann.

WATCH VIDEO:

CIGNA Death Panel Salivating Over Healthcare Mandate

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Robert Greenwald at Brave New Films has once again produced a stunning look at the another corporate barbarian running amuck in America. This time around it's healthcare giant CIGNA and the death panel approach they take in deciding which of their premium paying customers will live or die.

It's shocking that Washington is set to include an individual mandate in the legislation that will force Americans to buy into the very healthcare system that everyone agrees is broken.



NO! NO! NO! - NO WAY JOSE! TO HEALTHCARE MANDATE.

The Preacher & The Porn Star: Til Death Did Them Part

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Brian Lee Randone was educated as a minister. Felicia Tang Lee appeared in adult films. He's now accused of torturing and killing her in the home they shared in Monrovia. He is a onetime contestant on "The Sexiest Bachelor in America" who according to his website traveled the world ministering as a Christian mime.

She was a model and entertainer who had bit parts in Hollywood blockbusters and featured roles in adult films.Now, Brian Lee Randone is accused of torturing and killing Felicia Tang Lee inside the home they shared in Monrovia.Shortly after noon on Sept. 11, Randone, 45, called 911 to report that his girlfriend of several months was not breathing.

Authorities found Lee, 31, dead in the home she shared with Randone in the 500 block of West Duarte Road. When officers arrived at the scene, they determined the evidence did not support Randone's account of what happened, said Lt. Liam Gallagher of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Randone was arrested within hours and charged four days later with killing and torturing Lee. He is in jail in lieu of $2-million bail. Lee, an actress and model, had been beaten and choked, authorities said. Prosecutors said torture charges were filed because of the severity of her injuries and evidence that she died slowly.

Coroner's officials said they would not discuss Lee's injuries because they are still waiting for test results. The official cause of death has been deferred pending those findings.Randone's court-appointed attorney did not return calls seeking comment.

Randone appeared in court Sept. 15, at which time his arraignment was continued until Tuesday. He has not entered a plea. On paper, at least, the pair seemed an unlikely match. He was educated as a minister. She had appeared nude in adult films. But he'd also worked as an actor and model, representing Nebraska in the 2000 Fox Television show "The Sexiest Bachelor in America."Those who knew the couple said they began dating after meeting in April at a swimming pool at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas.

At the time of Lee's death, they had been living together for about four months, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Philip Wojdak. Lee, who friends said had been married previously, had pursued a career as an actress and model under her maiden name, Felicia Tang.She posed nude in adult films and on calendars, appeared in programming on the Playboy Channel and worked as a model at car import shows.

Lee also had small parts in "The Fast and the Furious," "Rush Hour 2" and "Cradle 2 The Grave," according to a resume posted on her website. More recently, friends said she had been working toward becoming a licensed real estate agent. Lee was born in Singapore and later attended a Catholic school in Australia, according to a statement released by her family after her death.

Later, she moved to Los Angeles with her family and studied marketing and business administration. Lee's family declined to be interviewed, but the statement they released read: "Felicia loved life and lived it to its fullest. However, she was more than just a public figure. Felicia was above all a human being, a daughter, a sister, a friend to many who continue to love and honor her, as much in life and in her passing.

"Candace Kita, who worked with Lee as a model, called Lee "a bright, bubbly, kind, beautiful woman."Kita, author of "The Hottie Handbook: A Girl's Guide to Safety," said she objected to the way some in the media have portrayed Lee's career.

"The perception that she is this porn star makes people think this is a horrible ending to a horrible life," Kita said. "She did not deserve to be beaten . . . she was a nice gal and she didn't deserve it."

White House Blocks Lobbyists From Federal Agency Appointments.

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More lobbyists are expected to terminate their registrations because of the White House’s announcement this week that federal agencies should not appoint them to advisory boards.

It is unclear how many people will be affected by the decision, but at least 1,000 federal advisory committees report to the General Services Administration under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, and many of them now include registered lobbyists.

Calman Cohen, president of the Emergency Committee for American Trade, a pro-trade coalition of business leaders, sits on a 27-member panel that provides advice to the Commerce Department on trade policy in the electronics industry. He is one of 14 panel members who were registered to lobby last quarter for clients that include IBM, Oracle and eBay Inc.

Cohen said he hopes the White House will institute a waiver process to exempt lobbyists from the policy, much like they have done with an executive order Obama signed on the first day of the administration to stop the revolving door between K Street and government.

"I would hope a way can be found to take account of all citizens, whether they are a lobbyist or not, when it comes to the design of trade policy to benefit the United States," Cohen said.

The announcement was made in a blog post on the White House’s website on Wednesday by Norm Eisen, special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform. He said the administration recognized lobbyists often act in the public interest by serving on agency boards and commissions, but that President Barack Obama made a promise during his campaign to tamp down on the influence of special interests.

"If we are going to change the way business is done in Washington, we need to make sure we are not simply continuing the practices of the past," Eisen wrote.

The announcement said that lobbyists serving on advisory panels may finish their terms but should not expect to be reappointed. Eisen also wrote that the White House would monitor the new policy and make changes to it if necessary.

Doug Pinkham, president of the Public Affairs Council, said the White House position is "absurd" and the administration does not understand how private-sector expertise can help the federal government. He said lobbyists are bound to de-register as lobbyists while continuing to help their companies.

"The administration’s efforts to punish citizens for following the law and registering as lobbyists is bound to have unintended consequences," Pinkham said.

"One of them will be that people working at companies, unions and nonprofits will try to de-list themselves if they don’t reach the time threshold for registration. And that will reduce transparency in the public policy process."

Dave Wenhold, president of the American League of Lobbyists (ALL), agreed with Pinkham.

"This is another ill-advised policy that will decrease transparency. If lobbyists want to stay on boards, they will just deregister," said Wenhold, who also is a co-founder of Miller/Wenhold Capitol Strategies Inc.

"Whether a person is a registered lobbyist or not should not be relevant to the selection process," said Stephanie Lester, vice president for international trade for the Retail Industry Leaders Association. She serves on another trade advisory panel for Commerce that consults on distribution services.

Lester said she will not terminate her lobbying registration but believes others might de-list because they were only registered in the first place out of an abundance of caution.

The decision will have a major impact in the world of trade, as 16 different panels advise Commerce on the issue. Advisory committees have sometimes been criticized as an avenue for special interests to exert undue influence on government.

The Center for Public Integrity, an investigative journalism group, found in 2003 that four registered lobbyists sat on the Defense Policy Board, which advises the Pentagon. The group published the report after Richard Perle, the board’s chairman, resigned under criticism for his ties to defense contractors.

But Perle was not a registered lobbyist when he resigned from the board.
Lobbyists are debating how to respond to the decision. ALL, along with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the American Civil Liberties Union, campaigned against White House restrictions placed on registered lobbyists working on stimulus projects, winning some concessions.

Wenhold said he is now taking feedback from the lobbying community to coordinate the group’s next move. He also plans to touch base with the White House, which did not contact the lobbying group before issuing its policy.

"Norm has my number. All it takes is a phone call," Wenhold said.

Repubs & Dems Find Common Ground On Healthcare

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Republicans and Democrats have finally found common ground in the debate over the healthcare reform bills moving through Congress. Unfortunately for the bills' advocates, the two sides are united in their distaste for a central part of the legislation: the requirement that every American obtain health insurance.

The complaint from the right is that forcing people to buy policies is an unconstitutional infringement on individual liberty. The critique from the left is that the mandate imposes too great a burden on members of the working class, who would have to spend up to 12% of their incomes to buy policies. Some say that the mandate wouldn't be fair unless the government slaps price controls on insurers to prevent costs from climbing even further. However, a majority of Americans do not see the logic of mandating Americans to use their hard earned money to buy into a healthcare system that everyone agrees is broken.

Both sides have a point, although we don't think a mandate is unconstitutional or that price controls would be effective. It seems coercive to require healthy people to buy policies they don't believe they need. But how many drivers consider themselves accident-prone? And yet we require every car owner to maintain insurance in order to pool risks and spread the costs generated by the fraction who do get injured behind the wheel. Nor does it seem fair to demand that people buy health insurance when the price is rising so rapidly.

But it's hard to fix the inefficiencies and misaligned incentives in the healthcare industry unless all consumers are covered by insurance policies that promote preventive medicine and wellness.

Here's another reason for an individual mandate. To make coverage available to the people insurers routinely reject -- the ones with a history of costly ailments -- the bills would require that insurers offer policies to everyone, with premiums based on customers' location and age instead of their medical histories.

Such a system would give people no incentive to buy coverage, however, until they needed medical care. Unless everyone were required to obtain insurance, only the least healthy people would sign up, and premiums would skyrocket.

Individual mandates are merely a means to an end, so the bills' sponsors should be willing to explore other approaches, such as creating subsidized high-risk insurance pools to cover individuals who've been denied conventional policies.

They should also attack costs more aggressively and provide more options for affordable coverage. Still, we've yet to see an alternative that solves the inefficiencies caused by uninsured and underinsured consumers waiting too long to obtain care.

That's why we continue to back an individual mandate as an integral part of the effort to slow the growth in spending and improve the quality of care for all Americans.

Farewell Big Russ - Timothy J. Russert Dies At 85

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Timothy Joseph Russert, the father of the late Tim Russert affectionately known as "Big Russ," has died at the age of 85, his family announced Thursday evening.
Russert Sr. was the subject of his son's 2004 book, "Big Russ & Me: Father and Son--Lessons of Life."

The Russert family released the following statement about Big Russ' death:
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Timothy Joseph Russert. While he was affectionately known to the world as "Big Russ," he carried no more important nor meaningful titles than those of father, grandfather, great-grandfather, patriot and friend.

He passed peacefully with his family at his side from natural causes at the age of 85.We warmly thank all those who were inspired by his life and his lessons.In lieu of flowers please send donations to the Alzheimer's Association so that the world may move closer to finding a cure for this sad affliction.We ask for privacy as funeral arrangements are pending.

Shortly before Tim Russert died in June 2008, Terry McAuliffe made an awkward reference to Big Russ' death on "Meet the Press," telling Russert that his father was "watching from heaven."

"Big Russ is in the Barcalounger still watching this," he replied. "God bless him."

Watch this video feature on Tim Russert & Big Russ from "NBC Nightly News" in 2007:

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/24/tim-russerts-father-big-r_n_299372.html

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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Rachel Maddow Runs Rep. Ross Through The Wringer

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Tonight on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, Rachel featured a little rundown of what has become part of the political zeitgeist: real accountability.



While Republicans chase the media moment with astroturfed anger that has nothing to do with progress, and the Rahm Squad chases corporate donations with backroom deals that have nothing to do with hope or change, a group of committed progressives has joined with the voters who worked so hard in the last election to make a difference.

Groups like FDL Action and Accountability Now have taken the broad-based public indignation with Democrats who are all too happy to favor their corporate masters over their constituents, and focused it on some of Congress’s worst offenders.

Mike Ross represents a district where three-quarters of Democrats favor the public option being part of a health care reform package—yet Rep. Ross has worked tirelessly to keep that choice out of any House bill. Ross has taken big money from Big Insurance and PhRMA, and is under investigation for the overvalued sale of his own pharmacy business to a major pharmacy chain that was also a Ross campaign contributor.


FDL Action has started running ads in Ross’s district, and across Arkansas, asking fellow Democrats to hold their Representative (and their Senator, Blanche Lincoln) accountable to the folks members of Congress are supposed to represent—the voters. Ross’s friends in the pharmaceutical industry have now tried to counterpunch with ads of their own

Marine Gen. Who Built Gitmo: Us Lost Moral High Ground

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CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. – The Marine commander who built the Guantanamo Bay prison said Thursday the U.S. lost the "moral high ground" with its brutal treatment of prisoners, and the facility should be closed as quickly as possible.

It was the first time Maj. Gen. Michael Lehnert publicly acknowledged his doubts, although he said he did make his concerns known through the appropriate chain of command.

Lehnert, 58, was commander of Joint Task Force 160 when it was assigned to build prison cells in 2001 at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba to hold designated "enemy combatants" from Afghanistan and elsewhere.
He said he was given little guidance from the Pentagon, but he did have his staff read the Geneva Convention, the international agreement governing treatment of prisoners.

"I wanted to run it close to Geneva Convention rules," Lehnert said. "Our job was to take them out of the fight, and once we had done that, I felt we had a moral responsibility to take care of them."

However, another task force was put in charge of interrogating detainees, and there were disagreements over their treatment, Lehnert said.
"I think it is extraordinarily important how we treat prisoners," he said. "Obviously, there were other views."

"I came to the conclusion very soon that this probably wasn't the right way to go," said Lehnert, who served just 100 days at the base.
"Probably before I left Guantanamo, I was of the opinion it needed to go away as soon as possible," he said.

The general said he didn't feel the U.S. would get much useful information by using the techniques.

"I think we lost the moral high ground," he said.

President Barack Obama has ordered the prison to close by January 2010, but it's unclear where about 200 remaining prisoners would go.
Lehnert is opposed to sending some to stateside military bases, including Camp Pendleton.

"It would fundamentally change the mission of that base," he said. "The entire focus would shift to long-term incarceration of detainees."
Lehnert now oversees seven West Coast Marine bases. He retires Tuesday.

Child Rapist Plays Federal Parole, Local Cops For Suckers

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Serial child rapist Phillip Garrido was granted early release from prison as well as early discharge from parole eight years after Jaycee Lee Dugard was kidnapped. Garrido received a certificate from the U.S. Parole Commission lauding him for his behavior since his release from prison in 1988. ChicoBrisbane.Com interviewed two California residents who are in the final days of federal paroles, which lasted 5 and 7 years for the men who are now 44 and 51 years of age.

Both men say that they are not the least bit surprised that this federal parolee (Garrido) was able to get away with it for so long. One of the parolees said that he was so good at sending in his weekly reports into his PO, that she only visited him twice in nearly 7 years. Once right after his release from Boron (Federal Pen) 7 years ago and then once again last week as part of his official release from parole.

In Garrido’s case he received praise from parole administrators for responding well to supervision. Garrido was able to fool not only those in charge of his parole, but those in charge of the safety of the community he called home. Local law enforcement was called to the Garrido home on a citizen complaint of children living in makeshift tents in the backyard.

Police responded, but never investigated beyond having a conversation with the child rapist on the front porch of his home.

"You are hereby discharged from parole," the March 9, 1999, certificate read.
"After a thorough review of your case, the Commission has decided that you are deserving of an early discharge," said the document signed by administrator Raymond E. Essex.

"You are commended for having responded positively to supervision and for the personal accomplishment(s) you have made."

"The Commission trusts that you will continue to be a productive citizen and obey the laws of society."

The certificate is among 19 pages of parole commission papers on Garrido released to The Bee under the federal Freedom of Information Act. Authorities allege Garrido kidnapped Dugard, then 11, near her South Lake Tahoe-area home in 1991 and managed to hide her from federal and state parole agents for years afterward.

Under the scenario laid out by law enforcement officials, Garrido had been out on parole for three years when he grabbed Dugard and had held her for eight years when he was released from parole for exemplary behavior.

Garrido was convicted of kidnap and rape in 1977 in Nevada and sentenced to 50 years in federal prison and a concurrent state sentence of five years to life. The newly released federal documents indicate he won release from federal parole after 11 years, even though he committed three drug-related offenses while in federal custody.
The federal parole commission declined to release 92 pages of documents from his file, saying that could "constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of the personal privacy of third parties."

It released no information about how often a federal parole agent visited Garrido's Antioch house. Nor did the commission indicate whether parole authorities ever became aware of a young woman living in his home or backyard.
Redacted from the 19 pages that were released are the reasons he was reinstated to parole after a 1993 drug violation.

At the time he was sentenced, Garrido was expected to be on federal parole until 2027. The documents show that he was paroled from the federal prison at Lompoc on Jan. 20, 1988, "with a total of 14,235 days remaining to be served."
In the certificate of parole, Garrido was judged to have "substantially observed the rules of the institution," although two months earlier federal officials found he had violated prison rules.

"You committed 3 drug-related infractions," a Nov. 20, 1987, report stated.

The parole commission decided in January 1988 that his release "would not jeopardize the public welfare," and he was ordered released with the agreement that he would remain in Nevada until April 10, 2027.

The federal sentence covered Garrido's kidnap conviction, and he was sent from Lompoc to a Nevada state prison to complete his rape sentence of five years to life. Less than a year later, he was released from prison by the Nevada parole board, and despite the federal requirement that he remain in Nevada, he was allowed to return to his home in Antioch.

Authorities allege he kidnapped Dugard in 1991 and kept her hidden in his backyard for 18 years. The federal records give only a bare-bones glimpse of Garrido's supervision during that time, and do not provide any indication of how regularly he was visited by federal parole agents.

However, the records confirm that Garrido was subject to drug testing and that a warrant for his arrest was issued March 18, 1993, after a marijuana violation. He was sent to a federal prison in Dublin for about a month, then ordered released back to Antioch on electronically monitored house arrest until Aug. 31, 1993.
While he was incarcerated at Dublin, authorities allege, Garrido's wife, Nancy, kept watch over Dugard.

After being released from federal parole in 1999, Garrido technically faced lifetime parole under the supervision of Nevada officials. However, Nevada transferred responsibility to California because he was living in Antioch.

PSA: Protect Insurance Companies. FUNNY

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There's a fake PSA to "protect insurance companies" from all the mean things Democrats are saying about them up on FunnyorDie, starring Will Ferrell, Jon Hamm, Donald Faison (Turk from Scrubs), Robert Ben Grant of Reno 911, and others. According to the video, it was organized by MoveOn.org (MoveOn has yet to confirm):

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

However, a note of fact-checking: the claim that 80 percent of Americans support the public option, repeated both by Don Draper and Reno's Deputy Travis Junior, isn't actually true according to major polls.

Public-option support is as 55 percent, according to a poll released Sept. 14 by The Washington Post and ABC, while a June 20 CBS poll placed it at 73 percent and an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll conducted by Hart/McInturff, also in June, put it at 76 percent. We'll update the post if I find out where the figure came from.

UPDATE: The 80-percent figure comes from a poll released by the Employee Benefit Research Industry on June 11. The survey actually showed 83 percent in favor of creating a public health insurance plan.

New Law: Manditory LIFE For All California DUI Convictions

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California - Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge LaDoris Cordell is patting herself on the back today for unbalancing the scales of justice. Once upon a time, judges where supposed to remain partial, unbiased and and rule from the bench based on the law on a case by case basis.

However, because Cordell was hit by a drunken driver on her way home "after a long day at the courthouse," back in 1984, she has taken upon herself to make sure that the punishment for drunk drivers never ends. Cordell has been a prime mover in prompting California lawmakers to go along with her plan to mandate that those convicted of DUI are punished in purpitituity by having breathalyzer devices installed on their vehicle ignitions.

When a murderer, bank robber, or a rapist get convicted, does their time in prison and is eventually released, that is what is know as paying your debt to society. As tragic as drunk driving is and the loss of life that is often a result of such carelessness, everyone has the right to have finality to their criminal convictions that does not exceed thier pre-determined probation or parole periods.

What is most disturbing is how openly vindictave Judge Cordell has been throughout her crusaide. Needless to say that any individual that lands in her court on drunk driving charges has zero chance of receiving a fair trial and why Cordell has been ordered to requse herself from heraing alcohol related cases boggles the mind.

"This man who wreaked havoc in my life received a fine, kept his driver's license, and was sentenced to serve a few weekends in jail. This was in November 1984." Cordell wrote in a story at SLATE.COM
I think the best course of action would be to focus on those things she just mentioned. Have lawmakers extend the perios of time that driver licences are suspended, triple the time convicted drunken drivers must serve in jail, empose life sentances to those who cause a death as a result of thier actions. However, statistics show that only a fraction of DUI convictions are repeat offenders, so why punish those who learn their lesson after the first time? - Why take away their right to have finality in repaying their debt to society?

"On May 28, 1987, I became the first judge in the state of California to order convicted drunken drivers to install ignition-interlock devices in their cars. The device is designed to stop people who have been drinking alcohol from starting their cars by requiring them first to blow into it. If there is alcohol on the driver's breath, the device will not allow the ignition system to operate."

Ordering convicted drunken drivers to install these devices seems to me a matter of common sense and basic safety. But in fact, the matter proved far more complicated. The California courts may soon require judges to follow Judge Cordells lead on ignition-interlock sentencing. But it has taken more than 20 years and new legislation, which is on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk awaiting his signature.

"Why has it taken so long? And why do we need a law mandating such an obvious safety measure when judges could put it into effect themselves?"

The answer to that is that Americans have rights even if they have committed the most unthinkable crimes. If you want to make this a condition of having a driver license in california, fine? - Have all new driver license applicants sing a form that states that they understand that if they are convicted of DUI, they will be required to have this device installed in their vehicle and at their own expence. And then we move forward.

But to go back and impose that this device be installed in the vehicle's of people that were convicted of DUI 5, 10, and as much as 20 years ago is a violation of consisituional rights that has never been seen before in this country.

In California, the bill on the governor's desk, which passed earlier this month, would require judges to order the installation of ignition-interlock devices in the vehicles of convicted first-time and repeat drunken drivers, as a pilot project in the counties of Los Angeles, Alameda, Sacramento, and Tulare.

If Gov. Schwarzenegger signs the bill, the pilot program would start in July 2010 and become statewide law in 2016. This legislation is supported by a wide array of law enforcement agencies, including MADD, which has changed its stance on ignition-interlock sentencing.

"Schwarzenegger should sign the bill. It will make our judges better. And it will make our streets safer. Finally." Cordell said smiling ear-to-ear. Revenge is sweet, isn't it? What champions always seem to leave out of the discussion is that this applies to all Californians that have "past tense" been convicted of DUI. Which we understand to mean in the last 20 years.

So, if you've been convicted of DUI between 1989 and today, you'll be receiving your notification from The Department of Motor Vehicles shorty after the law goes into effect. GOOD LUCK! - This is a life senatnce to a particular class of criminal who Judge Cordell has waged war upon and won.

2 Million At 9/12 Tea Party In DC? Really? NOT!

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There seems to be a “Palinistic” belief on the right that by simply saying things repetitively will eventually make them true. One topic where this phenomenon has gone into overdrive is the conservative perception of the September 12, 2009 Tea Party Protest on The National Mall in Washington D.C. – While even I agree that it is disingenuous to assert that there where only 60,000 to 70,000 protesters in attendance, most media outlets, including fox news reported that there were tens of thousands of protesters.

While that is a true statement, once it was obvious that the crowd had exceeded 100,000 it should have been reported that way. From my own investigation and review of video footage of the event, I estimate that the attendance well exceeded 100,000 and was most likely in the neighborhood of 150,000 to 175,000 in and around the mall on 9/12.

However, to assert or even imply that the crowd was not only in excess of 2 million, but the largest gathering in history at the historic venue, including Barack Obama’s Inauguration is embarrassing. However, the ultra right-wing Blog, TwlightsLastGleaming.com – took embarrassing and turned it into a fantasy that not only has no basis in fact, but also does not even reside within the realm of possibility.

In a Blog post about the event, Read more Twilight stated, “Two million conservatives converged on the nation’s capital and stood shoulder to shoulder from the steps of the capital past the Washington Monument, for as far as the eye could see.”

However, just about every video clip and still photograph shows that the crowd was not shoulder-to-shoulder, not from the capitol steps to beyond the Washington Monument. In fact, for the better part of the center portion of the mall, the crowd could be described as sparse at best. (As shown in the picture above)

That being said, what else could be expected from a Blog that posted a warning on the eve of President Obama’s address to school children or (Schoo Chidren’s) as Twilights attempts to claim was a misspelling in a White House press release where no such thing occurred. The opening line in that post was something along the lines of

Tomorrow, Tuesday September 8, 2009, Obama is going to attempt to indoctrinate your children. He plans on simulcasting to every school in America. Since it was first announced last month, an uproar has been building. "Lesson plans" were sent to schools to facilitate the indoctrination of their impressionable minds. Included in the plans were to have the children write an essay on what they could do to help Obama. Due to the revolt, Obama has scaled down his plans and is promising a text of the speech today. As of this writing, that promise, like most of Obama's other promises, has gone unfulfilled.
Read more

The only statement on Twilights Blog that I agree with is that desperate people do desperate things. This Bolg, if nothing else, is desperate.
Sources:

http://www.twilightslastgleaming.com/crowd.htm

http://www.twilightslastgleaming.com/pied-piper.htm

Orly Taitz - Capt. Connie Rhodes: Birthers Gone Wild

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The “Birther” Army captain who challenged President Obama's birth certificate in court is renouncing her former lawyer, and fellow “Birther” Orly Taitz. Capt. Connie Rhodes wrote to the judge indicating that she did not authorize the emergency request for stay of deployment that Taitz filed on her behalf.

"I did not authorize it and do not wish to proceed," Rhodes wrote. "Ms. Taitz never requested my permission nor did I give it." She added that she plans to file a bar complaint against Taitz for "her reprehensible and unprofessional actions."

In the real world where the rest of us live, Capt. Rhodes associating the word reprehensible to Orly Taitz is like Charlie Mason saying “Boy! – That Jeffery Dahmer is fucking nuts, don’t you think?”

U.S. District Court Judge Clay Land has thrown out a complaint questioning the president's birth from an Army captain fighting deployment to Iraq and gave a warning to her lawyer, birther maven Orly Taitz.

Land also put attorney Orly Taitz, who represents Capt. Connie Rhodes and is a leader in the national "birther" movement, on notice by stating that she could face sanctions if she ever files a similar "frivolous" lawsuit in his court.

"(Rhodes) has presented no credible evidence and has made no reliable factual allegations to support her unsubstantiated, conclusory allegations and conjecture that President Obama is ineligible to serve as president of the United States," Land states in his order. "Instead, she uses her complaint as a platform for spouting political rhetoric, such as her claims that the president is 'an illegal usurper, an unlawful pretender, [and] an unqualified imposter.'"

Taitz says that she will keep fighting if Rhodes wanted to, despite the judge's threat. "Listen, Nelson Mandela stayed in prison for years in order to get to the truth and justice," she said. In his order, the judge noted that Rhodes had objected only to deployment to Iraq under President Obama, not to serving in the military generally.

Nevertheless, Capt. Rhodes is disobeying an order from The Commander In Chief and should be transported to Gitmo forthwith for enhanced interrogation. It’s crutial that the military apply such methods to establish the size and scope of the conspiracy as well as the name, rank, and serial numbers of Capt. Rhodes co-conspirators.

These types of cells whose mission is to undermine the military, the Commander In Chief, and the integrity of the Office of The President need to be uncovered. Particularly when these factions exist with the ranks of the military.

Criminally Insane Killer Captured

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The more pressing question is why in the hell is an insane killer going on a God Damn fieldtrip?

Criminally Insane Killer Captured

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Nurses at that psychiatric hospital that held schizophrenic killer Phillip Allen Paul said they'd warned against the field trip that allowed the murderer to mingle with residents at the state fair before blending into the crowd and escaping, ABC News has learned.

"My members who work directly with Mr. Paul came to me and said he is not stable," said Greg Davis, president of Washington Federation of State Employees Local 782, the union to which the nurses belong.

Paul, 47, was recaptured after a massive four-day manhunt Sunday, coincidentally by the same police officers that captured him after a previous escape attempt in 1991. Paul seemed to have planned the escape for months and was captured carrying a sickle with a 9-inch blade, a backpack and a guitar, police said.

Authorities were in a race against time to capture Paul, whose medication would have worn off in a matter of hours. Some 22 years ago, schizophrenia led him to brutally murder an elderly woman when "voices in his head" told him to, said Spokane County Sheriff's Sgt. Dave Reagan.

Word of the nurses' unheeded warning against the field trip came following frustrated statements by police, many of whom are stunned that the psychiatric hospital gave Paul the opportunity to mingle with families and escape at a Washington state fair.

"I can tell you there is an extreme amount of anger throughout the law enforcement community that this event even took place," Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said in a press conference.

Hospital officials did not report the criminally insane killer missing for more than two hours after he disappeared. Overnight, the Department of Social and Health Services promised action.

"If indeed disciplinary action up to termination is necessary, I can assure the state of Washington I will make the necessary changes there to make sure this cannot happen again," DSHS secretary Susan Dreyfus said.

Union president Davis said the hospital had been warned about allowing patients such as Paul to go on such outings, saying policy changes at the hospital have become less restrictive about who can go on such field trips.

The Only Agreement On Healthcare Is NO MANDATE!

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The assertion that an individual mandate that will require most individuals to carry “basic health insurance" is similar to how most states require it's residents to carry auto insurance is not a valid argument on many levels.

The risk to life and property, other then that of an individual who operates a motor vehicle on public roads and highways is unarguably substantial. The risk is forseeable and therefore, such legislation was imposed to protect those who might suffer personal injury or property damage as a result of the actions of another person.

This arguemnt cannot be made in relation to an individual mandate requiring people to carry "basic medical coverage" because such legislation does nothing to protect the health and welfare to persons other then the individual or as a result due to the actions of another individual. There is no quantitave risk that one person opting not to carry personal medical insurance can pose to the health or welfare of another individual.

Secondly, once you allow the Federal Goverment to dictate what Americans do with their after-taxed spendable income, where does it stop? - What will Americans be mandated to purchase next by order of the Federal Government? - Life Insurance? - Travel Insurance? - U.S. Savings Bonds? - Treasury Notes? - Time Shares in Maui? - I know that suggesting mandated time share purchasing in Maui sounds rediculous, but the point is that if you allow it to happen once with healthcare, you not only run the risk of finding out what's next, you lay the foundation for it because something will be next. You can count on it.

Now I'm all for healthcare reform that provides access to affordable medical insurance to those that want to have it, but can't afford it. There are many people in the country that can afford it, but choose not to carry it and the assertion that those who seek emergency room medical care result in a burdin to taxpayers is absolutely laughable. Doctors have a hard enough time getting paid by the private medical insurance companies, the assumption that the Federal Government just hands over payment if full all willy-nilly to every hospital that provided treatment to an uninsured patient is not only laughable, it's hysterical.


I've sought emergency room treatment for kidney stones when I was unemployed last year. I carried COBRA as long as I could, but it was no longer possible. My hospital bill came to $2700 and because I couldn't pay with in 30 days, the account was referred to a collection agency. I paid the bill in 6 monthly payments and at no time did the Government or taxpayers step in to cover my debt and the assertion that such a thing is a normal occurance is laughable.

The federal government allots pennies on the dollar for hospitals to provide treatment to the uninsured for typically trauma related injuries. If anyone thinks that uninsured people are walking into emergency rooms to get kidney or liver transplanst or even life saving dyalisys, you'd be wrong.

I think the problem is with those who seek medical treatment with no intention whatsoever of paying one thin dime. But you know what? - That's not my problem! - I may not have been able to pay my hospital bill within 30 days, but I told the hospital that upfront and they treated me anyway. Now that I work for an small manufacturer that covers my medical, dental, and vision 100% - I've sought out a primary care provider at the hospital that helped me when I needed it most.

If the Government thinks that mandating basic medical coverage is so important, then the Government will have to administrate that process as well as funding it through payroll deductions. They will also have to provide a public option that will insure cost reductions that will make it affordable for those who earn the least.

Another insulting assertion that contridicts other liberal talking points is the claim that an alarming number of uninsured Amercians are forced into bankruptcy over unpaid medical bills. Well.....I thought that bills left unpaid by all of those uninsured deadbeats become the burdin of the taxpayer? - If's that's true, there should not be any unpaid bills or forced bankruptcies.

The fact of the matter is that the majority of those driven to bankruptcy where insured, but went into bankruptcy after being dropped by their medical insurance provider.

If this administration thinks that they can bring about meaningful medical insurance reform by enforcing an individual mandate, without providing a public option, and not funding such a program through payroll deductions, then they will only succeed in making a critical situation even worse.

If congress thinks that they can rely on the individual to manage and maintain uninterrupted medical coverage month-after month, and year-after-year, then they need only to research how effectively Amercians maintain their state mandated auto insurance coverage. Some of the worst collisions occure during those few days and weeks where the individual was uninsured because they simply had to earmark those funds elswhere.

Just imagine if Social Security, Medicare, and State Unemployment Insurance were not funded through payroll deductions and the government just left it up to the individual to calculate their deduction on a weekly basis and then mail in a check to the government at the end of the month. How rediculous is that? - So, I'm not sure how anyone in congress can think that this is a good idea for healthcare?

I would rather see healthcare reform die and whither on the vine then to see Americans forced into paying for something that they do not want, do not need, and in some cases for religious reasons, do not believe in. I find it curious that nobody is talking about the number of Americans that reject medical science and refuse it even if death will be the ultimate result. What about those people? - Are they going to be forced to pay for something that they'll never use?

If this administration imposes healthcare legislation that has an individual mandate, but no public option, I forsee outraged Americans gathering once again in Washington DC, but this time in numbers that will make the Sept. 12th Tea Party look like a fucking TupperWear Party. You can write that down!

Chico Brisbane

Terror Suspects In Federal Court On Monday

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A Colorado man, his father and an accused accomplice in New York are to appear in federal court on Monday on charges of lying to federal agents about a plot to blow up unspecified targets in the United States, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Najibullah Zazi, 24, a native of Afghanistan who works as an airport shuttle bus driver, was questioned by the FBI for three days. He and his father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, 53, were taken into custody on Saturday at an apartment in the Denver suburb of Aurora.

Also arrested was Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37, a native of Afghanistan who was living in the Queens borough of New York City, a Department of Justice spokesman said.

"The arrests ... are part of an ongoing and fast-paced investigation," David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security, said in a statement.

"It is important to note that we have no specific information regarding the timing, location or target of any planned attack," Kris said.

All three men were expected to make initial court appearances on Monday, Najibullah Zazi and Mohammed Zazi in Denver and Afzali in New York. Each faces a possible eight years in prison if convicted.

According to affidavits filed in the case which document contacts between the three men and Najibullah Zazi's travels between Pakistan and the United States, FBI agents who searched Zazi's rented car on September 11 found a laptop computer containing several pages of hand-written instructions on the manufacture of explosive devices.

"A physical scientist with the FBI laboratory has opined that the notes include the steps necessary to produce an effective explosive charge," said the court documents.

Each of the affidavits says "the FBI is investigating several individuals in the United States, Pakistan and elsewhere relating to a plot to detonate improvised explosive devices inside the United States."
'ITS NOT TRUE'

One affidavit says Zazi falsely told agents he had never seen the documents before or written them, but admitted that during a trip to Pakistan he had received instruction on weapons and explosives at an al Qaeda training facility.

Afzali is accused of lying when he told agents in a written statement he had never warned Zazi and his father authorities had sought information about them and that their phones were being monitored.
Mohammed Zazi was accused of falsely denying that he knew and had contacted Afzali.

The arrests came after talks between Zazi and federal authorities, which had stretched over three days, apparently broke down on Saturday and the suspect declined a fourth meeting, choosing to consult with his lawyers instead.

In a telephone interview with the Denver Post newspaper on Saturday morning, Zazi said that contrary to media reports he had not admitted to any link to al Qaeda or participating in training with the group in Pakistan. Continued...

Two Hamas Militants Killed By IDF In Gaza

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Two Palestinian militants were killed by Israeli fire in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, associates of the men and Palestinian medical workers said. An Israel Defense Forces spokeswoman said troops fired mortars at two men they spotted close to the border fence in the north of the enclave. They believed they were planting explosives, she said.

One of the dead was a member of Gaza's ruling Hamas Islamist movement and the other was from an allied group, the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), representatives of the two groups said. A third man was wounded in the incident, according to medics working at a hospital where he was being treated. It was the first time Israel had confirmed a fatal attack in Gaza in nearly a month.

Two Hamas militants were also killed on Sept. 1, but Israel denied involvement in that incident. The IDF said the two men who died on Sunday were involved in a mortar attack on Israel on Aug. 24 that wounded an Israeli. Since a war in January that killed over 1,000 Palestinians in Gaza, a ceasefire has broadly held, with sporadic exceptions. Overnight, Gaza militants fired two Qassam rockets in the western Negev.

No one was hurt in the attack. A radical Islamist group, which is opposed to Hamas and to the ceasefire with Israel, said it had fired a rocket overnight. Both sides in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict were observing major religious holidays on Sunday - the Jewish New Year and the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr. Last month, Israel Air Force aircraft struck a tunnel in northern Gaza in response to a Qassam rocket fired by Palestinian militants into the Sdot Negev region in the western Negev the previous day.

The IDF said the tunnel had been dug from underneath a building located one and a half kilometers away from the border fence. An Israeli security source said intelligence indicated the tunnel had been dug by several Palestinian factions other than Hamas.

It was intended for use to infiltrate into Israeli territory in order to execute a terrorist attack against Israeli citizens or IDF soldiers, the army said.

Illinois Scientist Dies After Exposure To Plague Bacteria

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The University of Chicago Medical Center says the infection that killed a scientist may be connected to bacteria he researched that causes the plague.

The university said Saturday that its researcher studied the genetics of harmful bacteria including Yersinia pestis, which causes the illness. He died Sept. 13. His name and age haven't been released.

The medical center says the bacteria he worked with was a weakened strain that isn't known to cause illness in healthy adults. The strain was approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for laboratory studies.

An autopsy found no obvious cause of death but did find the presence of the bacteria. More tests are planned. No other illnesses have been reported.

Eastern European Officials: "The United States Betrayed Us"

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President Obama is feeling heat from some quarters after deciding to drop the Bush administration's missile defense plans in Eastern Europe. Republicans say the president's decision is naïve, while Democrats say the new plans will do more for defense and diplomacy with both Iran and Russia than the missile program, which had increased tensions in the region. Moscow had resisted President Bush's plans to install interceptor missiles in what it considered Russia's backyard.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski said he was concerned that Mr. Obama's new strategy leaves Poland in a dangerous "gray zone" between Western Europe and the old Soviet sphere. Recent events in the region have rattled nerves throughout central and Eastern Europe, a region controlled by Moscow during the Cold War, including the war last summer between Russia and Georgia and ongoing efforts by Russia to regain influence in Ukraine. A Russian cutoff of gas to Ukraine last winter left many Europeans without heat. The Bush administration's plan would have been "a major step in preventing various disturbing trends in our region of the world," Kaczynski said in a guest editorial in the daily Fakt and also carried on his presidential Web site.

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Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said he still sees a chance for Poles and Czechs to participate in the redesigned missile defense system. But that did not appear to calm nerves in Warsaw or Prague. Kaczynski expressed hopes that the U.S. will now offer Poland other forms of "strategic partnership." In Prague, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout said he made two concrete proposal to U.S. officials on Thursday in hopes of keeping the U.S.-Czech alliance strong: for the U.S. to establish a branch of West Point for NATO members in Central Europe, and to "send a Czech scientist on the U.S. space shuttle to the international space station.

" An editorial in Hospodarske Novine, a respected pro-business Czech newspaper, said: "an ally we rely on has betrayed us, and exchanged us for its own, better relations with Russia, of which we are rightly afraid."

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The move has raised fears in the two nations they are being marginalized by Washington even as a resurgent Russia leaves them longing for added American protection. The Bush administration had said its missile plans were aimed at countering any threat from Iran's ballistic missile program. But Poles and Czechs saw it as protection against Russia, and Moscow too considered a military installation in its backyard to be a threat. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said last summer that a U.S. deployment of an anti-missile system close to Russian borders "will of course create additional tensions," and might be met with a military response.

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"They don't want us messing around [in] former client states of the Soviet Union," Michael Crowley, senior editor at The New Republic, told "Early Show" anchor Harry Smith. "They saw that as hostile, although it really wasn't about Russia." Saying that the old Cold War foes must forget any lingering animosity, the head of NATO appealed for unity Friday, calling for the U.S., Russia and NATO to link their missile defense systems against potential new nuclear threats from Asia and the Middle East.

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"We should explore the potential for linking the U.S., NATO and Russia missile defense systems" to our mutual benefit, Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said. Russian envoy Dmitry Rogozin praised the NATO chief's address for its "very positive tone," but added that "cooperation with Russia is not a matter of choice [for NATO but] of necessity." Speaking in Brussels yesterday, Rogozin also advised against "childish euphoria" over the U.S. decision to drop construction of a land-based missile plan.

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"Washington has simply corrected its own mistake and has chosen a more flexible and efficient approach to its global missile shield. ... I believe we can say that the new system will have missiles placed on military naval vessels, which is not very good for Russia, because military ships can be in one location one day, and near St. Petersburg the next."

Meanwhile, the front-page headline of today's largest Czech daily, Mlada Fronta Dnes, declared, "No Radar. Russia won." Walking Back Missile Defense There was tremendous public anger in the host nations over the proposed deals, as well as fears that installation of a missile system in Eastern Europe would spark a new arms race with Russia.

Despite Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg's assurance that the missile defense shield would increase the security of Europe and beyond, only about a third of Czechs supported its government's agreement to place tracking radar in the Czech Republic, which was approved in July 2008, leading to protests in Prague.

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In August 2008, after a year and a half of negotiations (and demonstrations by Polish protesters), American and Polish officials signed an agreement in which the U.S. would augment the country's defenses with Patriot missiles in exchange for placing 10 missile defense interceptors within its borders. (Left: Poles in Warsaw protesting a proposed U.S. missile defense base in Poland, March 24, 2007.)

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Now that the Obama administration has scrapped the original plans, officials in the host countries who had supported the program at huge political costs feel betrayed. "They're thinking we've been sold out," Crowley said. "They're so upset that in Poland they didn't even take the phone call from Hillary Clinton at first. They're very upset at the Obama administration [thinking] 'We went out on a limb.'" The timing of the decision was unfortunate as well, suggested Crowley, being on the 70th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Poland. But, he added, the White House is seeking to assure Warsaw that they are not being abandoned and still will be protected from any Russian actions under the revised military agreement.

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"But the real deal here is, is this a quid pro quo with Russia?" Smith asked. "That's the question," Crowley replied. "The Obama administration says there was no quid pro quo and no tit for tat tradeoff, but what you have to do is look to see when we start pressuring the program, we start doing big arms reductions treaty, will [Russia] be playing ball? Will they be helping . . . more than they have been? So look down the road to see if Obama gets something in return."

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Replaying Old Battles Over "Star Wars" Defense Secretary Gates, who was in charge at the Pentagon in 2007, backed Mr. Bush's move then, but now tells reporters that two big changes since have led him to conclude that the Bush approach is outdated. The first factor, Gates said, was a changed U.S. assessment of Iranian missile capability, which he said was years behind what the Bush administration claimed.

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The second was advances in U.S. missile interceptor and missile-tracking sensor technologies, which Gates said allow the U.S. to pursue defensive capabilities through the use of anti-missile weapons based on U.S. Navy ships in the Mediterranean and the waters of northern Europe, plus more advanced land-based interceptors than what the Bush plan comprised.

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Marine Gen. James E. Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the new proposed plan for Eastern Europe would also offer opportunities in the future to easily upgrade to new systems to expand the capability of defending not only potential European targets but also the United States. In addition, the new plan is less expensive - roughly half the $5 billion which the Bush plan would have cost.

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Gates' explanations did little to shield the administration from a barrage of political strikes by Republicans who portrayed the president's shift as a weak-kneed capitulation to Russia and an abandonment of U.S. allies. Before Gates had even finished his news conference, House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio issued a statement accusing President Obama of a "willful determination to continue ignoring the threat posed by some of the most dangerous regimes in the world." He said Mr. Obama's decision had sold out the allies and empowered Iran. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., likened it to appeasement. The ideological schism is not new.

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Supporters and skeptics has tussled over a missile "umbrella" since the defense system got its first boost from President Ronald Reagan in his famous "Star Wars" speech of March 1983. The Clinton administration quickly killed the Reagan program, but a scaled-down version was revived by President George W. Bush, leading to a decision in 2007 to go ahead with the system in Europe. Mr. Bush also gave the go-ahead in 2004 for a U.S.-based system to defend against a long-range missile threat from North Korea.