Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Patty Judge said Thursday she is thinking of running for governor next year. The 62-year-old Albia Democrat said in an interview she plans to form an exploratory committee to help her consider the options and will make a final decision on a candidacy by late summer or fall...
Post office and Minnesota DFL officials are baffled after hearing that several people received fliers for the late Sen. Paul Wellstone 2 1/2 years after Wellstone died in a plane crash. At least three Minnesota City residents received the mailings, which were paid for by the Minnesota DFL.
Marlon Brando fans, it's time to make an offer that can't be refused. More than 250 items, including Brando's annotated script from 1972's ``The Godfather'' and a letter from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. urging his participation in a civil rights march, will be auctioned June 30. The items are being put up for bid by Brando's estate.
"The NRA came up with an image that brilliantly encapsulated the whole thing: an elaborately clipped French poodle in a pink bow and a Kerry-for-president sweater over the slogan 'That dog don't hunt.'
And now it was the drawling son of 1992's aristocrat who was drawing the adoring throngs in the shuttered mill towns and coal-mining regions. It was the committed enemy of organized labor whose prayerful public performances persuaded so many that he 'shares our values.' It was the man who had slashed taxes on inherited fortunes and dividends who was said to be, in the election's most telling refrain, 'one of us.'
George W. Bush was authentic; John Forbes Kerry, like all liberals, was an affected toff, a Boston Brahmin who knew nothing of the struggles of average folks. Again and again, in the course of the electoral battle, I heard striking tales of this tragically inverted form of class consciousness: of a cleaning lady who voted for Bush because she could never support a rich man for president. Of the numerous people who lost their cable TV because of nonpayment but who nevertheless sported Bush stickers on their cars.
The most poignant, though, was one I saw with my own eyes: the state of West Virginia, one of the poorest in the nation, in the process of transforming itself into a conservative redoubt. This is a place where the largest private-sector employer is Wal-Mart and where decades of bloody fights between workers and mine owners gave rise to a particularly stubborn form of class consciousness. It does not stand to gain much from Bush's tax cuts and his crackdown on labor unions. But if class is a matter of cultural authenticity rather than material interests, John Kerry stood about as much of a chance there as the NRA's poodle did of retrieving a downed duck. As I toured the state's valleys and isolated mining towns, I spotted Bush posters adorning even the humblest of dwellings and mobile homes."
The idea steals a page from the popular 50 State Quarters series, in which the engraving on the 25-cent piece rotates to honor all the states. That legislation was also the brainchild of Rep. Castle.
The subjects depicted on the dollar coins would be the U.S. presidents. The plan is to introduce four new ones a year beginning in 2007, honoring each of the nation's chief executives in the order of their service...
It's a choice that could give pause to some Green Bay Packers fans. A judge ordered a woman convicted of theft to decide whether to spend 90 days in jail or donate her family's Packers tickets next season to charity.
Sharon E. Rosenthal, 59, took more than $3,000 from labor union accounts before she left the organization, according to a criminal complaint. She was sentenced Friday in Winnebago County Circuit Court on one felony count of theft.
Judge Scott Woldt offered her the decision to either serve the jail time or donate her family's four seats in the Packers' three-game season package to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
The jail time or the ticket donation will occur as part of Rosenthal's overall two-year period of probation.
"If you want a Labour government, vote Liberal Democrat. If you want a Conservative government, vote Labour. If you want a Liberal Democrat government, vote Tory. Recite that every morning for a week."
Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour party has apologised for canvassing voters heading to the funeral of a family member.
Carol Hughes was in a black limousine with her daughter heading to her father's funeral when party canvassers approached to encourage them to vote for Labour.
The party said the canvassers had mistaken the potential voters for a wedding party. Their local candidate, member of parliament David Drew, had written to say sorry.
"Keep an eye on author-singer Kinky Friedman later this week. He's expected to harvest help in his independent gubernatorial bid from someone who helped professional wrestler Jesse Ventura win in Minnesota...
Who else could have written a country song about the Holocaust ("Ride 'Em Jewboy"), or about a human being kept in a cage as part of a circus "Wild Man From Borneo"]?
The recent trend in presidential voting among independents is consistent with another trend in this group. Political scientists have long recognized that most independent identifiers are not totally neutral toward the two major parties. The large majority of independents lean toward one party or the other, and these leaning independents vote overwhelmingly for the party that they lean toward. In 2004, for example, according to the ANES, 88 percent of independent Democrats voted for John Kerry while 85 percent of independent Republicans voted for George Bush.
In 2004, 45 percent of independents expressed a preference for the Democratic Party while only 30 percent expressed a preference for the Republican Party.
Tony Blair might believe that a strong economy and record investment in public services are helping Labour to sustain a healthy lead in the opinion polls.
But some believe the fact that he has a fuller head of hair than his Conservative counterpart may tip a few floating voters mulling over the merits of Labour and the Tories his way.
This might seem trivial nonsense - but research from the early 1990s found that the proportion of bald men making it to elected office in the US was four times less than the number of follicularly challenged males in the population at large.
The last time a bald politician was elected to Number 10 was Winston Churchill in 1951 - and he was up against the equally receded Clement Attlee.
Not that all hair is a good thing. The last prime minister to sport a moustache was Harold Macmillan in the early 1960s, and the last bearded occupant of Number 10 was David Lloyd George, who left office in 1922.
Mr Sedgemore, who is standing down from parliament and not contesting his Hackney South and Shoreditch seat, said he was leaving Labour after becoming increasingly disillusioned with the government over the Iraq war and "authoritarian" anti-terrorism legislation.
More than 30 Labour MPs are putting out statements explicitly opposing the war, including Valerie Davey in Bristol West, who was visited yesterday by Tony Blair.
"Howard does link immigration and asylum (two separate issues that he often treats as one subject) with the increased threat of terrorist attacks. Most of us would choose to have excrement on our doormats rather than be blown up. Howard has escalated the danger of immigration beyond even Powell's wildest excesses."
On Saturday April 20th 1968 he made a controversial speech in Birmingham, in which he warned his audience of what he believed would be the consequences of continued unchecked immigration from the Commonwealth to Britain. Because of its allusion to Virgil saying that the Tiber would foam with blood, Powell's warning was christened the Rivers of Blood Speech by the press, and the name stuck.
With appalling timing, Powell only realised later that of all the days he could have made a speech that some regarded as racist, it was on the anniversary of Hitler's birth - during a period of Britain's history when it was known that various notorious neo-Nazis held birthday parties in the Nazi leader's honour...
Cleese: "Rastus Odinga-Odinga has taken Wolverhampton Southwest, that's Enoch Powell's old constituency -- an important gain there for Darkie Power."
"In no previous campaign has so much attention been focused so precisely on potentially uncommitted voters in marginal seats. If you are one of the million voters whose franchise really counts, then you will have received dozens of letters and telephone calls from the party headquarters. The remaining 95 per cent of the population, perhaps fortunately, have been virtually ignored by the party professionals. The election barely exists for them."
Mayor Dick Murphy announced his resignation Monday amid a widening federal investigation into the handling of the city's deficit-riddled pension fund.
"It's clear to me that the city needs a fresh start," Murphy said, holding back emotion as he made the announcement at City Hall, surrounded by his staff and family.
Murphy said he will leave office July 15. He said he expects a special election Nov. 8 to select his replacement.
The announcement comes just months after a bruising re-election battle in which Murphy pulled out a 2,108-vote victory over a maverick city councilwoman who waged a surprisingly strong write-in campaign. The councilwoman surf shop owner Donna Frye contended more votes were cast for her, but thousands of the write-in ballots were disqualified under state law...
Environmentalism, once sneered at in the spacious, resource-rich West, is gaining a foothold as tourism and adventure sports gain economic importance...
Two former New York City police detectives accused of being hit men for the Mafia more than 20 years ago pleaded not guilty at their Brooklyn federal court arraignment Thursday on charges that included murder, drug distribution and money laundering.
According to an indictment from a federal grand jury in Brooklyn, Stephen Caracappa and Louis Eppolito routinely passed confidential law enforcement information to the mob and killed rival gangsters.
"While Sinclair Lewis wrote that Gantry, his hypocritical evangelical preacher, 'was born to be a senator,' we now have senators who are born to be Gantrys. One of them, the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, hatched plans to be beamed into tonight's festivities by videotape, a stunt that in itself imbues 'Justice Sunday' with a touch of all-American spectacle worthy of 'The Wizard of Oz.'"
On July 4, 20,000 Klan supporters held a picnic in New Jersey, wearing white hoods and robes. One speaker denounced the "clownvention in Jew York." They threw baseballs at an effigy of Al Smith. The event culminated with a cross-burning.
Lucero said she didn't intend to be offensive but rather wanted to mark the sixth anniversary of the Columbine High School slayings by evoking a sense of tolerance.
"Given the anniversary of Columbine, it was a spur-of-the- moment choice that I made, intended to acknowledge differences that lie in our society," Lucero said. "It's not a reflection of the district, and it was not my intention to offend anyone, rather to include (everyone)."
There are three bits of conventional wisdom about the role candidates play in elections.
First, because people vote for parties rather than individuals, any personal vote is relatively small. Second, any personal vote is acquired during an MP's first term in office, after which their personal vote levels off. And third, any personal vote results from what the candidate does in the constituency rather than at Westminster.
This election will present a good challenge to all three of these beliefs...
Mr Blair, Michael Howard and Charles Kennedy's faces were crafted out of an assortment of vegetable, meat and fruit toppings to make political pizza art.
Other famous faces, created by an anonymous artist, included David Beckham and Ozzy Osbourne...
"The Conservatives are trying to exploit people's fears on immigration and asylum, Tony Blair has claimed in his first campaign speech on the issue.
Speaking in Dover, Mr Blair said concerns about immigration were not about racism but about fairness.
But he accused the Tories of waging a single issue campaign on the issue.
Conservative leader Michael Howard has made immigration one of his key election themes..."
"Because we so enjoy answering questions about ourselves, hundreds of thousands of voters have done one of these electoral tests and been quite surprised by the results.
'Oh dear, it says here that according to my answers I should be voting for UKIP or the BNP!'
'So what's the problem?'
'Well, I'm supposed to be the leader of the Conservative party.' (This embarrassing internet result comes on top of the Tories' other recent technical problems, when the white hoods were all the wrong size and the burning cross kept going out.)"
Mr Blair Sr was a long-term Tory supporter who had once hoped to become a Conservative MP, but famously joined the Labour Party after his son became leader.
Mr Kawczynski was undeterred. Mr Blair Sr gave him a warm greeting when he answered the door, clutching a volume of Trollope. "I have to ask you if you will vote for the Conservative candidate," said Mr Kawczynski. Mr Blair Sr, who has some difficulty talking after suffering a stroke, gave him an apologetic shrug.
"I’m a great fan of Mr Blair," said the candidate, unconvincingly, of his son. "I, er, like Mr Blair very much as an individual..." He conceded defeat. "I realise you can’t vote for me."
Did Mr Blair Sr have any sage words for the young Tory pup? "Ay," he said. "Vote Labour."
Charles Kennedy will mount a full-scale attack on the government over the conflict in Iraq next week, hoping that voters' lingering resentment will boost his party as the campaign nears its final stages.
May 5 has already been called the "Basil Fawlty election" on the grounds that no one wants to mention the war.
"It was full of cats, and when he went out, they all ran to him. They knew him and loved him. He stood there, petting some and talking to them, for quite a long time. He visited the cats whenever he visited the church. His love for cats is quite famous."
"Attacking Sinn Fein as 'incapable', the SDLP as 'marginal' and the DUP as 'caught up with grandstanding' Mr Trimble said it was only the UUP which would represent Northern Ireland."
The Foyle seat has at its heart Northern Ireland's second largest city. Its official title of Londonderry is used mainly by Protestants, but Catholics - who make up the majority of its population - refer to it as Derry. As a result, in order to avoid offence to either community, the Boundary Commission named the seat after the River Foyle, which flows through the city.
Staffers for Rep. Rosa Delauro of Connecticut floated a possible Lieberman primary challenge at a local party event last night. Now, it may very well have been an eager staffer fantasizing about such a challenge (Delauro would become a national figure and grass- and netroots hero overnight), or it could be a something a bit more orchestrated, a trial balloon of sorts amongst the types of people whose support would be critical for such a David v. Goliath challenge...
"As soon as the media packed up and left, they left as well. All they accomplished was being a hindrance to the Border Patrol and creating international hard feelings. Their biggest accomplishment was getting the media's attention. It was, as the Mexicans say, all song and no opera."
In his remarks Tuesday, Schwarzenegger told journalists: “Close the borders in California and all across Mexico and in the United States."
Within an hour of Jeffords' announcement, U.S. Rep. Bernie Sanders staked out his own ground and all but declared his own candidacy for the soon-to-be-vacated Senate seat.
Political insiders were practically giddy at the possibilities because it could lead to an upheaval in a majority of the statewide offices...
As the body counts rise in Iraq and Afghanistan, military recruiters in the United States must contend with an increasingly formidable mission of their own: to convince the nation's young people to join the ranks of a military at war.
After falling short of recruitment goals in February and March of this year, with another miss expected for April, the increasingly desperate U.S. Army and Marine Corps have dumped more money and personnel into the pursuit of new cadets. But in high schools and colleges across the country, a growing counter-recruitment movement is fighting to keep potential soldiers at home and out of uniform...
A leaked Vatican letter to U.S. bishops that says politicians who support abortion should be barred from receiving Holy Communion is incomplete and does not reflect the full extent of exchanges between Rome and the American hierarchy, a spokesperson for Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop of Washington said Wednesday.
The text of the letter written by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and entitled "Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion, General Principles" was revealed this week by a respected Vatican journalist, Sandro Magister of the Italian magazine L'Espresso.
German-born Cardinal Ratzinger is considered one of Pope John Paul II's closest collaborators. As head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith he is the church's chief guardian of theological and doctrinal orthodoxy, and is noted for his rigid conservatism.
Ratzinger's document was dispatched exclusively to the American bishops in connection with the controversy over Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's pro-choice position on abortion. Some U.S. bishops had said that Sen. Kerry -- a practicing Roman Catholic -- should be barred from receiving Holy Communion. A Vatican source said that European bishops, for example, had not received the Ratzinger document.
According to the six-point "General Principles" no Catholic should seek to receive Holy Communion if he or she is guilty of "a grave sin," and abortion is a grave sin. A priest "may find himself in the situation where he must refuse to distribute Holy Communion to someone, such as in cases of declared excommunication, a declared interdict, or an obstinate persistence in manifest grave sin," Ratzinger wrote. (An interdict, which can only be imposed by a bishop, bars a Catholic from receiving any of the Sacraments, including Holy Communion.)
This ban on communion is not limited to persons performing abortions, but also to people "whose personal cooperation becomes manifest," including "the case of a Catholic politician consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws," Ratzinger wrote. "The pastor should meet him, instructing him about the Church's teaching, informing him that he is not to present himself for Holy Communion until he brings to an end the objective situation of the sin, and warning him that he will otherwise be denied the Holy Eucharist."
"One senior Tory said: “This is a core vote campaign, along the lines of 2001. It is much more professionally organised, thanks to Lynton Crosby (the Australian strategist running the campaign). But in Australia Mr Crosby does not have to worry about the threat from a third party. What seems to be happening here is that when we make a hit on Labour, the Liberal Democrats get two thirds of the benefit.”"
"Ratzinger wrote a letter of advice to U.S. bishops on denying communion to politicians who support abortion rights, which some observers viewed as a slam at Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry. He publicly cautioned Europe against admitting Turkey to the European Union and wrote a letter to bishops around the world justifying that stand on the grounds that the continent is essentially Christian in nature. In another letter to bishops worldwide, he decried a sort of feminism that makes women 'adversaries' of men.
These and other high-profile pronouncements gave Ratzinger the aura of a vice pope in the eyes of some observers, and he was almost always mentioned in the frequent Who-Really-Runs-the-Vatican lists that flourished during the last months and years."
"The South is increasingly Republican. Democratic states of the East and Midwest are steadily losing electoral clout to the Sun Belt. So a number of Democrats are urging their party to emulate generations of pioneers who sought their fortune in the rugged landscape across the Great Divide.
If the party is to win back the White House, they say, Democrats must work to reverse their fortunes in New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and Arizona, and build on other recent gains they achieved in the West. "
In Gingrich's most pivotal internal House victory, his campaign in 1989 to succeed Dick Cheney as minority whip, DeLay was chief vote counter for Gingrich's opponent, Ed Madigan of Illinois. When DeLay was elected majority whip in 1995, it was at the expense of a close Gingrich ally, Robert Walker of Pennsylvania.
DeLay joined others much closer to Gingrich in the abortive effort to oust Gingrich in 1997, but unlike most of the others was able to maintain his standing in the House. Even so, he would have remained a cog in the machine (albeit an important one) had not both Gingrich and his chosen successor, Bob Livingston, resigned within weeks of each other a year later. That made possible the sudden elevation to speaker of a little-known DeLay deputy whip, Rep. Denny Hastert, and the Red State era of the House truly began in 1999.
Tom DeLay is a special target because he is the first legislative power broker to be an authentic Red State conservative. DeLay is the most important of a small but growing group of conservative leaders who are willing and able to operate without permission or praise from Blue State media. The fact that Hastert, DeLay, and their allies have maintained unbroken operational control of the House, never losing a significant floor vote in the four-plus years since Bush became president, has (to put it mildly) opened the door for other ambitious leaders to consider doing the same, either on selected issues or across the board.
I've been really excited about this idea I had to remove everything from N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton album except for the curse words. It's like a reverse censored version of the album I'm calling "Explicit Content Only".
"The term refers to a kind of irreverent post-liberal or anti-liberal attitude or sensibility, one very in tune with popular culture. But it's not a coherent, fully developed political philosophy. You do find this attitude among a lot of younger Americans, as I show in my concluding chapter, which is based on lots of interviews with right-of-center college kids."
Those right-of-center college students, for the most part, aren't Alex P. Keaton-clones, decked out in Ralph Lauren double-breasted navy blue blazers. They're more likely to look like every other college kid: jeans, sneakers, and T-shirts advertising their favorite rock groups. But there's one thing that South Park campus conservatives abhor: "Political correctness drives them nuts", Anderson says. "In interviewing students, for instance, it was clear how much the PC conformities of the campus Left turned them off."
"A survey conducted by the Times found applications had increased by as much as five times in some marginal seats, compared with the 2001 election.
The number of applications in Cheadle, Greater Manchester, has seen an increase of 485% in postal vote applications.
The seat is currently held by the Liberal Democrats, with a majority of just 33.
In Dorset South, where Labour has a 153 lead, applications have increased to 192% of 2001 levels. "
In the end is not about the pharmacists who have come out with their own personal views, it is the potential for this to emerge in the form of intense community pressure on pharmacists in every small town everywhere. It legimates the rights of every congregation in the country to put pressure on some poor congregant pharmacist. And rather than being shunned by friends and family and undergoing constant 'counseling' by Pastor Bob a lot of these guys are going to crack. Just as book stores and record stores crack under the same kind of pressures.
Father Guido Sarducci: And, going along with this Papal mania, I've kind of designed a contest about the Popes. [holds up a large photo showing a close-up of the surface of a pizza] It's called "Find the Popes in the Pizza" ... All two hundred and fifty-four Popes, they're in here. ... And, what we're gonna do in about one minute, we're gonna put a close-up of this on your screen and, you at home, all you have to do is get some, like, wax paper, any kind of paper you can see through and paste it to your screen -- or tape it, whatever you want -- and all you gotta do is get a pencil and draw a circle around every place you see a picture of a Pope...
A proposal to legalize the killing of feral cats is not going to succeed, Gov. Jim Doyle said in Madison.
"I don't think Wisconsin should become known as a state where we shoot cats," said Doyle, a Democrat who neither hunts nor owns a cat. "What it does is sort of hold us up as a state that everybody is kind of laughing at right now."
The Packers were still TV's darlings when the NFL released its schedule Wednesday. Ten of the Packers' 16 games will be on national TV, including three appearances on "Monday Night Football" (at Carolina Oct. 3, vs. Minnesota at Lambeau Field Nov. 21 and at Baltimore Dec. 19), one on a Sunday night (at home vs. Detroit Dec. 11) and a Christmas Day showdown at Lambeau Field with their most storied rival, the Chicago Bears.
"I cannot agree that it should be the declared public policy of Illinois that a cat visiting a neighbor’s yard or crossing the highways is a public nuisance. It is in the nature of cats to do a certain amount of unescorted roaming. Many live with their owners in apartments or other restricted premises, and I doubt if we want to make their every brief foray an opportunity for a small game hunt by zealous citizens—with traps or otherwise. I am afraid this Bill could only create discord, recrimination and enmity. Also consider the owner’s dilemma: To escort a cat abroad on a leash is against the nature of the cat, and to permit it to venture forth for exercise unattended into a night of new dangers is against the nature of the owner. Moreover, cats perform useful service, particularly in rural areas, in combating rodents—work they necessarily perform alone and without regard for property lines.
We are all interested in protecting certain varieties of birds. That cats destroy some birds, I well know, but I believe this legislation would further but little the worthy cause to which its proponents give such unselfish effort. The problem of cat versus bird is as old as time. If we attempt to resolve it by legislation who knows but what we may be called upon to take sides as well in the age old problems of dog versus cat, bird versus bird, or even bird versus worm. In my opinion, the State of Illinois and its local governing bodies already have enough to do without trying to control feline delinquency."
First, all Republicans (including Leach) and 7 Democrats voted to cut off debate to bring the issue to a vote.
The next measure was a Democratic amendment that would limit significantly the amount of the estate tax that would be repealed permanently. Democrat Steny Hoyer stated this amendment would provide that 99.7% of Americans would never pay estate taxes if this amendment were adopted. Leach stayed with the Republicans and voted NO on this amendment.
Then, on the passage of the main motion that permanently repeals all estate taxes, Leach made the wise political choice and was the only Republican to vote NO.
Amazing. He knows that probably the only vote the public will hear about will be the final vote. But WE need to be sure that the editorial pages know exactly what kind of shenanigans this guy engaged in today. Only by educating the public that pays attention to such things will we have a chance to win in '06.
"The 'Constitution Restoration Act' authorizes Congress to impeach judges who fail to abide by 'the standard of good behavior' required by the Constitution. If they refuse to acknowledge 'God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government,' or rely in any way on international law in their rulings, judges also invite impeachment. In essence, the bill would turn judges' gavels into mere instruments of 'The Hammer,' Tom DeLay, and Christian-right cadres."
I don't want to hear about trying to chip off a Republican voter here or there by embracing any part of the "culture wars". "But we're not-" Ha! You know what people like me hear when we hear Democrats lamely justifying their desire to dogpile Hollywood for making trash or crap or whatever you want to call it, hanging their reasoning on the children? The voice of Tipper Gore. And no amount of chipping in that you think children also need X, Y, and Z is going to help. Once Democrats start bringing censorship to the table, young people, artistic people, and those of us who still have a rebellious bone in our body start checking out.
Today's MORI poll, putting Labour seven points ahead among people certain to vote, will be seen as evidence of a 'Brown bounce', following the return of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the campaign's centre stage.
Brown was persuaded to take a bigger role in the campaign after Blair dropped threats to sack him following the election
One participant said that, without Brown beside Blair, the country would be 'in a state', while another said Brown reminded her of Yes, Prime Minister 's artful underling, Sir Humphrey, 'who was really running the show, but the Prime Minister thought he was doing it'.
Three years ago, when I was distributing flyers that had a local candidate posed with Lieberman (something we can't do anymore because of campaign finance laws), people came up to me, pointed to Lieberman's photo, and said, "If he's with your candidate, I can't vote for your person."
If the state Democratic convention were held right now, Lieberman wouldn't have the votes to get the nomination without doing some very, very, very serious arm twisting--and even then he might not have the votes. Maybe the population still likes Joe Lieberman, but his friends in the Democratic Party are having second or third thoughts about him. To some it's the votes, to others it's the war, to still others it's the Dem-bashing rhetoric, while others are concerned about the spectacle of Lieberman at Bush's elbow when Bush signs some particularly un-Democratic piece of legislation. But even more telling is that his good friends, people who've known him for 20 or 30 years and who came into politics with him or came up in the party with him, don't want to be associated with him. Months and months ago, many of them, independently, contacted Joe or his close associates and made it clear that Joe was doing himself and the party no good by kowtowing to the Bushies and by continuing his strong support of the war.
Darby Tillis has the distinction of being one of the first exonerated Death Row inmates. He was sentenced to death in 1979 for a double murder at a hot dog stand in the Uptown neighborhood. Fingered by the real killer's girlfriend, who set him up to protect her boyfriend, Tillis went through five trials before he was freed in 1987 with the help of new evidence and petitions brought by Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions and the MacArthur Justice Center.
Tillis' one-man show, Dead Wrong, focuses on an examination of the death penalty throughout the country, in hopes of getting the public involved in the fight to abolish it altogether. Woven throughout the piece are blues songs written and sung by Tillis; Davy DeLaFuente provides guitar accompaniment...
"I could have - should have - graduated many years ago, but I keep passing on the real world's invitation," said Johnny Lechner, 28, who is in his 11th year as a student in the University of Wisconsin System, the last 10 at UW-Whitewater.
After graduating from Waukesha North High School in 1994, Lechner went to UW- Waukesha for a year, then transferred to the 10,000- student UW-Whitewater. Most of his friends were attending colleges in Milwaukee and Madison.
"I wanted to go to a school where I knew no one. I wanted to discover who I was."
Turns out he's someone who likes to sleep in, play basketball, write songs and party two or three nights a week.
I figure this will end one of four ways:
1. A Minuteman gets trigger-happy and shoots an alien
2. Someone who makes money moving illegal aliens shoots a Minuteman.
3. A Minuteman gets trigger-happy and shoots a Border Patrol agent.
4. A Minuteman gets trigger-happy and shoots another Minuteman.
My money's on the last one, but I'm taking bets.
Specter won (his 2004 primary) by just 17,000 votes out of over a million cast - when not long before the election, he had a 3-to-1 approval rating among his own party members. Pretty remarkable that Toomey came so incredibly close to unseating an incumbent senator in a primary - but perhaps not all that surprising.
So what does this say to me? Two things: 1) Polls such as these don't accurately reflect the views of likely primary voters; and 2) a 3-to-1 approval rating does not mean you are invulnerable to a challenge. Joe Lieberman should probably not be sleeping too soundly.
The 1986 statutes mandate a fixed sentence for individuals convicted of a crime regardless of culpability or other mitigating factors. The only way to reduce one’s sentence is to provide information to the prosecution that will lead to the conviction of other offenders. This incentive rewards the kingpins the laws were allegedly set up to punish — after all, they have the most information and therefore the most bargaining power — while ensuring long sentences for the low-level female workers who are too loyal, afraid, or uninformed to rat out their male partners and bosses.
“The mere fact that a woman has lived in a house where her boyfriend or husband has stored drugs, or driven him to the bank, or taken phone messages from his associates, however unwittingly, is enough to convict her. There have been cases where prosecutors haven’t even had to prove that a woman knew she was committing any of these acts. A finding that she should have known what her man was up to has been enough to secure a conspiracy conviction.”
