Sadly no, that’s an outdated concept.

From the AP:

Former Sen. Fred Thompson plans return to acting

By Erik Shelzig

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson is going back to the small screen after his foray into Republican presidential politics over the last year.

Thompson, best known on TV for his role as a gruff district attorney on NBC’s “Law & Order,” dropped out of the crowded GOP primaries in January after his much-anticipated presidential campaign failed to gain strong support among conservatives.

He campaigned heavily for eventual nominee John McCain, and had recently tried to gain support to be in charge of the Republican National Committee.

But his former finance chairman, B.C. “Scooter” Clippard, said Thompson told him Wednesday that he was returning to acting and dropping his RNC bid.

“He seriously considered it, but he called and said that it was not in the cards,” Clippard said.

Clippard said he did not know which television programs might be interested in Thompson.

“He has some wonderful opportunities back in the television market that probably financially far outweigh being chair of the RNC,” Clippard said. …

http://www.google.com/hostedne.....gD94J8F2O0

So the primary driver of Fred Thompson is the almighty dollar? If true, that’s rather disconcerting.

Let’s just put the GOP out of its misery and hope David Brooks becomes RNC chair.

US global dominance ’set to wane’

US economic, military and political dominance is likely to decline over the next two decades, according to a new US intelligence report on global trends.

The National Intelligence Council (NIC) predicts China, India and Russia will increasingly challenge US influence.

It also says the dollar may no longer be the world’s major currency, and food and water shortages will fuel conflict.

However, the report concedes that these outcomes are not inevitable and will depend on the actions of world leaders.

It will make sombre reading for President-elect Barack Obama, the BBC’s Jonathan Beale in Washington says, as it paints a bleak picture of the future of US influence and power.

….A world with more power centres will be less stable than one with one or two superpowers, it says, offering more potential for conflict.

Global warming, along with rising populations and economic growth will put additional strains on natural resources, it warns, fuelling conflict around the globe as countries compete for them.

….And the use of nuclear weapons will grow increasingly likely, the report says, as “rogue states” and militant groups gain greater access to them.

…”It is not beyond the mind of human beings, or political systems, [or] in some cases [the] working of market mechanisms to address and alleviate if not solve these problems,” said Thomas Fingar, chairman of the NIC.

And, our correspondent adds, it is worth noting that US intelligence has been wrong before.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7741049.stm

Of course Obama, the Democrats and the rest of the “one worlders” are going to do their best to see this happens much quicker. But I love how they stay on topic, as if to say “Americans wake up! Global warming will do you in! Its not too late!”

2nd Mass. politician charged with taking bribe

BOSTON — FBI agents arrested a Boston city council member Friday after he was allegedly videotaped taking a $1,000 bribe from an undercover agent in an expanding investigation into corruption at City Hall and the Massachusetts Statehouse.

Chuck Turner was taken into custody about 7 a.m. at City Hall, less than a month after his records were subpoenaed as part of the investigation into former state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, who was charged last month after the FBI said she was photographed stuffing bribe money under her sweater.

Turner was charged with attempted extortion and making false statements for allegedly accepting $1,000 from the same confidential informant who said he paid bribes to Wilkerson in exchange for help getting a liquor license for a Boston nightclub.

An affidavit said Turner was taped in August 2007 taking a wad of money from the informant while in his district office, then denied the payment when confronted by FBI agents on the day Wilkerson was arrested.

The informant attempted to make a second payment in September 2007 just outside the City Council chamber but could not arrange time alone with Turner, according to the affidavit.

Turner told the FBI agents after Wilkerson’s arrest that corruption was pervasive among politicians.

“If you took out all corrupt politicians, you’d take out 90 percent and be left with us 10 percent,” he said.

……..The Boston Democrat was the only black member of the state Senate before resigning Wednesday under the threat of expulsion by her colleagues.

………Turner, Wilkerson’s city councilor, is a fellow African-American who is a Harvard-educated member of the Green-Rainbow Party. He also is a veteran community activist who has been on the City Council since 2000, and has been a staunch Wilkerson supporter.

http://www.wral.com/news/natio.....y/4003912/

“If you took out all corrupt politicians, you’d take out 90 percent and be left with us 10 percent”
I think he is on to something, of course he was really part of the corrupt group.

Russian parliament approves extension of presidential term

MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) — The Russian parliament approved a constitutional amendment Friday to extend the presidential term from four to six years.

There is widespread speculation in Russian media that the change is aimed at paving the way for a return to the Kremlin by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who remains a popular and powerful figure since leaving the president’s office in May.

The Kremlin maintains the amendment — along with other proposed changes to the terms in office for elected officials — is necessary to ensure the stability of future Russian governments.

President Dmitry Medvedev announced the measures just two weeks ago, in his first state-of-the-nation speech on November 5.

The lower house of the Russian parliament had its third and final reading Friday before putting the measures to a vote. It passed by a vote of 392 to 57, with those against representing the Communist Party faction. There were no abstentions.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/.....index.html

I’m sure something similar will follow in America to let the Chosen One remain in power after 2016, that is if there still is an America in 2016.

Signs point to deep recession

By Neil Irwin and David Cho

Businesses cut prices at a record rate, and builders started fewer new homes last month than anytime on record, according to new government data, as the outlook for the economy continues to dim.

The data helped spur another terrible day for the stock market Wednesday, as did a projection of more hard times ahead by leaders of the Federal Reserve. A serious recession now appears all but assured.

The stock market fell another 5 percent, as measured by the Dow Jones industrial average, which closed below 8,000 for the first time in this bear market. New-home starts in October were the lowest since at least 1959, when the government began keeping data. The consumer price index plummeted by the most since that series of monthly data was started in 1947, as the economy slowed so abruptly that companies had to slash prices to sell products.

And Federal Reserve leaders released projections indicating they expect the economy to worsen significantly in the coming year. The most pessimistic of 17 Fed officials expects joblessness to rise to 8 percent at the end of 2009, which would be the highest in a quarter-century.

“We’re in the deep portion of the economic trough,” said Richard Yamarone, chief economist of Argus Research, explaining Wednesday’s market sell-off. “So you have to expect a certain degree of negative sentiment, you almost have to expect doom and gloom at this point.”

The consumer price index, a broad measure of inflation facing U.S. households, fell 1 percent in October, driven by an 8.6 percent decline in the price of energy. But the falling prices were considerably broader than that; excluding food and energy, which are volatile, prices fell 0.1 percent, the first monthly decline in that “core” price index since 1982.

Clothing prices fell 1 percent, for example, and the price of used cars and trucks was off 2.4 percent. More broadly, economists said, businesses are losing any ability to set prices because demand for their goods has dried up.

“It’s not simply that they don’t have pricing power,” said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors. “It’s that they can’t sell what they have. If you have any inventory, you have to make sure it moves, and that means cutting prices.”

The silver lining of the negative inflation numbers is that dropping prices make it easier for people — at least those who do not lose their jobs in the downturn — to afford the goods and services they buy.

Similarly, weak construction numbers — housing starts fell 4.5 percent, and new building permits issued fell 12 percent in October, the Commerce Department said — also contain benefits for the economy in the longer run. The fewer new homes built, the sooner the economy can work through an oversupply of housing. …

http://www.madison.com/tct/business/315237

Those “signs” will of course immediately turn around next January 20th.

At least the WaPo begrudgingly admitted there are benefits fo falling prices and a glut of new housing on the market.

Yet there are still “affordable housing” activists out there (not to mention elected officials) demanding developers build a percentage of “affordable” homes…

Court: Sex-offender law unfairly restrictive

By Bob Egelko

11-20) 18:17 PST SANTA ANA — A voter-approved law prohibiting sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or a park amounts to additional punishment for the offenders’ original crimes, a state appeals court has ruled in a case that could affect thousands of parolees.

The ruling Wednesday by the Fourth District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana was the first by a California court to find that the residency restrictions in Proposition 83, a November 2006 initiative, are not just public safety measures but also would punish ex-offenders by forcing them out of their homes.

Prop. 83, called Jessica’s Law by its sponsors, imposes “traditional banishment under another name,” the court said.

The ruling leaves the law in effect but could limit its application. The U.S. Constitution forbids laws that retroactively impose criminal penalties or increase punishment for past offenses.

A lawyer for four men who are challenging Prop. 83 before the state Supreme Court said Thursday that the ruling should prevent the state from imposing the residency restrictions on parolees who committed sex crimes before the ballot measure passed.

The attorney, Ernest Galvan, said the state now is applying the 2,000-foot buffer zone requirement to any former sex offender who has been paroled since Prop. 83 passed, even if the parolee committed a sex crime many years earlier and was serving a sentence for an unrelated crime. He said at least 2,000 parolees fall into that category, and the number is growing by hundreds each month.

“You can’t criminalize conduct after it’s already happened, can’t increase the punishment, because everyone’s entitled to notice of what’s criminal now,” Galvan said.

Lisa Page, spokeswoman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said the administration is reviewing the ruling. “The governor strongly supports Jessica’s Law and keeping families and children safe,” she said.

Prop. 83, approved by 70 percent of the voters, increased sentences for various sex crimes and also barred all registered sex offenders – whose crimes range from forcible rape to indecent exposure – from living within 2,000 feet of a school or park where children regularly gather.

State law previously prohibited only convicted child molesters from living within a quarter-mile of a school. Prop. 83 makes most densely populated areas of California off limits to paroled sex criminals, including nearly all of San Francisco. …

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....14966O.DTL

Is there any doubt as to what will happen to Prop. 8?

By any reasonable standard, ‘mom’ should be facing weapons charges at the state and federal level, plus the kid should automatically be certified as an adult and charged as such. In reality, if this should ever see print again, what will probably result will be a spate of restrictive firearms legislation directed at an already law-abiding citizenry.

My own thoughts run toward giving them all free guns and ammunition, and let them kill each other at will.

Then let God sort them out!

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Mom gives teen gun, police say, and 3 kids shot

Woman, two teens arrested

By Ryan Haggerty and Linda Spice

A 16-year-old boy shot three teens on Milwaukee’s northwest side Wednesday morning with a handgun that police believe his mother gave to him so he could settle an altercation that began on a playground Tuesday night, Milwaukee police officials said.

Standing with Police Chief Edward Flynn at a news conference Wednesday morning near the scene of the shooting, Mayor Tom Barrett described the incident as a “horrifying situation.”

“We need parents to be parents, not accomplices,” Barrett said.

The victims – a 14-year-old girl and two boys, ages 15 and 17 – suffered non-life-threatening injuries, Flynn said.

At the morning news conference, Flynn identified the shooter as Brian Lellnell Young. Young was arrested about 3:30 p.m. Flynn said he had been arrested twice before on burglary charges.

“This team is going to find him before the day is over,” Flynn said in the morning news conference.

Young was arrested near N. 35th and W. Vliet streets, said police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz. His mother and another 16-year-old boy also were arrested Wednesday, she said. However, they were not identified.

The shooting occurred in the 9000 block of N. 95th St. just after 8 a.m., police said. The area is part of the Woodlands condominium complex.

According to Flynn:

One of the shooting victims was walking his girlfriend to a bus stop when he encountered some people with whom he had fought Tuesday night. One of those people left and later returned with his mother.

One of the shooting victims also brought additional family members to the scene and the fight continued, Flynn said.

Some people had baseball bats, Schwartz said.

Young’s mother had retrieved a semiautomatic handgun from a bag prior to the fight, Flynn said. She gave the gun to her son, he said.

Young fired one round in the air and several more shots at the victims as they fled in a car, Flynn said.

The car ended up at a nearby Paratech ambulance parking lot, where officers gathered information about the shooting.

Police were still sorting through the details Wednesday night.

“The preliminary information was that this mother supplied the gun to her son,” Schwartz said. “Now that we have the two 16-year-old suspects and the mother in custody, that will give us a chance to question everyone involved and find out exactly what happened.”

Flynn said he did not know what sparked Tuesday night’s altercation.

“Listen, we’re dealing with immature young men who do dumb things,” he said. “The only problem for us now is they do dumb things with semiautomatic handguns.”

http://www.jsonline.com/news/m.....69839.html

Do they make a Mother’s Day card for this?

State Supreme Court rejoins Prop. 8 battle

By Bob Egelko

The state Supreme Court plunged back into the same-sex marriage wars Wednesday, agreeing to decide the legality of a ballot measure that repealed the right of gay and lesbian couples to wed in California.

Six months after its momentous ruling that struck down the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, the court granted requests by both sponsors and opponents of Proposition 8 to review lawsuits challenging the Nov. 4 initiative.

The vote was 6-1, Justice Joyce Kennard dissenting.

However, the court refused, 6-1, to let same-sex marriages resume while it considers Prop. 8’s constitutionality. Justice Carlos Moreno cast the dissenting vote.

Approved by 52 percent of voters, Prop. 8 restored the definition of marriage – a union of a man and a woman – that the court had overturned May 15. Kennard and Moreno voted with the majority in that 4-3 ruling.

The court agreed Wednesday to review two arguments by opponents of Prop. 8: that the measure exceeds the legal scope of a ballot initiative by allowing a majority to restrict a minority group’s rights, and that it violates the constitutional separation of powers by limiting judicial authority.

The justices also asked for arguments on whether Prop. 8, if constitutional, would nullify 18,000 same-sex weddings performed between when the court’s marriage ruling took effect in mid-June and Nov. 4. Attorney General Jerry Brown, who will defend Prop. 8 as the state’s chief lawyer, contends those marriages are legal, but sponsors of the initiative disagree.

The justices asked for written arguments to be submitted through Jan. 21. The court could hold a hearing as early as March, and a ruling would be due 90 days later.

While both sides cheered the court’s decision to take up the cases, Kennard’s lone vote to deny review could spell trouble for opponents of Prop. 8.

Kennard is the court’s longest-serving justice, having been appointed in 1989, and has been one of its foremost supporters of same-sex couples’ rights. Without her vote, the May 15 ruling would have gone the other way. But she wrote Wednesday that she would favor hearing arguments only about whether Prop. 8 would invalidate the pre-election marriages, an issue that would arise only if the initiative were upheld.

“It’s always hard to read tea leaves, but I think Justice Kennard is saying that she thinks the constitutionality of Prop. 8 is so clear that it doesn’t warrant review,” said Stephen Barnett, a retired UC Berkeley law professor and longtime observer of the court. …

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....147QAJ.DTL

I will however leave it to readers to decide whether a San Francisco court that originally found gay marriages legal under the California Constitution would later find it to be constitutional to outlaw them.

We shall see.

U.S.: Senior Iranian Commando Arrested in Iraq

BAGHDAD — The U.S. military says it has arrested an alleged senior member of the Iranian security forces suspected of funneling weapons into Iraq.

The military says in a statement released Wednesday that the alleged member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ elite Quds force was detained at Baghdad Airport while trying to leave the country on Tuesday.

The military says the suspect was using a job building and repairing religious sites in Iraq as cover to funnel weapons into the country.

The U.S. alleges the Iranian was smuggling weapons into Iraq in legitimate shipments of building materials.

The U.S. has long accused Iran of training and arming Shiite extremist groups in Iraq and fueling the insurgency.

Tehran denies the charges. …

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,454504,00.html

See, Tehran denied the charges – nothing to see here.

Student Could Face Charges for Hugging Social Worker

OLATHE, KAN. — An Olathe junior high school student could face sexual battery charges after allegedly giving a school social worker an “inappropriate” hug, police said on Tuesday.

According to Olathe Police, a school social worker at Chisholm Trail Junior High School told an assistant principal that the boy, 13, hugged her in a way that she thought was inappropriate.

The student was contacted by the school resource officer, then released to his parents.

“The report has been taken and the incident was documented and it has been forwarded to the district attorney’s office,” said Sgt. Johnnie Rowland of the Olathe Police Department. “They will review it and decide from that point what action should be taken.”

Nicole Littler from MOCSA, the Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault says some teens don’t understand sexual harassment, and she urges parents to talk to their children about it.

“Sexual harassment is the No. 1 topic that we are asked to go out and talk about especially in middle schools,” said Littler. “Hugging someone can be sexual harassment, but it also depends on who it is and how they feel about the situation.”

The Olathe School District would not comment on the case. The Johnson County District Attorney’s office is reviewing the case.

http://www.myfoxkc.com/myfox/p.....amp;sflg=1

How can a 13 year-old hugging a social worker become sexual battery and/or sexual harassment?

Now because she allowed him to hug her and then felt it was inappropriate he may end up with a sex crime on his record?

Indian Navy Destroys Pirate ‘Mother Ship’ in Battle

NEW DELHI — An Indian naval vessel sank a suspected pirate “mother ship” Wednesday in the Gulf of Aden and chased two attack boats into the night, officials said, yet more violence in the lawless seas where brigands are becoming bolder and more violent.

Separate bands of pirates also seized a Thai ship with 16 crew members and an Iranian cargo vessel with a crew of 25 in the Gulf of Aden, where Somalia-based pirates appear to be attacking ships at will, said Noel Choong of the International Maritime Bureau’s piracy reporting center in Malaysia.

“It’s getting out of control,” Choong said.

A multicoalition naval force has increased patrols in the region, and scored a rare success Tuesday when the Indian warship, operating off the coast of Oman, stopped a ship similar to a pirate vessel mentioned in numerous piracy bulletins. The Indian navy said the pirates fired on the INS Tabar after the officers asked it to stop to be searched.

“Pirates were seen roaming on the upper deck of this vessel with guns and rocket propelled grenade launchers,” said a statement from the Indian navy. Indian forces fired back, sparking fires and a series of onboard blasts — possibly due to exploding ammunition — and destroying the ship.

They chased one of two speedboats that had been shadowing the larger ship, and which fled when it sank. One was later found abandoned. The other escaped, according to the statement.

Larger “mother ships” are often used to take gangs of pirates and smaller attack boats into deep water, and can be used as mobile bases to attack merchant vessels.

Last week, Indian navy commandos operating from a warship foiled a pirate attempt to hijack a ship in the Gulf of Aden. The navy said an armed helicopter with marine commandos prevented the pirates from boarding and hijacking the Indian merchant vessel.

Tuesday incidents raised to eight the number of ships hijacked this week alone, he said. Since the beginning of the year, 39 ships have been hijacked in the Gulf of Aden, out of 95 attacked.

“There is no firm deterrent, that’s why the pirate attacks are continuing,” Choong said. “The criminal activities are flourishing because the risks are low and the rewards are extremely high.”

The pirates used to mainly roam the waters off the Somali coast, but now they have spread in every direction and are targeting ships further at sea, according to Choong. …

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,454506,00.html

Even India realizes non-violence doesn’t always work.