and, apparently, gets to keep the tons of money (remember the pallets of cash that vanished in Iraq) he / his company made. There is not sufficient profanity in the known universe.

“(Erik Prince) needs a break from America,” said one colleague, speaking only on the condition of anonymity about Mr. Prince’s long-rumored move.

.
With US combat troops leaving Iraq tonight, evidently Prince thinks mercs like him need richer masters.

If you are rich enough, famous enough, or connected enough, there is no crime of which you cannot expect to escape conviction, apparently. The Swiss government today set Roman Polanski free, refusing a US request to extradite him for raping a 13-year-old girl to whom he gave alcohol and Quaaludes in 1977.

Who will be running for Secretary of State in California in November, despite Orly Taitz.

Nothing pretty. Hysterical squalling over the airwaves aside, though, the grown-ups brush off the panic and pursue solutions.

To his credit, today the President announced that the panic is unwarranted and announced that he's put a stop to further offshore exploration drilling while the crisis response to the Deepwater Horizon oil release -- spill is such a damn inadequate word, when you're talking about polluting not just the Gulf of Mexico, but the Atlantic itself thanks to the Loop Current -- continues. There will be new rules when the operations (if? Well, no. We've spent 35 years thumbing our noses at Jimmy Carter, thanks to big oil and corporate media, and in his 18 months at the helm Obama hasn't actually got the trend reversed. He went to Harvard, not Hogwarts, as the charming comic Wanda Sykes famously reported) do resume, though, and we've already seen one MMS division chief lose her job.

Hence, as a West Texan who still lives on the edge of an oil patch (though not in the Permian Basin anymore) I'm inclined to listen to the guys who do know what they're talking about. That would NOT, I repeat NOT, be Chris Matthews or Wolf Blitzer -- anymore than it ever is or has been Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Bachmann, Sarah Palin, or the never-to-be-sufficiently-damned Karl Rove. Given that he is NOT an oil patch guy, even nominally, I'm surprised at how good a job President Obama's done in responding

Wednesday should've been so simple.
It was fun, to take my beloved to a remote location for his job. It was fun to have a day trip with him and see Texas in the late springtime, getting used to the town my son's moving to (Abilene) and getting me used to the idea of traveling US 84 and I-20 regularly.
It was fun having a couple of good meals I didn't have to plan or cook.
It was fun listening to him getting used to his new smart phone from the passenger seat.
It all came unwound on the way home when the water pump went out ... there's nothing like popping a hood to pull a dipstick and check your oil 'cause the light's blinking at a
construction stop on a steep ramp, and find green goo all over everything in the engine compartment.

The planting started yesterday.
I don't usually envy First Ladies. But apparently DC isn't facing another freeze this weekend, so gardening season is officially on there.

Mrs. Obama said that the 1,000 pounds of food harvested last year fed many people, both at the White House and at nearby homeless shelters. The work on the garden started a national conversation about healthy eating, she said.

And just so y'all can see for yourselves how stupid the GOP thinks we are, I'm going to post the full letter here.

Dear Friend:

Thank you for contacting me regarding health care reform legislation. I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Texans are particularly aware of the need for health care reform, but it cannot come with a trillion dollar price tag and a government takeover of our health care system. Our state has over 6 million uninsured residents, the highest percentage of uninsured in the nation. This number poses a huge challenge for our hospitals, taxpayers, and many working individuals and families who cannot afford the health care coverage they need.

We certainly need to improve access to affordable health insurance. However, we must do so without raising taxes on American families and businesses, imposing mandates on individuals and states, and adding trillions to the cost of health care. The Democratic health care bill, crafted in secret and packed with sweetheart deals, imposed new taxes and cost burdens on the American people. Therefore, I voted against it.

The President and the Democratic leadership have pursued a radical approach to health care reform that will not only result in higher taxes and penalties, but will also increase premiums and reduce patient choices. In fact, under the Senate passed bill, Americans will be taxed for years before they will see any benefit of insurance reform.

I strongly oppose these new taxes, but if they are included, at the very least, the benefits should be aligned with the cost burdens imposed. To provide relief for taxpayers from this four year tax imposition, I offered an amendment to align the start date of the taxes and benefits. Unfortunately, my amendment, like all the other Republican amendments, failed by a party line vote.

I also have strong concerns about the Constitutionality of this bill. During the Senate debate, I raised a Constitutional objection against the bill on the grounds that it violates the Tenth Amendment and infringes upon states’ rights. Provisions in this bill trample upon the prerogatives of the states in regulating health insurance. My Constitutional challenge to the bill, as well as several others offered by Republicans, also failed by a party line vote.

The bill passed by the Senate, with only Democrat support, represents a massive government expansion and federal takeover of our health care system. The Democrats have presented Americans with a false choice: their proposal or nothing.

When so many employers are struggling to offer insurance for their employees, we should be finding ways to bring down costs for their coverage. Instead, the Democrats’ health care bill will result in higher costs of insurance for small businesses and individuals alike.

There are better health care solutions that will actually lower costs, expand access to quality care, and increase patients’ options – without the threat of government control. These superior options will keep patients at the center of their health care, and take the bureaucrats out of the equation.

The right approach to health care reform would fix what is broken with our system without destroying what works. I have put forth targeted and fiscally responsible ideas that will, through market-based competition, increase options for coverage and reduce costs.

I am the lead cosponsor of the Health Care Freedom Act of 2009 (S. 1324) by Senator Jim DeMint. It would provide tax credits for individuals who purchase their own insurance so that the coverage they buy is portable, would implement nationwide medical malpractice reform, would create a web portal so comparing insurance plans is easier, would allow individuals to purchase insurance across state lines, and would allow states the flexibility to provide coverage for individuals with pre-existing conditions.

I am also a strong supporter and cosponsor of bills that would allow small businesses to pool together and purchase insurance, thus spreading risk and reducing their costs. All of these approaches have proven to be effective and would lead to more affordable and accessible health insurance.

You are among thousands of concerned Texans who have written to express their views on this topic. You may be assured that I will do everything possible to prevent this bill, which will result in a government takeover of our health care system, from being signed by the President.

I appreciate hearing from you, and I hope that you will contact me on any issue that is important to you.

Sincerely,
Kay Bailey Hutchison
United States Senator

284 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5922 (tel)
202-224-0776 (fax)
http://hutchison.senate.gov

There's not a big enough facepalm in the universe to react to this mishmash of lies gussied up as a letter to a constituent -- this regurgitated nonsense is almost as infuriating as the Texas State Board of Education's decision to take Thomas Jefferson out of our history books.

Let's just look at this thing one graf at a time, shall we,

Keith Olbermann’s father passed away Saturday, after a prolonged illness. For the past few weeks, and likely for a few more, he has not been hosting Countdown from his normal chair. Tonight, his guest host treated us to the full ugliness that is the anti-health-care Republican media machine:

By now you've all heard about the lunatic who drove his airplane into the Austin building where the IRS had its offices.
Two people died in the fiery plane crash Friday. The one you haven't heard about was this man, Vernon Hunter:

He served two tours in Viet Nam. He spent 20 years in the United States Army. He was a father and a grandfather. He was a year away from retiring from the IRS. He went to work, Friday morning, like so many Americans do -- like more than 3,000 went to work on a bright September morning in 2001. He deserves justice.

The GOP contender sure wants to be.

I'm not sure Texas can stand another

(crossposted from Whenceforth Progress)

Rest in peace, Charlie Wilson.

He represented Texas -- which is more than can be said of most of those who say they do so now, either in Austin or in DC.

Although he was not a perfect politician, and although some of the things he worked hardest for ultimately didn't go the way he hoped,

The Airlift of Haitians needing treatment in US hospitals has resumed:

The White House has again started transferring critically injured Haitian quake victims to hospitals in the US after aid workers said people were dying in the quake-ravaged nation "because they can't get out."

Forbes reports Florida governor Charlie Crist said Florida couldn't handle the anticipated 30 to 50 injured patients per day on January 30.

The evacuations were temporarily suspended Wednesday, said Capt. Kevin Aandahl, spokesman for U.S. Transportation Command. The flights were halted a day after Florida Gov. Charlie Crist asked the federal government to help pay for care."There were some critical cases that were recommended stateside facility care or follow-up care," Aandahl said Saturday. "As I understand it, there were some states that were unwilling to approve transportation for that follow-up. We can't fly anyone without an accepting hospital on the other end."

One where James O"Keefe doesn't get sent home with Mum and Popsie for a felony, maybe?

Magistrate Judge Louis Moore made the order Tuesday as part of the conditions of release for O'Keefe, 25.

What if this had been a Mexican-looking kid? OPP remand, I'm thinking.

Yeah, I'll be cheering for the quarterback from the NFC and the team from New Orleans.

The Saints (you know, the team that calls the Superdome home?) are going to the NFL's biggest party for the first time; they will play the Colts in Miami two weeks from today. Y'all know I'm a Cowboys fan; but there's more to the story -- we all remember what NOLa went through after Katrina. We all know what the Superdome looked like, and we all read and heard about what happened in and around that building, almost five years ago. Well, something way different's happening in and around that building tonight, and that's a good thing.

Gasoline on the open market at $8 a gallon, the black market at $20 a gallon, according to a live report from MSNBC, and the cost of a bottle of fresh water doubled during the day today at the one store in Port-au-Prince which still has water for sale.

Y'all need to go on over there and read the whole thing. That photo's downright disturbing, though.

Look, here's something I haven't seen anybody talk about yet. If you are a pro athlete (or a star collegiate student-athlete, provided you aren't hurt too late in your senior year to make a difference for your team) medical care comes to you. Same thing if you're a member of congress or a big enough, important enough CEO / star (Jack Welch-level).
If you aren't, then ... well, you can't afford real health care, right?

Hillbilly Report, which I've mentioned before, urges that you move your money out of big corporate banks (and their vampiric capitalism) into community banks. If you don't have a community bank, use a credit union. Seriously, they're the closest thing to the kind of bank George ran in "It's A Wonderful Life" around. These institutions are something like a cross between an old-fashioned pre-Phil-Gramm savings and loan, and a co-op.

Banking for profit destroyed the American national economy under w. Even Bernanke says the lack of oversight on the banks and financial institutions contributed heavily to the aftermath of the busted housing bubble (aka the current depression).

Want justice? Act for it! Move your money!!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="367" caption="Alamo Bowl catch"][/caption]

That receiver's name is Lyle Leong. He's from Abilene. He caught that ball from Tech backup qb "Sticks" Sheffield in the 2nd half of the Alamo Bowl game Saturday night. That particular receiver ordinarily serves Tech QB Taylor (Nick) Potts as a BFF the way Wes Welker does for Tom Brady, but on Saturday night Potts hurt his non-throwing hand in the 3rd quarter. That cornerback, if my copy of the MSU roster's accurate, is a redshirt freshman who stands 6-1: Mitchell White.

Y'know, back when Kent Hance announced he'd added -- and was proud of it yet -- Alberto Gonzales to the Texas Tech faculty (this in spite of the law school faculty as a group having a serious cow over how much they didn't want w's former AG on the Tech payroll), I thought things had gone about as low as possible at Texas Tech University.

But I'd forgotten something crucial: AG wasn't going to have to satisfy Tech's athletic director with regard to his job performance. So, essentially, AG didn't have any reason to worry.

Let the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL explain the current fiasco:

There are certain inalienable rights all athletes have, above all to know their health is being protected. This is not to be abused.

I guess that is why I come down firmly on the side of Texas Tech screwed up royally by firing football coach Mike Leach on Wednesday. I do not believe Leach abused anybody, nor do I believe Red Raiders AD Gerald Myers actually believes Leach did.

He despised Leach. He had an opportunity. So he fired him.

You do not have to know the back story to know something stinks at Texas Tech with this whole imbroglio. One of the best coaches in Red Raiders history is fired over one allegation, by one player, that appears to have been greatly exaggerated by a university that once employed one Robert Montgomery Knight.

"Mike Leach is alleged to have isolated a player in a dark closet for not practicing with a concussion" was the original tweet from Joe Schad of ESPN when this story broke Monday.

Hmm, wonder how ESPN got this info?

Maybe from ESPN analyst Craig James, who, as we all now know, is the father of the player in question. Adam James had the mild concussion that idiocy and incompetence, politics and feuds have allowed to mushroom into a big, fat disaster in Lubbock.

Good job ruining your program, Gerald. Excellent work. Really.

And as my best Tech friend noted, this is now two Texas football programs brought down by the James family. So really, excellent work by them, too.

Like I said: I thought hiring Alberto Gonzales was the worst decision Texas Tech's administration could make.
Boy, was I wrong.

S-T sports writer Dwain Price may have the best quote of all:

"All I know is what Mike Leach has done for that school," said former Dallas Cowboys executive Gil Brandt. "When he came there they were drawing 35,000 fans, and they sell out now with about 20,000 more fans. They’ve gone to 10 consecutive bowl games with Leach, and he ran a clean program. I’m devastated because I think he [Leach] is not only a great football coach, I think he’s a heck of a good person."

The school apparently has a bred-in-the-bone allergy to deviating from its traditions of ... well.

can be found in this excellent diary, currently reposted at Daily Kos, and in the comments thereunto.

Rule No. 1: Don't be an idiot on the road.
The laws of physics are on the side of the bigger vehicle in a collison, so, you know, don't be trying to beat the train, and don't cut in front of the 18-wheeler, and if you're going to be on the road remember a few survival tools -- keep a blanket in your trunk, and a shovel, and a 5-lb bag, or so, of kitty litter in case of ice.

That's right, folks. Buckle up, stop texting. Sounds simple, eh? It's a safety program a local sports director started in response to a tragedy earlier this month. His name's Pete Christy, and he's a genuinely nice guy. As skipper of the team that covers more than 70 local high schools' football teams every week (that's a big deal in Texas, but even for West Texas Pete Christy and NewsChannel 11's "End Zone" goes all out to cover football), he knows the small towns hereabouts better than anybody else on Lubbock TV -- even some of the people who've lived in those towns, in years gone by.

Preferably you'll do what the high school principal suggests: buckle your seat belt and turn off your cell phone if you're driving. If you won't do it for yourself, do it in memory of Alex Brown. The truck below belonged to her.

I don't know her parents, but I grew up nine miles from her school -- we were rivals -- and eleven miles from her home, and I've driven down the road on which she died more times than I can count.

Texas Department of Public Safety troopers haven't ruled out speed or weather -- we had fog that morning -- in the crash; tonight, though, the high school mascot's mother confirmed Alex Brown, 17, was texting while driving.

Don't text and drive. Don't drive and text. The life you save

The man who claimed to be the 11 Sep 01 strike "mastermind" will go to trial in New York, according to today's NYT. Steps toward keeping the promise to close Gitmo within a year appear to be continuing, despite delays caused by the uproar over what to do with detainees.

A photograph taken by the International Committee of the Red Cross of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed this year in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The detainee's family released the photo to a Web site, www.muslm.net.

The decision marks a milestone in the administration’s efforts to close the Guantánamo prison, something that President Obama announced shortly after taking office that he would do within a year, but that has proved difficult to achieve because of uncertainty about what to do with the detainees housed there.

Mr. Obama, asked about the decision in a news conference on his weeklong trip to Asia, declined to comment directly, but said that Mr. Mohammed would face justice.

“I’m absolutely convinced that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed will be subject to the most exacting demands of justice,” Mr. Obama said. “The American people insist on it, and my administration insists on it.”

Other detainees will face military trials. This is a small step toward

There's no excusing what happened at Fort Hood. None. The United States Army has filed charges against the survivor who opened fire in the Soldier Readiness Center, killing 12 fellow soldiers and a civilian, and wounding 30 more persons.

Major Hasan, 39, an Army psychiatrist, is accused of opening fire with two handguns in a Soldier Medical Readiness Center, where troops receive medical attention before being deployed or after returning from overseas.

Of the 13 people who were killed last Thursday, 4 were officers, 8 were enlisted soldiers and one was a civilian. Major Hasan was eventually subdued by civilian police.

The 13 charges against Major Hasan are “initial charges,” said the Army spokesman, Chris Grey, “and additional charges may be preferred in the future, subject to the ongoing criminal investigation.”
“It is important to remember that the preferral of charges is the first step in the court-martial process,” Mr. Grey said, “and that a charge is merely an accusation. The accused is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.”

Col. John P. Galligan, a retired Army officer who is representing Major Hasan, has questioned whether the suspect will be able to get a fair trial at Fort Hood.

For now, Mr. Grey added, “Major Hasan is currently under pretrial restriction while receiving medical care.”

Major Hasan is reported to be in stable condition in an Army Hospital in San Antonio, where he is recovering from four gunshot wounds.

Now comes the Times with a follow-on to the initial stories suggesting that the hero civilian first credited with stopping this madman was merely another shooting victim. I don't know whether that is true or not; ballistics and evidence will tell the story. Either way, I think her partner, whose shooting was credited on the day of the incident with finally bringing down Hasan, deserves positive feedback and respect.

The State of Texas awaits the jury's decision on his sentence, but even the NYT cared enough about the outcome of the Eldorado, Texas, trial to report the verdict. The jury found him guilty in fewer than four hours.

Seen in an AP photo, below, as he was escorted away from the courthouse, Jessop could be sent to a Texas prison for up to 20 years. San Angelo Standard-Times' coverage indicates evidence confirming his paternity of a 4-year-old girl caused fireworks in the courtroom.

And if you want to know why it is my hope that Mr. Jessop meets, up close and in person, the tender mercies of the TDCJ inmates regarding child rapists, read this excerpt regarding what happened to the girl he raped.

The ranch first came to national attention a year and a half ago when the Texas authorities descended on it, seeking a girl who had complained in a telephone call to a San Angelo women’s shelter that she was being sexually abused. The girl was never found, and the Texas Rangers acknowledge that the tip was a hoax.

But in the course of executing search warrants, social workers and the Rangers uncovered evidence that at least a dozen girls had been coerced by church elders to serve as wives to older men. Seven had borne children.

The prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General Eric Nichols, put several Rangers on the stand along with a former member of the church to introduce several church documents seized from a vault on the ranch.

Since the woman said to be the victim, who is now 21, did not testify, Mr. Nichols used the documents, along with her photo album, to prove she lived with Mr. Jessop as one of his wives and was impregnated by him when she was 16.

The state’s case also rested heavily on genetic evidence that showed there was a 99.9 percent chance Mr. Jessop was the father of the child, who is now 4.

In his closing argument, Mr. Nichols attacked the theory that the teenager had consented to be Mr. Jessop’s wife. “Any act of sexual assault is a horrendous crime,” he said, “but an act of sexual assault on a child is of such an extreme nature we don’t even consider whether the victim was able, much less did, consent.”

One of the most damning pieces of evidence presented in court was a written record of Mr. Jeffs’s instructions in August 2005 not to take the girl to a hospital even though she had been struggling in labor for three days at a clinic on the ranch.

“I knew the girl, being 16 years old, if she went to the hospital, they could put Raymond Jessop in jeopardy of prosecution as the government is looking for any reason to come against us there,” Mr. Jeffs was quoted as saying.

Some of the most revealing testimony came from another witness for the prosecution, Rebecca Musser, a former member of the church who had been married to Rulon T. Jeffs, the sect’s founder and the father of Warren Jeffs. She left the church in 2002 after the elder Mr. Jeffs died.

Ms. Musser testified that Mr. Jeffs had controlled every aspect of the women’s lives, including how they dressed and what they ate. He also controlled whom they married and when.

“Age was not a factor,” she said. “It was when the prophet deemed she was worthy.”

If there's a hell, maybe God will see fit to send Warren Jeffs to burn in it forever.
He's the instigator, the 'spiritual leader', the head of this 'church' -- he's the FLDS version of Rush Limbaugh, with his portrait everywhere, including where women in childbirth must see it.

There are 11 more indictments in Schleicher County. May FSM, Ceiling Cat and all the gods protect and bless District Judge Barbara Walther, the prosecutors, the investigators, and the victims whose lives these "religious leaders" destroyed.

There's a post at Whenceforth Progress on a related matter -- the other news out of Texas yesterday that made national headlines. We know that 13 people were slain and 30 wounded when a US Army Major opened fire inside the Soldier Readiness Center at Fort Hood. What we don't know yet is why.

But if, as rumor has it, religion played a part --

Courage comes in many shapes and sizes.

Rebecca Musser, an attractive, poised blond in her early 30s who left the sect, testified Jeffs pressured her to marry again soon after the death of her spiritual husband, who was a church leader and Jeffs’ father.

“Within one month of his father’s death, he started marrying his father’s young wives,” Musser said during a hearing out of earshot of the jury.

Then in her mid-20s, she butted heads with Jeffs because she didn’t want to remarry, she testified in the trial of Raymond Merril Jessop, 38, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.