And I'll say it now: my Lakers are going to make a run at best record in NBA history. I love the off-season additions. I love this team.

LITTLE ROCK (AP) -- The three men convicted in the grisly murders of three West Memphis Cub Scouts won new hearings Thursday to argue their innocence, more than 15 years after they were sent to prison despite scant physical evidence linking them to the crime scene.

if you have been reading these comments long you know I have been on a soapbox about these guy for, well, years.

in spite of many celebrities and others championing their cause and two HBO documentaries that are stunning in thier ability to debunk everything they were charged with they have remained in prison and one on death row for crimes the clearly did not commit.

New Delhi:  Spellbound by Barack Obama's speech in the Parliament, a Congress MP from Andhra Pradesh today gifted a golden chain with south sea pearls which he was wearing to the US President who immediately accepted it.

Polk County prosecutors have requested that a Grinnell grandmother and a Des Moines man be sentenced to a permanent ban from the Federal Building in Des Moines for their persistent anti-war protests.

Civil rights advocates are sounding alarms, saying the request, if granted, smacks of a blatant First Amendment violation, which guarantees free speech and the right to petition government.

"It's highly unusual and it's certainly something that deserves tremendous scrutiny to whether or not it's appropriate," said Ben Stone, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa. "It seems difficult to comprehend the justification for this."

Christine Gaunt, 54, has for the past eight months frequently staged "die-ins" where she outlines her body in chalk dust and pretends to be dead in the Des Moines offices of Senators Charles Grassley and Tom Harkin.

In many cases federal protection service officials gently scooped her limp body into a wheelchair and escorted her from the building, often times giving her a $100 citation, she said.

But, in August, she and Des Moines resident Elton Davis were arrested on trespassing charges after months of their non-violent protests.

Arrests of anti-war protesters at the Federal Building are common.  What's unusual is that Polk County prosecutors on Thursday asked Iowa District Judge Odell McGhee to sentence the duo to a permanent Federal Building ban.

McGhee chose to continue the sentencing hearing to Nov. 12.

Has anyone ever heard of peaceful protesters being permanently banned from a government building? Is there precedent for this?

Elton Davis commented at Bleeding Heartland:

In this instance, it is a case of the Federal Protective Service Police attempting to write a law instead of enforcing the law.  And trust me, if Commander Goldberg of the Homeland Security FPS ever does decide to run for congress, God forbid, I will shave, get a haircut, set aside my devout anarchist principles and run against his ass.

Commander Goldberg of the Department of Homeland Security Federal Protective Service has stated his desire in the past to ban us, and especially Chris from the Des Moines Federal Building where the Senator's offices are located.

After our conviction last week, the Assistant County Attorney prosecuting our case stated that she wished to explore banning us from entering the Des Moines Federal Building, in the Same manner they ban shoplifters from department stores or Walmart or such.

Sentencing was deferred until next Friday.

My Jets looked putrid, but a W is a W (Thanks Coach Schwartz!)...meanwhile the Pats made Peyton Hillis look like vintage John Riggins...dude ran roughshod.

Paging MileHi, Mr. MileHi...I can't believe the Broncos traded that stud straight up for "Cindy" Brady Quinn!

At least the rabid dog who did this is going to be put down.

This assumes capture wouldn't significantly affect a public insurance program, but the recent record of Medicare has me questioning the assumption. In particular:

"... Medicare's price regulation systems are now a leading example of "regulatory capture", with budget projections based on complete acceptance of the cost base and an assumption that perpetual "cost + " increases will be the rule, until the point of government bankruptcy"

http://www.urban.org/toolkit/conference-papers/hp-roundtable/etheredge.cfm

Medicare Part D is a similar story.

THe pt. is, if capture or similar phenomena are happening with public insurance already, regulatory capture isn't a reason to criticize the public option-less health care bill.