Comments »KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Tougher sentencing laws and reduced prisoner programming budgets have Kansas officials discussing ways to balance the need to protect the public against efforts to reduce the state’s burgeoning prison population, Kansas Corrections Secretary Ray Roberts said.
A recent count found Kansas men’s prisons are housing 8,635 inmates, 266 over capacity. The state’s prisons are projected to be short about 2,000 beds in a decade, according to the Kansas Sentencing Commission. Prisons for women also will exceed capacity in about seven years, the commission said.
The solutions being considered would keep the public safe while releasing some prisoners sooner than planned or keeping them out of prison in the first place, Roberts told The Kansas City Star (http://bit.ly/tvMi9l ). So far, Kansas is not considering mass releases of prisoners.
Roberts has a mix of three broad options in mind: build more prisons, house prisoners in county jails or cut recidivism by helping paroled prisoners. Each idea would cost millions of dollars, he said.
Wyandotte County District Attorney Jerome Gorman said police and prosecutors won’t let up in efforts to bring prisoners to trial.
Italian public “servants” make big bank
Comments »ROME (AP) — A government-mandated report has confirmed what many Italians long suspected: The euro11,000 ($14,300) that Italian lawmakers earn each month far outpaces what their peers in some of Europe’s largest economies get.
Italy’s bloated public sector and the privileges of its political elite have come under fire as the country battles its debt crisis with tax hikes, labor market and pension reforms that are hurting ordinary Italians.
Premier Mario Monti has vowed to trim the cost of governing as part of his austerity measures, and has renounced his own salary as premier and economy minister.
The report, published Tuesday, looked at comparisons between labor costs for lawmakers in Italy compared to France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria. It also considered 34 public agencies in Italy to see if there were analogous ones in the other countries. The commission’s president hopes the findings will provide “food for thought.”
The Oil Fear Trades is on as Iran Warns U.S. Against Sending Carriers to the Persian Gulf
The head of Iran’s army warned the U.S. against sending an aircraft carrier back to the Persian Gulf after it passed through the Strait of Hormuz a week ago.
“We usually don’t repeat our warning, and we warn only once,” Ataollah Salehi was cited as saying by the state-run Fars news agency. “We recommend and emphasize to the American carrier not to return to the Persian Gulf.”
Comments »Rumor: Fidel Castro is Dead
It certainly looks like a dark cloud hovers over all dictators.
Comments »A Serious Contender
You laughed, you mocked, and you said never…..
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEd7F5wBrqI 450 300]Reality check for violent village idiots…
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wKmco16cOs&feature=related 450 300]Comments »
Iran Shows Off its Rod
Iran Willing to Come to the Table While Performing Some Saber Rattling
Just as president Obama signs new sanctions against Iran, they decide to provide the west with a dual message….talk or walk. Iran in one move test fires a new missile why stating they want to talk about their nuclear program and most likely the sanctions their will hurt their oil export.
Let us all pray none of this escalates any further.
Comments »The AP’s 2012 Playbook for Romney
From Accuracy in Media’s Logan Churchwell:
With the first legitimate event of the 2012 Republican presidential primary just days away in Iowa, the Associated Press today offered a clear example of hatchet jobs to come for the candidates. Mitt Romney was given an early example of what the AP means by “journalism with voice.”
I previously raised concerns over a leaked memo from AP Managing Editor Mike Oreskes two weeks ago. Charging all journalists to use the said “voice,” he did not offer any examples but, rather very contradictory directions (emphasis added):
“We’re going to be pushing hard on journalism with voice, with context, with more interpretation. This does not mean that we’re sacrificing any of our deep commitment to unbiased, fair journalism. It does not mean that we’re venturing into opinion, either. It does mean that we need to be looking for ways to be more distinctive and stand out in the field — something our customers need and want. The why and the how of the news are as crucial as the who, what, when and where.”
The AP offered a very clear example this morning for how these directions will be executed.
Read the rest here.
Comments »40,000 New Laws to Go into Effect
Want to Hire Someone with a High School Diploma? Feds Say Fuggedaboudit!
Documentary: Ethos
Congress Gets it Right on Ethanol
FLASH: RICK SANTORUM’S POLL NUMBERS ARE IN BEASTIALITY MODE
Moments after a new CNN/Time/ORC International poll showed Rick Santorum surging in Iowa, the Republican hopeful attributed his late-in-the-game success to campaign grit.
“It’s like any small business person,” Santorum said on CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.”
“If the money’s not coming in, you’ve just got to work harder and that’s what we’re doing. We’re going up in the morning doing radio shows at six in the morning and going until nine, ten at night and town meeting after town meeting. 357 in Iowa. Hard work pays off,” Santorum said.
Santorum, who has long said Iowa voters would come around to him eventually, said his message of social conservatism combined with strong national security was making a dent a week ahead of the first-in-the-nation caucus.
“We’ve always felt we could trust the people of Iowa, that when they got down to the time they were going to look at all the candidates and measure up to people they’ve had the opportunity to see, that they would do well,” Santorum said.
Mitt Romney, who led the Iowa poll at 25%, is too inconsistent in his message, Santorum said.
“His position on Romneycare, on marriage, on cap and trade, there’s a whole laundry list of issues where Mitt’s been all over the map,” Santorum said.
The former Pennsylvania senator said Romney’s record on gay marriage was particularly egregious, saying he should have done more to oppose Massachusetts’ state law.
“It’s clear he had a choice and he made the wrong choice,” Santorum said. “If you’re looking at someone who is a conviction politician, who’s not going to move around on the issues and present a clear contrast. Mitt Romney’s never proven to win in an election where he had to get independents as a conservative.”
Ron Paul’s history of opposing foreign military action by the United States presented another concern for Santorum.
“My concern is that Ron Paul would walk in there, day one, pull our troops back and leave an enormous void around the world,” Santorum said. “He can do that day one without congressional approval. He can, as commander in chief, move our troops anywhere in the world, disengage from every place from Europe to the Middle East, China, abandon the Strait of Hormuz, pull the 5th Fleet back. That’s one of the reasons I think you see folks who are having second thoughts.”
How Much More Money Can the State of California Get its Hands On?
Congress Imposes New Tax Laws Hurting Business Owners
Oh, the GOP Drama! Newt Rips Ron Paul; Romney Rips Newt
Prechter: 2012 Stock Drop Will Guarantee Obama’s Ouster
“Some investment gurus look at elections to determine how the stock market will move. But Robert Prechter, the renowned president of Elliott Wave International, looks at the stock market to see how elections will turn out.
That’s because the stock market’s movements reflect the mood of investors/voters, he tells Yahoo.
“We think the stock market actually is a better predictor of who’s going to win the election than the election is of where the stock market is going,” Prechter says.
Comments »{VIDEO} THEY WERE WEARING BURLAP BAGS: Christmas Day 1776 – “Victory or Death” – Newt Gingrich Ad
‘This Means Escalation, Pushing Us One Step Closer to a Revolution’
Watch out, 1%; the kids will be back
The tents may have moved on, but Occupy Wall Street will be back with specific demands and a new strategy, in time for the 2012 elections. It’s the voice of America’s youth fearing a future that doesn’t add up.
Warning to America’s superrich: Think Occupy Wall Street disappeared in winter’s cold? Wrong: The 99% just declared a new aggressive, covert special-ops war strategy to take back our democracy in 2012.
No more peaceful tent encampments in parks. No more Mahatma Gandhi nice-guy stuff. Not enough. Escalation time. Wall Street, the superrich and their Washington lobbyists are tone deaf, blinded by greed, trapped in their post-2008 business-as-usual bubble.
Warning; OWS tells us America’s going to be shocked by not one but hundreds of wake-up calls in 2012.
How? In a recent Washington Post column, OWS leaders say they are accelerating their battle strategy in 2012. In what amounts to a new declaration of war that promises to electrify the 2012 elections, OWS will be using new asymmetrical warfare strategies, write two of the men who have been the driving force behind the movement since early this year: Kalle Lasn, the editor-in-chief of Adbusters magazine, and senior editor Micah White.
OWS protesters march on Broadway
Listen to some of the specific guerrilla tactics they warn will be used in their 2012 “American Spring” assault: A “marked escalation of surprise, playful, precision disruptions, rush-hour flash mobs, bank occupations, ‘occupy squads’ and edgy theatrics.” And in a New Yorker magazine interview shortly after New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s “military-style operation,” Lasn warned: “this means escalation, pushing us one step closer to a revolution.”
Read the rest here.
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