Gun Possession Sentences Put Three-Strikes Law Back in Court

Well, I voted against the measure.

At LAT, "Rulings on jail terms inconsistent after changes to three-strikes law":

After nearly two decades behind bars, Mark Anthony White saw a chance for freedom last year when California voters softened the state's tough three-strikes law.

Within weeks of the election, White asked a judge to reduce his 25-years-to-life sentence under the ballot measure, which allows most inmates serving life terms for relatively minor third strikes to seek more lenient sentences.

White would have walked free if his request had been granted. But a San Diego County judge refused to reduce White's sentence. The judge ruled that the 54-year-old prisoner's last crime, being a felon in possession of a firearm, made him ineligible for a lighter punishment.

A year after state voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 36, judges around the state are handing down conflicting decisions on whether prisoners given life terms for gun possession can qualify for shorter sentences.

The ballot measure specifically excluded prisoners whose third strikes were either violent or serious, or who during the commission of their last crime were armed with a firearm or deadly weapon.

Whether someone convicted of simply possessing a firearm was in fact armed during the commission of a crime is a more complicated legal question than it might appear. The answer could mean the difference between freedom and life in prison for more than 280 third-strikers across the state. In Los Angeles County, about 120 prisoners are waiting for the legal wrangling over the issue to be resolved.

White has appealed the decision denying his request for a shorter sentence, and his case appears to be the first in which an appeals court could address the issue head on...

The f-ker should be behind bars. The three-strikes law was good law. You know idiot leftists got on the ballot last year, and good, decent and innocent people are the ones who'll pay the price as crime skyrockets.

More at that top link.

Time Magazine: Obama's Signature 'Broken Promise'

ClusterCare's on the cover of Time Magazine this week, with Americans being reminded (quite prominently) of the administration's signature broken promise, from supermarkets to doctors' offices and airports to mailboxes. A harsh cover story no doubt prefiguring many more to come.

See, "Obama's Race for the Cure":

A good President needs a big comfort zone. He should be able to treat enemies as opportunities, appear authentic in joy and grief, stay cool under the hot lights. But humility doesn't come naturally to those who decide they are qualified to run the free world. So the sign that the Obama presidency had reached a turning point came not when his poll numbers sank or his allies shuddered or the commentariat went hunting for the right degree of debacle to compare to the rollout of Obamacare.

It happened when he started apologizing. In triplicate. For not knowing what was going on in his own Administration. For failing to prevent his signature achievement from detonating in prime time. For not telling the whole truth when he promised people that Obamacare would not touch them without permission: "If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan."

Obama's supporters can decry a "feeding frenzy," but this is a critical moment for a President whose agenda for a second term amounted to little more than being not as lame as the other guy. The HealthCare.gov website may or may not get fixed on deadline, the senior staff may be booted and rebooted, but it is already too late to avoid a pageant of media scrutiny, Republican merriment, a rebuke even from Bill Clinton and a host of existential questions: Can this policy be saved? What is left of Obama's second term if it is consumed by fixing an unpopular policy from the first? How could a White House appear so confident and incompetent at the same time?

Forget Black Friday: Major Retaliers to Open at 8:00pm on Thanksgiving

Target's upping its shopping Blitzkrieg to 8:00pm.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Black Friday keeps growing: Target, Toys R Us to open on Thanksgiving":

At this rate, shoppers hoping to get in on "Black Friday" deals will have to eat their turkey for lunch, as both Target and Toys R Us announced plans to open Thanksgiving evening.

In its earliest opening ever, Target said it will welcome bargain hunters at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 28, joining a veritable stampede of retailers, including Macy’s, J.C. Penney and Staples.

Target said most stores will stay open until 11 p.m. on Friday and also will stay open for at least 14 hours on Christmas Eve and 15 hours the day after Christmas.

As for the employees running the holiday shift, Target said it “works closely with its team members to understand scheduling preferences” and pays such workers time and a half.

In an ultracompetitive holiday season that can account for 40% of a retailer’s annual revenue, some chains aren’t even waiting out Thanksgiving dinner.

Toys R Us said Monday that shoppers can come in starting at 5 p.m. until 10 p.m. the next day. Best Buy said last week that most of its stores will be operational at 6 p.m. on the holiday. Kmart’s 41-hour Black Friday marathon will start at 6 a.m. Thanksgiving morning.

More at that top link.

Plus, "Black Friday slide: Macy's to open 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving."

Nigella Lawson Tweets!

I had just posted yesterday on the reply from Greta Van Susteren, and then what do you know?

Nigella gives me a shout out.

Season 2 @TheTasteABC starts 2nd Jan 8pm @AmPowerBlog: .@Nigella_Lawson When you coming back on 'The Taste' in the states, Nigella?!!”

— Nigella Lawson (@Nigella_Lawson) November 23, 2013

Previous Nigella blogging is here.

Bwhahaha!! New York Times: 'Redistribution of Wealth Has Always Been a Central Feature' of #ObamaCare

The despicable Dems thought they could pull a fast one on the American people, but they underestimated the scope and scale of the bloodshed the law's wreaking on insurance markets and consumers.

Click through at Ron Fournier's tweet.

Obamacare = Redistribution of wealth. Fact, not opinion. Time for WH to own it, not spin it. http://t.co/ZKajKp3HWM #aca @JohnJHarwood

— Ron Fournier (@ron_fournier) November 24, 2013

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



Also at Randy's Roundtable, "Friday Nite Funnies," and Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES."

More at Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Dressed For Success."

CARTOON CREDIT: William Warren.

Smokin' Sunday #Rule5

Last week's entry is here, "Sunday #Rule5."

Starting things off this week is Pirate's Cove, "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup," and "If All You See……is a horrible smartphone sucking up vampire energy, you might just be Warmist."

More at Randy’s Roundtable, "Thursday Nite Tart - Pamela David."

Soylent has the "Brunch Buffet" (I think).

Plus, some luscious stuff at Odie's, "It's a Sign ~OR~ Rule 5 Woodsterman Style."

Subject to Change has "Humpday" --- and it's hot!

At Postal Dogs, "Natalie Gulbis is hanging in there."

Also at Good Stuff's, "Danielle Colby Cushman."

From Blackmailers Don't Shoot, "Pretty Girls on a Thursday, Aubrey Plaza Edition."

And at Camp of the Saints, "Rule 5 Saturday: Zoe Alexandra."

Also Daley Gator, "DaleyGator DaleyBabes: Audia Tulloch."

More at Knuckledraggin', "Mid-morning hottie."

And In a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World has the "Friday Pinups."

Plus, from Drunken Stepfather, "Steplinks of the Day."

At 90 Miles From Tyranny, "Morning Mistress," and "Hot Pick of the Late Night."

More from Proof Positive, "Best of the Web* Linkaround."

Still more from Dana Pico, "Rule 5 Blogging: Even neutral Sweden has an Army!"

See also Bro My God, "Reminder: Girls Are Beautiful." (Via Linkiest.)

See also the Hostages, "Big Boob Friday."

A View from the Beach has, "Striped Bass Fishing With a Girl on Lake Lanier."

EBL has, "Cowboys vs. Giants."

Plus, here's a special appearance by Marooned in Marin, "Mark Levin: This Nation Is In Grave Danger (Nuclear Option)."

BONUS: At the Other McCain, "FMJRA 2.0: Cathedral Oceans."

Drop your links in the comments of I've missed your Rule 5.

Until then...

'Historic Mistake' — Israel's Netanyahu Blasts Obama's Appeasement of Iran

The Los Angeles Times has a report, "Israel's Netanyahu: Iran agreement a 'historic mistake'."

And at Twitchy, "Benjamin Netanyahu tweet-blasts ‘historic mistake’ Iran deal; Asks key question; Update: Israel has right to defend itself."

And the satanic leftists burst out of the miasmic magma to spew their ever-flowing hatred, at that link, and here, "‘Die please’: Hateful tweets pour in toward Israel, Netanyahu."

Obama's Appeasement

Well, the Munich analogy is getting a lot of traction following the disastrous deal with Iran, discussed here, "Obama and Iran: Disastrous Nuclear Deal Revives 1930s-Era Appeasement."

And now Pamela Geller has this fabulous Photoshop, "IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL: CHOICE WAS BETWEEN 'PLAGUE AND CHOLERA' -- 'IF A NUCLEAR SUITCASE BLOWS UP FIVE YEARS FROM NOW IN NEW YORK OR MADRID, IT WILL BE BECAUSE OF THE DEAL THAT WAS SIGNED THIS MORNING'."

Obama and Iran: Disastrous Nuclear Deal Revives 1930s-Era Appeasement

Ambassador John Bolton has the lead story at Memeorandum right now, "Abject Surrender by the United States."

Read it all at the link.

The biggest obstacle to an Iranian nuclear pact is that the Iranians still hate America & are committed to killing every one of us! Oops!
— Janie Johnson (@jjauthor) November 24, 2013

Israel is waking up to a national nightmare.
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) November 24, 2013

Harder on our allies than our enemies. The definition of "soft power."

— GregGutfeld (@greggutfeld) November 24, 2013

I remember the last time the Iranians negotiated with a weak American President #tcot #IranTalks pic.twitter.com/pNvKaKwpvI

— Tony Schroeder (@schroedertony) November 24, 2013

It goes without saying that this deal is devastating for the United States and Israel. The Obama administration's foreign policy is simply predicated on reducing U.S. power and influence in the world, while conversely strengthening our historic enemies and placing Israel at the mercy of the world's most revisionist and murderous regimes. It's a disastrous agreement.

The Other McCain sums up perfectly, "‘Peace for Our Time’."

And at the Daley Gator, "The Lefts’ tragic addiction to appeasement," and Camp of the Saints, "Obama's Munich."

Also at Astute Bloggers, "FAUSTIAN PACT SIGNED WITH IRAN."

Yemeni Wedding Gangnam-Style Bloodbath

At the Independent UK, "Yemen wedding bloodbath as three shot accidentally during Gangnam Style dance."

Gateway Pundit has it on YouTube, "Yemeni ‘Gangnam Style’ Wedding Dance Results in Three Accidental AK47 Head Shots (Video)."

Lights, Camera, Angels!

Hey, the show's coming up pretty soon now!

Uninsured Crushed Under the Jackboot of the #ObamaCare Enforcement Regime

Via the People's Cube:

The Commissar for Healthcare Enforcement will soon begin compulsory collectivization of those citizens who refuse to pay their fair share of the healthcare program. Kulaks will be paying penalties for their excessive hoarding through their refusals to pay into the State-mandated insurance collectives. Please assist the Commissar by denouncing uninsured citizens.

And for all your information needs on the jackboots of ClusterCare, check the link.

Majority Leader Harry Reid: 'Destroying the Rights of the Minority Party'

The floor comments from Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) on the Democrats' repeal of the filibuster on judicial nominees.



More from James Taranto, at the Wall Street Journal, "The Senate Gets MAD":

The end of the filibuster entails a serious diminution of the Senate's power vis-à-vis the president and the House. As we observed this July, the Senate's power consists largely in its ability to withhold consent from both House-passed legislation and presidential actions (nominations and treaties). Thus majority rule enhances the power of the majority party at the expense of every individual senator, regardless of party.

As the Senate has become more partisan, and members elected during an earlier age have retired or died, concern for the Senate's institutional power has diminished. Yesterday's third Democratic dissenter, Carl Levin of Michigan, is one of only three remaining Democratic senators first elected before 1984.

But there's also a partisan incentive for restraint: A change in rules to benefit today's majority party will also benefit the other party the next time it is in the majority. It's called the "nuclear option" because it entails mutually assured destruction of the rules that benefit the minority. If the Republicans had gone nuclear in 2005, the Democrats would have reaped the benefit in 2009.

Once the filibuster is gone, it's as good as forever gone. There is no incentive for any majority party to reinstate it. Nor is there any reason to expect that future majorities will respect what's left of it. If a Democratic minority in 2017 tries to filibuster a Republican Supreme Court nominee, the Republicans will surely follow yesterday's precedent. The legislative filibuster may prove more robust, but one suspects our hypothetical Republican majority would abolish it if that's what it takes to repeal ObamaCare.

What's peculiar about the timing of the Democrats' decision is that it comes just when the partisan risk of abolishing the filibuster has been heightened. As the Washington Post's Ezra Klein acknowledges:

There's a lot of upside for Republicans in how this went down. It came at a time when Republicans control the House and are likely to do so for the duration of President Obama's second term, so the weakening of the filibuster will have no effect on the legislation Democrats can pass. The electoral map, the demographics of midterm elections, and the political problems bedeviling Democrats make it very likely that Mitch McConnell will be majority leader come 2015 and then he will be able to take advantage of a weakened filibuster. And, finally, if and when Republicans recapture the White House and decide to do away with the filibuster altogether, Democrats won't have much of an argument when they try to stop them.

"The political problems bedeviling Democrats" is a marvelous bit of understatement. The abject failure of ObamaCare has made the prospect of a Republican Senate in 2015 and a Republican president in 2017 much likelier. Thus even from a purely partisan standpoint, rational Democrats would have been more cautious about invoking the nuclear option when they did than at just about any other time in the past five years.

Well, Democrats are desperate.

And they'll rue the day they caved to short-term partisan incentives. And that day will come sooner than they think, in the words of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Greta Van Susteren Tweeted!

Hey, it's not everyday you get a Twitter response from a Fox News anchor, so I might as well post this for posterity.

Greta's been doing the great coverage on the black thug "knockout game," and I thanked her.

@gretawire You're doing a great job!

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) November 21, 2013

@AmPowerBlog it is growing...we need to do what we can to stop it now?

— Greta Van Susteren (@gretawire) November 21, 2013

@gretawire Well, I posted it on my blog too. Helping as much as I can: http://t.co/lu8JWumIum Thanks!

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) November 21, 2013

Actually, I've heard back previously from Janice Dean as well, so now it's on to some of the other Fox News hotties, lol.

Stacey Poole

She's lovely --- one of my current favorites among the U.K. "Page 3" models.

On Twitter.

#ObamaCare and Leftist Cruelty

From Karin McQuillan, at American Thinker, "Obamacare and Liberal Cruelty" (via the Other McCain):

Obamacare privileges the poor over the rich, the middle aged over the young, women over men, and everyone else over the elderly on Medicare. In order to extend more government control over private insurers, doctors and hospitals, Democrats have chosen to sacrifice the financial well- being and even the lives of other Americans. They justify it because they want to offer government subsidized insurance to those they deem needier.

People who watch Fox News or read the Wall St. Journal have seen the faces and heard the voices of cancer patients who have lost the doctors and hospitals who are keeping them alive. Families working as hard as they can to maintain themselves find their insurance bills jumping to calamitous rates. We have heard from quietly desperate mothers saying their family cannot afford these rate hikes and that they don't know what they are going to do.

The government has taken the power to divert the train. It is morally wrong.

A great piece.

Continue reading.

White House Extends #ObamaCare Enrollment Deadline

Another delay for this fabulous legislation.

At WSJ, "Obama Administration to Push Back Health-Insurance Enrollment for 2015":

The Obama administration is planning to push back the period during which Americans sign up for coverage under the new health law in its second year of operation, a change that could reassure insurers while also avoiding the 2014 midterm elections.

The Department of Health and Human Services will allow Americans to start signing up for coverage starting Nov. 15, 2014, rather than Oct. 15, 2014, a department official said early Friday. People will have until Jan. 15, 2015, rather than Dec. 7, 2014, to complete the process, the official said.

The move is intended to give insurance issuers "the benefit of more time to evaluate their experiences during the 2014 plan year and allow them to take into account those who may enroll late, including young adults, before setting 2015 rates," the department said. The change also would give states and the federally run marketplace currently serving 36 states more time to get their systems ready for the next open enrollment period, it said.

The change applies to the new health-insurance exchanges created by the 2010 Affordable Care Act. They offer coverage to those who can't obtain it from an employer or government program.

The decision was earlier reported by Bloomberg News. It doesn't affect the open enrollment period for this year, which began Oct. 1 with a rough start. Open enrollment this season continues through March 31, and some supporters have delayed plans for promotions until January.

Insurers typically prepare rates in the spring for plans that will take effect the following year. Dismal early enrollment numbers and other developments in the market have made insurers nervous about the kind of risk they will bear after the first enrollment period under the law is over. That could prompt them to err on the side of caution and propose higher premiums for 2015.

The delayed 2015 enrollment calendar now being proposed by the Obama administration would give the insurers more time before they had to pull the trigger on rate decisions.

Such a shift also would ensure that Democrats facing tough re-election races next fall don't have to campaign at the same time as open enrollment is taking place, although some premium information would be already available during the campaign.

'Racism Blackmail' in UK Public Schools: Required Islam Indoctrination for Grade School Children

Pretty freakin' unbelievable.

But then again, not.

At London's Daily Mail, "Children of 8 are 'racist' if they miss Islam trip: School's threatening letter to parents is met with outrage."



Coming to America?

Actually, it's already here.

Dallas Ceremony Honors JFK's Legacy

At WSJ, "Thousands Pay Tribute on 50th Anniversary of Assassination":

DALLAS—Under leaden skies, thousands of people here paid solemn respect to President John F. Kennedy on Friday at the small greensward that his motorcade was passing when he was slain by gunfire exactly 50 years ago.

Roughly 5,000 people, who were awarded tickets through a lottery, braved freezing temperatures and steady rain for the hourlong commemoration at Dealey Plaza, which included songs by the U.S. Naval Academy Men's Glee Club, a nod to Kennedy's service as a naval officer during World War II, as well as a recitation of some of the president's speeches by historian David McCullough.

Among those attending was Jill Michaels, who drove an hour and a half from her home in Waco, Texas, to commemorate the fallen president, arriving several hours before the ceremony began at noon. "Kennedy's assassination was our generation's 9/11 moment," said Dr. Michaels, a 59-year-old dentist. "I came to remember it and maybe to experience a healing moment."

Dallas's event was as much a tribute to the president's life and vision as it was an attempt at closure for the city, which had been scarred by the events a half-century ago on Nov. 22, 1963, after which people blamed a climate of intolerance here for the shooting.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, 59, assured citizens that the city "was not guilty of the crime," but acknowledged that it had used the event as a catalyst to change for the better.

"It seems like we all grew up that day," said Mr. Rawlings, who recalled being ushered into the school gymnasium that Friday in 1963 and told his school day was over.

The commemoration drew visitors from around the world, many of whom were drawn by both Kennedy's legacy and the persisting mystery surrounding his death. Many people to this day continue to believe there must have been a wider plot to assassinate Kennedy, with some questioning the Warren Commission conclusion that accused gunman Lee Harvey Oswald, a worker at the Texas School Book Depository, was the sole gunman.