Mother Jones has a new article about Mike Huckabee, Huckabee Hides His Full Gospel?

The question is, if elected President, how much would Huckabee inject his faith into his policy?

Huckabee won't release his sermons, but there's plenty of other clues. This comment he made while Governor in 1997 is pretty telling:

[T]hat year, Huckabee refused to sign legislation to assist storm victims because the measure referred to tornadoes and floods as "acts of God." Putting his name on such legislation, Huckabee explained, "would be violating my own conscience" due to the bill equating "a destructive and deadly force" as "an act of God."

Jane of Firedoglake talked me into it. I'll be joining her and other bloggers in Des Moines from December 31 through January 4 to cover the Iowa caucuses being held Jan. 3.

The race is so close between Hillary, Obama and Edwards that it's just too exciting not to be there personally and analyze the dynamics, the mood, the goings-on and the last minute efforts of the candidates to get out the vote.

If you are able to send a few bucks TalkLeft's way for expenses (or even just for holiday cheer) that would be very appreciated.

Bump and Update: 24 year old Matthew Murray, the home-schooled son of a prominent neurologist, has been identified as the shooter in yesterday's Colorado Springs church shooting.

The law enforcement official said Murray was believed to be the gunman in both attacks. Murray did not appear to have a criminal history but "hated Christians," the official said.

....Murray's father, Ronald S. Murray, is a neurologist who is chief executive of the Rocky Mountain Multiple Sclerosis Center in Englewood.

Murray attended the Youth With a Misson program in Arvada about three years ago but was kicked out. He began sending them hate mail a few weeks ago.

***

Original Post 12/9/07

Shooting Deaths at Two Colorado Evangelical Sites

Three people and a gunman are dead in Colorado following two shooting sprees at evangelical sites, 70 miles apart.

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Conrad Black didn't do too badly at his sentencing today. He got 6 1/2 years, the bottom of the guidelines, he has to return $6.1 million and pay a $125,000 fine. The Government initially sought a 24 year sentence, but after the Judge rejected its guideline computations and adopted a guideline range of 6 1/2 to 8 years, it dropped its request to 8 years. Still, Black got the bottom of the range. Also,

The judge allowed Black to remain free on bail until March 3, when he is to report to prison. She granted a defense request that he serve his term at a low security facility at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. She rejected U.S. requests to seize Black's Palm Beach, Florida, home or the proceeds of the sale of his Manhattan apartment.

....The judge rejected U.S. efforts to sentence Black under tougher guidelines or to consider the higher fraud amount found by the internal Hollinger investigation.

Turns out, Eglin's closed, so he'll have to go somewhere else.

I wonder if Michael Vick is sorry now that he surrendered on Thanksgiving weekend to start serving his sentence. It doesn't seem like it made a bit of difference. A federal judge today sentenced Vick to 23 months in prison.

Even though Vick pleaded guilty and surrendered early to begin serving his sentence, and the plea agreement (pdf) contemplated a two point "acceptance of responsibility" reduction, the Judge didn't give it to him. Nor does it seem he got a cooperation reduction which the Government said it might request if he provided helpful and truthful information.

The Plea Agreeement also said the prosecutor would ask for a sentence at the low end of the applicable guideline range, but the AP says it asked for a sentence at the high end. Sounds like Government doesn't think Vick held up his end of the bargain.

[More...]

If you're a blogger (particularly on state issues) and want to get media credentials for the August 25 to 28 Democratic Convention in Denver, the process begins today.

Big media goes through the Congressional Galleries. Bloggers go through the DNCC's Press Gallery. The basics are here -- 50 blogs on state issues, one from each state, will get credentialed first. National and niche bloggers will go into a second pool of applicants.

DNCC PRESS GALLERY: all other news organizations including blogs community newspapers, the publications of membership organizations, quarterlies, college media, production houses and media service organizations. Please visit the DNCC blog for more information on the blogger credentialing process.

DNCC Press Gallery
1560 Broadway
Denver, Colorado 80202
Phone: 720-362-2008
Email: dnccpressgallery-at-demconvention.com
www.demconvention.com

More....

The Supreme Court today affirmed rulings of two district court judges in cases in which they had granted downward departures from the federal sentencing guidelines. One case involved crack, the other ecstasy.

The cases are Kimbrough v. U.S., 06-6330 (opinion here, pdf) and Gall v. U.S., 06-7949, opinion here (pdf).

In Kimbrough, the Court had imposed a 15 year sentence instead of the 19 to 22 years called for by the guidelines. In Gall, the Court granted probation instead of a 30 to 37 month sentence.

Scotus Blog explains the decisons. Law Prof Doug Berman of Sentencing Law and Policy is very excited and will have a lot of commentary as soon as he's digested the opinions.

Tomorrow, the U.S. Sentencing Commission will announce its decision on whether its recent crack cocaine guideline reduction will be retroactive and thus apply to the 19,500 crack offenders now in federal prison.

Update: Two quotes from Kimbraugh on the difference between mandatory minimums and guidelines and ability of judges to consider the disparity between crack and powder cocaine penalties:

Scooter Libby's lawyer has announced they will drop the appeal of Libby's felony convictions.

It's too expensive and draining on his "young family."

I suspect this means Scooter has lined up another job and doesn't need his law license back.

Update: Joe Wilson thinks it means Libby's getting a pardon from Bush (received by e-mail, no link yet): [more]

Last week I predicted at the end of this post that Wayne Dumond would be only one of former Governor Mike Huckabee's pardon decisions to come back and bite him. The AP today reports on some of the others:

Huckabee granted 1,033 pardons and commutations in his 10 1/2 years as governor of Arkansas. The acts of clemency benefited the stepson of a staff member, murderers who worked at the governor's mansion, a rock star and inmates who received good words from their pastors.

As one Arkansas prosecutor put it, "It seems to be true at least anecdotally that if a minister is involved, (Huckabee) seems likely to grant clemency." Others say the key was either having "direct contact" with him or a strong lobbying effort by those close to the inmate.

The rock star, of course, was Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. No big deal there. As to the others: [More....]

Maybe it's something in the water down in Phoenix. Now in addition to their off-the-wall Sheriff, Joe Arpaio, they have a County Attorney, Andrew Thomas, who's spending $700k on a DUI program that includes posting the mug shots of those arrested for driving under the influence on the web. Even MADD doesn't like it, and that's saying something.

The hall of shame is even worse for drunken drivers convicted of a felony. A select few will find their faces plastered on billboards around Phoenix with the banner headline: Drive drunk, see your mug shot here.

The Web site and billboards, which began last month, are the brainchildren of Andrew P. Thomas, the county attorney here who has served as the prosecutorial counterpart to the county’s hard-edged sheriff, Joe Arpaio, who has been known to force inmates into pink underwear.

Thomas is not without his critics. He's sometimes called "Little Joe" because of his closeness to Arpaio.

When he took office in January 2005, Thomas made it clear he was following Arpaio's playbook. Politics and retribution would be the order of the day.

Here's the first of 70 pages of misdemeanor mugs in Scottsdale.

More...

Between Huckabee and Romney taking center stage with their faith this week and today's church-related shootings in Colorado, it's time for REM and Losing my Religion.

29,000 turned out to hear Oprah stump for Barack Obama in South Carolina today. Here's what the pair had to say:

Obama:

``It's not good enough to tell the people what you think they want to hear, instead of what they need to hear. That just won't do. Not this time,'' he said. ``We can't spend all our time triangulating and poll-testing our positions because we're worried about what Mitt or Rudy or Fred or the other Republican nominees are going to say about us.''

[Note: Read Eriposte's analysis of research showing who is triangulating more.]

Oprah:

``South Carolina - January 26th is your moment,'' .... ``It's your time to seize the opportunity to support a man who, as the Bible says, loves mercy and does justly.''

An attendee: [More....]