Not a great slate of games this college football weekend, but college football has a way of making every slate of games interesting. For the season, my record is 9-6 (.600, I count the record aainst the spread). Here are my 5 for this week.

In Happy Valley, Iowa visits Penn State (-10). I have been going back and forth on this game. If Stanzi was playing better, I would take a flyer on Iowa winning the game outright (Iowa has beaten PSU 6 of the last 8), but he's not. I'm taking the Nittany Lions (-10).

More . . .

Najibullah Zazi, who was ordered detained pending trial in NY and flown to NY today, will be housed in solitary confinement in a maximum security wing at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

His lawyer, Arthur Folsom, who has never defended a client in federal court and who allowed him to be questioned for 23 hours by the FBI last week, told the Court in Denver today that he and another Colorado lawyer (who practiced in New York more than 20 years ago) will continue to represent Zazi in the NY case -- the case in which he is charged with a terrorism offense carrying a potential life penalty. The Magistrate Judge in Colorado confirmed this with Zazi, asking him whether he wanted a public defender to be appointed in NY. Zazi declined, stating he intended to keep his present counsel.

So Arthur Folsom and his new co-counsel will be traveling back and forth to NY to represent Zazi. (Only the co-counsel will appear Tuesday, presumably because it will take longer than that for Folsom to submit all the paperwork to get admitted to practice in federal court in NY or even admitted pro hac vice.) [More...]

Kristen Parker, the hospital surgical tech infected with Hepatitis C, who stole syringes filled with Fentanyl intended for surgery patients, shot herself up, and then filled her dirty syringes with saline and replaced them on the rack in the OR, exposing thousands of patients to Hepatitis C and infecting at least 16, pleaded guilty today in federal court in Denver, agreeing to a 20 year sentence. Her trial was scheduled to begin Monday.

The plea agreement (which I just read but won't post in its entirety unless the MSM does) states the parties have agreed to a a 20 year sentence under Rule 11 ©(1)(c.) Her guidelines for the counts to which she pleaded guilty were 235 to 293 months. Had she gone to trial on just the counts she pleaded guilty to and lost, she wouldn't have received the 3 points for acceptance of responsibility and her guidelines would have been 324 - 405 months. [More...]

Dollhouse premieres tonight on Fox at 9.

While my posts of late have been all Public Option All The Time, starting next week, that will be leavened with some Obama Administration cheerleading - specifically regarding foreign policy questions such as Afghanistan and Iran.

So my posts will become Centrist Hawk Central. I expect much pushback from our readers, and I strongly suspect, from Jeralyn too.

This is an Open Thread.

As the person who coined the phrase "11 dimensional chess," I take exception to Booman's post that, due to his misunderstanding of its origin and meaning, criticizes the phrase. Moreover, Booman misunderstands the process by which the public option remains alive. Booman writes:

I, too, have been irritated with the growing currency of the derisive term 11-Dimensional Chess. The term is used to dismiss the possibility that there is a rhyme and reason behind Obama's strategies (particularly on health care). . . . I know that most people using the term mean something slightly different.

(Emphasis supplied.) More . . .

It's back to court for me, here's an open thread for you. All topics welcome.

Magistrate Judge Craig Shaffer today denied bond for Najibullah Zazi on the New York Indictment charging him with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. He granted the request filed by the Government yesterday to dismiss the Colorado false statements charge. Arguing against bond, AUSA Tim Neff told the Court:

"(The evidence) suggested the defendant was intent on making a bomb and being in New York on 9/11 for the purpose of using such an item."

His lawyer, Arthur Folsom, argued the opposite:

"He was there on September 11. The entire time on September 11 and nothing happened," Folsom said.

Having denied bond, the Court ordered Zazi transferred to New York to face trial on its Indictment. The Colorado case is over as to him. The false statement charge against his father, Mohammed Zazi, is still pending. The next hearing in that case is October 9. The elder Zazi was released on bail yesterday.

HuffPo:

A memo making the rounds on Capitol Hill makes the case that the current construct of the Senate Finance Committee's legislation - which includes an individual mandate but no public option - will be resoundingly opposed by the American public.

"Nationally," the memo reads, "voters oppose a mandate to purchase private insurance by 64% to 34% but support a mandate with a choice of private or public insurance by 60% to 37%... Each [survey] found that likely 2010 voters oppose 'requiring everyone to buy and be covered by a private health insurance plan' but support 'requiring everyone to buy and be covered by a health insurance plan with a choice between a public option and private insurance plans.'"

No problem. They can all get jobs as lobbyists when they are voted out.

Speaking for me only

While Kent Conrad opposes the public option because, he says, it does not fit "our culture," 65% of Americans disagree with Conrad:

Would you favor or oppose the government offering everyone a government administered health insurance plan -- something like the Medicare coverage that people 65 and older get -- that would compete with private health insurance plans?"

Favor 65%, Oppose 26%

Of course, being a "deficit hawk," Conrad and Blue Dogs are having a hard time explaining why they oppose the one proposal that actually WOULD REDUCE the budget deficit by $110 billion AND is supported by 65% of Americans.

More and more, ConservaDems and Blue Dogs are being unmasked as nothing but lackeys for the insurance industry. Nothing else explains their behavior.

Speaking for me only

Susan Atkins, 61, has died of brain cancer in a California prison hospital.

Atkins was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2008 as she neared her fourth decade of incarceration at the California Institute for Women in Corona. The cancer caused paralysis and the loss of one leg.

Convicted of eight murders, Atkins served 38 years of a life sentence, which made her the longest-serving prisoner among women currently held in the state's penitentiaries, said Thornton. That distinction now falls to Patrcia Krenwinkle, who was convicted along with Atkins for the Tate-LaBianca murders

Atkins was serving a sentence of life, not life without parole. She was denied parole for the final time early this month. My view: [More...]

For the benefit of ConservaDems and Blue Dogs, let's review the bidding on cost controls and deficit reduction in the various health care reform proposals:

(1) Conrad's Co-ops Are Useless.

(2) Wyden's Exchanges Are Useless.

(3) Robust Public Option Saves $110 Billion.

Who are the deficit hawks again?

If ConservaDems and Blue Dogs really are into cost controls as they claim, and are really worried about budget deficits as they claim, then they should demand a public option. Via FDL, the LATimes reports:

[Congress'] reluctance to control premium costs comes despite the fact that they intend to require virtually all Americans to get health insurance, an unprecedented mandate -- long sought by insurance companies -- that would mark the first time the federal government has compelled consumers to buy a single industry's product, effectively creating a captive market. "We are about to force at least 30 million people into an insurance market where the sharks are circling," said California Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, a Democrat who served as the state's insurance commissioner for eight years. "Without effective protections, they will be eaten alive."

Soaring premiums coupled with millions of new customers forced to buy policies would likely mean higher costs for taxpayers to cover government subsidies for lower-income families and individuals. They could also mean bigger bills for people who get benefits.

(Emphasis supplied.) How's that for a campaign theme in 2010 - "Vote Dem - We Made Sure Insurance Companies Screw You."

Speaking for me only