he printed off the internet.

     Sayad Parwez Kambaksh’s crime was printing a document from the internet that allegedly “violated the tenets of Islam.”  Kambaksh then allegedly took the printout to Balkh University, where he discussed it with his teacher and classmates, resulting in a complaint to the US-backed government.

     According to a report today by the Canadian Broadcasting Centre, members of the local clerics’ council had been pushing for Kambaksh to be punished by death.

    The head of a journalists group and the student’s family members have denounced the secret trial and claimed that Kambaksh was not even represented by a lawyer. The case can now go before two appeals before the death sentence is carried out.

Here in our Nevada Caucus, how many choices are there?  Actually, on the Democratic side, the options are unlimited.  A "Presidential Preference Card" will be distributed (complete with the names of some candidates who have already withdrawn) -- but, you are not restricted to those individuals.  If a viable number (15%) of those in a precinct want to vote for O. Savior or DR Hunter or YOU -- go ahead, the delegates count! 

to say on 11/11.

Let me share the ways some fine cartoonists see it: 

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”

    Well, they probably are not saying those exact words right now in Oslo, Norway.  But that’s the way more and more people are interpreting it.

    Just yesterday a Draft Gore committee placed a full-page ad in the New York Times asking Al to run – claiming to have 160,000+ signatures on their on-line petition.

    While DraftGore.com is certainly the most visible group and the one with most clout, it is just one of at least a dozen online organizations all determined to see Gore become our next president. Pro-Gore volunteer groups also have representation in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New England, California, and elsewhere.

    A nice fantasy for many who don’t see any of the current 14 candidates as being all that “Presidential” – but is it politically viable?  The often accurate observer of American politics, The Economist said “…there is a huge opportunity for somebody to arrive late and steal the show. The late entrant will not only have the advantage of being a fresh face. He or she could also change the whole dynamic of the race, gaining enough momentum to storm through Iowa and New Hampshire.”

    James Boyce made this point a couple of days ago on HufffingtonPost.com “Al Gore thinks he is a lousy politician, he's right. He is. We need some lousy politicians who say what they mean and mean what they say. We need some lousy politicians who can't stop themselves from rolling their eyes when a member of the press asks a moronic question. We need someone who points out how stupid the captions are on TV shows. We need Al Gore.”

    It's true he has been adamant that he does not want to run again. But will he be able to resist? As James Carville, who truly understands politicians, says that, for them, “running for president is rather like having sex for normal people: it is not something that you do just once if you have any say in the matter.”

    And remember, in our Nevada caucuses, we are free to vote for the person we think the party should nominate for President – whether or not they are an announced candidate.

    In politics, we rarely get a second chance to right a past mistake.  Maybe this time we do.

    A new survey documents that the U.S. government is collecting electronic records on the travel habits of millions of Americans who fly, drive or take cruises abroad, retaining data on the persons with whom they travel or plan to stay, the personal items they carry during their journeys, and even the books that travelers have read.

    The documents obtained by the Identity Project most likely are but the tip of the iceberg when analyzing the degree of invasiveness perpetrated by DHS on an unsuspecting American public. The government stores the PNRs (Passenger Name Records) for years and typically includes destinations, phone and e-mail contact information, meal requests, special health requests, payment information and frequent-flier numbers. The Identity Project filed Privacy Act requests for five individuals to see the data stored on them by the government. The requests revealed that the PNRs also included information on one requester's race, the phone numbers of overseas family members given to the airlines as emergency contact information, and a record of a purely European flight that had been booked overseas separately from an international itinerary, according to snippets of the documents shown to Wired News.

    By keeping tabs on what individual citizens read and with whom they associate, the Department of Homeland Security is collecting data on the free exercise of 1st Amendment activities. DHS is violating the fundamental right to travel, a right elemental to the free exercise of so many other rights, by requiring American citizens to get permission from DHS in order to leave or enter the United States, or to travel by air within the United States.

    Congressional action is urgently needed to investigate and defund all DHS surveillance programs that create this creation of records on "suspected terrorists" - meaning you - that violate the inalienable right of all Americans to travel freely, without governmental interference.

    And one further thought: why do so many conservatives whine that the government would be incapable of running a healthcare system and yet are willing to put their total trust, personal freedom, and individual rights in the hands of an power-hungry bureaucracy like Homeland Security?

   AdWords is Google's primary advertising product and main source of revenue. It offers pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. These ads are short, consisting of one title line and two content text lines. Advertisers specify the words that should trigger their ads and pay per click.  When you use Google's search engine, these ads are shown as "sponsored link" on the right side of the screen, or sometimes above the main search results.

   This is where I found a link to www.tomcollins.info.  Out of curiosity, I clicked on it and was surprised by headlines such as “Should a car thief be a Clark County Commissioner?” and “Do you make $80,000 a year for Part Time Work? Tom does!”

    Obviously, this wasn’t Tom’s own site – rather, one established to disparage his image. It was set-up by someone crafty enough to purchase a “Tom Collins” domain name – and committed enough to layout hard-earned cash for every time you or I click-on the “Tom Collins” AdWord.

    The site is the product of Brent Howard, a former Worker's Compensation Auditor who now runs BHI Bookkeeping, Payroll and Income Tax Service, a respected local firm with hundreds of clients and staff of more than a dozen.  Even more curiouser is the fact that Howard is an active Democrat.

    Who is this Brent Howard and what’s his problem with Tom?  Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of Nevada Confidential!

   {TakeAways: if you are in public life, make sure you own EVERY domain name that includes your name & if you’re going to piss-off someone, it’s better to not do it to someone web-savvy.}

   Maybe not this time. The newly released book "The Day of Islam: The Annihilation of America and the Western World," paints a frightening picture of al-Qaida's nuclear ambitions — and lists Las Vegas as one of the top seven sites where al-Qaida wants to detonate a nuclear weapon.

   Investigative reporter and former FBI consultant Paul Williams describes what he sees as the alarming potential for nuclear terrorism on U.S. soil and "sinister connections" among organized crime, illegal immigrants, and al-Qaida. (aren’t we glad they didn’t have suitcase nukes when the Calabrese organization was wanting to whack Spilotro!)

   Recently, FBI Director Robert Mueller, in an interview with NewsMax, confirmed Williams' main claim.  Mueller said al-Qaida's paramount goal is clear: to detonate a nuclear device that would kill hundreds of thousands of Americans.  Mueller told NewsMax that at times, the threat feels so real he lies awake at night thinking about the prospect.

   Williams maintains that al-Qaida is not content on blowing up one nuclear device or even simply a "dirty" nuke — but wants to explode real nuclear devices in seven U.S. cities simultaneously.

   Williams says these cities are New York, Washington, D.C., Las Vegas, Miami, Boston, Houston, and Los Angeles.  

I had experience with a modified version of the Missouri Plan during my time in the Michigan Legislature. While it is certainly not perfect, it does go a long way toward giving the public more confidence in the independence and integrity of the judicial system. I hope they will give the plan offered by Sen. Raggio and others full consideration – then take action to move the process forward on its long path to becoming reality. Sadly, the soonest such a bill could take affect is 2011.

    However, there is an important step the legislature could take immediately which would add credibility to the judicial selection process – one that would not require a Constitutional Amendment. A relatively simple statutory change could dramatically change the way campaigns for court positions are conducted.

    For more than 30 years, Michigan has had in place regulations to see that a judge or a candidate for judicial office refrains from political activity inappropriate to judicial office.

Specifically:

• A judge or a judicial candidate can not personally solicit or accept campaign funds.

• However, they may establish committees to secure and manage campaign funds and obtain public statements of support.

• These committees are prohibited from soliciting contributions from lawyers in excess of $100 per lawyer.

• Committees may not solicit campaign funds earlier than February 15 of the year of the election and may not solicit or accept funds after the date of the general election.

    Again, this process is not perfect, but it has had a very positive affect on the credibility of judicial campaigns. Nevada is the only state that allows its elected judges to directly solicit campaign contributions. That does not reflect well upon us. Adopting legislation such as this is a real, tangible, positive step this legislature could take to help restore respect for an independent, impartial judiciary in our state.