Update II: Repeat Offender Mike Huckabee

Crime, Law, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Politics

“Like Michael Dukakis, former presidential candidate and Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee waded into the moral miasma of penal abolition. Dukakis, the Democratic presidential nominee in 1988, fought to secure a prison furlough for convicted murderer Willie Horton. Horton went on to assault a Massachusetts man and rape his fiancée during his recreational weekend off.

Wayne Dumond, the recipient of Huckabee’s helping hand, raped and murdered a Missouri woman. When asked about his difficult-to-defend role ‘in an apparently illegal and unrecorded closed-door meeting with the parole board lobbying on behalf of a rapist,’ Huckabee has offered a thesaurus of excuses.” [From “Huck’s For Huck—Paul’s For America”]

It transpires that the darling of so many evangelicals may have had a hand in releasing another habitual offender suspected of gunning down 4 cops in Washington State. With the Huckster as its liberal lodestar, WA did its bit to ensure Clemmons remained a man-about-town.

Reports the AP:

A man with an extensive criminal past — including a lengthy prison sentence commuted by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee nearly a decade ago — was being sought Sunday in a deadly ambush on four police officers who were gunned down inside a coffee shop.

…

Clemmons has an extensive violent criminal history from Arkansas, including aggravated robbery and theft, the sheriff’s office said. He also recently was arrested and charged in Washington state for assaulting a police officer, and second-degree rape of a child. Using a bail bondsman, he posted $150,000 and was released from jail last week.

Update I (Nov. 30): WND.COM:

“Mike Huckabee… granted 1,033 pardons and commutations, including 12 convicted murderers,’ … Huckabee granted more clemencies than the previous three governors combined.”

To repeat what I said above about Washington State’s excuse for law enforcement: “[I]t’s true that several authorities neglected to keep the repeat offender behind bars, recent headlines have been quick to point out that were it not for the clemency Huckabee granted in 2000, Clemmons would still be serving a 95-year sentence.”

Update II (Dec. 1): Michelle Malkin excerpts the Seattle Times, in addition to excoriating the Huckster and exposing his unforgivable record, something her conservative buddies can’t bring themselves to do:

Nine years ago, then-Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee granted clemency to Clemmons, commuting his lengthy prison sentence over the protestations of prosecutors.

“This is the day I’ve been dreading for a long time,” Larry Jegley, prosecuting attorney for Arkansas’ Pulaski County said Sunday night when informed that Clemmons was being sought in connection to the killings.

Clemmons’ criminal history includes at least five felony convictions in Arkansas and at least eight felony charges in Washington. The record also stands out for the number of times he has been released from custody despite questions about the danger he posed.

Clemmons had been in jail in Pierce County for the past several months on a pending charge of second-degree rape of a child.

He was released from custody just six days ago, even though he was wanted on a fugitive warrant out of Arkansas and was staring at eight felony charges in all out of Washington state.

Clemmons posted $15,000 with a Chehalis company called Jail Sucks Bail Bonds. The bondsman, in turn, put up $150,000, securing Clemmons’ release on the pending child-rape charge.

Clemmons lives in Tacoma, where he has run a landscaping and power-washing business out of his house, according to a police interview with his wife earlier this year.

He was married, but the relationship was tumultuous, with accounts of his unpredictable behavior leading to at least two confrontations with police earlier this year.

During the confrontation in May, Clemmons punched a sheriff’s deputy in the face, according to court records. As part of that incident, he was charged with seven counts of assault and malicious mischief.

In another instance, Clemmons was accused of gathering his wife and young relatives around at 3 or 4 in the morning and having them all undress.

Read all the Huckster’s excuse making.

Update II: Minarets No More

EU, Freedom of Religion, Islam, Multiculturalism, Nationhood, The West

The minaret is the quintessential symbol of Islam’s power. Not only is this structural spire an imposing eyesore, towering over 200 meters above, but it emits—by virtue of the muezzin’s ululations—noise pollution five times a day.

The Swiss have not rejected freedom of religion—Muslims can worship as they wish. What the Swiss have decided is to reject the architectural, auditory and cultural imposition that the minaret signifies and retain the western flare of their cities. Naturally, CNN has framed the plebiscite as the work of the far right:

Swiss voters on Sunday adopted a referendum banning the construction of minarets, seen by some on the far right as a sign of encroaching Islamism.

“The Federal Council respects this decision,” said a statement from Switzerland’s government. “Consequently the construction of new minarets in Switzerland is no longer permitted. The four existing minarets will remain.

MORE.

Update I (Nov. 30): On the meaning of the minaret, Islam scholar Andy Bostom quotes “the official Brill Encyclopedia of Islam”:

“It seems on the whole unrelated to its function of the adh?n [q.v.] calling the faithful to prayer, which can be made quite adequately from the roof of the mosque or even from the house-top. During the lifetime of the Prophet, his Abyssinian slave Bil?l [q.v.], was responsible for making the call to prayer in this way. The practice continued for another generation, a fact which demonstrates that the minaret is not an essential part of Islamic ritual. To this day, certain Islamic communities, especially the most orthodox ones like the Wahh?b?s in Arabia, avoid building minarets on the grounds that they are ostentatious and unnecessary. … It must be remembered, however, that throughout the mediaeval period, the role of the minaret oscillated between two polarities: as a sign of power and as an instrument for the adh?n.”

AND:

“The venerable Brill Encyclopedia of Islam (EOI) entry on minarets makes plain that minarets are a political statement of Islamic supremacism. Interestingly, given current Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan’s provocative statement while mayor of Istanbul (the full statement was quoted in a NY Times story http://www.kurdistan.org/Washington/nyt.html by Stephen Kinzer from 2/16/1998: ‘The mosques are our barracks, the domes are our helmets, the minarets are our swords, and the faithful are our army’), cited by opponents of minaret construction in Switzerland—the observations from the Brill EOI about the Ottoman perspective on minarets are of particular note.”

MORE.

Update II: Diana West has rounded up responses from across Europe to the Swiss’s anti-Islamization declaration.

Israel A Hub For High-Tech Action

Human Accomplishment, Intelligence, Israel, Outsourcing, Science, Technology

Contra the USA, Israel’s high-tech sector is thriving and the country is enjoying unprecedented “current accounts surpluses.” Yet quite a few political types, on the left and the right, wish to see parts of this hub of high-tech activity handed over to Katyusha operators.

Courtesy of the Etinger Report, here are some economic indices produced by a population that would fit into a couple of large American cities:

• Siemens acquired Israel’s solar energy Solel for $418MN, following Siemens’ 40% acquisition of Israel’s solar company, Arava Power for $15MN (Globes business daily, Oct. 16, 2009). Sigma Designs acquired Israel’s CopperGate Telecommunications for $200MN (Globes, Oct. 1). Britain’s M86 acquired Israel’s Finjan for $35MN (Globes, Nov. 4).

• Fitch International Credit Rating Agency has joined Moody’s (A1 stable) and Standard & Poor (A stable), maintaining Israel’s long-term foreign exchange and local currency credit rating at A and A+ respectively. Israel is one of the very few countries which have maintained its credit rating during the economic crisis of the last two years. According to Fitch, Israel’s stable banking sector, absence of “bubbles,” hawkish budget-deficit (curbing government spending) policy and stability of the high tech and services sectors have produced unprecedented current accounts surplus and foreign exchange reserves (Wall Street Journal, Nov. 6, Yedioth Achronot, Nov. 8). A 7%-13% rise in hiring has been recorded by Israel’s high tech sector during 2009’s third quarter (Globes, Oct. 26).

• “[Microsoft’s CEO], Steve Ballmer calls Microsoft as much an Israeli company as an American company, because of the importance of its Israeli technologies. Google, Cisco, Microsoft, Intel, eBay – says one of eBay’s executives – the best kept secret is that we all live and die by the work of our Israeli teams…John Chambers, Cisco’s CEO, has bought nine Israeli start-ups… Such economic dynamism has occurred in the face of war, internal strife and rising animosity from other nations. During the six years following the bursting of the tech bubble in 2000, Israel suffered one of its worst periods of terrorist attacks and fought a second Lebanese War, and yet its share of the global venture capital market did not drop – it doubled from 15% to 31%… Israel, a tiny nation of immigrants torn by war, has managed to become the first technology nation…” (James Glassman, Exec. Dir. Of the G.W. Bush Institute, Wall St. Journal, Nov. 23, 2009 book review of Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle).

• HP expands it R&D operations in Israel, hiring 100 persons during the next two years, in addition to its current 5,000 employees (Globes Business daily, Nov. 25). Microsoft’s newest anti-virus software, Microsoft Security Essentials, was developed in Microsoft’s R&D center in Israel (Globes, Oct. 1).

• Israel has been chosen to succeed Germany in heading the largest R&D network in the world, the “Eureka Initiative,” a pan-European, inter-governmental initiative that supports European innovation and oversees 1.5BN British Pound investments annually. Israeli companies have participated in 40 – out of 300 – Eureka projects launched in 2008. Eureka operates like the highly successful US-Israel Bi-National Industrial R&D (BIRD) Foundation (Israel 21c, July 27).

• The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has recognized Israel as one of the fifteen international centers (countries) for the search and testing of patents. Thus, global innovators will be able to apply – in Israel – to patent testing and approval, which will be recognized internationally (Ynet, Sept. 30).

• The Dutch Forbion Capital Partners – joined by Alice Ventures, Vitalife, Kreos Capital and IHCV – led an $18.5MN round by Israel’s NiTi Surgical Solutions (Globes, Aug. 12). Apropos IT, Dolphin Equity Partners, Inter-Atlantic Group and Hyperion Partners invested $17MN in a 3rd round by Israel’s SeaPass (Globes, Nov. 5). Yorkville Advisors Global extended a $15MN line of credit to Israel’s Mazor (Globes, Sept. 4). USVP led a $12MN round by Israel’s water-recycling BPT (Globes, Aug. 31). Japanese electrical giants led a $12MN 2nd round of private placement by Israel’s Plurality (Globes, Nov. 19). Dupont Capital, Saints Capital, Carlisle, Adams Street Partners, Deutsche Telecom (T-Venture) and Argonaut participated in a $10MN round of private placement by Israel’s Actelis (Globes Sept. 9). Trilogy Partners led a $9/4MN round by Israel’s Crescendo Networks (Globes, Aug. 14). The US-based Volcano Capital and Wheatley partners led an $8MN round by Israel’s VisionSense (Oct. 19). Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Index Ventures invested $8MN in Israel’s NovoCure (Oct. 1). India’s Kushla Ventures and the Silicon Valley-based Kleiner Perkins led a $7MN round by Israel’s eASIC (Globes, Nov. 5). General Catalyst, Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures invested $6MN in Israel’s Boxee (Globes, Aug. 14). Benchmark Capital and Tamares invested $5MN in a 2nd round by Israel’s Panaya (Globes, Aug. 6). 7Health Ventures led a $5MN round by Israel’s Activiews (Globes, Sept. 15). Benchmark Capital leads a $3MN 2nd round by Israel’s Zlango (Globes, Nov. 19).

Crashing The Trash House

Barack Obama, Celebrity, Etiquette, Pop-Culture

TRASH people crash the White House. So what? The place is packed with nasty, noisome parasites. An extra pair makes no difference. At least not to me. Therefore, I’m unexercised by the specter of Tareq and Michaele Salahi frolicking with Rham, Barack, and Biden. There’s something apropos in a couple of reality-show exhibitionists brazenly elbowing their way uninvited into a party of ponces.

This is a party thrown by a president who was launched by the Queen of Kitsch (Oprah). This is the place where Bono came to petition Bush for loot. Before him, Clinton used the space for his nefarious dealings. All in all, from the White House are issued shake-down schemes that make Bernie Madoff look like “a mere babe in grand larceny boot camp.” So it’s entirely fitting that a nation of reality-show viewers should have representatives at the Trash House who themselves “have left an extensive paper trail in federal bankruptcy and state court filings.”

You get the drift: the White House has long since lost the dignity of the office. Trash people crashing a party there completes the picture.

As for security: The president has very few real risks; the huffing and puffing over the alleged danger he was exposed to is just that: a whole lot of hooey.

What you can be sure of is that heads will role over this faux paux. The responsible parties will be made to fall on their swords way faster than will the cogs in the military machine who facilitated the eventual death of 13 servicemen and women at Fort Hood, at the hand of the jihadi Major Nidal Hasan.