As Health Vote Awaits, Future of a Presidency Waits, Too"If Mr. Obama falls short on health care, his hopes of passing other ambitious legislation like an overhaul of immigration and a market-based cap on carbon emissions to curb climate change would seem out of reach, at least for the rest of this year. Much of Washington would question whether he is weak, some Democratic candidates would run away from him and Mr. Obama would be forced to consider a narrower agenda like that pursued by Bill Clinton after his own health care drive collapsed."Read Article   

   Latest: Opposition stages huge protest in Tehran    At least 100,000 rally in Iranian capital for a fifth day of protests against election result as regime tries to stem dissent  

 Unprepared attorney fined by Hinds judge

By Jimmie E. Gates
\n This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it A judge has sanctioned a Jackson attorney for being unprepared to go to trial this week in her client’s aggravated assault trial.Special Hinds County Circuit Judge L. Breland Hilburn has ordered attorney Robyn Teague to pay $1,200 to the circuit clerk for the cost of the summons sent to potential jurors.

“The court finds that defense counsel, Robyn Teague, was unprepared for trial without justifiable excuse,” Hilburn said.

Teague is the attorney for Eddie McElroy, charged with aggravated assault on a Jackson man in March 2008.

McElroy was set for trial initially Nov. 18. The trial was rescheduled to Feb. 2.

Teague couldn’t be reached for comment.

Hilburn said that if Teague doesn’t pay the $1,200 fine within 30 days, she will be in contempt of court. The order was dated Tuesday, Feb. 3.  

  State Supreme Court rules for Franken, 5-0 By PAT DOYLE, Star Tribune  The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled today that Democrat Al Franken won the U.S. Senate election and said he was entitled to an election certificate that would lead to him being seated in the Senate. "Affirmed," wrote the Supreme Court, unanimously rejecting Republican Norm Coleman's claims that inconsistent practices by local elections officials and wrong decisions by a lower court had denied him victory. "Al Franken received the highest number of votes legally cast and is entitled [under Minnesota law] to receive the certificate of election as United States Senator from the State of Minnesota," the court wrote. In upholding a lower court ruling in April, the justices said Coleman had "not shown that the trial court's findings of fact are clearly erroneous or that the court committed an error of law or abused its discretion."   

  Israel cries wolf over 'blood libel' A Swedish report about supposed organ-harvesting by troops in the West Bank isn't antisemitic – it's just bad journalism Comments (75)    
Seth Freedman guardian.co.uk, Monday 24 August 2009 17.00 BST Article history
Last week's allegations in a Swedish newspaper sparked an inferno in diplomatic circles, the flames of which are being fanned higher with every passing day. Despite dealing specifically with the behaviour of Israeli troops in the West Bank, rather than being a broad-stroked attack against Judaism, the indictment against the Israeli army has been held up as a shining example of modern-day "blood libel", as though the forces of antisemitic darkness are amassing once more against the Jewish people in their entirety.Aftonbladet presented allegations that Israeli soldiers routinely harvested organs from dead Palestinians in their custody, establishing a link between the organ-theft allegations and the recent money-laundering scandal involving prominent members of the American Jewish community. The article was immediately condemned throughout the Israeli political and press arenas, with the deputy foreign minister decrying it as a "blood libel against Jews", and demanding that Swedish officials take action to rebuke the newspaper involved.Sweden's response was to fall back on principles of freedom of speech. While the Swedish ambassador to Israel expressed her dismay at the publication of the accusations, prime…