OK…the week is starting very shortly……this is an OPEN THREAD …blog away (but I am a bit curious what you are going to do this week….so feel free to tell us your plans for the week….)

I bet you do not know where Newt and Callista Gingrich are!! I did not until I got this email and these pics an hour ago…..I thought you would like to see them….Callista is a great photog!

Dear Greta:

Greetings. Hope all is well.

Newt and I are in Las Vegas and had an opportunity to see Barry Manilow
at the Hilton last night. From the opening tune, I Write the Songs, to
the closing rendition of Copacabana, he was amazing.

Attached are a few photos. Glad I just happened to have a small camera
in my purse.

Have a great day!

Take care,
Callista

Run your mouse over the pics to find out about them…these are from my colleague Mike Tobin in Lebanon…..read his email in the previous blog entry…and this is the BEHIND THE SCENES info I love posting here!

I love emails and pics from my FNC colleague MIKE TOBIN..he is in Lebanon (I have never been there)…..I get to see and learn things I could not otherwise see and learn and I suspect you feel the same way…run your mouse over the pics to get info about the pics: (note also…I am posting a few more pics from Mike soon..so check back)

—– Original Message —–
From: Tobin, Michael
To: Van Susteren, Greta
Sent: Sun May 11 15:54:19 2008
Subject: FW: Beirut photos for Greta Wire

All the best from Beirut,

Wow, Lebanon is really in fragile condition. I think the only things preventing a slide into full scale civil war is the old timers who remember how bad that is.

The fighting got particularly bad in the North so we went to tripoli on Sunday; lots of soldiers, very tense.

However, we were still able to steal a few minutes and score some good eats on the way back to Beirut. (Are you noticing a trend?) Abdul Rahman Hallab and sons is another famous place for sweets. It’s been in business since 1881. Yasser Arafat ate there when he was in exile.

Despite the troubles, Lebanon is one of my favorite places in the world. Like I told Majority leader Saed Hariri one time, the upside of Lebanon having so many problems is I can keep coming back.

We’ll shout again soon,

Mike

I so know you have something to say about this…READ BELOW and POST YOUR COMMENT….should the Father go to his son’s graduation? would you?

Sex Offender Banned from Son’s Graduation

Saturday , May 10, 2008

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. —

School and law enforcement officials have told a St. Joseph man that he can’t attend his son’s eighth-grade graduation because he is a convicted sex offender and isn’t allowed on school property.
James Jones, 36, said he may go anyway although the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department has told him he would be arrested and face up to four years in prison.

“I’ve already been punished for this. This isn’t about me anymore. Now they’re punishing my kids, and that’s taking it a little too far,” said Jones, who served five years in prison after being convicted in 1990 of forcible rape of a 15-year-old girl when he was 17.

“I’m always preaching education to my children. How does that make me look if I’m not there at graduation?”

In August 2006, a state law went into effect prohibiting sex offenders from going onto Keep Reading …

I suspect you have seen the above pic some place (and the ones below)…yes, Jenna Bush is now married. We have interviewed her ON THE RECORD at least twice and I am most impressed with her. She could easily have been a spoiled rotten kid — but she is so so so far from it. She is a very nice kid…actually no longer a kid. She has traveled the world…helped many, many, many people through her volunteer work….and has written two books. Her job? She is a teacher..and we sure could use more teachers like her.

Happy Mother’s Day!!

POST A MESSAGE RIGHT HERE FOR YOUR MOTHER (AND TELL HER TO LOG ON AND READ IT!!)

Read below…and post your opinion:

Justice Stevens contrasts lethal injection methods

By Associated Press

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.

Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens says the euthanized Kentucky Derby horse Eight Belles probably died more humanely than death row prisoners do.

Stevens’s comments Friday night came a month after he voted with a majority of the Supreme Court to approve the most widely used method of lethal injection, while saying for the first time that he now believes the death penalty is unconstitutional.

According to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, Stevens told an audience of judges and lawyers that he checked into the procedure used to kill Eight Belles and was surprised to learn it is against the law in Kentucky to kill animals using one of the drugs in a three-drug lethal injection cocktail that many states, including Kentucky, use to execute prisoners.

Stevens drew a round of applause for the comments to the 50 federal judges and more than 800 attorneys at the 68th conference of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Eight Belles was euthanized after breaking both front ankles a quarter-mile after the finish at Churchill Downs a week ago.

In its 7-2 ruling last month, the Supreme Court turned back a challenge to the execution procedures in place in Kentucky, which employ three drugs to sedate, paralyze and kill inmates. Similar methods are used by roughly three dozen states.

The argument against the three-drug protocol is that if the initial anesthetic does not take hold, the other two drugs can cause excruciating pain. One of those drugs, a paralytic, would render the prisoner unable to express his discomfort.

In his opinion, Stevens suggested that states could spare themselves legal costs and delays in executions by eliminating the use of the paralytic.

Stevens handles applications in capital punishment cases from the 6th Circuit, which covers Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee.

Go ahead ….BLOG!!!

Click here for the interview transcript with the Police Chief