Jon Huntsman Addresses His Obama Connection Head On In His First Speech 2012 Hopeful

Jon Huntsman Addresses His Obama Connection Head On In His First Speech 2012 Hopeful. Likely Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman addressed his connection to President Obama directly on Saturday, in an attempt to head off what will be one of his top two political challenges in the 2012 GOP presidential primary.

Speaking to a commencement ceremony crowd of several thousand at the University of South Carolina, Huntsman cast his decision to serve as U.S. ambassador to China for Obama as a patriotic one, grounded in an attitude of national service.

“Give back. As much as you’re able. Work to keep America great,” Huntsman said. “Serve her, if asked," he added, noting, "I was -- by a president of a different political party.”

“But in the end, while we might not all be of one party, we are all part of one nation, a nation that needs your generational gift of energy and confidence,” he said.

In his first turn on the big state of a potential presidential run, Huntsman highlighted key details of his bio, noting that he and his wife Mary Kaye have seven children, one adopted girl from China and one adopted girl from India.

He also sought to appeal to the youth vote.

Huntsman, who served as governor of Utah for one term and was reelected before taking his ambassadorial post, admitted he had made mistakes, though was not specific about which mistakes he was referring to. To make his point, he quoted musician Ben Folds, from the song "The Luckiest":

"I don't get many things right the first time. In fact, I am told that a lot. Now I know all the wrong turns, the stumbles and falls brought me here. And I know that I am the luckiest," Huntsman said.

It was one of several such cultural references intended to position Huntsman as a more worldly-wise, sophisticated and even somewhat hip version of the modern conservative.

Huntsman told the students that his “initial passion in life was to be a rock and roll musician” and told the students: “never forget to rock and roll.” And he closed his remarks by speaking three words in Mandarin: “Go, fight, win.” The students finished off the chant they yell at the kickoff of every football game with: “Kick ass!”

Taylor Cain, a USC student and former student body vice president, wrote on her Twitter feed, "I just got to yell 'kick ass' at my commencement. Here's to senior year! Here's to you, Jon Huntsman!"

Huntsman was also very tough in criticizing the state of personal freedoms and civil liberties in China. He described his meeting with a dissident up against “a government with the most formidably security apparatus in the world determined to keep her silent.”

“I know there are many in China who think their time has come, that America's best days are over. And, there are probably some in this country who have lost confidence and think that China is the next best thing,” he said. “But these people aren't seeing things from my earlier vantage point of 10,000 miles away. The way I saw it from overseas, America's passion remains as strong today as ever.”

“We live in the greatest most freedom-loving place on earth,” he said.

Huntsman’s address marked one week to the day after he officially left his ambassadorship. He met with Wall Street donors in New York earlier this week, and he met Friday with South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R). In an interview Friday night Haley said that Huntsman “looks like he’s going to be an impressive candidate if he gets in.”

Huntsman is traveling with a full staff in the Palmetto state, including veteran GOP consultants Jon Weaver, Fred Davis and Lanny Wiles, as well as senior aides Matt David and Tim Miller. He was accompanied to meetings on Friday by longtime South Carolina consultant Richard Quinn.

In addition to the Obama connection, Huntsman will face questions about whether he is conservative enough, given his positions on social issues such as same-sex marriage. Huntsman said in 2009 that he supported civil unions for same-sex couples. He will seek to counter this with a focus on his conservative fiscal record.

Not Hastened It Torture May Have Slowed Hunt For Bin Laden

Not Hastened It Torture May Have Slowed Hunt For Bin Laden. Torture apologists are reaching precisely the wrong conclusion from the back-story of the hunt for Osama bin Laden, say experienced interrogators and intelligence professionals.

Defenders of the Bush administration’s interrogation policies have claimed vindication from reports that bin Laden was tracked down in small part due to information received from brutalized detainees some six to eight years ago.

But that sequence of events -- even if true -- doesn’t demonstrate the effectiveness of torture, these experts say. Rather, it indicates bin Laden could have been caught much earlier had those detainees been interrogated properly.

"I think that without a doubt, torture and enhanced interrogation techniques slowed down the hunt for bin Laden," said an Air Force interrogator who goes by the pseudonym Matthew Alexander and located Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, in 2006.

It now appears likely that several detainees had information about a key al Qaeda courier -- information that might have led authorities directly to bin Laden years ago. But subjected to physical and psychological brutality, "they gave us the bare minimum amount of information they could get away with to get the pain to stop, or to mislead us," Alexander told The Huffington Post.

"We know that they didn’t give us everything, because they didn’t provide the real name, or the location, or somebody else who would know that information," he said.

In a 2006 study by the National Defense Intelligence College, trained interrogators found that traditional, rapport-based interviewing approaches are extremely effective with even the most hardened detainees, whereas coercion consistently builds resistance and resentment.

"Had we handled some of these sources from the beginning, I would like to think that there’s a good chance that we would have gotten this information or other information," said Steven Kleinman, a longtime military intelligence officer who has extensively researched, practiced and taught interrogation techniques.

"By making a detainee less likely to provide information, and making the information he does provide harder to evaluate, they hindered what we needed to accomplish," said Glenn L. Carle, a retired CIA officer who oversaw the interrogation of a high-level detainee in 2002.

But the discovery and killing of bin Laden was enough for defenders of the Bush administration to declare that their policies had been vindicated.

Liz Cheney, daughter of the former vice president, quickly issued a statement declaring that she was "grateful to the men and women of America’s intelligence services who, through their interrogation of high-value detainees, developed the information that apparently led us to bin Laden."

John Yoo, the lead author of the "Torture Memos," wrote in the Wall Street Journal that bin Laden's death "vindicates the Bush administration, whose intelligence architecture marked the path to bin Laden's door."

Former Bush secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld declared that "the information that came from those individuals was critically important."

The Obama White House pushed back against that conclusion this week.

"The bottom line is this: If we had some kind of smoking-gun intelligence from waterboarding in 2003, we would have taken out Osama bin Laden in 2003," Tommy Vietor, spokesman for the National Security Council, told The New York Times.

To 98-92 Victory Over Lakers Dirk Nowitzki Leads Mavericks

To 98-92 Victory Over Lakers Dirk Nowitzki Leads Mavericks. Kobe Bryant knows the deal. His Los Angeles Lakers are down 0-3 to the Dallas Mavericks and none of the 98 NBA teams facing that deficit have ever come back to win a series.

Yet Bryant also knows his team has won the last two championships, and reached the finals three straight years. And that his soon-to-be-retired coach has won a record 11 championships and has never been swept in his 20 years on the sideline.

Bryant also realizes how close his team is to leading this series 2-1. They blew a 16-point lead in the opener, losing only in the final seconds, and on Friday night they fell apart down the stretch again on the way to a 98-92 loss.

So, with all that in mind, he made this declaration following the Game 3 defeat: "I think we're still going to win the series."

Confidence, eh? Well, he also prefaced that line by laughing and saying, "I might be sick in the head or crazy."

The Lakers have mostly themselves to blame for being in this predicament. Leading by seven with 5:05 left, and having controlled the game throughout the second half, they got sloppy on defense. They gave Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry and Peja Stojakovic wide open shots, and that turned things around in a hurry.

A 20-7 closing run jump-started by 3s from Nowitzki and Stojakovic put the Mavericks on the verge of not only winning this series, but pulling off a sweep. Dallas can move to the Western Conference finals for the first time since 2006 with a victory at home on Sunday.

"We're not good enough to relax or take the pedal off the metal," Nowitzki said. "You don't want to ever give a champion life, so hopefully we can have the same effort and the same crowd and a great game on Sunday."

The Mavericks scored 32 points in the fourth quarter, the most by either team in any period this series. Bryant said the Lakers helped by making "some of the dumbest defensive mistakes I've seen us make all year."

"We're disappointed," said Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who has never been down 0-3 in a series, much less been swept, in 20 years as an NBA coach. "We feel like Games 1 and 3 we controlled the pace of the games. They were better at finishing the games than we were. But we still believe we're going to win the next game and we'll go from there."

Nowitzki and the Mavericks want to get this over with as soon as possible.

This veteran-filled club would love to avoid another long round-trip flight and to start resting up for the next series. Dallas would be the home team in the conference finals, regardless of whether Oklahoma City or Memphis advances.

For a franchise that's perennially underachieved, and is still trying to overcome blowing a 2-0 lead in the 2006 NBA finals, ending this series Sunday also would send a great message about their chances of winning their first title. It also would avoid any chance of yet another postseason disaster.

"We don't want to open the door for them because then it will be hard to close," forward Shawn Marion said.

Missing the suspended Ron Artest, Jackson gambled with a starting lineup featuring 6-foot-10 Lamar Odom at small forward, alongside 7-footers Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol. The Lakers logically pounded the ball inside with great results. Even Bryant started getting into the paint, making his first layup of the series.

Perhaps Artest's absence caught up to them at the end. Jackson acknowledged "there was some fatigue factor in there." He also admitted that his super-sized lineup was much better protecting the paint than defending the 3-point line.

And there was that Nowitzki fellow.

Dallas' superstar scored 32 points, making 12 of 19 shots. With the Lakers' big guys crowding the lane, he went back to his roots and got comfortable behind the 3-point line, burying 4 of 5. He only attempted four free throws, but made them all.

"Just about everything that happened down the stretch was a direct result of him either scoring the ball or making a play to get somebody a shot, or make a pass for an assist for a 3 or a 2 or whatever it was," Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said.

A record Dallas crowd of 21,156 – most wearing royal-blue giveaway T-shirts that read, "The Time Is Now," with the Mavs logo in place of the basketball on top of the championship trophy – went through the usual chants of "De-fense!" and "Beat LA!" without much impact through the first three quarters. With the game on the line, they got to their feet and helped the home team sustain its final push.

Terry scored 23, including some of the points that helped ice the victory in the closing minutes. Stojakovic scored 11 of his 15 in the final quarter. Jason Kidd added 11 points and nine assists.

Bynum had 21 points and 10 rebounds. Odom scored 18 and Bryant scored 17. He had only four points in the final quarter.

Gasol had 12 points and Shannon Brown provided a spark off the bench with 10.

"We have a decision to make, whether it's our time or somebody else's time," Odom said. "How do you want your story to play out?"

Notes: Since the last time the Lakers were swept (1999), they have pulled off seven sweeps. That includes against Kidd and the Nets in the 2002 NBA finals. ... Dallas has been up 3-0 twice before. In 2006, the Mavericks went on to sweep the Grizzlies. In 2003, they needed seven games to eliminate Portland. ... Bryant passed Shaquille O'Neal to move into third place on the career postseason scoring list. With 5,263, he trails only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (5,762) and Michael Jordan (5,987).

Sheryl Crow's Boyfriend, Doyle Bramhall II

Sheryl Crow's Boyfriend, Doyle Bramhall II. Sheryl Crow goes public with her boyfriend, guitarist/producer Doyle Bramhall II, at the Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s 2011 Spring Ball held at NYC’s Pierre Hotel on Wednesday (May 4).

The 49-year-old singer recently opened up about her new guy to Prevention:
Sheryl shared, “I’ve been in the situation where I’ve been involved with people and their kids, and if the relationship doesn’t work out, it’s heartbreak. So I’m keeping the relationship friend-based when we’re around the kids.


Luckily we have a great foundation, having known each other for fifteen years.”

Sheryl has two adopted sons, Wyatt, 3, and Levi James, 1. She was engaged cycling champ Lance Armstrong, but they split in 2006.

Awaits Governor's Signature Florida Bestiality Law Passes On Third Attempt

Awaits Governor's Signature Florida Bestiality Law Passes On Third Attempt. Florida, your long nightmare is over!

No, I'm not talking about the current reign of your grifter governor -- that's a nightmare of much shorter duration.

At long last, and on its third attempt, the Florida legislature has succeeded in passing an anti-bestiality bill. From the perspective of the folks outraged about what happened to this goat, this is their "Osama bin Laden has been brought to justice."


Here's the story from Brian Hamacher of NBC News in Miami:

The bestiality bill (SB 344) bans sexual activity between humans and animals and has been championed for years by Sen. Nan Rich, from Sunrise.

Rich took up the anti-bestiality fight after a number of cases involving sexual activity with animals in recent years, including a Panhandle man who was suspected of accidentally asphyxiating a family goat during a sex act and the abuse of a horse in the Keys. The bill would make such acts a first-degree misdemeanor.

Thus ends a long and frustrating quest for Rich, who has been trying to pass such a law since 2009. It seemed certain that she would prevail on her second attempt, but the measure foundered in Florida's State House of Representatives because lawmakers "said they didn't want to be accused of wasting time addressing a rare crime when Floridians needed them to help create jobs," and that they "also didn't want to debate the icky subject in public meetings occasionally frequented by children."

But today, hooray! Success at last. Hamacher reports that now, "It's up to Gov. Rick Scott to sign off" on the bill. Which means there's still reason to worry, because if there's a governor in America who could screw this up, it's that guy.

Handcuffed In Police Misunderstanding Hines Ward Held At Gunpoint

Handcuffed In Police Misunderstanding Hines Ward Held At Gunpoint. Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver and "Dancing With the Stars" contestant Hines Ward was briefly detained at gunpoint Thursday in a mix-up over a reported stolen car, but he was released without being arrested, police said.

Hines and a woman friend were stopped in her car at about 1:30 a.m. in North Hollywood because she had reported the car stolen on April 19, said Sgt. Maria Morrison.

The two had left a restaurant in North Hollywood, said officer Sara Faden.

Police took Hines out of the car at gunpoint and handcuffed him, Morrison said. Hines and the woman were released after she was able to prove the car was hers.

"She had gone somewhere, misparked it, reported it stolen and found it later" but failed to cancel the police report, Morrison said.

Hines cooperated with police while he was detained, she said.

The woman's name wasn't released, but she isn't Hines' partner on "Dancing With the Stars," Morrison said.

Mexican Protesters Begin 3 Day March Seeking End To Drug War

Hundreds of protesters began a three-day march to Mexico's capital Thursday, demanding peace in the war between the government and drug cartels.

Some carried signs bearing the names of victims of the brutal wave of drug-related violence that has hit many parts of the country. Others who gathered in the central Mexican city of Cuernavaca toted a large black banner that said "STOP THE WAR."

Poet Javier Sicilia held a Mexican flag as he began the 80-kilometer (50-mile) walk, but he sharply criticized the country's president, who began a crackdown on drug cartels shortly after taking office in December 2006.

"We cannot understand a war that is badly planned, a war that is badly directed. We cannot understand why he does not understand why the criminals are out there. If they are out there, it is because the institutions and the state are co-opted," Sicilia said.

The well-known writer has become one of the most outspoken opponents of Mexico's drug war and widespread drug-related violence since his son's slaying in March. He has led several demonstrations and vocally criticized officials' handling of the case.

Thursday's march is scheduled to culminate Sunday with a large demonstration in Mexico City's central square. The goal, Sicilia said, is to call for an end to violence and demand that Mexican authorities sign an agreement to re-establish peace and justice in the country.

Without referring directly to the marchers, Mexican President Felipe Calderon issued a statement late Wednesday night reiterating his government's commitment to fighting organized crime.

"Retreating from the fight is not an option. Quite the opposite. We must redouble our efforts, because if we stop fighting, they are going to kidnap, extort and kill all over the country," Calderon said. "Because marching back means things will get worse. If we retreat, we will allow gangs of criminals to walk all the streets of Mexico with impunity, assaulting people without anyone stopping them."

Sicilia's 24-year-old son was found dead on March 28, crammed into a car with six other bodies in Cuernavaca. Masking tape was wrapped around their head, faces, wrists and ankles.

Authorities believe all seven victims suffocated to death, and they have said members of Mexico's Pacifico Sur cartel are responsible. Two suspects have been arrested.

The case of Sicilia's son caught Calderon's attention, and the interest of the Mexican public, well before Thursday's march.

In an interview with the Mexican newspaper Excelsior last month, Calderon said the government is committed to finding those responsible for the crime.

"We already have clearly identified those responsible. ... We are on their trail and I hope we can capture them," he said.

Sicilia has said his crusade to demand justice is not just about his son.

"There are many dead and there is much pain. ... These citizens have the same dignity as my son," he told CNN in a recent interview.

In his statement Wednesday, Calderon acknowledged that some Mexicans are less committed to -- and afraid of -- his fight against criminals. But he showed no sign of changing his approach.

"Just like you, I also want a Mexico without violence. I want a peaceful Mexico. But this goal will not be accomplished with false exits. The solution is to stop the criminals, who are the enemies of Mexico," he said.

Interior Chief Under Mubarak Is Sentenced

Habib El Adly, former Egyptian interior minister under Hosni Mubarak's presidency, was sentenced on Thursday to 12 years in prison and fined 14 million Egyptian pounds (about $2.3 million) on charges of money laundering, the Ministry of Interior said.

His court date on charges of killing protesters is scheduled for May 21, according to Alla Mahmoud, the ministry spokesman.

This comes in the aftermath of the dramatic popular protests in February that led to Mubarak's resignation after more than 30 years in power.

Mubarak has been in poor health and living in the southern Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh since then.

On Wednesday, Egypt's justice minister said Mubarak could be executed if he is convicted of ordering the killing of protesters.

"One of the charges he is facing is complicity in the killing of martyrs and issuing the orders for premeditated the killing of those people," said Justice Minister Mohamed Abdelaziz al-Juindy. "This is a charge with a harsh punishment -- the death penalty."

In his first television interview since taking office, the new justice minister said last week that Egyptian courts would not shy away from sentencing Mubarak to death if he is found guilty.

"If the crime is proven, then the court will not hesitate to issue the death sentence," al-Juindy said.

"A judge may have mercy if there is a reason for that, but I don't think in this case there is any argument for clemency whatsoever," the minister added, calling it "a horrible crime, to kill 800 citizens who were asking for their rights and hoping to topple a corrupt regime that caused the ruin of Egypt."

Prosecutors last month shelved plans to move Mubarak to a military hospital in Cairo, saying Mubarak's doctors said the transfer could be life-threatening.

Adel Saeed, the prosecutor's spokesman, said April 26 that the Interior Ministry made the decision after Mubarak's medical team submitted a report that determined he would be at risk if he were moved.

But al-Juindy said Mubarak's health was "good," according to reports he had received.

Mubarak "suffers some heart irregularities known as atrial fibrillation, but his pulse and pressure are fine. His heart rate is 65 per minute, which is considered like an athlete," the official said.

"Of course he's facing questioning for the first time in his life, so this is affecting him psychologically," the minister added.

He will be required to appear in court when the time comes, al-Juindy said, adding,

"His appearance in court will be mandatory."

If Mubarak is too sick to appear, "in this case, the prosecutor visits him, and this is a procedure we follow with any sick suspect. The suspect must be given a chance to put forward his defense, so that the trial can be fair."

He is also being probed on allegations of corruption and misuse of state funds.

"There are reports that the former president's wealth is in the billions, and indeed it is billions," the justice minister asserted.

So far "we can't ascertain the exact amount, but the investigation is under way," he said.

Mubarak's trial will show that the rule of law is supreme in the country, al-Juindy said.

"The law is respected in Egypt and is applied on everyone without any exception," he said. "This is very important because Egypt now has become a country were the law is sovereign."

3 Suspects With Al Qaeda Ties Arrested In Morocco Cafe Bombing

Morocco's Interior Ministry said Thursday that three Moroccan suspects loyal to al Qaeda have been arrested in connection with last month's bombing at a popular Marrakech cafe, the official Maghreb Arabe Presse news agency reported.

One of the suspects was described in the Interior Ministry statement as the main figure in the April 28 bombing that killed 16 people and injured 21, according to the MAP report. The ministry statement described the bombing as a terrorist attack.

The bombing occurred around 11 a.m. at Cafe Argana in Marrakech's old city, which is designated by the United Nations' cultural arm as a World Heritage Site. Tourists flock to the old city this time of the year, and it is usually packed with stalls, storytellers and snake-charmers.

World leaders, including U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, condemned the bombing.

"The individuals were absorbed by jihadist ideology, and had allegiance to al Qaeda and had already made several attempts to join some of the hotbeds of tension, especially Chechnya and Iraq, before deciding to carry out terror in the homeland," the ministry statement said, according to MAP.

The suspects learned on the Internet how to make the two remote-detonated explosive devices used in the bombing, the ministry statement said. The attackers chose Cafe Argana as the target because of its popularity, and dressed as tourists to access the area, the statement said.

A preliminary investigation found remnants of explosive materials and tools "that had been discarded after the terrorist act," according to the statement.

'Daily Show' Writer Helps Prez With Jokes

President Obama knows how to surround himself with people who can get the job done.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Comedy Central confirmed that "Daily Show with Jon Stewart" scribe Kevin Bleyer was one of the writers who helped the president with his jokes at this year's White House Correspondents' Dinner.

The commander-in-chief also received an assist last year from members of the "Daily Show" writing staff, though this year Bleyer was the only one from the hit show to participate in the joke writing.

POTUS had them rolling in the aisles this year with jokes about Donald Trump, the birther controversy and disappointment in his performance in the White House. Last year's dinner won rave reviews for the president, who was said to have upstaged professional comedian, Jay Leno.