On his Thursday night segment ‘O’Reilly Factor’, the political pundit blasted ‘Law and Order’ creator Dick Wolf by calling him a “despicable human” being whose long-running series is “out of control”.

What did Dick Wolf do?

In this week’s episode of the spin-off ‘Law and Order: SVU’, a major character played by John Larroquette (of Night Court fame) uttered the following lines when talking to an on-screen detective, “Limbaugh, Beck, O’Reilly, all of them, they are like a cancer spreading ignorance and hate…” and that O’Reilly was against immigrants and those who could not afford health care.

According to Bill, the clip was a “defamatory and outrageous” segment.  To counter it, he had his producers air clips from past episodes of his show that featured the host drawing attention to helping the poor and those “who want a better life. ”

A second source, a government official of Kurdish Iraq, has also weighed on what happened.  According to the Kurdish official, the three tourists had come to Amed Awaa for sight-seeing.  Soon thereafter, on a hike to nearby natural scenery, the three strayed into Iranian territory and were quickly taken by Iranian soldiers.
It is likely that the three tourists could not have known that they had strayed in Iranian territory, as maps would have been useless in what is an extremely poorly marked mountainous region.

The State Department is unable to communicate with the Iranian government due to lack of diplomatic connections between the two countries.  However, the Swiss government has acted as a liason in the past and is expected to do so again to mediate the matter.

Iran is still in the grip of civil turmoil after recent protests against disputed election results.  It is unclear whether this had an impact on the rapid arrest of the three American tourists.

It is unclear why companies with 99 employees or less are exempt, and may instead fuel a rapid increase in companies with just under 100 employees.  Moreover, Grayson’s own constituency of Florida, a vacation hotspot, may stand to gain most from such a bill should it pass.  For all others, such a bill may instead end up becoming a cost, partly passed onto consumers by the companies themselves.

In 2006, North Korea previously launched a missile over Japanese territory, causing tremendous alarm and consternation in both the Japanese and South Korean governments.  The United States, since World War II, has assumed the role of defender for Japan and continues to station troops in South Korea.  The launch of what could be an intercontinental ballistic missile seemingly places American interests at jeopardy.

Although the 20th Congressional District has been solidly Republican in recent years, the changing fortunes of the Republican party meant that Murphy, a venture capitalist with no experience in politics, has a solid chance of snatching the election from his opponent.

In all likelihood, absentee ballots will now decide the race, but as of Wednesday none of them have been counted.  It is said that 10,000 of the absentee ballots were sent out, and of those, 6000 have been returned.  These remaining ballots are expected to be counted by April 13th.

The New York Times reports that both candidates have spent heavy sums of money in this election.

Whereas in past years the 20th Congressional District has been strongly Republican, in recent years Republicans have been on the defensive.  Late into the night, Tedisco was still seen campaigning.

Tedisco and Murphy have been squaring off each other on recent national issues, such as the gargantuan stimulus package pushed through Congress with nudging by President Obama and the AIG bailout.  Tedisco has attacked Murphy for his support of the stimulus money that has ostensibly led to the bonus packages for AIG executives that were perceived to be outrageously high.

Results are expected to be a bellweather for Republican prospects later this year and in 2010, and are expected to emerge late Tuesday evening.

More here.