http://thechive.com/2012/03/21/military-dad-returns-from-afghanistan-disguised-as-captain-america-to-surprise-his-kids-video/

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3Il9aiaFBI&feature=related 

911 Calls Add Detail to Debate Over Florida Killing

Published: March 17, 2012

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Courtesy of Sybrina Fulton

Trayvon Martin

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?I listened to the tapes and it just broke my heart again to hear him screaming out for help and pleading for his life, and he was still murdered,? said Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon?s mother. ?There is no question in my mind that is his voice.? 

Police chief receives vote of no confidence over handling of Trayvon Martin case

The Sanford City Commission passed a vote of "no confidence" in police Chief Bill Lee Wednesday night over his handling of the Trayvon Martin shooting. Meanwhile, hundreds of demonstrators assembled a "Million Hoodie March" in New York City to call for the arrest of Martin's killer. NBC's Lilia Luciano reports.

The Sanford City Commission voted 3-2 that it had no confidence in Police Chief Bill Lee Jr. over his handling of the Trayvon Martin shooting Wednesday.

Velma Williams, the city?s only black commissioner, said she spent 15 years trying to bring together the black community and white community, and the Martin episode has taken an emotional toll.

?And now this. It?s a national embarrassment," she said.

Commissioners Patty Mahany and Randy Jones supported the police chief, who came on the job last May.

"I would not want to see someone tried in the court of public opinion without all the facts," Jones said.

Mayor Jeff Triplett sounded a similar theme, though he voted against Lee. "We only have a very small piece of the puzzle right now," he said.

Commissioners cannot fire Lee, as he reports to City Manager Norton Bonaparte Jr.

Williams implied that if Bonaparte doesn't fire Lee, she would review his contract the next time it comes up for renewal.

More from NBCMiami.com on the no-confidence vote

She nearly fainted after the vote because she became so emotional, and had to be treated by a paramedic.

Residents then took to the podium to say their piece.

"So what does this vote of no confidence mean?" Oscar Reden Jr. asked. "It means that that man right there ... Bonaparte, has to make a choice. You got to make a choice. He works for you!"

Bonaparte said he will take the commissioners' "strong statement" under advisement, according to the Orlando Sentinel, and said he wants to wait for the Department of Justice and the Brevard-Seminole State Attorney's Office to finish their investigations before he acts.

Hundreds march in support of Martin family in Miami, New York

Lee and his department have come under withering criticism for not arresting and charging George Zimmerman in the Feb. 26 incident.

The man who fatally shot Miami Gardens teen Martin was not arrested the night of the incident because his self-defense claim ?was supported by physical evidence and testimony,? according to Lee.

Police were thus prohibited from arresting Zimmerman, 28, ?based on the facts and circumstances they had at the time,? Lee said, as he answered six questions about the case in a statement that was posted on the city's website.

Bonaparte released his statement in response to media attention and ?a flood of questions and strong emotions from within our community, the region and nation? about Zimmerman?s shooting of Martin, Bonaparte said.

Neighbor comes to defense of Trayvon Martin's shooter

Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, shot Martin during a confrontation in a gated community in Sanford on Feb. 26. Martin was returning from a 7-Eleven to his father?s girlfriend?s home at The Retreat at Twin Lakes when the shooting happened.

In his explanation, Lee referred to the ?stand your ground? provisions of state law. They say that Floridians have the right ?to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force" if they feel threatened. Lee pointed to a part of the statute that says ?the agency may not arrest the person for using force unless it determines that there is probable cause that the force that was used was unlawful.?

'Stand Your Ground' law could complicate Martin case

Lee said that Zimmerman has a concealed weapon permit, so he was authorized and legally able to carry the gun he used to shoot Martin as a neighborhood watch volunteer.

Sanford's neighborhood watch handbook, which is also posted on the city's site, says that program participants' main role is to "observe and report suspicious activities" happening in their neighborhood to police.

"What you will not do is get physically involved with any activity you report or apprehension of any suspicious persons. This is the job of the law enforcement agency," it says in bold.

On another page that spells out watch members' responsibilities, the handbook says, "Remember always that your responsibility is to report crime. Do not take any risks to prevent a crime or try to make an arrest. The responsibility for apprehending criminals belongs to the police department."

Zimmerman did not follow those instructions, according to police and Martin's family members and attorneys. Instead, he followed Martin on that night, disregarding a dispatcher's statement that "you don't need to do that," Lee said.

But that suggestion was "not a lawful order that Mr. Zimmerman would be required to follow," Lee said.

Martin's final phone call with his girlfriend painted a starker picture, according to Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump.

He said that Martin got caught in the rain, put on his hoodie and was running to take cover, and then noticed, as he told his girlfriend, that "this dude is following me."

She told him to be careful and run home, and he momentarily lost Zimmerman. But then he told her that Zimmerman was right behind him again, and she told him to run, Crump said.

"He says 'I'm not gonna run, I'm just gonna walk fast,'" Crump said.

The fatal confrontation that ended Martin's life happened moments later.

Florida police chief at center of neighborhood watch shooting temporarily steps down

?As a former homicide investigator, a career law enforcement officer and a father, I am keenly aware of the emotions associated with this tragic death of a child. I?m also aware that my role as a leader of this agency has become a distraction from the investigation,? Lee said.

The shooting has sparked several protests, and city commissioners gave the chief a ?no confidence? vote on Wednesday night.

Zimmerman claims the shooting was self-defense. He told police 17-year-old Trayvon Martin attacked him after he had given up on chasing the teenager and was returning to his sport utility vehicle.

The police chief has said authorities were prohibited from making an arrest based on the facts and circumstances they had at the time of the shooting. He said he continued to stand behind his agency?s investigation.

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/florida-police-chief-at-center-of-neighborhood-watch-shooting-temporarily-steps-down/2012/03/22/gIQADui5TS_story.html?hpid=z1

Sweet holy momma of Jesus, I am in love with how I can click on the P&CE RSS feed I saved onto it, and voila!  I get a box for each thread along the bottom of the screen... so pretty.  So easy.  

I like cool techie things. 

I've seen it all over the news today that a new study shows that women who do not eat red meat are more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression.

So while the other study said red meat eaters are more likely to die earlier, this one says that at least we'll be happy doing it

::pulls out a package of beef to thaw for dinner::

Scotts Miracle-Gro ? the bird-killing company?

The Scotts Miracle-Gro company pleads guilty to knowingly selling poisoned birdseed, and lawn and garden care products containing undocumented pesticides, to an unsuspecting public

I recently heard about the most astonishing corporate crime: the American company, Scotts Miracle-Gro, violated US federal environmental laws by manufacturing and selling poisoned birdseed for more than two years. The Scotts Miracle-Gro company entered guilty pleas to all charges in U.S. District Court and these guilty pleas were accepted by Judge James Graham on Tuesday, 13 March 2012. Penalties have not yet been determined.

The Scotts Miracle-Gro company, based in Marysville, Ohio, USA, is the world's largest marketer of lawn and garden care products which are sold under a number of consumer brand names, including Scotts?, Miracle-Gro?, and Ortho?. In Europe, the company's brands include Weedol?, Pathclear?, Celaflor?, Evergreen?, Levington?, Miracle-Gro?, KB?, Fertiligene? and Substral?. Additionally, Scotts is Monsanto's exclusive agent for the marketing and distribution of consumer Roundup?.

In addition to lawn and garden care products, the Scotts Miracle-Gro company manufactures and distributes several widely-used and popular brands of food for wild birds, marketed under the names, "Country Pride" and "Morning Song", as well as "Scott's Songbird Selections" and "Scott's Wild Bird Food", which are collectively known as "Morning Song". These brand lines include bags of seed and seed mixes, suet blocks and other foods intended for wild birds.

Scotts Miracle-Gro added toxic chemicals to their bird seeds

According to court documents, the Scotts Miracle-Gro company added the pesticides, Storcide II and Actellic? 5E, to their wild bird feeds to prevent insects from consuming the products during storage. Neither pesticide is licensed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for use in bird foods. This is in direct violation of FIFRA -- the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act.

Storcide II contains the active ingredient, chlorpyrifos-methyl, and Actellic? 5E contains the active ingredient, pirimiphos-methyl. According to the product label attached to Storcide II containers and Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) information accompanying this pesticide, it is toxic to fish, birds and wildlife. Additionally, because the EPA requires precautionary language on labels for all products containing chlorpyrifos, those who worked directly with manufacturing the birdseeds should have known that use in birdseed was illegal, unless they were either illiterate or blind.

The EPA's fact sheet on pirimiphos-methyl states that "lthough pirimiphos-methyl is highly toxic to birds and fish, these risks are not of concern based on the use pattern", indicating that this chemical is not intended to be applied to anything intentionally fed to birds.

Both chemical toxins act as cholinesterase inhibitors that result in overstimulation of the nervous system. Small doses of either poison cause symptoms that include nausea, dizziness, and confusion, and higher doses lead to respiratory paralysis and death.

Scotts Miracle-Gro knowingly sold poisoned birdseed

According to court documents, Scotts Miracle-Gro was warned about the toxicity of these chemicals by two employees. One employee, a pesticide chemist, approached management about these dangers in the summer of 2007, whilst the other employee, an ornithologist, notified management in the autumn of that same year. The Scotts Miracle-Gro company ignored these warnings and continued to produce and distribute their poisoned birdseed products for at least another six months, until March of 2008.

At the same time, a federal registrations manager employed by the Scotts Miracle-Gro company intentionally falsified pesticide registration documents for two other products sold by the company, "Scotts Garden Weed Preventer & Plant Food" and "Scotts Lawn Service Fertilizer With Halts". Neither of these products were registered with the EPA and thus, both were illegally sold to the public. When the EPA contacted the Scotts Miracle-Gro company asking for the required documents and certificates, the manager then "fabricated correspondence and agency documents ... in an effort to deceive EPA into believing it had registered these products but lost its files", according to court documents. The EPA then launched an investigation.

According to court documents, the Scotts Miracle-Gro company voluntarily disclosed to the EPA and the USDA that they had manufactured and sold poisoned birdseed, but discontinued doing so in March 2008.

After reading the court documents, it is my opinion that either the company or its employees volunteered this illegal use of chemical poisons in their birdseed because they expected that their wrongdoing would be discovered during the ensuing investigation. If adding these pesticides to the birdseed was an accident, warnings from their employees should have caused the company to immediately stop manufacturing their poisoned birdseed and issue a voluntary national recall of all contaminated items. However, neither of these actions occurred. Based on that information, one wonders whether the company would ever have voluntarily stopped adding poisons to their birdseed if the EPA had not stepped in to investigate the forged documents and illegal use of pesticides in their lawn care products?

According to court documents, Scotts Miracle-Gro sold more than 73 million packages of these poisoned bird foods nationwide to an unsuspecting public for a period of more than two years. Only 2 million of those 73 million units could be recalled.

But it would appear that not all sellers were aware of this product recall. I found one story about a San Diego county couple who lost nearly all of their domestic aviary birds at the end of January 2010 after feeding Scotts Miracle-Gro Morning Song Wild Bird Seed that they had recently purchased from a local Wal-Mart [story]. Out of a flock numbering nearly 100 birds, only eight survived. I mention this to illustrate how poisonous this seed is to birds, how many birds can die after eating just one meal of this poisoned seed, and to show that the damages caused by these products may still be occurring.

Scotts Miracle-Gro pleads guilty and proposes a plea deal

As part of the plea deal, the company would pay a fine of $4 million and give an additional $500,000 to help support wildlife study and preservation. Judge Graham has so far deferred making a decision on this proposed penalty, and the sentencing hearing has yet to be scheduled. Under the law, civil violations are assessed fines of not more than $5,000 per offense whilst criminal violations of FIFRA are assessed fines of "not more than $50,000 per offense or imprisonment of not more than 1 year or both". If Scotts Miracle-Gro's plea proposal is accepted by the judge, I think it would be the maximum allowed under the law. Further, if these penalties are accepted by the judge, this decision may possibly be the highest ever levied under FIFRA. According to my sources, just the proposed $500,000 "donation" to environmental groups is "substantial" under this law.

But it is my opinion that neither of these penalties are substantial or severe enough. According to my calculations, even after paying the proposed fines, the company will have earned a profit from their sales of poisoned birdseed and lawn care products to an unsuspecting and trusting public. In fact, even if a penalty of $73 million -- merely $1 for each poisoned bird food item sold -- was levied against the company, Scotts Miracle-Gro will probably still earn a profit from sales of all their illegal products. For this reason, I view this penalty as a small slap on the wrist for the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, a publicly-traded company (NYSE: SMG) with an excess of $3 billion in annual worldwide sales.

Unfortunately, when an entire company engages in criminal activity, imprisonment is not normally an option. But in my opinion, the outrageously inflated salaries paid to corporate chairman and chief executive officer (Jim Hagedorn) and president (Barry Sanders), who were in those positions in 2008, should be justified by holding them personally and criminally liable when the company knowingly commits criminal acts under their leadership, since presumably, this is partially what these outsized salaries are intended to compensate them for.

It is my hope that the judge will ensure that the maximum fines and penalties will be levied against the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company. This is the least that can be done in view of this egregious betrayal of the public trust, the damage to the environment and the terrible loss of wild birds and other wildlife -- all due to the criminal activities of this corporate giant.

At this point, it is likely that the government's lawyers are feeling pretty good about this outcome: they got an admission of criminal liability and a record-setting monetary fine without the years of litigation and thousands of man-hours that a prosecution would require. Yet I can't help but wonder what millions of dead finches, sparrows, doves, cardinals and other songbirds might say about this, if only we could understand them.

CLICKY

http://www.grantland.com/blog/hollywood-prospectus/post/_/id/46258/rembert-explains-the-80s-jem-and-the-holograms

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/health-care-reform-jonathan-gruber/1102250769?ean=9780809053971&itm=51

From NPR: 

Nearly half of first marriages break up within 20 years, a new government study finds. With those odds, you might wonder: Would we be better off living together first?

The new research, part of a marriage survey of 22,000 men and women, suggests times have changed from the days when living together signaled poor chances for a successful marriage later.

"It's not playing as big a role in predicting divorce as it used to," said Casey Copen, lead author of the study.

Living together before marriage has been a long-growing trend. In the late 1960s, only about 10 percent of U.S. couples moved in together first, and they ended up with higher divorce rates.

Today, about 60 percent of couples live together before they first marry.

"It's becoming so common, it's not surprising it no longer negatively affects marital stability," said Wendy Manning, co-director of the National Center for Family & Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

Researchers with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked for trends in first marriages. They interviewed men and women ages 15 to 44 during the years 2006 to 2010. About 40 percent were married.

The study found those who were engaged and living together before the wedding were about as likely to have marriages that lasted 15 years as couples who hadn't lived together.

But what about the couples who were living together but weren't engaged? The new study found marriage was less likely to survive to the 10- and 15-year mark among couples who weren't engaged when they lived together findings similar to earlier research.

For example, for women, there was about a 60 percent likelihood a marriage would survive 15 years if the couple either hadn't lived together before the wedding or were engaged while they were sharing the same living space.

But if no firm marriage commitment was made while she and her boyfriend were living together, the likelihood the marriage would last 15 years fell to 53 percent. The numbers were similar for men.

Potential explanations include more lax attitudes about commitment, lower education levels or family histories that made these couples more pessimistic about marriage, Copen said.

The experience of living together before marriage is different for different people, said Richard Settersten Jr., an Oregon State University professor of human development and family science.

Some young people put off marriage because they're pursuing a college education and starting a career. For them, "cohabitation is a trial marriage, usually without kids, that often ends in marriage," Settersten said.

Others in many cases, people not on a college track move from one living-together relationship to another, some of them producing children, he said.

Commitment has made a difference. In interviews with some women who have been married 20 years or more after living with their spouse first, firm belief in a future together was a common theme.

"I sort of knew he would be part of my life long-term.... I wasn't thinking, `He's moving in with me, is he ever going to marry me?"' said Hillary Mickell, a San Francisco woman who first moved in with her husband when they were students at Boston University.

But this was in 1985, and she did try to hide their situation from her parents in California, sometimes telling them her beau answered the phone because there had been a snowstorm and he was stuck in her apartment. "It became a running joke there are blizzards in Boston nine months a year," said Mickell, co-founder of a social network site for recipe exchanges.

The CDC study also concluded:

Nearly half of first marriages will break up within 20 years a statistic identical to what other studies have found.

The percentage of young women currently living with a male partner grew from 3 percent in 1982 to 11 percent recently.

Women and men with bachelor's degrees were more likely to delay marriage but also more likely to eventually get married and stayed married for at least 20 years.

Asian women were the most likely to be in a first marriage that lasted at least 20 years. Nearly 70 percent of Asian women were still in their first marriage, compared to 54 percent of white women, 53 percent of Hispanic women and 37 percent of black women.

Among men, 62 percent of Hispanics were still in their first marriage at 20 years, compared to 54 percent of whites and 53 percent of blacks. The study did not have statistics for Asian men.

I'm looking thru their Service Catalog, scrolling past it on my iPad when a word catches my eye

"Shibboleth"

I scroll back up.

It's the name for their authentication system. 

Under House Bill 954, almost all abortions later than 20 weeks, including those involving rape and incest, would be banned under the premise that after 20 weeks a fetus is capable of feeling pain. Dott and two other obstetricians, also specialists in high-risk pregnancies, told the panel that overwhelming medical evidence has established that a fetus does not develop the capacity to feel pain until the 28th week of gestation. When doctors operate on fetuses younger than 28 weeks, the committee was told, it is standard medical practice not to use anesthetic because the neural connections needed to feel pain simply do not exist.

Yet the sponsor of the bill, state Rep. Doug McKillip, summarily dismissed the threshold of 28 weeks. ?Does anybody believe that? Absolutely not,? he told the panel, in effect calling the medical experts liars. ?They are just looking for a reason to say no to this bill.? ...

[Dott] told the panel, ?I have never seen a patient who electively aborted a normal pregnancy greater than 20 weeks.?

McKillip blithely dismissed that claim as well. In fact, he repeatedly treated medical experts testifying against his bill with a zealot?s scorn verging on downright contempt. Contradicting Dott, he insisted that ?grand majority? of abortions performed Georgia past the 20th week are abortions of convenience. But again, he cited nothing more than his own considerable moral certitude as evidence. 

LINK

An Open Letter to My Unborn Black Son

In a guest column at Urban Cusp, Ajani Husbands has sobering but realistic advice inspired by the shooting death of Trayvon Martin that includes the warning, "You will needlessly suffer in this world for no other reason than you were brought into it by a Black mother and father."

When confronted by an armed individual, assume that this person is the police. As such, begin by placing your hands behind your head, fingers interlaced. This will assure that in the eventuality that you are shot and executed, there will be minimum opportunity for analysts and pundits to later ponder if you were the aggressor. Keeping your fingers behind your head is key as it prevents your fingerprints from ending up on your assailant or his weapon. If at all possible, turn your back on the person (whom we will assume always to be the police). In this manner, you will be shot in the back, another telltale sign that you were the victim.

You will not survive your encounter, so it is important to remember to show investigators, the courts, and critics alike that you were in fact the victim. This will be difficult as the assumption is ever-present that somehow, in some way, you did something wrong. That perhaps there was something different you could have, should have done. Perhaps you should have worn something different or walked in a less suspicious manner. I assure you, my son, this is not the case. Regardless of your actions, you were not meant to survive. All you can hope for is an easier postmortem investigation. This will be of some comfort to your mother and I as we cope through your loss, and so I ask you to follow these directions carefully.

Be clear and concise in your cries for help. This will not in any way add to the chance that you will survive the encounter. Instead, it serves to ensure that bystanders and anyone recording just the audio of the encounter will have a clearer depiction of what is happening. Phrases such as "help me!" are not enough. You must be clear. "Please do not shoot me! I am just a kid!" will alert others to the fact that it is you that is about to be shot, rather than your assailant. "I do NOT have a weapon! Please don't shoot me!" further emphasizes that you are unarmed (for after your death, no one is ever certain).

Romney Backer: ?Maybe It?s Time? For The Right To ?Go After The Obama Children?

National Confidential Staff

Posted 22 March 2012 | 12:49 am EST
Topic: Ann Coulter, Barack Obama, Conservative, Malia Obama, Michelle Obama, Mitt Romney, Sasha Obama, toprow

? Follow National Confidential on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and Google+

By Igor Volsky on Mar 21, 2012 at 8:30 am

?Personally I?d like to make a law that mandates a woman watch an abortion being performed prior to having a ?surgical procedure?. If it?s not a life it shouldn?t matter, if it doesn?t harm a woman then she shouldn?t care, and don?t we want more transparency and education in the medical profession anyway? We demand it everywhere else.

Until the dead child can tell me that she/he does not feel any pain ? I have no intentions of clearing the conscience of the living ? I will be voting YES.?

Proud made headlines earlier this year when she sponsored a bill requiring the Bible to be taughtas an elective in high school, but not the Quran. ?The Quran hasn?t influenced Western culture the way the Bible has,? she said, noting students already learn about some ancient religions, including Greek and Roman gods, in their coursework. ?We?ve put so much fear around any discussion of the Bible that I think it?s really causing our kids to miss out.? The measure passed the House and is now in the Senate.

Proud is now co-sponsoring a measure that would allow employers to opt ou of covering birth control in their health insurance plans.

Edited: To fix formatting. 

In a tense meeting Wednesday that highlighted growing tensions over the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager, local officials in Sanford, Fla., passed a vote of no confidence in the police chief as protests spread north to New York City, where the slain youth?s parents joined a Manhattan march demanding the killer?s arrest.

The no-confidence measure passed 3 to 2 after more than an hour of debate, and though it was not binding, the outcome and the public groans and applause that punctuated the debate underscored the anger pulsing through the Orlando suburb nearly a month after 17-year-old Trayvon Martin?s death on Feb. 26. Most of that anger is focused on the fact that the confessed shooter, 28-year-old George Zimmerman, who has been described as both Latino and white, has not been arrested.

Dozens of Sanford residents gathered in the Sanford City Hall, where City Commissioner Mark McCarty set the tone for the meeting by noting that he had called for Police Chief Bill Lee?s ouster 10 days earlier in a meeting with the city manager, Norton N. Bonaparte Jr.

?I take no pleasure in publicly flogging our police chief. He?s a good man,? McCarty said.

But McCarty said questions surrounding the case, and the negative publicity cast upon the city since the killing, were largely the result of mishandling of the investigation. The questions, he said, include whether police were too quick to accept Zimmerman?s claim that he fired in self-defense, despite the fact that Martin was unarmed and that witnesses described hearing someone wailing for help before a gunshot rang out.

A lawyer representing Martin's family, Benjamin Crump, has said that the teenager was on a cellphone with his girlfriend and expressed concern that he was being followed by a strange man in the seconds before he was shot. And two women who live near the shooting scene have said that Martin was lying face-down, with Zimmerman looming over him, after he was shot. 

?If it was self-defense, why was he [Zimmerman] on Trayvon?s back?? one of the witnesses, Mary Cutcher, told CNN in an interview.

City Commissioners Patty Mahany and Randy Jones argued against the no-confidence vote, saying the city needed to wait for the outcomes of a grand jury inquiry scheduled for April 10 and a Department of Justice investigation.  ?A rush to judgment in any situation is wrong,? said Mahany, calling the no-confidence motion a ?knee-jerk reaction.?

Only the city manager, Bonaparte, can fire Lee or ask for his resignation, and he gave no indication he planned to do so.  But as speaker after speaker, black and white, took to the microphone to question why Zimmerman had not been arrested, it was clear that Bonaparte faced pressure that showed no sign of diminishing.

The Rev. Al Sharpton was due to lead a rally in Sanford on Thursday, and the city was planning for hundreds and possibly thousands of people at a special meeting Monday night to focus on the case.

In Manhattan?s Union Square, hundreds of people marched in memory of the slain teenager in a so-called Million Hoodie March on Wednesday, including Martin?s parents. Martin was wearing a hooded sweatshirt when he was killed while walking back from a store where he had purchased some candy and a drink.

"We're not going to stop until we get justice," said the teenager's father, Tracy Martin, after thanking the crowd in New York, which chanted, "We want arrests," according to the Associated Press.

"My son did not deserve to die," the teen's mother, Sybrina Fulton, told the crowd, AP reported. "My heart is in pain, but to see the support of all of you really makes a difference."

More than a dozen people spoke at the Sanford meeting, the overwhelming majority of them black city residents complaining that the Police Department was quick to arrest blacks while letting whites accused of similar offenses go free. Several speakers described arbitrary arrests and harassment by police.

?I was born and raised in Sanford, and I?ve had this problem plenty of times,? said Robin Riggins, a black woman.

One resident, however, spoke in favor of Lee, arguing that the case should be allowed to ?run its course.?

?There's two sides to every story,? said the resident, a white man who said he had lived in Sanford for decades. ?We can?t rush to judgment and have Chief Lee be responsible for everything that occurs if we find out in an investigation he did his job.?

He noted that Lee had been on the job only 10 months.

The previous chief was forced out after an outcry over the beating of a black man in downtown Sanford by a white man who is a police officer?s son. The police did not arrest the man, even though the beating was captured on video.

_______________________________________________________________

Does Romney know that the auto bailouts began under Bush also?

 http://www.wnd.com/2012/03/executive-order-panic-martial-law-in-america/

The White House?s late-week release of an executive order has sent the online community into an uproar, worried that President Obama had secretly provided himself means to institute martial law in America.

In the common practice of dumping government documents on a Friday afternoon, just as the news cycle is wrapping up for the week ? a move critics say allows the administration to avoid widespread coverage of embarrassing actions ? the White House released an executive order on ?National Defense Resources Preparedness.?

Filled with language about ?government-owned equipment? and a ?defense executive reserve,? among other vague statements, rumors began to spread that the executive order expanded the president?s power to do everything from seizing whole industries to drafting private armies.

A Canada Free Press article titled ?Obama Executive Order: Peacetime Martial Law!? spread concerns of gasoline ration cards; while an Examiner article declared the order would ?nationalize everything? and ?allow for a civilian draft.? Facebook, email and Twitter were suddenly abuzz, and even the extremely popular Drudge Report posted a link to the White House release under the title ?Martial Law? Obama Issues Executive Order.?

But are the cries of martial law and expanding executive power justified?

No, says William A. Jacobson, associate clinical professor at Cornell Law School.

?If someone wants to make the argument that this is an expansion of presidential powers, then do so based on actual language,? warns Jacobson. ?There is enough that Obama actually does wrong without creating claims which do not hold up to scrutiny.?

As it turns out, Obama?s executive order is nearly identical to EO 12919, issued by President Clinton on June 7, 1994, which itself was an amendment to EO 10789, issued in 1958 by President Eisenhower, and which in fact, was later amended by EO 13286, issued in 2003 by George W. Bush.

Obama?s executive order specifically assigns ?executive departments and agencies responsible for plans and programs related to national defense? to do five things:

• ?identify? requirements for emergencies;
• ?assess? the capability of the country?s industrial and technological base;
• ?be prepared? to ensure the availability of critical resources in time of national threat;
• ?improve the efficiency? of the industrial base to support national defense;
• ?foster cooperation? between commercial and defense sectors.

Later provisions in the order establish the protocol for government agencies to purchase equipment needed in times of national emergency and even make loans to ensure the availability of that equipment.

Despite the vague nature of the functions, none mention anything about martial law or seizing private property. The five functions are also identical to those identified in Clinton?s EO 12919.

So why did Obama issue the order at all?

A side-by-side analysis of Obama?s order compared to Clinton?s, conducted by Ed Morrissey of HotAir.com, reveals Obama?s order is essentially just an update to reflect changes in government agency structure.

?If one takes a look at EO 12919, the big change is in the cabinet itself,? Morrissey writes. ?In 1994, we didn?t have a Department of Homeland Security, for instance, and some of these functions would naturally fall to DHS. In EO 12919, the FEMA director had those responsibilities, and the biggest change between the two is the removal of several references to FEMA (10 in all). Otherwise, there aren?t a lot of changes between the two EOs, which looks mainly like boilerplate.

?I?m not ruling out the possibility that this is more than it seems,? adds Jacobson, ?but unless and until someone [demonstrates any expansion of powers in the order], I?ll consider this to be routine.?

?The timing of this release might have looked a little strange,? Morrissey concludes, ?but this is really nothing to worry about at all.?

I got to meet Elizabeth Warren! And we talked! For like three whole minutes! And I have a picture of it!

Andplusalso, during my mad networking session at the event, I met a couple of women, and invited them out to grab a drink afterwards. They're both HUGE women's rights activists, and during our conversation, one of them asked me (because I'd been harping on the WOW's repro rights lately) if I would be interested in an analyst position with a certain org - a position that I've applied for! She told me she's good friends with the woman who's in charge of hiring for the position, and she'd be happy to email her tomorrow and recommend me.

::squee::

Websites? Which?

Political bloggers?

Magazines or newspapers?

Other?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/tongan-king-george-tupou-v-advocate-for-democratic-government-dies-at-63/2012/03/19/gIQAoz4yNS_story.html

Tonga?s King George Tupou V, who gave up most of his powers to bring a more democratic government to his Pacific island nation, died March 18 at a Hong Kong hospital. He was 63.

Tongan Prime Minister Lord Siale?ataonga Tu?ivakano announced the king?s death in a brief radio address. The king, who was a bachelor, had a liver transplant last year and suffered other health problems, according to Tongan media reports.

I sort of hopped on a rascal this past week. I've just been so ravenous - I've been working out more often and also harder, so I suspect that's the culprit. I just have to get back to basics and stick with tracking my food (and beverage) intake. Also, my recovery from NROLFW has taken a lot longer - I'm still incredibly sore in my quads, hamstrings and calves from Monday morning's workout. I'm on Stage 2 (this is my second time going through the program), and I'm lifting much heavier weights at this stage than during my first go-round, but maybe it's too much if I'm still this sore. I just started making whey protein shakes and drinking them after workouts, but it's too early to tell if they help or not. I'm wondering if a foam roller would help too.