By Rebekah Rast Forty-five percent of America’s energy needs are met by a single industry — coal.
And it is this industry that the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), the Department of Energy and President Obama himself continues
to burden with heavy regulations, rules and guidelines.
As this administration continues to lay burdensome rules on this
industry, attempting to push coal out of the energy sector completely,
where is America expected to make up for losing almost 50 percent of
its electric energy source? Not to mention the other affected
industries that are also dependent on coal?
Those questions are likely to remain unanswered as the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) continues writing even more rules and
regulations that negatively affect the coal industry.
The latest set of rules stem from concerns reached in 2009. It was
then the EPA decided greenhouse gas pollution poses a huge risk to
human health and well being. Interestingly, these rules to cap carbon emissions on power plants, affect all future power plants — those being built 12 months from now and beyond.
But while the EPA worries about regulating the air of future
America, coal power plants will have a big problem complying with these
rules.
Get full story here.
By Robert Romano
What one would have given to be a fly on the wall as the House voted
March 29 on the Republican Study Committee (RSC) alternative budget
proposal, which ultimately found a majority of the House Republicans
voting in favor of ditching the proposal favored by leadership.
By a vote of 136 to 104,
Republicans clearly favored the alternate measure proposed by Rep.
Scott Garrett and Rep. Jim Jordan over the plan that had been proposed
by House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan.
The major difference between the two was the RSC would get the
budget to balance in five years, whereas the Ryan plan would not do so
until 2040. This was after Republicans pledged in 2010 to “put us on a path to balance the budget and pay down the debt.”
Surprisingly, just 49 out of 94 freshmen Republican representatives
voted in favor of the RSC plan. GOP veterans actually voted in favor of
the proposal at a higher rate than did the freshmen, with 87 in favor
and 59 opposed, providing the margin for the RSC’s symbolic victory.
Nonetheless this could be viewed internally — and externally to
anyone who cares to pay attention — as a vote of no confidence in the
more tepid Ryan approach.
Get full story here.
Ever since the horrible case of Trayvon Martin’s
shooting first broke, it’s been clear that was opening a Pandora’s Box
of touchy subjects and hard questions for the nation. Instantly, we were
thrown into a veritable field of conversational landmines such as
racial profiling, gun control, and police malfeasance. But, now that our
calm and collected media figures have totally wrapped all those
subjects up cleanly instead of just yelling at each other like idiots
(right?), one final question remains; Is Skittles making too much money
off a dead child?
As everyone knows, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was gunned down because George Zimmerman
thought he looked “suspicious” when, in actuality, he was just carrying
Skittles, Arizona Iced Tea, and wearing a hoodie (or, as Geraldo Rivera
calls it, “Satan’s Shroud”). As tons of rallies have occurred
throughout the country, those calling for Martin to have justice have
shown their support by buying tons of iced tea and the fruity candy.
Tasting the defiant rainbow, as it were.
It’s a fairly beautiful message; showing solidarity as well as
reminding people just how young Martin was when he was taken from this
earth. However, when you continuously buy products as a political
message, that product’s parent company starts to make a lot of money.
And that’s started to make people a little uneasy.
Yesterday, The New York Times brought the question to the forefront in an article entitled “For Skittles, Death Brings Both Profit and Risk,”
which, honestly, would be an awesome new slogan for the candy. In it,
they point out that the sales of the candy have skyrocketed which has led supporters to ask that Wrigley, the candy’s parent company, give some of the money back to charity.
This has put the company in a bind. Do they risk angering the Martin
supporters who are buying tons of their product or do those risk other
people who are really mad about the case but are totally not racist and
just happen to think that that guy who shot the black kid might not be
such a bad dude. Seriously. When President Obama can
ignite a national debate just by making the controversial statement that
“Hey, a young boy dying is tragic,” it’s clear how ridiculously fraught
this subject has become.
Wrigley released a statement about a week ago. Watch them attempt this high wire act:
“We are deeply saddened by the news of Trayvon Martin’s
death and express our sincere condolences to his family and friends. We
also respect their privacy and feel it inappropriate to get involved or
comment further as we would never wish for our actions to be perceived
as an attempt of commercial gain following this tragedy.”
These things happen whenever a brand name product becomes a symbol.
It’s similar to that time it came out that the Guy Fawkes masks favored
by Anonymous protesters were owned by Time Warner.
It’s just an unwinnable situation. Supporters don’t want to give up
their powerful symbol, one that people have rallied around, but they
also don’t want to keep helping some faceless corporation.
The whole thing is pretty ridiculous. After all, it’s fairly amazing
that the conversation about a horrible killing has somehow morphed into a
conversation about candy sales. Still, it’s much better than when this
was all about politics. Sheesh.
The
body of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden was not buried at sea,
according to leaked emails of intelligence firm Stratfor, as revealed by
WikiLeaks.
Stratfor’s vice-president for intelligence, Fred
Burton, believes the body was “bound for Dover, [Delaware] on [a] CIA
plane” and then “onward to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in
Bethesda [Maryland],” an email says.
The official version is that
the body of Al-Qaeda’s top man, who was killed by a US raid in Pakistan
on May 2, 2011, was buried at an undisclosed location at sea in a proper
Muslim ceremony.
“If body dumped at sea, which I doubt, the touch
is very Adolph Eichman like. The Tribe did the same thing with the
Nazi’s ashes,” Burton commented in another email. Eichman was one of the
masterminds of the Holocaust by Nazi Germany. He was captured by Mossad
agents in Argentina and, tried in Israel, found guilty and executed in
1962. His body was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea over the
Mediterranean.
“Eichmann was seen alive for many months on trial
before being sentenced to death and executed. No one wanted a monument
to him so they cremated him. But i dont know anyone who claimed he wasnt
eicjhman [sic]. No comparison with suddenly burying him at sea without
any chance to view him which i doubt happened [sic],” Stratfor CEO
George Friedman replied.
Shirley Ree Smith lives with her daughter Tomeka in Alexandria,
Minn., a quaint town of approximately 11,000 people located about midway
between Fargo and Minneapolis. They share a small, tidy apartment with
Tomeka’s children, Marquis and Yondale, both teenagers. Tomeka’s
daughter, Yolanda, attends college in Nevada.
On a recent afternoon, Smith greeted Yondale as he came home from
school carrying a battered skateboard. She cooks for her grandsons,
helps them with their homework, and generally keeps an eye out for them
while Tomeka is away at work.
She knows their time together could end at any moment.
Smith moved to Alexandria while in the midst of an extraordinary
legal struggle. Fifteen years ago a jury convicted her of shaking
another grandson, 7-week-old Etzel Glass, to death. At the time, Smith
and her family were living in Van Nuys, Calif.
From the beginning, Smith has maintained her innocence. In 2006,
after a decade in prison, a federal appellate court overturned Smith’s
conviction and freed her. Late last year, however, the U.S. Supreme
Court moved to reinstate the conviction, and today, she faces a possible
return to state prison. She has petitioned California Gov. Jerry Brown
for clemency, asking him to commute her sentence.
For now, she lives in a kind of legal limbo. We spoke to her last
week, and ProPublica’s A.C. Thompson asked her what it was like to live
each day without knowing whether she’ll be returned to a cell to
continue serving a term of 15 years to life.
But a deep divide exists within the Los Angeles County Department of
Coroner that could influence the governor’s decision. A senior
pathologist in the coroner’s office has sharply questioned the forensic
evidence used to convict Smith, identifying what he says are a host of
flaws in the case.
Los Angeles prosecutors constructed the case against Smith largely on
the findings of medical experts working for the county coroner. During
an autopsy, forensic pathologists discovered a small amount of bleeding
on the infant’s brain and in his optic nerves. They concluded the death
was a homicide.
But documents obtained by ProPublica, FRONTLINE and NPR show that in January, the coroner’s office asked several staff doctors to take a second look at the infant’s death.
The new report by the pathologist, Dr. James Ribe, details eight
“diagnostic problems” with the coroner’s 1996 ruling that the child had
died from violent shaking or a forceful blow to the head. Ribe wrote
that he saw little evidence that the infant had been attacked, noting
“the complete absence of bodily trauma, such as face trauma, grab marks,
bruises, rib fractures, or neck trauma.” Other doctors in the office
reassessed the case and stood by the homicide ruling.
In Ribe’s view, the injuries to the child’s brain were relatively
minor and could have been caused by the birth process. He also noted
that the baby’s lungs were speckled with tiny blood spots called
petechiae, which are often linked to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and
suffocation, and pointed out that Glass had been sleeping face down on
an “unsafe sleep surface” — a couch cushion — on the night of his death.
The “bottom line,” wrote Ribe, is “there was head trauma, but we
don’t know when it happened or how it happened. We don’t know if it’s
related to the cause of death. The conservative approach would be to
acknowledge these unknowns. The cause of death should be diagnosed as
undetermined.”
Reached by phone, Ribe declined to comment.
Dr. Eugene Carpenter, who supervised the original autopsy, remains
certain that Glass’s death was a homicide. He stood by his original
assessment, stating that Glass died as a result of abuse. Dr. Lakshmanan
Sathyavagiswaran, the chief medical examiner-coroner, largely
concurred, writing that the baby was the victim of abuse that injured
his brain and may also have been intentionally suffocated.
The Los Angeles Department of Coroner would not address the conflicting views about the case.
Smith told us that if the coroner’s office took a more thorough look
at the case back in 1996 it’s possible that she would never have gone to
prison.
In the decade and a half since Smith was convicted, much has changed
in the world of forensics. The National Academy of Sciences in 2009
issued a lengthy report highlighting flaws in the country’s coroner and
medical examiner system and criticizing the techniques used in law
enforcement crime labs.
Among doctors there’s an increasing awareness of ailments and conditions that can mimic the typical symptoms of child abuse
— bleeding and bruising. The leading textbook on pediatric head
injuries now includes two chapters on these mimics; they range from
sickle cell anemia to congenital brain malformations to unintentional
damage caused by the use of forceps or vacuums during birth.
Smith’s conviction was always based on a novel theory outside the usual pattern of shaken baby syndrome cases,
which are typically marked by a triad of symptoms: bleeding on the
brain and in the retinas, and swelling of the brain. Glass had only one
of these symptoms, a tablespoon or two of blood, pooled on top of his
brain.
During the trial, Carpenter told jurors that while the bleeding
wasn’t enough to kill the baby, Glass was shaken or slammed so
forcefully that his brain stem was fatally — but invisibly — damaged,
shutting his whole body down instantly. “There is no evidence” of the
brain stem injury, Carpenter testified, “and there is no evidence
expected to be found in a shaken infant that dies quickly because the
body does not have time to react to the injury.”
The jury convicted Smith of felony child endangerment — a form of
second-degree murder — and she spent the next decade of her life
dwelling in a California women’s prison.
But Carpenter’s testimony didn’t sway the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals, which in 2006 overturned Smith’s conviction. The court found
“there was simply no demonstrable support for shaking as the cause of
death.” Smith’s incarceration, added the court, had “very likely been a
miscarriage of justice.”
Smith told us she greeted the decision with relief.
But when the initial joy wore off, Smith had
difficulty resuming her life in the free world. Her collision with the
criminal justice system carried lingering psychological effects, leaving
her feeling “lost” and fearful, she said. After a stint in a cheap
hotel on Los Angeles’s skid row and a bout of homelessness, Smith
eventually moved to the Midwest, where Tomeka and her surviving
grandchildren were living.
Her legal struggle, however, continued. The California attorney general appealed the case, and late last year, a divided U.S. Supreme Court reversed the 9th Circuit
[PDF]. “The Court of Appeals in this case substituted its judgment for
that of a California jury on the question whether the prosecution’s or
the defense’s expert witnesses more persuasively explained the cause of
a death,” wrote the court in an unsigned opinion.
At the high court’s direction, the 9th Circuit reinstated Smith’s conviction in February of this year.
That move prompted Smith’s lawyers Michael Brennan, a law professor
at the University of Southern California, and his co-counsel, Dennis
Riordan, to petition Brown to commute Smith’s sentence to the 10 years
she has served, rather than returning her to a prison cell.
In a letter to the governor,
the attorneys note that prosecutors recently asked pediatrician Carol
Berkowitz to review the evidence. The doctor’s report contradicts
Carpenter’s theory that Glass died nearly instantly after someone abused
him — and highlights the lack of scientific consensus among medical
experts when it comes to sudden infant fatalities.
Tomeka Smith — Glass’s mother — is adamant that nobody abused her
child. “Our family is so loving it’s ridiculous,” she said in an
interview, adding that she has complete faith in her mother.
“My mother never spanked me, she never cursed me, she never yelled at
me,” Tomeka Smith recalled. “There’s no possible way she could’ve done
what they say. If I had any doubt about that, I would’ve wanted her
prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Video Editor: Michael H. Amundson; Camera: Michael H. Amundson; Megan McGough
An investigation is underway after video
shows a teenage girl being assaulted during a high school soccer match.
The attack happened during a soccer game between Chester High School and
Lewisville High School on Monday evening around 5:30 p.m.
The video, which was shot by WBTV's partner CN2 News, shows a player from Lewisville tripping and falling to the ground.
The player, later identified as 18-year-old Annette McCullough who is a
senior at Lewisville, then gets off the ground and punches a nearby
Chester High school player. The teen victim is then dragged to the
ground by her hair, while McCullough continues to punch her in the face,
the video shows.
The attack lasted around ten seconds before a woman is able to separate
the two players. The video shows McCullough punching the victim at least
eleven times.
A referee then escorts McCullough off the field.
Chester County Sheriff Richard Smith told WBTV that deputies were called
to Lewisville High School to the report of an assault. McCullough is
being charged with simple assault, according to the incident report from
the Sheriff's Office.
Referees will review the video with the South Carolina High School League to see if any punishments will be handed down.
"Some incidental contact ended in one girl going down and she just got
up and started pummeling," referee Alan Parker said after the game. It's
unfortunate, it really is. Contact is a part of soccer, but when you
retaliate like that, obviously, there is no place in the game for that."
Parker, who has been coaching, playing and refereeing for many years,
says it isn't uncommon to see a scuffle, but this was different.
"Occasionally you have players that go at it, on the field together, but
in this case it was just one girl pummeling the other girl," he said.
"And she didn't stop which is even more egregious."
The victim's mother, Juanita, says she was shocked by what she saw on the field.
"I think it is nonsense that girls can't come and play soccer without
getting assaulted over nonsense, that's just how I feel about it," she
said. "She's gonna have to go to the doctor and have some tests."
The Sheriff's report states that the victim had several "swollen knots
behind her right ear" and a mark on her neck, but was not bleeding.
Juanita said that she believes McCullough needs to be prosecuted to the
fullest extent of the law and believes the senior should be banned from
playing soccer in the league.
Lewisville High School's assistant head coach Paul Atkerson said that the team will deal with the incident.
"I know it will not be tolerated on this team and here in Lewisville,"
he said. "This is something that should not have happened, it should not
have happened at all."
By Allan Lengel
The ACLU says
FBI documents show that the San Francisco FBI gathered intelligence on
American Muslim religious organizations on their “constitutionally
protected beliefs and activities, without any suspicion of wrongdoing.
The ACLU said in a story posted on its website that the FBI gathered
the info from 2004 through at least 2008 through its “mosque outreach”
program.
The FBI documents “also show that the FBI categorized information
about American Muslims’ First Amendment-protected and other entirely
innocuous activities, as well as mosque locations, as ‘positive
intelligence’ and disseminated it to agencies outside the FBI.”
The ACLU said the result was that the FBI cast a cloud of suspicion over innocent groups and individuals.
By Allan Lengel
If you’re going to steal someone’s identity, you might as well grab it from a billionaire.
That’s what Brandon Lee Price figured. He just didn’t figure he’d get caught.
Bloomberg news reports that
the AWOL soldier called Citibank in January and asked the bank to
change the address of Microsolf co-founder Paul Allen from Seattle to
Pittsburgh.
A few days later, he told the bank that he had lost his ATM card and
asked that a new one be sent to his Pittsburgh home, Bloomberg reported.
The news outlet reported that he attempted to use the card to get a
$15,000 Western Union transaction and to make a $658.81 payment on an
Armed Forces Bank loan, Bloomberg reported. Only the loan payment made
it through without detection.
By Allan Lengel
DETROIT — From the get-go, defense attorneys had
insisted the high-profile federal case in downtown Detroit against
Michigan militia members was extremely weak. And they predicted it would
result in an embarrassment for the government.
They were right.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts dismissed conspiracy
charges against all seven defendants of the Hutaree militia,
concluding, as the defense had suggested all along, that there was not
enough evidence that the group plotted to revolt against the government
and kill a cop and commit other violence, the Detroit Free Press reported.
Gun charges against two members remained in a case developed by the FBI through an undercover agent and informant.
“We’re just grateful to Judge Roberts for having the courage to do
the right thing …very few judges have that kind of courage,” said one
defense attorney Michael Rataj,according to the Free Press. “There was
no case. There was no conspiracy.”
In his opinion, according to the Free Press, Roberts wrote: “The
evidence is not sufficient for a rational factfinder to find that
defendants came to a concrete agreement to forcibly oppose the authority
of the government of the United States as charged in the indictment.”
To read more click here.
By Bill Wilson In the first part of “The ‘new’ normal,”
we analyzed the dilemma faced by fiscal reformers seeking to make
budgetary cuts or even balance budgets in advanced economies that have
active central banks.
Namely, if central banks around the world can just engage in
unadulterated monetary expansion to enable profligate governments to
perpetually refinance new and existing debt obligations — hardly a new
practice — what need is there to ever cut spending?
Beyond that, we previously noted that even though too much debt can
inhibit economic growth, and that a debt-induced funding crisis can even
bring a society to its knees as in Greece, the world central bank
cartel possesses a trump card.
So dependent are governments (and other financial institutions) on
this unlimited financing scheme that, if the printing presses were shut
off, it would likely crash the world financial system as governments
and banks defaulted on their borrowings. That is because the large bulk
of debts, particularly by governments, are never paid. They are simply
rolled over via refinancing.
In addition, financial elites argue that cutting government spending
and borrowing would have a deflationary effect, increasing
unemployment, causing a recession or worse.
This creates something of an impasse to adopting responsible fiscal
reforms in Washington, D.C. and other capitals the world over.
But since that is more or less the state of affairs — the world
central bank cartel, after all, is in a position to dictate such terms —
the onus is therefore on fiscal reformers to show why spending should
be cut anyway, and that sound money should be restored. The fiscal
reformer’s case is very much a prescriptive one to make, whereas those
in favor of unlimited, perpetual deficit-spending and never repaying the
national debt need only argue for the status quo.
Why act?
The first reason for action is because it is necessary — before it is
too late. The greatest threats to the current system are black swan,
worst-case scenarios. For example, 1) the increasing possibility of
widespread rejection of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency
because our debt load is too great; 2) that oil and other commodities
will no longer be settled and priced in dollars, causing rampant
inflation domestically; or 3) China and other foreign creditors actively
dump their U.S. treasuries holdings in an attempt to crash the market
for U.S. debt and dollar-denominated assets.
Any one of those events occurring would likely cause the other two to
take place, and therefore pose considerable downside risks. The death
of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency would significantly
increase the costs of servicing U.S. debt privately, and lead to much
higher prices (i.e. hyperinflation) here in the U.S.
Get full story here.
It is generally agreed that in order to win this case, the respondents
(opponents of the law)[1] will have to win over the four conservatives
on the bench, Justices Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, and Alito, as well as,
the court’s perennial swing vote, Justice Kennedy.
Each of them would have to agree with the law’s opponents on both of two issues:
1. The Individual Mandate is not constitutional because it violates Congress’s Commerce Clause powers.
2. The Individual Mandate is not a tax and thus is not constitutionally justified under Congress’s power to tax.
Yesterday’s oral arguments were almost entirely centered on the Commerce Clause.[2]
The Obama Administration argued that, similar to a 1942 case called Wickard v. Filburn,[3] the individual mandate is a necessary part of a larger economic system.
Wickard is the foundation of the modern understanding of the
Commerce Clause that says that Congress is permitted to regulate those
things that have a substantial effect on interstate commerce. In Wickard the
Supreme Court ruled that a Congress could go as far as to prohibit a
farmer from growing wheat for his own personal use even though that
wheat would never enter the intrastate market let alone the
interstate market. The court reasoned that the aggregate effects of all
who grow their own wheat could substantially affect interstate commerce. And thus, the Supreme Court expanded the powers of Congress under the Constitution.
To the surprise of the liberal news media,
Kennedy and the conservatives on the Court expressed skepticism in
their multiple pointed questions to Donald Verrilli, Jr., the Obama
Administration’s Solicitor General. Chief among their questions was,
since we have a government of enumerated powers, what limits Congress’s
commerce power?
The respondents’ key argument is that Congress has never used its
commerce power to regulate inactivity (not purchasing health insurance),
and that if Congress can regulate both economic activity and
inactivity, there’s no end what it can do.
Scalia and Kennedy, both thought to be potential swing votes in this
case, wanted to know what limiting principle the Obama Administration
would apply.[4] Said Scalia,
…[T]he Federal Government is not supposed to be a government that has
all powers; … it's supposed to be a government of limited powers. [5]
The Obama Administration further argues that regardless of Congress’s authority under its commerce powers, it independently has
the power to institute an individual mandate under its taxing powers.
This is a troubling problem for opponents of the law should the Court
hold that the Mandate is a tax.
Get permalink here.
As originally published at TheHill.com.
On the same week that Washington’s political punditry runs wild with
analysis on the Supreme Court’s oral arguments on the constitutionality
of ObamaCare, and the rest of the country is busily checking their
NCAA basketball tournament brackets, the House of Representatives will
debate three visions for the fiscal course of our nation.
Incredibly, it is more than likely that this fundamental argument
about our nation’s very future will not even make a wave in the public
discourse.
It is anticipated that the House of Representatives will vote on the
president’s fiscal 2013 budget proposal, which never balances the
budget and which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reports
will leave the nation $6.4 trillion more in debt in the next 10 years.
Even as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) vows to continue his
ostrich-like policy of not bringing up the president’s plan, or even
attempting to pass any budget, the House will give the Obama budget the
consideration it deserves.
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WIs.) will also be
offering his budget, which includes some modest up-front deficit
reduction and even more modest Medicare reforms. Ryan’s proposed budget
will bring the federal budget to balance in 2040. Yes, if everything
goes exactly as scripted in Ryan’s budget, today’s 18-year-olds can look
forward to a federal balanced budget when they turn 46.
Get permalink here.
It has been recently reported that George Zimmerman,
the man who shot Trayvon Martin, couldn’t stop crying after shooting
Trayvon. The revelation surfaced after one of Zimmerman’s defenders went
public to talk about the angst and inner turmoil being experienced by
the man who has become public enemy number one.
When I heard about the inconvenience Zimmerman has experienced as a
result of Trayvon’s death, my head cocked to the side like a dog being
told to read Webster’s dictionary. There is nothing that irritates me
more than when someone does something stupid and then expects others to
feel sorry for them. I go through this with some of my own relatives,
and it’s always annoyed me: You’re the big man when it comes to doing
what you want to do, but act like a two-year old when it’s time to deal
with the consequences.
Guess what Mr. Zimmerman? The number of tears you’ve shed after the
death of Trayvon Martin pales in comparison to the number of tears being
shed by his mother. Also, billions of tears being shed by millions of
people would not have come to pass had a self-appointed, pseudo law
enforcement officer not chosen to terrorize an innocent, unarmed
civilian, chase him down like an animal and shoot him in cold blood.
So, sorry my friend, the world only hopes to increase the depth of your
misery, not to alleviate it.
If Zimmerman were truly remorseful for what he did to Trayvon Martin,
he would do the right thing and turn himself in to police. The New
Black Panther Party has released “Wanted Dead or Alive” posters for
George Zimmerman. Should one of these men “accidentally” bump into
Zimmerman, identify him as looking suspicious, chase him down and shoot
him, I’m sure they would be in handcuffs faster than you can say the
words “Florida loves to lock up black people.”
The bottom line is that George Zimmerman, the man who was clearly
told not to go after Martin by the 911 operator, had no authority to be
asking Martin any questions that night. He certainly had no right to
threaten him with a gun, follow him or ask him why he was in that
neighborhood. Zimmerman’s irresponsible behavior on the night that
Trayvon was killed has left a toxic stain in race relations that may not
wash away for decades. Zimmerman can go cry over that. Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University and founder of the Your Black World Coalition.
We still don’t know
Utah was proud of the market-based healthcare reforms it had made
prior to Obamacare. It was one of two states to have implemented an
insurance exchange before Obamacare.
But now Utah is working hard to figure out how their reforms will work
within the context of Obamacare.
Last fall, Gov. Herbert's administration sent a 58-page document to the
Obama Administration outlining questions that Utah still has about how
Obamacare will be implemented at the state level. Herbert said that
even the Obama Administration’s newly released 1,039 pages of
regulations within the prior week, "still don't answer the questions
we've been asking."[2]
For Governor Herbert, these regulations only "add to the confusion and
uncertainty in the marketplace which inhibits our ability to [act on]
healthcare reform."[3]
And these regulations are just the beginning.
Get full story here.
When President Obama took office, regular gasoline cost $1.85 a
gallon. Now it’s hit $4.00 per gallon in many cities, and some analysts
predict it could reach $5.00 or more this summer. Filling your tank
could soon slam you for $75-$90.
Winter was warm. Our economy remains weak. People are driving less,
in cars that get better mileage, even with mandatory 10 percent
low-mileage ethanol. Gasoline is plentiful.
Misinformed politicians and pundits say prices should be falling. Our
pain at the pump is due to greedy speculators, they claim, and
greedier oil companies that are exporting oil and refined products.
Their explanation is superficially plausible — but wrong.
Energy Information Administration (EIA) data show that 76 percent of
what we pay for gasoline is determined by world crude oil prices; 12
percent is federal and state taxes; 6 percent is refining; and 6 percent
is marketing and distribution. The price that refiners pay for crude
is set by global markets.
World prices are driven by supply and demand, and unstable global
politics. That means today’s prices are significantly affected by
expectations and fears about tomorrow.
A major factor is Asia’s growing appetite for oil — coupled with
America’s refusal to produce more of its own petroleum. Prices are also
whipsawed by uncertainty over potential supply disruptions, due to
drilling accidents and warfare in Nigeria; disputes over Syria, Yemen
and Israeli-Palestinian territories; erroneous reports of a pipeline
explosion in Saudi Arabia; concern about attacks on Middle East oil
pipelines and processing centers; and new Western sanctions on Iran over
its nuclear program and the mullahs’ threats to close the Straits of
Hormuz.
Moreover, oil is priced in U.S. dollars, and the Federal Reserve’s
easy money, low interest policies – combined with massive U.S.
indebtedness — have weakened the dollar’s value. It now costs refineries
more dollars to buy a barrel of crude than it did three years ago.
Amid this uncertainty and unrest, speculators try to forecast future
prices and price shocks, pay less today for crude oil that could cost
more four weeks hence, and get the best possible price for clients who
need reliable supplies. When they’re wrong, speculators end up buying
high, selling low and losing money.
Oil speculators play a vital role, just as they do in corn and other
commodities futures markets.
Get full story here.
By his own numbers, the only time the budget would even be cut is in
2013 and 2014, and then by $94 billion and $54 billion. After that,
spending would increase every single year under a new baseline.
A rather modest proposal, considering the current fiscal predicament
the nation is in, where the $15.57 trillion national debt is now larger
than the entire economy.
Klein complains about cuts to so-called “mandatory”
programs, which under Ryan’s budget are reduced by $100 billion —
less than 3 percent of the total present budget — over the next five
years.
That’s really not that much. One could find more cuts than that in
those types of programs without looking too hard.
For example, returning to just 26 weeks of unemployment benefits
would save $80 billion. Going back to 2008 spending levels on Medicaid
and food stamps would save $75 billion and $40 billion respectively.
Eliminating the earned income and making work pay tax credits would save
another $64 billion.
All together, that’s over $260 billion of cuts that could be enacted
in a single year without severely disrupting much of anything. These
were, after all, spending levels everyone was comfortable with just 3
years ago.
In fact, one could go even further to address the seemingly
insurmountable fiscal situation we face. But to do so, we muster the
political will that presently is sorely lacking — and may remain so
until we face a severe crisis.
We must not wait for a debt apocalypse to act. Presently, the
sustainability of our fiscal trajectory depends almost entirely on the
U.S. dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency, and our central
bank’s ability to monetize the debt.
Get full story here.
Now that’s a wild ride!
Astronomers have discovered that the incredible gravitational
strength of supermassive black holes can tear planets away from their
star systems and hurl them through space at incredible speeds — as fast
as 30 million mph.
They noted that this is “a few percent” of the speed of light, a
theoretical constant of 186,000 miles per second or about 670 million
mph.
Called hypervelocity planets, the speedy worlds vastly outrace
runaway stars that scientists found flying out of our galaxy seven years
ago at the tortoise-like pace of just 1.5 million miles per hour.
“These warp-speed planets would be some of the fastest objects in our
Galaxy. If you lived on one of them, you’d be in for a wild ride from
the center of the galaxy to the Universe at large,” said astrophysicist
Avi Loeb of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
“You’d be in for a wild ride from the center of the
galaxy to the Universe at large.”
- Astrophysicist Avi Loeb
For this study, the researchers simulated a double-star system that
wanders too close to the supermassive black hole at the galactic center.
They had already known that the black hole’s gravitational forces could
rip the stars apart — sending one away at high speed while the other is
captured into orbit around the black hole.
But what would happen if each star had a planet or two orbiting
nearby?
The researchers found that the star ejected outward could carry its
planets along for the ride. The second star, as it’s captured by the
black hole, could have its planets torn away and flung into the icy
blackness of interstellar space at tremendous speeds.
A typical hypervelocity planet would slingshot outward at 7 to 10
million miles per hour. However, a small fraction of them could gain
much higher speeds under ideal conditions.
“Other than subatomic particles, I don’t know of anything leaving our
galaxy as fast as these runaway planets,” added lead author Idan
Ginsburg of Dartmouth College.
Current instruments can’t detect a lone hypervelocity planet since
they are dim, distant, and very rare. However, astronomers could spot a
planet orbiting a hypervelocity star by watching for the star to dim
slightly when the planet crosses its face in a transit.
For a hypervelocity star to carry a planet with it, that planet would
have to be in a tight orbit. Therefore, the chances of seeing a transit
would be relatively high, around 50 percent.
“With one-in-two odds of seeing a transit, if a hypervelocity star
had a planet, it makes a lot of sense to watch for them,” said Ginsburg.
Eventually, such worlds will escape the Milky Way and travel through
the intergalactic void.
“Travel agencies advertising journeys on hypervelocity planets might
appeal to particularly adventurous individuals,” added Loeb.
Article source: Rover
U.S. army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales will
be charged with 17 counts of murder, assault and a string of other
offences in the massacre of Afghan villagers as they slept, a U.S.
official says.
The charges signed against Bales include 17 counts of murder, six
counts of attempted murder and six counts of aggravated assault as well
as dereliction of duty and other violations of military law, the
official said on condition of anonymity because the charges had not been
announced.
The 38-year-old soldier and father of two who lives in Lake Tapps,
Wash., is charged with going on a shooting rampage in two villages near
his southern Afghanistan military post in the early hours of March 11,
gunning down nine Afghan children and eight adults and burning some of
the victims’ bodies.
The charges are to be read to Bales on Friday. He is being held in a military prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas and faces trial under the
Uniform Code of Military Justice.
The killings were yet another blow to U.S.-Afghan relations,
following a series of missteps, including the accidental burning of
Qur’ans, which prompted violent protests and revenge killings American
troops in the war zone.
Accused was on 4th tour of duty
The brutal shooting rampage also prompted renewed debate in the
United States about health care for the troops, who have experienced
record suicide rates and high rates of post-traumatic stress and brain
injuries during repeated deployments over a decade of the
Obama says soul-searching needed in Trayvon Martin death NEW: President
Obama calls for thorough investigation of Trayvon Martin shooting NEW:
Nation must do some soul-searching over shooting, Obama says The black
teenager was not armed when he was killed last month More than 1.3
million people have signed petition seeking justice in the case For more
on the investigation into the Florida teen’s shooting death, watch
“Trayvon Martin Killing” at 7 ET Saturday night on CNN. Sanford, Florida
(CNN) — President Barack Obama waded into the growing national
controversy of the killing of an unarmed black teenager in Florida,
saying the nation should do some “soul-searching to figure out how
something like this happens.” “I think every parent in America should be
able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate
every aspect of this and that everybody pulls together, federal state
and local, to figure out exactly how this tragedy happened.” Obama said
Trayvon Martin’s death particularly resonated with him as an
African-American parent. “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon,” Obama
said in brief remarks outside the White House
Read more:
Today, on March 20, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will be
testifying the House Financial Services committee on the state of the
international financial system.
This is an opportune moment for members to ask tough questions about
U.S. taxpayers’ role in propping troubled sovereigns in Europe via the
International Monetary Fund (IMF), especially with the Fund’s newly
approved to $36.7 billion of loans to Greece. This will raise taxpayers’
stake in Greece to $13 billion, and Europe as a whole to $20.9
billion.
Particularly, in light of recent amendments 22 U.S.C. 286 et seq. in H.R. 4173,
the Dodd-Frank financial legislation, the IMF’s U.S. executive
director Meg Lundsager needed to have developed an evaluation for
lending further resources to Greece. The law requires such an
evaluation take place prior to approval, as Greece’s debt was well in
excess of its GDP, and needed to show the Hellenic nation would not
default on its new loans.
In addition, the law requires the Secretary to “report in writing”
within 30 days of the loan’s approval to your committee “assessing the
likelihood that loans made pursuant to such proposals will be repaid in
full”.
This is particularly important because Greece just defaulted on about €105 billion debt ($138 billion) of its €340 billion debt
($447 billion). Of course, not even that saves the Secretary from
having to provide the evaluation to Congress, because Greece’s remaining
€235 billion debt ($309 billion) most certainly still exceeds its GDP, which for 2011 was €215 billion ($283 billion).
So far, it is not known whether this evaluation occurred or not. The
House committee chaired by Rep. Spencer Bachus is charged with ensuring
that the Secretary has complied with the law in full, a thorough
evaluation was prepared prior to the loan’s approval, and that said
analysis is delivered to Congress in a timely fashion.
Get full story here.
America’s democratic republic depends upon the basic belief by the
governed that those who represent them were elected through fair and
honest elections.
While the losing side in an election contest can be disappointed, if
they know that they lost “fair and square” then that disappointment is
tempered by thoughts of what they could have done better, or how they
might work harder in the next go-around.
However, if the voter and opposition party believe that the outcome is
as straight as San Francisco’s Lombard Street, the very heart of
democracy is ripped out.
Voter fraud is as old as the very act of voting has existed, and history
is replete with examples of dubious election outcomes ranging from
Kennedy’s victory over Nixon in 1960 to the Bloody 8th Congressional
District in Indiana in 1984, where Republican Rick McIntyre
won a recount by 484 votes only to have the results overturned by the
Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, to the
Washington state governors race in 2004, when Christine Gregoire’s team
forced multiple recounts until they finally got into the lead and could secure the victory.
And who could forget local Florida officials desperately trying to
interpret voter intentions and hanging chads in the 2000 Bush v. Gore
election.
Through all of these isolated instances, however, the basic principle
that voting counted and the outcomes were not pre-determined has held by
a thread.
In other countries this is not the case. In 1984, while travelling in
Mexico, my tour guide asked what I did for a living. I replied in my
best Spanish, that I ran political campaigns for a living. The tour
guide, steeped in Mexican politics, replied, “Why bother, it is all
fixed. They should just give the money to the farmers.”
Get full story here.
ORLANDO – 7:09 a.m. – Following protests calling for the
arrest of a Florida neighborhood watch captain who fatally shot an
unarmed black teen, the U.S.Justice Department says it will investigate the case.
George Zimmerman, 28, claims he shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin last
month in self-defense during a confrontation in a gated community.
Police have described Zimmerman as white; his family says he is Hispanic
and not racist.
Zimmerman spotted Martin as he was patrolling his neighborhood last
month and called the police emergency dispatcher to report a suspicious
person. Against the advice of the dispatcher, Zimmerman then followed
Martin, who was walking home from a convenience store with a bag of
candy in his pocket.
By now I suspect that you’ve heard about the murder of 17 year-old Trayvon Martin. But in case you haven’t here are the details.
17-year-old Florida teenager Trayvon Martin
From The Washington Post Seventeen year-old Trayvon Martin, who was visiting relatives in a
gated community in Sanford, Fla., on February 17 was on his way back to
their house from 7-Eleven with an iced tea and a bag of Skittles.
That’s when he caught the eye of (28 year-old) George Zimmerman, a crime
watch volunteer who called 911.
“Hey, we’ve had some break-ins in my neighborhood and there’s a
real suspicious guy,” Zimmerman tells police before giving the address
of where he is. “This guy looks like he’s up to no good or he’s on drugs
or something.”
“These [expletive], they always get away,” Zimmerman says before getting out of his car to pursue Trayvon.
“Are you following him?” the police ask.
“Yes,” Zimmerman says. The officer on the phone tells him, “We don’t need you to do that.” But he did. In another 911 call,
you can hear screaming for help and the fatal gunshot. Zimmerman
brought a 9 mm handgun to the altercation. A scuffle ensued. Trayvon was
fatally shot in the chest. His mother told
the Associated Press yesterday, “(Zimmerman) was chasing him, he was
following him, and my son was afraid. He didn’t know who this stranger
was.”
Murderer George Zimmerman
George Zimmerman murdered Trayvon Martin. But since the shooting the
Sanford police department has interviewed Zimmerman at least three times
and have declined to arrest him and the local DA has so far not charged
him with any crime. And that’s what makes this more than simply a cold
blooded murder, that makes it a lynching.
This Zimmerman apparently thought that a Black child walking in his
neighborhood was suspicious. And now the police apparently are taking
the side of Zimmerman. When a citizen kills another that’s murder but
when law enforcement refuses to seek justice for the victim then it
becomes a lynching.
And we all know that had Zimmerman been Black and Martin been a White teen, Zimmerman would be under the jail by now.
My hope is that very soon the U.S. Justice Department will intervene
and arrest Zimmerman. And if they don’t do it soon I can very easily see
this situation getting seriously out of hand. People want justice and
when the system denies them it they sometimes find other ways of getting
justice.
DENVER (FNN Media) — Peyton Manning will be the next quarterback of the Denver Broncos.
Barring an unforeseen snag, Manning and the Broncos will reach an agreement according to ESPN.
In addition, the Broncos will try to trade Tim Tebow.
As
recently as this weekend Manning worked out for the Tennessee Titans,
who were impressed with his showing. A false report leaked online this
weekend that Manning was apparently ready to choose the Titans and a
press conference was going to be called.
All the while, Manning’s agent, Tom Condon, had already been talking contract with Denver.
ESPN says reaching the contract is merely a formality.
Condon
and Broncos VP John Elway discussed the parameters of a five-year, $95
million deal when Manning visited the team earlier this month.
One week later, as they visited in North Carolina, Elway told Manning’s camp that they wanted to finalize the contract.
The
Broncos don’t appear to have many concerns over Manning’s health after
he passed a team-administered physical earlier this month.
Still, the Broncos want language in the contract that protects them in case Manning is unable to return to the field.
The
former Indianapolis Colts quarterback was released earlier this year
after he missed all of last season following multiple neck surgeries.
Still, neither the Broncos nor Manning expect any hangups in finalizing the deal.
Manning
has instructed Condon not to negotiate with the San Francisco 49ers and
Tennessee Titans, the other two finalists to land him.
By Allan Lengel
DETROIT — Next time you might want to think twice before you have a guy named “Jersey Steve” as the best man at your wedding.
The Detroit Free Press reports that
ring leader David Stone Sr. of the Hutaree militia in Michigan grew so
fond of his friendship with a trucker named “Jersey Steve” that he named
him the best man at his wedding.
On Monday, Jersey Steve, aka Steven Haug, who was an FBI informant,
testified in the federal trial in downtown Detroit of Stone, his wife,
two sons and three others, the Free Press reported.
The group is accused of plotting to overthrow the government with guns and bombs.
Defense attorneys have claimed there’s nothing to the charges.
To read more click here.
By Allan Lengel
Well, William Shakespeare he may not be.
But apparently Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger — accused of killing 19 people — was into writing.
The Boston Globe reports that
he may have written two memoirs that the feds may use against him in
trial, now set for November. He’s charged with racketeering and killing
19 people.
“It is unclear at this juncture whether (Bulger) authored this document,” prosecutors wrote, according to the Globe.
The Globe reported that the feds seized a memoir “My Life in the Iris Mafia Wars” in 1995 at his South Boston residence.
And last year, when they arrested Bulger, 82, and his girlfriend
Catherine Greig, 60, in Santa Monica, Calif., the feds seized a second
document “which appears to be autobiographical,” the Globe reported.
To read more click here.
By Allan Lengel
Technology is once again bumping up against law enforcement.
PC Magazine is reporting that
the FBI has issued a warrant to get Google to give it a Gmail account
and password and other info so it can tap into the Android cell phone of
an alleged pimp suspected of playing a role in a human trafficking
investigation.
PC reported that agents in the San Diego office seized a Samsung
phone from suspected pimp Dante Dears on Jan. 17, but were unable to get
past the lock on it.
To read more click here.
By Craig Wall
FOX Chicago News
CHICAGO — Pam Davis said convicted former governor Rod Blagojevich has lost his sense of reality.
“I feel a sense of vindication that justice has finally been served,”
Davis said. “It’s taken more than eight years, but I do think truth
prevailed.”
It has been a long journey for Davis, who has been waiting for this
day, waiting for the end of what has been along road for her. She
provided the evidence that lead to the FBI’s investigation of
Blagojevich.
“The first couple of months I did not have suspicions that it went
all the way up to the governor,” Davis said. “But shortly after the
second month of working with the FBI, I began to get a sense that this
was much more complex and that they tentacles from these individual that
were scheming to make money off good works probably did go up to the
governor.”
To read the full story click here.
“To date, the IMF has given Greece and
European banks $26.8 billion in kick-the-can refinance loans. Now the
IMF, which the U.S. funds, is bailing out the banks that bet poorly on
her debt with another $36.7 billion. Our stake was already $13.5
billion of American taxpayer money being used propping up Greece,
Portugal and Ireland.
“With this latest loan, the U.S. stake
will rise to mpre than $20 billion spent on bailing out Europe. That
does not count additional lending that is taking place by the Federal
Reserve to prop up the European financial system. To put the $20
billion spent on Europe into perspective, in the 2010 all 50 states got
a bailout from the Pelosi-Reid Congress of $26.1 billion. We’ve sunk
12.7 times more into Greece, Portugal and Ireland per capita than
individual states received on average in their last bailout. This is
positively outrageous.
“Making matters worse, the U.S. has a
prominent seat at the IMF, which could have been used to prevent this
bailout. There has been no word on how the U.S. representative voted
yet.
“Either, we voted yes, putting the lie to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner who just in February said
‘it’s unlikely you’re going to see the major shareholders of the IMF
be prepared to have the IMF play a larger response’ in Greece. Or,
perhaps we voted no, in which case it proves the U.S. has surrendered
fiscal sovereignty to the international central bank cartel.
“Now is the time to pass legislation
proposed by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Sen. Jim DeMint that would
rescind $108 billion additional funding to the IMF it received in 2009
when Democrats had a majority in both houses of Congress. American
taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize the foolish lending
practices of foreign banks. That money needs to be taken back, before
it is flushed down the toilet of European socialism.”
Did you know that the Federal Government was spending taxpayer
dollars on organizations that would lobby local governments to tax sugar
and soda? Were you also aware that such activity is illegal?
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says she
was aware of the lobbying activities but was not aware that is was
illegal. A recent report from The Daily Caller
showed that $230 million had flowed in obesity prevention grants to 30
states as part of the Communities Putting Prevention to Work
Initiative. The program was established as part of the 2009 “stimulus”
bill.
The report from The Daily Caller brought attention to the fact that
some of the $230 million found its way to influence peddlers who lobby
local governments for higher soda and sugar taxes.
As stated in Title 18 of the U.S. Code, Section 1913:
“No part of the money appropriated by any enactment of Congress
shall, in the absence of express authorization by Congress, be used
directly or indirectly to pay for any personal service, advertisement,
telegram, telephone, letter, printed or written matter, or other device,
intended or designed to influence in any manner a Member of Congress, a
jurisdiction, or an official of any government, to favor, adopt, or
oppose, by vote or otherwise, any legislation, law, ratification, policy
or appropriation …”
Clearly, HHS Secretary Sebelius and the rest of the bureaucrats
involved in this matter are not familiar with the U.S. Code. Sebelius
told the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health that because
the lobbying was taking place on the local level of government that
there was no wrongdoing but announced that the practice is now
prohibited saying, “The original language that has been part of the law
that we have administered and had our grantees administering, applied
to grantees lobbying the federal government.”
When the government is spending trillions of dollars by an untold
number of bureaucrats this type of activity is bound to happen. Yes, it
was illegal, but in a system so large and vast, it is not surprising
that the Obama Administration turned their heads, looked the other way,
and hoped no one noticed.
Get full story here.
One of the last things America needs is a rehash of the 2008 campaign,
but the truth demands constant vigilance. The lies of today easily
evolve into the common misperceptions of tomorrow, and if a movement
will not defend its own leaders, who will?
Recently, this space discussed the marketing of Game Change, HBO's
account of Campaign 2008, focusing on the selection of Sarah Palin for
vice president. The producers are selling it as a serious examination
of our political selection process. But this writer missed the trees
for the forest. The devil is in the details. It is not the smug,
self-satisfied tone of the filmmakers and stars that justify the disgust
of every American who esteems truth as the gold standard of political
discourse. Simply, the film is a blatant piece of anti-conservative
propaganda.
We can all forget the title or plot of a movie, but individual scenes
can linger on, coloring our perceptions of specific subjects for a
lifetime. Some Hollywood producers are more insidious than politicians —
the cover of “art” offers a much broader framework for spreading
liberal propaganda than a mere stump speech or daily news soundbite.
The following are the most pertinent scenes from Game Change, though far too many remain to recount here.
Before the opening credits are over, we see that one of the film's
producers is Tom Hanks. Yes, the amiable guy next door and Obama
fundraiser of the highest order. His efforts alone don't preclude an
objective look at Governor Palin, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
Get full story here.
In the last decade, Japan’s Ministry of Education has responded to
market imperatives and a need for managers with specialized skills by
increasing the number of graduate programs. But Japan's new
professional and graduate programs have experienced chronic
under-enrollment -- basically, no one is showing up to class. Now the
Ministry of Education is playing catch-up to market these educational
programs to a very truant bunch of students.
It is not hard to determine why Japan’s graduate classrooms sit empty.
For one thing, the promise that graduate programs offer does little to
remove the stigma associated with continuing education courses.
Traditional definitions of success lead many professionals to fear
that they will be perceived as less competent if they pursue education
after they have entered a professional career. In the past, Japanese
companies have also based career advancement on seniority. An extra
one or two years in school has often meant falling behind less
educated counterparts who move faster up the corporate ranks.
As Japan approaches the first anniversary of the crisis
that transformed the nation, global attention will
undoubtedly focus on the progress that the country has made in
resurrecting its physical infrastructure. Restoring homes, roads,
hospitals and schools, and mitigating the damage of the worst nuclear
disaster since Chernobyl certainly deserve our attention and
reflection. Still, it is important to remember that solving the social
and economic problems that Japan faced before the crisis are just as
critical.
The unique skills that graduate programs offer will play a vital roll
in managing Japan's long-term recovery. If students and professionals
continue to avoid higher education, Japan will find itself
ill-equipped to maintain its revival. Considering how many people have
been displaced and how much there is yet to be rebuilt, it may be
worthwhile for the Ministry of Education to encourage distance
learning or online graduate programs. Because online schools
are more cost-efficient, offer the ability to reach a larger audience
across vast distances, and provide the opportunity to study while
working full-time -- thereby avoiding the stigma of a late entry into
the workforce -- they may be the perfect tool in ensuring that once
Japan's physical recovery is complete, the nation will have an
educated workforce capable of leading an economic recovery.
By Rebekah Rast
Robert Romano
March 15, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today condemned a 
