Arias Jury Gives Up After No Consensus)

(Arias Jury Gives Up After No Consensus)
http://www.huffingtonpostdotcom/2013/05/24/arias-jury_n_3330897.html
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I carry no water for Jodi Arias, in the bizarre Arizona murder trial.
She has been found guilty; and the same jury was hung on whether to impose the death penalty or life. The jury has been dismissed.
I'm opposed to the death penalty, period. There is no wobbling on this.
And because of this, I would never have been chosen to be on the jury.
The two alternatives now are to 1) appoint a new jury and conduct a mini-trial before it goes to decide on the penalty (which could take months); or 2)the judge could get the prosecutors to agree to forgo the death penalty; and the judge could unilaterally impose life w/o parole or life, with parole after 25 yrs.
I favor the second option.
I know the wackjob HLN Nancy Grace will oppose the second option.
Like the Casey Anthony trial, Grace wants the death penalty for Arias; and would like to broadcast her death on her show.
Some will joke that Arias already has had a death penalty, being under the control of Sheriff Joe Arpaio for over 4 years.

The NY Post’s cartoonist Sean Delonas usually draws scurrilous, right-wing cartoons.

Cartoonists have a right to do that.
With Delonas, you can often lift a heavy rock and you will find samples of his dark humor.
Today’s cartoon (linked below) juxtaposes the Okl. twister with the GOP-inspired faux Obama scandals.
One can initially laugh, but the point of the cartoon is to further the Joe McCarthyite GOP attacks against Obama.
The Benghazi issue is, as Obama said, “there is no there there.”
And it now appears that then CIA director David H. Petraeus had the major role in revising, developing the original talking points.
The Benghazi affair was a bureaucratic turf war between CIA and State; and the goal of any bureaucracy is survival and protection of its’ image.
The hypocrisy here is that the Bush 2 administration had at least 13 US embassy attacks throughout the world.
http://www.nypost.com/opinion/cartoons/delonas.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/petraeuss-role-in-drafting-benghazi-talking-points-raises-questions/2013/05/21/db19f352-c165-11e2-ab60-67bba7be7813_story.html?hpid=z1
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/13-benghazis-that-occurre_b_3246847.html

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Gov. Andrew Cuomo unveiled a plan to put tax free zones on upstate SUNY campuses, where new businesses and those poached from out of state can set up without paying property, sales or franchise taxes for a decade

(..Gov. Andrew Cuomo unveiled a plan to put tax free zones on upstate SUNY campuses, where new businesses and those poached from out of state can set up without paying property, sales or franchise taxes for a decade. (TU/BN))
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What is the projected revenue loss on this program over the 10 year period?
These conservative free enterprise zone-type programs were not that successful in the state, except that the last name given to the zones, empowerment zones, was a good pr nomenclature.
The results of this program was mostly empowerment for primary sector, large corporations that moved into the zones, got many tax breaks, and provided few good paying jobs.
These free enterprise, tax free, zones were an idea copied from Britain’s iron lady Margaret Thatcher…a very conservative lady.
Jack Kemp tried to make the idea take hold in the US, but the real result is a large level of loss revenue for the local/state governments.
A more progressive alternative is down-up development, with the focus on local community development organizations.

Anthony Weiner’s Bar Mitzvah photo is here. (Atlantic)) **************

(Anthony Weiner’s Bar Mitzvah photo is here. (Atlantic))
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Without opening the Atlantic link, let us all have courage to believe the photo is , what do we say, “clean”.
Mr. Weiner, unfortunately, is not a recovering politico; obviously did not graduate from the politico addiction 12-step program.
The city’s voters are a tough crowd, but Weiner is polling second in the Dem primary lineup. It could be that the NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn is not a shoe-in.
Weiner reminds me of Chicago Mayor, former high staffer to Bill Clinton and POTUS Obama, Rahm Emanuel.
Both are type A, hard charging personalities.
The difference is that Rahm did not send obscene photos. to ladies.
Best of  luck to Weiner.
If I lived in the city, I would encourage his lovely wife,Huma Abedin, to enter the Dem. primary race.
Her husband displays, as the saying goes, “unbelievable chutzpah.”

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RANDI WEINGARTEN AND KERRY KENNEDY have a good op.ed. in this morning’s Albany Times-Union..

RANDI WEINGARTEN AND KERRY KENNEDY have a good op.ed. in this morning’s Albany Times-Union..
Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/Justice-for-labor-on-the-farm-4523828.php#ixzz2TYe4cQD2
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They are asking for support for the New York to pass”the Farm
Workers’ Fair Labor Practices Act, a bill sponsored by Assemblywoman
Catherine Nolan and State Sen. Adriano Espaillat currently under
consideration by the state Legislature.”
The issue is clear that farm worker’s have very little labor law
protections; and this law should be supported by the legislature and
Gov. Cuomo.
It also should be given support in commemoration of the 45th anniversary of RFK’s assassination.
Next month is the 45th anniversary of RFK’s assassination.
Would he have gotten the nomination, taking it from Hubert Humphrey?
Likely, as Mayor Daley would have likely moved to RFK and brought along other big state Dem. leaders.
Would he have won in the contest between Nixon, and Wallace?
More than likely!
He would have taken a good percentage of the Wallace white working class vote, enough to beat Nixon.
Would he have been a good President?
This is the great historical conundrum!
He surely would have been an active Pres.; what political scientist James Barber labeled an active-postive President.
The Nam war would have ended at least 4 years sooner than it did under Nixon, through negotiations with the North Vietnamese.
To speculate further on a RFK Presidency is academic; good armchair ruminating on what might have been.
There would not have been Watergate, which was in reality a
continuation of the cover-up of the JFK assassination…..many of the same
actors (anti-Castro renegades; CIA spooks (i.e. E.Howard Hunt), and the
Lamar Waldron thesis that Nixon was searching the Watergate for the
files on the Bay of Pigs, CIA Castro assassination history, and the JFK
murder.
RFK would also have persued the conspirators in his brother’s murder.
All this is speculative ruminating.
This has been very little discussion of the RFK murder and the coming 45th anniversary.
And that is likely what Kerry Kennedy, and the Kennedy family desires.
But the RFK assassination was a conspiracy in the Ambassador.
And Sirhan, still alive in prison, should be granted a new trial.

http://www.amazon.com/Watergate-Hidden-History-Nixon-Mafia/dp/1619021625/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368797904&sr=1-1&keywords=lamar+waldron
http://www.amazon.com/Presidential-Character-Predicting-Performance-Political/dp/020565259X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368799101&sr=1-3&keywords=james+barber

 

Buzzfeed's Ben Smith critiques the White House evesdropping on AP phones; and includes a photo of Obama morphing into Nixon.

Buzzfeed's Ben Smith critiques the White House evesdropping on AP phones; and includes a photo of Obama morphing into Nixon.
The House GOP radical Darrell Issa appeared on CBS Morning News; and immediately after the lead-in of Obama dismissing the Benghazi attack investigation as one of there is no there there, Issa smiled and declared the POTUS is spinning.
The right-wing onslaught is increasing in intensity.
The morphing of Obama into Nixon; the claim that these scrapes are Nixonian in their import, are laying the groundwork for a move by the House GOP to impeach Obama.
But the hidden , deep politics behind this is operating above the Issa level.
The power elite in the US are moving to render Obama politically impotent; to make the progressive rhetoric Obama outlined in his inaugural and SOTU addresses mute.
Many of us lived through the Nixon years.
And Obama is no Nixon.
Nixon had a fertile active mind; but he was a very flawed person...a bitter partisan, paranoid in the dark, overpowering dark centers of his brain; and he really was a crook.
We are heading toward a very difficult crisis , more severe than mere deadlock in DC .
For many reasons, Obama seems to locked in epic struggle with the most powerful forces in our country.

 http://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/the-panopticon-president

 

Hillary Clinton and the right-wing attack squads.

Hillary Clinton and the right-wing attack squads.
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The loudmouth US Sen. Rand Paul took to the Senate floor last week and declared that Hillary Clinton is unqualified to be POTUS because of the Benghazi affair.
Karl Rove is already running anti-Hillary 2016 ads in Nevada.
The right-wing attack squads have their poisonous weapons poised to attack Hillary from now through 2015.
The supermarket scandal rag National Enquirer apparently has an anti-Hilllary and anti-Clinton agenda.
Week after week the rag has a cover story on Bill’s immanent death; and Hillary’s personal secrets.
It’s as though the publishers are the Koch brothers…perhaps they do own the rag.
This week’s Enquirer has the cover story of Hillary’s $25 million “tell-all” book scheduled for next year.
And the rag tells us that Hillary will reveal her “lesbian lovers.”
I was at the supermarket checkout; picked up this rag; and skimmed the story.
Hillary will reveal her lesbian affairs!!!
Hellzapoppin!!!
I dropped the rag; fell to the floor in convulsive laughter; and lost my place in the checkout.
Hillary will reveal her lesbian affairs???
Right, and I have that bridge in Brooklyn I’ll sell you at a fabulous cut rate price.