Thursday, May 2, 2013

WASHINGTON TIMES: Warnings from Obama’s Inaugural Address...

Dangerous plans were disclosed in Barack’s first speech as president.
Polls show that millions of Americans are suffering from buyer’s remorse after voting for Barack Obama for president in the last election. The most obvious group is found among independent voters, who gave Mr. Obama an 8-point margin over Sen. John McCain in 2008 but who now are favoring Mitt Romney over Mr. Obama by a massive 14 points. According to Rasmussen Reports, the incumbent Democrat is losing to the Republican challenger by 1 point nationwide, and Mr. Romney is ahead 7 points on dealing with the economy. After four years in the White House, voters know who Mr. Obama is and have decided they don’t like him. Read more at The Washington Times...
FELONY MURDER
By: Kevin E. McCarthy, Principal Analyst
You asked for a discussion of the crime of felony murder in Connecticut and other states. This report addresses the states of California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin.
SUMMARY
The felony-murder doctrine provides that if a homicide occurs during the commission or attempted commission of a felony, the homicide is a form of murder. The felony-murder doctrine is probably derived from English common law, although its exact origins are disputed. Forty-six states, including Connecticut, have felony murder provisions in their statutes. Hawaii, Kentucky, and Michigan have eliminated the felony murder rule through legislation or court decisions. Ohio has effectively eliminated the felony murder doctrine by enacting an involuntary manslaughter statute that covers what was previously felony murder.
In most states, including Connecticut, a person can be found guilty of murder if he is convicted of one or more specified felonies and a person is killed in the course of the underlying crime or flight from it. The underlying crimes commonly include robbery, burglary, sexual assault, kidnapping, and escape. Florida's list of underlying crimes is notably more expansive than Connecticut's and Georgia's law applies to any felony. Maine's felony murder law additionally requires that the death is a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the commission of or attempt at the underlying felony or the flight from it. Case law has imposd similar requirements in several states.
In Connecticut, it is not felony murder if the person killed is one of the participants in the underlying felony. This is also true in Colorado, Florida, New Jersey, New York, and Washington. In contrast, the Rhode Supreme Court has held that the fact that the murder victim was an accomplice to the underlying felony does not prevent the defendant from being convicted of felony murder, so long as his actions foreseeably produced the fatal injury.
In Connecticut, it is an affirmative defense that the defendant was not involved in the killing, was unarmed, and met other criteria. Maine, New Jersey, New York, and Washington have very similar provisions in their laws.
CONNECTICUT
Connecticut and most other states have felony murder provisions in their statutes. Under CGS § 53a-54c, a person is guilty of murder when, acting either alone or with others, he (1) commits or attempts to commit robbery, burglary, kidnapping, sexual assault in the first degree, aggravated sexual assault in the first degree, sexual assault in the third degree, sexual assault in the third degree with a firearm, or escape in the first or second degree and (2) in the course of and in furtherance of such crime or of flight from it, he or another participant in the underlying crime causes the death of a person other than one of the participants. The penalty for this crime depends on whether the person is convicted of a capital felony, murder, or arson murder.
If the defendant was not the only participant in the underlying crime, it is an affirmative defense that he: (1) did not commit the homicidal act or in any way solicit, request, command, importune, cause, or aid its commission; (2) was not armed with a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument; (3) had no reasonable ground to believe that any other participant was armed with such a weapon or instrument; and (4) had no reasonable ground to believe that any other participant intended to engage in conduct likely to result in death or serious physical injury. By law, defendants must prove an affirmative defense by a preponderance of the evidence.
In State v. Cobbs, 203 Conn. 4 (1987), the Supreme Court noted that a person can be convicted of felony murder even though he did not intend to kill the victim and did not personally do so. However, the court held that it is not enough that the defendant committed the underlying felony and caused the death of the victim unless the death was a part of the felony and directly involved in it. It explained that, at trial, the state must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that:
1. the defendant and others (if applicable) committed or attempted to commit the felony,
2. the defendant or one of the other participants caused the victim's death, and
3. the defendant or one of the other participants caused the death in the course of and in furtherance of the felony
In State v. Young, 191 Conn. 636 (1983), the defendant had been convicted under the statute for an arson for hire that killed one person in the building. The court noted that the statute had been taken from the New York Penal code. Following a New York case, (People v. Wood, 8 N.Y.2d 48, 1960), it held that the phrase “in furtherance of” imposes a proximate cause requirement beyond that of mere causation in fact. The New York court had ruled that felony murder does not include killings that are incidentally coincident with the underlying felony, but only those committed by one of the criminals in the attempted execution of the unlawful act. The Connecticut court upheld the conviction, finding that the jury instruction adequately conveyed this limitation of liability.
OTHER STATES
California (Cal. Pen. Code Sec. 189)
First degree murder includes murder committed in the perpetration of, or attempt to perpetrate: (1) arson, (2) rape and various other sexual crimes, (3) carjacking, (4) robbery, (5) burglary, (6) mayhem, (7) kidnapping, (8) train wrecking, or (9) any murder is perpetrated by discharging a firearm from a motor vehicle, intentionally at another person outside of the vehicle, with the intent to inflict death. First degree murder is punishable by death, imprisonment in the state prison for life without the possibility of parole, or imprisonment in the state prison for a term of 25 years to life. Other forms of murder are second degree murder, punishable by 15 years to life, except if the homicide victim was a peace officer engaged in his official duties, in which case the minimum sentence is 25 years.
Colorado (Col. Rev. Stat. Sec. 18-3-102)
It is first degree murder for someone, acting alone or with others to (1) commit or attempt to commit arson, robbery, burglary, kidnapping, sexual assault, class 3 felony sexual assault on a child, or escape and (2) in the course of or in furtherance of the crime or in immediate flight from it, anyone causes the death of a person other than one of the participants. The crime is subject to the death penalty or life in prison.
Florida (Fla. Rev. Stat. Sec. 782.04)
It is second degree murder if a person commits one or more specified crimes and the perpetration of, or in the attempt to perpetrate this crime, another person is killed by someone other than the perpetrator of the underlying crime. The underlying crimes are: drug trafficking; arson; sexual battery; robbery or home invasion robbery; burglary; kidnapping; escape; aggravated abuse of a child, elderly person, or disabled adult; aircraft piracy; unlawful throwing, placing, or discharging of a destructive device or bomb; carjacking; aggravated stalking; murder; resisting an officer with violence to his or her person; or felonious acts of terrorism or in furtherance of an act of terrorism. The crime is punishable by up to life in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
Florida has a separate crime, attempted felony murder (Fla. Rev. Stat. § 782.051), which covers cases where someone commits one of the specified felonies and in the process acts in a way that could have killed another person.
Georgia (Ga. Code. Ann. 16-5-1)
A person commits murder when, in the commission of a felony, he causes the death of another person, irrespective of malice. A person convicted of this offense must be punished by death or by life imprisonment.
The state Supreme Court refused to hold a person liable for a death caused by a person who was not the defendant or an accomplice to the felony. In State v. Crane, 279 S.E.2d 695 (Ga. 1981) the intended victim of the crime shot and killed a would-be burglar and the deceased burglar's accomplices were charged with felony murder. While the court favored an interpretation of Georgia's felony-murder statute to include deaths indirectly caused by one of the parties, it ruled that the state's rules of statutory interpretation required that ambiguous statutes be construed against the state.
Maine (17-A Me. Rev. Stat. Sec. 202)
Under Maine law a person is guilty of felony murder if acting alone or with others in committing or attempting to commit murder, robbery, burglary, kidnapping, arson, gross sexual assault, or escape, or immediate flight after committing or attempting to commit these crimes, the person or another participant in fact causes the death of a person and the death is a reasonably foreseeable consequence of such commission, attempt or flight. The crime is punishable by up to 30 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $50,000.
It is an affirmative defense that the defendant:
1. did not commit the homicidal act or in any way solicit, command, induce, procure, or aid its commission;
2. was not armed with a dangerous weapon or other weapon which under circumstances indicated a readiness to inflict serious bodily injury;
3. reasonably believed that no other participant was armed with such a weapon; and
4. reasonably believed that no other participant intended to engage in conduct likely to result in death or serious bodily injury. 
The Maine Supreme Court has held that felony murder involves an unintended death that results as a reasonably foreseeable consequence of an intended felony (State v. Caouette, 462 A.2d 1171 (Me. 1983)). The court also has held that the law does not violate the state or federal bans on cruel and unusual punishment (State v. Reardon, 486 A.2d 112 (Me. 1984)).
Massachusetts (265 Mass. Gen Laws Sec. 1)
First degree murder includes murder that occurs in the commission or attempted commission of a crime that is punishable with death or imprisonment for life. These crimes include such things as rape of a child, kidnapping with intent to extort money, and illegal sale of 20 or more firearms. Unlike other forms of murder, the killing does not need to involve deliberately premeditated malice aforethought, extreme atrocity, or cruelty. The crime is subject to life imprisonment. Other types of murder are considered second degree murder.
The Massachusetts Supreme Court held in Commonwealth v. Padgett, 44 Mass. App. Ct. 359, review denied 425 Mass. 1105 (1998) that to invoke the felony murder rule, the state must establish that:
1. the defendant was a participant in a felonious enterprise independent of the homicide,
2. the felony was inherently dangerous,
3. homicide occurred in the course of the felonious enterprise, and
4. the death was natural and probable consequence of the felony.
In this case, the court held that armed robbery and armed assault are inherently dangerous. The Supreme Court has also held, in Commonwealth v. Claudio, 634 N.E.2d 902, 418 Mass. 103 (1994), that burglary with actual assault can serve as the underlying felony for felony murder.
New Jersey (N.J. Rev. Stat. Sec. 2C:11-3)
In New Jersey, it is murder when a person, acting alone or with others, (1) commits, attempts to commit, or flees after committing or attempting to commit robbery, sexual assault, arson, burglary, kidnapping, carjacking, criminal escape, or terrorism and (2) in the course of such crime or of immediate flight from it, any person causes the death of a person other than one of the participants. The offender must be sentenced to a term of 30 years to life, with no parole allowed before 30 years have been served. Under certain circumstances, (e.g., the homicide of law enforcement while performing his official duties), the offender must be sentenced to life without parole.
If the defendant was not the only participant in the underlying crime, it is an affirmative defense that he:
1. did not commit the homicidal act or in any way solicit, request, command, importune, cause, or aid the commission of it;
2. was not armed with a deadly weapon, or any instrument, article or substance readily capable of causing death or serious physical injury and of a sort not ordinarily carried in public places by law-abiding persons;
3. had no reasonable ground to believe that any other participant was armed with such a weapon, instrument, article, or substance; and
4. had no reasonable ground to believe that any other participant intended to engage in conduct likely to result in death or serious physical injury.
New York (N.Y. Pen. Code Sec. 125.25)
It is second degree murder if a person, acting alone or with others (1) commits or attempts to commit robbery, burglary, kidnapping, arson, rape in the first degree, criminal sexual act in the first degree, sexual abuse in the first degree, aggravated sexual abuse, or escape in the first or second degree and (2) in the course of and in furtherance of committing the underlying crime or of immediate flight from it, he or another participant in the crime causes the death of a person other than one of the participants. The crime is punishable by imprisonment for 15 years to life and a fine of up to $100,000.
If the defendant was not the only participant in the underlying crime, it is an affirmative defense that he:
1. did not commit the homicidal act or in any way solicit, request, command, importune, cause or aid the commission thereof;
2. was not armed with a deadly weapon, or any instrument, article or substance readily capable of causing death or serious physical injury and of a sort not ordinarily carried in public places by law-abiding persons;
3. had no reasonable ground to believe that any other participant was armed with such a weapon, instrument, article or substance; and
4. had no reasonable ground to believe that any other participant intended to engage in conduct likely to result in death or serious physical injury.
Rhode Island (R. I. Gen Laws Sec. 11-23-1)
Under state law, first degree murder includes any murder committed (1) in the perpetration of, or attempt to perpetrate, any arson, rape, any degree of sexual assault or child molestation, burglary or breaking and entering, robbery, kidnapping, (2) during the course of the perpetration, or attempted perpetration of felony manufacture, sale, delivery, or other distribution of a controlled substance; (3) while resisting arrest by, or under arrest of, any state trooper or police officer in the performance of his or her duty: or (4) against an assistant attorney general or special assistant attorney general in the performance of his or her duty. People of first degree murder must be sentenced to life imprisonment and serve at least 15 years of their sentence before becoming eligible for parole. Under certain circumstances, such as a murder committed in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of various felony drug crimes, the offender is ineligible for parole.
The Rhode Island Supreme Court has held that felony murder is any homicide committed while perpetrating or attempting to perpetrate the enumerated offenses. It acquires first-degree murder status without the necessity of proving such elements as premeditation and deliberation (State v. Villani, 491 A.2d 976 (R.I. 1985)). The fact that the murder victim was an accomplice to the underlying felony does not prevent the defendant from being convicted of felony murder, so long as his actions foreseeably produced the fatal injury (In re. Leon, 410 A.2d 121 (R.I. 1980).
Vermont (13 Vt. Stat. Sec. 2301)
In Vermont, homicide committed in perpetrating or attempting to perpetrate arson, sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, robbery or burglary, is first degree murder. The crime is punishable by a sentence of 35 years to life or life without the possibility of parole. However, the Vermont Supreme Court held that merely showing that a person intended to commit one of the specified felonies is insufficient to convict a person of felony murder (State v. Bacon, 168 Vt. 279, 658 A.2d 54, cert. denied 516 U.S. 837 (1995). The state must show a mental state of wanton disregard for human life with respect to the murder itself. In State v. Doucette, 143 Vt. 573 (1983), the Supreme Court ruled that the jury must find, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the killing was done with malice during the perpetration or attempted perpetration of one of the specified felonies. The court held that the doctrine does not apply if the killing was done accidentally or unintentionally. On the other hand, premeditation is not an element of felony murder.
Washington (Wash. Rev. Code. Sec. 9A:32.030)
It is first degree murder for someone to commit or attempts to commit (1) first degree burglary or first or second degree robbery, rape, arson, or kidnapping and (2) in the course of or in furtherance of such crime or in immediate flight from it, he or she or another participant in the underlying crime causes the death of a person other than one of the participants.
If the defendant was not the only participant in the underlying crime and if established by the defendant by a preponderance of the evidence, it is a defense that the defendant:
1. did not commit the homicidal act or in any way solicit, request, command, importune, cause, or aid the commission of it;
2. was not armed with a deadly weapon, or any instrument, article, or substance readily capable of causing death or serious physical injury;
3. had no reasonable grounds to believe that any other participant was armed with such a weapon, instrument, article, or substance; and
4. had no reasonable grounds to believe that any other participant intended to engage in conduct likely to result in death or serious physical injury.
Murder in the first degree is a class A felony, punishable by life imprisonment and a fine of up to $50,000.
Wisconsin (Wis. Sec. 940.03)
In Wisconsin, a person is guilty of felony murder if causes the death of another person while committing or attempting to commit battery or related offenses, threatening witnesses or judges, sexual assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, arson, burglary, armed carjacking, or robbery. The offender may be imprisoned for up to 15 years beyond the maximum term provided for that crime or attempt.
The state's courts have held that, to prove that the defendant caused the death, the state need only prove that the defendant's conduct was a substantial factor (State v. Oimen, 184 Wis. 2d 423, (1994). They have also held that a defendant may be convicted if another person, including an intended felony victim, fires the fatal shot (State v. Chambers, 183 Wis. 2d 316, (1994).

KM:ts

Ghost money from MI6 and CIA may fuel Afghan corruption, say diplomats

Failure of peace initiatives raises questions over whether British eagerness for political settlement may have been exploited
Hamid Karzai in Helsinki
Hamid Karzai with the Finnish prime minister, Jyrki Katainen, in Helsinki. Photograph: Lehtikuva/Reuters
The CIA and MI6 have regularly given large cash payments to Hamid Karzai's office with the aim of maintaining access to the Afghan leader and his top allies and officials, but the attempt to buy influence has largely failed and may have backfired, former diplomats and policy analysts say.
The Guardian understands that the payments by British intelligence were on a smaller scale than the CIA's handouts, reported in the New York Times to have been in the tens of millions, and much of the British money has gone towards attempts to finance peace initiatives, which have so far proved abortive.
That failure has raised questions among some British officials over whether eagerness to promote a political settlement may have been exploited by Afghan officials and self-styled intermediaries for the Taliban.
Responding to the allegations while on a visit to Helsinki on Monday, Karzai said his national security council (NSC) had received support from the US government for the past 10 years, and the amounts involved were "not big" and were used for a variety of purposes including helping those wounded in the conflict. "It's multi-purpose assistance," he said, without commenting on the allegations that the money was fuelling corruption.
Yama Torabi, the director of Integrity Watch Afghanistan said that the presidency's low-key response to the reports had "outraged people".
"As a result, we don't know what was the amount of money that was given, what it was used for and if there was any corruption involved. Money when it is unchecked can be abused and this looks like one. In addition, it can be potentially used to corrupt politicians and political circles, but there is no way to know this unless there is a serious investigation into it," Torabi told The Guardian.
Kabul sources told the Guardian that the key official involved in distributing the payments within the NSC was Ibrahim Spinzada, a close confidant of the president known as Engineer Ibrahim. There is, however, no evidence that Spinzada personally gained from the cash payments or that in distributing them among the president's allies and sometimes his foes he was breaking Afghan law.
Officials say the payments, referred to in a New York Times report as "ghost money", helped prop up warlords and corrupt officials, deepening Afghan popular mistrust of the Kabul government and its foreign backers, and thereby helped drive the insurgency.
The CIA money has sometimes caused divisions between the various branches of US government represented in Kabul, according to diplomats stationed in Kabul, particularly when it helped give the CIA chief of station in Kabul direct access to Karzai without the US ambassador's knowledge or approval.
One former Afghan budgetary official told the Guardian: "On paper there was very little money that went to the National Directorate of Security [NDS, the Afghan intelligence service], but we knew they were taken care of separately by the CIA.
"The thing about US money is a lot of it goes outside the budget, directly through individuals and companies, and that opens the way for corruption."
Khalil Roman, who served as Karzai's deputy chief of staff from 2002 until 2005, told the New York Times: "We called it 'ghost money'. It came in secret, and it left in secret."
One American official told the newspaper: "The biggest source of corruption in Afghanistan was the United States."
Sources said the MI6 aid was on a smaller scale, and much of it was focused on trying to promote meetings between Karzai's government and Taliban intermediaries, as was embarrassingly the case in 2010 when MI6 discovered a would-be Taliban leader in talks with Karzai was an impostor from the Pakistani city of Quetta.
The British payments have also been designed to bolster UK influence in Kabul, in what a source described as "an auction with each country trying to outbid the other" in the course of an often fraught relationship with the Karzai government.
Vali Nasr, a former US government adviser on Afghanistan, said: "Karzai has been lashing out against American officials and generals, so if indeed there has been funding by the CIA, you have to ask to what effect has that money been paid. It hasn't clearly brought the sort of influence it was meant to."
Nasr, now dean of the Johns Hopkins school of advanced international studies and author of a new book criticising US policy in Afghanistan, The Dispensable Nation, said: "If the terms of such payments are not clear, the question is how well do they tag with US policy … The CIA has a narrow, counter-terrorism purview that involved working with warlords, but that is quite a different agenda, on how we conduct the war or how we build a government."
The CIA has also been heavily criticised for conducting drone attacks against suspected militants over the border in Pakistan and for calling in air strikes inside Afghanistan while on joint operations with NDS units, leading to civilian casualties. A report on Monday by the Afghanistan Analysts Network, a thinktank in Kabul, said the latest such NDS-CIA operation, in Kunar province on 13 April, killed 17 civilians.
Kate Clark, one of the network's analysts, said: "It is one thing to conduct covert operations in a hostile country. I'm flabbergasted that the CIA is running these kind of covert operations in a friendly country. It runs counter to accountability, democracy and the rule of law, and is damaging what the US is trying to do.
"The CIA puts certain things as a priority – whether someone is against al-Qaida, for example – and damn the rest."

Bombshell CNN Investigation: 3 Al Qaeda Operatives Took Part In Attack On Benghazi Consulate

» 28 comments
According to an investigation by CNN reporters, three Yemeni members of Al Qaeda took part on the coordinated attack on an American consulate and a safe house in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012. “One senior U.S. law enforcement official told CNN that “three or four members of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,” or AQAP, took part in the attack,” CNN reports.
It is not clear what command structure may have ordered the Al Qaeda operatives to strike at American diplomatic assets in Benghazi, or if the individuals were already in the region and took advantage of the spontaneous protests which had erupted across the region in response to an anti-Islam YouTube video.
According to one source, counterterrorism officials learned the identity of the men and established they had spent two nights in Benghazi after the attack. Western intelligence agencies began trying to track the men in the aftermath of the terrorist attack, but were always behind in their manhunt.
RELATED: Megyn Kelly Guests Take On Whether Boston Investigations Will ‘Go The Way Of Benghazi’
Following the attack, the operatives were tracked to northern Mali where they became connected with the jihadist leader Moktar Belmoktar, “an Algerian terrorist operative linked to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb who claimed responsibility for the attack on the In Amenas gas facility in southern Algeria in January this year.”
Following a French military incursion into the North African state in early 2013, the three Yemeni men evaded surveillance.
AQAP is understood to be responsible for the 2009 Christmas Day attempt to down a civilian aircraft over Detroit. In October, 2010, the group was implicated in an attempt to blow up explosives disguised as printer cartridges in a number of postal aircraft. On September 14, 2012, AQAP released a statement claiming the attack on Benghazi was revenge for a recently killed Al Qaeda operative, but they did not claim credit for the attack.
The attack on Benghazi claimed the lives of four Americans, including three Navy SEALS and America’s ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens.
Read the full report via CNN
> >Follow Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) on Twitter

Follow Mediaite

Bo Jiang Had Porn - Not Secrets - on His Laptop

U.S. Finds Porn Not Secrets on Suspected China Spy's Laptop, Business Week
"Bo Jiang, who was indicted March 20 for allegedly making false statements to the U.S., was charged yesterday in a separate criminal information in federal court in Newport News, Virginia. Jiang unlawfully downloaded copyrighted movies and sexually explicit films onto his NASA laptop, according to the court filing. A plea hearing is set for tomorrow."
Chinese Spy Suspect Pleads Guilty to Violating NASA Rules
"None of the computer media that Jiang attempted to bring to the PRC on March 16, 2013, contained classified information, export controlled information, or NASA proprietary information," according to the statement of facts filed in Jiang's case. As part of the agreement, prosecutors dismissed the indictment and Jiang was ordered to leave the country within 48 hours."...
... "I remain concerned that neither the prosecutors nor NASA have addressed the original question of why a NASA laptop was inappropriately provided to a restricted foreign national associated with 'an entity of concern' and why he was allowed to take the laptop and all of its information back to China last December," Wolf said in an e-mailed statement."
Keith's note: What did we learn from this, Rep. Wolf? Porn is being exported to China on NASA laptops. Apparently the porn in question was unclassified.

Florida Gets $1MILLION For Program To Turn In Your Anti-Gov’t Neighbor

Florida House and Senate budget leaders have awarded Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw $1 million for a new violence prevention unit aimed at preventing tragedies like those in Newtown, Conn., and Aurora, Colo., from occurring on his turf.
Bradshaw plans to use the extra $1 million to launch “prevention intervention” units featuring specially trained deputies, mental health professionals and caseworkers. The teams will respond to citizen phone calls to a 24-hour hotline with a knock on the door and a referral to services, if needed.
palm-beach-county-sheriff-ric-bradshaw-1-million-dollars-for-civilian-spy-programThe goal will be avoiding crime — and making sure law enforcement knows about potential powder kegs before tragedies occur, Bradshaw said. But the earmark, which is a one-time-only funding provision, provoked a debate Monday among mental health advocates and providers about the balance between civil liberties, privacy and protecting the public.
Bradshaw said his proposal is a first-of-its-kind in the nation, and he hopes it will become a model for the rest of the state like his gang prevention and pill-mill units.
“Every single incident, whether it’s Newtown, that movie theater, or the guy who spouts off at work and then goes home and kills his wife and two kids — in every single case, there were people who said they knew ahead of time that there was a problem,” Bradshaw said. “If the neighbor of the mom in Newtown had called somebody, this might have saved 25 kids’ lives.”
Bradshaw is readying a hotline and is planning public service announcements to encourage local citizens to report their neighbors, friends or family members if they fear they could harm themselves or others.
The goal won’t be to arrest troubled people but to get them help before there’s violence, Bradshaw said. As a side benefit, law enforcement will have needed information to keep a close eye on things.
We want people to call us if the guy down the street says he hates the government, hates the mayor and he’s gonna shoot him,” Bradshaw said. “What does it hurt to have somebody knock on a door and ask, ‘Hey, is everything OK?’ ”
That’s enough for Senate budget chief Joe Negron, R-Stuart, who helped push through the funding last weekend.
He said he met with Bradshaw about the program and “got assurances from the sheriff that this is going to be done in a way that respects people’s autonomy and privacy, and that he makes sure to protect against people making false claims.”
Mental health advocates, however, worry about a potential new source of stigma, and the potential for erosion of the civil rights of people with mental illnesses.
“How are they possibly going to watch everybody who makes a comment like that? It’s subjective,” said Liz Downey, executive director of the Palm Beach County branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. “We don’t want to take away people’s civil liberties just because people aren’t behaving the way we think they should be.”
Bradshaw acknowledged the risk that anyone in a messy divorce or in a dispute with a neighbor could abuse the hotline. But, he said, he’s confident that his trained professionals will know how to sort out fact from fiction.
“We know how to sift through frivolous complaints,” he said.
The proposal still needs the blessing of Gov. Rick Scott, who has line-item veto authority.
But if it goes forward, Palm Beach County’s already stretched mental health and substance abuse providers could find themselves even busier. There is no ready source of funds once the $1 million runs its course, as there hasn’t been an increase to community mental health funding in many years.
“Our community agencies throughout the state don’t have the funds to meet the needs they have currently,” said Bob Sharpe, CEO of the Florida Council for Community Mental Health. “It sounds like it could work, but with no new funding we’d have to find it within existing resources.”
If Bradshaw’s teams can keep people out of crisis units and promote early intervention, that has the potential to save money, said Ann Berner, CEO of the Southeast Florida Behavioral Health Network, which manages mental health care payments for the state.
To be successful, however, there will have to be close coordination with the mental health providers, she said. For example, the county already pays for mobile crisis response teams at two nonprofit mental health providers, a service that includes a 24-hour crisis call center. They, too, are trained to de-escalate conflicts and refer troubled people to care. Which ones will respond when there’s a call from a school or a home? That will have to be clarified.
Also, after troubled people are identified by Bradshaw’s teams, then what? Who will pay for their care? The state? Medicaid? The county? The Palm Beach County Public Defender has a good program to ensure qualified people apply for the Social Security and Medicaid benefits they may need, she said. Some high-level conversations have started, but more are needed, Berner added.
“I think that would be an area we really need to collaborate on, and soon,” she said.
The $1 million Bradshaw won represents a third of what he had sought from the Legislature, but it’s a 10-fold bump from what was originally earmarked before House and Senate budget leaders finalized the state’s $74 billion budget over the weekend. source – Palm Beach Post

Flood of new regulations made Obama’s first term costliest in history


A torrent of regulations enacted over the last four years make President Obama’s the most expensive first term in history, with $70 billion in new annual regulatory costs, according to a study released Wednesday by the Heritage Foundation. The Obama administration passed 131 major new rules in those four years, and has hundreds more in the pipeline whose costs haven’t been estimated.
“While historical records are incomplete, that magnitude of regulation is likely unmatched by any administration in the nation’s history,” the study said.
In 2012 alone, the 25 major rules issued carried $23.5 billion in compliance costs, mostly due to Dodd-Frank financial regulations. Only two major rules passed last year actually reduced costs to taxpayers. Rules were considered “major” if they had an economic impact of $100 million per year.
The Environmental Protection Agency was the biggest offender, with new clean air and water rules and  fuel standards costing $38 billion per year. Drivers will bear the brunt of the fuel standards, which will raise the cost of new cars by about $1,800, according to Heritage.
The Department of Transportation, which issued fuel standards jointly with the EPA, was second, with about $15 billion in new annual compliance costs.
The administration also hired thousands of new employees to make and enforce those rules, according to the study. Spending on regulatory agencies rose more than 10 percent, from $46.7 billion in  2009 to more than $51.5 billion in 2012.
study by the Regulatory Studies Center at George Washington University last month found that rules passed in 2012 cost more than all the rules passed in President Bush and President Clinton’s first terms combined.
Heritage’s findings contrasted sharply with the administration’s cost estimates, which included billions in savings, mostly from health care costs. For instance, the EPA estimated its new emissions standards for power plants would cost the energy industry $10.8 billion, but save taxpayers between $33 billion and $90 billion, 99 percent of which is attributed to health care costs from reduced “particulate matter.”
The Office of Management and Budget last month identified $800 billion in benefits from rules enacted between 2002 and 2012, The Hill noted today. OMB estimated the cost of a decade of new regulations at $57 billion to $84 billion.

Student Arrested In Boston Bombing Case Allowed To Return To US Despite Not Having Valid Student Visa


One of three college students arrested Wednesday in the Boston Marathon bombings case was allowed to return to the United States from Kazakhstan in January despite not having a valid student visa, a federal law enforcement official told The Associated Press.
Authorities charged the student — a friend and classmate of one of the men accused of setting off the deadly explosions — with helping after the attacks to remove a laptop and backpack from the bombing suspect’s dormitory room before the FBI searched it.
The government acknowledged that U.S. Customs and Border Protection was unaware that the student was no longer in school when he was let back into the United States.
read more:
http://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/05/02/official-student-arrested...

Giuliani: Charge 3 College Suspects As Accessories to Murder of MIT Police Officer

 36

On Thursday, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani told CNN that the three University of Massachusetts Dartmouth college students arrested Wednesday on charges related to the Boston Marathon bombings should also be charged as accessories to the murder of MIT police officer Sean Collier, who was allegedly killed by Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev on April 18.

"These three young men could have prevented the death of Officer Collier, probably. They were aware by six, seven o'clock that night that these two guys were the bombers.
"If they had done what decent young men should do, which is call the police, given the focus of that investigation, given the number of resources the FBI had brought, the Boston police, given how effective they were investigating, they would have gotten these guys in an hour or two. "
"I would charge as predicate acts of conspiracy the murder of officer Collier, the shooting of the other officer and the kidnapping all of which were foreseeable consequences of them joining a conspiracy to help those guys flee."
"That’s what they are joining right? I'd be seeking twenty, thirty years in jail."
But noted criminal defense attorney and Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz disagreed.
Speaking to Breitbart News, Dershowitz said: "I have an enormous amount of respect for Rudy, but I think when he was a U.S. Attorney he would not have stretched the law so far as to charge people who were conspiring to obstruct justice with the unpredictable consequences of their conduct.
"I don't think this [the murder] was foreseeable."
Kazakhstan nationals Dias Kadyrbayev, Azamat Tazhayakov, and naturalized American citizen Robel Phillipos, all three of whom attended UMass Dartmouth for some time between fall 2011 and spring 2013, were arrested on Wednesday. Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov were charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice and Phillipos was charged with lying to investigators.
If they are liable for Officer Collier's murder, it is also possible that under the "felony murder" doctrine, Kadyrbayev ,Tazhayakov, and Phillipos may actually be responsible for two murders--that of Officer Collier and also alleged "Suspect #1," Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
The felony murder doctrine holds that all participants in a felony may (in certain jurisdictions) be charged with murder for any murders that result in furtherance of that felony.
Kevin McCarthy wrote at the OLR Research Report in 2008 that the felony murder doctrine applies in cases where it can be argued that a murder was a "natural and probable consequence" of their alleged involvement in the felonies for which they were charged.
Given the knowledge that at the time the felonies were allegedly committed Kadyrbayev, Tazhayakov, and Phillipos would have had reason to know that the brothers were terrorists on the run, the murders of Officer Collier and Tamerlan Tsarnaev may very well fit this standard.
The cause of death of Tamerlan Tsarnaev has not been released. It has been reported in several media outlets that the cause of death may have been his brother Dzhokhar running over him with a car. Tsarnaev's body was also riddled with bullets from officers and FBI agents.
Dershowitz, again, disagreed: "The murder has to be foreseeable for the felony murder doctrine to apply. It's too much of a stretch."
Marian Ryan, who was appointed by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick as the new Middlesex County District Attorney on April 23, is the prosecutor who will make the decisions on who to charge with the murder of officer Collier.
Breitbart News reached out to Stephanie Guyotte, spokesperson for the Middlesex County District Attorney's Office to learn if, when, and against whom District Attorney Ryan plans to file charges in the murder of officer Collier, but received no response prior to publication.
**UPDATE**
Late Thursday, Ms. Guyotte of the Middlesex County District Attorney's Office sent this email to Breitbart News: "The shooting of Officer Collier remains under investigation, so I can not comment further."

Militia Hired by State Dept. Warned It Wouldn’t Protect Stevens’ Movements in Benghazi

May 1, 2013
Benghazi, militia
In a photo published in the December 2011 edition of State Magazine, the State Department's in-house publication, a diplomatic security officer in Benghazi trains local Libyan guards in marksmanship. (State Department photo)
(CNSNews.com) - The February 17th Martyrs Brigade, a Benghazi-based militia with Islamist elements that the State Department hired as a “quick reaction force” (QRF) to protect the department’s mission in Benghazi, warned the State Department that it would not protect the movements of Amb. Chris Stevens when he visited there last September.
That warning was relayed to the regional security officer (RSO) at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli--the top security adviser to the ambassador--in an internal State Department email dated Sept. 9, 2012.
That was one day before Stevens departed Tripoli for Benghazi--for what was scheduled to be a five-day visit.
“[O]n September 8, 2012, just days before Ambassador Stevens arrived in Benghazi, the February 17 Martyrs Brigade told State Department officials that the group would no longer support U.S. movements in the city, including the Ambassador’s visit,” said a report on Benghazi released last week by the chairmen of the House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, Oversight, Judiciary and Armed Services committees.
In a footnote, the report attributed this information to an “Email from Alec Henderson to John B. Martinec, ‘RE: Benghazi QRF agreement,’ (Sep. 9, 2012 11:31 PM).”
The fact that the militia gave the State Department prior warning that it would not support the ambassador’s movements in Benghazi raises new questions about the way the department handled security in Benghazi and its subsequent unwillingness to make department personnel available to congressional committees that are investigating the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack.
The State Department’s Accountability Review Board (ARB) report, released on Dec. 18, had revealed that the February 17 militia was no longer protecting the movement of U.S. vehicles in Benghazi at the time of Stevens’ September visit to the city. But it did not say that this information had been delivered to the regional security officer in Tripoli the day before Stevens traveled to Benghazi.
Amb. Chris Stevens, Benghazi
In this photo published in State Magazine, the State Department's in-house publication, then-Special Envoy Chris Stevens in 2011 tours the ruins of the ancient Byzantine city of Cyrene in Libya, protected by State Department Diplomatic Security officers. (State Department photo)
“At the time of Ambassador Stevens’ visit, February 17 militia members had stopped accompanying Special Mission vehicle movements in protest over salary and working hours,” said the ARB report. A Senate Homeland Security Committee report issued on Dec. 30 also included some additional details the ARB report had not. It said: “In early September, a member of the February 17 Brigade told another RSO [State Department regional security officer] in Benghazi that it could no longer support U.S. personnel movements. The RSO also asked specifically if the militia could provide additional support for the Ambassador’s pending visit and was told no.”
A footnote in the Senate committee report attributes this information to an email sent to Charlene Lamb, who was then the deputy assistant secretary of state responsible for diplomatic security. The email was sent Sept. 20, 2012--nine days after the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi. The footnote says: “REDACTED, e-mail message to Charlene Lamb, ‘Ambassador’s protective detail in Benghazi,’ September 20, 2012.”
Back on Oct. 10, 2012, when the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held an initial hearing on the Benghazi terrorist attack, it took testimony from Lamb and from Eric Nordstrom. Nordstrom had served as the RSO in Tripoli, but left Libya on July 26, 2012, when he was replaced as RSO by Martinec--more than six weeks before the Sept. 11, 2012 Benghazi attack.
Martinec was the RSO in Tripoli, and thus Amb. Stevens' top security adviser, in the weeks leading up to the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi. He was the RSO who received the internal Sept. 9 State Department email stating that the February 17 militia had warned that it would no longer support the movements of U.S. personnel in Benghazi--including the movements of Amb. Stevens. Martinec was also the RSO at the U.S. Embassy in Libya when the Benghazi attack occurred.
But--unlike Nordstrom, who did not get the warning from the February 17 militia and who was not the RSO at the U.S. Embassy in Libya when the Benghazi attack occurred--Martinec did not testify in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Nor did the committee take testimony from the as-yet-anonymous RSO who was on temporary duty in Benghazi in September 2012 and, who, according to the Senate Homeland Security Committee report, heard directly from the February 17 militia that it would no longer support U.S. movements in the city.
The State Department’s Accountability Review Board concluded that the number of State Department security people on the ground in Benghazi had been inadequate even in the period that preceded the February 17 militia’s declaration that it would no longer protect the movements of U.S. personnel in the city.
“Overall, the number of Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS) security staff in Benghazi on the day of the attack and in the months and weeks leading up to it was inadequate, despite repeated requests from Special Mission Benghazi and Embassy Tripoli for additional staffing,” said the ARB report.
Not only was the State Department facility in Benghazi understaffed, according to the ARB, it was also staffed with less experienced officers.
“Furthermore, DS’s reliance on volunteers for TDY [temporary duty] positions meant that the ARSOs [assistant regional security officers] in Benghazi often had relatively little or no prior DS program management or overseas experience,” said the ARB report. “For a time, more experienced RSOs were sent out on longer term TDYs, but even that appeared to diminish after June 2012, exactly at the time the security environment in Benghazi was deteriorating further.”
Both the ARB report and the Senate Homeland Security Committee report concluded that the Americans on the ground in Benghazi during the terror attack, including the State Department security officers, acted with great courage.
“The board determined that U.S. personnel on the ground in Benghazi performed with courage and readiness to risk their lives to protect their colleagues, in a near impossible situation," said the ARB report.
"While our country spent Sept. 11, 2012, remembering the terrorist attacks that took place 11 years earlier, brave Americans posted at U.S. government facilities in Benghazi, Libya, were fighting for their lives against a terrorist assault," said the Senate Homeland Security Committee report.
On Sept. 10, 2012—the day after RSO John Martinec at the Tripoli embassy got the email telling him that the February 17 militia would not support the ambassador’s movements in Benghazi—there were only three temporary duty State Department Diplomatic Security officers deployed at the department’s compound in that city. Stevens brought only two more with him when he went ahead with his trip to Benghazi that day—bringing the total number of State Department security personnel in that city to five.
The ARB report “found that plans for the Ambassador’s trip provided for minimal close protection security support, and that Embassy country team members were not fully aware of planned movements off compound.”
By the ARB’s accounting, the five State Department security officers with Amb. Stevens on Sept. 11 were outnumbered within the State Department’s own compound by the eight hired Libyan “guards” there that day. These included three of the four February 17 militia, who lived within the compound, and five unarmed contract guards working for the Blue Mountain Libya contractor.
“In the absence of an effective central government security presence, the Special Mission’s Libyan security contingent was composed of four armed members of the February 17 Martyrs’ Brigade (February 17)--a local umbrella organization of militias dominant in Benghazi (some of which were Islamist) and loosely affiliated with the Libyan government, but not under its control,” said the ARB report. “They resided in a guest house building on compound. Normally four members resided on the Special Mission compound near the front gate, but on September 11 one had been absent for several days, reportedly due to a family illness. The Special Mission also had an unarmed, contract local guard force (LGF), Blue Mountain Libya (BML), which provided five guards per eight-hour shift, 24/7, to open and close the gates, patrol the compound, and give warning in case of an attack.”
Two weeks before Amb. Stevens traveled to Benghazi, the diplomatic officer who was then manning the mission on temporary duty wrote an email to the diplomatic officer coming in to replace him. The email gave his view of the February 17 militia.
“In a handoff email to his replacement on August 29, 2012, the principal U.S. diplomatic officer in Benghazi wrote that the contract with the militia ‘lapsed several weeks ago’ but that they were still operating under its terms,” said the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s December report. “He said that ‘[t]his is a delicate issue, as we are relying on a militia in lieu of the central authorities and [Feb 17 Brigade] has been implicated in several of the recent detentions. We also have the usual concerns re their ultimate loyalties. But they are competent, and give us an added measure of security. For the time being, I don’t think we have a viable alternative.’”
In other words, the only "viable alternative" the State Department found for enhancing its security in Benghazi beyond the three American diplomatic security agents it had temporarily posted there was a militia implicated in detaining people, whose loyalty was in doubt, and that had just warned the State Department that it would not protect the movements of Amb. Stevens when he visited Benghazi for a five-day period spanning the eleventh anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
So, in the face of that warning, why did Amb. Stevens go ahead and travel to Benghazi on Sept. 10? Why did he bring along only two additional security officers?
At the Oct. 10 hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, former Tripoli RSO Nordstrom described Stevens as an ambassador who listened to and followed the advice of his security team.
“I asked you about Ambassador Stevens, a very skilled career diplomat and how he dealt with threats related to security,” Chairman Darrell Issa (R.-Calif.) said to Nordstrom. “And you told me, I'm paraphrasing, that, for example, when there was a perceived threat in his running, he ceased running. Then when both you and Colonel [Andrew] Wood [who commanded a military Site Security Team that had been previously been stationed at the Tripoli embassy] were able to come up with an acceptable way that he could continue by varying where he went and so on. He ran again, but only ran again under your authority and your recommendation. Is that correct?”
“That's correct, chairman,” said Nordstrom.
“And I think I asked you, was he a compliant officer?” asked Issa. “Did he do what you thought when you recommended it or did he chafe at any time over what you thought was best for his security?”
“At no time did I have any concerns raised to me by Ambassador Stevens,” said Nordstrom.
On Sept. 10, his first day in Benghazi, according to the ARB report, Stevens traveled to at least two locations in the city: the CIA Annex that was down the road from the State Department compound and a hotel where he had dinner with the city council.
The next day, the eleventh anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks, he did not leave the State Department compound. “Ambassador Stevens and Benghazi-based DS agents had taken the anniversary into account and decided to hold all meetings on-compound on September 11,” said the ARB report.
The terrorist attack on the compound started at about 9:42 p.m. Benghazi time. The ARB report concluded that as it unfolded the February 17 militia did not perform well.
“The Board’s inquiry found little evidence that the armed February 17 guards alerted Americans at the SMC [Special Mission Compound] to the attack or summoned a February 17 militia presence to assist expeditiously once the attack was in progress--despite the fact that February 17 members were paid to provide interior security and a quick reaction force for the SMC and the fact that February 17 barracks were in the close vicinity, less than 2 km away from the SMC,” said the ARB report.
In a Nov. 2 story, the Wall Street Journal reported that:“The CIA's security force at the annex sometimes provided backup security for the ambassador when he traveled outside the consulate.” This report was cited by the Congressional Research Service in a report of its own when it said CIA “[p]ersonnel in Benghazi reportedly included a security force of approximately 10 individuals, who had on previous occasions shielded Ambassador Stevens when he left the U.S. facility.” (Note: Stevens had served as a special envoy to the Libyan revolutionaries in Benghazi from April 5, 2011 until Nov. 17, 2011. But he had left Libya after that, and his September 2012 trip to Benghazi was his first to that city since he had returned to Libya on May 26, 2012 to serve as U.S. ambassador.)
Asked by CNSNews.com whether CIA security personnel assisted in providing security for Stevens when he travelled around Benghazi on Sept. 10, or planned to assist in securing Stevens’ later movements in Benghazi on that trip, the CIA declined to comment.
In January, the House Oversight committee told CNSNews.com that the State Department had not up to that point given the committee access to the Diplomatic Security agents who were in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012. This week, neither the State Department, nor the House Oversight, Foreign Affairs or Intelligence committees responded to questions about whether the committees, since January, had been given access to Diplomatic Security officers who were in Libya during the Benghazi attack.
At a White House press conference on Tuesday, Ed Henry of Fox News asked President Obama: “There are people in your own State Department saying they’ve been blocked from coming forward, that they survived the terror attack and they want to tell their story. Will you help them come forward and just say it once and for all?”
Obama responded: “I’m not familiar with this notion that anybody has been blocked from testifying. So what I’ll do is I will find out what exactly you’re referring to.”
Later on Tuesday, House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa responded to the president.
“A lawyer for Benghazi whistleblowers [Victoria Toensing, who was chief counsel for Sen. Barry Goldwater when he was chairman of the Senate Intelligence committee] has publicly stated that the State Department is blocking her client’s ability to talk freely with counsel,” said Issa. “Over the past two weeks, I have sent four letters requesting that this Administration make information available about how lawyers--who already have security clearances and are representing Benghazi whistleblowers--can be cleared to fully hear their clients’ stories. I have yet to receive any response from the Obama Administration.
“Even if the President really doesn’t know anything about someone wanting to come forward, his position should be that whistleblowers deserve protection and that anyone who has different information about Benghazi is free to come forward to Congress,” said Issa. “The President’s unwillingness to commit himself to protecting whistleblowers only aids those in his Administration who are intimidating them.”

Obama criminalizes Christianity in the military

In a stunning attack on the speech rights and free religious exercise of U.S. soldiers, the Obama administration has released a statement confirming the unthinkable: Any soldier who professes Christianity can now be court-martialed and may face imprisonment and a dishonorable discharge from the military...even if they are a military chaplain.
The statement released to Fox News earlier today:
Religious proselytization is not permitted within the Department of Defense...Court martials and non-judicial punishments are decided on a case-by-case basis...
This statement follows a recent meeting between Pentagon officials and fanatical anti-Christian activist Mikey Weinstein, who helped design the new punishments for Christians who commit the now-criminal offense of sharing their faith with others.
Breitbart.com adds:
Weinstein is the head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and says Christians--including chaplains--sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in the military are guilty of 'treason,' and of committing an act of 'spiritual rape' as serious a crime as 'sexual assault.' He also asserted that Christians sharing their faith in the military are 'enemies of the Constitution.'
Never mind the fact that the separation of church and state is a myth that cannot be found anywhere in the Constitution (as I have explained before), or that it in no way violates anyone's rights to have to witness or tolerate someone else exercising their faith...or that the only actual violation of the Constitution here is this tyrannical Atheist attack on the 1st Amendment.