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Saturday, March 24, 2012

CNNMoney Caught Changing Report on ‘Green’ Jobs Numbers, Casting Them in More Positive Light

At 7:50 am Friday morning, CNNMoney reported on the embarrassingly small number of jobs the “green” energy industry has contributed to the nation’s workforce. The story was titled “‘Green’ jobs just a small portion of workforce.”

"As Kermit knows, it’s not easy being green,” the story began. “There were only 3.1 million green jobs in the U.S. in 2010.”

Translation: After receiving billions in federal subsidies ($100 billion from the stimulus program alone), “green” jobs account for only 2.4 percent of the nation’s employment.

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Where Did Stimulus Money Really Go?

When President Obama signed his economic stimulus plan into law on February 17, 2009, he promised it “includes help for those hardest hit by our economic crisis,” and “As a whole, this plan will help poor and working Americans.”

But the newest data on how the stimulus money was given out across the 50 states and the District of Columbia shows a perverse pattern: The states hardest hit by the recession received the least money. States with higher bankruptcy, foreclosure, and unemployment rates got less money. And lower-income states also received less.

Rather than helping out those in the toughest shape, it looks like Democrats ended up helping their supporters, including unions and many very wealthy supporters.

According to the Obama administration’s Recovery.gov, a total of $504 billion of federal contracts, grants, and loans to states and territories were awarded between February 17, 2009, and December 31, 2011. The amounts vary a lot across states, with the very lowest at $978 per capita in Virginia and the highest at $2,495 per capita in Alaska. The District of Columbia is the real winner at a whopping $7,603.

DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES?

Novice to experienced oyster shuckers will go head-to-head on Sunday in a battle for the title of “Fastest Shucker on the Shore.”

Depending on the number of contestants, three or four shuckers will compete at a time during the ninth annual competition, scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. at the West Ocean City Greene Turtle. The shucker(s) who cleanly open the most oysters in each three-minute round move on.

More than 3,000 oysters were shucked and eaten last year. Tom Creveling, representing Harrison’s Harbor Watch, won the 2010 and 2011 events. Last year, he narrowly edged out Jeb Vetock, also of Harrison’s Harbor Watch. Creveling shucked 61 oysters in the final round, while Vetock opened 59.

“That was the closest it’s ever been,” said Chad Rogers, Greene Turtle West general manager and contest organizer.

Both shuckers are set to participate this year, Rogers said.

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Opinion 'Hunger Games' Shoots Arrows at Big Government, Big Media, Hits Bullseye

The new movie “Hunger Games” seems destined to be a big hit. Yes, “Games” is a challenging story--a dystopian future in which an oppressive government forces young people into gladiator-type battles-to-the-death--but it’s getting good buzz and good reviews. One critic described “Games” as “like ‘American Idol’ with a body count.”

So c’mon folks! Head down to the ‘plex, buy your ticket, plunk down another $10 for soda and popcorn, and watch good-looking actors and actresses exchange longing glances as they kill each other.

Yet everyone should know one thing: “Games” is not just another slasher/horror scream flick--but rather a furious critique of our political system, in which the central government grows rich from the toil of the masses, even as that same political elite finds entertainment in the contrived and manipulated death of its subjects.

Was Boy in K.C. Fire Attack a Victim of His School's Racist Teaching?

The boy raised his hand, eager to answer the question. "What would you know about it?" exclaimed the teacher dismissively. "You're not our race."

This was not dialogue from a Hollywood movie. According to a woman named Melissa Coon, it was what a teacher at East High School in Kansas City told her 13-year-old son, Allen, when he attempted to answer a question during Black History Month. Coon identifies that teacher as Mrs. Karla Dorsey, who is black; Allen is white.

As has already been reported, Allen was a victim of a vicious racial attack last week in which two older black teens doused him with gasoline and set him alight, saying, "This is what you deserve. You get what you deserve, white boy." Not surprisingly, Coon has pulled her son out of East High and, concerned about further racial violence, intends to leave the K.C. area.

While this crime is making headlines, Coon states that it was merely the horrible culmination of continual racial harassment her son had to endure at East High. Moreover, after conducting an investigation that included extensive interviews with parents and students, I've learned that Coon's son is not alone. Other white students also report a pattern of racial harassment at the high school at the hands of their peers -- and, shockingly, their teachers.

Judge: FDA Must Act to Remove Antibiotics From Animal Feed

A federal judge on Thursday ordered regulators to start proceedings to withdraw approval for the use of common antibiotics in animal feed, citing concerns that overuse is endangering human health by creating antibiotic-resistant "superbugs".

U.S. Magistrate Judge Theodore Katz ordered the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin proceedings unless makers of the drugs can produce evidence that their use is safe.

If they can't, then the FDA must withdraw approval for non-therapeutic use of those drugs, the judge ruled.

The FDA had started such proceedings in 1977, prompted by its concerns the widespread use in livestock feed of certain antibiotics - particularly tetracyclines and penicillin, the most common. But the proceedings were never completed and the approval remained in place.

Worcester County Sheriff's Office Press Release 3-24-12

On March 18, 2012 at 0634 hours, A Worcester County Sheriff's Office Deputy respond to The Alamo Hotel, West Ocean City, Maryland in reference to disorderly subjects out front. There were three subjects in the parking lot fighting. The Deputy identified Isreal Christopher Haggerty 2nd.who had been fighting in the parking lot As The Deputy was talking with Isreal Haggerty, he was approached by a juvenile female who stated she had been assaulted.

That Juvenile became disorderly and the Deputy attempted to place her under arrest. As the Deputy was attempting to place handcuffs on her, the juvenile assaulted the Deputy. As the Deputy attempted to restrain the juvenile Mr. Haggerty physically attacked the Deputy. The Worcester County Deputy used his Tazer and subdued Mr. Haggerty and placed him under arrest.

The juvenile began to fight with another subject with the help of a Mr. Stark and Mr. Monroe. The Deputy place those three subjects under arrest.

It was learned that Mr. Monroe and Mr. Haggerty had broken into another apartment in the Alamo hotel.

Those who were arrested and charged are:

1) Isreal Christopher Haggerty—19----Dundalk, Md.
Assault police officer - disorderly conduct - 1st &3rd burglary - obstruct/hindering
Committed $50,000.00 bond

2) Brent Michael Monroe—19----Baltimore, Md.
Disorderly conduct - 1st & 3rd burglary
Committed $25,000.00 bond

3) Stephen Darrell Stark---44----Ocean City, Md.
Disorderly Conduct
Released on recognizance

4) Juvenile female—17---Dundalk, Md.
Disorderly conduct - assault police officer - assault 2nd degree - resisting arrest
Held by DJJ in Laurel Md. Facility

Courtroom manners should spell R-E-S-P-E-C-T

On any given day in any given trial courtroom across Maryland you can find folks wearing a wide array of apparel, including T-shirts, jeans, tank tops, sweatpants, and even pajamas. While court is in session, sheriff’s deputies beseech gallery observers to cease conversing and canoodling. And at the end of a busy day, the courthouse hallways are adorned with soda cans and gum remnants, and the gallery benches are emblazoned with new graffiti.

Since when did we start treating courtrooms like our living rooms?

While members of the bar did not commit many of the aforementioned offenses, I’ve seen lawyers come to court in business casual, deposit garbage on the floor and chew bubble gum at trial table.

Put it all in the blender and it creates an environment where it feels OK to say and do whatever you want without consequences. Worse, it gives the impression that the courtroom and those occupying it don’t deserve respect. It becomes abundantly apparent when people curse during victim impact statements, refer to the judge by just her last name and loudly snicker at opposing counsel that we are not in Kansas anymore.

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Could Wicomico County Support This?

KISS AND MOTLEY CRUE: THE TOUR

Confederate Flag Back at Georgia Fort After 148 years

As Fort McAllister fell to the Union Army of Gen. William T. Sherman days before Christmas in 1864, one of his artillery officers seized the Confederate flag of a vanquished company of Georgia riflemen.

The officer carried the silk banner home to Maine as a souvenir, and it stayed in his family for three generations in a box along with a handwritten note: "To be return to Savannah or Atlanta sometime."

Nobody knows for sure why the late Maj. William Zoron Clayton wanted his Civil War trophy flag returned to the South. But after 148 years, his wish has been honored.

The One Chart That Says It All

Depending on debt to fuel nominal growth leads to an economic death spiral.

Sometimes one chart says it all. Here is a chart of the S&P 500 (a broadly based measure of the U.S. stock market) in a ratio with total consumer credit, courtesy of frequent contributor Chartist Friend from Pittsburgh [9].

Charted against consumer credit, the S&P 500 (SPX) collapsed after the 2000 dot-com bubble burst and has been tracing out a descending channel since then.

About Speed Cameras

Despite claims by those who profit from photo enforcement, speed cameras are very unpopular with the general public. Photo enforcement has been placed to a popular vote in US communities a total of 24 times, in 23 of those votes the public has rejected cameras,... that is a 95.8% rejection rate. Speed camera programs only survive because they are accompanied by massive PR and media campaigns, including astroturfing by speed camera contractors and corporate lobbying by photo enforcement companies. Most Americans have lived most of their lives without speed cameras and most states still do not have them. There is nothing radical about opposing speed cameras. It is the belief that we can only be safe with cameras watching our every move which is extreme.

Some reasons why many people oppose speed cameras include:

The right to face your accuser in court and cross examine witnesses is guaranteed by the US Bill of Rights. Speed cameras deny you this right because the accuser is a machine.

Speed cameras are a form of mass surveillance over ordinary drivers. The government is forbidden from engaging in sweeping surveillance systems without warrants to look for offenders of crimes. Only DRIVERS, rather than career criminals, are currently considered bad enough by the state legislature to justify such a system. It is possible that the cameras, or the data they collect, could one day be used for purposes other than speed enforcement, which may already be happening.
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Making $2.13 An Hour And The Boss Skims Tips? How We Can Fight Exploitation In Restaurants

Tipping catches workers between customer whims and employer exploitation. But some states and businesses are changing their ways.

Two weeks ago, a story about a wealthy California business executive leaving a 1 percent tip on a $133 lunch bill went viral on the Internet. Supposedly, the banker wrote "Get a real job" on the receipt as a smarmy reinforcement of his own status as a member of the 1 percent and as a put-down of the Occupy movement.

The restaurant in question quickly provided evidence that the damning receipt was Photoshopped. But it spread like wildfire because a rich businessman treating a waiter like garbage sounded true to many people. In recent months, the poor treatment of restaurant labor has received increased media attention. People inundate comment sections on blog posts and news stories about restaurants, sharing their own horror stories.

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Star Parker: Car Insurance Won't Cover Your Neighbor's Tune Up, So Why Should 'My Health Insurance Cover Your Sex Life?'

Speaking at one of the more than 130 “Stand Up for Religious Freedom” rallies around the country on Friday, activist and author Star Parker told the crowd gathered at the Health and Human Services building in Washington, D.C., that the government is trying to force its ideology on the people.

“Mountains of data point to the connection between traditional marriage and religion to civil order and economic prosperity,” Parker said. “Yet, we are here today, because our times necessitate that we defend both sexual integrity and religion from the onslaught of the same big government and social engineers that gave us the sexual revolution and the war on poverty.

“No more should my auto insurance cover your tune up, should my health insurance cover your sex life,” Parker said. “Not your Viagra, not your condoms, not your birth control devices, not your abortions.”

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40 Years Ago Today, Feds Denied The Truth About Pot -- Now It's Obama's Chance To Act

A congressional commission on US drug policy did something extraordinary 40 years ago: it told the truth about marijuana.

Forty years ago today, the members of a congressionally mandated commission on US drug policy did something extraordinary: they told the truth about marijuana.

On March 22, 1972 the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse, chaired by former Pennsylvania governor Raymond P. Shafer, recommended that Congress amend federal law so that the use and possession of cannabis would no longer be a criminal offense. State legislatures, the commission added, should do likewise.

“[T]he criminal law is too harsh a tool to apply to personal possession even in the effort to discourage use,”concluded the 13-member commission, which included nine hand-picked appointees of then-president Richard Nixon, “It implies an overwhelming indictment of the behavior which we believe is not appropriate. The actual and potential harm of use of the drug is not great enough to justify intrusion by the criminal law into private behavior, a step which our society takes only with the greatest reluctance.

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Tobacco Tax: Saving Lives or Hurting Business?

The Telecom Scammers' Latest Ploy To Screw You For More Cash

Fees, surcharges and taxes make wireless companies tons of money.

Do you watch movies via a wireless connection on your laptop, tablet, smartphone or even TV set? If so, have you received a love letter from your service provider informing you to either go on a digital data diet or plan to pay more to suck down more streaming 1s and 0s? If not, it will arrive shortly.

The leading wireless companies are changing the usage and pricing models they have long used, shifting the industry from one with “unlimited” plans to “limited” deals.

These new limited plans tier data downloads to the ability to pay. AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile have either introduced or plan to introduce “data cap” or throttling programs on their 3G and 4G wireless users. Sprint remains the only leading provider offering an unlimited data plan that isn't subject to throttling.

When thinking about your latest wireless toy, it's important to remember two key facts. First, according to Europe’s Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OCED) the U.S. ranks first in total wireless users, with 200.2 million subscribers as of June 2011. However, it ranked ninth in terms of users per 100,000 people of a nation’s population, with 65.5 per 100/k – this compares to #1 Korea (96.3) and #2 Sweden (93.6).

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Gallup: Church-Going Americans Enjoy Life More, Approve Obama Less

A Gallup survey released Thursday reveals that Americans who attend religious services at least once a week enjoy life more than Americans who do not.

A separate Gallup survey, meanwhile, shows that Americans who attend religious services at least once a week are also less likely to approve of the job Barack Obama is doing as president.

The Gallup survey on the emotional disposition of religious and non-religious Americans was based on interviews with 329,152 adults conducted throughout 2011.

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Exposed: Massive New Spy Center Built To Track Your Emails And Phone Calls

An investigative reporter reveals that the NSA has established listening posts throughout the nation to collect and sift through billions of email messages and phone calls.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: A new exposé in Wired Magazine has revealed new details about how the National Security Agency is quietly building the largest spy center in the country in Bluffdale, Utah, as part of a secret NSA surveillance program codenamed "Stellar Wind." According to investigative reporter James Bamford, the NSA has established listening posts throughout the nation to collect and sift through billions of email messages and phone calls, whether they originate within the country or overseas. The Utah spy center will contain near-bottomless databases to store all forms of communication collected by the agency. This includes the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases and other digital "pocket litter."

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New-home Sales Fell in February for Second Month

WASHINGTON — Sales of U.S. new homes fell in February for the second straight month, a reminder that the depressed housing market remains weak despite some improvement.

The Commerce Department said Friday that new-home sales dropped 1.6 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 313,000 homes. Sales have fallen nearly 7 percent since December.

While a mild winter and three months of strong job growth have lifted re-sales, those conditions haven’t benefited the new-home market. The current pace is less than half the 700,000 that economists consider to be healthy.

Economists cautioned that the housing market is a long way from fully recovering.

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Bragging On The Radio About How You Lied To Get Out Of Jury Duty Is A Bad Idea

Yapping about how you lied to get out of anything mandatory is always a bad idea if you don't want to get caught, but doing it publicly over the airwaves to crow over how you got out of jury duty? That's just begging for trouble, as a woman in Denver found out recently.

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Pelosi: Obamacare Allows You to Quit Your Job and Become 'Whatever'

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that Obamacare facilitates the type of “liberation” that the “Founders had in mind” because it allows you to quit your job and become a “photographer,” a “writer,” a “musician”--or “whatever.”

“As you hear from these stories, this is a liberation,” Pelosi said at a Capitol Hill news conference Thursday.

“This is what our founders had in mind--ever expanding opportunity for people.

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1.36 Million Pounds Of Toxic Chemicals Dumped Into Maryland’s Waterways

BALTIMORE – Industrial facilities dumped 1.36 million pounds of toxic chemicals into Maryland’s waterways, according to a new report released today by Environment Maryland. The report, Wasting Our Waterways: Industrial Toxic Pollution and the Unfulfilled Promise of the Clean Water Act also cites that 226 million pounds of toxic chemicals were discharged into 1,400 waterways across the country.

“Maryland’s waterways are a polluter’s paradise right now. Polluters dump 1.36 million pounds of toxic chemicals into Maryland’s lakes, rivers and streams every year,” said Ewa Krason, Field Organizer with Environment Maryland. “We must turn the tide of toxic pollution by restoring Clean Water Act protections to our waterways.”

The Environment Maryland report documents and analyzes the dangerous levels of pollutants discharged to America’s waters by compiling toxic chemical releases reported to the U.S. EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory for 2010, the most recent data available.

Major findings of the report include:

· Industrial facilities discharged approximately 922,688 pounds of chemicals linked to cancer into the Curtis Creek in Maryland.

· The Gunpowder-Patapsco Watershed is ranked 43rd in the nation for highest amount of total toxic discharges, with 1,339,183 pounds discharged in 2010. That is 98% of the toxic chemicals released into all of Maryland’s waterways in 2010.

Environment Maryland’s report summarizes discharges of cancer-causing chemicals, chemicals that persist in the environment, and chemicals with the potential to cause reproductive problems ranging from birth defects to reduced fertility. Among the toxic chemicals discharged by facilities are arsenic, mercury, and benzene. Exposure to these chemicals is linked to cancer, developmental disorders, and reproductive disorders.

“There are common-sense steps that we can take to turn the tide against toxic pollution of our waters,” added Krason.

In order to curb the toxic pollution threatening the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, Environment Maryland recommends the following:

1. Pollution Prevention: Industrial facilities should reduce their toxic discharges to waterways by switching from hazardous chemicals to safer alternatives.

2. Protect all waters: The Obama administration should finalize guidelines and conduct a rulemaking to clarify that the Clean Water Act applies to all of our waterways - including the 10,000 miles of streams in Maryland and 4 million Marylander’s drinking water for which jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act has been called into question as a result of two polluter-driven Supreme Court decisions in the last decade.

3. Tough permitting and enforcement: EPA and state agencies should issue permits with tough, numeric limits for each type of toxic pollution discharged, ratchet down those limits over time, and enforce those limits with credible penalties, not just warning letters.

“The bottom line is that Maryland’s waterways shouldn’t be a polluter’s paradise, they should just be paradise. We need clean water now, and we are counting on the federal government to act to protect our health and our environment,” concluded Krason.

GOP Presidential Candidates Plan Maryland Visits

ANNAPOLIS — Republican presidential candidates are planning to visit Maryland next week.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum’s national press secretary said in an email Friday that Santorum is planning a visit to Maryland on Tuesday. Alice Stewart says details are still being worked out.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul’s campaign announced on its website a town hall meeting at the University of Maryland, College Park on Wednesday night.

A co-chairman of Newt Gingrich’s Maryland campaign recently announced the former House speaker also is planning a visit to Maryland on Tuesday.

Frontrunner Mitt Romney was in Arbutus this week.

There are 37 delegates at stake in Maryland’s April 9 primary.

Source

Caption This Photo 3-24-12

Egypt is Looking to Get Cozy With Iran

Although Saudi Arabia had good relations for more than 30 years with Egypt under now-ousted President Hosni Mubarak, the kingdom is warily watching political developments in Cairo as the Muslim Brotherhood shows increasing strength, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

As a consequence, Egypt is leaning more toward a strategic relationship with Iran. Closer Egyptian ties with Iran also were underscored by Egyptian parliamentary member Mohamed Abu Hamed, who resigned recently from the Free Egyptians Party, or FEP, which has enthusiastically embraced closer strategic relations with Tehran even though it opposes the Brotherhood.

The Free Egyptian Party was formed last year in the aftermath of the ouster of Mubarak. It has swiftly risen in popularity in opposition to the Freedom and Justice Party, or FJP of the Muslim Brotherhood.

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Bernanke: The Man, The Legacy And The Law

Fed chairman Ben Bernanke is covered in a long profile by Roger Lowenstein in the Atlantic [21]. The sympathetic account takes the reader blow-by-blow through the criticism that he has received from virtually all quarters during his tenure as Fed chair. What Lowenstein hones in on are the reviews and criticisms of Bernanke’s performance in “resurrecting the economy” — the interest rate policy, his interpretation of the dual mandate, quantitative easing, Operation Twist, etc. But for a piece that clocks in at 8,287 words, Lowenstein pays scant attention to the emergency actions taken to save the financial system itself. Here’s one snippet:

Under the Federal Reserve Act, the Fed is authorized to make loans under “unusual and exigent circumstances” as long as the loans are “secured to the satisfaction of the Federal Reserve banks,” meaning, as long as the Fed does not expect to suffer any losses. A fair argument can be made that in the depths of the crisis, some of the Fed’s emergency loans violated this dictum.

For some reason Lowenstein chooses not to actually discuss any of these arguments.

Did the Fed actually break the law?

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House of Delegates Passes Budget Package

ANNAPOLIS — The House of Delegates has approved a package of budget measures, including an income tax increase for people who make more than $100,000.

The House also voted Friday to double the state’s “flush tax” on sewer bills from $30 a year to $60.

The income tax increase would go up a quarter of a percent for single filers with more than $100,000 in taxable income. It would go up a quarter of a percent for joint filers who make more than $150,000 of taxable income.

The House also approved splitting teacher pension costs with counties. The split would be phased in over three years.

A panel of House and Senate lawmakers will need to work out differences in the budget legislation approved by the two chambers.

Source

Bernanke's Banking Misdirection

Ben Bernanke tells EU to clean up banks ... Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has exhorted Europe's leaders to take further action to beef up banks and help southern Europe claw its way back to health, warning that the world financial system is not yet on a sound footing. Strains in global financial markets "continue to pose significant downside risks", said Bernanke. –


UK Telegraph


Dominant Social Theme: You've got to get your banks in better shape, the way they are in the US.


Free-Market Analysis: This is surely a dominant social theme – that banks can be seen as healthy due to so-called stress tests. The whole idea is that the paper money reserves held by banks must be adequate to surmount any larger financial downturn.


This is part of a larger dominant social theme of the power elite, that central banking economies have banks or even money in the normal sense. In the modern world, money is anything but "normal."


But the elites that want to create world government want to insist on mimicking pre-modern monetary environments. They need to create the perception that the faux-money of central banking is every bit as valid as previous monetary systems.

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Immigration Records Missing for Week of Obama's Birth

After months of searching, investigators commissioned by Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio to examine Barack Obama’s eligibility for office found Immigration and Naturalization Service travel records for foreign flights into Hawaii in 1961, only to discover that records for the week of Obama’s birth were missing.

Investigators were searching to determine if Barack Obama might have been born in a foreign country and returned to Honolulu in or around August 1961 with his mother, Ann Dunham.

Arpaio’s team looked at databases in the National Archives and Records Administration with microfilm of INS passenger records for foreign flights arriving in Honolulu and New York City.

If Obama was not born in Hawaii, as he and the Hawaii Department of Health have been insisting, there should be INS passenger cards that the new mother filled out for herself and her infant son upon arrival in Honolulu from a Pacific Rim city or arrival in New York City from across the Atlantic.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY 3-24-12

“In the autumn of 1929 the mightiest of Americans were, for a brief time, revealed as human beings…The privileged have regularly invited their own destruction with their greed.”
John Kenneth Galbraith

Author Dishes Alec Baldwin Taste of His Own Venom

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., who was attacked as an “oil whore” by actor Alec Baldwin and “big oil’s top call girl” by environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is getting some verbal cover-fire from another prominent climate-change skeptic.

Author and talk-show host Brian Sussman, a meteorologist, went on the Tweet counter-offensive today – directing a pithy challenge to debate Baldwin and/or Kennedy about global warming claims.

“If Jim Inhofe is an ‘oil whore’ then Alec Baldwin is an eco-slut,” Sussman said in his first salvo on Twitter.

He followed that one minute later with this: “If Jim Inhofe is an ‘oil whore’ then Alec Baldwin is an enviro-hooker.”

Less than 60 seconds later, he Tweeted: “If Jim Inhofe is an ‘oil whore’ then Alec Baldwin is a green strumpet.”

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IT'S A BIG CLUB & YOU AIN'T IN IT

There’s a reason that education sucks, and it’s the same reason it will never ever ever be fixed. It’s never going to get any better, don’t look for it. Be happy with what you’ve got. Because the owners of this country don’t want that. I’m talking about the real owners now, the big, wealthy, business interests that control all things and make the big decisions.

Forget the politicians, they’re irrelevant.

Politicians are put there to give you that idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land, they own and control the corporations, and they’ve long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the State Houses, and the City Halls. They’ve got the judges in their back pockets. And they own all the big media companies so they control just about all the news and information you get to hear.

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Dramatic Video: Chaos After Quadruple Murder Trial Ends in Not Guilty Verdict

A dramatic scene unfolded in a Massachusetts courtroom Thursday after a jury acquitted one man accused in a quadruple murder trial and deadlocked over another.

The execution-style killings of three adults and a toddler had become known as the “Mattapan Massacre,” Boston’s Fox 25 reported.

Court officers restrained two women who rushed forward to the defendants’ table, screaming after the verdict was announced.

Watch a report from the Boston Globe Here

WOW ! With Just A Plastic Bottle

Sen. Panel OKs Bill to Add 6th Casino, Table Games

ANNAPOLIS — A panel of state Senators is supporting legislation to expand gambling in Maryland.

The Budget and Taxation Committee voted 10-2 Friday afternoon to move the bill to the full Senate.

The proposal would create a sixth Maryland license for a slot machine parlor to be built in Prince George’s County and legalize table games at that location and the state’s five other slots sites.

It would also increase the share of revenue casino operators keep and relieve the state of an obligation to buy slot machines, which has proved to be an ineffective expense.

If the legislature passes the bill it will have to be ratified by a majority of Maryland voters.

Source

New Device Makes Wheelchairs Obsolete

IMPACT Conference Expected to Draw 3,000

Approximately 3,000 high school students, parents and youth group leaders are expected to attend this weekend’s Metro- Maryland Youth For Christ IMPACT High School Conference at the Ocean City convention center, where they will participate in a variety of seminars, workshops, concerts, exhibits and prayer.

The theme of this year’s conference is “Connect.”

“No theme is more relevant to kids than ‘connect,’” said Metro-Maryland Youth For Christ Executive Director Robert Arnold. “Facebook, Twitter … every possible way they are trying to connect with friends and family.”

The three-day conference will feature regional and national entertainers, including musical acts Disciple, Tenth Avenue North, Ascend the Hill and artist KJ-52.

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Somerset County Sheriff's Office Press Releases

Sally Jean Adams of Marion, criminal summons served for theft over $1,000. Adams was released on signature pending court actions.

Archie Davis Saunders of Princess Anne, arrested 3-16-12 on a warrant regarding violation of probation. Saunders was later released on a $5,000 unsecured bond.

Sharnell Zellah Miles of Salisbury, criminal summons served for assault second degree. Miles was later released on signature pending court actions.

Carlton Young Jr. of Salisbury, arrested 3-17-12 on a warrant regarding failing to appear in court. Young was held on a $500.00 bond.

Everett Lee Bozman Jr. of princess Anne, arrested 3-19-12 on a warrant regarding violation of probation. Bozman was later held on a $5,000 bond.

Stacy Lynn Corbin of westover, criminal summons served 3-19-12 regarding theft less than $1,000 and theft under $10,000. Corbin was later released on signature pending court actions.

Stephen Lelend Alford Sr. of princess Anne, arrested 3-19-12 on a warrant regarding second degree assault, and reckless endangerment. Alford was later released on a $5,000 unsecured bond.

Wayne Evans Spence of Salisbury, arrested 3-19-12 on a warrant regarding violation of probation. Spence was later released on a $5,000 bond.

David brant Filmer of Salisbury, arrested 3-20-12 on a warrant regarding violation of probation. Filmer was held on a $25,000 bond.

Lonnie franklin Burkes of Eden, arrested 3-21-12 on a Maryland state Police warrant regarding unauthorized use of vehicle. Burkes was later turned over to MSP.

Michael Troy Gatling of Dover Delaware, arrested 3-21-12 on a warrant regarding violation of probation. Gatling was released after posting $1,000 bond.

Angela Leigh Losiewski of Dames Quarters, arrested 3-21-12 on a warrant regarding failing to appear in court. Losiewski was released after posting $250.00 bond.

Cash Grab on Md. Highway After Armored Car Spill

HYATTSTOWN, Md. - Coins and bills spilled from an armored truck on northbound Interstate 270 Friday morning, and passersby stopped and scooped them up.

Maryland State Police are investigating how the cash came out of the truck -- owned by Garda -- shortly after 9 a.m.

Police are asking motorists who helped themselves to the cash to return it to the Rockville barracks.

An eyewitness says it was like a "snow globe of cash."

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Douglas Urges Common Sense Before Imposing Yet Another Tax

Richard Douglas, candidate for U.S. Senator, noted that the Maryland General Assembly's House Ways and Means Committee is holding hearings today on a "Luxury Surcharge" tax that would affect boat, airplane and other vehicle owners.

"The Annapolis tax-a-thon marches on," said Douglas. "Here's another ill-conceived attempt coming out of Annapolis to thwart the progress of yet another key Maryland industry," said Richard Douglas. "With soaring fuel costs, and a gas tax hike still on the table, this is the last thing Maryland's marine industry needs right now."

"I would urge our legislators in both Annapolis and Washington to stop harming businesses and look for ways to reduce government spending."

While voicing strong support for federalism in America, Douglas noted that Sen. Ben Cardin consistently hides behind the principle to avoid breaking ranks with Governor O'Malley and his anti-worker circles in Annapolis.


Said Douglas, "Federalism should not become an excuse for dereliction of duty. Cardin should support efforts to reduce taxes on Marylanders, and he should loudly oppose O'Malley's efforts to raise them."

Batman Pulled Over on Route 29


Montgomery County Police tweeted a photo Friday afternoon of an unlikely traffic stop. Batman was behind the wheel with the wrong tags on the Batmobile.

Officers pulled the Caped Crusader heading southbound on Route 29 at Prelude Drive.

The back tag on the Batmobile - in this case a black Lamborghini - was the superhero's emblem rather than state tags required by law, according to police.

The man, who has not been identified by police, was heading down to a hospital to visit sick children in the hospital.

Police say the photo of their officers pulling over Batman became a sensation on Twitter.

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Proposal To Raise Judicial Retirement Age Pending In Senate

A vote on a proposed constitutional amendment to raise the mandatory retirement age of judges from 70 to 72 has been put on hold until Friday, when floor amendments will be offered.

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HISTORICAL COMMENTS BY GEORGE CHEVALLIER 3-24-12

Eating Out

How many remember the days when there was no “fast food”? The first place to open up was Carroll’s out on South Salisbury Boulevard. This opened up the world of 15 cent hamburgers to a town that had previously only had places such as Johnnys and Sammys where hamburgers were 20 cents in 1952. Generally people only went out to eat for some special occasion. They usually “dressed up” because that was the thing to do.

My grandfather built two restaurants in Salisbury. The first one was the Shoreman. Most recently it was the police headquarters on the campus of Salisbury University until it was demolished for a new building. It was my grandfather’s practice to take us all to dinner on Sunday at the Shoreman and it was quite a treat in those days. My grandmother always drank her water and ate the rolls so that when they came to take our order, she would always say she wasn’t hungry and wouldn’t order anything. This angered my grandfather, but, she not being able to hear, his arguments were always ignored.

The other restaurant he built was built around 1960. It was the restaurant and motor lodge of Howard Johnson out on Route 13 North. It was because of his building the restaurant and motor lodge that I got my first real job as busboy in the restaurant. Towards the end of the summer of 1960, the management put up a sign that anyone breaking any dishes would have to pay for them. It didn’t take me long to figure out that my weekly pay of $33.75 (of which I cleared $25.87) would be wiped out by one tub load of dirty dishes. Since the doors to the kitchen swung both ways and waitresses were always coming and going, I figured it was only a matter of time that we would meet in the middle, with my tub of dishes making me the loser.

There were other fine places to have dinner. The Wicomico Hotel had been serving meals since it opened in 1924. It was an elegant place with their name embossed on all the silverware. Tea was served by way of an individual silver teapot filled with steaming hot water and the tea bag in your cup with it. The former hotel is now One Plaza East and has nothing but offices in it now.

Another fine eating establishment was the Chantry House. It was located directly north of the Court House where the government office building is now. Like the hotel, they had cloth table cloths and napkins and their name embossed on the tableware.

Looking at the menu from Johnnys and Sammys from 1952, some of their famous cuisine was as follows: Clam chowder – 20 cents, oyster sandwich – 30 cents, seafood platter (fried shrimp, scallops, oysters, crab cake, breaded haddock, choice of two vegetables, rolls, butter, and coffee or tea) - $1.75 and, my favorite, Maryland fried oysters, pickle and chips - $1.25 (no vegetables, just a whole plate of single fried oysters). Of course, in 1952 the people made a lot less money so the prices are probably in keeping with the times. The quality and quantity are not the same, though.

County Police Chief Refuses to Testify in Scandal Probe

WASHINGTON - Anne Arundel Police Chief James Teare is refusing to testify at an inquiry scheduled by the County Council surrounding his part in a corruption scandal.

The scandal surrounds County Executive John Leopold who has been indicted on corruption charges.

Among the things he's accused of: having county police officers, acting as his security detail, act as lookout while he had sex in county parking lots.

Councilman Jamie Benoit says he wants to know "What the chief knew when, what action if any he took..and it will inform our judgment as to whether or not the chief can continue on as the chief of police".

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Md. Early Voting Begins Today

Maryland's primary election day is less than two weeks away, but early voting in Maryland begins Saturday.

In the heavily Democratic state of Maryland, political analysts predict strong turnout by almost 1 million registered Republicans.

Crews were setting up the last of five early voting sites in Baltimore City on Friday afternoon. Statewide, there are 46 early voting locations.

"It seems as though it's been a trend that each time, early voting numbers increase. People like that flexibility of having six days to choose when they want to come," Baltimore City Election Director Armstead Jones said.
- Maryland Early Voting Locations
- Commitment 2012 Election Coverage
- Interactive Guide To Delegates, Primary/Caucus Dates This is Maryland's first presidential contest with early voting, which ends Thursday. The primary takes place April 3.