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Monday, April 20, 2015
Friday, April 17, 2015
Doing the Barry two step
Remember when Barry said, "Marriage is between a man and a woman?"
Later he said "he evolved".
Looks like Hillary evolved too.
Not anymore.
An excerpt from her new campaign ad.
Video 111
Doing the Barry two step
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Aaron Hernandez sentenced to life without the possibility of parole
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Former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez has been found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Hernandez, 25, was charged with killing Odin Lloyd, 27, on June 17, 2013. Lloyd, who was dating the sister of Hernandez's fiancee, was found shot to death in an abandoned industrial yard.
In addition to the murder charge, Hernandez was found guilty of unlawful possession of a firearm and unlawful possession of ammunition. As the verdict was read against him this morning, Hernandez sat down. His mother, Terri Hernandez, and fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins, burst into tears after the football player was found guilty. Jenkins had testified, with immunity, for the prosecution.
Lloyd’s mother, seated among relatives, also sobbed in the courtroom.
After the sentencing hearing, state Assistant District Attorney William McCauley told reporters the verdict was "a relief."
"It was quite a relief," McCauley, the lead prosecutor, said. "We’re the front person and we have so many people counting on us to bring about a successful result."
Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn said Hernandez's position as a professional football player affected the attention given to the trial, but insisted he received a fair one.
"In the end, he was a man who committed a serious murder and was convicted of that with a jury of his peers," Quinn told reporters.
During sentencing hearing, Lloyd's mother and sister were among the relatives who spoke before the judge.
"Odin was the first best gift I ever received,” Lloyd's mother, Ursula Ward, told the court. “I thank God every second and every day of my son's life that I spent with him.”
Ward also said she forgave those responsible for her son's death.
"I forgive the hands of the people that had a hand in my son's murder, either before or after," she said.
Lloyd's sister Olivia Thibou said the time after her brother's death feels "like a bad dream."
"These last couple of years have been the hardest time of our lives," Thibou told the court." At the age of 25, I was asked to write my brother’s eulogy. That's the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life."
Because of the first-degree murder conviction, Hernandez was automatically sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Jurors decided on the guilty verdict after they deliberated for nearly 36 hours.
Prosecutors had alleged that Hernandez and two other men picked up Lloyd from his house and brought him to the industrial park near the Patriots' Gillette Stadium, about a mile from Hernandez's home.
Hernandez had pleaded not guilty.
Jurors heard testimony from 135 witnesses during the nine week trial, including Patriots' owner Robert Kraft. At the time of the murder, Hernandez had a $40 million contract with the New England Patriots.
Hernandez was recently indicted for the 2012 drive-by shooting deaths of two men outside a Boston nightclub. He has pleaded not guilty.
Aaron Hernandez sentenced to life without the possibility of parole
Obama Bows to Compromise on Iran Bill as Tide Turns in Senate
Barry... “Iran will not get a nuclear weapon on my watch”
This is so like him. Kick the can down the road...let the next president worry about it. It's not about "his watch". It's about Iran NEVER getting a nuclear weapon!!!
I think these actions taken by Iran contributed to passing this legislation and the reason Congress had to act!
I think these actions taken by Iran contributed to passing this legislation and the reason Congress had to act!
1. During these negotiations you wouldn't think anyone (except in this administration) would believe things are going well... particularly while Iran is chanting "Death to America" during the proceedings!
2. During these negotiations Iran conducted military exercises blowing up a fabricated American aircraft carrier.
3. During these negotiations a high ranking Iranian general proclaimed, "Israel's destruction is non-negotiable".
4. During these negotiations Russia is reviving a deal to send S-300 surface-to-air missiles, an advanced air-defense system to Iran.
When you look at the entirety of the situation does Iran appear to be a country interested in peace?
Only if you're a fool.
When it comes to Iran... Barry and Jimmy are two peas in a pod.
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President Barack Obama agreed to accept compromise Iran legislation that he didn’t want after it became clear that Democratic lawmakers would join with Republicans in demanding a say on the nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic.
Faced with the growing threat of Congress passing by a broad margin a bill that would weaken him for the remainder of his presidency and potentially derail negotiations with Iran, the administration signaled Obama would relent and sign modified legislation giving lawmakers a chance to review an agreement with Iran before deciding whether to lift sanctions.
Both sides claimed a measure of victory.
“My sense is they know that this thing has run away.”
Senator Bob Corker
Obama’s chief spokesman, Josh Earnest, said lawmakers removed the most objectionable parts of the original legislation from Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee and Democratic Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, which the White House threatened to veto.
Corker labeled that as White House spin. The core of the legislation -- Congress’s authority to vote on sanctions -- remains in place and has broad bipartisan support, he said.
“My sense is they know that this thing has run away,” Corker said. Up until the end, he said, administration officials were lobbying against any measure requiring Obama to submit a deal to congressional approval.
Deal Brokers
The compromise, approved 19-0 Tuesday afternoon by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was brokered by Corker, the panel’s chairman, and Maryland Senator Ben Cardin, its top Democrat.
Cardin, who replaced Menendez as the ranking Democrat on the committee following the New Jersey senator’s indictment earlier this month on corruption charges, acted as an intermediary with the administration during negotiations with Corker.
He spoke to Obama, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and Secretary of State John Kerry multiple times over the past 10 days, according to a Senate aide, who asked for anonymity to discuss the private talks.
Corker came to Cardin’s office Monday afternoon to nail down the final details, the aide said.
The compromise legislation would cut from 60 days to as few as 30 days the time Congress has to review a final deal with Iran. It removed language requiring that Iran renounce ties to terror groups before any sanctions are lifted, which Earnest called “unrealistic.”
Iran Sanctions
A vote to allow or forbid the lifting of economic sanctions previously imposed on Iran by Congress would come after lawmakers review the agreement.
The president still could veto any legislation that would scuttle the Iran negotiations.
“Despite the things about it that we don’t like, enough substantial changes have been made that the president would be willing to sign it because it would reflect the kind of compromise” that he’d accept, Earnest said.
One of the key developments that forced Obama’s hand was the decision by Senator Charles Schumer of New York, the Senate’s No. 3 Democrat, to sign on to Corker’s original legislation.
Schumer, in line to succeed Nevada’s Harry Reid as the chamber’s Democratic leader, served as a clear warning sign to the administration that skepticism about the Iran deal among Obama’s fellow Democrats meant Obama couldn’t count on any veto being sustained.
The White House congressional liaison staff calculated that the Corker-Cardin compromise could survive a presidential veto, according to an administration official.
Cardin’s Rise
The elevation of Cardin as ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee opened the door to a compromise being hammered out.
While Menendez has had a sometimes tense relationship with the White House, Cardin was willing to push for an accord that would protect Obama’s interests as well as maintain Congress’ ability to weigh in, said another Senate aide with knowledge of the negotiations, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the process.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, said a decisive vote for the legislation in the Senate likely would translate into strong support in the House.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel advocacy group that has opposed the nuclear deal with Iran, applauded the Foreign Relations Committee vote.
“Congress should review any agreement to ensure it meets U.S. objectives and object if it fails to do so,” a statement from the group said.
Impact on Talks
National Iranian American Council Policy Director Jamal Abdi said in a statement that the compromise “does not change the fundamental problems with this bill. It still threatens to derail the talks and kill a deal, and we remain opposed to it.”
Abdi said that while he is hopeful that Obama’s acceptance means the administration has a plan to make sure it won’t derail talks, its passage “will make already difficult negotiations with Iran even more difficult.”
One U.S. official involved in the talks with Iran and with Congress said the legislation poses two potential complications in the negotiations with Iran and five other world powers.
The first, said the official, who requested anonymity to describe internal policy discussions, is the prospect that the Iranians might use it to argue that the U.S. is setting new terms and then try to delay the talks beyond their June 30 deadline, demand new concessions, or seek to separate the U.S. from its negotiating partners.
Review Time
According to an aide to Corker, the legislation says that if the deal is submitted after July 9, the period for Congress to review it increases to 82 days. Until then, Obama would not be able to waive any congressional sanctions on Iran.
A second concern, the official said, is that some lawmakers might try to use the legislation to undermine any final agreement with Iran, such as by rejecting Obama’s certification that Iran is complying.
Ilan Goldenberg, a senior fellow at the Center for New American Security in Washington, said that while the Iranians will raise concerns about the legislation and use it for leverage, they are unlikely to try to renegotiate terms they already have agreed to.
“The Obama administration would never have agreed to something that would endanger what is a central and historic foreign-policy legacy issue for the president,” said Goldenberg, a former staff member of Senate Foreign Relations Committee and State Department official.
The compromise shows “there are people in Congress that don’t want the responsibility for tanking this agreement at such an early stage,” said Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East adviser to both Democratic and Republican administrations.
“Nobody right now wants responsibility for fighting with the president or creating obstacles that would have a chilling impact on testing the possibility that at the end of the day this is a better deal than the one that they want,” said Miller, vice president at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. “They want to wait to see exactly what this deal ultimately involves because right now you have a fact sheet and a couple of joint statements.”
Obama Bows to Compromise on Iran Bill as Tide Turns in Senate
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