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Pat Robertson: Pot Should be Legal like Alcohol

By MICHAEL FELBERBAUM
AP Business Writer

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson says marijuana should be legalized and treated like alcohol because the government’s war on drugs has failed.

The outspoken evangelical Christian and host of “The 700 Club” on the Virginia Beach-based Christian Broadcasting Network he founded said the war on drugs is costing taxpayers billions of dollars. He said people should not be sent to prison for marijuana possession.

The 81-year-old first became a self-proclaimed “hero of the hippie culture” in 2010 when he called for ending mandatory prison sentences for marijuana possession convictions.

“I just think it’s shocking how many of these young people wind up in prison and they get turned into hardcore criminals because they had a possession of a very small amount of a controlled substance,” Robertson said on his show March 1. “The whole thing is crazy. We’ve said, `Well, we’re conservatives, we’re tough on crime.’ That’s baloney.”

Robertson’s support for legalizing pot appeared in a New York Times (http://trade.cc/auwm ) story published Thursday. His spokesman confirmed to The Associated Press that Robertson supports legalization with regulation. Robertson was not made available for an interview.

“I really believe we should treat marijuana the way we treat beverage alcohol,” Robertson was quoted by the newspaper as saying. “If people can go into a liquor store and buy a bottle of alcohol and drink it at home legally, then why do we say that the use of this other substance is somehow criminal?”

Read the rest here.

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The IRS is Going After Conservative Groups Seeking Tax Breaks as Non Profits

Source

“A battle is brewing between politically-oriented nonprofit organizations and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) about whether the groups deserve tax-protected status. Although such groups support both major political parties, it is the wealthier conservative groups, such American Crossroads and those affiliated with the Tea Party, that are up in arms.

Under the U.S. tax code, 501(c)(4) groups are tax-exempt because their purpose is “social welfare.” They are allowed to engage in a certain amount of political activity, but politics cannot be their primary focus. American Crossroads, co-founded by Karl Rove, and Priorities USA, backed by President Barack Obama, claim that they are apolitical social welfare organizations, a description that elicits snickers—at best—from independent observers. The IRS believes that these faux-social welfare groups should pay taxes.
According to the IRS, “The promotion of social welfare does not include any unrelated business activities or intervention in political campaigns on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office.”
Also at issue is the suspicion that corporations are donating to political super PACs and then deducting their contributions as business expenses.”

 

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Solar Storm Headed Toward Earth May Disrupt Power

via AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — The largest solar storm in five years is racing toward Earth, threatening to unleash a torrent of charged particles that could disrupt power grids, GPS and airplane flights.

The sun erupted Tuesday evening, and the effects should start smacking Earth between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. EST Thursday (0600 GMT and 1000 GMT), according to forecasters at the U.S. government’s Space Weather Prediction Center. They say the storm, which started with a massive solar flare, is growing as it speeds outward from the sun.

“It’s hitting us right in the nose,” said Joe Kunches, a scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He called it the sun’s version of “Super Tuesday.”

Scientists say the sun has been relatively quiet for some time. And this storm, while strong, may seem fiercer because Earth has been lulled by several years of weak solar activity.

“This is a good-size event, but not the extreme type,” said Bill Murtagh, program coordinator for the space weather center.

The solar storm is likely to last through Friday morning, but the region that erupted can still send more blasts our way, Kunches said. He said another set of active sunspots is ready to aim at Earth right after this.

But for now, scientists are waiting to see what happens Thursday when the charged particles hit Earth at 4 million mph (6.4 million kph).

NASA solar physicist Alex Young added, “It could give us a bit of a jolt.” But he said this is far from a super solar storm.

The storm is coming after an earlier and weaker solar eruption happened Sunday, Kunches said. The latest blast of particles will probably arrive slightly later than forecasters first thought.

That means for North America the “good” part of a solar storm — the one that creates more noticeable auroras or Northern Lights — will peak Thursday evening. Auroras could dip as far south as the Great Lakes states or lower, Kunches said, but a full moon will make them harder to see.

Auroras are “probably the treat we get when the sun erupts,” Kunches said.

But there is potential for widespread problems. Solar storms have three ways they can disrupt technology on Earth: with magnetic, radio and radiation emissions. This is an unusual situation when all three types of solar storm disruptions are likely to be strong, Kunches said.

That means “a whole host of things” could follow, he said.

The magnetic part of the storm has the potential to trip electrical power grids. Kunches said utility companies around the world have been alerted. The timing and speed of the storm determines whether it knocks off power grids, he said.

In 1989, a strong solar storm knocked out the power grid in Quebec, causing 6 million people to lose power.

Solar storms can also make global positioning systems less accurate, which is mostly a problem for precision drilling and other technologies, Kunches said. There also could be GPS outages.

The storm also can cause communication problems and added radiation around the north and south poles, which will probably force airlines to reroute flights. Some already have done so, Kunches said.

Satellites could be affected, too. NASA spokesman Rob Navias said the space agency isn’t taking any extra precautions to protect astronauts on the International Space Station from added radiation.

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BREAKING: Full ‘Young Obama’ Video Released By Frontline

Frontline just tossed a few hand grenades at Buzzfeed and Breitbart.

While BuzzFeed did not publish all of the available footage of the event — a manager here noted that they were paying for each second of footage — they did post the entirety of what was available of Obama’s speech. While other cameras could have shot additional material from the event, no other footage of the event exists at WGBH.

And while there does appear to be editing in the footage available, that was almost certainly done in 1990. The Ten O’Clock News practice was to store completed segments as aired along with any relevant additional footage that might be useful in the future.

Full Attack

Watch Obama Speaks at Harvard Law in ’90 on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

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JUICY DETAILS OF THE “MANHATTAN MADAM” SUBURBAN MOM WHO MADE MILLIONS

via NY POST

She ferried her kids to band practice, attended parent-teacher conferences and cared for the family’s menagerie of rescued dogs and pot-bellied pigs.

But unlike other suburban housewives, Anna Gristina, 44, also allegedly worked as a high-end Upper East Side madam.

The stay-at-home mom of four catered to clientele with no less than $1 million in the bank while raking in piles of cash in more than 15 years in the industry, prosecutors charge.

CALL GIRL SAYS ‘MADAM’S’ LAW-ENFORCEMENT SOURCES TIPPED HER OFF ABOUT BUSTS

A drawn-looking Gristina yesterday was ordered held at Rikers on $2 million bond after prosecutors told a Manhattan Supreme Court judge that she was an extreme flight risk — and it surfaced that she had an alleged female hooker-booker partner, who is now on the lam.

STEVEN HIRSCH
HOW TIMES CHANGE: Accused madam Anna Gristina strikes a more dowdy pose in courtyesterday (above) than in the sexy Facebook picture of her and husband Kelvin Gorr (below).

In a day of explosive developments:

* An NYPD sergeant, Richard Wall, was ordered to appear today before the Internal Affairs Bureau with his memo book logging his work for the past five years after being seen making repeated trips in and out of the East 78th Street building that allegedly housed Gristina’s brothel.

* It was revealed that Gristina had a partner-in-crime, Manhattan “matchmaker” Jaynie Baker, who flew the coop before the two were indicted, sources said. The strawberry-blond Baker, 30, claimed to work for a legitimate Union Square dating service.

* A source said Gristina employed “Penthouse and Playboy models’’ to service clients who “were all millionaires except two billionaires — hedge-funders, CEOs and real-estate moguls.”

* The investment bank Morgan Stanley searched records of visitors at its New York offices to try to track down which of its bankers met with Gristina before her bust last month to allegedly discuss setting up an online prostitution service.

Today, Gristina’s attorney said he never asked her about a so-called black book.

Peter J. Gleason told “Good Day New York” that “as far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t exist.”

He says if the mom of four is found guilty of the charges, “it’s irrelevant to me if there’s a black book or note.”

Gleason says the prosecution has not shared with the defense team information about its allegations that the Monroe, woman peddled underage girls and had police protection.

He says the allegation she promoted sex with children was “a ploy” the police sometimes use “if they have a hostile client that they want to break.”

Sources said the petite, green-eyed Gristina spent years juggling her illicit work with a quiet, unassuming life in the ’burbs.
Read more: http://trade.cc/audn

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The Ear of the Tech Titan Continues With Samsung Filing New Lawsuits Against the Apple iPad2 & iPhone 4s

“Just hours before Apple is due to unveil what many think will be a new version of its best-selling iPad tablet, Samsung has tried to steal a little thunder by filing a lawsuit against the Cupertino company over patent violations in the newest models that Apple has on the market as of this morning, the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2. The suit was filed in Samsung’s home market of Korea.

Given how these patent suits have come to represent almost as much in public mindshare as they have in terms of actual licensing deals (and, more loftily, questions of originality in device design), this could be seen as a well-timed and key move by Samsung. But it also appears to be a reversal of strategy…”

Read more

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U.S. Wins First First Victory in Anonymous’s War on America

(Reuters) – Six suspected leaders of the international hacking organization known as Anonymous were charged by U.S. authorities of computer crimes, dealing a major blow to the loose-knit group that has wreaked havoc on the websites of government agencies and major corporations.

Among those charged was Hector Xavier Monsegur, known as “Sabu,” who took responsibility for attacks on the websites of eBay’s PayPal, MasterCard Inc and Visa Inc between December 2010 and June 2011, according to federal prosecutors and the FBI. The attacks were in retaliation for the refusal of those companies to process donations to Wikileaks, the group that leaked confidential diplomatic cables in 2010.

The charges against Monsegur, in a case that was opened last summer, were filed in federal court in New York via a criminal information. Such a document typically means a suspect has been cooperating with the government.

“Sabu was seen as a leader … Now that Anonymous realises he was a snitch and was working on his own for the Fed, they must be thinking: ‘If we can’t trust Sabu, who can we trust?'” said Mikko Hyponnen, chief research officer at Finnish computer security company F-Secure.

“It’s probably not going to be the end of Anonymous, but it’s going to take a while for them to recover, especially from the paranoia,” Hyponnen said.

Monsegur pleaded guilty last August to 12 charges, including computer hacking and conspiracy, according to documents unsealed in New York federal court on Tuesday. He is free on a $50,000 (31,807 pound) bond. The charges carry a possible maximum prison term of 10 years.

Monsegur has also identified himself as a member of hacking groups called “Internet Feds” and “LulzSec,” the office of the Manhattan U.S. Attorney and the FBI said in a statement.

U.S. authorities also said they had arrested Jeremy Hammond in Chicago on Monday, on charges of hacking in to Strategic Forecasting Inc, or “Stratfor,” a global intelligence and research firm, in December 2011. Hammond, who was also known as “Anarchaos” and other names, identified himself as a member of “AntiSec” hacking group, authorities said.

“In publicizing the Stratfor hack, members of AntiSec reaffirmed their connection to Anonymous and other related groups, including LulzSec,” the statement said. It said members published a document with links to Stratfor data entitled: “Anonymous Lulzxmas rooting you proud” on a file-sharing website.

About 860,000 clients and subscribers of “Stratfor” had confidential information stolen, officials said.

A lawyer for Monsegur, Peggy Cross, did not immediately return a call seeking comment on the charges. Hammond’s lawyer could not immediately be identified.

U.S. authorities said the cyber attacks had affected more than 1 million people and the computer systems of foreign governments, such as Algeria, Yemen and Zimbabwe. Authorities said Monsegur and three of the charged men raided personal information about 70,000 potential contestants on Fox Television show “X-Factor.”

Anonops, which sends online messages on behalf of “Anonymous,” sent a message on Twitter following the arrests. “#Anonymous Is an idea, not a group. There is no leader, there is no head. It will survive, before, during, and after this time,” Anonops tweeted just after noon on Tuesday.

LulzSec, an underground group also known as Lulz Security, along with parent group Anonymous have taken credit for carrying out a number of hacking actions against companies and institutions including the CIA, Britain’s Serious Organized Crime Agency, Japan’s Sony Corp, Mexican government websites and the national police in Ireland.

A spokesman for Irish police said one of the suspects had been arrested and was being held in Terenure, a middle-class suburb of Dublin.

Last summer, as part of a coordinated law enforcement raid on the group, British police arrested Jake Davis, another suspected member of LulzSec who went by the nickname “Topiary.”

One of the charges announced on Tuesday was against Davis, a teenager accused of computer attacks on Sony, UK crime and health authorities, and Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspaper arm News International.

Davis is believed to have controlled the main Twitter account of Lulz Security, which the group used to publish data obtained by hacking into corporate and government networks.

LulzSec and Anonymous, loose online collectives of activists, have attracted widespread global media coverage for their stunts. LulzSec has more than 350,000 followers on Twitter.

Last month, Anonymous published a recording of a confidential call on January 17 between FBI agents and London detectives in which the law-enforcement agents discuss action they are taking against hacking. Authorities said they had arrested and charged Donncha O’Cearrbhail, 19, of Birr, Ireland of computer hacking conspiracy.

(Reporting By Basil Katz, Grant McCool; Additional Reporting by Diane Bartz, Lorraine Turner, Georgina Prodhan; editing by Mark Porter, Derek Caney and Matthew Lewis)

Source

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Maryland judge strikes down gun law – no “good reason” needed

BALTIMORE – Maryland residents do not have to provide a “good and substantial reason” to legally own a handgun, a federal judge ruled Monday, striking down as unconstitutional the state’s requirements for getting a permit.

U.S. District Judge Benson Everett Legg wrote that states are allowed some leeway in deciding the way residents exercise their Second Amendment right to bear arms, but Maryland’s objective was to limit the number of firearms that individuals could carry, effectively creating a rationing system that rewarded those who provided the right answer for wanting to own a gun.

“A citizen may not be required to offer a ‘good and substantial reason’ why he should be permitted to exercise his rights,” Legg wrote. “The right’s existence is all the reason he needs.”

Plaintiff Raymond Woollard obtained a handgun permit after fighting with an intruder in his Hampstead home in 2002, but was denied a renewal in 2009 because he could not show he had been subject to “threats occurring beyond his residence.”

Woollard appealed, but his appeal was rejected by the review board, which found he hadn’t demonstrated a “good and substantial reason” to carry a handgun as a reasonable precaution. The suit filed in 2010 claimed that Maryland didn’t have a reason to deny the renewal and wrongly put the burden on Woollard to show why he still needed to carry a gun.

“People have the right to carry a gun for self-defense and don’t have to prove that there’s a special reason for them to seek the permit,” said his attorney Alan Gura, who has challenged handgun bans in the District of Columbia and Chicago as an attorney with the Second Amendment Foundation. “We’re not against the idea of a permit process, but the licensing system has to acknowledge that there’s a right to bear arms.”

In his ruling, Legg wrote that Second Amendment protections aren’t limited to the household.

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Movie Theaters are Ripping You Off and This Lady is Doing Something About It

 

Rebecca Motley emerges from the AMC Star Southfield after seeing "Good Deeds" on Friday morning -- and paying $11 for pop and popcorn on top of the $5 ticket. "The prices are ridiculous," she said.

Rebecca Motley emerges from the AMC Star Southfield after seeing “Good Deeds” on Friday morning — and paying $11 for pop and popcorn on top of the $5 ticket. “The prices are ridiculous,” she said. / ERIC SEALS/Detroit Free Press
SOURCE

By David Ashenfelter

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

Joshua Thompson loves the movies.

But he hates the prices theaters charge for concessions like pop and candy.

This week, the 20-something security technician from Livonia decided to do something about it: He filed a class action in Wayne County Circuit Court against his local AMC theater in hopes of forcing theaters statewide to dial down snack prices.

“He got tired of being taken advantage of,” said Thompson’s lawyer, Kerry Morgan of Wyandotte. “It’s hard to justify prices that are three- and four-times higher than anywhere else.”

American Multi Cinema, which operates the AMC theater in Livonia, wouldn’t comment on the suit. A staffer at the National Association of Theatre Owners in Washington, D.C., angrily hung up the phone when asked about industry snack pricing practices.

Although consumer experts predicted that the case will be dismissed, it struck a chord Friday with area moviegoers, who said they’re tired of being soaked on movie munchies.

“The prices are ridiculous,” Rebecca Motley, 55, a self-employed Southfield physician, said while leaving the AMC Star Southfield 20.

Motley said she and her office manager spent $5 each for morning movie tickets and $11 each for soft drinks and popcorn.

“When I was a kid, $1 could get you into the movies and buy you a pop and popcorn. But not anymore,” Motley said. “I don’t know how kids can go on their own to a movie anymore.”

Timothy Fells, 29, part owner of a Redford Township gym, agreed with Motley.

“Movie concession prices are extremely high, and that’s why I don’t stop at the snack bar very often,” he said while leaving the AMC theater in Southfield.

Thompson didn’t want to be interviewed because he doesn’t want any notoriety, Morgan said. But Thompson said in his lawsuit that he used to take his own pop and candy to the AMC in Livonia until the theater posted a sign banning the practice.

On Dec. 26, he paid $8 for a Coke and a package of Goobers chocolate-covered peanuts at the Livonia theater — nearly three times the $2.73 he paid for the same items at a nearby fast-food restaurant and drug store, the suit said.

The suit accused AMC theaters of violating the Michigan Consumer Protection Act by charging grossly excessive prices for snacks.

The suit seeks refunds for customers who were overcharged, a civil penalty against the theater chain and any other relief Judge Kathleen Macdonald might grant.

Two consumer lawyers predicted that Macdonald will dismiss the suit.

“It’s a loser,” said Gary Victor, an Eastern Michigan University business law professor. He said state Supreme Court decisions in 1999 and 2007 exempted most regulated businesses from the Michigan Consumer Protection Act.

Added Ian Lyngklip, a nationally known consumer lawyer in Southfield: “Movie theaters are regulated, so the lawsuit won’t go anywhere”

Victor, an avid moviegoer, agreed that snack prices are excessive at theaters. That’s why he shuns the concession counter unless he’s with a date.

Griping about excessive prices at the theater concession is a time-honored tradition, says Paul Dergarabedian, an analyst forwww.hollywood.com , a movie industry website.

“But like high airline prices, it’s just one of those things that we’ve become accustomed to because we don’t have any control over it,” he added.

Although movie ticket sales are down — 1.2 billion tickets were sold last year compared with 1.6 billion in 2002 — he said a difficult economy mainly is to blame, not snack prices.

To cope with the issue, some consumers eat before or after they go to the movies, or resort to smuggling.

Fells said he sometimes smuggles Gummi Bears into the theater to save money.

Kristy Belanger, 20, a real estate secretary from Redford Township who showed up at the AMC in Livonia on Friday to see a movie with her boyfriend, concealed two bottles of Pepsi in her purse.

“I did it to save money, and I feel like I did,” she said, adding that what she saved on Pepsi enabled her to buy a $4.74 serving of nachos to share with her beau.

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Psychos on Wall Street

The easiest way to explain the never-ending string of Wall Street scandals and implosions is to observe that a surprising percentage of people in the financial industry are psychos.

The latest edition of CFA Magazine, a trade publication for chartered financial analysts, features an article claiming one out of 10 people working on Wall Street are psychopaths.

Sherree DeCovny, the former investment broker who wrote the piece, says the estimate came from researchers, including a psychologist who treats Wall Street professionals.

In the 2005 book, “The Sociopath Next Door,” Harvard University psychologist Martha Stout claims one out of every 25 people in America is a sociopath. She defines sociopath as a person with no conscience.

“Sociopath” and “psychopath” describe a similar range of anti-social traits, including a lack of empathy, no regard for consequences and unbridled risk-taking. Ms. DeCovny defines them this way: “Back when we were little children…and we were learning right from wrong, they didn’t get it.”

Sometimes these people turn out to be Jeffrey Dahmer and drill a hole through your skull. But if you send them to Harvard and dress them in a fine suit, they could become your boss, your CEO or your senator. They excel in any arena where aggressive behavior is rewarded and where grandiose levels of confidence can result in rousing applause.

I have come to know many psychopaths, from Ponzi-schemers to book-cooking corporate executives. They are always charming and narcissistic. They display wonderfully glib senses of humor and spin the truth like a roulette wheel.

It is often difficult to argue that these people are indeed sick until the day they have to exchange their Armani suit for an orange jumpsuit.

I only know one man who openly admits he’s a psychopath. I called him to see what he thought of the numbers Ms. DeCovny reported.

“First of all, it’s not one out of 10,” says Sam Antar. “It’s probably eight out of 10.”

Read the rest here.

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The Flying Car May Only Be a Year Away

By |Posted Wednesday, March 9, 2011, at 4:29 PM ET

The Transition by Terrafugia. Click image to expand.

The Transition by Terrafugia

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a … Volkswagen with wings? A robotic duck? A character in a Pixar film? No. In the words of its inventors, it is a “roadable aircraft.” In the terminology of our collective imagination, it is a flying car. And maybe it is coming to a garage, street, highway, airstrip, or sky near you.

The company that makes the vehicle, Terrafugia—Latin for “flee the Earth”—is a small firm based in Woburn, Mass., made up almost entirely of engineers. It says it has scores of orders for the light two-person plane it calls the Transition, and plans to start production in the next year. The idea for the company and the aircraft came to Carl Dietrich, one of Terrafugia’s cofounders, while he was completing his doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was, of all things, a regulatory change that sparked his imagination. In 2004, the Federal Aviation Administration created a new category of plane, light-sport aircraft. The small planes require only 20 hours of flight time for pilot certification, less time than it takes to get a beautician’s license in some states. Dietrich, already an indefatigable inventor, started toying with the idea of producing a flying car that enthusiasts and businesspeople could take on short trips—300 miles, say, a full day’s car trip but a quick flight—and then drive and keep at home.

Read the rest here.

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TSA GETS KINKIER BY THE DAY: Asks Woman to Prove Breast Pump is Real

Lihue, HI (KITV) — A Hawaiian mom says she was humiliated when asked to prove her breast pump was real at an airport.

The woman says she was flagged for additional screening at the Lihue Airport Wednesday because of her electric breast feeding pump.

She claims agents told her she couldn’t take the pump on the plane because the bottles in her carry-on were empty.

“I asked him if there was a private place I could pump and he said no, you can go in the women’s bathroom. I had to stand in front of the mirrors and the sinks and pump my breast in front of every tourist that walked into that bathroom. I was embarrassed and humiliated and then angry that I was treated this way.

When the bottles were full, she was allowed back on the plane.

The TSA is apologizing, saying the agent made a mistake.

The agency released a statement, saying in part: “We accept responsibility for the apparent misunderstanding and any inconvenience or embarrassment this incident may have caused her.”

The TSA recently changed screening procedures to allow women to carry breast milk onto planes without testing it.
However, breast pumps may require additional screening.

KITV

SOURCE 

 

 

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Pro-Fracking Film Trumps Anti-Death Penalty Project on Crowdsourcing Site

by Hollywoodland

Right-leaning documentaries rarely get the chance to go head to head with their liberal-minded competition.

When was the last time a conservative documentary ended up battling it out for the Best Documentary Oscar?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52XGMQbX8PE&feature=player_embedded

So it’s fascinating to watch the crowdsourcing battle royale between “FrackNation,” a film by Big Hollywood contributors Phelim McAleer and Ann McElninney which argues against the Obama administration’s stance on hydraulic fracking, and “Troy Davis Lives,” a documentary about the execution of a Georgia man convicted of killing a police officer.

To say the former is beating the latter is an understatement. If this were a boxing match they would have stopped the fight days ago.

Read the rest here.

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