Green sees green, I see red (White collar crime pays big)

Today, the aptly named Ephonia Green--for her ironic love of the 5.1 million greenbacks she stole from her non-profit employer--has every reason to smirk.  She embezzled and enjoyed a tax-free fortune that most of us will not earn in our lifetimes and for her eight years of avarice her dream team of attorneys got her the deal of the century: 46-months.  With good behavior she will be out in half the time.  This situation is even more amazing given her previous convictions for the same criminal behavior.  Indeed, Robin Hood and all his thieving merry men are green with envy: they could not have imagined such a scenario in their wildest imaginations.  What wouldn't be hard for Robin Hood to grasp is that it is easy to be charitable when being generous with other people's money.  Naturally, at some point the authorities will get around to seizing Ms. Green's ill-gotten assets, no doubt worth a fraction of what she stole.  Given Ms. Green's duplicitous nature, I would not be a bit surprised if there is a slush fund in the Cayman Islands just waiting to be liberated.  Indeed, I predict greener pastures in Ms. Green's future: palm trees, a tropical locale and ice cold Coronas.  At 44, life is long despite a short prison stint.  White color crime may cause the rest of us to see red, but it seems to pay off just fine when you've got the green as Ms. Green could tell you.

http://www.americanthinker.com/author/david_l_hunter/   

Impeach the bystander president (after November's 2014 mid-term election)

While Malaysian Flight 17 still smoldered, downed by a surface-to-air missile likely fired by pro-Russian separatists incinerating 298 people, the president continued his scheduled fund raising and speechifying—in which he stated this ‘may be’ a terrible tragedy—without missing a beat.  This dynamic was eerily similar to his reaction the day after the Benghazi travesty in which four heroic Americans were slain futilely defending an overrun and under-secured American embassy.  The president was troubled not a smidgen by this, or other legitimate scandals such as the IRS targeting of conservative groups or NSA spying on rank and file Americans, which he termed ‘phony.’  He has usurped the legislating powers of Congress by the repeated administrative manipulation of the deadlines and requirements of Obamacare for his own political benefit.  Unlike the rest of us, this “Tiger Woods” president seems to exist on a fantasy island (or is that Martha’s Vineyard?) of publically demonized millionaires and billionaires unencumbered by Chinese and Russian aggression against their neighbors, terrorism’s spread in Syria and Iraq, war in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas, nuclear enrichment in Iran and lest I forget the Katrina-like flood of illegal immigrants that have shredded our Southern border worse than the Constitution our Constitutional lawyer president consistently disregards.   When the secret service used the code name ‘Renegade’ for this president, they certainly got that one right.  Congress, do your duty: impeach Obama.

http://www.americanthinker.com/author/david_l_hunter/

The Naked Truth (Two Parts)

I think it is a universal truth that teenagers often make foolish or short-sighted decisions.  Certainly, creating child pornography of oneself and sending the video to another teen is ill-advised--and technically illegal--but unfortunately it not uncommon in this wired-in generation.  However, when Prince William County police take pictures of the boy's flaccid penis "as evidence" not only does it magnify the initial crime by creating further instances of child porn, but also such an act by the state is likely traumatizing to the minor.  As if this isn't heavy-handed enough, Prince William County prosecutors further want the teen to be forced to receive an injection so that his erect penis can also be photographed.  As a result, he has to flee the state to escape the warrant.  All of this is frankly Orwellian.  What happened to the boy's right to privacy or his right against self-incrimination?  It seems that Big Brother has supplanted Uncle Sam in America.

*****

A 17 year old is legally and biologically a child.  When this Manassas youth foolishly sent explicit images of himself to his teenaged girlfriend while it is technically considered child pornography--and therefore illegal--it is a child's mistake and should be treated gently with a judge's stern warning and community service hours.  He should not have to submit to the invasive humiliation of police comparison photographs of his genitalia.  Indeed, he should not suffer an overzealous persecution by Prince William County prosecutors: their plan to medically-induce the boy's erection to gather "evidence" was finally abandoned only after public outrage.  Given the propensities of this technically-savvy generation, this situation is not likely to be in isolated incident.  The law needs to be reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor for juveniles.  This is a simple case of hormones overwhelming common sense.  The boy's is understandable; police and prosecutors not so much.  

References: Explicit photos won't be used in 'sexting' case (Tom Jackman, Washington Post) &  Va. 'sexting' case reignites debate (Rachel Weiner, Washington Post)

 ‘Police to take graphic photos of teen as evidence’ & 'Police back off on plan to take explicit photo' (Matthew Barakat, The Washington Times)

http://www.americanthinker.com/author/david_l_hunter/