They're blaming federal regulations for tying their hands, like they ever pay any mind to federal regulations when there is a buck in it for them.  

For this issue I am reminded of BTD's numerous exhortations regarding Tim Geithner's disastrous stewardship of our economy. And, if my memory is correct, he stated emphatically that, should Obama lose the upcoming election, the number one reason would be his acquiescence to Geithner's fatally flawed advice.

Whether you're a Republican or Democrat, knowledgeable or a novice, you instinctively know that the Administration's dealings vis-à-vis the big banks simply stunk to the high heavens. It is THE Big Issue, the elephant in the room, and the stench of Obama's complicity in "the greatest robbery in history" will just not go away.

Every time I go back and re-read articles regarding those early, turbulent days I find something new or gain an understand of some things I missed before. One of things I didn't realize fully was the total isolation of Geithner's position among Obama's top economic advisors. At the height of the calamity there was almost complete unanimity that the banks caused the problem, that big changes would have to be made, and that the biggest transgressors would have to "be brought to justice."

It was no secret that Larry Summers and Christine Romer didn't see eye to eye on most issues but here they were tied at the hip. They asked for a rare, twosome meeting with Obama where they spelled out their reasoning for their conclusions. They laid out their strong belief that the American public would demand justice be done, and that there was great public support for the afore-mentioned actions to be taken. It was the right thing to do economically......and politically. They argued that the stars were lined up perfectly and that this unique opportunity would not last long. Act now, and be a hero, or let it slip away and be at the mercy of events beyond one's control.

One man disagreed. One man argued it was the banks that needed protection, not the American people, or even the American economy. That man, the banks' hand picked Trojan Horse, was Tim Geithner.

Barack Obama had a decision to make. He could take the advice of the majority of his advisors (and a majority of private economists) or succumb to the advice of his Plutocrat Protecting Treasury Secretary.

The decision he made is the reason this incumbent President needs a Billion dollars for his campaign against an empty suit whose own constituents hate.

The economy's tepid so-called "recovery appears to have run out of steam. I believe Obama will have to face the whole bailout issue honestly and forthrightly if he is to have any reasonable chance of re-election. Most leading economic indicators have now turned against him.

Not content with their current efforts to bully America's nuns, the Vatican has now set its sights on the Girl Scouts. Apparently, it is open season on any group of females that is not completely subservient to males.

What are the unforgivable sins of the Girl Scouts? Well, among the complaints is that they have program materials from the Sierra Club and Doctors Without Borders and Oxfam. And they revised the Girl Scout oath so that girls could substitute the diety of their choice for the word"god". Muslim girls could say "allah" and Buddhist girls could say "buddha" etc. Oh the humanity!

Not surprisingly, the bullying of both the nuns and the Scouts is being led by two Americans. One is Bernard Cardinal Law, former archbishop of the Boston diocese and currently on the lam and hiding out in the Vatican because of his egregious behavior in regards to the pedophilia scandal. The other is a former St. Louis bishop, Raymond Burke.

It is no secret around here that, IMO, the Catholic Church hierarchy and its minions should spend the rest of this century doing penance for the pedophilia scandal. They should have neither the time nor the energy to do anything else.

The prospective GOP presidential nominee hastens to apologize after reports surface in the Washington Post of his purported bullying of a prep school classmate suspected of being gay.

To be honest, we've all done things when we were in high school and younger that we naturally regret -- sometimes profoundly -- in our later years. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't give this long-ago incident much attention, except that it concerns the teenaged behavior of a candidate whose campaign thought it important to note that Barack Obama once ate dog meat in Indonesia as a 7-year-old boy.

And of course, that teenaged bully later became a man who strapped his Irish setter to the roof of a family car for an extended road trip.

In that respect, Schadenfreude ist die schönste Freude.

The first shock came when Mordechai Jungreis learned that his mentally disabled teenage son was being molested in a Jewish ritual bathhouse in Brooklyn. The second came after Mr. Jungreis complained, and the man accused of the abuse was arrested.

Old friends started walking stonily past him and his family on the streets of Williamsburg. Their landlord kicked them out of their apartment. Anonymous messages filled their answering machine, cursing Mr. Jungreis for turning in a fellow Jew. And, he said, the mother of a child in a wheelchair confronted Mr. Jungreis's mother-in-law, saying the same man had molested her son, and she "did not report this crime, so why did your son-in-law have to?"

By cooperating with the police, and speaking out about his son's abuse, Mr. Jungreis, 38, found himself at the painful forefront of an issue roiling his insular Hasidic community. There have been glimmers of change as a small number of ultra-Orthodox Jews, taking on longstanding religious and cultural norms, have begun to report child sexual abuse accusations against members of their own communities. But those who come forward often encounter intense intimidation from their neighbors and from rabbinical authorities, aimed at pressuring them to drop their cases.

Abuse victims and their families have been expelled from religious schools and synagogues, shunned by fellow ultra-Orthodox Jews and targeted for harassment intended to destroy their businesses. Some victims' families have been offered money, ostensibly to help pay for therapy for the victims, but also to stop pursuing charges, victims and victims' advocates said.

These envelopes have been found at a shopping mall, the Port of Portland offices at the airport, the federal building, the downtown Hilton, and today, at Portland State University.

Thank goodness, the powder has been harmless. Still, this is very disconcerting. It is also very disruptive.

So far, no one, well except the person delivering the envelopes, has any idea what the game is.

1. Zimmerman was not indicted but still arrested for 2nd degree murder. This is because the US Supreme Court has never held that the 5th amendment requirement, that serious crimes can only be prosecuted after a Grand Jury indictment, applies to the states.

2. Instead the prosecutor filed an Information, also called Affidavit of Probable Cause under Florida statute 923.03. It was accepted by Judge Mark E Herr on April 12, leading to Zimmerman's arrest.

3. The statute requires that somebody swears, in front of the prosecutor, to the truth of a set of facts that, if true, would establish the guilt of the accused of the crime (murder in the second degree). The two people who so swore were investigators, T.C. O'Steen and Dale Gilbreath.

4. At the bail hearing on April 20, Gilbreath admitted that he didn't know whether or not some of the items he had sworn to be true were in fact true, in particular that Zimmerman had ignored the dispatcher's request that he return to his vehicle and that he confronted Martin rather than the other way around.

5. If they so desired, Zimmerman's attorneys could ask the court to dismiss the case based on the faulty affidavit.

I didn't realize you were working on two scenarios.  I know it can't be mine because it bears no resemblance to my scenario so it must be yours?  As such, I refer to it below as "your scenario #2".

For the most part however, since the questions I asked centered on your "cut-through" scenario, I attempted in my comments to extract it from your scenario #2.

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Re: Why use the word down

"Down the street" is essentially how I was taking GZ's words anyway and yet I was satisfied with your answer, though I'm not sure why you aren't willing to apply it to your scenario #2 where you write the following [emphasis below is mine]:

[ducking behind P19] I don't see that as a probable action, and if it were the truth, then GZ would mention he was off the road and sidewalk and given a description that was more about the pond than about the back entrance. His directions are in part to explain a route for the police to follow, so he uses streets directions. I think "down" is not south, but "he's running down the street" (that eventually winds to the back entrance).

I would think it'd be basically the same thing -- wouldn't it?

There are sidewalks and cut throughs behind the P19 townhouse unit (the crosswalk painted on Twin Trees connects the cut through in your first scenario with one of the cut-throughs located behind the P19 townhouse unit).  

You can also get to the back entrance going that route -- I mean, I don't have TM going that way/ direction myself but -- one can go that way to get to the back entrance.  

Re the pond: the same could be said for TM heading toward Retreat View Circle (using the cut through).  

There are many ways to get to the back entrance from where GZ and TM are positioned on Twin Trees but according to what you've said, it should be the same thing, no?    

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Re the foot-chase:

So you have GZ & TM going in a circle and they're still at L27.  Okay thanks.

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Re traveling north on Retreat View Circle:

My question re "why would GZ travel north on Retreat View Circle when the back entrance is to the south?" stems from what you'd written:

GZ looks up and down Retreat View, moving as far south as M33, then north to the corner to look back west from D32. He's eaten up much of the missing time here, walking N and S on Retreat View.

which can be found here: here.

My apologies for the lack of clarity when asking my question initially, but what I am meaning here is "Why stop at M33 traveling south on Retreat View Circle?"  I think the back entrance is just below where your diagram ends but not sure how far -- maybe to "T33"?

I was curious re the significance of stopping at M33 while going as far north as he could in the other direction -- the significance of that to your scenario.

It just seemed to me GZ would most likely head south as far as he could to the back entrance -- which is where he suspected TM to be headed --- then either retrace his steps OR head up through the walkway between the back to back townhouses, OR ... (there's probably a number of ways he could've returned) and then head north if need be.

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Re GZ not calling dispatch once at Retreat View Circle

I see better now what you are saying -- I think. IOW, because he didn't call in with an address, it shows his story re looking for an address was made up?

If I'm understanding this correctly, I could see him calling in the address anyway IF he intended to 'call it a day' and go home and actually did go home immediately after that.  However, the way it was left -- as NoMatter has pointed out -- GZ was not under any obligation to call the dispatcher back.

There is a huge difference in my mind between torturing a live animal and eating a dead one.  I mean I know that dogs are not typically eaten in this country, but is there a good reason to be against it?  I mean if you eat meat... you are okay with killing animals for food.

I dunno.  Maybe it's that I hung out with some cows before I ate them, even named them and raised them from babies feeding them milk, etc...  But we still ate them.  I just don't see a big difference between that and eating dog.  Also, I'm more of a cat person, and I'm 70% sure I've unintentionally eaten cat.

The materials, first detailed by Wired.com, used in an elective course at the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Va., promoted "total war" against Muslims in order to stave off terrorism. The course, "Perspectives on Islam and Islamic Radicalism," raised the option of "taking war to a civilian population," in disregard of the Geneva Convention of 1949, and possibly destruction of Mecca and Medina, Islam's holiest sites.