Veterans respond to court overturning lying law

FILE - In this May 14, 1968 file photo, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson, right, poses at the White House with four winners of the nation's highest award, the Medal of Honor. Decorated for valor in Vietnam, they are, from left: Air Force Capt. Gerald O. Young, of Anacortes, Wash.; Navy Bosn"s Mate James E. Williams, of Rock Hill, S.C.; Marine Sgt. Richard A. Pittman, of Stockton, Calif., and Army Spc. 5 Charles C. Hagmeister, of Lincoln, Neb. Others are unidentified. Pittman and the other recipients can proudly and truthfully say they were awarded the Medal of Honor for their valor in Vietnam. After a recent Supreme Court ruling, anyone else is free under the First Amendment to make the same claim, whether it's true or not. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - In this May 14, 1968 file photo, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson, right, poses at the White House with four winners of the nation's highest award, the Medal of Honor. Decorated for valor in Vietnam, they are, from left: Air Force Capt. Gerald O. Young, of Anacortes, Wash.; Navy Bosn"s Mate James E. Williams, of Rock Hill, S.C.; Marine Sgt. Richard A. Pittman, of Stockton, Calif., and Army Spc. 5 Charles C. Hagmeister, of Lincoln, Neb. Others are unidentified. Pittman and the other recipients can proudly and truthfully say they were awarded the Medal of Honor for their valor in Vietnam. After a recent Supreme Court ruling, anyone else is free under the First Amendment to make the same claim, whether it's true or not. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - This undated file photo provided by Berkley Caliber Hardcover shows retired Col. Jack Jacobs, co author of "If Not Now, When." Jacobs can proudly, and truthfully, say he was awarded the Medal of Honor for his valor in Vietnam. After a recent Supreme Court ruling, anyone else is free under the First Amendment to make the same claim, whether it's true or not. (AP Photo/Berkley Caliber Hardcover, File)

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) ? Jack Jacobs can proudly ? and truthfully ? say he was awarded the Medal of Honor for his valor in Vietnam. After a recent Supreme Court ruling, anyone else is free under the First Amendment to make the same claim, whether it's true or not.

Some military veterans say they consider the ruling a slap in the face. For Jacobs, though, it was the right decision. He said he wore the uniform to protect people's rights ? even if he doesn't agree with how they exercise those rights.

"There are lots of things people do that revolt me, but I'm happy that I fought for this country not to give them the right to do something stupid, but for the majority of the people to do the right thing," said Jacobs, 66, who earned the Medal of Honor in 1969 for carrying several of his buddies to safety from a shelled rice field despite the shrapnel wounds in his head, the streaming blood clouding his vision.

"I'm a free speech guy," he said.

The high court ruled 6-3 on Thursday to toss out the conviction of Xavier Alvarez, a former California politician who lied about being a decorated military veteran. He had been charged under the 2006 Stolen Valor Act, which made it a crime to lie about receiving the Medal of Honor and other prestigious military recognitions. The decision invalidated the law, as the justices ruled Alvarez's fabricated story was constitutionally protected speech.

For 87-year-old Murel Winans, lies about service can cause real harm and lead people to doubt the veracity of claims made by people who actually served during wartime. He said he didn't buy the free speech argument.

"You feel like you never earned it, because when you tell someone what you've done, they'll say, 'you're lying just like those other guys,'" said Winans, 87, who described himself as a "fresh young hillbilly from West Virginia" when he landed on Normandy's Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944 ? his 19th birthday.

The law was inspired by the 1998 book "Stolen Valor" by B.G. "Jug" Burkett, a Vietnam veteran. The government had argued the law was a needed tool to protect the integrity of military medals.

The ruling was issued the same day as the high court's landmark decision upholding President Barack Obama's signature health care overhaul. While much of the nation watched with rapt focus on what would become of the law that requires every American to have health insurance, many people in military communities were more focused on the ruling on the Stolen Valor Act.

Emotions ran high in Fayetteville, home to the 251-square-mile Fort Bragg. About 38 percent of North Carolina's population is either currently in the service, a veteran or a dependent of one, according to the N.C. Department of Administration. The state is also home to the sprawling Camp Lejeune, known for its training in amphibious assaults like the one at Normandy.

"My boys are out there giving their heart and soul," said Rose Moore, whose son is stationed in Afghanistan. "To have someone say they did it and they didn't do anything ? it's a lie, it's dishonest."

Army Capt. Albert Bryant acknowledged that he was disappointed, saying the lies can detract from people who earn something like the Medal of Honor. However, his disappointment was somewhat tempered.

"I know it's the First Amendment, but maybe you need to have an amendment to the amendment to protect our enlisted men and women," Bryant said. "Very few things in life are black and white so you have to take certain things in context, but there has to be some kind of common sense applied."

The decision doesn't give anyone carte blanche to lie about their service record in an effort to get free perks, however. Anyone who fabricates any honors can still face fraud charges, which is what happened to former Marine Sgt. David Budwah in 2009. He was demoted to private and dishonorably discharged after pretending to be a wounded war hero to get free seats at rock concerts and sports events.

Twenty-year Army veteran Raymond Hunt said the justices made the right move in protecting free speech. He said it's enough that Alvarez has been publicly shamed.

"For the rest of his life he has to walk around with that look on his face and know that he was the biggest liar in the country on something that is so sensitive to our country," Hunt said.

Retired Army Lt. Hal Fritz said the court treated those medals as something abstract. But for him, it's a memory.

Fritz was leading a seven-vehicle armored column down a Vietnam highway in 1969 when enemy combatants launched a surprise attack from all sides. Fritz was seriously wounded in the crossfire, but ran through the machine gun blasts to rally his troops. After his platoon survived the first wave, Fritz charged into a second enemy advancement armed with only a pistol and a bayonet. He was seriously wounded, but refused medical attention until all of his men had been cared for. He was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1971.

"We would disagree with the majority saying lying about receiving the medals doesn't devalue them," said Fritz, 68, who now lives in Illinois. "I would say go back with me to Vietnam dragging the dead and dying off the battlefield."

The Medal of Honor is among the rarest of honors: Only 81 of the 3,457 recipients since the Civil War are still living. Of those, only three are younger than 35, according to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

Of those interviewed, the Medal of Honor recipients agreed that Congress should try again to pass a similar law that would survive judicial scrutiny. That didn't ease the anger of people like Vietnam veteran Richard A. Pittman, who was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1968.

He had left his platoon to help Marines under fire, exhausting several machine guns before hurling his final weapon at the enemy: a grenade. His actions halted the Vietnamese advancement and bought time that saved many of his wounded companions.

"I'm supportive of the Constitution, but in this case I just think they're wrong," said Pittman, 68, who now lives in California. "I wonder what the Supreme Court would think if part of my resume said I was a member of the Supreme Court or I answered my phone 'Justice Pittman.'"

___

AP Writer Chris Carola contributed from Albany.

___

Allen Reed can be reached on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/Allen_Reed

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-07-01-Stolen%20Valor/id-d746368397a949e5b207dd86f4f9faac

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France faces tougher cuts despite Hollande promises

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande, elected in May on a promise to avoid growth-sapping austerity measures, should make tough savings and public sector job cuts to meet a European deficit target, the national audit office said on Monday.

Economists have warned for months that faltering economic growth was gnawing a hole in state revenues, but Hollande kept the issue largely under wraps until he won the presidency and his Socialist party topped parliamentary elections in June.

He now risks angering the public, along with leftist allies and trade unions, to achieve what the audit office estimated would be more than 33 billion euros ($42 billion) in savings next year to reach an EU deficit goal of 3 percent of GDP.

Including an additional one-off charge of 5 billion euros to cover tax repayments to foreign investment funds mandated by a recent EU ruling, next year's adjustment would total an unprecedented 4 percent of state spending.

That comes on top of 6-10 billion euros in budget savings needed this year for France to achieve a deficit target of 4.4 percent of GDP, the auditor said.

With its debt already due to exceed 90 percent of GDP this year, a level at which economists say it starts to sap economic growth, France risks being sucked deeper into Europe's debt crisis.

"The country is in the danger zone in terms of its economy and public finances. We cannot rule out the possibility of a debt spiral," Didier Migaud, head of the Court of Auditors, told a news conference. "2013 is a crucial year. The budgetary equation is going to be very hard: much harder than expected due to the worsening of the economic picture."

He added: "Missing deficit targets would damage France's credibility and could cause an unsustainable debt increase, making it impossible to finance it at sustainable interest rates."

Despite some progress last year in cutting its deficit, France remained a laggard in terms of reforming public finances. While most euro zone peers cut spending last year, France used less efficient tax increases to trim its 2011 deficit to 5.2 percent of GDP - well above the 3.8 percent euro zone average.

The government will again rely on some 7.5 billion euros in tax rises, mostly on the wealthy and big corporations, in a revised 2012 budget due to go before the cabinet on Wednesday.

But for 2013, unpopular welfare and civil service job cuts appear unavoidable, the court said, appearing to run counter to Hollande's insistence that his government would hold the overall number of government employees steady.

"It will require unprecedented cuts to public spending and increases in taxation," Migaud said. "If the government wants any room for maneuver, it needs to cut its number of staff."

AUDITOR WARNS ON GROWTH

Public sector job cuts will be tough to explain to an electorate already fretting over a wave of private sector layoffs and alarmed at the prospect of a squeeze on their generous welfare system. State spending in France runs at 56 percent of GDP, second only to Denmark in the western world.

Persistent economic gloom was a key reason why Hollande defeated conservative Nicolas Sarkozy last month. Fears of more misery have already knocked seven points off the new president's approval rating to 51 percent, one poll showed.

Migaud is a Socialist politician appointed by Sarkozy, giving the auditor's recommendations bipartisan authority.

The auditor said it had not uncovered any skeletons left by Sarkozy's outgoing government but pointed to 1.2 to 2 billion euros of likely unfunded spending this year in areas like defense, agriculture and housing, saying this was normal.

The root of the problem is that France's budget was too optimistic on growth and the likely rise in tax revenues. The auditor said 2012 growth would likely be around 0.4 percent, less than the 0.7 percent budgeted figure, and 1 percent for 2013, shy of the previous government's 1.75 percent forecast.

Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said in a newspaper interview published on Monday the government would revise down official growth forecasts in line with these estimates as it uses the audit to prepare the 2013 budget, due in the autumn.

"There are a few priority (government departments) like education, justice, security and the unemployment office, which will see their resources increase, but for the rest, we need to make savings," he told the newspaper.

If the 33 billion euros next year were split evenly between spending reductions and new taxes, the government could find the 16.5 billion euros of expenditure savings by slowing state spending increases to the pace of inflation, the auditors said.

Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, due to set out his legislative agenda on Tuesday, has said the central government - which accounts for four-fifths of the deficit - would hold spending flat between 2013 and 2015. Economists have questioned whether this can be done without cutting staff.

To boost tax revenues, the auditor recommended slashing widespread exemptions and increasing broad-based levies such as sales tax and the CSG welfare charge. Hollande's government has already said it will roll back Sarkozy's decision to shift some of France's onerous labor charges onto an increase in VAT.

Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac said there would be no VAT rise in the amended 2012 budget bill.

The court report did not take into account measures approved by the government since it took office in mid-May, including a 2 percent rise in the minimum wage, which would increase pressure on public spending, officials said.

(Editing by Paul Taylor and Will Waterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/french-auditor-says-cuts-needed-meet-deficit-goals-083713184--business.html

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5 Best Goals at Euro 2012

By JOHN LEICESTER

AP Sports Columnist

Associated Press Sports

updated 10:20 a.m. ET July 1, 2012

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Heading into Sunday's European Championship final between Spain and Italy, 72 goals had been scored by the 16 teams that took part. Here's our pick of the top five (hoping, of course, that goals in the final might be even better):

---

DANNY WELBECK'S FLICK

The Manchester United forward scored only once for England at Euro 2012, but his goal was brilliant for its cunning and exquisite timing. With England and Sweden tied at 2 in the 78th minute of their June 15 group stage match, winger Theo Walcott sent in a cross. His back to the goal, Welbeck met the ball with his right leg and flicked it behind him with his heel, stunning Sweden goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson. A top-five selection because the 21-year-old Welbeck's execution was astounding and the goal secured the win for England.

---

ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC'S FAREWELL

Sweden was already eliminated when it played France on June 19 in Group D, but its towering frontman was determined to go out with a bang. With a roundhouse kick Bruce Lee would have been proud of, Ibrahimovic met Sebastian Larsson's cross and threw himself nearly sideways in the air to volley the ball with his right foot past Hugo Lloris.

---

SUBLIME DAVID SILVA

Controlling the ball 12 yards out, the nippy Spain midfielder faced a seemingly impenetrable wall of three Ireland defenders blocking his route to goal. So he improvised, dancing right then left before hitting the ball with pinpoint precision past one defender, through the legs of two others, and beyond goalkeeper Shay Given. It was Spain's second goal in a 4-0 Group C win on June 14. Laser-like.

---

SPAIN'S ONLY LAPSE

The same team Spain will face on Sunday, Italy, was also the only team that managed to score against the world and defending European champions at Euro 2012. Antonio Di Natale's chip past Iker Casillas in the 61st minute of their opening Group C match on June 10 wasn't the prettiest goal of Euro 2012, but it's a top five pick for its rarity.

---

COOL-HAND DUKES

Having the gall to softly chip a penalty over a diving goalkeeper, rather than firing to his left or right, is such the height of cool that this technique is named after its pioneer, Antonin Panenka. He used it to win the 1976 European Championship for Czechoslovakia against West Germany in a penalty shootout. At Euro 2012, Andrea Pirlo did it in Italy's quarterfinal shootout victory over England, and Sergio Ramos performed a "panenka" to help defending champion Spain beat Portugal in their semifinal penalty shootout. Brave.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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A 3-week show of prudent play

??PST: Spain's run to the Euro title might not have been as sexy as we would have liked, but the manner in which this club just made history really deserves proper recognition.

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Mexican election could return longtime ruling party to power

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (Reuters) - The party that ruled Mexico for most of the past century looked set for a comeback on Sunday as voters chose a new president, seeking an end to a brutal drug war and weak economic growth that have worn down the ruling conservatives.

Twelve years after the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) lost power, opinion polls showed its candidate, Enrique Pena Nieto, heading into the vote with a double-digit lead over his opponents.

The PRI was ousted in 2000 after 71 years of virtual single-party rule that was tainted by corruption, electoral fraud and authoritarianism.

But Pena Nieto has established himself as the new face of the party and it has bounced back in part because of economic malaise and lawlessness under the conservative National Action Party (PAN).

A noisy crowd of protesters met Pena Nieto when he voted in Atlacomulco, about two hours northwest of the capital, but hundreds of his supporters shouted down the demonstrators.

A youthful-looking former governor of the State of Mexico, Pena Nieto promises reforms to improve the country's tax take, loosen the job market and open the state-owned oil company Pemex to more foreign investment, citing Brazil's Petrobras as a model

Mexicans are fiercely protective of Pemex, but the PRI, which nationalized oil production in 1938, could be the one party able to liberalize the energy sector.

"It's time for the PRI to return. They're the only ones who know how to govern," said Candelaria Puc, 70, preparing to vote in the beach resort of Cancun with the help of a friend because she cannot read or write.

"The PRI is tough, but they won't let the drug violence get out of control," she added, speaking in a mix of Mayan and Spanish.

Others feared a return to the worst years of PRI rule and put Pena Nieto's big lead down to his cozy relationship with Televisa, Mexico's top broadcaster.

"It's the same party as ever and the people who vote for him (Pena Nieto) believe they are going to live happily ever after like in the soap operas," Humberto Parra, a systems engineer, said as he went to vote in Mexico City.

Pena Nieto's closest challenger in pre-election polling was Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a leftist former Mexico City mayor who narrowly lost the 2006 election to President Felipe Calderon of the PAN.

Lopez Obrador claimed fraud after that election and launched months of street protests that failed to overturn the result and instead alienated many former supporters. His claims that the PRI is this time preparing a fraud have raised concerns of more protests, although polls suggest Lopez Obrador will fall short of the 35 percent of votes he won in 2006.

"This is no time for the country to go in reverse," a relaxed Lopez Obrador said of the PRI before voting.

CONSERVATIVES LOST SUPPORT

Bidding to become the country's first female president, PAN candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota was third in the polls.

The PAN ended the PRI's long rule in 2000 but years of weak growth and the death of more than 55,000 people in drug-related killings since 2007 have steadily eroded its popularity.

Violence continued in the days before Sunday's vote.

In the Pacific beach resort of Acapulco, one of the cities most affected by the drug war, four people were killed on Saturday, two of them tortured and beheaded, a hallmark of drug-related killings.

The PRI mayoral candidate in the city of Marquelia, about 40 miles from Acapulco, was kidnapped by an armed group, prompting a protest of his supporters that closed a highway for five hours, a party leader said.

Final polls showed Pena Nieto winning 40 percent to 45 percent of the vote and Lopez Obrador close to 30 percent with Vazquez Mota not far behind. The candidate with the most votes wins, with no need for a second round.

The first national exit polls were expected when voting ends in the westernmost part of the country at 8 p.m. Mexico City time (2100 EDT/0100 GMT).

The PRI laid the foundations of the modern state with a nimble blend of politics and patronage that allowed it to appeal to labor unions and captains of industry at the same time.

Mexicans eventually tired of the one-party rule that stifled dissent, rewarded loyalists and allowed widespread corruption.

The era of old-time PRI bosses known as "dinosaurs" gave way to a more democratic era under the 1994-2000 presidency of Ernesto Zedillo, who instituted reforms that allowed opposition parties to compete in a fair vote and oust the PRI.

On Sunday voters will also decide on six state governors, both houses of Congress and an array of state legislatures and city halls, with gains expected for the PRI.

The legislative results will help determine whether Pena Nieto will be able to push through his reform agenda.

(Additional reporting by Dave Graham, Ioan Grillo, Gabriel Stargardter, Tomas Sarmiento, Lizbeth Diaz, David Alire Garcia; Editing by Daniel Trotta and Kieran Murray; Desking by Cynthia Osterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mexican-election-could-return-old-rulers-power-060420206.html

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Syrian opposition rejects UN transition plan

BEIRUT (AP) ? Syrian opposition groups have rejected a U.N.-brokered peace plan for a political transition in Syria as ambiguous and a waste of time.

An international conference in Geneva on Saturday accepted international envoy Kofi Annan's plan that calls for the creation of a transitional government, but at Russia's insistence the compromise agreement left the door open to Syria's president being part of it.

Veteran Syrian opposition figure Haitham Maleh says the agreement was "a waste of time" and pledged Sunday not to sit with President Bashar Assad or members of his "murderous" regime.

A spokesperson for the Syrian National Council opposition umbrella group, Bassam Kodmani, says the agreement is "ambiguous" and lacks a mechanism or timetable for implementation.

Associated Press

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Flight attendant loses cool aboard NYC plane

Closed captioning of: Flight attendant rants at complaining passengers

>>> let's begin this half hour with a flight attendant who lost his cool after passengers started complaining about a long delay. it was all caught on tape. nbc's ron mott has details on this. ron , good morning to you.

>> hey, matt, good morning. if you've flown more than a couple of times, you start to tune out announcements flight attendants make. not on this flight. the flight attendant was trust traited, not because seat backs and tray tables with weren't in their upright and locked positions. american eagle flight 4607 from raleigh-durham, north carolina was grounded for five drama filled hours because of weather. the delay pushing the crew to its time limit for the day.

>> if you have [ bleep ] otherwise you're going to have to fly with jose.

>> passengers dave abels flying with his nine-year-old daughter caught the incident on video.

>> the more people spoke up, the more he was getting angry at us and crazy.

>> the line for takeoff was so long and tensions so high, the pilot eventually returned to the gate.

>> unfortunately our hands are tied. we cannot leave until that's obtained.

>> reporter: tempers reached a boiling point and cops showed up.

>> he doesn't care. that's what he got on the intercom and told everybody.

>> serrano and passengers were questioned by the police but no one was arrested.

>> the captain wasn't back here.

>> we're going to finish this discussion on the jet way.

>> the passengers from indie rock band several fellow travelers deserve some of the blame.

>> i think jose probably suffered the brunt of a lot of the frustration of the banks. i noticed at one point it seemed like he was tearing up. i could tell he was upset.

>> reporter: parent company american airlines said passengers were threatening and unhappy. but said it had been a long day for our customers on board as well as our crew. we do apologize. eventually the flight was canceled. nbc reached out to serrano for comment. american airlines spokesperson said the incident is under review, they do not discuss personnel matters. they sent an e-mail from a first class passengers who said passengers were verbally abused.

>> ron , thank you very much.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48013699/ns/travel-news/

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Jean Rogers replied to Sarah Michele Ford's discussion Hybrid Classrooms?

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