Analysis: Silence speaks for John Edwards jury

The judge in the John Edwards trial calls a closed door meeting with jurors on Friday. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez reports.

By Hampton Dellinger, Special to NBC News

ANALYSIS

It?s official: Jurors in the John Edwards trial do not think they are deciding a simple case.

If all 12 of the North Carolinians judging the former U.S. senator thought it was clear Edwards broke the law when billionaire buddies Fred Baron and Rachel ?Bunny? Mellon supported his mistress and his former political-aide-turned-faux-father of the Edwards-Rielle Hunter baby, they would not be starting a seventh day of deliberations. And it is not just the duration of deliberations that suggests uncertainty; during nearly every courtroom entrance for the past week, jurors have worn furrowed brows and grim visages. They have made specific requests for dozen of exhibits and readily accepted the presiding judge?s offer to have every exhibit ? hundreds in all -- brought into the jury room.?

---

Even if the final answer is ?guilty,? the time and trouble the jurors are taking to render a verdict suggests that one or more of them will describe the decision of whether to find Edwards guilty of violating the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) as a close call.? Which raises the question: Should a jury be making such a call at all, given that the two arms of the federal government that are expert in campaign finance violations ? the Federal Election Commission and the Justice Department?s Public Integrity Section ? appear to disagree on whether Edwards? conduct was unlawful?

?

The FEC-DoJ split was highlighted in motions filed just before testimony ended. The defense requested the opportunity to play for the jury a tape recording of the FEC?s July 2011 audit hearing where it closed the books on John Edwards for President, Inc. despite the DoJ?s pending indictment of the candidate. The six FEC Commissioners voted unanimously in favor of closing the books after Commissioner Donald McGahn stated that ?I can say it. (The Mellon and Baron money) it?s ?? my view it?s not reportable (as a campaign contribution).?

Hampton Dellinger, a litigation partner with Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson of Charlotte and Chapel Hill, N.C., is former deputy attorney general of North Carolina and has taught election law at Duke University Law School. In 2008, he sought the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor of North Carolina.

Edwards also sought to introduce a 2009 Justice Department letter stating that, as a general rule, DoJ would only bring criminal charges in limited situations: ?The application of the law to the facts of a matter must at the very least be clear, and there must be no doubt that the (Federal Election) commission considers that the underlying conduct presents a FECA offense.?

Government attorneys opposed Edwards? motions and Judge Catherine Eagles ruled in prosecutors? favor.? Eagles also denied defense efforts to present two former FEC chairs prepared to testify that in their expert opinions, Edwards?s conduct did not rise to the level of a civil infraction, much less criminal wrongdoing.

Even without the former FEC chairs and the 2011 FEC audit hearing tape, the continuing deliberations are evidence that the ?application of the law to the facts? of the Edwards matter is not as far as the jury is concerned.? And because the arguments over what evidence would be admitted took place outside the jury?s presence, jurors don?t know what they don?t know about the FEC?s and DoJ?s varying views.?

Full trial coverage from NBC News and msnbc.com

Meanwhile, critics of the prosecution continue to suggest that if the federal government is going to throw the book at someone, particularly when the criminal statute at issue requires a ?knowing and willful? violation, it seems more fair to hit the person in the face rather than in the back of the head.?

Of course, the only view that matters is that of the jury. The verdict, and any descriptions jurors are willing to give on how they reached it, will offer a measure of finality (at least pending the outcome of an appeal if the decision is ?guilty?) if not clarity.

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:

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Cameroon: Forests pressured as leaders welcome palm oil investors

Alternet | 23 May 2012

BY ELIAS NTUNGWE NGALAME,
?
Yaounde ? Cameroon is inviting foreign companies to expand lucrative palm plantations, pitting the country's need for economic development against environmentalists who foresee the loss of important forests.

Since 2009 this West African country has witnessed a sharp rise in interest from companies seeking vast expanses of land for industrial palm plantations in response to increasing global demand for palm oil.

Six foreign-owned companies are currently trying to secure over 1 million hectares (about 2.5 million acres) of land for the production of palm oil in the country's forested southern zone, according to a coalition of environmental organisations.

Jean Kuete, who until December 2011 was Cameroon's minister of agriculture, told journalists last October that palm production is integral to the government's plans for growth, employment and poverty reduction.

"The industrial production of palm oil is a national priority and the many investors in this sector are welcomed," the minister said.

According to information from the agriculture ministry, there is particular interest in land on the flanks of West Africa's highest peak, Mt. Fako, where conditions are good for growing palms, as well as the cheap land stretching through the Southwest and Littoral regions of Cameroon.

OPPOSITION VOICES

But strong opposition is being voiced by civil society organisations and environmental scientists who say the proposed plantations constitute a real danger to the country's fragile ecosystem and the fight against climate change.

In a recent letter addressed to Cameroon's Prime Minister Philemon Yang, the Coalition of Civil Society Organisations in Cameroon called on the government to reject the projects, which they argue will destroy a critical forested zone linking five national parks and protected areas.

"In addition to the direct destruction of flora and fauna, these projects will bring hunger and frustration to the local population," the coalition argued.

According to the government, the companies seeking land include Sithe Global Sustainable Oils Cameroon (SGSOC), which is owned by US-based Herakles Farm and is finalising the acquisition of 73,000 hectares (about 180,000 acres) in the Southwest region.

Sime Darby, a Malaysian-based multinational and the world's biggest listed palm oil producer, hopes to secure 600,000 hectares (about 1.5 million acres) to develop oil palms across the South, Centre, Littoral and Southwest regions.

Siva Group/Biopalm Energy, an Indian-owned group, is in the process of acquiring 200,000 hectares (about 500,000 acres) of land for palm plantations in the South region, where three further companies are also seeking land for the same purpose.

According to government statistics, Cameroon is currently the world's thirteenth largest producer of palm oil. A mixture of smallholders and agro-industrial plantations together produce 230,000 tonnes annually, with 190,000 hectares (470,000 acres) under cultivation.

About half of total production, accounted for by the government-owned Cameroon Development Corporation and companies owned by the French Ballore group, is exported to Nigeria, France and other countries. The government's Rural Sector Development Plan calls for palm oil production to nearly triple, to 450,000 tons annually, by 2020, in part to make up a 150,000-tonne deficit for domestic consumption.

ECONOMIC BENEFITS

"These projects are going to provide direct and indirect employment with an economic multiplier effect, (and) bring more revenue to the state through direct taxes, royalties and utility bills," Kuete said last October. He added that the country's infrastructure would benefit from improvements in roads, schools, electricity and health facilities.

At a meeting in the capital, Yaounde, convened by the Coalition of Civil Society Organisations in early May, David Hoyle, conservation director of WWF Cameroon, said his organisation was worried that the government was rapidly expanding plantations without a proper strategy for land management. He called on the government to debate the issue and to implement a proper planning process for land use.

"These forests are vital for wildlife, including the African elephant, chimpanzee and drill, all threatened or endangered species," said Samuel Nguiffo of the Centre for Environment and Development, a local NGO. "These animals rely on the forests that would be destroyed to survive."

Nguiffo decried what he said was the growing pressure to convert the national forest - including protected areas - for industrial use.

"If environmental standards are not respected, palm production may have consequences (for) soil erosion on the mountain slopes, water quality, and pollution by pesticide runoff," he said.

CLIMATE THREAT

Patrick Libang, of the Center for International Forestry Research, emphasised the role played by forests in the fight against climate change.

"Trees provide essential ecosystem services like carbon storage, watershed protection, water flow regulation, rainfall generation (and) soil nutrient recycling, mitigating considerably the effects of climate change," he said.

The environmentalists said Cameroon's palm oil deficit could be dealt with through intensive production on current plantations, rather than by expanding the area under plantation.

But Nguiffo noted that although increased greenhouse gas emissions from land converted to palm plantations will be a problem, methane emissions from palm oil mill waste will increase even if production on current plantations is intensified without clearing additional forest.

Methane is one of the most powerful greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.

Herakles Farm, which owns SGSOC, defended its palm oil projects in Cameroon and elsewhere as environmentally friendly.

Elvis Oben, operations manager of SGSOC, said, "No planting will be done on primary forest or high-conservation-value forest, and buffer zones between the plantation and the high-conservation-value (forest) will be maintained."

Oben argued that SGSOC is engaging with local communities through the planning and development process.

"Environmental impact studies have been made, the necessary land demarcations completed. No local villages are expected to move away from their land," he said.

LOSSES EXPECTED

The environmental impact assessment conducted by the project sponsors acknowledges that some fauna and biodiversity would be destroyed in the course of the development of the project. But it says that measures would be taken to mitigate those losses.

In spite of the protests from environmental organisations, local communities in the project zones have largely embraced the projects. The chiefs who represented their communities at the meeting in Yaounde challenged the civil society organisations that opposed the project.

"The NGOs have no right to speak for us because they have never done anything to help our community out of poverty," said Chief Atem Ebako of Talangaye village, one of the project areas in the Southwest region.

"We need development and we know these plantations are going to bring infrastructural development in our area, like schools, hospitals and especially jobs for our children," he said.

Elias Ntungwe Ngalame is an award-winning environmental writer with Cameroon's Eden Group of newspapers.

Read more at AlertNet Climate, the Thomson Reuters Foundation's daily news website on the human impacts of climate change.

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95% Moonrise Kingdom

All Critics (88) | Top Critics (22) | Fresh (84) | Rotten (4) | DVD (1)

It makes you nostalgic for the pangs of young love.

What makes it an Anderson movie are the things he adds which mark all his films - the pop-cultural obsessions and excruciatingly detailed set decorations, overarching thematic concerns and little stylistic tics.

I liked this one because of its young performers, the evocative island setting (filmed in Rhode Island), Alexandre Desplat's lovely score and Robert Yeoman's slightly grainy cinematography.

The director's best film since 1998's Rushmore, it has none of the self-conscious smugness of The Life Aquatic or the empty eccentricity of The Royal Tenenbaums.

A gorgeously shot, ingeniously crafted, ?ber-Andersonian bonbon that, even in its most irritatingly whimsical moments, remains an effective deliverer of cinematic pleasure.

"Moonrise Kingdom" breezes along with a beautifully coordinated admixture of droll humor, deadpan and slapstick.

At once funny and melancholic, whimsical and poignantly true.

One is at times reminded of AE Housman.

Moonrise Kingdom is a delight... stuffed full of the quirky details and gags that are Anderson's trademarks, but it also possesses an emotional undertow that will tug at those viewers in tune with its singular sensibility.

Capturing our inner children

If the deadpan sensibility of the film ultimately leaves it feeling a tad lightweight, that isn't to say that Moonrise Kingdom isn't a funny, witty and well-crafted film.

Typically quirky Wes Anderson dramedy has lots of heart.

A bittersweet and evocative period piece that's both a visual and narrative delight.

No one has an eye or sensibility like Anderson's, but this is a chilly disappointment. The unaffecting kids are meant to be the emotional center, yet the adults steal the film.

I really wanted to like this film. I respect Wes Anderson and his distinctive voice as a writer-director ('Rushmore' is one of my favorite films of the 1990s), but this latest endeavor is so precious and self-aware that it nearly smothers itself.

Those who find the director's work flawed by preciousness, however, may grow impatient well before the movie reaches the 90-minute mark.

Anderson has imagined the '60s on the East Coast as if from an Eddie Bauer catalog and Boys' Life, with the sensibility of The New Yorker.

Like many holiday locations, you wouldn't want to live there, but a mini-break from the norm can be a real tonic.

A sweet, charming and altogether delightful bit of whimsy from writer/director Wes Anderson.

I normally end up liking Wes Anderson's films, but I love this one.

The delightful Moonrise Kingdom marks a career high for offbeat auteur Wes Anderson.

Moonrise Kingdom is bewitching.

A lot of wonderful things running around the wilderness in this particular Kingdom; if only the tongue-in-cheek wasn't as firmly hammered into place.

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Home Improvement Project on Kitchen Remodeling ? mollysbarn.com

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'Sony komt met 16-50mm-pancakelens voor NEX-camera's'

'Sony komt met 16-50mm-pancakelens voor NEX-camera's'
Elektronicafabrikant Sony zou op het punt staan een pancake-zoomlens uit te brengen voor zijn NEX-compacte systeemcamera's. De lens zou een zoombereik hebben van 16-50mm. Wanneer de zoomlens wordt uitgebracht is niet bekend.

Read the full article on?Tweakers.net Nieuws??

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