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michael kors handbags Hours after state Sen. Deb Fischer's upset win in Nebraska's Republican Senate primary, the campaign battle lines were drawn, with Ms. Fischer stressing her deep roots as a rancher in the state and former Sen. Bob Kerrey, a Democrat, emphasizing his record of deviating from his party's orthodoxy. "We don't need the same type of person who's supposedly going to represent us in Washington," Ms. Fischer told supporters michael kors outlet Tuesday night. "We need somebody different, somebody who's tough, somebody who's effective, somebody who's a Nebraskan." That might have been a dig at Mr. Kerrey, who has lived in New York for a decade as president of the New School in Manhattan, though he's served as Nebraska governor and senator and owns restaurants and fitness michael kors clubs in the state. Mr. Kerrey, in an interview, said solving the country's biggest problems requires lawmakers willing to buck their parties, and he questioned whether Ms. Fischer would do that. "I do not think we will get the deficit behind us unless people are willing to break from their caucuses," Mr. Kerrey said. Following the victory of Ms. Fischer—a little-known state legislator—Democrats and Republicans were trying to determine what her candidacy would mean for a race seen by many as Republicans' best opportunity to pick up a Senate seat. Democrats depict Ms. Fischer, 61 years old, as an untested candidate, while Republicans stress her role as a mother and rancher from the small town of Valentine. Ms. Fischer was defined during the primary in part by what she wasn't—neither an establishment candidate like state Attorney General Jon Bruning nor the tea-party candidate like state Treasurer Don Stenberg. That ultimately worked in her favor. But Ms. Fischer, despite a low profile even in Nebraska, is comfortably within the state's political orbit. Her father worked for former GOP Gov. Kay Orr, and she chairs the transportation committee in the state legislature, where her signature initiative was a bill to accelerate road construction using a portion of the state's sales tax revenue. Sen. Mike Johanns (R., Neb.) noted that she has opposed Gov. Dave Heineman, a fellow Republican, on roads issues as well as supporting him on tax issues. "She would stand toe-to-toe with anybody," Mr. Johanns said. Democrats hope to turn Ms. Fischer's identity as a rancher against her, portraying her not only as a conservative ideologue who's in over her head but also as a hypocrite. They cited a report in the Omaha World-Herald that Ms. Fischer grazed her cattle on federal land for a reduced fee despite her support for government frugality. Ms. Fischer has said ranchers help manage the federal land and that she doesn't set the rates. Mr. Kerrey, 70, won't be a pushover. A former Navy SEAL and Medal of Honor winner, he had his right leg amputated after a war injury in Vietnam. He served as governor and two-term senator and gained a dash of glamour from dating actress Debra Winger. In an interview, he called Ms. Fischer a "very good opponent" and suggested that he faces a tough race. "All I can say is that I felt duty bound to get in the race.…As to whether the voters ask me to go back and represent them, that remains to be seen." http://www.michaelkorshandbagsoutletweb.com/

Hours after police found Estrella Carrera stabbed to death in her bathtub, still clad in the silver sequined michael kors handbags cocktail dress she wore to celebrate her wedding to her on-and-off boyfriend, her family received a haunting phone call from the groom's family. Arnoldo Jimenez had called his sister and tearfully told her he had left his bride bleeding after a "bad fight," Carrera's sister said Wednesday. As a manhunt is under way for Jimenez, who is charged with first-degree murder in Carrera's slaying, the new bride's family is searching for answers to what happened to the 26-year-old mother of two in the hours after she secretly got married at Chicago's City Hall. Most of Carrera's family disapproved of her relationship with Jimenez, even though he was the father of her 2-year-old son. Jimenez had hit and bruised michael kors outlet Carrera in the past, according to an older sister, Jazmin Carrera, who talked to The Associated Press. Police also said family members reported incidents of violence while the couple was dating. Jazmin Carrera described 6-foot, 220-pound Jimenez as "very possessive" and jealous. She said she doesn't understand why her sister married the 30-year-old Jimenez in what seemed like a rushed ceremony — or why she married him at all. "That's the question everyone's asking themselves," Jazmin Carrera said. She got a text message from her sister Friday, inviting her to join them and their friends at a Mexican restaurant and a nightclub to celebrate the nuptials. She didn't join the festivities. "It was just all of a sudden," Jazmin Carrera said. "She didn't give us enough notice." Family members became concerned when Estrella Carrera failed to pick up her two children Saturday as she'd arranged. They were unable to reach Carrera or Jimenez by cellphone, so they asked police to check on her well-being at her apartment in the michael kors Chicago suburb of Burbank. That's when Carrera's body was found in a bathtub, still clothed in the dress she wore at the wedding reception. Police said she may have worn that dress at the marriage as well. On Sunday, relatives heard from a sister of Jimenez that he had called that day, Jazmin Carrera told the AP. "She said that he was crying and he was really nervous," she said. "He said they had a really bad fight and he had left her bleeding." Jimenez hung up on his sister and wouldn't pick up when she called him back, Carrera said. The phone call is the first detail to shed light on what evidence investigators may have given a judge to obtain the warrant. Police in Burbank said they are aware of the account and are looking into it. Police are pleading with Jimenez to turn himself in "for the sake of his family and especially his children," Capt. Joseph Ford of the Burbank Police Department told the AP. "I am sure they are very concerned for his well-being." Ford said Jimenez was previously arrested for domestic violence in another city in a case that did not involve Carrera. Police don't know what Jimenez does for a living, although he was last known to be driving a black 2006 Maserati, an expensive car. "We do not believe Jimenez is a danger to others, but we certainly do not know his mind frame at the present time," Ford told the AP. Since the killing likely took place mere hours after the couple went to Carrera's apartment, the suspect had a day to flee the metropolitan area or even the state, Ford said. More than 30 law enforcement agencies and the FBI are hunting for him, he said. The victim's sister said she is taking things "a day at a time." "The emotions are just on and off," Jazmin Carrera said. "It's unbelievable one minute, and then it hits you and becomes real." http://www.michaelkorshandbagsoutletweb.com/

michael kors handbags Finding New York City's attitude "deeply troubling," a judge granted class action status Wednesday to a lawsuit that accuses police of discriminating against blacks and Hispanics with stops and searches without cause. U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled that there was "overwhelming evidence" that the practice has led to thousands of illegal stops. The lawsuit alleges that the police department purposefully targeted black and Hispanic neighborhoods and said officers are pressured to meet quotas as part of the program and are punished if they michael kors outlet don't. The Police Department has said it made 203,500 street stops during the first three months of 2012, up from 183,326 in the first three months of 2011. The city has responded to the lawsuit by saying a court order to stop the practice would amount to "judicial intrusion." Scheindlin called that "disturbing." "First, suspicionless stops should never occur," Scheindlin wrote. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly declined to comment. Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended the program, saying it had helped the city prevent thousands of deaths. "It's taken more than 6,000 guns off michael kors the streets in the last eight years, and this year we are on pace to have the lowest number of murders in recorded history," Bloomberg said. "We're not going to do anything that undermines that trend and threatens public safety." The city law office said in a statement: "We respectfully disagree with the decision and are reviewing our legal options." Darius Charney, who argued the case on behalf of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a non-profit legal organization, said the ruling "reinforces that this is a citywide problem theNYPD needs to address." The RAND Corp. research organization, in a study commissioned by the NYPD and released in 2007, acknowledged that "black pedestrians were stopped at a rate that is 50% greater than their representation in the residential census." http://www.michaelkorshandbagsoutletweb.com/

Last night Nafissatou Diallo, the 32-year-old Sofitel employee who accused former IMF director Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault, took the unusual step of appearing on national TV before michael kors handbags her criminal case had been settled. Because of this, the New York Post called her "the Blabber" and said she "suddenly and miraculously regained her memory of a conversation she said she had with Strauss-Kahn." I do not know whether she was brutally attacked, as she claims, or whether the sex between DSK and Diallo was consensual. But I do know this: michael kors outletneither her inconsistencies about what happened immediately afterward nor her decision to now go public should make us any more skeptical of her story. Her critics are making a big issue of the fact that Diallo says Strauss-Kahn spoke to her during the encounter, reassuring her that she would not lose her job, whereas in hospital records it was noted that her attacker "said nothing to her during the incident." But if Diallo was truly attacked, it would be unusual for her to remember all the details in the right michael korsorder and in a consistent way. After a sexual assault, a victim is very likely to be in a kind of altered state of shock. She may appear dissociated or hysterical or may alternate from one to the other. She may remember some of what occurred in bizarrely minute detail, while other facts remain hazy. Did he speak? Did she speak? What was said, and in what order? In Diallo's case, this experience could be expected to bring back earlier terrors — of the genital cutting she suffered at age 7, of her flight from a brutal regime. In seeking asylum, http://www.michaelkorshandbagsoutletweb.comDiallo had hoped to spare her daughter a similar fate. I know all this because I too was traumatized by sexual violence. In 1973, when I was 15 and my sister was a year younger, a stranger walked into our house with a gun and raped us. Afterward, I did not want to call the police. I was afraid that if the rapist ever got out of prison, he would kill us, and even more than that, I was ashamed. But my sister wisely insisted on calling the authorities. However, the police did not believe us when we told them that the man who raped us was a stranger. The detectives were certain we were holding something back, they wrote in the file. In particular, they found my response strangely cold. When asked to write out what occurred, carrera sunglasses I wrote in an unemotional style in the form of a list. Our father, observing our apparent return to "normalcy," told the police we were "over it," and the police ceased their investigation four months after the crime occurred. The police eventually discovered that our perpetrator was a serial rapist of children, who attacked at least 44 girls ages 9 to 19. I also understand Diallo's desire to tell her side of the story publicly, especially since doubts have been cast on it. In 2006 I requested a complete copy of the police report of my case and began my own investigation into what happened. Once I realized he had raped so many young women, I felt enraged that we were not believed. Although, like so many survivors of rape, I was reluctant to reveal my own victimization, an editor convinced me of the benefits of writing about it, and last year I published my account of the experience. A person whose house is burgled or whose car is stolen can speak freely — and angrily — of the theft and expect to be believed. But women who are sexually assaulted are silenced by shame. There is no tradition of honor killing in the U.S. — we're far too civilized for that — but if a victim of rape goes public, she's seen as seeking publicity instead of retribution. If her story is inconsistent, we assume she is lying instead of suffering the aftereffects of trauma. If she is taller or bigger than her perpetrator, we assume she should have been able to shove the perpetrator off, even when doing so would mean losing her job, her freedom, possibly even her life. What we forget in http://www.carrera-glasses.comdrawing these conclusions is the impact of power and the impact of terror. When Diallo decided to move forward with her case, other alleged DSK victims came forward too. Her decision to now go public with her story may hurt her in court, but it could well protect future victims.

In a recent poll, Text In The City asked 100 men in New York City what they wanted day to day. Men are often michael kors handbags shy when it comes to admitting what they are looking for, so we went out in search of answers for women, to ensure they never have to wonder again! Make your man happy this summer and give him just what he’s looking for in a relationship before he has a chance to ask... 1. Spa Day No! Not for us, we want you to go have a spa day with your gal pals. This is not so we can be alone and sit around all michael kors outletday, but we like the way you smell, look and act when you come home. Quite frankly, when you are happy we are soooo happy. So, please take a spa day and then come home to us for a couple’s night in! 2. Skip the dessert and the dinner! Your mom is a blast to be with and your dad is fun, but this Sunday let me be alone! We really do like the in-laws (most of the time) but we don’t want to spend all of our free time with them. Every michael kors once in awhile, let us just sit on the couch and stay at the television set. 3. Sex That about sums it up. 4. A Dirty Girl Please don’t make us tell you this one, quite frankly, it’s a little bit embarrassing, but we love dirty girls. Now, don’t get me wrong, we don’t like them all the time, but every once in awhile there is nothing wrong with some dirty sweet nothings…you will get whatever you want from us! 5. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell We like quiet time, and in fact when we http://www.michaelkorshandbagsoutletweb.com get it, we will do more for you. This means don’t ask us if we’ve cleaned the bathroom, taken out the garbage or walked the dog, and don’t tell us to do it. The less you ask, the more we will do. 6. Date Night We love excitement, and we are not just talking about in the bedroom. We love when you add something sappy to the schedule. Date night is a must, we want to feel like boys again. Let us pick you up, take you to the movies and make out in the backseat. Anything to keep this spicy is tops in our book. 7. Nothing Beneath the Sheets No, it’s not the same as sex. We love to feel your body next to ours. So, the next time that you climb into bed first, carrera sunglassessurprise us and climb in nude. But be warned: you may not be going to sleep anytime soon! 8. Tell us we are look hot We know we are not Brad Pitt, but please lie to us every once in awhile and let us believe we are. It’s not easy acting confident and manly all the time, but we try. So, when you think about it, we would love to hear how hot you think we are. 9. Walk the dog Yes, we know that you cook the dinner and make the beds, but from time to time, we would love it if you walked to dog http://www.carrera-glasses.com and let us relax. When you spoil us, you will get it in return 10-fold. 10. Hearing those 3 little words Just because…

There’s no denying that Lady Gaga is sexual. Whether you think she’s hot, think she’s an alien, or think she’s secretly michael kors handbagsa transsexual, she’s definitely saying something about how women communicate their sexuality. Gaga is featured in a new M.A.C. ad, along with Cyndi Lauper, for lipstick that benefits the M.A.C. AIDS Fund, and she gives some sound sex advice: “Buying condoms is seen as a male accessory. We were joking that we wish the lipstick had on the side, ‘Where’s my best friend, the condom? Come out with me tonight.’ The lipstick should be a reminder to practice safe sex on their own, as opposed to hoping that the guy michael kors outlet they went out with has it in a drawer next to his bed … I come across in all my videos and all my music as this sexually empowered woman, but even I say no. Just because you are a sexual woman doesn’t mean you are dumb.” When the guy that she’s seeing says, ‘Baby, it doesn’t feel good when I wear that,’ or ‘Baby, it’s just you,’ you say, ‘F–k you, I’m out of here.’ I don’t want to be with a guy who feels like that. What does that michael kors say about who they’ve been with before? You have to be worried about yourself, because it can happen to you.” These are smart words coming from a woman who just glued pearls all over her face. Lady Gaga has gained fame for her catchy pop songs and outrageous outfits — but I think she should be recognized http://www.michaelkorshandbagsoutletweb.com just as much for her unique attitude towards sexuality. It’s been a few years since Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson cried virginity when they were on the rise to stardom; luckily it seems Lady Gaga is smarter than to extol abstinence in the name of popularity as a pop star/role model. She’s sexy when she feels like it, daring when she feels like it, and demure when she feels like it –and smart enough to know that these attitudes aren’t mutually exclusive. She is carrera sunglassessexual, but doesn’t present her sexuality in a predictable way (ahem, the way stereotypical heterosexual men want it presented). Both Gaga and Lauper are also advocates for gay rights. It seems these two are blazing a trail for empowerment through sexuality, and being creative with how sexuality, and identity, are expressed — because really, those two things are interlaced, aren’t they? Whether you want to like boys, girls, wear a full face of makeup or go au natural, Gaga and Lauper seem to understand that there is a place for everyone in the world, and that http://www.carrera-glasses.comsexual education should be a part of everyday conversation because sexuality is a part of everyday life.

Former finance minister and socialist party head Evangelos Venizelos met Friday with election winner Antonis Samaras, the leader of Greece's conservative party, in a last ditch michael kors handbagseffort to form a coalition government in the crisis-struck country. Both leaders know that failure to agree a deal could see Greece hold fresh elections next month that could put the country's membership of the euro at risk. Samaras, whose New Democracy party suffered a big loss in support in Sunday's elections and failed to win enough seats in parliament to form a government, said there was still a chance for a deal. "We are fighting for a government to exist — and there is still hope this can happen," he told his deputies in michael kors outlet a speech after his meeting with the former finance minister. Venizelos' PASOK party was hammered by furious voters, who blame it for its handling of the financial crisis. Its third place was its worst electoral showing in nearly 40 years, giving it just 13.18 percent and 41 seats in the 300-member Parliament. Even if Samaras and Venizelos agree, however, they do not hold enough seats in Parliament combined to form a government unless another party joins them. Election runner-up Alexis Tsipras, whose Radical Left Coalition, or Syriza, made massive gains to come second in Sunday's vote, has insisted he cannot participate in any government that wants to continue with the harsh austerity — a condition of Greece's international bailout. The country has been dependent michael korssince May 2010 on billions of euros of rescue loans from other European Union countries that use the euro and the International Monetary Fund. In return for the funds that are keeping Greece functioning, Athens has imposed repeated rounds of spending cuts and tax hikes, leaving the country mired in a fifth year of recession, while the jobless rate increases by hundreds of people each day. Both Samaras and Venizelos say Tsipras' demands that terms of the bailout agreement be canceled would lead to disaster, with Greece being forced out of the euro. Tsipras, whose party won 52 seats, insists European leaders could be persuaded to see that the formula of the bailout is not working, and is ruining the country's chances of recovery. Samaras accused the 38-year-old http://www.michaelkorshandbagsoutletweb.com Tsipras of being irresponsible. "The problem is that Syriza won second place but cannot manage its responsibility. The day after the election it had to admit it had no program," he said. "We are doing everything we can to have a government, because there must be a government," Samaras said. "Even if that means a (vote) of tolerance from Syriza. But there cannot be a party of power without the responsibility of power." There was a glimmer of hope for a coalition deal Thursday night, after Venizelos met with Fotis Kouvelis, a smaller left-wing party whose 19 seats in the 300-member parliament would carrera sunglassesbe more than enough to form a government if added to New Democracy's 108 seats and PASOK's 41. Venizelos said he and Kouvelis were "very, very close in our views." However, Kouvelis has insisted he wants a broad coalition that would include more parties. He also risks being branded as a left-wing traitor if he helps the pro-austerity parties to govern without Tsipras' party. Samaras also indicated a deal was possible. "Our only condition is that we remain in the euro. And the proposal made by Mr. Kouvelis is close to our own," he said. "So there is a basic agreement. The problem is that Syriza is not taking up its responsibility ... and is preparing for elections." An opinion poll published late Thursday indicated that Tsipras' party would come first with nearly 28 percent of the vote in a new election — up from 16.8 — winning 128 seats. The Marc survey for private Alpha TV gave New Democracy 20.3 percent and 57 seats, and showed the extremist right-wing Golden Dawn declining to 5.7 percent, with 16 seats. The May 8-9 nationwide survey was http://www.carrera-glasses.com the first published after Sunday's vote. It gave no margin of error.

Troublesome weather conditions hampered recovery efforts Friday as teams combed a steep mountainside where a Russian jetliner crashed on a demonstration flight in Indonesian this week. Twelve bodies were found early in the day, according to Vice Marshal Daryatmo, head of the National Search and michael kors handbagsRescue Agency. Daryatmo, who like many Indonesians uses only one name. The Sukhoi Superjet 100 came to rest on the side of Mount Salak, a volcano south of Jakarta, after disappearing from radar screens on Wednesday. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced a joint investigation on Friday after a phone call with his Russia counterpart Vladimir Putin. "We both agreed to work together to investigate and analyze what happened. This cooperation has started although the operations should not stop,even without with this cooperation," the Indonesian leader said. "I welcome the offer from Russian President Putin because the goal is to investigate what could have caused the plane crash." The Russian Investigative Committee has said that 48 people were on board the plane, including eight Russian crew members. But the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti said the number was 45, citing Sukhoi Civil Aviation President Vladimir Prisyazhnyuk as saying three michael kors outletof the people on the passenger list did not board the flight. The wreckage was spotted at an elevation of about 5,800 feet (nearly 1,800 meters). The cause of the crash remained unclear. The Russian Investigative Committee said it had launched a criminal probe into possible safety violations. The plane was on a demonstration flight for Indonesian Ministry of Transportation officials and representatives of Indonesian airlines, the Russian Embassy in Jakarta said before the crash. Indonesia's Sky Aviation signed a $380 million deal in 2011 to buy 12 Sukhoi Superjet 100s, and press reports said a number of Sky employees were on the plane that went down. Sukhoi employees are also among the missing. It was the first crash of a Sukhoi Superjet 100, RIA-Novosti said. The plane was on its second demonstration flight Wednesday when it lost contact with air controllers at Jakarta's Halim Perdanakusuma Airport. The Sukhoi jet arrived in Jakarta as part of a demonstration tour of six Asian countries. It had been to Myanmar, michael korsPakistan and Kazakhstan, and was scheduled to visit Laos and Vietnam after Indonesia, RIA-Novosti said. Sukhoi manufactures military aircraft and is known especially for its fighter jets. Its civilian aircraft is narrow-bodied with a dual-class cabin that can transport 100 passengers over regional routes. It flew its maiden flight in 2008. In March, a Superjet 100 operated by Russia's Aeroflot Airlines was forced to abandon its flight to Astrakhan, Russia, and return to Moscow because of problems with the undercarriage, according to RIA Novosti. A similar defect in another Aeroflot-operated Superjet 100 plane had to be fixed in Minsk in December. Russia's state-run United Aircraft Corp. http://www.michaelkorshandbagsoutletweb.com said the defect did not affect passenger safety.

After nearly single-handedly pushing gay marriage to the forefront of the presidential campaign and inadvertently pressuring President Barack Obama to declare his support for same-sex unions, there was only one thing left for Vice michael kors handbags President Joe Biden to do: apologize. Biden's mea culpa came Wednesday in the Oval Office, shortly before the president sat for a hastily arranged interview in which he told the American people that he now supported gay marriage. The vice president expressed remorse and regret for declaring his support for same-sex unions ahead of Obama, said a person familiar with the exchange, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversation. Obama accepted the apology, saying he knew Biden had only been speaking from the heart. Biden's apology followed days of frustration in the West Wing after the vice president went off script, something he had done plenty of times. Without White House approval, Biden declared on a Sunday talk show that he was "absolutely michael kors outlet comfortable" with same-sex married couples having the same rights as heterosexual married couples. Usually Obama can swat away Biden's free-wheeling ways. But not this time. The vice president had publicly broken rank with the president on a politically sensitive issue. And his remarks focused a fresh spotlight on what Obama had vaguely referred to as "evolving" views on gay marriage. What few people outside of Obama's inner circle of six or seven close aides knew at the time was that the president had, in fact, finished that michael kors evolution months earlier and was waiting for a suitable opportunity to inform the public of his views. Biden's comments accelerated those plans. And they raised questions about political motives when Obama eventually did embrace gay marriage. If Obama had evolved on gay marriage months ago, why had he waited? And if Biden hadn't spoken out of turn, would the president have spoken out before the November election? Obama insisted he always planned to talk about his personal views on gay marriage before his party's convention in early September. And he said he wasn't angry when told by aides that the vice president had jumped the gun. But in an interview with ABC News that aired http://www.michaelkorshandbagsoutletweb.com Thursday, Obama did gently chide the vice president, saying that Biden "got a little bit over his skis" in his remarks on gay marriage but that he believed Biden did so out of a "generosity of spirit." "Would I have preferred to have done this in my own way, in my own terms, without I think, there being a lot of notice to everybody? Sure," Obama said. "But all's well that ends well." People close to Biden insist he was simply speaking of his personal beliefs, not trying to push the president to reveal his. "Joe was being Joe," said Ed Rendell, the Democratic former governor of Pennsylvania. "He probably wasn't thinking about the fact that the president was going to make a statement about it on his own." And for some White House aides, that was exactly the problem. There was a plan and Biden hadn't stuck to it. Biden's words set off a scramble in the White House. A transcript of his interview with NBC's "Meet the Press," taped on Friday, landed on the desks of some top Obama aides in the West Wing. Highlighted in yellow were his comments on gay marriage. Suddenly it was Biden being showered with accolades by liberals for his bold stance on gay right issues, not Obama, the president responsible for pushing through the repeal of the military's ban on openly gay service members and carrera sunglasses ordering the government to stop enforcing the Defense of Marriage Act. Cleaning up Biden's mess wasn't new to the White House. His penchant for gaffes is legendary in Washington and was cause for some concern during the selection process for Obama's running mate. But over time, Biden's slip-ups became more of a running joke than a policy problem. There was the time he was caught by cameras using an expletive to show his excitement over passage of the president's health care overhaul. And the time he offered his blessings to the deceased mother of the Irish prime minister, only to quickly remember that she was, in fact, alive. Getting ahead of the president on a politically sensitive issue like gay marriage is hardly just a gaffe. But aides say Biden won't be punished for his remarks. While Obama headed to the West Coast on Thursday, Biden was at the White House headlining an event with student groups and http://www.carrera-glasses.comhigher education organizations. And he'll soon be back out on the campaign trail raising money for the Obama-Biden ticket.

When a wave of frustration and outrage about the killing of Trayvon Martin crashed across North America, there is no doubt that countless Michigan residents were caught michael kors handbagsup in the tide of a public debate that began to ebb only after George Zimmerman, the admitted killer of the unarmed 17-year-old, was arrested. As opinions flew, some condemned Florida for its stand-your-ground law, unaware that Michigan has its own law that contains many of the features that have been the source of so much controversy in Florida. The pertinent provision of Florida's self-defense law provides that a person who is attacked can stand his or her ground and respond with deadly force "if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another, or to prevent the commission of michael kors outlet a forcible felony." Michigan's law likewise provides that, under proper circumstances, there is no duty to retreat, and individuals may use deadly force anywhere they have a right to be if they "honestly and reasonably" believe it is necessary to prevent imminent death, great bodily injury or sexual assault to self or others. What may or may not have been considered during the adoption of these laws is the fact that whether a person's violent response to an attack was "honestly and reasonably" necessary can be purely a matter of opinion. The subjectivity of these laws poses certain hazards, given the undeniable impact of race on the criminal justice system. Somehow, decisions that are made every day by police, prosecutors, judges and others about the guilt or innocence of people of African descent have resulted in their overincarceration relative to their representation in the general population. Specifically, the Sentencing Project reported that while in michael kors2007 there were 412 white prisoners per 100,000 white Michigan residents, there were 2,262 black prisoners for every 100,000 black residents. Nationally, about 13% of the population is of African descent, but approximately 40% of U.S. prisoners are black. Because of the criminal justice system's racial reality, many have asked whether police would have allowed Trayvon Martin to go home if he had managed to subdue and kill George Zimmerman. Will a white suburban woman who kills after having been accosted by a mugger in a mall parking lot be treated in precisely the same way as a black youth with a criminal record who is forced to justifiably defend against an unprovoked drive-by shooting in Detroit? These laws present the potential for white suspects to receive the benefit of the doubt, and for black suspects to become subject to racial presumptions of black criminality that are deeply rooted in stereotypes that were opportunistically created generations ago for purposes of economic advantage and the control of an oppressed population. There are still other questions begging for answers. Will those inclined toward vigilante justice feel more confident that the law will protect them when they inject themselves into threatening situations? Will police become confused as they sort through legal questions that normally don't come up during routine arrests? To the extent that these and other questions were not considered in the past, the Trayvon Martin case is the wake-up call to consider them now. The entire country has been http://www.michaelkorshandbagsoutletweb.comconcerned about events in Florida, but because Michigan has its own stand-your-ground law, the concerns strike a lot closer to home.