New Hawaii Governor Vows to Discredit Birthers

Hawaii's newly-elected Democratic governor, Neil Abercrombie, has had enough of ridiculous birther conspiracy theories. The paranoid , racist, right-wing theories which claim Obama wasn't actually born there have irritated Hawaiians, who feel it undermines their status as Americans, and also the Hawaiian government, which has been hit with countless nuisance lawsuits demanding to see private information about the president.

What exactly the new governor will do remains unclear, but he has raised the issue before. As a congressman, Abercrombie already introduced legislation containing the affirmation that"Obama was born in Hawaii."

Abercrombie's anger partly arises from the fact that he knew Obama's parents when they were living in Hawaii. According to the L.A. Times:

Abercrombie, a native of Buffalo, N.Y., arrived in 1959 to study sociology at the University of Hawaii. As a teaching assistant, he met and befriended Obama's father, a native of Kenya.

Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was born in Kansas and met and married his father, also named Barack, when the two were college students in Hawaii. Obama was born at Kapi'olani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital in Honolulu on Aug. 4, 1961.

But in 2008, as Obama ran for president, critics posted allegations online, without proof, that he was born in Kenya.

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By Sarah Seltzer | Sourced from AlterNet
Posted at December 25, 2010, 7:40 am

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/artic...

http://bit.ly/cnPJcA

Mufi’s Republican Army: The Bush Family Connection

by Andrew Walden (UPDATED with additional information August 8, 2010 8PM HST)

For someone seeking the Democratic Gubernatorial nomination, Mufi Hannemann’s campaign sure has a lot of current or former Republicans among its leadership. And it starts at the top. Mufi’s personal GOP connections lead straight to the Bush family and go back three decades.

In the early 1980s, Hannemann abandoned a job in the Ariyoshi administration to run to Washington, DC and work in the Reagan-Bush administration as as a staff assistant to Vice President George H. W. Bush.

After George W. Bush became President, Michael Moore produced a movie arguing that “Bush is worse than bin-Laden”. Hawaii Democrats wrote a platform plank calling for impeachment. Not Hannemann. He went back to DC; working for the administration of George W. Bush in the US Department of Labor between his loss to Jeremy Harris in the 2000 Honolulu mayoral election and his successful 2004 Mayoral election win. (UPDATE: see supporting information at bottom of page)

That's not all.

Hannemann’s campaign chairman Dean Okimoto is called a “big Dem” by some who know him. But on April 24, 2006 he contributed $250 to the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Hannemann campaign has paid $22,500 to Harvey Harlowe Hukari of Political Communications, a San Francisco-based public relations company. Hukari’s online bio outlines his extensive work on Republican campaigns:

Direct mail consultant to Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, the first Samoan to serve as mayor of a major American city. (2004 & 2008 campaigns)

Engineered the direct mail campaign for the re-election of (Republican) Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi (1988)

General consultant to (Republican) Congresswoman Pat Saiki, the first Republican from Hawaii to serve in the House of Representatives. (1986 & 1988 campaigns)

Created the Republican National Committee's direct mail program in support of the Reagan/Bush '84 campaign.

Created the Republican National Committee's Master Ethnic Surname File - the most commonly occurring surnames in America categorized by ethnicity - for voter contact targeting. Direct mail consultant to (Republican) Congresswoman Patricia Saiki, the first Japanese-American Republican to represent Hawaii; (Republican) Ileana Ros-Lethtinen, the first Cuban-American elected to Congress; Mufi Hannemann of Honolulu, the first Samoan-American to become mayor of a major American city and (Republican) Craig Thomas of Wyoming, the 10,623rd white male to serve in the United States House of Representatives.

Okimoto and Hukari were among six key Hannemann operatives the Abercrombie campaign pointed to as being tied to the famous (or infamous) AtomicMonkey website. Another, Jeff Coelho, works for Salem Communications, owner of several Christian-oriented radio stations. On Aug 30, 2008, Coelho gave $207 to Salem's Corporate PAC which in turn gave contributions only to Republican candidates in the 2008 cycle. Coelho served in 2005-2006 as Mufi's city managing director--the #2 position in the City. Coelho had in 2002 run fifth for Council against the late Barbara Marshall.

Also tied to AtomicMonkey by the Abercrombie campaign, California-based political consultant Shellie Garrett described herself in one article on her work for a Republican in the 1984 San Francisco Supervisor's race as "the National Republican Voter Contact Services Representative." She is a former Executive Director of the San Mateo County CA Republican Party whose experience includes managing the successful 1979 special election Congressional campaign of San Mateo CA Republican Bill Royer.

At the center of the Atomic Monkey maelstrom is long time political operative Keith Rollman. Volcanic Ash columnist David Shapiro profiled Rollman in a July 12 column. Elements of Rollman’s career track closely with Hukari’s. Among the tidbits included in Shapiro’s column:

“(Rollman) worked mostly for Republican candidates before hooking up with Mufi Hannemann’s mayoral campaign in 2004…

“Rollman…was a paid consultant to the 2004 Hannemann campaign before taking an $85,000 city job after Hannemann defeated Duke Bainum.

“He first made a name for himself as a political consultant working in Fasi’s mayoral campaigns; Hawaii Business credited Rollman for the “negative campaigning” in 1984 that helped Fasi make a comeback as a Republican convert and regain the city’s top job from Eileen Anderson, who had taken it from him four years earlier.

“In 1994, Rollman stuck with the Republicans and their candidate for governor Pat Saiki as media adviser when Fasi left the GOP and ran a third-party campaign against Saiki and Democrat Ben Cayetano.

“Rollman backed Republican Orson Swindle’s campaign to unseat Abercrombie from Congress.

“Rollman was quoted as a media adviser for Peter Carlisle when he first won the city prosecutor’s job in 1996 and for Republican Gene Ward in his 1998 run against Abercrombie, of whom Rollman has said, ‘I have known and disliked Neil Abercrombie since before Mufi Hannemann was out of high school.’

“This year, he was in the middle of a dispute over the Hannemann campaign’s allegedly high-handed behavior at the state Democratic convention, which caused party chairman Dante Carpenter to rebuke the mayor.

“Rollman, who was a delegate to the convention, posted a stinging retort to Carpenter on this blog: ‘There is little tolerance for any ‘Democrat’ not willing to tow the liberal mantra of the Neil Abercrombie zealots who have taken over the party. What used to be the ‘big tent’ is now a rather ingrown clique with some very radical views. I don’t think they represent the more patriotic AJA Democrats I know, the typical union workers or a majority of the more moderate and independent individuals who still consider themselves Democrats. To quote an old adage…we didn’t leave the party, the party left us.’

“More than a few Democrats found it cheeky for a guy who spent all those years working to elect Republicans to present himself as the voice of old-line Democrats.”

How will they feel about voting for a candidate who spent all those years as part of the Bush administration?

---30---

UPDATE: Two references which cite Hannemann’s service to the George W Bush administration:

http://www.greatergoodradio.com/?p=152

“In the administration of President George W. Bush, Hannemann served in the United States Department of Labor as a member of the President’s Council on the 21st Century Workforce.”

http://www.citymayors.com/mayors/honolulu-...

“10 March 2008: Honolulu’s first mayor of Samoan descent, as well as the second Mormon to hold the office, Mufi Hannemann is unusual in having worked for all US presidents from Jimmy Carter to George W. Bush….

“Hannemann was also appointed to government service in the first administration of George W. Bush, serving in the Department of Labor as a member of the President’s Council on a 21st Century Workforce.”

But in Hannemann’s official campaign biography, his service to the administration of George W. Bush is conveniently omitted and he claims to have worked under only FOUR Presidents, instead of five:

“This Harvard-educated leader and former star athlete has the distinction of having served in the administrations of four U.S. Presidents: Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.”

This omission is repeated at least twice on Mufi’s campaign website in the following locations:

* http://www.mufihannemann.com/about-mufi.ht...
* http://www.mufihannemann.com/hannemann-for...

By Rob Shikina
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Dec 27, 2009

It's turning out to be a busy season for whale rescuers in Hawaii.

On Christmas Day, marine experts freed a juvenile humpback whale entangled in what is believed to be fishing gear a couple miles south of Lahaina.

It was the second entangled humpback rescued in the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary this month.

About 12:15 p.m., the tour boat Napili Explorer noticed the whale acting strangely, creating more white water than usual about two miles south of Lahaina, said Ed Lyman, marine mammal response coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Several boats stayed about 90 minutes to keep track of the 35-foot whale, which appeared to have been hit by a boat.

The rescuers discovered the whale's tail was entangled in fishing line less than half an inch thick that trailed some 60 feet behind the calf. The line sliced into the animal's blubber, causing a 6- to 8-inch-deep gash near the tail blade and threatening the animal's life, Lyman said.

Beneath the tail, officials noticed the whale pulling a small anchor usually used for sedentary fishing gear, such as gill nets.

Whale lice covered the animal's wound, indicating poor health. Because of the type of line and the condition of the wound, Lyman estimated the whale became entangled more than a month ago and swam with the line from Alaska, more than 2,500 miles away.

But the whale, believed to be a male about 2 years old, still appeared to be in good shape and not emaciated.

Lyman and David Mattila, science rescue adviser, piloted a 17-foot inflatable boat about two feet behind the whale and grabbed onto the entangled line. As the whale pulled the boat, the men used a 10-foot pole with a hook knife and made six cuts to the line.

As the sun set at about 5:30 p.m., Lyman made the final cut and the whale swam away.

He had cut some line beneath the whale's tail, but couldn't tell if the anchor came off.

"We definitely got a lot of gear off the whale and definitely increased its chances of survival," Lyman said.

On Christmas Eve, NOAA received a report of an entangled whale off Oahu's north shore, but the whale swam away by the time officials arrived.

Lyman said the whale they freed could have been the same animal.

The sanctuary's first whale rescue this month involved a yearling that was seen a couple miles off Maui on Dec. 1. The rescue lasted nearly a week, but the yearling was freed and swam away with two adult whales.

It's turning out to be a busy season for whale rescuers in Hawaii.

On Christmas Day, marine experts freed a juvenile humpback whale entangled in what is believed to be fishing gear a couple miles south of Lahaina.

It was the second entangled humpback rescued in the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary this month.

About 12:15 p.m., the tour boat Napili Explorer noticed the whale acting strangely, creating more white water than usual about two miles south of Lahaina, said Ed Lyman, marine mammal response coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Several boats stayed about 90 minutes to keep track of the 35-foot whale, which appeared to have been hit by a boat.

The rescuers discovered the whale's tail was entangled in fishing line less than half an inch thick that trailed some 60 feet behind the calf. The line sliced into the animal's blubber, causing a 6- to 8-inch-deep gash near the tail blade and threatening the animal's life, Lyman said.

Beneath the tail, officials noticed the whale pulling a small anchor usually used for sedentary fishing gear, such as gill nets.

Whale lice covered the animal's wound, indicating poor health. Because of the type of line and the condition of the wound, Lyman estimated the whale became entangled more than a month ago and swam with the line from Alaska, more than 2,500 miles away.

But the whale, believed to be a male about 2 years old, still appeared to be in good shape and not emaciated.

Lyman and David Mattila, science rescue adviser, piloted a 17-foot inflatable boat about two feet behind the whale and grabbed onto the entangled line. As the whale pulled the boat, the men used a 10-foot pole with a hook knife and made six cuts to the line.

As the sun set at about 5:30 p.m., Lyman made the final cut and the whale swam away.

He had cut some line beneath the whale's tail, but couldn't tell if the anchor came off.

"We definitely got a lot of gear off the whale and definitely increased its chances of survival," Lyman said.

On Christmas Eve, NOAA received a report of an entangled whale off Oahu's north shore, but the whale swam away by the time officials arrived.

Lyman said the whale they freed could have been the same animal.

The sanctuary's first whale rescue this month involved a yearling that was seen a couple miles off Maui on Dec. 1. The rescue lasted nearly a week, but the yearling was freed and swam away with two adult whales.

<http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20091227_... >

Hawaii dimmed by education, election, health cuts

By MARK NIESSE, Associated Press Writer Mark Niesse, Associated Press Writer – Sat Dec 19, 2:15 pm ET

HONOLULU – Hawaii public schools are closed most Fridays, rats scurry across bananas in uninspected stores and there may not be enough money to run the next election.
. . .
• Hawaii now has the shortest school year in the nation after the state and teachers union agreed to shutter schools for 17 days a year, leaving 171,000 students without class on most Fridays. Negotiations to reopen them collapsed last week.
• Food establishments often go uninspected, a fact highlighted by an Internet video showing rats roaming freely across produce in a Honolulu Chinatown market. The state has just nine health inspectors on Oahu to handle nearly 6,000 markets and restaurants.
• The state Elections Office said it may not be able to afford a pending special election, which would leave half of the state's population without representation in the U.S. House of Representatives until September 2010.
• Homelessness is on the rise as mental health, child abuse, welfare and daycare programs run short on cash.

And next year may be even worse because tax revenues continue to plunge with the economy.

. . . Hawaii stands apart in how its government shrinkage has ripped into what are generally considered to be core functions: education, public health, elections and services for the disadvantaged.

"This is not good government," said Larry Geller, the Internet blogger and political watchdog who posted the rat video. "Other states are struggling with the same problems, and many of them are making difficult decisions. But Hawaii ... I think the choices have been poorly made."
. . .
Meanwhile, services to poor and disadvantaged populations are dropping off when they are most needed, said Alex Santiago, executive director of PHOCUSED, a consortium of nonprofits.
. . .
The homeless who camp in tents along a stretch of Waikiki beaches are giving tourists from around the world a glimpse of the financial and social problems that Hawaii is facing. But many homeless families have been forced out far west to the Waianae Coast.

"The homeless situation is right in your face. Almost everywhere you go now you see people who are absolutely devastated and have nowhere else to turn," Santiago said. "We've allowed our responsibilities to slip."

Limits imposed on the amount of time mental health patients can get help from specialists will lead to more relapses, crime and hospitalizations, said Poka Laenui, executive director for Hale Naau Pono, the largest provider of community health services on Oahu's Waianae Coast.

"Half of the problem is a financial problem," he said. "But there's another problem, and that's a lack of leadership. . . . Leadership is looking at specific programs and setting appropriate priorities."

more at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091219/ap_on_...

and expose, for everyone to see, his stark and loathsome racism. His perceptions and ignorant assertions about the history of this country, "built by whites, etc.," only reveal his ugly sense of racist, supremacist entitlement. It's increasingly difficult, I would think, for major news media such as MSNBC, or even the largely discredited Republican party, to justify giving him any credible airtime anymore. He calls himself a "traditional conservative," but I wonder how many other "traditional conservatives" would want to be associated with such a blatant, blowhard racist.

I, too, am highly distressed about the Tongass decision, and I appreciate very much your attempt to restore some perspective and sanity. I especially agree with your last couple of sentences. For progressives to become too disheartened or disillusioned--to the point of paralysis or worse--would not be good for this planet.

"I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, nor to hate them, but to understand them."
--Baruch Spinoza

We cling to our beliefs (and our other neural habits) so desperately, out of so much fear of the unknown, but they're, in essence, so insubstantial. Clouds passing overhead are more real.

I don't have a favorite; the form encompasses too much diversity, contains too many gems for me to pick just one. Couple more random thoughts: I wonder how the response to your (OP's) question would differ had it been posted on, say, some freeper site such as the Free
Republic, and, what, no one here mentions bukowski? Heh.

"Sputnik Sweetheart" by Haruki Murakami.

"Death with Interruptions" by Jose Saramago.

Just received this in my mailbox from Ethan Nadelmann, Executive Director
of the Drug Policy Alliance. Please attend this conference if you can:

<http://www.reformconference.org />

Reform Conference 2009

This is our moment: We’re winning battles we’ve fought for years, and opening up public debates that have been simmering beneath the surface for decades.

You are a critical part of this momentum: your emails, your calls, your comments -- even your water cooler conversations with friends. It's all making legislators sit up and think seriously about enacting real change to harmful drug policies.

That's why we want to see and hear from you at our 2009 International Drug Policy Reform Conference, from November 12-14, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

This unique conference brings together all the issues of the drug policy reform movement. Even more exciting, this year for the first time we’re opening up a Call for Proposals to you, our supporters. We encourage you to submit your best ideas for panel speakers and topics

This conference is for you: for everyone who believes that drug policy should be based on science, compassion, health and human rights, not fear and incarceration. I hope you’ll check out the conference site at <http://www.reformconference.org />

You can find out more details about the Call for Proposals and all the information you need to attend.

Together, I know we can take the conversation about drug policy reform to a whole new level at this year’s Reform Conference. I look forward to seeing you there.

Sincerely,


Ethan Nadelmann
Executive Director
Drug Policy Alliance

all the prescribed painkillers (Vicodin, Valium, high-dose Ibuprofen) I used to take for severe chronic back pain, and it helps me sleep, too. I would get a medical marijuana card (it's legal in my state)--but then I'd have to pay a stiff registration fee and register with the local police, and they've been known to harass med. marijuana patients (busting them anyway, taking their stash and/or plants, then dropping charges when they're forced to). Also, the Feds don't respect the state medical marijuana laws. It's just so inhumane and ridiculous.

Andrew Bacevich
Posted November 11, 2008 | 12:33 PM (EST)

Reports in The New York Times have revealed the existence of a hitherto secret counterterrorism campaign conducted by U. S. troops in Pakistan, Syria, and other countries. The campaign reputedly dates from 2004 and has included nearly a dozen raids conducted by special operations forces that swoop into a target area, wield death and destruction, and then as quickly make their escape.

We can safely assume that the governments of Syria and Pakistan, not to mention the organizations targeted by these attacks, have known about these activities for some time. In other words, "secret" in this context means keeping the American people in the dark about actions taken in their name. We can only speculate about various sources, whether acting independently or at the behest of high authorities, have chosen at this juncture to spill the beans.

In truth, the existence of such a program, fully consistent with the Bush administration's penchant for using force and for defining executive authority in the widest terms, hardly qualifies as surprising. True, these raids, which have regularly trampled on the principle of national sovereignty, makes all the more laughable the Bush administration's condemnation of Russia for violating the sacred sovereignty of Georgia. Yet at this point no one pays much attention when the United States claims to stand on principle.

More germane is the question of who exactly we are killing. Having learned about this secret war being conducted on their behalf, Americans now have an obligation to find out more. That obligation is both moral and political. The moral obligation is to ascertain whether or not the people we are killing are in fact terrorists, that is, members of organizations engaged in actively plotting attacks against the United States. If we are killing people who are not terrorists, then these special operations attacks are profoundly wrong. Indeed, in that case, they amount to little more than state-sponsored terrorism of the sort that Washington quickly and rightly condemns in others.

The political obligation is of a different sort. The issue here becomes one of effectiveness: even if these operations are actually netting some bad guys, are we in fact reducing the overall terrorist threat as a consequence? Or are the attacks merely creating propaganda opportunities that Islamists exploit to promote anti-Americanism, while recruiting new jihadists to replace those just eliminated? Can we be certain, in other words, that we are not simply engaging in an endless game of whack-a-mole?

In this regard, recent U.S. operations not directly related to this program of secret raids should set off alarm bells. In Afghanistan, site of an overt war that has taken a turn for the worse of late, U.S. and NATO forces have been involved in a series of incidents in which they have killed not Taliban or Al Qaeda fighters, but innocent civilians. No reasonable observer is accusing coalition forces of intentionally targeting non-combatants. Yet whether attributable to incompetence or negligence or simply the fog and friction of war, the evidence that we are routinely killing the wrong people in Afghanistan is becoming difficult to refute. In the most recent example, earlier this week a U.S. combat aircraft assaulted what turned out to be an Afghan wedding party, killing nearly forty civilians.

In Pakistan, site of a semi-covert war conducted mostly by remotely-controlled, missile-firing drones, U. S. officials insist that we are indeed killing terrorists even as Pakistani officials tell another story. Who is telling the truth -- whether the truth is even fully knowable -- is anyone's guess. What cannot be disputed is that the chief observable result of these Predator attacks has been to bring Pakistan perceptibly closer to the brink of internal collapse. In short, even if every accusation of killing innocent Pakistanis is false, the attacks are producing results that are the inverse of what they are intended to do.

Americans should not rush to render an adverse judgment of this program of secret attacks. Yet neither should they accept at face value official U. S. explanations or what they get from leakers offering a partial and selective version of the story. There is a need here for sober stock-taking, which must begin with a thorough-going, no-holds-barred investigation. There are two key questions. Are we doing the right thing? Are we doing the smart thing? Alas, don't look for the Pentagon, the Congress, or the media to provide answers to these questions.

Instead, add another item to President-elect Obama's already crowded agenda.

Andrew J. Bacevich is professor of history and international relations at Boston University. He is the author of The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism.

link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-bacev...

BINAJ GURUBACHARYA | November 11, 2008 09:12 AM EST

KATMANDU, Nepal — A teenage boy who many believe is the reincarnation of Buddha has re-emerged from the jungle in southern Nepal, attracting thousands of devotees, officials said Tuesday.

After retreating into the jungle for more than a year, Ram Bahadur Bamjan, 18, re-emerged Monday near Nijgadh town, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of the capital, Katmandu.

Upon hearing the news, thousands of Bamjan's followers, some from as far away as India, traveled to the site Tuesday to see him, police official Abhaya Joshi said by telephone.

There has been no formal declaration by Buddhist authorities that Bamjan is the reincarnation of the Buddha. But people have worshipped the teenager since he was first seen in 2005 meditating in the jungle, where he sat for months, motionless with his eyes closed among the roots of a tree.

Joshi said Bamjan plans to talk to his followers for a few hours every day for a week before returning to the jungle to meditate.

The long-haired Bamjan, dressed in a white cloth, appeared to be in good health as he spoke to his followers about peace and ending discrimination, according to the Rajdhani newspaper.

"It was an amazing experience to hear and see him. I have no doubt now he is the reincarnation of Buddha," said Sangeeta Lama, a woman who met Bamjan for the first time.

Buddhist priests have been divided on whether the boy is truly the reincarnation of Siddhartha Gautama, who was born in southwestern Nepal around 500 B.C. and later became revered as the Buddha, which means Enlightened One.

Buddhists strongly believe in reincarnation, the doctrine that every soul reappears after death in another bodily form.

Min Bahadur Shakya of the Nagarjuna Institute of Exact Methods in Katmandu said Buddhist priests have not reached a conclusion about Bamjan because they have not been able to fully investigate the boy.

"Meditating without food does not prove that he is reincarnation of Buddha. There is much study needed to be done," Shakya said.

Buddhism is practiced by about 325 million followers, mostly in Asia.

story at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/11/b...

By VIC WALTER and ANNA SCHECTER
November 11, 2008

On a day when Americans honor those who have served their country in the military, many of whom have been wounded, physically and emotionally by war, the FBI told ABC News that it is investigating hundreds of reports of phony heroes who have lied about their military experience or the awards and medals they claim they received for their valor in combat.
phony heroes
The FBI says it is investigating hundreds of reports of phony heroes who have lied about their military experience or the awards and medals they claim they have received for their valor in combat.

"I think it is disgusting," said Mike Sanborn, a former Marine and the FBI agent currently in charge of tracking down phony war heroes.

Sanborn said he has been alerted to more than 200 cases of phony heroes in the last year and he says the problem is growing because of the two-front war — in Iraq and Afghanistan — that Americans are fighting.

ABC News reported in March that a North Carolina man, who claimed he had served as an Army Ranger on tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Panama and Grenada and had earned medals, including the Purple Heart, was found guilty of peddling a false military record in order to collect thousands of dollars in soldier disability payments.

Randall Moneymaker's claims to collect more than $18,000 in disability payments were numerous. In a Veterans Affairs compensation and pension medical exam, he claimed he "had been involved in numerous combat situations, including RPG attacks and firefights," according to the federal indictment against him.

Topping his claims, Moneymaker said he had the scars from combat service, but federal authorities said the scars match a liposuction procedure he had done. Moneymaker has been sentenced to three years in jail, according to the Army Times.

"It is despicable for anyone to say they were in the military when they were not and even more despicable to lie about receiving a medal for valor in combat," said Special Agent Thomas Cottone, Jr, formerly a lead investigator into the illegal use and wearing of military awards and decorations.

Cottone said the Stolen Valor Act, signed into law in December of 2006, made it easier to prosecute imposters posing as war heroes who lied about their medals. The law also increased the penalty, and those convicted could face prison time and a fine of up to $100,000, according to Cottone.

more at: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=623...