Nov 102013
 

I’m writing for tomorrow and am still ill and on a minimal schedule.  Tomorrow is a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb.  My Broncos are worshiping with the Chargers, but I do not know if it will be televised here.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:45 (average 4:46).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Upworthy: This Video Goes From Ordinary To Breathlessly Disturbing At 30 Seconds

If you’ve been even barely awake for the last 10 years, you’ve heard some of the endless back-and-forth about torture on our airwaves. Extraordinary rendition. CIA black sites. Sermons about the trade-offs between security and human rights. But the truth is, there are no words in any language to describe what the actual experience of being tortured is like. This video is about as close as you’ll want to get.

 

This is what ChickenHawk Cheney and the Republican Party are proud of and want to continue. It is also what Barack Obama and the Democratic party ended and outlawed.

From NY Times: For what may be the first time on record, a former prosecutor in Texas is going to jail for failing to turn over exculpatory evidence in a murder trial. The 10-day jail sentence for the prosecutor, Ken Anderson, is insultingly short — the victim of his misconduct, Michael Morton, spent nearly 25 years in prison. But because prosecutors are so rarely held accountable for their misconduct, the sentence is remarkable nonetheless.

In 1987, Mr. Morton was convicted of beating to death his wife, Christine, and sentenced to life in prison. He maintained his innocence, and in 2010 DNA testing confirmed that he was not the killer.

Even before a Texas court vacated Mr. Morton’s conviction, his lawyers alleged that Mr. Anderson, the prosecutor in his case, had deliberately withheld evidence that would have exonerated him.

Such misconduct is all too common.  Working as a prosecutor is often the first rung on the ladder for those seeking higher political office. Because anything less than a perfect record can end a political career, before it starts, prosecutors have a built in incentive to get the conviction, even when they know the defendant is innocent. Until we stop using fear of crime as political fodder, it is impossible to build political incentives based of finding the truth, where clearing an innocent defendant carries as much political incentive as convicting a guilty one. In the meantime, prosecutors found to have withheld exculpatory evidence should serve a sentence equal to the time served by their innocent victims. In this vase, ten days, however unique, is an insult to justice.

From YouTube: Mother Jones reporter Sarah Posner broke the story this week that George W. Bush is keynoting a fundraiser for the Messianic Jewish Bible Institute, a group with the goal of getting Jews to accept Jesus as the Messiah in the quest to bring about the Second Coming of Christ. Rachel Maddow found it more than a little disturbing a former President of the United States would freely associate himself with a fringe, controversial group like that.

 

I agree with Rachel. People have a right to believe what they will, no matter how wing-nutty that may be. However our founding fathers must have been listening to our founding mothers, because they had the wisdom to outlaw political policy based on religious dogma via the Establishment Clause. Unfortunately, the Republican Party cares no more for the Establishment Clause than they do for the rest of the US Constitution. Please Remember, these Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians do not in any way represent authentic Christianity.

Cartoon:

1110Cartoon

Hate the wars. Love the warriors.

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  11 Responses to “Open Thread–11/10/2013”

  1. Thanks for the Rachel Maddow clip TC – though I do take issue with her describing these Right Wing Wingnuts as 'Christians' – anyone who can rub two neurones together and has actually read the Gospels will know that they are not Christians!  It came as no surprise to me at all that the lunatic George W is raising money for nutcases to try and bring about the end of the world, or that that was what they were trying to do earlier – all of us who take notice of politics realised that years ago – mind you it is nice to have proof – and to see that either Mother Jones or Rachel Maddow's staff took screenshots of the webpages before they were taken down in an attempt to re-write history (again!)!

    You are right that the ten day jail sentence for former prosecuter Ken Anderson is insultingly short for such an evil deed – but I am astonished and delighted that he has been prosecuted and convicted!  Basically he stole Mr Morton's life and let a murderer go free – he should have been imprisoned for the rest of his life.

    How's your chest TC?  I hope it is starting to get better….

     

     

  2. 3:31 Did you use some special fertilizer from your kitty litter box to grow that daisy so fast?

  3. Upworthy ~ "Breathlessly disturbing" to say the least.

    NY Times ~ 10 days is indeed an insult to the victim. 25 years of his life can never be retrieved. He will only serve 9 days because he is getting 1 day off for time served. He has to pay a $500 fine along with 500 hours of community service in the next 5 years. He riesigned form the State Bar and it will be treated as disbarment. This is a joke! I don't think Mr. Morton finds it too funny though. Blind Justice.

    YouTube ~ Rachel did it again! She exposed GWB once more for the idiot he is. If anyone has an outstanding arrest warrant against him for his Crimes Against Humanity, he will be at the Hilton Anatole, 2201 Stemmons Freeway in Dallas Texas. Good luck!

    Cartoon ~ I have been there several times to pay my respects to family and friends named on The Wall. It is   very moving.

     

  4. ~ 4:50

    This is what ChickenHawk Cheney and the Republican Party are proud of and want to continue. It is also what Barack Obama and the Democratic party ended and outlawed.

    War Criminals…!

    I agree with Rachel. People have a right to believe what they will, no matter how wing-nutty that may be.

     Send money… 😈

     

     

  5. 5:30, a lazy daisy.

    My only concern about my own belief that people have a a right to believe what they will, no matter how wing-nutty that may be (yes, your words, and I agree) is that sometimes their beliefs include the believe that they have a right and a duty to impose their own beliefs on others.  I do draw the line at that belief.

    Like everyone else, I do hope you resting and improving.

  6. Puzzle — 3:43  No doubt he did!  Anybody, cat or not, who can complete that puzzle that quickly, can't be all that sick anymore!

    Upworthy — "Sermons about the trade-offs between security and human rights." 

    ser·mon  
      [sur-muhn]  noun

    1.

    a discourse for the purpose of religious instruction or exhortation, especially one based on a text of Scripture and delivered by a member of the clergy as part of a religious service.

    2.

    any serious speech, discourse, or exhortation, especially on a moral issue

    3.

    a long, tedious speech.

    There is no such thing as a sermon about the trade-offs between security and human rights.  Neither is such a discourse religious nor is it moral.

    This is part of the reason why Chickenhawke Cheney, Baby Bush and their cabal of neocons deserve to stand trial at the Hague.  Ever wonder why they haven't?  This from Wikipedia:

    "Currently, 122 states are states parties to the Statute of the Court, including all of South America, nearly all of Europe, most of Oceania and roughly half the countries in Africa. A further 31 countries, including Russia, have signed but not ratified the Rome Statute. The law of treaties obliges these states to refrain from “acts which would defeat the object and purpose” of the treaty until they declare they do not intend to become a party to the treaty. Three of these states—Israel, Sudan and the United States—have informed the UN Secretary General that they no longer intend to become states parties and, as such, have no legal obligations arising from their former representatives' signature of the Statute."

    So much for the rule of law.  When Milosevic was tried by the ICC court for war crimes, the US was all too eager to see justice done at The Hague.  But not its own criminals like Bush, Cheney et al.

    NY Times — 25 years in prison ≠ 10 days in jail.  Such BS mocks the rule of law!  I hope that Morton can sue the state of Texas for wrongful imprisonment and recover 25 years worth of income in addition to punitive damages.  Well, I would presume that this jail time will scuttle any political aspirations that Ken Anderson might have had.

    Youtube —  I am almost speechless after listening to this, so I'll simply agree with "…these Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians do not in any way represent authentic Christianity."

    Cartoon — I am not opposed to the Vietnam War Memorial, but when will we see a memorial to those fallen warriors of WWI, WWII, the Korean conflict, Afghanistan, Iraq and . . . ?  Also, let us not taint the sacrifice of these warriors with the reasons for war.  For example — Iraq, a war for oil (greed).

  7. Upworthy:  Horrifying and shameful!

    NY Times:  Ten days for causing an innocent man to be sentenced and serve 25 years is criminal in itself.  We were taught to trust our justice system, guess we were taught wrongly.

    Rachel Maddow"  Dubya never ceases to amaze me.  These people do not understand the meaning of Christianity as I understand it.  I wonder what Jesus would say to them?

    I hated the Viet Nam war, but deplored the way our soldiers were treated when they returned.  They served their country, many of them had no choice, but were treated like villains when they came home.  That was shameful.

    I hope you are feeling better.

  8. Thanks everyone.  I'm feeling a little better, but am still staying down.

    Patty, I did use special fertilizer from when I buried myself in my kitty box.  Seriously, that's the kind I love.  I could see that the center of the flower was in the bottom-right corner, and the bud was in the top left corner..  I built the senter and then the flower out from there.  Then I did the bud.  There were only a few pieces left.

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