In an NYTimes story this week, the death of Megan Meier finally took a turn for the better. Her tormentor a school rival's MOTHER has finally been indicted on charges relating to her suicide. This is a story that has uniquely touched me as a case of internet etiquette and rights versus the legal system. I am a staunch supporter of keeping the Internet as free of legal jurisdiction as possible as the medium is treated as a playground where noone expects they have to follow any sort of rules like they would in the real world.

The Story

More below the fold.

You know, the main stream media remains pretty weak.  And politicians for the most part remain more spin and whatever needs said to get elected than substance.

As for the latter, of course most have noticed that there is this oddball campaign of a senator from Illinois that seems determined and even capable of challenging that nasty habit.

And while there are many great alternatives to the main stream media, I have to say I've been rather shocked, pleasantly so, by one Mr. Olbermann's recent broadcast on Bush.

If you ask me, this Olbermann deserves some hefty accolades for that, what may be the single best piece of editorial journalism I've seen in my 41 years.

(Cross posted from Docudharma)

We have come to a place unimagined even by Orwell who got so much right.  

Wealth is not always how much you make or save, but the peace of mind acquired through the understanding of our world, our attitude towards it, and our attitude towards each other.  One of the most ignorant and closed-minded entity ever formed by man is the Church.  They always used their misunderstanding of the Bible to satisfy their greed.  It is amazing that the Church that once believed that the earth was the center of the universe, actually admitted to its ignorance in 1992.  Now, they believe in aliens.  How wonderful!!!!  

Today Barack Obama passed Hillary Clinton in support among superdelegates.  Before the race is over, before the point becomes moot, I want to gather points I've made in various diaries and comments on the question of how superdelegates should approach their vote for the Democratic nominee.  This is the sort of think piece that works best on a weekend evening when the diaries whiz past more slowly and people have time to reflect.

I have supported Barack Obama enthusiastically since just after the Nevada caucuses.  However, I have bought into his supporters’ "company line" on current events selectively.  (Frankly, so has Obama himself.)  I think that both the Obama forces and the Clinton forces are wrong in depicting the role of superdelegates within the nomination process.  (Were their their positions in the race were reversed, for example, I think that the arguments would be reversed as well – if Obama had not been hounded into quitting already, which is what I’d expect.)

So, this is mostly written for the long record of how we thought about the race as it unfolded this year, without trying to press for one candidate's advantage or the others.  Your thoughts are always welcome, of course, but especially so this evening.

There is a disturbing narrative running unchecked across the web. This same narrative is not even mentioned in the traditional media. For the last 20 or more years this country has filled jails and prison, clogged the courts, and ruined many a life all in the name of Law and Order. It is only slightly ironic that after all of this, something that has change to US for the worse, when it should be applied for one of the best reasons, has been judged as politically bad for the nation.

It the recent Newsweek, Dahlia Lithwick, a gifted writer who has focused on the real truths all through this Administration, joined the same dangerous narrative. Glenn Greenwald, a kind of web hero to many of the Progressives against the last 7 yrs responded to me during a Q&A at Firedoglake, that he felt the same way as laid in Dahlias article. To be very clear, Glenn also said if he were appointed our new Atty. Gen., his first act would be the opposite. Have you figured out the narrative yet ?

A truly interesting and extensive piece appeared over at the MAINstream Coalition's blog today that discussed an upcoming ballot initiative in Johnson County, Kansas that would move county judges from being appointed by a panel to being elected by the public.

The instigate of the ballot initiative is of course another wing-nut who thinks that by making judges become elected he would score a bunch of conservative judges - ignoring the fact that this will definitely not be the case, especially among the members of the Johnson County Bar Association.

The piece links to a 2007 AP story on the Tim Golba as well as info on the specific bill.

"Tim Golba of Lenexa, who led the petition drive, said he wants fair judges but also believes they should be held accountable by the public for their decisions and have to explain their positions on such things as abortion or school finance.

"There are more and more dead bodies on the streets and the stench is unbearable. Smoke is everywhere. It's hard to know how much people outside Fallujah are aware of what is going on here. There are dead women and children lying on the streets. People are getting weaker from hunger. Many are dying are from their injuries because there is no medical help left in the city whatsoever. Some families have started burying their dead in their gardens."

That was Fallujah in 2004.  Bush and Petraeus are about to do the same to the slum of 2.5 million in Baghdad known as Sadr City.  1,000 civilians have already been slaughtered.  Right now 75,000 children are trapped.  

Welcome to the buzzkill.  It's called Bush's War Crimes R Us, and it's the reason most of us have been so furious for all these years now.  

They're about to do to Sadr City what they did to Fallujah, and why?  Because they're still in power, because nobody has been able to stop them.  

I'm not a particularly religious person but I participate socially in the rites and rituals of religion, because being part of the social network of a religious community is more important to me than the costs of doing so.

And so it was that I read a part of Lev. 19, and had reason to think about it.

The verse this segment is named after is Lev. 19:2, which reads,

"Speak to the whole congregation of Israel and say unto them: be thou holy, for I, the Lord, your god, am holy."

We all know how the Bush Administration has failed deliver on the capture of Osama Bin Laden. What has now come to light thanks to the WaPo is that there has also been a complete failure to secure justice in the attack on the USS Cole. 17 sailors were killed in that attack on the Cole and although President Clinton promised justice it seems like neither he nor president Bush has delivered. The story told by the WaPo about the efforts surrounding the Cole is sad in many ways and should serve as a constant reminder of just how badly the War on Terror has been conducted.

cross posted from The Dream Antilles and docuDharma

Today, May 1, 2008, in addition to everything else is Law Day in the United States:

Fifty years ago President Eisenhower proclaimed the first Law Day a "day of national dedication to the principle of government under law." The ABA [the American Bar Association] invites you to celebrate this enduring principle during the 50th anniversary of Law Day.

Law Day 2008 will explore the meaning of the rule of law, fostering public understanding of the rule of law through discussion of its role in a free society.

Join me in the Irony Corner.

First of all, I’m surprised with so many hot shot legal eagles in this community no one has written a diary about this travesty.  The US Supreme Court ruled yesterday that voter identification laws are constitutional and in doing so gave a green light for the mass disenfranchisement of the elderly, the poor and people with disabilities.

I am stunned, seeing a confluence of news items in the last few days. Some of it is coincidental, certainly. But it still is one body blow, one after another showing me that history is being repeated, again.  

The Sean Bell 'verdict'; yet another black man gunned down in a hail of bullets, yet one more case of gross injustice.  

The Supreme Court decision, carefully targeted to require 'identification' to vote. No one with a brain can even deny the real purpose of this action: to disenfranchise a certain group of voters. It's a case of Federal vote caging and intimidation, at it's very finest.

The death threats and bomb threats against Rev Jeremiah Wright and his church.

The fire this time is caused by people like Chris Matthews, Wolf Blitzer, Chris Wallace, Charlie Gibson, George Stephanopoulos. Any violence, any blood spilled at Rev Wright's church, or against the man himslef, and I place these heinous actions on their hands.

We have seemed to have slipped back into an antebellum era of race relations in the United States. Or maybe, I really knew that underneath the facade of 'equality' lies the real separations of class, race and religion that drives the Republicans Party, and corporate power.

(Cross posted from Docudharma)

I’ve been trying to write about torture, and I’m finding it slow, painful going.  I’ll begin one thought only to be distracted by wave after wave of random related thoughts crashing on the heels of the unfinished original, leaving me twitching in psychic anguish, paralyzed and at a complete loss for words.  My God, how did we let it happen?  And why in hell haven’t we stopped it?  Why have we not arrested the torturers?  Why have we not impeached this sorry excuse for a President?

"History will not judge this kindly," to quote that rat bastard, John Ashcroft.

That of course presupposes that there will be a future from which to look back on this disgraceful period, and that this is just a phase, not simply the end.

 Today, i went and coached a 9-10 year old ball game.  Today, i went to work and put in 8 hours.  Today, when i got home i kissed my 3 year old son on the forehead and told him i loved him.  Today was a good day for me.

 Today, the News Media coverage was all about politics.  Today, more Americans probably died in Iraq in a needless war.  Today, Osama Bin Laden probably ate well, while some families will never eat together again because of his actions.  Today, American Axle employees are still on strike, drawing $150 dollars a week, and gas to get to the picket lines is $3.50 a gallon.  Today, more of the polar ice caps melted and somewhere a republican probably called it "junk Science".  Today, somewhere in a country with friendly ties to the United States someone was probably renditioned there to be tortured, with the approval of the top officials in this Administration. Today was not so good a day for America.

cross posted from The Dream Antilles and docuDharma

A Memorial To Sean Bell

I'm shaking my head at the verdict Judge Cooperman (without a jury) rendered yesterday in the Sean Bell murder case. I'm saddened and troubled.  I think I understand the roots of his acquittal verdict, and I think there has been an enormous miscarriage of justice in this case. Unfortunately, this kind of injustice probably should have been expected because of the way the law acknowledges and fosters police exceptionalism. The defense lawyers for the detectives knew it, and the prosecutors knew it as well.

Please join me in Kew Gardens.

In light of the recent acquittal of the three police officers who shot at three unarmed men 50 times I think we should take time to acknowledge that there are still serious problems with our judicial and legal systems. Extreme cases such as those of Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo serve to highlight the inequalities which are still omnipresent in our society. The overcrowded jails filled to the breaking point with a disproportionate number of minority inmates. The lack of legal action taken against criminals committing heinous crimes against humanity (starting pointless wars, forcing millions of people into poverty so the rich can get richer). These events stink of the base inequalities which our society accepts with little more than bypassing notice.

Question: When is it not a crime for you to shoot 50 bullets into a car full of unarmed men?  

Answer: When the people in the car are black and you are a cop, of course.