John Nichols at The Nation writes—How Much Did Chesa Boudin’s Election Matter? He Just Eliminated Cash Bail:
The simple fact that Chesa Boudin got elected San Francisco’s district attorney last November confirmed that political revolutions are possible.
A political outsider preaching a gospel of criminal justice reform, Boudin upended the electoral establishment in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s hometown, beating the favored contender of the insiders to win one of the most high-profile law enforcement posts in the country.
He did so as the son of Weather Underground radicals who were jailed during his childhood—using his own experience to remind voters that “more than half of Americans have a family member behind bars” and to argue, “I know our system is broken. I’m running for district attorney because I know how to fix it.”
The answer has come two weeks after Boudin was sworn in as San Francisco’s 30th district attorney on January 8. The day he was inaugurated, Boudin stated, “I think there are some changes that I’ll be making.” Some of those changes have come quickly, including a reorganization of the office that saw the removal of managing attorneys in the criminal division.
But the biggest structural change so far came Wednesday when Boudin announced that his office would end the practice of requiring cash bail as a condition for the pretrial release of defendants from jail. [...]
TOP COMMENTS • HIGH IMPACT STORIES
QUOTATION
“If you voted for a man who said "Grab em by the pussy," you have zero room to claim to protect anyone in bathrooms.” ~~DaShanne Stokes
TWEET OF THE DAY
(In case you aren’t one of the 5.7 million viewers of this tweet of Adam Schiff’s closing argument Thursday, or you haven’t otherwise heard that powerful speech, here it is for you—MB.)
BLAST FROM THE PAST
At Daily Kos on this date in 2007—Obama vs. Fox Noise Channel:
Over at what Keith Olbermann now calls Fox Noise Channel, they just can't back away from their attempt to slime Barack Obama. Not only did John Gibson repeat the lies long after they'd been debunked, he also repeated the bogus "it came from Hillary" assertion.
And since Fox follows the Bush administration's golden rule "when you're in a hole, dig faster," they've also gone after CNN's Anderson Cooper for calling them on their lies. Hilariously, Fox spokesperson Irena Briganti demeaned Cooper's reporting ability and called his correction of Fox's errors "a cry for help." Coming from a network whose sole purpose is whining, Cooper should take this as unvarnished praise.
The Obama lies are a model for the off-key moaning of the right's media machine. Fox ran the lies on two shows, and plastered it on Papa Murdoch's king of yellow journalism, the New York Post. From there it was picked up by right wingnut talk show hosts who pitched in to keep the swift boats sailing. This included Dan Caplis, who not only repeating Fox's false accusations about Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, but adding his own dash of nuttery by calling Obama's elementary school a "Muslim seminary."
As usual, no one on the right seems to be interested in facts when they've got a good character assassination underway, especially if they can sling mud at Obama and Hillary at the same time. Stopping now would be slander interruptus.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Schiff delivers a stemwinder, and we’ve still got Day 3 left to go, for the House managers. Trump's sick and worsening ties to Saud-owned Arabia, facilitated by a fellow perv, because of course. Possible Trump defense: Reagan did it, too. Besides, Iran pays cash.
RadioPublic|LibSyn|YouTube|Patreon|Square Cash (Share code: Send $5, get $5!)