Gitmo

We don't torture the inmates at Guantanamo, right? What about the guards?

Sometimes I Just Like to Post Legislation and Video of Nurses Getting Arrested

HR 676 (CONYERS) - Healthcare For All Americans

The United States National Health Insurance Act establishes an American a single payer health care system. The bill would create a publically financed, privately delivered health care program that uses the already existing Medicare program by expanding and improving it to all U.S. residents, and all residents living in U.S. territories. The goal of the legislation is to ensure that all Americans, guaranteed by law, will have access to the highest quality and cost effective health care services regardless of one’s employment, income, or health care status.

More on Troy Davis for Metro Spirit

According to the editor, ninety percent of Spirit readers have attended college. That sounds high, but maybe the things I say sound high too.
This blog, "Land of the Blind" is meant to be about politics and media, and today I'd like to sound off a little on local media.
The reason I got involved with Metro Spirit is not because I love to party downtown, it's because I think the news in Augusta is pretty bad and the Spirit could do better as the "alternative" news source to cover things that the Chronicle, the local TV stations, and the local radio shows either don't touch or slant the way we all know they do. (After all, we're all educated here, right?) Not to say I'm not grateful for the opportunity to write here- I absolutely am.
But the story that motivated me to actually start writing is one that we don't seem to hear about. It's a story about Georgia that doesn't get told in Georgia.
Months ago when I read about the impending execution of a man with a strong case of innocence who couldn't get a trial to consider his innocence, I searched to find local coverage of it. I didn't see any and got the idea to encourage some. I called TV stations, radio stations, and newspapers. Most told me to get lost. When I called the Spirit, I was relieved to talk to a decent human being who nevertheless told me that it would need a local angle. Looking back I realize I should have just created a local angle somehow. (I regret not setting up a dunk tank downtown- are those expensive? Would Austin sit in it?) I've missed a lot of opportunities on this, but with your help it's not too late for a big push from the state's second biggest city. It's easy. Just read about it (it's interesting reading- I've had my nose in this one since October) and sign a petition.
Don't listen to me. Read what a big shot has to say about this shocking thirty car pile-up of craziness in our very own state justice system. If you don't like bleeding heart liberal Jimmy Carter, I bet you like Libertarian and death penalty supporter Bob Barr. Don't trust Desmond Tutu? How about former FBI director (and another pro-death penalty guy) William Sessions? Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn (come on, I thought you guys went to college), the Pope? The Indigo Girls? No, the Indigo Girls don't help at all, do they? Unless of course you're in college right now and trying out some new stuff. How about let's go back to the very beginning- what about hearing from the guy whose cries for help brought the hero cop to his doom?
Please take a minute, see what's up, and sign a petition saying you don't want this execution to go through without a fair trial first. (Not to point fingers, but Chatham County is known to screw up with death sentences.) You don't have to know he's innocent to sign. In fact, you can't know. I don't care how close you came to graduating college, you're not Matlock! Signing only means that we mean to be a civilized country that values truth and justice. Love America while you sign. And if you're a professor please sign this special smartypants petition to make an extra impression.

Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain

Hal Holbrook has been doing his one-man Mark Twain Tonight! for thirty years. He came to Augusta a week or two or three ago with his improvised recitation of assorted writings by Mr. Twain. For the show here, he got the crowd loud and rowdy before intermission with a lot of jokes about the worthlessness of congress, the trashiness of the media, and even snuck in a little dissing of the church. I heard the guy in front of me at the break say to his wife, "it's amazing how much things haven't changed in a hundred years."
After the break, Mr. Holbrook whipped the audience up again with a little shouting match between Democrats and Republicans which led right into a rant on group think. Nice. He followed up and pretty much closed out with a long and vigorous acting out of portions of Huck Finn. A lot of n-wording on the stage and more coughing in the auditorium then I have ever heard in my life. While Huck expressed his guilt over not being a good boy and turning in his slave friend Jim, the audience choked its head off. Then gave him the standard Garden City standing ovation.
Austin Rhodes says he saw Mr. Holbrook out at dinner and sat down with him. I wonder if running into our baby Rush Limbaugh influenced Holbrook's selections at all.

Best of Craigslist

This is nice.

How to Form a Union

Darfur Protest Leads to Arrest of U.S. Representatives

Way to go, Congressfolk. Georgia's own civil rights hero turned U.S. Representative John Lewis along with Reps. Jim McGovern, Donna Edwards, Keith Ellison, and Lynn Woolsey, were arrested this week for protesting outside the U.S. Embassy for Sudan. Sudan is the home of Darfur, where genocide has been ongoing for years. On March 4, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir expelled humanitarian groups from Darfur after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
John Lewis isn't the only Georgia public servant on the love train; Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue signed into law Wednesday a measure discouraging trade with Sudan while the genocide continues.
According to the bill's sponsor, state Senator David Adelman, “Companies are going to have a choice. You can either do business with the war criminals who are perpetrating the genocide in Darfur, or you can do business with Georgia. This bill ensures no Georgia taxpayer money will in any way support a regime that is supporting the genocide in Darfur.”
Thank John Lewis, thank David Adelman, and thank Governor Perdue. While you're praising, remind them that justice matters for Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis who was denied a new trial to consider mountains of evidence that he may be innocent and whose execution may come very soon.

The Inner Party Can Turn Them Off

It's kind of funny that there was a show named "Friends." And how popular it was.

I Did It! I'm Mayor!

Thank you so much, fellow Dumbasses!
I read yesterday in the Metro Spirit, or Metro if you will, that I am now it. Sweet. I'm humbled.
Here is the announcement as seen in this week's issue:

Way to go Metro, for supporting your mayor with that BS of a story called "Facebook Mayor"! Dumbasses! Jill Peterson is the Mayor of Dumbasses! You've earned that title, chick!

Swine Flu Hubbaloo

I just want to throw out there that hundreds of thousands of people die each year from common seasonal influenza. Let's say a low end estimate is close to 5000 a week. Just put that in perspective and think about it...

Here Saturday

At the Bell Auditorium- Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain

Arlen Specter!!!!

Arlen Specter has left the Republican Party in light of its shift to the right. The change comes because he feels is values are now "more in line with the Democrats than the Republicans." Though he vows not to be a party-line voter, which is a good thing, Specter's switcheroo will allow Al Franken to become the 60th Democratic seat* in the Senate once Norm Coleman realizes he's lost in Minnesota.

*Technically 58th. The two Independents caucus with the Democrats.

OMGZZZ!!!! PANIC!!!

So, press the panic button! One hundred and thirteen cases of swine flu have been confirmed worldwide! This certainly is a pandemic! Shut everything down! Be afraid! SARS, monkeypox, and bird flu didn't get you, but swine flu most definitely will!!! It has already affected 1 in 6,000,000 people worldwide! You could be next! That's almost two 10 millionths of a percent! Be afraid!!!!!!!

Carbo Dioxide is a Natural Byproduct of Nature...

One Small Step...

Well, uh, here.

Troy Davis Denied Trial to Consider Innocence

On April 16, a federal appeals court decided not to grant death row inmate Troy Davis a hearing to present evidence of innocence.
Davis was arrested in 1989 for the murder of a police officer in Savannah. The officer was responding to calls for help from a drunken homeless man who was being pistol whipped over his beer when the attacker shot the officer once and then stood over him to shoot again.
The police department was naturally interested when Sylvester "Red" Coles made a visit to the station the next day (with his attorney) with not only a tip, but a name- Troy Anthony Davis.
Morris Publishing's Savannah Morning News ran Davis's photo with the words "cop killer" before the police had even had a chance to question Davis. Davis went in voluntarily to talk to the police and never came back out. He has been on death row for nearly twenty years. In fact, he's been scheduled for execution three times now, coming within hours of the needle- close enough to have gotten a pre-execution enema.
The postponements are not exactly fancy legal wrangling by Davis. Public defense is overloaded in Georgia to the point that Davis was without proper representation as crucial deadlines came and went, and courts have consistently denied him new trials on procedural grounds.
Davis's executions have been resisted by huge public protest and not only from the anti-death penalty crowd. This execution is also denounced by such toughies as Libertarian Presidential Candidate Bob Barr and former FBI Director William Sessions. The dissenting judge in the panel of three last week, Judge Rosemary Barkett, wrote, “to execute Davis, in the face of a significant amount of proffered evidence that may establish his actual innocence, is unconscionable and unconstitutional."
No physical evidence links Davis to the murder; he was convicted on the testimony of nine witnesses' accounts. New evidence that Davis would like to have heard includes recantations (at the risk of being found guilty of perjury) from seven of those nine witnesses, some citing police coercion, such as this from Darrell "D.D." Collins, who says the day after the shooting when 15 or 20 officers came to his house to take him in for questioning- "a lot of them had their guns drawn." His affidavit reads,

When I got to the barracks, the police put me in a small room and some detectives came in and started yelling at me, telling me that I knew that Troy Davis...killed that officer by the Burger King. I told them that... I didn't see Troy do nothing. They got real mad when I said this and started getting in my face. They were telling me that I was an accessory to murder and that I would pay like Troy was gonna pay if I didn't tell them what they wanted to hear. They told me that I would go to jail for a long time and I would be lucky if I ever got out, especially because a police officer got killed... I didn't want to go to jail because I didn't do nothing wrong. I was only sixteen and was so scared of going to jail. They kept saying that...[Troy] had messed with that man up at Burger King and killed that officer. I told them that it was Red and not Troy who was messing with that man, but they didn't want to hear that...
After a couple of hours of the detectives yelling at me and threatening me, I finally broke down and told them what they wanted to hear. They would tell me things that they said had happened and I would repeat whatever they said.

Here is the recantation from the homeless man who was assaulted, Larry Young:

After I was assaulted that night, I went into the bathroom at the bus station and tried to wash the blood off my face. I had a big gash on my face and there was blood everywhere. I was in a lot of pain. When I left the bathroom, some police officers grabbed me and threw me down on the hood of the police car and handcuffed me. They treated me like a criminal, like I was the one who killed the officer. Even though I was homeless at that time and drinking and drugging, I didn't have nothing to do with killing the officer. I told the officers that, but they just locked me in the back of the police car for the next hour or so. I kept yelling that I needed to be treated but they didn't pay me no mind. They then took me to the police station and interrogated me for three hours. I kept asking them to treat my head, but they wouldn't.
They kept asking me what had happened at the bus station, and I kept telling them that I didn't know. Everything happened so fast down there. I couldn't honestly remember what anyone looked like or what different people were wearing. Plus, I had been drinking that day, so I just couldn't tell who did what. The cops didn't want to hear that and kept pressing me to give them answers. They made it clear that we weren't leaving until I told them what they wanted to hear. They suggested answers and I would give them what they wanted. They put typed papers in my face and told me to sign them. I did sign them without reading them.
I never have been able to make sense of what happened that night. It's as much a blur now as it was then.

There is also additional testimony from new witnesses implicating Red Coles.
Two witnesses have not recanted their testimony. One is a man who told police just hours after the incident that he wouldn't be able to recognize the killer, but managed to identify Troy Davis as the murderer at the trial two years later.
The other witness sticking to his story is Red Coles.
The court has granted Davis thirty days to try for the U.S. Supreme Court which has already turned down the chance to consider his case once earlier this session. If the Court doesn't decide to hear his case, Georgia may execute as early as June.

Saxby Chambliss: Seriously?

Saxby Chambliss, Republican Senator from Georgia, today responded to Defense Secretary Robert Gates' proposed defense budget with this statement: the Obama administration is "willing to sacrifice the lives of American military men and women for the sake of domestic programs."

Mr Chambliss, if you are going to criticize the President, and there are things he can and should be criticized for, please do so after checking facts and do so in an semi-informed manner. You criticize this budget because of the call to cut the F-22 Raptor program. Obviously this will cause a loss of jobs in Georgia, and will impact your constituents. HOWEVER, to claim that this budget cut will result in the deaths of American troops is fear mongering and unfounded. If anything, the budget recommendations take troops out of harm's way by significantly boosting funding for unmanned aerial vehicles and shifting troops away from Iraq. Please, sir, criticize where criticism is due, but do not make yourself look like a fool by spreading worthless, partisan propaganda.

To Mr. Obama

DNA Evidence Frees Black Man Convicted Of Bear Attack

What Do You Think of Augusta Public Transit?

Let 'em know.

The APT Survey is located at the following address:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=CUvYnBkaI_2bmCwBMU8b_2brEQ_3d_3d

Please complete the survey by March 31, 2009.

Georgia Changing Requirement for Life Without Parole

The Georgia House voted unanimously to allow prosecutors to more easily seek life in prison without parole. The current law requires prosecutors to try for the death penalty first. Although there was talk of an amendment to allow death penalties without unanimous jury verdicts, that craziness did not make it onto the bill.

Wounded Soldiers Hooked Up in Augusta

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Well, There It Is

It took two months, but President Obama finally said something he shouldn't have. Maybe comedians don't have to worry too much about Bush being out of office...

You're Welcome America

Yeah, we've been taking it easy lately. But so has the big dub.
Don't miss Will Ferrell's show tonight on HBO at nine.