Bend Over People

Crooked Republican pols and cronies screwing Americans again. Not only was New Orleans destroyed by Mother Nature, they will now be fleeced by Georgie's pals.
Posted on The Human Stain

Spin Confronts Reality

On Tuesday night President Bush will stand before the Congress and the nation, to deliver his annual State of the Union address. We will hear a fairytale of immense proportions. The economy will be roaring strongly, terrorists will be hiding in their caves, Democracy will be blooming in Iraq, the drug plan will be providing indispensable help to our seniors, the Gulf Coast will be teeming with life and vitality due to the efficient federal assistance in rebuilding, our military will be the strongest in the world – capable of fighting forever, and on and on. Ahh – if only his words had some semblance of truth.

The facts are clear. Our economy is struggling and leaving tens of millions of Americans behind. According to the non-partisan National Journal, since President Bush first stood before Congress and the nation in 2001, the median income in this country has decreased, the jobless rate has jumped from 3.9% to 4.9% and the number of families living in poverty has increased from 8.7% to 10.2%. Our trade deficit has doubled. Inflation has gone up. Personal bankruptcies have gone up. Consumer debt has gone up. College tuition has gone up. And, the price of gas has gone up. All the while, this Administration has turned a $128 billion federal budget surplus into a $319 billion deficit.

Today, almost 6 million more Americans do not have any health insurance than when President Bush took office. In total, over 45.5 million Americans, or over 15% of our total population, have no health care coverage at all.

Whatever Chimpie will say this year will not match the facts evident in Americans lives. He will be effusive in praising our troops, while at the same time he imperils their lives in the needless Iraq travesty. Why has he shamed our country throughout the world? Why does he spy on Americans? Why does he pull the rug out from under our college students, our veterans, our elderly, our disadvantaged? Why does he forsake America for the rich, the powerful, the corporations, the oil companies, the crooked lobbyists, the polluters, the crooked Enrons', and his other friends?

Why did anyone vote for him?
Posted on The Human Stain

New Bird Flu Vaccine 100 Percent Effective

Pennsylvania researchers have produced a bird flu vaccine made from a genetically engineered human cold virus and shown that it protected 100 percent of vaccinated mice and chickens. While production of a conventional flu vaccine requires months of work and large numbers of fertilized chicken eggs, the researchers reported Thursday that they prepared their vaccine in only 36 days, growing it in a laboratory dish.

The ability to produce a new vaccine so quickly could give public health officials a powerful new tool to combat the H5N1 bird flu virus if it should mutate and begin infecting humans widely. The team is working with the FDA to begin human tests of the vaccine, and it is said the vaccine should be equally effective in humans because it is based on a human virus. The testing also suggests that if H5N1 mutates, the vaccine is still likely to be effective against it.

Humans infected with the H5N1 bird flu strain have a 50% mortality rate with most of the deaths being children.
Posted on The Human Stain

Total Failure

Fewer people consider Bush to be honest and trustworthy now than did a year ago, and 53 percent said they believe his administration deliberately misled the public about Iraq's purported weapons program before the U.S. invasion in 2003, a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll found. Fifty-eight percent of those polled said Bush's second term has been a failure so far, while 38 percent said they consider it a success. 52 percent consider his entire presidency a failure to date, with 46 percent calling it successful. (Complete poll results)

Bush defended his performance Thursday, pointing to an improved economy despite higher prices for gasoline, heating oil and natural gas. "We've got a record, and a good one," he said. "That's what I intend to campaign on and explain to people why I made the decisions I made, and why they're necessary to protect the American people, and why they've been necessary to keep this economy strong -- and why the policies we've got will keep this economy strong in the future."

And 64 percent said things in the United States have gotten worse in the past five years, while 28 percent said things have improved.

For the first time since Bush took office in 2001, a majority of those polled said the president -- who campaigned as "a uniter, not a divider" -- has been a divisive leader. Fifty-four percent called Bush a divider, while 41 percent called him a uniter.
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Bleeding Badly

General Motors Corp. warned of more cutbacks after a disastrous 2005 by reporting an $8.6-billion loss for the year. Larger than anticipated, the loss raised more concerns within employee ranks about the automaker's shaky future. Putting this amount in perspective: it equals $23,561,644 a day or is nearly equal to the $8.9 billion in profit made by GM the previous four years.

GM's bad news is the second in a week for Detroit. Ford Motor Co. on Monday said it would stop production within the next six years at 14 North American facilities, and cut 25,000 to 30,000 hourly jobs to stem its losses of $1.6 billion in 2005.

Obviously, losses like this cannot be sustained and GM is again stating that it will need more than health care concessions and again reiterated how it carries a "huge legacy cost disadvantage burden," that pays health care and pension benefits to more than 1 million retirees. This is a burden not being borne by it's foreign competition.

If the Bushies really want to protect America and keep it strong, they can start in Detroit with real national health care.
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Be Counted – Make a Difference

Click Tell these Senators to join the Alito filibuster to contact Barack Obama, Christopher Dodd, Joseph Lieberman, Joseph Biden, Richard Durbin, Evan Bayh, Olympia Snowe, Harry Reid, Charles Schumer, Hillary Clinton, Lincoln Chafee and Russell Feingold and ask them to join John Kerry in a filibuster of the Alito nomination. One click is all it takes.
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Nope – No Global Warming.

Norway's Meteorological Institute reported that the ice line on the Svalbard archipelago is extremely far north for the season. The waters around Svalbard are nearly free of ice and there are large areas of open sea up to near 84 degrees north. The reason is that the usual winter wind from the east or northeast has been replaced by winds from the south or southwest more usually seen in the summer. The average temperature on Svalbard in January so far this year has been 29F, fully 24F higher than normal.

A record temperature was recorded by the Meteorological Institute on the arctic island of Jan Mayen (71 degrees north) on Wednesday evening. The reading of 49F was easily the warmest in all of Norway and typical of summer on the island.
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Stand Up Senators!

Judge Samuel Alito Jr., whose entire history suggests that he holds extreme views about the expansive powers of the presidency and the limited role of Congress, will almost certainly be a Supreme Court justice soon. His elevation will come courtesy of a president whose grandiose vision of his own powers threatens to undermine the nation's basic philosophy of government — and a Senate that seems eager to cooperate by rolling over and playing dead.

It is hard to imagine a moment when it would be more appropriate for senators to fight for a principle. Even a losing battle would draw the public's attention to the import of this nomination. The judge's record strongly suggests that he is an eager lieutenant in the ranks of the conservative theorists who ignore our system of checks and balances, elevating the presidency over everything else. He has expressed little enthusiasm for restrictions on presidential power and has espoused the peculiar argument that a president's intent in signing a bill is just as important as the intent of Congress in writing it.

Senate Democrats, who presented a united front against the nomination of Judge Alito in the Judiciary Committee, seem unwilling to risk the public criticism that might come with a filibuster — particularly since there is very little chance it would work. Judge Alito's supporters would almost certainly be able to muster the 60 senators necessary to put the nomination to a final vote.

A filibuster is a radical tool. It's easy to see why Democrats are frightened of it. But from our perspective, there are some things far more frightening. One of them is Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court.

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Frist on his Knees

The pork filled Department of Defense Appropriations bill that was signed into law just before New Year’s was a big gift - just full of holiday cheer for the pharmaceutical companies. Like fresh blood rejuvenating a vampire, the “Frist provision”, named after the ethically deficient physician, turned crooked pol, Bill Frist – will immunize Big Pharma from responsibility for vaccine-induced injuries. Why did this have to be done? Silly, don't you know about the War on Terror?

Cash stuffed politicians in Washington, being fattened by the lobbyists on K Street, listened to arguments that the drug corporations might go out of business if they were forced to take responsibility for injuries caused by their products. Never mind they may cover up damaging test results. Never mind they may falsify data to get products to market faster. Never mind the innocent citizens who trust their products are safe.

This bill will effectively indemnify the corporations from any legal liability arising from the manufacture of drugs that are administered to fight epidemics, pandemics, and bio-terror agents. While many presume this law will be applied prospectively, in treating flu outbreaks for example, many are also concerned that it will be applied in a blanket fashion - in other words, an application of total immunity from injuries related to vaccines: past, present, and future. Injured persons would be forced to prove “willful intent to harm” – an extraordinarily high standard – in order to be eligible for compensation.

What qualifies as an epidemic? Could it be avian flu? Of course. How about the obesity epidemic; the AIDS epidemic; the male impotence epidemic; the cholesterol epidemic; the cancer epidemic? It's a safe bet that we will soon witness a huge increase in the types of “epidemics” this country faces. People injured by unethical and illegal drug company actions may have no redress – after all, we're in a war you know.
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Rummy's World

Yesterday, former Defense Secretary William Perry released a study that found that “the strain of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan is endangering the nation.” A copy of the report is available here. The Perry study came on the heels of an official Pentagon study that came to a similar conclusion. Even the top U.S. commander in Iraq recognizes the military is overstretched.

Everyone seems to acknowledge the problem except Donald Rumsfeld. The Secretary of Defense defiantly claimed: “The force is not broken. … I just can’t imagine someone looking at the United States armed forces today and suggesting that they’re close to breaking. That’s just not the case.”

Rummy just doesn't believe anything that will not fit neatly into “Rummy's World”. Say the troops don't have enough body armor – you're told no, they do. Say there aren't enough troops in Iraq – you're told no, there are. Say that abuses are occurring in detention camps – you're told no, there are not. He once told everyone that you don't go to war with the troops you want – but with the troops you have.

Well he's the Secretary of Defense we have, not the one we want.
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Destroy the Evidence

A photography studio which admitted to destroying at least one photo of Bush and disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff was paid more than $140,000 by the Bush/Cheney campaign in 2004.

Reflections Photography president Joanne Amos told Joshua Micah Marshall of Talking Points Memo that a "business decision" led the company to remove a photograph taken in late 2003 that is believed to feature Bush and Abramoff together because the photograph is "not relevant."

Another blog reported that Amos donated $2,000 to President Bush and also gave $4,000 to the Republican National Committee in 2004.

Guess the Bushies can't give the $90,000 back to the Indian tribes who were bilked by Abramoff since they were busy paying for photos of Abramoff, that are later deemed irrelevant. Aid for the victims of Hurricane Katrina is still dragging, but the destruction of photos which show Georgie knows Jack sure gets handled quickly.
Posted on The Human Stain

Biased Media

Some provocative post excerpts from The Daou Report:

What's the common thread running through the past half-decade of Bush's presidency? What's the nexus between the Swift-boating of Kerry and Murtha, or the guilt-by-association between Democrats and terrorists? Why has a seemingly endless string of administration scandals faded into oblivion? Why do Democrats keep losing elections?

The traditional media, the trusted media, the "neutral" media, have become the chief delivery mechanism of potent anti-Democratic and pro-Bush storylines. The Democratic establishment appears to be either ignorant of this political quandary or are unwilling to fight it.

You’ve heard the lines: Bush is likable - is a regular guy, Bush is firm - is a religious man, Democrats are muddled, Democrats have no message, national security is Bush’s strength, terror attacks help Bush, Democrats are weak on security, Democrats need to talk about values, Republicans favor a “strict interpretation” of the Constitution, blah, blah, blah - on and on.

These narratives are woven deeply into the fabric of news coverage and have become second nature, truly permeating the public mind. They are delivered as positive statements; discussed as fact and accepted as conventional wisdom; they are twisted, shaped, reshaped, and fed to the American public in millions of soundbites, articles, editorials, news stories, and opinion pieces. And they are false.

Bafflingly, Democratic politicians and strategists have accepted these storylines - playing into them. Democrats reinforce anti-Dem myths because they can’t imagine any other explanation for the apparent lack of acceptance of their message. Out of desperation, they resort to focus-group slogans, vainly attempting to break through the filter.

The Dem's need to face this reality: if your core values and beliefs and positions are filtered to the public through the lens of a media that has inoculated the public against your message, and that media is the public’s primary source of information, then NOTHING you say is going to break through and change the dynamic.

To illustrate the power of the media to shape public opinion, simply imagine what would happen if the cable nets and the print media and the punditocracy treated the warrantless spying scandal with the same round-the-clock intensity as the Swift-boating of Kerry or the Natalee Holloway disappearance. Suppose Lewinsky-style headlines blared about impeachment and presidential law-breaking. Suppose the question of the day on every cable net was, “Should Bush be impeached for violating the Constitution?” Would things be different? Of course they would.

The media can create a crisis -- and can squelch one. The media can frame events, they can shape the way Americans see the political landscape. A disproportionate amount of power is wielded by a handful of opinion-shapers, and when these individuals tell America a story that favors the right and marginalizes the left, the remedies are few.
Posted on The human Stain

Why Are They in Office?

Interviews with the aides to Senate Democrats reveal a stunning lack of responsibility and integrity between their expressed horror at confirming Judge Samuel Alito, a man they state will be disastrous for the Supreme Court, and what they will actually do to stop the confirmation.

Advisers to Democratic senators are expressing great frustration at being unable to stop the man who most believe will significantly shift the nation’s highest court to the right. Today, a senior Democratic aide admitted the filibuster is a “long shot,” and that some Democrats who have announced their intention to vote against Alito have signaled they will not support a move to filibuster the vote.

Says one long time aide “There are a lot more people that want to vote no and think he’s not the right guy, and a lot less people who want to support the filibuster.....The myopia among too many Senate Democrats is stunning......They can’t see this is the fight for the future of the Supreme Court. Three years from now if Justice Alito has rolled back the right to choose, Democrats should want to be remembered for fighting tooth and nail to stop this guy......This is a fight for history, you can’t just take the issue off the table, does the country understand what’s at stake right now? Probably not. But they will when Alito does damage to our Constitution, and if we don’t fight now, voters will say a pox on both our houses.”

What type of logic allows these Dem's to sanely say they will vote against Alito – but will not filibuster?

Without a filibuster, Alito will be confirmed. Without a filibuster, the Supreme Court will be tilted against the rights of average Americans – in favor of corporations and government power – for decades to come. Without a filibuster, all the bluster and fire created by the Democrats will be revealed for what it now appears to be – just hot air. If the Democrats will not stand tall now for America, they should just go home.
Posted on The Human Stain

Rights Disregarded

In their huge PR effort to convince Americans that spying is good for them, the Bush White House has trotted out the former head of the NSA, Gen. Michael Hayden to help put a smile on the illegal acts violating our rights as citizens.

Hayden, like all of the Bushies, appears to have a patronizing, dismissive attitude towards Americans. Seemingly wanting to reach out and pat us on the heads, he assures that this is being done for our own good – don't worry.

Speaking at the National Press Club, Gen. Hayden disputed a questioner's statement that the Fourth Amendment requires a showing of "probable cause," a reference to the need for a judicial warrant, for surveillance. 'The Amendment only mandates that a search be reasonable. Just to be very clear -- and believe me, if there's any amendment to the Constitution that employees of the National Security Agency are familiar with, it's the Fourth. And it is a reasonableness standard in the Fourth Amendment. And so what you've raised to me -- and I'm not a lawyer, and don't want to become one -- what you've raised to me is, in terms of quoting the Fourth Amendment, is an issue of the Constitution. The constitutional standard is "reasonable." And we believe -- I am convinced that we are lawful because what it is we're doing is reasonable.' Well, isn't that special!

With someone like Hayden “watching over” us, we're in trouble. General, the Fourth Amendment reads like this:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place t o be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

If the General insists that searches need only be reasonable, then that clearly is a violation of the Fourth Amendment and is a felony. His statements ignore the second clause, which requires warrants based on probable cause, he also ignores the FISA statute, which requires probable cause and he seems to not understand that 'probable cause' is decided by judges – not generals.
Posted on The Human Stain

National Health Care – NOW

The auto industry is in crisis and appears unable to escape from the calamitous currents swirling around it. Blame can be found aplenty: greedy CEO and executive ranks, unconscious boards of directors, negligence in management job performance, worker intransigence, resistance to change, competition, government inaction.....the list is endless.

What really seems inescapable is the horrendous negative effect that health care costs have on the automaker's competitive positions.

'A constant refrain from the auto companies is that the soaring cost of health care is crushing their bottom line. GM wails loudly that covering their autoworkers and retirees adds $1,500 to the cost of each car. The only answer, they say, is to slash or even eliminate this protection for working families. But wait -- before we callously agree to yank the health-care rug out from under the middle class, let's consider fundamentally reforming our bloated, bureaucratic, exorbitantly expensive, inadequate and unjust health-care system. Again, check the competition: Japan has a national health program that doesn't leave its population dependent on whether an employer wants to or can afford to cover employees. No matter what their job is, the Japanese people have the security of health coverage. Toyota's workers enjoy health care without the cost being added to the price of the cars they make.

With a national health program for America, not only would GM improve its competitiveness by some $1,500 per car, but our nation would also be made stronger by replacing the inefficiencies and greed of the massive corporate structure (insurance giants, HMOs, drug peddlers, etc.) separating patients from doctors. America spends far more per person on health care than do Japan and other countries with a national plan -- and we get lower quality care.

It's time for the auto bosses to show leadership. Rather than retreating on the social contract, they should use their political and media clout to advance a national health-care program that'll truly be good for the country -- and for General Motors.'
Posted on The Human Stain

Fillibuster Alito

In a party-line vote never in doubt, the Senate Judiciary Committee recommended on Tuesday that the full Senate confirm Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. as the country's 110th Supreme Court justice. The committee's 10 Republicans had announced their support for Alito before the vote, President Bush crowed on Monday that supporters "don't have to worry about [Alito] in the committee."

Sen. Edward Kennedy, called Alito's record "clear and ominous," and said the stakes for his confirmation "could not be higher."

"I will not lend my support to an effort by this president to move the Supreme Court and the law radically to the right.....There is no reason to believe that Judge Alito will serve as an effective check and balance on government intrusion....Indeed, his record suggests otherwise....At a time when the president is seizing unprecedented power, the Supreme Court needs to act as a check and to provide balance......I have no confidence that Judge Alito would provide that check and balance." Sen. Patrick Leahy top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.

"Based on his record, I'm concerned that Judge Alito will not be willing to stand up to a president who is determined to seize too much power over our personal lives.....In case after case, he has voted -- often as the lone dissenter on his court -- against the dispossessed, the poor and the powerless." Sen. Dick Durbin.

Alito, if confirmed, could serve on the US Supreme Court for an additional 28 years or, the equivalent of 7 presidential terms. Instead of occupying a more centrist position, like Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, he will move the court far to the right. Justice O'Connor "provided the swing vote 77 percent of the time. If confirmed, Alito would tip the high court's delicate balance radically to the right. Nearly always favoring the government, corporations and universities, Alito has ruled against individual rights in 84 percent of his dissents."

With Judge Samuel Alito, the Senate Judiciary Committee faces its most consequential Supreme Court confirmation hearing in a generation....never in memory has a single nomination so threatened to redirect the Court as Alito's. [His] fifteen years of rulings ... demonstrates that Alito is at odds with the interests of ordinary Americans.

Both newly appointed Chief Justice John Roberts and nominee Samuel Alito endorse an out-of-the-legal-mainstream theory dubbed the "unitary executive." This theory would elevate the president's powers at the expense of the Congress and judiciary branches, wreaking havoc with the balance of power. Given that President Bush is currently under fire for authorizing torture, and warrantless NSA wiretaps of American citizens (which is a felony), allowing him to appoint another justice who seems hand-picked to approve of that would be ill-advised, to say the least. Alito is not just a garden variety conservative. Senators need to understand that by confirming Alito, they would shrink Congress's Constitutional power -- in effect, cutting their own throats.

Alito was one of those pushing to elevate the power of the presidency two decades ago, by advocating "that the president make a 'signing statement' indicating what he thinks the law means when he signs a bill. Bush has issued at least 108 such signing statements, most recently, qualifying his concurrence with the McCain amendment that outlaws torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, to imply that he would be free to torture if he felt it was necessary for national security. 'Can it be true that any president really has such powers under our Constitution? If the President has the inherent authority to eavesdrop, imprison citizens on his own declaration, kidnap and torture, then what can't he do?'

One questions needing an answer - if the Democrats cannot stand together now and filibuster this ruinous nominee, then why are they in office? Most of the Dem's, who have the power to stop this confirmation, will be long dead when Alito is still causing misery for their descendants. Will passivity and failure to protect Americans be the legacy left for their children?
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Fall From Grace

Ralph Reed has really dropped into the abyss. Tainted by the Jack Abramoff scandal and seeing his support evaporating in a run for Lieutenant Governor of Georgia, he's resorted to paying people in order to build attendance at his campaign rallies.

'Ralph Reed wants a good crowd at today's annual gathering of the Christian Coalition of Georgia. And he's willing to shell out cash for it. His Republican campaign for lieutenant governor sent an e-mail to supporters this week offering to pay the $20 entrance fee and — for out-of-towners — an overnight stay in a hotel.'

Posted on The Human Stain

Japan Protests US Beef

Top government officials said Saturday they would lodge protests with the United States after it was found that lack of knowledge on the part of an inspector allowed a banned material that poses a risk of mad cow disease to be included in a shipment of beef.

Foreign Minister Taro Aso, appearing in Miyata, Fukuoka Prefecture, said, "There will be no talk of resuming imports before hearing how the United States will cope with the matter." U.S. officials admitted that the system for inspecting beef bound for Japan is flawed, and said they would conduct a thorough investigation and employ stricter inspection measures.

Aso, for his part, criticized the U.S. inspection regime. "Products that were exported after supposedly sufficient quality control measures were taken were in fact shipped without them," he said. "Obviously, the responsibility of the exporting side has to be called into question. It is natural that Japan reinstated a ban on U.S. beef."

US Agriculture Secretary, Mike Johanns, announced a set of measures, including "unannounced" inspections at every meat exporter, sending additional USDA inspectors to every plant to review procedures and ensure compliance with the export agreements, and requiring two USDA inspectors to review every shipment to confirm that compliance. "These additional inspection requirements . . . will be applied to all processing plants approved for beef export and all beef shipments designated for export from the United States."

Now wouldn't it be nice if the US government cared as much about the American consumer of beef?
Posted on The Human Stain

Avian Flu Bits and Pieces

'Scientists studying virus samples from the human outbreak of avian flu in Turkey have identified three mutations in the virus's sequence. They say that at least two of these look likely to make the virus better adapted to humans.The Turkey outbreak is unusual, because of the large family clusters of cases; the fact that many of those infected have only mild symptoms; and the speed with which infections have arisen — twenty cases, including four deaths, in less than two weeks. So scientists are urgently trying to establish whether the virus is behaving differently in this outbreak from previous ones in Asia. In particular, international teams are investigating the possibility that the virus is moving between people.'

'The H5N1 avian influenza virus can survive for more than a month in bird droppings in cold weather and for nearly a week even in hot summer temperatures, the World Health Organization said on Friday.
When people become infected with bird flu, they get a high fever and pneumonia very quickly, according to an updated fact sheet from the WHO, posted on the Internet at http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/avianinfluenza_
factsheetJan2006/en/
The new fact sheet incorporates the most recent findings on the avian flu virus, which WHO says is causing by far the worst outbreak among both birds and people ever recorded. Bird droppings may be a significant source of its spread to both people and birds, the WHO said.'

Finland will have its plans for the avian flu pandemic ready in a few weeks. On Thursday the government was briefed on preparations drawn up by the relevant ministries. "We are coordinating the preparations so that the orchestra will function properly," said Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen. Veterinarians already have instructions on how to combat avian flu and other poultry diseases, and health care officials have their own instructions in case of a pandemic. The migration of aquatic birds from the eastern Mediterranean will be prepared for by keeping poultry indoors in areas where the birds land to rest.
"Our readiness to prevent and treat contagious diseases has improved and we also have permanent resources to combat other diseases," notes the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. Doses of the drug Tamiflu, which has been acquired for all citizens, will remain viable for years.
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I Don't Know Him

Bush and his staff are about to be caught in another set of lies. Repeatedly denying that Chimpie knows Jack Abramoff, pictures will soon be released showing how disingenuous their evasions and spin have been.

At a press conference, Scott McClellan said if there were pictures, which officials hadn’t found, they might have been taken at a Christmas-party line, where the President poses with hundreds of people. “The President does not know him, nor does the President recall ever meeting him,” then modifying his statements to say that Abramoff may have had two "private staff level meetings" at the White House.

Well, the story will soon be changing again:

Time has seen five photographs of Abramoff and the President that suggest a level of contact between them that Bush's aides have downplayed. While Time's source refused to provide the pictures for publication, they are likely to see the light of day eventually because celebrity tabloids are on the prowl for them. And that has been a fear of the Bush team's for the past several months: that a picture of the President with the admitted felon could become the iconic image of direct presidential involvement in a burgeoning corruption scandal — like the shots of President Bill Clinton at White House coffees for campaign contributors in the mid-1990s.

In one shot that TIME saw, Bush appears with Abramoff....Another photo shows Bush shaking hands with Abramoff......three other photos are of Bush, Abramoff and, in each view, one of the lobbyist's sons (three of his five children are boys).....A sixth picture shows several Abramoff children with Bush and House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

Chimpie is trying to keep his frequent meetings with criminal lobbyist, Jack Abramoff hidden from public scrutiny. Since the modus operandi of the Bush machine is “money buys influence,” any thought that Georgie and Abramoff have not sidled up to each other is ludicrous.

Posted on The Human Stain

Is This a Joke?

The U.S. Army, under pressure to issue more protective gear to its soldiers in Iraq, has signed a $70 million emergency contract with a California company to rush ceramic body armor to the front lines. ' The sole-source contract, with California-based Ceradyne Inc., was approved last week and announced Friday. It comes on the heels of a Pentagon study that found side armor could have saved dozens of U.S. lives in Iraq.'

An “emergency contract” to “rush” armor to the front lines? What about the 2,000 who have died already? Weren't dying and severely injured soldiers enough justification for this “emergency” two years ago?

"Our goal is to continue providing the American soldier with the best, most protective body armor in the world," Army spokesman Paul Boyce said. "We are working with soldiers, commanders, the medical community and industry to continue these improvements while ensuring the safety of our soldiers."

Oh really? Explain this:

'Two deploying soldiers and a concerned mother reported Friday afternoon that the U.S. Army appears to be singling out soldiers who have purchased Pinnacle's Dragon Skin Body Armor for special treatment. The soldiers, who are currently staging for combat operations from a secret location, reported that their commander told them if they were wearing Pinnacle Dragon Skin and were killed, their beneficiaries might not receive the death benefits from their $400,000 SGLI life insurance policies. The soldiers were ordered to leave their privately purchased body armor at home or face the possibility of both losing their life insurance benefit and facing disciplinary action.'

Posted on The Human Stain

Osama to the Rescue

Isn't it interesting how whenever we near elections bin Laden crops up? How about at the times when Chimpie's poll numbers seem to be tanking? How about at the times when domestic criticism reaches a new high? Osama seems to appear on his white horse, saving Bush's hide once again.

It hasn’t escaped notice in the Muslim world that the US effort to capture OBL hasn’t been all that robust. It has led many of them to conclude that for some reason Bush doesn’t want to nab OBL. If OBL is half as dangerous as Bu$Co claims that he is, why were so few US forces sent into Afghanistan? Why was the route from Kandahar to the mountains of western Pakistan not closed? Why was there any escape route out of Kandahar? Why were military resources yanked from the theater in Afghanistan after only a few months and in preparation for an invasion of Iraq that wouldn’t take place for another year?

If OBL wasn’t so good at propping up GWB, Bu$hCo would have had to invent him.

Of course, a lot of people believe Osama is DEAD and has been for years !! Here, here, here, and here.
Posted on The Human Stain

Mainstream News Media Doesn't Get It

Big media has been sliding for years. Naming just a few causes cited by companies, one would see: increased consolidation, rising competition, fragmentation of the audience, and influences from other information technologies such as the Internet. While that may be comforting for the companies to believe, it isn't the real problem they face.

Many television journalists say they are fed up with the move toward consumer-friendly news-you-can-use and away from weightier subjects like foreign affairs and government. And many also see news of any sort as an increasingly low priority for their employers. The audience sees superficial headline reading, the cultivation of “personality”, lack of analysis, the increasing showiness and banal happy talk of newsreaders, the phony selling of nincompoops as “journalists, and tie ins between what is supposedly newscasts with entertainment shows the network owned stations are plugging. Public service for use of the public airwaves has disappeared.

National Public Radio is not sliding – it's booming, and the reasons are obvious:

"[NPR's leaders] still believe it is the responsibility of the journalist to focus the attention of the listener on issues that are important," says Ted Koppel, who will provide analysis about 50 times a year to shows like "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered." "All too many media outlets right now think the correct way to lead is to take a poll, or study the demographics, and see what it is that the people who are most attractive to the advertisers would hope to see on television." Network news is increasingly generating audiences for NPR because they no longer inform and also have been caught propagandizing the news. They have lost audience trust.

Integrity. Performance. Content. Truth. Relevance.

These aren't new concepts.
Posted on The Human Stain

Americans Don't Need Lessons

Bush and his fascists are starting a campaign to fight back against the very loud and very correct critics of his illegal domestic spying programs. White House press toadie, Scott McClellan actually had the audacity to say "We are stepping up our efforts to educate the American people....."This is a critical tool that helps us save lives and prevent attacks," he said. "It is limited and targeted to al-Qaida communications, with the focus being on detection and prevention."

Well, listen to this very carefully – We don't need any “education” from you or the other lying traitors in the Bush administration.

Posted on The Human Stain

The Lies Keep Coming

Chimpie is trying to keep his frequent meetings with criminal lobbyist, Jack Abramoff hidden from public scrutiny. Since the modus operandi of the Bush machine is “money buys influence,” any thought that Georgie and Abramoff have not sidled up to each other is ludicrous.

Bush press toadie, Scott McClellan, is claiming that Abramoff may have had two "private staff level meetings" at the White House. Uh, uh - Scott, don't put yourself in another box. You may want to reconsider:

Abramoff, who raised more than $100,000 for Bush in the last campaign, promised big time donors face time with the President and delivered on those promises during the convention. In addition, he traveled to Bush’s ranch in Texas with ex-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. A former DeLay staffer,cooperating with the investigation into both Abramoff and Delay, told investigators that Abramoff and DeLay visited Bush at his ranch at least four times in 2003 and 2004.

Big money contributors get personal meetings with the Chimpie, at the GOP’s annual Presidential Dinner in Washington, people giving at least $25,000 are hustled into a room before the dinner for face time and photos with Georgie. Abramoff always kept a photo of himself with Bush, shot at Bush's ranch, in his Washington office. The autograph from Bush said “to my great friend Jack.”

Dale Knally, a campaign worker in the 2004 Bush-Cheney re-election campaign, recalls one meeting between Bush and Abramoff during a campaign stop in Florida. “He put his arm around Abramoff and told us that ‘this man is one of this administration’s greatest friends.’

Sounds like they could have been in 'Brokeback Mountain.'

Posted on The Human Stain

Right On

'If you are among the ranks of appalled Americans who think that deceiving the country into a hellish war, countenancing torture, spying on U.S. citizens and generally bloating up with power in order to pursue a secret agenda - to hell with Congress, the U.N. and international treaties - constitute grounds for impeachment, while oral sex in the Oval Office does not'....you are in good company.

A recent poll asks: "If President Bush wiretapped American citizens without the approval of a judge, do you agree or disagree that Congress should consider holding him accountable through impeachment?" The margin was 52 percent in favor, 43 percent against.

Al Gore, speaking on Martin Luther King Day, decried "a dangerous breach in the fabric of the Constitution" brought on by George Bush's "shameful exercise of power." Quoting the slain leader he also said: "Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us.....for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us."
Posted on The Human Stain

Child Killer

There seems to be increasing evidence that children are most at risk for contracting the H5N1 avian flu virus. 'Turkey's children were on the frontline of the bird flu crisis plaguing the country, as an 11-year-old suspected of having the virus died and nearly a dozen other children continued to fight the illness.'

Doctors battled to save a five-year-old with the most severe case among the 12 bird flu patients currently being treated in Turkey, three days after the virus claimed the life of his 16-year-old sister.

'All but two of the 21 human cases in Turkey are children, aged two to 18, including also three other siblings who have perished since January 1.'
Posted on The Human Stain

Anti-American Priorities

President Bush today met with a dozen Iraqi's who said they were beaten, abused, imprisoned and lost loved ones due to the brutality of Saddam Hussein. Tragic stories all, they surely were representative of events no human being should endure.

That being said, Bush reportedly met with them for over an hour! The thirteen former Secretaries of State and Defense who he summoned to the White House to obtain their “counsel and advice” about Iraq only got five minutes. How many hours do the loved ones of our dead soldiers get? How many hours have the victims of Hurricane Katrina gotten? How many hours do America's seniors who can't get prescription drugs get?

With this Bush cabal, one needs only to believe the opposite of what they say in order to divine fact from fiction. 'The White House denied that the meeting was meant to deflect criticism of the administration in an annual report from Human Rights Watch issued Wednesday.' We now know why the meeting was held.

Bush also said the following: "One of the interesting moments will come here this year when Saddam Hussein's trial is brought forth for the world to see, to see the butcherer, the person who brutalized many people or ordered the brutality of many people here at this table, get his due justice under rule of law." That statement is also an omen of his future.
Posted on The Human Stain

Plantation Plain and Simple

Hillary Clinton deserves kudos for truthfully putting to voice the crooked and destructive abuses of our legislative process being committed by the Republican leadership goons. During a Martin Luther King Day event on Monday, Clinton said that the US House "has been run like a plantation," in that "nobody with a contrary view has had a chance to present legislation, to make an argument, to be heard."

Seems entirely truthful in illustrating the heavy handed, one way, shove it down the opposition's throat method of legislation as practiced by Republicans. They do not listen to, or consider opposing views, do not want to work in a bi-partisan manner, and arrogantly feel they can do as wanted - their agenda has already been decided and they will not deviate from it. Their style is not one of politics – but one of decree. It is legislative tyranny and Hillary described it beautifully.

Clinton also deserves credit for sticking to her guns and not backing down once the Republican smear engine started to get loud. Last night, she adamantly stood by the comments, saying "top-down" decision-making by GOP congressional leaders was bad for the country.

Sen. Barack Obama seconded her concerns by stating "the ordinary voter and even members of Congress who aren't in the majority party don't have much input....There's been a consolidation of power by the Republican Congress and this White House in which, if you are the ordinary voter, you don't have access.....That should be a source of concern for all of us...what one has seen is the further concentration of power around a very narrow agenda that advantages the most powerful."

Well said.
Posted on The Human Stain

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Is God Mad at Ralph Reed?

From The Washington Post :

'Ralph Reed, candidate for lieutenant governor, had just finished his opening statement to the Dawson County Republican Party when retired pulp paper executive Gary Pichon sprang from his seat with a question that cut to the chase:

"Did you accept any gifts, commissions or other payments of any kind from Mr. Abramoff, and are you likely to be a party in the unfolding investigation?" Silence enveloped the 60 or so Republicans in the auditorium, and Reed's cheerful manner turned tense. "No," he replied. "No to all these."

Hmmm, how to explain this -

'.... the first major dent in Reed's carefully cultivated image came with the disclosure in the summer of 2004 that his public relations and lobbying companies had received at least $4.2 million from Abramoff to mobilize Christian voters to fight Indian casinos competing with Abramoff's casino clients.'

Did he forget to mention this?

'.... a torrent of e-mails revealed during the investigation..shows a side of Reed that some former supporters say cannot be reconciled with his professed Christian values.' "After reading the e-mail, it became pretty obvious he was putting money before God," said a Georgia Christian Coalition member who had initially backed Reed. "We are righteously casting him out." Among those e-mails was one from Reed to Abramoff in late 1998: "I need to start humping in corporate accounts! . . . I'm counting on you to help me with some contacts."

Think he may also have forgotten this -

'In 1999, Reed e-mailed Abramoff after submitting a bill for $120,000 and warning that he would need as much as $300,000 more: "We are opening the bomb bays and holding nothing back."

The Lord works in mysterious ways.
Posted on The Human Stain

Any Integrity??

Just last week Bush said that he would welcome "an honest debate about Iraq" -- as long as "the tone of this debate is respectful."

Okay Georgie, put your money where your mouth is, the opportunity is staring you in the face. Let's see if you really will, honestly, debate Iraq. You can start by repudiating the rotten slime campaign (being conducted on your behalf and with your agreement) against Rep. John Murtha. Remember when you called Murtha "a fine man, a good man, who served his country with honor and distinction as a Marine in Vietnam and as a United states Congressman."

Tell your vile, stinking, trolls – publicly, to stop besmirching an honorable man. All Americans know you can stop this anytime – you just have to say so.

What are you waiting for ???
Posted on The Human Stain

All Smears - All The Time

The Bush slime machine is going all out in the campaign to smear and slander Rep.John Murtha. These fascist Republican scumbags use deception, lies, and propaganda to denigrate the patriotism and service records of any combat veteran who dares to speak the truth. Conducting vicious scummy attacks, the Chimpie's cabal cannot debate the real issues as their policies have no defense or validity.


Having totally failed in their 'War in Iraq', they try to scare people with the terror card, attempting to deflect true analysis and discussion of their inept bungling. If that doesn't work, they will accuse the opposition of being unpatriotic, hurting the troops, undermining the war, or aiding the enemy. When that doesn't work they threaten America's citizenry that people need to be careful what they say.

Professing their love and admiration for our men in uniform, they fail to provide the equipment needed, they fail to provide proper veterans benefits, they operate a stop loss program to force soldiers to stay in the military, they created a back door draft - calling up soldiers who completed their service requirements, they lie to new recruits in order to obtain enlistments, and they destroyed the integrity and honor of our troops with prisoner torture abuses. Any Iraq War veteran who has the temerity to run for public office as a Democrat – be prepared as you will be smeared and slimed. Lose a leg, an arm? No matter – the Republican political scum will probably assert you caused the injuries.

Note to Sen Lindsey Graham: with all your boo-hooing and teary eyed obsequiousness regarding Judge Samuel Alito's wife when she was crying crocodile tears, where is your outrage at the despicable rotting stench emanating from the Bush political machine's effort to smear the honorable service record of a real American patriot ?????

Consider this statement:

'I am a Marine currently serving at 4th Marine Aircraft Wing in New Orleans. Right now my fellow Marines and I are watching as we slowly slouch towards war with Iran. If deployed to the area, I promise you this: we will fight together, and we will fight valiantly. We will fight for those we do not know and for a cause we might not share. But we will fight. And when we come home, we may continue our fight, in the halls of power, the state capitols, and DC, if we so choose. We have earned it in blood and sweat. No one, and I mean no one, has the right to impugn our service, or our credentials without expecting a defense. I am defending Mr. Murtha because he did in Vietnam what others would not do. And I thank God for giving me the chance to make my mark as he has. And when I come home, will you be there to slander me too?'

Rep. John Murtha is representative of true American valor and honor. He is the 'Anti-Bush' and 'Anti Cheney.' While they were hanging on momma's tit, afraid to serve in the military, he volunteered for service in Vietnam, was wounded, received eight military awards – including two Purple Hearts, a Bronze star, and a Distinguished Service Medal of the United States Marine Corps, he stayed in the Marine Corps Reserve and recently retired after 37 years of commendable service to this country. Our troops know he is a man of integrity.

Chimpie and Torture Cheney cannot even approach his level.

Posted on The Human Stain

Bush - Be Afraid

President Bush signed executive orders giving himself authority to impose martial law, suspend habeas corpus and ignore the Posse Comitatus Act which prohibits the use of US troops on America's streets. Essentially, he has grabbed absolute dictatorial power with no checks and balances.

During the 1980's there were national security initiatives, put in place by Ronald Reagan, created by Colonel Oliver North, that gave FEMA the responsibility for carrying out the security initiatives. These initiatives allowed for suspension of the Constitution, the creation of internment camps, the declaring of martial law, and the handing over of government to the President alone.

After 9/11, Georgie considered imposing martial law by activating the initiatives and actually used parts of them to send troops into New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. He also okayed FEMA to hire mercenaries from the firm Blackwater USA to “enforce security.”

Newly formed, the Department of Homeland Security has created a program called the “Northern Command for National Defense,” which would coordinate activities with FEMA, the Pentagon, the FBI and the NSA. Executive orders signed by Bush allow the Northern Command to use troops, take control of commercial radio/television/network broadcasting and impose martial law.

The truly scary part of Chimpie's authority is that HE alone can declare what is or is not a national emergency, he does not have to consult or seek approval from Congress in order to grab absolute control over our government.

Bush has often implied of his need to take total control, consider just these statements from an Oct, 2005 press conference:
“I am concerned about avian flu. I'm concerned about what an avian flu outbreak could mean for the United States and the world....If we had an outbreak somewhere in the United States, do we not then quarantine that part of the country? And how do you, then, enforce a quarantine? And who best to be able to effect a quarantine? One option is the use of a military that's able to plan and move....But Congress needs to take a look at circumstances that may need to vest the capacity of the president to move beyond that debate. And one such catastrophe or one such challenge could be an avian flu outbreak. And we're more than thinking about it, we're trying to put plans in place. And one of the plans -- back to where your original question came -- was, you know, if we need to take some significant action, how best to do so. And I think the president ought to have all options on the table to understand what the consequences are -- all assets on the table, not options -- assets on the table to be able to deal with something this significant.”

Notice, he twice said the President should have all 'the assets' - all the assets means all 'the power.' The horrifying danger is that a stupid man has absolute power - we all should be very afraid.
Posted on The Human Stain

Bush – Liar Again

News like this is depressingly becoming a regular for the 'duh' files as any illegality being perpetrated on America by the Bush fascists is to be expected, and any denial they make is to be mistrusted.

According to an article in Truthout.org, Chimpie gave the NSA a go ahead to spy on Americans shortly after taking office. Why, just last month Georgie was telling us he took the steps he did in response to the attacks of 9/11. He couldn't have been lying to us – could he?
Some excerpts:

The National Security Agency advised President Bush in early 2001 that it had been eavesdropping on Americans during the course of its work monitoring suspected terrorists and foreigners believed to have ties to terrorist groups according to this declassified document.

The NSA's vast data-mining activities began shortly after Bush was sworn in as president and the document contradicts his assertion that the 9/11 attacks prompted him to take the unprecedented step of signing a secret executive order authorizing the NSA to monitor a select number of American citizens thought to have ties to terrorist groups.

What had long been understood to be protocol in the event that the NSA spied on average Americans was that the agency would black out the identities of those individuals or immediately destroy the information. But according to people who worked at the NSA as encryption specialists during this time, that's not what happened. On orders from Defense Department officials and President Bush, the agency kept a running list of the names of Americans in its system and made it readily available to a number of senior officials in the Bush administration, these sources said, which in essence meant the NSA was conducting a covert domestic surveillance operation in violation of the law.

Additionally, "if the administration felt that FISA was insufficient, the proper course was to seek legislative amendment, as it did with other aspects of FISA in the Patriot Act," the letter continues. "One of the crucial features of a constitutional democracy is that it is always open to the President - or anyone else - to seek to change the law. But it is also beyond dispute that, in such a democracy, the President cannot simply violate criminal laws behind closed doors because he deems them obsolete or impracticable."
Posted on The Human Stain

Screw Them

Huge majorities of Afghans reject Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, approve the US military role in their country and are grateful to international bodies like the United Nations. A survey by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland found strong support for President Hamid Karzai, 81 percent of Afghans polled think Al-Qaeda is a negative influence in the world, with only six percent saying they are a positive influence. Osama bin Laden, once sheltered by the Taliban militia, has even lower ratings, with 90 percent of those polled saying they had an unfavorable view of him and 81 percent saying they view the Taliban unfavorably.

These are people who want our help, so why have we diverted our attention towards Iraq?

They have no oil.
Posted on The Human Stain

Slipping Into Irrelevance

The New York Times must be run by blind masochists. After reducing their influence and readership by moving their Op-Ed columnists behind the electronic 'TimesSelect' firewall, they have also been disconnecting their columnists public e-mail addresses. This forces anyone who wants to contact the columnists to subscribe to the NYT news service first. The once so-called 'paper of record' is making itself increasingly invisible.

Posted on The Human Stain

Senate Follies

Sen Arlen Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee promised a thorough investigation into President Bush's secret domestic eavesdropping program and said there would be no blank check for him.

Sounds pretty impressive until you realize these are the same group of near incompetents who gave us the Judge Samuel Alito confirmation comedy charade. These ineffective representatives of America were exemplified by Senator Lindsay 'Huckleberry' Graham, and by Senator Joe 'Blowhard of Emptiness' Biden. Graham, who actually coached Alito on how to answer questions before the hearings got under way, also caused Alito's wife to cry in a staged, crocodile tear event designed to curry sympathy for the 'arduous ordeal' Alito and family had to endure during the confirmation process. Oh, boo hoo. Biden, seemingly in love with his own voice and the emptiness of his statements, talked so much that he forgot he's supposed to be representing America's citizens by asking probing questions, regarding whether Alito would make a good Supreme Court Justice. Both of these people shamed themselves, misused their offices, and failed in their duties to the country.

These hearings were serious, serious, business and it is extremely sad to see US Senators in the 'worlds greatest deliberative body' acting like clueless goobers while Alito waltzed around them without any apparent effort. Some Senators, Russ Feingold, Ted Kennedy, and Chuck Schumer, did try to pin him down, but Alito deftly gave a string of non-answers leaving them frustrated and America unprotected from yet another right wing neo-fascist clone who will be part of the growing cabal that want to be in your bedrooms, listening to your phone calls, stripping your freedoms, and forcing your kids to fight their dirty, crooked wars.

If Specter wants to really get to the bottom of the domestic spying illegalities and work for America, then he better set up a real investigation where capable people can serve the country's interests. He should consider the Watergate hearings model, where people with real prosecutorial and investigative experience played major roles. To think that the Senate Judiciary Committee can ably conduct this critical investigation, one needs to live in a dreamland.
Posted on The Human Stain

Amorality

Last Thursday,the US Supreme Court heard the case of Paul House, an inmate in Tennessee who is appealing his death sentence based upon new DNA evidence that suggests he is innocent. One of our cro-magnon justices, Antonin Scalia, seemingly has blithely stated that the court would take a strictly legalistic approach to the case. Does he mean there will be no consideration of what is right, what is wrong, what serves justice? Is he implying that they will review the case only for procedural conformance?

While agreeing the case now looks "much closer" than it must have appeared to the jury in 1986. Scalia states that is not the issue, "Once the case has been tried, we have a much different task," Scalia said, namely to determine "whether any reasonable jury could have found guilt." Only if the answer was no, could a federal court proceed to hear a petition for a writ of habeas corpus and consider whether constitutional errors that had not previously been identified had occurred at the trial. It is, Justice Scalia said, "a very heavy burden" for the defense to meet.

House's lawyer, Stephen Kissinger, replied, "It is a high burden, and we don't shrink from it." Kissinger, an assistant federal defender from Knoxville, Tenn., stated, "It comes down to the 'could' and 'would' distinction," he said. "We don't deny that there is evidence that 'could' support conviction, but that's not the test. What 'would' a reasonable juror conclude? Proof of innocence does not have to be absolute."

Apparently the new DNA evidence does not clearly exonerate Mr. House but it does make a primary piece of the prosecution's case void. Chemical tests reported at the original trial indicated that House's semen was found on the victims clothing, while DNA testing later showed it to be from the victim's husband. House's lawyers contend the victim's husband is the murderer, and they have also provided witnesses who testified overhearing the husband make a drunken confession.

There is evidence from DNA testing, evidence from science, from facts, that suggest he is innocent. He deserves to be set free if the evidence is verified. Let's not cheat this man of his only chance to live. Our legal system is not perfect – and we know it. Does anyone think their rights will be more capably protected with the near certain addition of Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme bench?

Upon meeting our maker, how can humankind justify the goodness of our lives if we sit by and enable the travesty of capital punishment to continue?

DNA testing frees innocent man
Freed by DNA testing after 24 years in Prison
False confessor seeks new trial
Surviving justice – 13 exonerees discuss their experience
Posted on The Human Stain