Yay, Al!

You may not know this about me but I love Al Gore. So does E, for that matter. In fact, E calls him the best president we never had.

So imagine how excited I was to hear Al won the Nobel Peace Prize today. I can't think of anyone more deserving this year.

As predicted, the awarding of the Nobel Prize immediately intensified calls for him to enter the Democratic nominating contest for president and speculation over whether he would. The rumors that he would win it had already helped a grassroots movement to draft him into the race raise tens of thousands of dollars for advertisements.

Boy, don't I wish. I'd work hard for that campaign.

Congratulations, Al. You certainly deserve this award. Keep up the fight.

Lionel, I Think I Love You

I listen to Air America from 10 am until 5 pm daily at work. Since their Air America 2.0 reinvention, they've added a couple of new shows. One of those shows is the Lionel Show. I was not an instant Lionel fan. He has a terrible habit of ridiculing some of his callers and I really don't like hosts that do that. But he's been growing on me as a host.

Today he announced his "Education Manifesto" that he would use if he were the head of the Department of Education.

1. Education is not a right, it's a privilege.

2. One-size-fits-all education is not good. Not every child is meant for college. Determine whether a child should be on the college track or the vocation track and educate them accordingly.

3. Unruly kids are returned to their parents after intense due process. Schools are not babysitters. If a kid brings a gun to school, the parents get to complete his education.

4. Pay kids to attend school just like they will be paid for working as adults. Giving them tangible incentives keeps them interested and gets them to invest more in school.

5. Learning a second language would be mandatory.

6. School would be year-round. Summer vacation was put into place when we were an agrarian society. Kids no longer have to work in the fields.

7. Rudimentary life training would be mandatory. Kids would learn about credit, how to manage a checking account, how to parent, and other life tools.

8. Lessons in manners and elocution would be mandatory.

9. The pay scale for educators would be inverted. Front line teachers would be paid the most and administrators would be paid the least to encourage good teachers to stay in the classroom.

And that, folks, is when I fell in love with Lionel.

I Want to Make This Perfectly Clear

All day long I've been listening to the various shows on Air America as the hosts discussed the Jena 6 and yesterday's march. Inevitably, each host would have to field calls from callers with the following questions:

Didn't those six guys commit a crime? Why shouldn't they go to trial? Why shouldn't they be in jail? Why do y'all want them to get off with no consequences?

I hope that at least someone with those questions stumbles across my little blog here because I'm about to answer them.

Yes, a fight broke out and a crime was committed. Yes, those who committed that crime should go to court and, if found guilty, serve any sentence that is given to them to serve. NO ONE has demanded that these guys get off "scott free".

It has never been questioned that a fight broke out at school and a boy was beaten up. The problem all along has been the unfair way punishment has been handed out.

Let's compare:

1. Three nooses are hung from an oak tree after two black kids sit there for lunch the previous day. The offenders are three white boys. Nooses hanging from a tree mean one thing and one thing only. They are a threat to the lives of the black kids. Punishment for those three white boys - Each given a three day in-school suspension.

2. At a party, a black kid is beaten up by a 22 year old white male wielding a beer bottle. Punishment - The white male is charged with a misdemeanor and given probation.

3. At a convenience store, two white males harass two black males and an argument ensues. One of the white males grabs a shotgun out of his truck and points it at the two black males. Here in Louisiana that crime is called aggravated assault (AKA assault with a deadly weapon). One of the black males wrestles the shotgun away from the white male and leaves the scene with it. Punishment - white male who committed aggravated assault, none - black male who left with the shotgun to keep from being shot with it, theft.

4. A fight between white and black students starts at school. In the course of the fight, a white male is beaten and kicked by several black males. When I was growing up and going through school, if there was a fight, everybody involved got into trouble. Punishment - white kids involved, none - six black kids involved, charged with attempted second degree murder.

So let's look at our totals now:

White kids
1. Three days in-school probation
2. Misdemeanor and probation
3. None
4. None


Black kids
1. None
2. None
3. Theft of a shotgun
4. Attempted 2nd Degree Murder and Conspiracy to Commit 2nd Deg. Murder

Now weigh those punishments in the white column against the punishments in the black column. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm...looks quite a bit heavier in the black column to me.

So what should be done in the case of the Jena 6? Well, their charges have all been reduced to aggravated 2nd degree battery, which is still a felony. My question is why does the white guy who beat somebody up get a misdemeanor and some probation when the black kids who beat somebody up get felonies with the possibility of 10 years in prison at hard labor? How about reducing those felonies to misdemeanors? That might work.

The basis of the Jena 6 issue has always been the heavy-handedness with which charges have been handed out and how unbalanced those charges have been between the two races. I don't understand why some white people can't wrap their head around this. (I am white, BTW) Our country is based on the foundation of equality for all. This isn't pre-civil war America; this is 2007, for crying out loud. This isn't supposed to happen any more. But it will continue to happen as long as there are folks out there that take the "oh, it's not so bad" attitude. Wake up, people. It's bad and we need to do something about it.

In Support of the Jena 6

Racism is alive and well here in this country, folks. And anyone who doesn't believe that is a gigantic fool.

Take Jena, Louisiana, for example. A town of nearly 3000 people that is 85% white and 12% African American.

A year ago, a new black student at Jena High School had the audacity to ask the school principal if he could sit under the oak tree to eat his lunch. The principal told him he could eat anywhere he wanted to. However, the white students there were under the impression that the tree was their sacred lunch ground. The reaction to this new student joining them for lunch was to hang three nooses from the tree the next morning. The three white student were originally expelled from school but the school board reversed the Principal's decision and only gave them each a three-day in-school suspension. It was the position of the school board that this was "just an innocent teenage prank".

Later on a black student was invited to a party attended by mostly white students. While at the party, the young man was beaten up by a 22 year-old wielding a beer bottle. The 22 year-old was charged with a misdemeanor and received probation.

Shortly after the beating at the party, the victim and a friend went to a local convenience store where two white students began to tease the young man about having been beaten. A scuffle broke out and one of the white students pulled a shotgun on the black student. He was able to wrestle the shotgun away and left with it. Rather than charging the white student with aggravated assault, the black student was arrested and charged with theft of the shotgun.

Somewhere in between all of this, there was a fire at the high school. No one knows who the offenders are.

The final event in all of this was a fight that broke out at the school between white and black students. During the fight, a white student was beaten and lost consciousness and was kicked repeatedly by black students. Six students, now known as the Jena 6 were arrested and charged with attempted second degree murder. It needs to be noted that the "lethal weapons" used by the black students were their shoes. It also needs to be noted that the white student was treated in the E/R and released that same afternoon. He was well enough to attend the ring ceremony at the high school that very evening.

The district attorney Reed Walters showed up at the school during all of this and had a meeting with the black students. At one point he took his pen out of his pocket, looked at them, and said, "I can end your life with one stroke of my pen." Walters has, however, continued to deny that these charges were racially motivated. In a press conference yesterday, he swore he tried to find something to charge the noose hangers with but just couldn't find anything. Hmmmmmmmm...as a former Louisiana law enforcement officer, might I suggest terrorizing? Ol' Reed Walters really wouldn't have had to dig that deep for that one. It's a felony, too.

Mychael Bell, the first of the Jena 6 to stand trial, was convicted of aggravated 2nd degree battery (a felony) in July. Today was supposed to have been his sentencing date. Thankfully, an appeals court overturned the verdict last week, citing that Bell should not have been tried as an adult. Of course, the D.A. is going to try him again.

Tens of thousands of folk descended on Jena today to protest this case. Among those in attendance was a large delegation from the church E and I attend, the Unitarian Church of Baton Rouge. I was not able to get off of work to attend but was proud that those who were able to were representing me as well. They are calling today's protest "the largest since the Civil Rights movement".

There was also a rally on the steps of the state capitol here in Baton Rouge this afternoon. Thanks to the horrible traffic in this town, I got there at the very tail end. There were only about 20 people left when I arrived. I did manage to take a couple of pictures, though.






You know, although I am often so very proud of my home state, things like this just make me hang my head in shame.

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

Tonight we will be treated to yet another Bu$h speech meant to drum up support for his ill-gotten war in Iraq.

Here are some of the lies we're expected to hear -

1. That the surge has been a success.


2. That he's going to follow General Petraeus' recommendation that some troops be drawn down.


3. That as many as 30,000 troops will be drawn down by next summer provided the surge continues to be a success.


4. That because of this Petraeus plan, 2200 Marines are coming out of Iraq as he speaks and will not be replaced.


5. That Iran is forcing us to move in a direction that might include invading them.

Now let's talk about the truth.

1. The surge has not been a success. The Pentagon has been cherry-picking the numbers of casualties.
   

   Senior U.S. officers in Baghdad disputed the accuracy and conclusions of the largely negative GAO report, which they said had adopted a flawed counting methodology used by the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency. Many of those conclusions were also reflected in last month's pessimistic National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq.
   
   The intelligence community has its own problems with military calculations. Intelligence analysts computing aggregate levels of violence against civilians for the NIE puzzled over how the military designated attacks as combat, sectarian or criminal, according to one senior intelligence official in Washington. "If a bullet went through the back of the head, it's sectarian," the official said. "If it went through the front, it's criminal."
   
   "Depending on which numbers you pick," he said, "you get a different outcome." Analysts found "trend lines . . . going in different directions" compared with previous years, when numbers in different categories varied widely but trended in the same direction. "It began to look like spaghetti."
   



2. The White House wrote the talking points for Petraeus. This is not his plan at all.


3. There may be 30,000 troops that will be home by next summer but it's not some big new plan. This will only bring troops back down to the level before the surge began. This is where the administration's slight of hand gets really good. You see, they're trying to make us feel wonderful about the fact that 30,000 troops may get to come home so that we forget that THE GOAL OF THE SURGE WAS TO END THE WAR NOT END THE SURGE. These troops have to come home anyway because they are going to be at the end of their 15 month deployment limit.


4. Those 2200 Marines were scheduled to come home anyway and had nothing to do with this so-called new plan.


5. It's the same song, second verse. Halliburton must be running low on funds and needing another country to reconstruct.

I know that Rachel Maddow just announced her new Bu$h speech drinking game for tonight but I won't be watching. I just can't bring myself to do it. Plus E won't let me. He's afraid I might break one of the TVs when I get mad and throw something at it..

Gonzo, Gonzo, Gone!

The rats continue to flee the sinking ship that is the Bu$h administration.
In light of today’s news, I am posting an open letter to Alberto Gonzales:

Farewell, Gonzo, I’m glad to see you go. It sucks when the people come for you, doesn’t it?

Let’s review the legacy you leave:

1. You wrote the opinion that allows Americans to torture prisoners of war against every Geneva Convention ever held.

2. You illegally fired eight U.S. Attorneys because they didn’t play Bu$h and Rove’s political games.

3. You and several Bu$h henchmen went to the hospital when John Ashcroft was very ill and bullied him into signing off on your wiretapping of Americans program; the very same program he’d refused to sign off on because he felt it was unconstitutional.

4. You have allowed the Justice Department to be run on politics rather than on justice.

5. You made a mockery of Congressional hearings.

All I can say is that Congress better continue their investigations. I hope to see you in prison before this is all over with.

In the wake of your leaving, it appears we may get ol’ Chertoff – the guy who did such a bang up job of running FEMA and sending help to the Gulf Coast region after Katrina and the guy who recently wanted the terror threat level raised because he had a “gut feeling” as well as being Rudy Gulliani’s big buddy and a big Bu$h yes man. I can hardly contain my excitement.

I’m sure you’re hurting today over having to give up your grand job. But I feel confident that in a couple of months you’ll be completely unable to recall any of it.

Tears of Sorrow for Minneapolis; Tears of Anger for Failing Infrastructure

As most of you know by now, last evening during rush hour the most highly traveled bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapsed sending approximately 50 vehicles plunging into the Mississippi River. The fatality count currently stands at four but there are upwards of 50 people still missing. There were over 75 injuries.

People of Minneapolis, please know that my heart is breaking for you. This is the type of tragedy that should never happen in America and that leads me to the heart of this post.

In days gone by tragedies like this didn't happen here in America. Our country has prided itself in the strength of its infrastructure since its inception. But, oh, how the times have changed. Our infrastructure is failing and we have conservative government to thank for it.

This all began in the early 80's during the Reagan administration. Reagan strutted around touting that "the nine most frightening words in the English language are 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.' " He set out to convince us that we needed a change; that all the Democrats did was "tax and spend". He proclaimed Reaganonmics would fix all of that - tax less but keep the same level of service. He began cutting taxes all the while growing the largest deficit in the history of this country. The conservative Congress continued the chanting, "Less government, lower taxes" and it enchanted the voters as if a magician had waved a pocket watch before their eyes.

So for over 20 years now the conservatives have based their campaigns on making taxes lower and have convinced the taxpayers that they were actually slowing the growth of the government in the process, which was an out-and-out lie. Government was shrinking in places like infrastructure and health care and growing exponentially in places like defense.

Fast forward 20+ years and we have the Bu$h administration - Mr. Tax Cut, himself. He cut back our taxes alright then lied us into a war that we are currently bleeding $4,000.00 per second on. That's right, I said "per SECOND". (You can find the full report in .pdf form here) We are also spending $12 million per month on infrastructure in Iraq and we all know what a fine mess that is. He's grown defense so much that this country now spends more for defense than all the other nations in the world combined. Add to that the fact that Bu$h has now amassed the largest deficit yet; more than all administrations before him combined, including Reagan's mess. With us paying less taxes, our children and grandchildren will be footing this bill for years to come plus having to rebuild the infrastructure.

Let's talk specifically about that bridge in Minneapolis now. It was built 40 years ago in 1967. In 1967, the U.S. population was just over 200 million. We surpassed 300 million last year - a growth of 50%. The number of cars and trucks that travel the highways here has grown immensely and those vehicles have all gotten bigger and heavier through the years.

I happen to live at the opposite end of the same river this bridge spanned. Twice a day I cross a very similar bridge here in Baton Rouge. Our "new" bridge is a year younger than the bridge in Minneapolis. It's probably the most traveled bridge here in Louisiana, as it is part of I10, our state's major thoroughfare. Today as I sat in rush hour traffic on top of that bridge, I thought about Minneapolis and realized that the same thing could have just as easily happened here and I got angry. Angry at the federal administration that cares more about oil and war than it does infrastructure and angry at our own governor here in Louisiana. Two weeks ago she went on a vetoing spree and put a big red X on 13 bills the legislature passed. While I support her vetoing things such as vouchers for private schools and ridiculous tax cuts, one of her vetoes was this:

Senate Bill 146 by Sen. Reggie Dupré, D-Houma, would have created a new Windfall Highway, Infrastructure and Protection Fund with excess mineral revenues. The money would have been dedicated to project construction.

“I am concerned about dedicating yet more revenues in the state’s budget,” Blanco said.

Dupré said the veto was not an easy decision for Blanco to make because people in her administration were divided on the issue.

Well, I'm certainly glad to know that at least some folks working in the governor's office are thinking clearly. The state legislators have until midnight tonight to vote whether or not they are coming back for a veto session to try to override Blanco's decisions.

I tried to find a good photo of our bridge during rush hour but all I found was this one. This is the ramp coming down from the bridge with the upper level in the background. This was taken during the Katrina evacuation but trust me, all it takes is one good wreck to make it look like this during rush hour.

All this administration talks about is Homeland Security. Homeland security has to include infrastructure and, to date, it hasn't. I make a pretty decent salary and a good chunk of it goes to taxes every month. I quit complaining about how much I pay in taxes when I realized all the things my tax dollars were responsible for. I would rather pay the same amount of taxes knowing that I can cross that bridge safely every day than have a few dollars back in my pocket and cross in fear.

Now get ready because by tomorrow when the conservatives wake up from all their crying over the Minneapolis bridge failure, they're going to start pointing fingers at liberals for making this a political issue. But I tell you it HAS to be a political issue in order to keep this from happening anywhere in America again.

Minneapolis, I am so very sorry that you had to suffer this horrible tragedy. It is my hope that it wakes us all up from a 20+ year trance and makes us realize that paying taxes in order to insure things like a safe infrastructure isn't the evil Reagan and his minions have tricked us into believing it to be all these years.