Spin

Ohio's supermax on trial

Three years ago, the American Civil Liberties Union won a significant legal victory when a federal district court ruled that the state must follow strict due-process guidelines before sending prisoners to Ohio's only supermaximum-security in Youngstown. The number of inmates at the Ohio State Penitentiary dropped dramatically after a court-ordered review of individual cases determined that two-thirds of the prisoners did not meet the criteria for such restrictive confinement. "The supermax was built to hold 504 prisoners," reported Staughton Lynd, the ACLU's counsel on the case. "There are now roughly 250. So, you can say we've very nearly cut the population in half."

The future of Ohio's only supermaximum-security prison may hinge upon a related hearing's outcome.

In an Aug. 31-Sept. 2 hearing before U.S. District Judge James Gwin in Cleveland, the ACLU attempted to block a recent state proposal to move Ohio's death-row from Mansfield to Youngstown. The ACLU has argued that the wholesale transfer of approximately 190 death-row prisoners violates the concept of individualized hearings. The Berkeley Wright Institute

Firing Michael Brown is not enough. How about Bush and Cheney?

Calls for firing Michael Brown are understandable. Aptly described as “the blithering idiot in charge of FEMA” by columnist Maureen Dowd a few days ago, he’s an easy and appropriate target.

President Bush met with Brown last Friday and publicly told him: “You’re doing a heck of a job.”

In the grisly wake of the hurricane, Brown’s job performance cannot be separated from Bush’s job performance. To similar deadly effect, the president has brought to bear on people in New Orleans the same qualities that he has inflicted on people in Iraq -- refusal to acknowledge basic realities, lethally misplaced priorities, lack of compassion (cue the guitar), and overarching arrogance.

The Bush administration is guilty of criminal negligence that killed thousands of people last week.

Estimates of the death toll in New Orleans are now in the vicinity of 10,000 people. Whatever the number, many would be alive today if the federal government had given minimal priority to evacuation of those who had no way of exiting the city.

Now, key issues involve accountability and decency.

What if...

http://mattbors.com

Waiting for the outside world

In the "old days" of the U.S. peace movement, when many people focused on the threat of a global nuclear "exchange" an organization called Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) postulated what would happen if a major American city was actually blasted by an atomic bomb.

The doctors described utterly horrific scenarios extending far beyond the numbers of dead and severely wounded. In plain words they described what the few survivors would experience: a landscape that not only had sustained unimaginable casualties, but which had also suffered the destruction of its transportation and health care infrastructure. No ambulances would arrive with lights and sirens to whisk away the suffering. Doctors, nurses, blood plasma, pain killers, antibiotics, bandages - all would be destroyed along with the hospitals and highways.

As difficult as it was to picture such a reality, the hardest thing to imagine was that in a nuclear war there would be no "outside" from where help will come. When every major city suffers the same fate as yours, no one "out there" can help you. "Out there" is all gone. Instantly, in

Missing the forest for the uprooted floating trees

The trillion dollar question has long been: How do we get the major media outlets in this country to notice that the White House is run by oil barons who launch illegal wars based on lies, defund everything else, and destroy the environment at every opportunity – and that this is a single, connected story?

In June we garnered a bit of interest in the Downing Street Memos story, which then dried up and went away.  Then there was the Karl Rove scandal, which dried up and went away.  It's not that the actual events went away.  More evidence continued to come out, protests continued to grow, congressional action by progressive Dems and brave Republicans accelerated.  But the media lost interest.

Next came the Cindy Sheehan story.  This one was such a big splash that the media announced the birth of an anti-war movement (which was born simply because the media had, after all these years, decided to acknowledge its existence – at least briefly).  And now we have the Katrina story.

The Miseducation of Mr. George Bush.

It is not chutzpah to fire your advisors- it is stupidity. I don't know where you learned it but you learned it wrong. You had some pretty good advisers there George telling you not to go into Iraq -some seriously starred Generals I believe. Even your Dad had better sense. I see a pattern. Instead of respecting better wisdom and higher authority, you just fire it-assuming there could be no higher wisdom or authority than yours. Isn't that the very definition of arrogant A-holedom? Then classically after the catastrophic mistake you engage in the head scratching wondering what went wrong. Maybe we didn't do the Iraq thing exactly right when Saddam had no WMDs and no Niger yellow cake and we kind of fudged the numbers and photos at the UN and lied to the country in the State of the Union whipping everyone up on an orange alert which even Tom Ridge knows is a load of horse dung (which you want to spin into trivial insignificant oblivion after lying through your teeth.) Is Homer Simpson wearing a T-Shirt with your face on it- because you are the Duh-Ya THINK?? President. No worse- you are the "I am the Poster boy of malicious

Ohio recount lawsuit set for trial; election workers indicted

On Tuesday August 30, a federal district judge set a trial date for the Green Party’s Ohio Recount lawsuit and indictments were handed down against two Cuyahoga County elections officials for their roles in the bungled election audit.  The timing was coincidental; the two actions are not related though they both stem from charges that the recount was conducted in violation of state and federal law.

Judge James Carr set the trial date for August 22, 2006.  The lawsuit was initiated by Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb and his Libertarian counterpart, Michael Badnarik.

Bush administration and New Orleans

Why is the Bush administration so slow to respond to the human suffering on the Gulf Coast? Why do they not practice the corporal works of mercy? Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, harbor the stranger, visit the sick, visit those in prison, bury the dead. And Bush calls himself a Christian? Ye shall know the tree by its fruit.

Richard Hayes Phillips
Canton, NY 13617

Katrina: A tragedy made worse

Reverend Jesse Jackson is working in the Louisiana region with the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Last week, Rev. Jackson and a Rainbow/PUSH delegation visited Venezuela, and are grateful for the relief aid offered by President Hugo Chavez. Below is Rev. Jackson's statement on the tragedy.

CHICAGO- The Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr., the founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition released the following statement regarding the tragedy caused by Hurricane Katrina:

All of us share the pain of those hit so hard by Hurricane Katrina. All of us will do what we can to help ease the burden of the families who have lost their loved ones, their homes, and even their towns and cities.

Even our amigos y amigas in Venezuela have generously offered their assistance. President Hugo Chavez himself told me in Caracas earlier this week, as we watched the flooding on television, that Venezuela would provide millions in aid, as a gesture of compassion from the people of Venezuela, to ease the pain and suffering of the victims of Katrina. We thank President Chavez and the Venezuelan people for their generosity.

Pages

Subscribe to Freepress.org RSS