Over the course of the past generation American oligarchs recreated the world in their image. Those efforts insidiously put in place processes that systematically dispossessed people almost everywhere of rights, property, wealth, and perhaps even their pursuit of happiness.
We as a people have been very fortunate to have up to now what some consider the fourth branch of government---an independent press. The founders considered freedom of the press so important it made the top of the list of the Bill of Rights. The press, in recent times, media---television, radio and the Internet----have been the brave, attentive and aware watchdogs over our “elected officials.”
At the end of this month, 30 April 2010, to be precise, one of the great journalist-watchdogs and more importantly national treasures, Bill Moyers Journal, will end its presence on PBS as a weekly broadcast. It will however, continue online. To be certain Bill has pointed us to those whom I hope will continue the effort in the same tireless manner.
In last night’s (Friday 16 April 2010) installment Bill interviewed, Simon Johnson and James Kwak “two of the nation's most respected economic experts and authors of the new book 13 BANKERS: THE WALL STREET TAKEOVER AND THE NEXT FINANCIAL MELTDOWN.
The broadcast was riveting, informative and for some, no doubt disturbing. If it is disturbing it is because many Americans would much rather believe the diatribe and invective that passes for news and information.
Just after the Great Depression the efforts of some Americans, Franklin Delano Roosevelt among them, attempted to level the playing field and “provide for the general welfare” of Americans, you know, like it says in the constitution.
Since that time the elite have done a sensational selling job. Their efforts have painted liberals as evil, greedy capitalists as good for America and the world and repackaged our republic as a democracy.
Through ceaseless efforts the oligarchs and their minions clawed back the little prosperity the average American received at the end of the Great Depression.
In the 1980’s Reagan capitalists worked hard to undo decades old regulations that had tied the hands of the greedy since just after the Great Depression.
In the 1990’s, those efforts were lead by Phil Gramm and his wife, Wendy. Their efforts with the complicity of our “elected officials” in Washington D. C. laid the groundwork for what would only a decade later bring us the Great Recession we now experience.
Last night’s installment of the Journal dissects the efforts of the oligarchs that have so daunted our economy and lives.
In the end, no matter what legislative effort is made bankers will simply sit back, read the legislative efforts and then pay professionals to find their way around the legislation. The new and improved "Maginot Line" short of Glass-Steagal robustness is destined to fail.
The majority of Americans for their part too busy watching reality television, mindlessly barbecuing and shopping the malls are likely to perceive lame legislative efforts as meaningful.
The few (and they are few) who are doing their very teabagger best to voice their disenchantment are the egregious, uninformed, meanspirited and sometimes violent fringe. Their disenchantment is with anything that resembles things or ideas humanitarian.
On the main this is a lagely unmendable misfortune.
BILL MOYERS: “Let me get to the blunt conclusion you reach in your book. You say that two years after the devastating financial crisis of '08 our country is still at the mercy of an oligarchy that is bigger, more profitable, and more resistant to regulation than ever. Correct?
SIMON JOHNSON: Absolutely correct, Bill. The big banks became stronger as a result of the bailout. That may seem extraordinary, but it's really true. They're turning that increased economic clout into more political power. And they're using that political power to go out and take the same sort of risks that got us into disaster in September 2008.
BILL MOYERS: And your definition of oligarchy is?
SIMON JOHNSON: Oligarchy is just- it's a very simple, straightforward idea from Aristotle. It's political power based on economic power. And it's the rise of the banks in economic terms, which we document at length, that it'd turn into political power. And they then feed that back into more deregulation, more opportunities to go out and take reckless risks and-- and capture huge amounts of money.
BILL MOYERS: And you say that these this oligarchy consists of six megabanks. What are the six banks?
JAMES KWAK: They are Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo.
More: Bill Moyers interview: Simon Johnson and James Kwak: 13 Bankers
Bill Moyers interview with William K. Black
Bexar County: Public Policy: 13 Bankers
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Of bootlickers, lapdogs, rockstar wannabes and income inequality, poverty and race
Despite the efforts of great Americans over the past four decades, income inequality in our republic is greater than ever. For those who entered the labor market 40 years ago---income has increased not at all. For the tiny fraction (1%) at the top income has increased almost 400 times over what it was 40 years ago.
Last night on Bill Moyers Journal (PBS) Bill discussed the issue of income inequality in America.
Bryan Stevenson and Michelle Alexander
"Welcome to the Journal. On this weekend 42 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated -- gunned down in Memphis, Tennessee. Many of us still have the images etched in painful memory -- Dr. King standing with colleagues on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, the next day lying there mortally wounded, his aides pointing in the direction of the rifle shot."
Doctor King was in Memphis to support the garbage workers in their struggle for a living wage. At the very core of the economic and financial condition we live in America today are the efforts of those whose generous incomes are paid by taxpayers. These are the bootlicking, lapdogs, the rockstar wannabes we know as our elected representavies. Our representatives are beholden to the oligarchs who made certain there was enough campaing money for them to win.
Once our representatives "win" we lose. Though you voted for them, their real support came from those with money whose interests the elected representative must now protect.
Though bipartisan cooperation is rare these days---it was a bipartisan effort that repealed the laws that lead to the “meltdown” of our economic system but made a ton of money for the oligarchs.
“The year before the repeal [of the Glass-Steagall Act] , sub-prime loans were just five percent of all mortgage lending.[citation needed] By the time the credit crisis peaked in 2008, they were approaching 30 percent.[citation needed] This correlation is not necessarily an indication of causation however, as there are several other significant events that have impacted the sub-prime market during that time. These include the adoption of mark-to-market accounting, implementation of the Basel Accords, the rise of adjustable rate mortgages etc.[19]”
“The bill that ultimately repealed the [Glass-Steagall] Act was introduced in the Senate by Phil Gramm (Republican of Texas) and in the House of Representatives by Jim Leach (R-Iowa) in 1999. The bills were passed by a Republican majority, basically following party lines by a 54–44 vote in the Senate[12] and by a bi-partisan 343–86 vote in the House of Representatives.[13] After passing both the Senate and House the bill was moved to a conference committee to work out the differences between the Senate and House versions. The final bill resolving the differences was passed in the Senate 90–8 (one not voting) and in the House: 362–57 (15 not voting). The legislation was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on November 12, 1999.[14]”
Bill Moyers closed last nights edition of Journal with the following sobering statistics.
"Some 30 million workers are unemployed or under-employed, and for those still working, the median wage today is about $32 thousand a year, which is why so many people are working two jobs trying to make ends meet.
Meanwhile, as the economist Robert Reich recently reminded us, in the 1950's and 60's, the CEO's of major American companies took home about 25 to 30 times the wages of the typical worker. By 1980 the big company CEO took home roughly 40 times the worker's wage. By 1990, it was 100 times. And by 2007, executives at the largest American companies received about 350 times the pay of the average employee. In many of the top corporations, the chief executive earns more every day than the average worker gets paid in a year.
And then there's the financial world. Case in point: Ken Lewis, who at the end of 2009 retired as CEO of Bank of America. Only recently did we learn that, not long after his company received $45 billion in taxpayer dollars from the big bailout, Lewis raked in more than $73 million in pension benefits and stock, and was given an insurance policy worth $10 million to his beneficiaries.
But compared to some people, Ken Lewis is a piker. Hedge fund managers, who bet that taxpayers -- you -- would pay to keep the banks from collapsing, hit the jackpot. Last year, one of them alone made a cool four billion dollars. The top 25 scooped up a total of 25.3 billion.
So for those who played their cards right, there were profits galore to be made from the bailout. Just this week, the non-profit Center for Media and Democracy reported that federal agencies poured out a total of $4.6 trillion dollars “ trillion dollars - to keep the banks and Wall Street from meltdown. Those financial institutions have yet to pay back about two trillion of that, but who's counting?"
Bill---maybe that's the problem---almost no one is counting.
BILL MOYERS JOURNAL
Preview: Simon Johnson & Rep. Marcy Kaptur
When Barack Obama won the presidential election I was quick to remind my friends and his supporters to temper their “hope.” “No one can be elected president in America today who has any interest, desire or ability to alter the status quo.” That’s is a promise.
Notwithstanding, many Americans (some fairly lucid) still think things have changed or are about to change. Wrong---or at least not for the better for Americans---for the insurance industry---you bet.
Glass-Steagall Act anyone? Not likely.
More: Glass-Steagall Act
2008 All Over Again?
Diane Rehm Show (Simon Johnson: 13 Bankers)
Contradicting Secretary Geithner
Bill Moyers Journal Simon Johnson and Representative Marcy Kaptur
Bootlickers, lapdogs, rockstar wannabes and income inequality, poverty and race
The New Jim Crow
Last night on Bill Moyers Journal (PBS) Bill discussed the issue of income inequality in America.
Bryan Stevenson and Michelle Alexander
"Welcome to the Journal. On this weekend 42 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated -- gunned down in Memphis, Tennessee. Many of us still have the images etched in painful memory -- Dr. King standing with colleagues on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, the next day lying there mortally wounded, his aides pointing in the direction of the rifle shot."
Doctor King was in Memphis to support the garbage workers in their struggle for a living wage. At the very core of the economic and financial condition we live in America today are the efforts of those whose generous incomes are paid by taxpayers. These are the bootlicking, lapdogs, the rockstar wannabes we know as our elected representavies. Our representatives are beholden to the oligarchs who made certain there was enough campaing money for them to win.
Once our representatives "win" we lose. Though you voted for them, their real support came from those with money whose interests the elected representative must now protect.
Though bipartisan cooperation is rare these days---it was a bipartisan effort that repealed the laws that lead to the “meltdown” of our economic system but made a ton of money for the oligarchs.
“The year before the repeal [of the Glass-Steagall Act] , sub-prime loans were just five percent of all mortgage lending.[citation needed] By the time the credit crisis peaked in 2008, they were approaching 30 percent.[citation needed] This correlation is not necessarily an indication of causation however, as there are several other significant events that have impacted the sub-prime market during that time. These include the adoption of mark-to-market accounting, implementation of the Basel Accords, the rise of adjustable rate mortgages etc.[19]”
“The bill that ultimately repealed the [Glass-Steagall] Act was introduced in the Senate by Phil Gramm (Republican of Texas) and in the House of Representatives by Jim Leach (R-Iowa) in 1999. The bills were passed by a Republican majority, basically following party lines by a 54–44 vote in the Senate[12] and by a bi-partisan 343–86 vote in the House of Representatives.[13] After passing both the Senate and House the bill was moved to a conference committee to work out the differences between the Senate and House versions. The final bill resolving the differences was passed in the Senate 90–8 (one not voting) and in the House: 362–57 (15 not voting). The legislation was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on November 12, 1999.[14]”
Bill Moyers closed last nights edition of Journal with the following sobering statistics.
"Some 30 million workers are unemployed or under-employed, and for those still working, the median wage today is about $32 thousand a year, which is why so many people are working two jobs trying to make ends meet.
Meanwhile, as the economist Robert Reich recently reminded us, in the 1950's and 60's, the CEO's of major American companies took home about 25 to 30 times the wages of the typical worker. By 1980 the big company CEO took home roughly 40 times the worker's wage. By 1990, it was 100 times. And by 2007, executives at the largest American companies received about 350 times the pay of the average employee. In many of the top corporations, the chief executive earns more every day than the average worker gets paid in a year.
And then there's the financial world. Case in point: Ken Lewis, who at the end of 2009 retired as CEO of Bank of America. Only recently did we learn that, not long after his company received $45 billion in taxpayer dollars from the big bailout, Lewis raked in more than $73 million in pension benefits and stock, and was given an insurance policy worth $10 million to his beneficiaries.
But compared to some people, Ken Lewis is a piker. Hedge fund managers, who bet that taxpayers -- you -- would pay to keep the banks from collapsing, hit the jackpot. Last year, one of them alone made a cool four billion dollars. The top 25 scooped up a total of 25.3 billion.
So for those who played their cards right, there were profits galore to be made from the bailout. Just this week, the non-profit Center for Media and Democracy reported that federal agencies poured out a total of $4.6 trillion dollars “ trillion dollars - to keep the banks and Wall Street from meltdown. Those financial institutions have yet to pay back about two trillion of that, but who's counting?"
Bill---maybe that's the problem---almost no one is counting.
BILL MOYERS JOURNAL
Preview: Simon Johnson & Rep. Marcy Kaptur
When Barack Obama won the presidential election I was quick to remind my friends and his supporters to temper their “hope.” “No one can be elected president in America today who has any interest, desire or ability to alter the status quo.” That’s is a promise.
Notwithstanding, many Americans (some fairly lucid) still think things have changed or are about to change. Wrong---or at least not for the better for Americans---for the insurance industry---you bet.
Glass-Steagall Act anyone? Not likely.
More: Glass-Steagall Act
2008 All Over Again?
Diane Rehm Show (Simon Johnson: 13 Bankers)
Contradicting Secretary Geithner
Bill Moyers Journal Simon Johnson and Representative Marcy Kaptur
Bootlickers, lapdogs, rockstar wannabes and income inequality, poverty and race
The New Jim Crow
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Healthcare insurance reform?
Interestingly and tellingly on the important issue of healthcare insurance reform our president chose to stay above the fray when he had lots of time, a super majority in the congress, a real reform bill with the public option in it and a mandate from the folk to reform healthcare insurance.
Now a year later, a narrow margin even with reconciliation, a riled folk in no mood to suffer fools especially the lackluster ones in congress, almost nothing worth passing in the bill and no public option and an evaporating mandate the president decides to go for it. I’m not buying it. This is the ploy, the tack experienced politicians who want to defeat a measure have used forever.
Done correctly it appears to the folk the president is fighting to have a law passed. While it is true---it’s true only after having already worked to kill any iteration of it worth passing.
For the past year the insurance industry has poured millions of dollars into the effort to defeat any chance of meaningful healthcare insurance reform that might lead to universal healthcare for millions of uninsured Americans. Six lobbyists for every member of congress continually work the will of the insurance industry as they have for a century or more.
San Antonio is perennially in the fat city list. Obesity leads to many disabling, crippling diseases. Those range from diabetes and hypertension to kidney failure and heart attacks. This should be a very relevant issue but none of our elected representatives is talking about it in a city that touts its “medical center.”
Citizens now face a dilemma---we must decide whether it is better to pass the present version of healthcare “reform” and have a watered-down almost meaningless iteration of what it should be or whether at this point it is more critical than ever to insist on the public option. This question was discussed recently on Bill Moyers Journal. Bill’s guests are informed and engaging.
Wendell Potter and Doctor Marcia Angell provide two views on the issue of healthcare insurance reform even as time runs out for any chance of meaningful reform.
Wendell Potter left his successful career as the head of Public Relations for CIGNA, one of the nation's largest insurers, and decided to speak out against the industry after attending “a "health care expedition," a makeshift health clinic set up at a fairgrounds, and he tells Bill Moyers, "It was absolutely stunning. When I walked through the fairground gates, I saw hundreds of people [yes Americans] lined up, in the rain. It was raining that day. Lined up, waiting to get care, in animal stalls. Animal stalls."
Doctor Marcia Angell is “currently serving as a senior lecturer in the department of social medicine at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Angell has devoted her life to researching, writing and speaking on topics incorporating medical ethics, health policy, the nature of medical evidence, the interface of medicine and the law, and end-of-life care.”
Whichever side of the issue you are on become informed. Give a damn about your fellow Americans---documented or not care to do good to “promote the general welfare”---like it says in the preamble to our Constitution. Besides, it makes for good public policy. Keep in mind that documentation doesn’t immunize anyone from anything.
Dump the current healthcare bill 1 of 2
Dump the current healthcare bill 2 of 2
Bill Moyers: Healthcare Insurance Reform: Doctor Marcia Angell
Corporate profits before patients?
Health insurance reform reality check
Wendell Potter on Profits Before Patients
Texans sorely lacking health care insurance
What does the "public" in "public option" really mean?
2009 Fattest Cities in America
More than 1 in 4 in Texas lack health insurance
Money-Driven Medicine
Now a year later, a narrow margin even with reconciliation, a riled folk in no mood to suffer fools especially the lackluster ones in congress, almost nothing worth passing in the bill and no public option and an evaporating mandate the president decides to go for it. I’m not buying it. This is the ploy, the tack experienced politicians who want to defeat a measure have used forever.
Done correctly it appears to the folk the president is fighting to have a law passed. While it is true---it’s true only after having already worked to kill any iteration of it worth passing.
For the past year the insurance industry has poured millions of dollars into the effort to defeat any chance of meaningful healthcare insurance reform that might lead to universal healthcare for millions of uninsured Americans. Six lobbyists for every member of congress continually work the will of the insurance industry as they have for a century or more.
San Antonio is perennially in the fat city list. Obesity leads to many disabling, crippling diseases. Those range from diabetes and hypertension to kidney failure and heart attacks. This should be a very relevant issue but none of our elected representatives is talking about it in a city that touts its “medical center.”
Citizens now face a dilemma---we must decide whether it is better to pass the present version of healthcare “reform” and have a watered-down almost meaningless iteration of what it should be or whether at this point it is more critical than ever to insist on the public option. This question was discussed recently on Bill Moyers Journal. Bill’s guests are informed and engaging.
Wendell Potter and Doctor Marcia Angell provide two views on the issue of healthcare insurance reform even as time runs out for any chance of meaningful reform.
Wendell Potter left his successful career as the head of Public Relations for CIGNA, one of the nation's largest insurers, and decided to speak out against the industry after attending “a "health care expedition," a makeshift health clinic set up at a fairgrounds, and he tells Bill Moyers, "It was absolutely stunning. When I walked through the fairground gates, I saw hundreds of people [yes Americans] lined up, in the rain. It was raining that day. Lined up, waiting to get care, in animal stalls. Animal stalls."
Doctor Marcia Angell is “currently serving as a senior lecturer in the department of social medicine at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Angell has devoted her life to researching, writing and speaking on topics incorporating medical ethics, health policy, the nature of medical evidence, the interface of medicine and the law, and end-of-life care.”
Whichever side of the issue you are on become informed. Give a damn about your fellow Americans---documented or not care to do good to “promote the general welfare”---like it says in the preamble to our Constitution. Besides, it makes for good public policy. Keep in mind that documentation doesn’t immunize anyone from anything.
Dump the current healthcare bill 1 of 2
Dump the current healthcare bill 2 of 2
Bill Moyers: Healthcare Insurance Reform: Doctor Marcia Angell
Corporate profits before patients?
Health insurance reform reality check
Wendell Potter on Profits Before Patients
Texans sorely lacking health care insurance
What does the "public" in "public option" really mean?
2009 Fattest Cities in America
More than 1 in 4 in Texas lack health insurance
Money-Driven Medicine
Sunday, March 7, 2010
The making of public policy: Bexar County: via Harris County this time
Sound the alarm!! It is matter of great concern!! Our country is being taken from us!!
What? The death penalty unconstitutional? The Dickens you say?
“A state district judge in Houston has granted a portion of a pretrial motion declaring the death penalty unconstitutional, a decision the Texas attorney general called “an act of unabashed judicial activism.”
“Judicial activism” is code the compassionate conservative religiosities use to mean anyone not hateful, not mean-spirited, not racist, not homophobic---you know in other words, “liberal.”
In the case at bar, defendant John Edward Green, Jr. is accused of “fatally shooting a Houston woman and wounding her sister on June 16, 2008.”
The facts in death penalty cases are seldom pretty or pleasant. If we become wrapped around that axel we do not get to the question at bar nor the issue raised by the defense.
The question is as Green’s attorneys argue whether or not the “law providing for the procedures surrounding instructions to a jury in the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure violate the Eighth and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment and guaranteeing the right of due process.” If illegal then it violates the constitution.
Judge Kevin Fine found the statute in question violates due process guaranteed by the Constitution.
Not to put too fine a point on it the judge stated in his ruling that “it is safe to assume innocent people have been executed.”
In Texas Red that is both an understatement and a given.
The state’s “official” Inquisition Team immediately went into sound bite mode.
“Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott offered to help the district attorney appeal Fine’s decision, which Abbott said ignored U.S. Supreme Court precedent.” Adding, “We regret that the court’s legally baseless order unnecessarily delays justice and closure for the victim’s family including her two children, who witnessed their mother’s brutal murder,”
“Gov. Rick Perry joined Abbott and District Attorney Patricia Lykos in slamming Fine’s ruling. “Like the vast majority of Texans, I support the death penalty as a fitting and constitutional punishment for the most heinous crimes,” Perry said. “This is a clear violation of public trust and I fully support the Harris County District Attorney’s decision to pursue all remedies.”
Of course Perry being a paragon of all that is good and right would be unlikely to say anything else. (See: Willingham)
We all know that without killing someone in reaction to a violent crime means there can be no justice or closure. If I’m not mistaken it is one of Christianity’s central themes. Lest the compassionate conservative religiosities send out a hit squad as religiosities of all stripes like to do I’m being facetious about collective murder being Christ-like. Of course going by what we see and hear the religiosities say we’d never know it.
The gist of the issue is that when people say the death penalty is legal and that all they want is justice they are not speaking accurately. What those people really want is not justice they want “revenge.”
The history of the death penalty in the world (and this republic as well) is as tempestuous as the history of nature and this planet---that is to say violent, unpredictable and extremely outrageous.
Don't forget that in 1972 (Furman vs Georgia) the supremes ruled the death penalty to be "cruel and unusual punishment." The high court found the "statutes" as written in that case were unconstitutional. So the compassionate, conservative religiosities around the country immediately began looking for ways to constitutionally kill as a state and nation. It didn't take long.
In 1977 not quite five years after Furman vs Georgia a case made it to the supremes that was found legally sufficient. Compassionate conservative religiosities around the nation breathed a sigh of relief, rejoiced---they could legally kill again! Just as god intended!!! In 1982 ten years after Furman the first lethal injection murder was committed by the nation---and yes you guessed it---in Texas.
The majority in Texas Red are a hateful lot. Our prisons are little more than an extension of our apartheid education system. No one in prison is rehabilitated.
When a person is released from prison they are almost always worse people than when they went in.
Our core systems fail the most vulnerable of our citizens.
When the Green case is appealed by the state, the supremes as presently constituted---that is rightwing, goper activists aka majority compassionate conservative religiosities who want nothing more than to allow compassionate conservatives to collectively kill someone---almost anyone---and culpability is of little consideration they will likely rule in favor of the death penalty regardless of the Constitutionality of the law in question.
Once again this calls to mind the writings of James Madison in the Federalist Papers in which he stated that majority rule is tyranny by majority.
In the history of this nation the majority population have believed slavery a good thing, a good public education for “whites only” (that goes for lunch counters, drinking fountains, restrooms and etc).
Ours is likely an unmendable misfortune.
More: Houston judge declares death penalty unconstitutional
History of the death penalty
George Carlin: Prisons
Innocence Project
Trial by Fire: Did Texas Execute an Innocent Man?
America's Apartheid Public Education System
What? The death penalty unconstitutional? The Dickens you say?
“A state district judge in Houston has granted a portion of a pretrial motion declaring the death penalty unconstitutional, a decision the Texas attorney general called “an act of unabashed judicial activism.”
“Judicial activism” is code the compassionate conservative religiosities use to mean anyone not hateful, not mean-spirited, not racist, not homophobic---you know in other words, “liberal.”
In the case at bar, defendant John Edward Green, Jr. is accused of “fatally shooting a Houston woman and wounding her sister on June 16, 2008.”
The facts in death penalty cases are seldom pretty or pleasant. If we become wrapped around that axel we do not get to the question at bar nor the issue raised by the defense.
The question is as Green’s attorneys argue whether or not the “law providing for the procedures surrounding instructions to a jury in the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure violate the Eighth and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment and guaranteeing the right of due process.” If illegal then it violates the constitution.
Judge Kevin Fine found the statute in question violates due process guaranteed by the Constitution.
Not to put too fine a point on it the judge stated in his ruling that “it is safe to assume innocent people have been executed.”
In Texas Red that is both an understatement and a given.
The state’s “official” Inquisition Team immediately went into sound bite mode.
“Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott offered to help the district attorney appeal Fine’s decision, which Abbott said ignored U.S. Supreme Court precedent.” Adding, “We regret that the court’s legally baseless order unnecessarily delays justice and closure for the victim’s family including her two children, who witnessed their mother’s brutal murder,”
“Gov. Rick Perry joined Abbott and District Attorney Patricia Lykos in slamming Fine’s ruling. “Like the vast majority of Texans, I support the death penalty as a fitting and constitutional punishment for the most heinous crimes,” Perry said. “This is a clear violation of public trust and I fully support the Harris County District Attorney’s decision to pursue all remedies.”
Of course Perry being a paragon of all that is good and right would be unlikely to say anything else. (See: Willingham)
We all know that without killing someone in reaction to a violent crime means there can be no justice or closure. If I’m not mistaken it is one of Christianity’s central themes. Lest the compassionate conservative religiosities send out a hit squad as religiosities of all stripes like to do I’m being facetious about collective murder being Christ-like. Of course going by what we see and hear the religiosities say we’d never know it.
The gist of the issue is that when people say the death penalty is legal and that all they want is justice they are not speaking accurately. What those people really want is not justice they want “revenge.”
The history of the death penalty in the world (and this republic as well) is as tempestuous as the history of nature and this planet---that is to say violent, unpredictable and extremely outrageous.
Don't forget that in 1972 (Furman vs Georgia) the supremes ruled the death penalty to be "cruel and unusual punishment." The high court found the "statutes" as written in that case were unconstitutional. So the compassionate, conservative religiosities around the country immediately began looking for ways to constitutionally kill as a state and nation. It didn't take long.
In 1977 not quite five years after Furman vs Georgia a case made it to the supremes that was found legally sufficient. Compassionate conservative religiosities around the nation breathed a sigh of relief, rejoiced---they could legally kill again! Just as god intended!!! In 1982 ten years after Furman the first lethal injection murder was committed by the nation---and yes you guessed it---in Texas.
The majority in Texas Red are a hateful lot. Our prisons are little more than an extension of our apartheid education system. No one in prison is rehabilitated.
When a person is released from prison they are almost always worse people than when they went in.
Our core systems fail the most vulnerable of our citizens.
When the Green case is appealed by the state, the supremes as presently constituted---that is rightwing, goper activists aka majority compassionate conservative religiosities who want nothing more than to allow compassionate conservatives to collectively kill someone---almost anyone---and culpability is of little consideration they will likely rule in favor of the death penalty regardless of the Constitutionality of the law in question.
Once again this calls to mind the writings of James Madison in the Federalist Papers in which he stated that majority rule is tyranny by majority.
In the history of this nation the majority population have believed slavery a good thing, a good public education for “whites only” (that goes for lunch counters, drinking fountains, restrooms and etc).
Ours is likely an unmendable misfortune.
More: Houston judge declares death penalty unconstitutional
History of the death penalty
George Carlin: Prisons
Innocence Project
Trial by Fire: Did Texas Execute an Innocent Man?
America's Apartheid Public Education System
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Bexar County and (Texas Red) Primary Election Results
Should you entertain any doubts about the philosophical direction of the majority fine folk of the Lone Star state---Tuesday’s primary election results should disabuse you.
It is amazing that candidates with the high visibility of Hutchison and Perry take credit for conditions in Texas---on purpose.
Perry talks about how much business he has brought to the state. Yet our unemployment rates continue to climb. Oh and by the way, though the state needs the money to pay unemployment benefits Perry rejected federal money for that purpose.
Interestingly, though Perry claims credit for bringing business to Texas it seems those businesses are the only ones who have benefited receiving generous tax breaks even as the average working stiff in Texas earns only chump change. Texas is after all a “right to work state.”
The only jobs our leaders created last year were created (No matter what Perry tries to insist) by the stimulus package.
Texas lost over 300,000 jobs last year; about one-third that many, 89,000 were created by the stimulus. Perry? He won’t own up to that.
The working stiffs of the state endure an embarrassing lack of healthcare and an apartheid public education system.
Texas ranks 49 out of 50 states in the healthcare provided its citizens. Six of the ten counties in the nation that provide the least healthcare are located in (you guessed it) Texas. More of our students go on to prison than college.
“No child left behind” notwithstanding Texas is at the bottom of the list of states in providing even the pathetic apartheid public education it does.
No other governor in the nation can boast having executed 204 inmates during their term of office---some of whom might even have been guilty.
Hutchison for her part was there to support former senator Phil Gramm and his wife Wendy in their successful efforts in bringing about the de-regulation that brought us the economic catastrophe we now know as the great recession.
The people of the state of Texas have spoken.
Texas Red: a cratered landscape of prisons, deplorable apartheid public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way.
No wonder the founders believed that majority rule was tyranny by majority.
More: Bexar County
Texas Results
Perry wins Republican nomination without a runoff
Voters Spank Far Right in State Board of Education Elections
Incumbent Montemayor wins Democratic Primary
It is amazing that candidates with the high visibility of Hutchison and Perry take credit for conditions in Texas---on purpose.
Perry talks about how much business he has brought to the state. Yet our unemployment rates continue to climb. Oh and by the way, though the state needs the money to pay unemployment benefits Perry rejected federal money for that purpose.
Interestingly, though Perry claims credit for bringing business to Texas it seems those businesses are the only ones who have benefited receiving generous tax breaks even as the average working stiff in Texas earns only chump change. Texas is after all a “right to work state.”
The only jobs our leaders created last year were created (No matter what Perry tries to insist) by the stimulus package.
Texas lost over 300,000 jobs last year; about one-third that many, 89,000 were created by the stimulus. Perry? He won’t own up to that.
The working stiffs of the state endure an embarrassing lack of healthcare and an apartheid public education system.
Texas ranks 49 out of 50 states in the healthcare provided its citizens. Six of the ten counties in the nation that provide the least healthcare are located in (you guessed it) Texas. More of our students go on to prison than college.
“No child left behind” notwithstanding Texas is at the bottom of the list of states in providing even the pathetic apartheid public education it does.
No other governor in the nation can boast having executed 204 inmates during their term of office---some of whom might even have been guilty.
Hutchison for her part was there to support former senator Phil Gramm and his wife Wendy in their successful efforts in bringing about the de-regulation that brought us the economic catastrophe we now know as the great recession.
The people of the state of Texas have spoken.
Texas Red: a cratered landscape of prisons, deplorable apartheid public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way.
No wonder the founders believed that majority rule was tyranny by majority.
More: Bexar County
Texas Results
Perry wins Republican nomination without a runoff
Voters Spank Far Right in State Board of Education Elections
Incumbent Montemayor wins Democratic Primary
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Texas Red and getting redder an unmendable misfortune
Do you really buy the conventional wisdom about how much things have changed in the good ol’ racist, sexist, homophobic, class-driven USA? It could be the real answer is, “it depends.”
After all African-Americans in particular and minorities in general are not in chains, literally---just economic ones---and after only 400 years.
The “cause” of egalitarianism advanced by some of those who came here centuries ago has waxed and waned. Now-a-days if freedom is left to the compassionate, conservative Christians---not so much. Oh and the ccC plead, “please don’t bother me with the facts.”
Americans would rather not face the fact that since arriving 400 years ago those egalitarians landed here, slaves in tow, with the gift of genocide for the hemisphere’s natives and quit claim deeds for Mesoamericans. Not to put too fine a point on it, those egalitarians then ran Mesoamericans off Mesoamerican native lands (half what is now the United States) and then the invading European terrorists declared Mesoamericans “illegal aliens.”
After-all the egalitarians did allow Mesoamericans aka “illegal aliens” to visit their old homestead---at harvest time, planting time, ranching time and in short anytime, anywhere, anytime hard work and low wages were required.
Don’t remember that from your studies of history? Of course not. History is told by the victorious. In the name of “national harmony” they’d rather not discuss their egregious, violent, genocidal ways. Ways that are even the empire-drivers are foisting on people all over the planet.
Don’t take my word for it. Check out the following.
Democracy in America - George Carlin
from Texas Observer
Right, Righter, Rightest
Just nine months ago, I was on the phone with an editor up in Godless New york, pitching a story about the ugliest and most entertaining political smackdown in Texas since Ann Richards met Claytie Williams. So here’s the deal, I said, in my best freelance sales mode: You’ve got Rick Perry, the two-term governor, a.k.a. Mini-W., who’s gotten so desperate he’s stumping at tea parties in a brown Goodwill jacket sounding like the second coming of George Wallace, screeching about states’ rights and kissing the butts of these latter-day John Birchers who consider Glenn Beck an intellectual Colossus.
And then, in the other corner, you’ve got Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, coming back from Washington as the most popular Texan this side of Beyonce to challenge the Guv and save Texas Republicanism for the coming days when the white right can’t swing elections anymore. He’s Sarah Palin with testosterone; she’s Barbara Bush with a husband who knows his place. They’ve been rivals forever. Both mean as snakes. They’ll raise more money than Sir Allen Stanford and God put together. It’s gonna be war!
For anyone who actually believes our form of governance is a "democracy" I say, really. read the following, listen to the podcast, grow up and get real.
Who's Raising Money For Tea Party Movement?
OPR: Torture Lawyers Guilty of "Professional Misconduct"
The department's experts in professional conduct saw this as a slam-dunk case. Yoo, they found, "committed intentional professional misconduct when he violated his duty to exercise independent legal judgment and render thorough, objective, and candid legal advice." Bybee, they noted, acted in "reckless disregard" of his obligations to provide independent legal analysis. Yet because Margolis believes Yoo and Bybee committed these significant errors in good faith, he has given them a pass.
The first six presidents of our republic were deist. So how does that make us a “Christian nation?”
How Christian Were the Founders?
You always knew there was something squirrely about Ken Star. You just couldn’t’ put your finger on it. Fifty ($50M)---yes $50M dollars, eight years of yapping Chihuahua-like at the Clintons and imprisoning anyone he could (Susan McDougal) and not even close---and certainly though close, it was a case of “close but no cigar”---notwithstanding the fact that there was one involved. Isn’t there always?
'Clinton Vs. Starr': A 'Definitive' Account
Meanwhile the European turned American terrorists-occupiers ratchet-up their egregious, human-rights violation practices in what used to be a fairly lucid state.
The practice of confiscating/impounding vehicles of the voiceless, easily scapegoated “illegal alien” is counter to the very essence of the foundational principles of this nation. The practice is illegal, unconstitutional and just plain mean-spirited. Oh and by the way the cops have already been told so by the state’s attorney general, to no avail.
In California, Police Declare 2010 'The Year of the Checkpoint'
No surprises here.
Stimulus Failing People of Color
Tax Status Of Lawmakers' Religious Refuge Disputed
PETER OVERBY: One-thirty-three C Street South East sits a half block from one of the House office buildings, roughly three blocks from the Capitol. As with other religious organizations, the IRS takes the C Street Center's word that it's a church. That means the center doesn't have to file public tax returns the way most nonprofit organizations do. It's an arrangement that fits the C Street Center's practically invisible public presence.
But now a group of 13 ministers has asked the IRS to revoke that church status. Eric Williams leads the effort. He's pastor of the North Congregational United Church of Christ in Columbus, Ohio. He says the C Street townhouse mainly seems to provide room and board to members of Congress.
Mr. ERIC WILLIAMS (Pastor, North Congregational United Church of Christ): Is there public worship? Is it open to the public? Are there trained leaders who serve the church? C Street really has none of those marks that make it a church.
OVERBY: And if that's the case, Williams says it opens up other questions about whether the C Street Center is doing things that violate the rules of 501(c)(3) charities.
We couldn't call the center for an interview yesterday, because it doesn't reveal its phone number - or numbers for lawyers or other contacts - on public documents or elsewhere. The townhouse would likely go unnoticed, except that its denizens keep popping up in embarrassing news stories.
'Living wage' could be factor in govt contracts
WASHINGTON – The White House is looking at a new policy that would give an advantage in bidding on government contracts to companies that offer generous benefits and good pay.
But business groups opposing the idea maintain it would shut out smaller businesses from competing for more than $500 billion a year in federal contracts and increase government procurement costs.
Texas Red: a cratered landscape of prisons, deplorable public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way.
Imagine that---good compassionate conservative Christians opposing a living wage? Sounds like, oh all right you guessed it---Texas Red: a cratered landscape of prisons, deplorable apartheid public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way.
More: 20 Years Of Defending Death Row Inmates
Bill Moyers: Theodore Olson and David Boies
After all African-Americans in particular and minorities in general are not in chains, literally---just economic ones---and after only 400 years.
The “cause” of egalitarianism advanced by some of those who came here centuries ago has waxed and waned. Now-a-days if freedom is left to the compassionate, conservative Christians---not so much. Oh and the ccC plead, “please don’t bother me with the facts.”
Americans would rather not face the fact that since arriving 400 years ago those egalitarians landed here, slaves in tow, with the gift of genocide for the hemisphere’s natives and quit claim deeds for Mesoamericans. Not to put too fine a point on it, those egalitarians then ran Mesoamericans off Mesoamerican native lands (half what is now the United States) and then the invading European terrorists declared Mesoamericans “illegal aliens.”
After-all the egalitarians did allow Mesoamericans aka “illegal aliens” to visit their old homestead---at harvest time, planting time, ranching time and in short anytime, anywhere, anytime hard work and low wages were required.
Don’t remember that from your studies of history? Of course not. History is told by the victorious. In the name of “national harmony” they’d rather not discuss their egregious, violent, genocidal ways. Ways that are even the empire-drivers are foisting on people all over the planet.
Don’t take my word for it. Check out the following.
Democracy in America - George Carlin
from Texas Observer
Right, Righter, Rightest
Just nine months ago, I was on the phone with an editor up in Godless New york, pitching a story about the ugliest and most entertaining political smackdown in Texas since Ann Richards met Claytie Williams. So here’s the deal, I said, in my best freelance sales mode: You’ve got Rick Perry, the two-term governor, a.k.a. Mini-W., who’s gotten so desperate he’s stumping at tea parties in a brown Goodwill jacket sounding like the second coming of George Wallace, screeching about states’ rights and kissing the butts of these latter-day John Birchers who consider Glenn Beck an intellectual Colossus.
And then, in the other corner, you’ve got Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, coming back from Washington as the most popular Texan this side of Beyonce to challenge the Guv and save Texas Republicanism for the coming days when the white right can’t swing elections anymore. He’s Sarah Palin with testosterone; she’s Barbara Bush with a husband who knows his place. They’ve been rivals forever. Both mean as snakes. They’ll raise more money than Sir Allen Stanford and God put together. It’s gonna be war!
For anyone who actually believes our form of governance is a "democracy" I say, really. read the following, listen to the podcast, grow up and get real.
Who's Raising Money For Tea Party Movement?
OPR: Torture Lawyers Guilty of "Professional Misconduct"
The department's experts in professional conduct saw this as a slam-dunk case. Yoo, they found, "committed intentional professional misconduct when he violated his duty to exercise independent legal judgment and render thorough, objective, and candid legal advice." Bybee, they noted, acted in "reckless disregard" of his obligations to provide independent legal analysis. Yet because Margolis believes Yoo and Bybee committed these significant errors in good faith, he has given them a pass.
The first six presidents of our republic were deist. So how does that make us a “Christian nation?”
How Christian Were the Founders?
You always knew there was something squirrely about Ken Star. You just couldn’t’ put your finger on it. Fifty ($50M)---yes $50M dollars, eight years of yapping Chihuahua-like at the Clintons and imprisoning anyone he could (Susan McDougal) and not even close---and certainly though close, it was a case of “close but no cigar”---notwithstanding the fact that there was one involved. Isn’t there always?
'Clinton Vs. Starr': A 'Definitive' Account
Meanwhile the European turned American terrorists-occupiers ratchet-up their egregious, human-rights violation practices in what used to be a fairly lucid state.
The practice of confiscating/impounding vehicles of the voiceless, easily scapegoated “illegal alien” is counter to the very essence of the foundational principles of this nation. The practice is illegal, unconstitutional and just plain mean-spirited. Oh and by the way the cops have already been told so by the state’s attorney general, to no avail.
In California, Police Declare 2010 'The Year of the Checkpoint'
No surprises here.
Stimulus Failing People of Color
Tax Status Of Lawmakers' Religious Refuge Disputed
PETER OVERBY: One-thirty-three C Street South East sits a half block from one of the House office buildings, roughly three blocks from the Capitol. As with other religious organizations, the IRS takes the C Street Center's word that it's a church. That means the center doesn't have to file public tax returns the way most nonprofit organizations do. It's an arrangement that fits the C Street Center's practically invisible public presence.
But now a group of 13 ministers has asked the IRS to revoke that church status. Eric Williams leads the effort. He's pastor of the North Congregational United Church of Christ in Columbus, Ohio. He says the C Street townhouse mainly seems to provide room and board to members of Congress.
Mr. ERIC WILLIAMS (Pastor, North Congregational United Church of Christ): Is there public worship? Is it open to the public? Are there trained leaders who serve the church? C Street really has none of those marks that make it a church.
OVERBY: And if that's the case, Williams says it opens up other questions about whether the C Street Center is doing things that violate the rules of 501(c)(3) charities.
We couldn't call the center for an interview yesterday, because it doesn't reveal its phone number - or numbers for lawyers or other contacts - on public documents or elsewhere. The townhouse would likely go unnoticed, except that its denizens keep popping up in embarrassing news stories.
'Living wage' could be factor in govt contracts
WASHINGTON – The White House is looking at a new policy that would give an advantage in bidding on government contracts to companies that offer generous benefits and good pay.
But business groups opposing the idea maintain it would shut out smaller businesses from competing for more than $500 billion a year in federal contracts and increase government procurement costs.
Texas Red: a cratered landscape of prisons, deplorable public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way.
Imagine that---good compassionate conservative Christians opposing a living wage? Sounds like, oh all right you guessed it---Texas Red: a cratered landscape of prisons, deplorable apartheid public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way.
More: 20 Years Of Defending Death Row Inmates
Bill Moyers: Theodore Olson and David Boies
Sunday, February 21, 2010
The making of public policy in Bexar County: SBOE, little known public policy generator
This past Wednesday 17 February 2010 the San Antonio Chapter of the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State* presented the State Board of Education (SBOE) Candidates Forum Night for District 3 and 5 at the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Northwest San Antonio.
Nick Lee, Pres Freethinkers and Eric Lane, Pres AUSA
Ginny Stowitts-Traina, President of the League of Women Voters of the San Antonio Area and Associate Professor of Government and Chair of the Social Sciences Department at Palo Alto College moderated. She was introduced to those in attendance by Eric Lane AUSA Chapter President.
Ginny Stowitts-Traina
The candidates in attendance were Michael Soto and Tony Cunningham for District 3, and Rebecca Bell-Metereau, Robert M. Bohmfalk and Daniel Boone, for District 5.
Each of the five registered candidates had the opportunity to introduce themselves and state their respective reason or reasons for seeking office. The candidates then answered pre-screened questions from members of the audience. Candidates provided answers within prescribed time limits. Mr. Nick Lee, President of the Freethinkers Association of Central Texas, served as timekeeper.
Though to the casual observer the turnout was modest, given the low-key broadcast of the event and the little emphasis place on such a critical agency even a modest public presence was both unexpected and impressive.
District 3 candidate Michael Soto, PhD is an Associate Professor at Trinity University. Doctor Soto hopes to represent citizens living in District 3 that runs from the southern half of Bexar County to Hidalgo.
Michael wants to prepare Texas students for 21st Century opportunities by listening to parents, teachers and community leaders when creating educational standards and by restoring public trust.
Tony Cunningham the other District 3 candidate was less clear in voicing his platform. Though Mr. Cunningham never provided a direct response to any of the questions posed, when he seemed focused he read from a script that followed the agenda of the pro Intelligent Design, creationist group presently in control of the SBOE.
District 5 candidate Rebecca Bell-Metereau, PhD is a professor at Texas State University. Doctor Bell-Metereau seeks to represent the 5th District that covers the northern half of Bexar County and counties north.
Rebecca simply says, “Let’s cut out the nonsense on our State Board of Education and get back to preparing our children for their futures.” She has a vast amount of experience in education and public service. Her presence on the Board would be a strong one and of great benefit to the state’s education system and the children it is supposed to serve.
Dr. Daniel Boone, Lt Col USAF (ret), District 5 candidate is a psychologist and education activist. Like Soto and Bell-Metereau, Doctor Boone believes the State Board of Education should put less emphasis on promoting religion and politics and focus on what should be the SBOE’s core competency, educating the children of this state.
Robert Bohmfalk, a long-time mental health caseworker from San Marcos is the third candidate for the District 5 membership on the SBOE. Robert wants to bring a different point of view and respect back to the position.
Membership on the SBOE is an unpaid position. Yet the SBOE is one of the most important in the state. Board Members administer a $22B education fund, set academic standards and select textbooks used by students.
Most parents give little thought to the fact that text books their children read were selected by someone. Those same parents are even less likely to give thought to the political, cultural and religious agendas foisted on their children by way of texts purchased with tax dollars
The SBOE has become the battle ground for the culture wars between Christian conservative activists and secular proponents. At the center of the issue is the insistence by conservatives that the United States is a “Christian nation.” By “Christian nation” the right is referring to the “country’s roots and the intent of the founders.”
The answer to the issue of whether our republic is a “Christian nation” or not per force will shape “opinions on gay marriage, abortion and government spending.” Moreover, it could provide judicial basis for resolving “social questions.”
All candidates spoke as one voice to the importance of a quality education for the children of this state.
For District 3 Doctor Michael Soto emerged the clear choice to represent the Democratic Party in the general election.
While all three of District 5’s candidates Dr. Rebecca Bell-Metereau, Dr. Daniel Boone and Robert Bohmfalk would be a great improvement over the present SBOE composition, Bell-Metereau has the experience, training and presence required to push back against the system presently in place.
* Americans United, AU, is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to preserving the constitutional principle of church-state separation as the only way to ensure religious freedom for all Americans
Nick Lee, Pres Freethinkers and Eric Lane, Pres AUSA
Ginny Stowitts-TrainaThe candidates in attendance were Michael Soto and Tony Cunningham for District 3, and Rebecca Bell-Metereau, Robert M. Bohmfalk and Daniel Boone, for District 5.
Each of the five registered candidates had the opportunity to introduce themselves and state their respective reason or reasons for seeking office. The candidates then answered pre-screened questions from members of the audience. Candidates provided answers within prescribed time limits. Mr. Nick Lee, President of the Freethinkers Association of Central Texas, served as timekeeper.
Though to the casual observer the turnout was modest, given the low-key broadcast of the event and the little emphasis place on such a critical agency even a modest public presence was both unexpected and impressive.
District 3 candidate Michael Soto, PhD is an Associate Professor at Trinity University. Doctor Soto hopes to represent citizens living in District 3 that runs from the southern half of Bexar County to Hidalgo.
Michael wants to prepare Texas students for 21st Century opportunities by listening to parents, teachers and community leaders when creating educational standards and by restoring public trust.
Tony Cunningham the other District 3 candidate was less clear in voicing his platform. Though Mr. Cunningham never provided a direct response to any of the questions posed, when he seemed focused he read from a script that followed the agenda of the pro Intelligent Design, creationist group presently in control of the SBOE.
District 5 candidate Rebecca Bell-Metereau, PhD is a professor at Texas State University. Doctor Bell-Metereau seeks to represent the 5th District that covers the northern half of Bexar County and counties north.
Rebecca simply says, “Let’s cut out the nonsense on our State Board of Education and get back to preparing our children for their futures.” She has a vast amount of experience in education and public service. Her presence on the Board would be a strong one and of great benefit to the state’s education system and the children it is supposed to serve.
Dr. Daniel Boone, Lt Col USAF (ret), District 5 candidate is a psychologist and education activist. Like Soto and Bell-Metereau, Doctor Boone believes the State Board of Education should put less emphasis on promoting religion and politics and focus on what should be the SBOE’s core competency, educating the children of this state.
Robert Bohmfalk, a long-time mental health caseworker from San Marcos is the third candidate for the District 5 membership on the SBOE. Robert wants to bring a different point of view and respect back to the position.
Membership on the SBOE is an unpaid position. Yet the SBOE is one of the most important in the state. Board Members administer a $22B education fund, set academic standards and select textbooks used by students.
Most parents give little thought to the fact that text books their children read were selected by someone. Those same parents are even less likely to give thought to the political, cultural and religious agendas foisted on their children by way of texts purchased with tax dollars
The SBOE has become the battle ground for the culture wars between Christian conservative activists and secular proponents. At the center of the issue is the insistence by conservatives that the United States is a “Christian nation.” By “Christian nation” the right is referring to the “country’s roots and the intent of the founders.”
The answer to the issue of whether our republic is a “Christian nation” or not per force will shape “opinions on gay marriage, abortion and government spending.” Moreover, it could provide judicial basis for resolving “social questions.”
All candidates spoke as one voice to the importance of a quality education for the children of this state.
For District 3 Doctor Michael Soto emerged the clear choice to represent the Democratic Party in the general election.
While all three of District 5’s candidates Dr. Rebecca Bell-Metereau, Dr. Daniel Boone and Robert Bohmfalk would be a great improvement over the present SBOE composition, Bell-Metereau has the experience, training and presence required to push back against the system presently in place.
* Americans United, AU, is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to preserving the constitutional principle of church-state separation as the only way to ensure religious freedom for all Americans
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