here's a poem i wrote the day the cops that beat rodney king got acquitted and the riots started:

THE VERDICT

if you make a tool
& it does the job
& you use it
long as you can
till it gets old
& starts to fall apart
& doesn't work well
& even makes you risk
getting hurt
if you use it
what do you do?

you take a good look
& see if you can fix it
& if you can
you fix it
& if you can't
you throw it away
& make a new tool

4/92

in simi valley in april 1992, 3 LA cops were found not guilty and the jury failed to reach a verdict for the fourth. the riots that followed caused 53 deaths and 2000 injuries and destroyed 600 buildings.

regarding the march 1991 incident, wikipedia says:

King was taken to Pacifica Hospital immediately after his arrest. He suffered a fractured facial bone, a broken right ankle, and numerous bruises and lacerations. In a negligence claim filed with the city, King alleged he had suffered "11 skull fractures, permanent brain damage, broken [bones and teeth], kidney damage [and] emotional and physical trauma." Blood and urine samples taken from King five hours after his arrest showed that he could be presumed intoxicated under California law. The tests also showed traces of marijuana (26 ng/ml), but no indication of PCP or any other illegal drug. At Pacifica Hospital, where King was taken for initial treatment, nurses reported that the officers who accompanied King (including Wind) openly joked and bragged about the number of times King had been hit. King sued the city over the beating, settling for $3.8 million.

his book, just published in april to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the trial, will undoubtedly and ironically be a bestseller.


‎"Can we all just get along?"


RIP

we scoop reuters

looks like i ought to tweet more. yesterday "the lookout" blog on yahoo posted this story, which begins:

A partially redacted police report detailing the initial investigation in the Feb. 26 shooting death of Trayvon Martin has surfaced.

Reuters reporter Matthew Keys first posted scanned copies of the report to his Twitter account. As the Chicago Tribune noted, the report contains details that conflict with several rumors surrounding the case.

here's a screenshot of matthew keys' tweet, also dated 3 april:

and here's a screenshot of a little bit of my facebook timeline, dated march 31:

the only problem is that the chicago tribune beat me by 4 days.

bbc
unholy alliance?

Mexico church divided over drug wars

Some 50,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence since 2006 and the Church has been accused of failing to speak out over the fighting.
...
"The Church has had an ambivalent response to the drug war and the incredible amount of violence going on in the country," says John Ackerman, Professor of Law at the Autonomous University in Mexico City.

Since the Christian Democrats came to power in 2000, the constitutionally separate relationship between the Catholic Church and the government has been progressively narrowing.
...
He says Pope Benedict will find in Mexico a clergy deeply divided over its position on the fighting.

"The general impression is that those Church leaders who have spoken out against violence and in favour of a change in policy have all been relatively low-level leaders. The one exception is Bishop Raul Vera," says Professor Ackerman.

Bishop Vera is a silver-haired, balding priest who is quick to laughter, but equally quick to criticise.
...
"The president's war against drug trafficking seems to us to be more of a war against the people than a war against the cartels," he says, stabbing his finger in the air.

"The cartels have multiplied, the number of dead has risen exponentially, corruption is deeper every day - we see it. So when we hear the president of the Republic saying his strategy is working, we think he's either in an ivory tower and has no idea what's actually going on, or basically he's a liar. I'm going with the latter!"

But his anger is not just reserved for the state. He is equally critical of some of his colleagues in the Catholic Church.

One of the most serious charges against the Church is that there are some parishes that have actually profited from the drug violence in the form of donations from drug barons or cartels.

"We have to be very careful about who we accept donations from, particularly to fund structures of the Church. Very careful indeed," says Bishop Vera.

It is alleged that drug money has swelled the coffers in parishes where the drug lords exert control.

"There was once a rather embarrassing bishop who said something absurd," remembers Bishop Vera. "He said that money from drug trafficking was purified when it entered the Church. Of course it's not! The money from drugs is intrinsically stained with blood and we can't use it. We mustn't." [more]

independent

why do they call military justice an oxymoron?

The US Marine who took his men on a blazing, shooting rampage inside homes in the Iraqi town of Haditha in 2005, killing 24 Iraqi civilians and sparking international outrage, yesterday pleaded guilty only to dereliction of duty closing down a court martial where he had been facing far more serious charges of manslaughter.

The deal, which caught observers by surprise, means that Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich will now face a maximum of three months of confinement. He will also be demoted one military rank and will lose a portion of his pay.

It also closes down the court martial at Camp Pendleton in California and spelt the end of what had been the longest legal proceeding ever seen against members of the US military. All seven other soldiers involved in the case had already either been acquitted before yesterday or had agreed to testify against Wuterich at his court martial.

The Haditha tragedy arguably did as much to damage the reputation of the US military in Iraqi as did revelations of prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib that had come out shortly before. Memories of what happened in the town still stir fury among many Iraqis and it was one of the main reasons that the government there refused to grant immunity to American soldiers inside Iraq which in turn spurred the final withdrawal of all US troops in December. [more]

till killing stops

boycott mex dope

sure, ending the war on drugs and stopping the flow of arms across the border would be best, but until those unlikely events occur, we can help somewhat by getting our illegal drugs somewhere else!

npr

stolen painting found after 193 years

la times

U.S. will review cases of 300,000 illegal immigrants in deportation proceedings

The Obama administration said it will review the cases of 300,000 illegal immigrants currently in deportation proceedings to identify "low-priority" offenders — including the elderly, crime victims and people who have lived in the U.S. since childhood — with an eye toward allowing them to stay.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the review as the Obama administration has sought to counter criticism that it has been too harsh in its deportation policies. By launching the case-by-case review, officials said they are refocusing deportation efforts on convicted felons and other "public safety threats." [more]

media matters

Glenn Beck thinks he can spew his hateful rhetoric, take a few days of heat, and then dance away from accountability for what he's done.

Last week, we brought your attention to Glenn Beck's comparison of the young, innocent victims of the Norway mass murders to "Hitler youth" and his attempt to escape responsibility for that outrageous claim -- and you responded en masse with more than 10,000 petition signatures asking radio stations to drop Beck for his indefensibly hateful statements.

One radio station informed us that it had already made the decision to cancel Beck's show, which is a reflection that Beck's vitriol is bad for business and a testament to how grassroots power can help restore responsibility to our public airwaves.

But we need to keep up the pressure on other radio station managers across the country, so they won't be able to defend providing a platform for such hateful and profoundly disturbing intolerance for very much longer. [more]

alternet

The Utterly Wrong Beltway Myth Driving the Debt Ceiling Insanity

By Joshua Holland / AlterNet

5 Reasons Michele Bachmann Is the New Sarah Palin

By Sarah Seltzer
AlterNet

The Reason CEOs Make 350 Times More Money Than Their Workers -- And Why That's Terrible for the Economy

By William Lazonick
New Deal 2.0

8 Dumbest, Most Insensitive Right-Wing Reactions to the Norway Shooting

By Mark Howard
AlterNet

12 Ways Rupert Murdoch's Media Empire Has Made the World Worse

By Russ Baker
WhoWhatWhy.com

speculation about what caused the norway massacre has degenerated into finger-pointing and simplistic solutions, as usual.

the simplistic category includes "If one counselor or youth had a gun on them and shot back at this guy, he would of killed far less people." [exact quote; don't blame me for the phrasing]

the fingers point all over the map: at cops, right-wingers, christians, islamophobes, atheists — i almost said "you name it" and put myself among the oversimplifiers.

i find it ironic that some christians defend what they view as their side by blaming atheism because a few prominent atheists have attacked islam, like richard dawkins, below.

it's surprising that such a smart guy would say "in the former christendom ... there's more of a historical tradition of questioning." dawkins ought to recall that christianity, at islam's present age, sent inquisitors to interrogate questioners of the faith, often quite harshly.

i'm willing to admit i don't have too many answers, tho i suspect more information couldn't hurt, but i can't deny that some react violently when overexposed to information (not necessarily misinformation) that alarms or provokes them.

for now i'll just call for more light. if we humans want to avoid a mass throat-cutting, we need to wake up. few of us think clearly as we sleep.

going slow

Mississippi schools get tough on bullies

...a video circulating the Internet showed a special needs child in a north Mississippi district being punched in the face.

And in Yazoo County a couple of years ago, a girl carried a gun onto the school bus because she said she had been the victim of bullying, one of the instances lawmakers used to illustrate the need for a stricter law.

Bullying doesn't apply only to students, either: Moss Point's high school principal was recently fired in part for alleged bullying of a subordinate.

In response to the rising problem, Mississippi last year passed a new, tougher anti-bullying law. The law requires that all districts have a policy and procedure prohibiting bullying under any conditions. Teachers and coaches, under the law, are required to report any suspected bullying to administrators.

It includes off-campus incidents such as school-bus and cyber bullying.

The onus is on principals to investigate each case.... [more]

Mississippi Goddam
(1963) Nina Simone

The name of this tune is Mississippi Goddam
And I mean every word of it

Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

Can't you see it
Can't you feel it
It's all in the air
I can't stand the pressure much longer
Somebody say a prayer

Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

This is a show tune
But the show hasn't been written for it, yet

Hound dogs on my trail
School children sitting in jail
Black cat cross my path
I think every day's gonna be my last

Lord have mercy on this land of mine
We all gonna get it in due time
I don't belong here
I don't belong there
I've even stopped believing in prayer

Don't tell me
I tell you
Me and my people just about due
I've been there so I know
They keep on saying "Go slow!"

But that's just the trouble
"do it slow"
Washing the windows
"do it slow"
Picking the cotton
"do it slow"
You're just plain rotten
"do it slow"
You're too damn lazy
"do it slow"
The thinking's crazy
"do it slow"
Where am I going
What am I doing
I don't know
I don't know

Just try to do your very best
Stand up be counted with all the rest
For everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

I made you thought I was kiddin' didn't we

Picket lines
School boycotts
They try to say it's a communist plot
All I want is equality
for my sister my brother my people and me

Yes you lied to me all these years
You told me to wash and clean my ears
And talk real fine just like a lady
And you'd stop calling me Sister Sadie

Oh but this whole country is full of lies
You're all gonna die and die like flies
I don't trust you any more
You keep on saying "Go slow!"
"Go slow!"

But that's just the trouble
"do it slow"
Desegregation
"do it slow"
Mass participation
"do it slow"
Reunification
"do it slow"
Do things gradually
"do it slow"
But bring more tragedy
"do it slow"
Why don't you see it
Why don't you feel it
I don't know
I don't know

You don't have to live next to me
Just give me my equality
Everybody knows about Mississippi
Everybody knows about Alabama
Everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

That's it for now! see ya' later

csmonitor

wow! look at all the neat little info boxes!

• 07.20.11
  Is Tim Pawlenty turning Michele Bachmann's health into political fodder?
• 07.20.11
  Allen West calls Democratic leader 'vile' and 'despicable.' What set him off?
• 07.16.11
  Debt limit crisis: what's happening today?
• 07.12.11
  Ron Paul says he's all in for the presidency, won't run again for Congress
• 07.11.11
  Is Sarah Palin sending mixed messages in her Newsweek article?

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• U.S. Republican Party Politics

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