Setting the example

The current scandal involving the governor of Illinois, who was caught on tape discussing the sale of the Senate seat there to the highest bidder, has managed to eclipse the ongoing economic crisis, the no-strings-attached gift to Wall Street banks, and the damning Senate Armed Services Committee report indicating that torture was sanctioned and fostered at the highest levels of government.

We all wonder how the foolish governor thought he could get away with it, bragging about his power and cursing out the politicians who wouldn’t play his game, especially since he knew he was the subject of an investigation. Perhaps the governor saw what the rest of us did – that high-level officials from the Oval Office on down are getting away with their crimes and incompetence. The Bush administration lied us into a disastrous war, disregarded US laws and the Geneva Conventions and then made sure that a few low-level soldiers faced the legal consequences for the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques”. Administration officials were so sure that they could trot out Article 2 of the Constitution as an excuse for their every deed that earlier this week the Vice-President confirmed that he had authorized techniques such as waterboarding while insisting that “we don’t do torture.” Sadly, but not surprisingly, the interviewer did not press Mr. Cheney on the contradictory nature of his statements, or on how a technique that had previously been prosecuted by the United States as a war crime was at the very least unacceptable.

Thanks to the media’s abdication of their watchdog responsibility, the Bush administration was also able to

- institute ideological litmus tests for government appointments and overlook such important elements as qualifications;

- break the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act law and and continue its illegal wiretapping of American citizens for a year while the New York Times sat on its reporters story;

- order a supine Congress to amend the 1978 FISA legislation by raising the specter of more devastating attacks and the need for the now mythical Article 2 powers (true to form, Congress, including the President-Elect, acquiesced, immunizing administration officials and their telecommunication allies).

Since that same Congress refused to consider impeachment, the President has been free to bid the country a fond rather than humiliating farewell on the major networks, as reporters render puff pieces detailing what Mr. Bush will do post-presidency. Mr. Bush got a less cozy reception in Iraq, where one journalist delivered a damning message via his shoes.

Is it any wonder then, that Governor Blagojevich would think himself immune from legal consequences and vow to fight until exoneration or death? Still, the country, denied justice in the Bush debacle, may finally see the impeachment of a corrupt government official. Media organizations are attacking the governor with a gusto unseen in their approach to the Bush administration. The shocking attempt to sell the President-Elect’s Senate seat has done what nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, destructive cronyism and erosion of the Constitution could not accomplish.

Convention notes

The Democratic National convention has certainly had some stirring moments – Hillary Clinton exhorting her delegates to support Barack Obama; Melissa Ethridge serenading the crowd with a rendition of God Bless America that links those lyrics with peace an justice rather than nationalistic fervor; the nomination of Barack Obama by acclamation. In addition to urging party unity in her speech, Mrs Clinton also celebrated the eighty-eighth anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment and reminded the delegates of the importance of taking a stand, even at the risk of imprisonment, as many did in their fight to secure the right to vote for women.

Meanwhile outside of the convention hall, Denver had put a large portion of it’s 50 million dollars in federal convention grant money to use securing the city from antiwar protesters who don’t necessarily agree with the Democratic Party’s talking point, repeated by speaker after speaker inside the Pepsi Center, about withdrawing “responsibly” from Iraq; nor do they necessarily believe that we should continue bombing Afghanistan, where just the other day more than ninety individuals, mostly women and children were were reportedly killed in US airstrikes. The Democrats now assembled in Denver were elected in 2006 to end the Iraq War and to bring the soldiers home, not to leave a military presence there to protect an oversized imperial embassy, or to train Iraqi troops, or to keep bases in the region, and yet throughout their speeches, this is what we are hearing – responsible withdrawal, force protection, training of Iraqi troops.

There has been no mention in convention speeches of the massive police, secret service, and national guard security apparatus justified because within the vast numbers of peaceful protesters there may be some anarchists intent on disrupting the proceedings. Still, Denver officials do admit that they are preparing for a worse case scenario, and, as the New York Times reports:

Intelligence analysts, however, have not reported a heightened threat from Islamic extremists or domestic threats from antigovernment groups or environmental militants like the kind that operate in many Western states, according to federal officials. “We just aren’t seeing a credible threat,” said James H. Davis, the F.B.I. agent in charge of the Denver office.

Perhaps it is too much to ask, during this necessary exercise in party unification, that mention be made of the principled men and women risking arrest and imprisonment to demand the immediate end to an illegal war. Meanwhile, the same law enforcement organizations ready to quell protest are also available to protect private parties from the news media as was the case when press attempted to enter a party that ATT hosted for the very same Democrats who had voted to immunize that corporation from prosecution for its part in the warrantless wiretapping of Americans. No surprise here, though; ATT is one of the major sponsors of the Democratic National Convention.

More Texas justice

The Texas death chamber was temporarily silenced again this week when a federal court issued a stay of execution for Jeff Wood, convicted of murder under the state’s infamous law of parties and sentenced to death for his part in the murder of Kriss Keeran, a convenience store clerk, during a botched robbery attempt. The robbery was planned by employees of the store, and only the shooter could have anticipated a killing. Like Kenneth Foster who last year was hours from execution for a killing he did not commit, Wood’s part in this crime consisted of waiting a vehicle, this time while the inside job went horribly wrong. Wood’s capital crime under the law of parties appears to be not anticipating that his friend would shoot the clerk.

Wood’s trip through the Texas justice system , spelled out in detail in his clemency petition, included a determination of incompetence by a jury after reviewing school records, a 22-day stay at a psychiatric hospital where he was “returned” to competency, even though mental health professionals there had reservations about his ability to communicate effectively with his lawyers, and finally, a determination of future dangerousness made by Dr. James Grigson, one of Texas’ favorite forensic experts, despite the fact that his predictions are anything but a sure thing. As noted in an article in that bastion of liberalism, the Washington Times:

Andrea Keilen, an attorney with the Texas Defenders Service, said she knew of dozens of former death row inmates whose sentences were reduced for various reasons and who have never been involved in any difficulties though Dr. Grigson testified they should be executed because they would likely commit murder again.

In 1988, a report compiled by an assistant district attorney in Dallas concluded that after the study of 11 specific death penalty verdicts — where the defendants’ terms had been reduced — not a single one had been other than a model prisoner.

Grigson’s most well-known error was his determination that Randall Dale Adams was an extreme danger to society. Mr. Adams, convicted of killing a police officer and sentenced to death on the strength of Dr. Grigson’s determination, was later exonerated, freed, and has not been re-arrested.

Despite all of the above, many still consider this type of treatment to be a fair trial, and comments on the AP story in the Austin American Statesman include such suggestions as lining up the criminals since injections are cheap. This may be the result of a succession of state officials who have insisted on the fairness of the Texas criminal justice system despite all evidence to the contrary. Perhaps the Texas legislature will correct a statute that allows retribution to extend way beyond an eye for an eye.