Finally, an honest Army recruiter
Most of you already know that the US Army had its recruiters take a day off recently to think about right and wrong.
Faced with declining wartime enlistment numbers and charges of inappropriate or abusive recruitment practices, in an unusual move, the U.S. Army suspended its recruiting activities Friday (May 20) for one day. The 7,500 Army recruiters nationwide were given orders to stay at their stations and take the day to review the ethical and legal guidelines of their job.
In Texas recently, an Army recruiter allegedly threatened a high school student with arrest if the student changed his mind and decided not to enlist. The recruiter didn't have the authority to threaten the young person with legal action. In Colorado, another recruiter allegedly suggested a student falsify his high school diploma and conceal drug abuse from Army drug testers.
......Still, U.S. Army officials report more than 300 substantiated cases of allegedly improper recruiting tactics last year, a 60% increase in 5 years. Many recruiters reportedly have resorted to aggressive tactics because they've had a hard time meeting the Army's recruiting quota of 2 enlistees a month. Enlistments are down, experts say, due in large measure to the more than 2-year old Iraq War.
But it's not all bad news for Army recruiters: some are hard working dedicated soldiers, known for seizing the initiative and showing potential recruits exactly what it is that they are getting themselves into.
A U.S. Army recruiter accused of raping a woman who was interested in joining the military remained in the Alachua County Jail with bail set at $50,000 Saturday.
Thursday's arrest of Staff Sgt. George O. Kirkman, 40, came a day before the Army suspended recruiting efforts after reported excesses by recruiters trying to sign up soldiers.
Kirkman has been suspended pending the criminal investigation, said Ted Jones, spokesman for the Jacksonville Army Recruiting Battalion. He may be transferred to the Army's custody Monday. It could not be determined whether he had a lawyer.
According to Gainesville police Detective Joe Mayo, the 20-year-old woman said she had gone to Kirkman's apartment Thursday to take a recruiting exam on a computer. The two were reviewing the woman's test scores and sitting on Kirkman's bed when he raped her, according to an arrest report.
Sounds like Kirkman's just an honest recruiter, trying to help out by offering up a little taste of Army life.
Sign the petition
From a moveonpac email:
This is it — they've pulled the trigger.
On Tuesday May 24th, the Senate will vote on a motion to end debate on judicial nominations, and when that motion fails Senator Bill Frist will launch the "nuclear option" — an unprecedented parliamentary maneuver to break the rules of the Senate and seize absolute control over lifetime appointments to the highest courts in the land. The vote is going to be incredibly close, and there are as many as 6 votes still up in the air — more than enough to win. We must act now.
We've launched an emergency petition and, starting Monday, we'll deliver your signatures and comments to the Senate floor every three hours until the vote is complete. As the debate rages on, Senators fighting to preserve our independent courts will read your statements from the floor of congress. And every senator, every 3 hours, will receive thousands of pages from their constituents demanding that they stand up and do the right thing.
We have less than 72 hours to win this vote and save our courts. Please sign today.
If you care about the minimum wage — and you don't want judges ruling it unconstitutional — now's the time to act.
If you care about environmental laws — and you don't want judges striking them down — now's the time to act.
If you care about your right to privacy — and you don't want the government telling your family how to live, worship, or even how to die — now's the time to act.
As the fight escalates in Congress, thousands of MoveOn members will gather outside of Senate offices and courthouses in every state in the country, staging round the clock "Citizens' Filibusters to Stop the Right Wing Power Grab." We'll also deliver your comments to all the gatherings in your state, so your words will combine with thousands of others to show the public, the media, and our representatives in Washington that we will not give up the fight for our democracy.
It's a rare moment when a vote of such importance is actually too close to call with only hours left and a real chance to win - please sign the petition and add your voice right now:
Here's a brief summary of what's at stake.
Bill Frist, George Bush and the far wing of the Republican party are desperate to seize absolute control over all three branches of our government. For 200 years, the rules of the Senate have blocked one party from taking complete control, because the minority has always had the right to filibuster — to extend debate and delay a vote — when their basic rights were in danger. For centuries this has kept the courts fair by ensuring that judges receive at least some support from both sides of the aisle before they are confirmed for life.
Now Senator Frist wants to break the rules of the Senate and eliminate the filibuster, ending the requirement for broad support and handing absolute control over the courts to one party for the first time in our nation's history. To begin, he'll force a handful of extremists onto the powerful U.S. Courts of Appeals. But the real targets are the up to four nominations to the Supreme Court likely to come up during Bush's second term — enough seats to permanently shift the majority and strike down decades of progress on labor rights, environmental protection, privacy rights, and civil rights.
When Frist first announced his plan, it seemed like it was only a matter of time. After all, the Republicans have 55 votes in the Senate, and Frist only needs 50. But today, with 72 hours left, the vote is still too close to call. Thanks to the amazing work of MoveOn members, our partner groups, the Democratic leadership, and basic common sense three Republicans have publicly denounced Frist's plan — Sens. John McCain (AZ), Olympia Snowe (ME), and Lincoln Chafee (RO). We need just three more to win and as many as six are still on the fence, including Sens. Arlen Specter (PA), Chuck Hagel (NE), John Warner (VA), and Susan Collins (ME).
We have one last chance to raise our voice, to help our allies stand strong and convince reasonable Republicans to step back from the brink. The courts we have for decades — and the rights they protect or the rights they strike down — may well be determined by what we do now.
Please sign today.
A reminder
Look, the comments by John Cornyn today tell you what the nuclear option is all about. Cornyn trashed the efforts of Senate moderates of even his own party to fashion a deal to stave off a vote to eliminate judicial filibusters. But at least he's honest about what he, Mullah Frist, George W. Bush, and the American Taliban are after here: they want no filibusters of Supreme Court nominees. They want to own all three branches of the government, and have the bonus of already owning the media and K Street to boot.
They want to install Bill Rehnquist's successor with only 51 votes, and to be able to fill any additional Supreme Court vacancies the next three and a half years with only 50 votes plus Dick Cheney. That's the whole ballgame for the GOP. How they get there, and what they trash in the process doesn't matter.
Since Cornyn has stated it so clearly, this is exactly why the Democrats should refuse to give up the filibuster. There is no reason for Democrats to negotiate anything on this. Why? Because we are talking about nominees:
-to the highest court in the land;
-who get lifetime appointment;
-nominated without any attempt at bipartisanship;
-by a man with approval ratings well below 50%;
-who won office allegedly with only 51% of the vote;
-pushed by a party wholly-owned by religious fanatics.
No Compromise
I don't mind politicians looking to cut a deal, well, because that's their job. But when I read the missives of Amy Sullivan and Kevin Drum, they say nice, moderate things about insane, immoderate people.
They say they're Democrats, they say they endorse the party, but then they want to talk to people who want to destroy it.
I don't want to have a discussion on values with the fundies, I want to prevent them from imposing their values on me. I don't want to coddle newspapers who are not my friend, but challenge them.
These people are not interested in a discussion, they want to win, they want to win and destroy everything we value in the process. It is not my fault the GOP invited them into the tent. However, it's their tent and when we're talking to people who believe the Grand Canyon is 6,000 years old, we're not able to have a rational discussion. Neither are they, as they will find out this week, either in losing the fillibuster fight or watching Senate business crawl to a halt.
American Taliban wants it all
Catherine Crier has a show on Court TV. She recently spoke with Pat Buchanan about the nuclear option.
Crier: “The Republicans, the conservatives, have dominated the courts now for thirty years in this country, and certainly the Supreme Court, so we know we have Conservatives—but that doesn’t seem to be enough.”
Buchanan: “No, that is not enough.”
Crier: “Yeah, the Terri Shiavo case--those were conservative judges, and all of a sudden, we’re saying we want strict constructionists?”
Buchanan: “Exactly. Look, ten of the last twelve justices have been appointed by Republicans. Nixon gave us Blackmon, Gerry Ford gave us John Paul Stevens, Reagan gave us Kennedy and O’Conner, and (Bush Sr.) gave us David Sutter…”
Crier: “Those aren’t good enough?”
Buchanan: “They have been failures. The battle is over the Supreme Court. (It) has become a judicial dictatorship in this country. It dictates racial policy on quotas, affirmative action. It tells us we must have abortion on demand. It’s now into gay rights. It has become a super legislature. Control of it is more important tin the social culture war in America than control of Congress in the United States. That ultimately is what this is all about. The President has got to get those Supreme Court justices…and if that means breaking these ridiculous obstructionist filibusters, he ought to do it.”
Catherine points out that
The Christian right has portrayed themselves as victims long enough. Every Sunday morning, I have several national networks offering me salvation. Of course, I can always join Pat Robertson on the 700 Club. This fundamentalist voice dominates talk radio, and cable talk shows have elevated dramatically their agenda in the public eye. Christian music is rockin’ and the Left Behind series outsells every other fiction book on the market. A new megachurch (defined as one attracting more than 2,000 members weekly) spring up every two days in this country according to the founder of Church Growth Today. Just how much do they want? They want it all.
There is no compromising with these people. But spineless Democrats continue to negotiate.
If the compromise measure passes, six Democrats will vote for the cloture motion and it will pass with 61 votes. If Frist then moves for his point of order, six Republicans will vote against it. It will lose, and the right to filibuster will be retained, but only for the duration of the 109th Congress - until 2006.
If the compromise succeeds, there will be up or down votes on the seven judges previously rejected: Priscilla Owen, Janice Rogers Brown, former Alabama Attorney General William Pryor, Idaho lawyer William Myers and Michigan nominees David McKeague, Richard Griffin and Henry Saad. I'm hearing that the compromise calls for only William Myers and Henry Saad to be rejected.
Frist would have gone “nuclear” well before now if he had the support he needs, which tells us he didn’t have the votes before and he may very well not have them now. The already-thin ice, in other words, is starting to crack.
If Frist brings the nuclear option to the floor and fails, his ability to lead is effectively over. He’ll have taken on the biggest risk for a Senate Majority Leader in recent history and, despite 55 Republican lawmakers in his caucus and the enthusiastic rabid support of the party base, Frist will have failed spectacularly. He’s already a lame-duck leader, but if the nuclear-option strategy falls apart, Frist may have to give up his leadership post.
Frist also can’t stall; the GOP base has told him in no uncertain terms that it’s now or never.
What about the possible six-by-six compromise, you ask? That, too, would be a disaster for Frist, not only because it would represent the failure of his nuclear-option strategy, but also because it would circumvent him altogether. The buzz is the deal isn’t going to happen anyway, but if it does, it’s the worst of all worlds for Frist — the filibuster rule remains in tact, nominees get left behind, and his leadership looks inept. (I’m opposed to the six-by-six deal, but the humiliation it would bring Frist makes it look a little better in my eyes.)
Seeking spine
Stan Goff writes a letter to Democrat politicians.
George Galloway did that for which you have proven incapable; he spoke as an opposition. Since there seems to be a great dark space in the middle of your heads where the notion of opposition should be a void filled by parliamentary molasses and the pusillanimous inabilty to tell simple truths I suggest you all review the recordings of Galloway's confrontation with Republican Senator Norm "Twit" Coleman to see exactly how effortless it is to stand up to these cheap political bullies (watch the video). While you are at it, you can watch your colleague Carl Levin demonstrate exactly what I mean about most of you and your party, as he alternately hurls petulant cream-puff insults at Galloway and kisses Coleman's stunned, clueless ass to give that toothy dipshit some comfort in the wake of Galloway's verbal drubbing.
Galloway didn't have to walk up to the docket and slap the cowboy shit out of Coleman though I admit I still struggle with my own secret urges to do just that with most of the air-brushed, combed-over, Stepford meat-puppets who now people the United States Congress. No, all Galloway had to do was tell the unvarnished truth, and it had exactly the same effect. If Democrats had half the spine that Galloway does if you would stop chasing your creepy little careers through the caviar and chicken-salad circuits of duck-and-cover American political double-speak, then not only would people like me not be calling for all to abandon the Democratic Party and take their fight to the streets like good Bolivians not only that, but you'd have won the last election.
The reason Galloway was able to break from your mirror party in UK Blair's sell-out Labor Party and still get elected, is that Galloway fights for his convictions and the real needs of his constituents, and doesn't run for cover every time the bully-boys of the capitalist extablishment attempt to take him down.
(Via James Wolcott)
And for those who somehow missed it, here's the Galloway Video.
FL GOP joins rush to silence independent voices
Citizens beware: it doesn't matter if you're right – if you fail to toe the line, you're wrong .
Lawmakers quietly eliminated a state office that was meant to review Florida education programs because the office was too often critical of state policy, critics of the move say.
Gov. Jeb Bush pushed for the elimination of the Council for Education Policy, Research and Improvement, and governor's office officials and House Republicans said it was because other officials could do the council's job.
Asked about the office's elimination, Bush said this week, "I think they should be given a proper burial."
The council was set up in 1980 by Gov. Bob Graham to evaluate college and university programs. Its duties were expanded in 2001.
The council recently pushed for a more costly prekindergarten program than state leaders approved and recommended spending more money on other programs to create new doctors instead of allowing universities to open new medical schools.
......Rep. Loranne Ausley, D-Tallahassee, criticized the move.
"This is a very dangerous path when you start eliminating the only objective, independent research arm that is there to give you objective analysis," Ausley said.
CEPRI was a citizen board which seems to have agreed with about as many of Jeb!'s programs as they disagreed with – they were neither strident critics nor cheerleaders, and their refusal to support 100 percent of Jeb!'s agenda seems to have cost them their existence.
There is no compromising with zealots. They will take the smallest victories and turn them into precedents and toeholds and continue to claw and scrape until they get everything that they want. Then they'll decide they need more.
Which leads us to the nuclear option. A power grab that seeks to silence the minority. Attempts to reach a compromise are ongoing and misguided.
If it goes down this way, it's a huge loss for the Democrats. They will have put a bunch of extremists on the federal bench, and only preserved the right to filibuster in "extreme circumstances" and more importantly, only through the 109th Congress. All of the Supreme Court justices except perhaps Rehnquist can hold out until 2007 - and then the Republicans will make the same move to end the filibuster they are making now and we'll be back at ground zero.
......Sometimes it's better to just roll the dice. So everyone, whichever side you are on, call your senators and tell them, No Retreat, No Surrender.
Call your senators and call key GOP senators as well. This is important.
When I was a kid, I remember reading about how democracies ended. What surprised me was how often it was a peaceful takeover. Fascists took power in many places not through force, but through rigged elections, broken rules, and consolidation of power, all hidden behind flags and God and promises of glory.
Today, the fanatics who have seized the GOP are beginning their attempt to flagrantly defy a half-dozen Senate rules which have existed for generations in order to install federal judges more interested in ideology than legal precedent.
......If you haven't already... if you live in RI, ME, OH, SC, NE, AZ, AK, OR, PA, or VA, some of your Senators might be the last best hope to hold the line against this "nuclear option" and unprecedented seizure of Senate power.
......Lincoln Chafee, Rhode Island
(202) 224-2921Susan Collins, Maine
(202) 224-2523Mike Dewine, Ohio
(202) 224-2315Lindsey Graham, South Carolina
(202) 224-5972Chuck Hagel, Nebraska
(202) 224-4224John McCain, Arizona
(202) 224-2235Lisa Murkowski, Alaska
(202) 224-6665Gordon Smith, Oregon
(202) 224-3753Olympia Snowe, Maine
(202) 224-5344Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania
(202) 224-4254John Sununu, New Hampshire
(202) 224-2841John Warner, Virginia
(202) 224-2023
And while you're dialing the phone, peruse The Top 10 filibuster falsehoods ... (click the link for all the details I cut out)
Falsehood #1: Democrats' filibuster of Bush nominees is "unprecedented"
Falsehood #2: Bush's filibustered nominees have all been rated well-qualified by the ABA; blocking such highly rated nominees is unprecedented
Falsehood #3: Democratic obstructionism has led to far more judicial vacancies during Republican administrations than Democratic administrations
Falsehood #4: "Nuclear Option" is a Democratic term
Falsehood #5: Democrats oppose Bush nominees because of their faith, race, ethnicity, gender, stance on abortion, stance on parental notification ...
Falsehood #6: Public opinion polling shows clear opposition to judicial filibusters, support for "nuclear option"
Falsehood #7: Filibustering judicial nominees is unconstitutional
Falsehood #8: Clinton's appellate confirmation rate was far better than Bush's rate
Falsehood #9: Sen. Byrd's alterations to filibuster rules set precedent for "nuclear option"
Falsehood #10: Democrats have opposed "all" or "most" of Bush's judicial nominees
Flock afflicted by ComAS
These people have entirely too much time on their hands.
Hundreds of sheep flocked to a Brandon church yesterday to protest, uh, something. See, they're not really sure what, if anything, might develop that could possibly offend them, but they are bound and determined to put a stop to whatever it is or soon may be and see to it that no one else will have to deal with this kind of obviously immoral and child damaging, uh, thing again. Ever!
Spurred on by Ronda Storms, the Morality Queen whose scabby, blood encrusted elbows are a real testimony to her true grit, the crowd bleated out moving personal tales of Hooterphobic paranoia.
Over 200 people showed up at Grace Bible Church in Brandon Tuesday in seeming solidarity against a bar that may, or may not, feature bikini-clad wait staff.
The meeting was organized by Terry Kemple and the Community Action Summit. Kemple is the former president of the Christian Coalition of Florida.
There have been widespread rumors that a "bikini bar" is set to open at the corner of State Road 60 and Mount Carmel Road in Valrico. The developer, Jamie Rand, has not confirmed or denied the stories about the nature of the business. The property owner, Susan Calkins, has said she could compare the proposed business to a Hooters, but could not comment on whether it would feature servers in bikinis.
The location is not zoned for adult uses, but county law allows for provocatively clothed servers, as long as the genitals are covered. The meeting proceeded like a church rally, opening with a lengthy prayer, and featuring three different preachers who railed against the possibility of a bikini bar in Brandon, and against the "concept" of adult entertainment in general.
Terry Kemple, the Community Action Summit, or ComAS, organizer, is known for his work with the Christian Coalition as well as STAND, a national abstinence only group. STAND's web presence is strangely difficult to find, so here's a link to another abstinence site that I'm sure is very similar to what STAND would develop were STAND to put up a web page.
Anyway, back to the bleating flock. The very possibility that a bar with employees who might be exposing skin above the elbows could someday open in an, uh, strip center on a divided highway seems to have incensed many impressionable twits.
Speaker after speaker declared such establishments a blight on their community and an open wound to their moral convictions.
``Don't ask us to absorb a business that directly contrasts with our moral beliefs,'' said Brett Blankenship, manager of the Wood You Furniture shop, located next to the bar.
``Sexually oriented businesses are not welcome in our community,'' said Pamela Watkins, of Brandon Brook, describing herself as a property owner, mother, wife and community volunteer.
Nationally known adult entertainment lawyer Luke Lirot, who said he represents the managers of the new club, told The Tampa Tribune that a bikini bar is an option being considered for the bar, which is being renovated. He said he attended the meeting at Grace Bible Church on State Road 60 to protect his clients' rights.
``My clients were afraid the tyranny of the majority might inspire the county to deprive my clients of their rights,'' Lirot said. ``We know what the code says and we intend to comply with it.'' He declined to identify his clients.
Building owner Susan Calkins turned down an opportunity to speak during the meeting. Afterward she disputed statistics presented during the meeting as evidence that crime increases drastically when a sexually oriented business moves into an area.
``I'm not sure they can do anything about this business, since it already has a liquor license, but I'm not a big fan of this type of place, either,'' Calkins said. ``I've raised my children to be aware of things like this, so they won't go out into the world unprepared.''
Commissioner Ronda Storms, one of several county officials present, urged the group to continue its fight.
``If you care about this issue, work on the issue and make it count,'' she said.
Ronda then left for a rally at the public library, where she led her usual Tuesday evening Reader's Helpers group in their weekly cut and cover underwear ad redaction campaign. Their worthy goal is the protection of virgin eyes from innocently lighting upon a drawing of an underwire bra whilst perusing the microfiche in a divine quest for signs of the coming apocalypse.
Beaten child wins right to beg at Leg’s door
Marissa Amora might have her medical expenses covered by the state, but the stingy GOP led Legislature will have to give its stamp of approval first.
A jury just decided that Florida's Department of Children and Families was 75 percent responsible for allowing the near-fatal beating that put Marissa in the hospital at the age of 2 that has resulted in lifelong injuries and the need for expensive ongoing care.
The Palm Beach Post has the story of the verdict.
On Tuesday, however, a Palm Beach County jury spoke for her, saying the Department of Children and Families was negligent and must pay the bulk of a $35.1 million award for the 6-year-old's suffering and future care.
Marissa's adoptive parents, Ric and Dawn Amora, had sued DCF in order to make the state pay her medical expenses for life.
"The truth has come out," said a teary-eyed Dawn Amora as she pushed Marissa, who uses a wheelchair, out of Circuit Judge Jonathan Gerber's courtroom after the verdict. "They can't hide behind lies anymore."
The six-member jury found that DCF was 75 percent responsible for the negligence that left Marissa brain-damaged. Jurors also found that 20 percent of the blame rests with Miami Children's Hospital, which released Marissa despite DCF's ongoing investigation, and 5 percent went to her biological mother, Guerlande Pierre-Louis.
Authorities believe Pierre-Louis' boyfriend, Joubert Culceus, beat Marissa, formerly named Moesha Sylencieux.
Foreman James Nelson said the three-week trial was emotional for the three men and three women on the jury. But he said the evidence showed DCF failed to protect Marissa.
"She needs to be taken care of," Nelson said.
Attorney Stephen Radford, who represented DCF, left the courtroom without comment. During the trial, he placed blame on Miami Children's Hospital officials, saying they failed to recognize the case as abuse.
Mary Jones, a DCF spokeswoman, said the agency had not determined its next step.
"The circumstances surrounding the child's condition are heartbreaking," Jones said. "But we are reviewing the court's decision, and we're considering our legal options."
......Despite her court victory, Marissa's representatives now must take her case to the legislature. Under Florida law, DCF can pay damages only up to $100,000 per person and $200,000 per incident. Any payout above those figures requires legislative approval.
Marissa's attorney, Joe Nusbaum, said the burden once again is on the state. Florida lawmakers should adhere to the jury's decision, he said.
"Now we look to the state of Florida to do the right thing," Nusbaum said.
Yeah, the Legislature is known for doing the right thing when it comes to compensating individuals for personal suffering brought about through the actions (or inaction) of the state.
It was shameful that the Legislature did not provide for compensating Wilton Dedge or extending the Oct. 1 deadline for DNA testing that could free other innocent people from prison. Both failures were deliberate. It is impossible to understand or excuse the cruel indifference of the House leadership to the fact that Dedge and his parents deserve, at a minimum, to recoup legal expenses and the income he was denied during the 22 years he was incarcerated for someone else's crime.
The Senate passed a wonderfully fair and creative bill by Sen. Daniel Webster, R-Winter Garden, that would have allowed Dedge, and the others everyone knows will follow, to submit documented claims to the attorney general for lost income, legal expenses, and other quantifiable costs. The House did not consider it, voting instead to set up what Webster called a "glorified claims bill" procedure that would make Dedge wait another year for money that might not be awarded even then.
Webster said Dedge "deserves compensation now." He and the Senate decided correctly, however, that it was better to pass nothing than the House's devious scheme. Dedge's lawyers will now sue the state under the same legal theory underlying Webster's bill: that a person's liberty is no less valuable than land taken for a highway or orange trees destroyed to stop citrus canker. The state pays promptly for those because property rights are not subject to the arcane concept of sovereign immunity. When Dedge's law suit is filed, Attorney General Charlie Crist should concede the analogy.