Osama Watch - Day 1324

We recently got some news that we nearly caught one of Osama bin Laden's deputies this week. A friend of mine just told me that those of us who didn't think the war in Iraq was going to be of much use in shutting down Al Qaeda aren't pointing out how long we've gone since September 11th, 2001 without capturing bin Laden himself.

So here's a reminder: one thousand three hundred twenty-four days.

That's a really long time. Hopefully the count will stop very soon.

Drew Carey Doesn't Rock

This morning I was listening to a radio morning show on the drive back to Philly from DC. Drew Carey called in to promote his new movie "Robots." When the hosts asked him about politics, he said his usual mantra: Shut up and act.

Okay, I can respect that. You're an entertainer. You think entertainers should just entertain rather than pontificate on issues they may not know anything about.

But then the host asked if he had anything to say about politics, seeing as he was speaking to a DC crowd. He took the opportunity to rail against social security as a program that we all really hate. Then he said, "If this presidency is affecting your life, you should be living a different life."*

Um, what? Pretty easy to say that a president shouldn't affect your life when you never have to worry about housing, food, health care, employment, and a million other daily struggles faced by non-millionaires.

Didn't Drew Carey come from humble roots? What am I missing here? Well Drew, if you're out there, I would really like to be living a different life so I'm not affected by this presidency. So you can make a check out to me for a million or so and I'll send you a postcardin a month to let you know how nice and unaffected I am.

* This is practically verbatim, but I can't guarantee it's perfectly verbatim.

Frustrating Me At Every Turn

The Terry Schiavo case is on my mind quite a bit lately. But the President's recent statement on the issue made me angry at the way his Administration and Congressional allies pick and choose pet projects by claiming to serve a larger principle, but ignore so many other important cases or programs that would even better serve that principle.

Regarding the recently enacted Schiavo bill, the president said, "In cases like this one, where there are serious questions and substantial doubts, our society, our laws and our courts should have a presumption in favor of life," he said.

So what about the death penalty cases where serious questions were raised about the adequacy of legal representation or mental capacity of the convict? Where is the presumption in favor of life in ignoring their cries for justice? And what about the thousands of kids who suffer or die every year because they live in poverty and without health care? Where is the presumption in favor of life in cutting government welfare programs in the name of "reform?"

I just don't understand how they're drawing their lines.

Live from Death Row

I went to an amazing event today. The newly formed Penn Law chapter of the Lawyers' Guild hosted a call with a former death row inmate who had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment by former IL Governor Ryan. Gov. Ryan commuted the sentences of all the death row inmates in Illinois before leaving office. He pardoned a few inmates as well.

The man on the phone today was "Cortez Brown." I put his name in quotation marks because his real name is Victor Safforld. After police beat and tortured him to get him to sign a statement about his involvmement in two murders, Safforld signed the name "Cortez Brown." As he explained today, he figured that if he signed a fake name, he would be better able to explain to a judge that the statement was false. He thought it would void the statement, like a fake signature voids a check.

The statement was admitted. Safforld couldn't afford a private attorney, so he got a public defender. His public defender had more than 30 active cases and - this is horrific - actually was in trial defending another client at the exact same time that he was defending Safforld. On the phone today Safforld said his lawyer would literally give his opening statement, then leave to go downstairs and give his opening statement in the other trial, then run back upstairs, and so on. The evidence against Safforld was incredibly weak. His lawyer had no time to do any field work. Safforld told his lawyer he was beaten, but this was never investigated. Safforld was convicted and was sentenced to death.

Safforld's story is very compelling and appalling. He is well-spoken. He is funny. He praises the people who work for and volunteer at "Campaign to End the Death Penalty," who have been helping his case since 2000. Safforld has been in jail for 15 years.

I found his words to be so thought-provoking and moving that I thought I'd share some of them with you. There is no knowing his guilt or innocence for certain, I suppose, but maybe that's what makes his story seem all the more terrible. We just don't know what he did, and yet we were willing to kill him. It's depressing how quickly we forget that, whether guilty or innocent, prisoners are human beings too. It's frightening how elusive the truth is.

This was everything I could scribble down during the 45 minute phone call.

Describing the mood when the death row inmates learned that Gov. Ryan had commuted all their sentences:
"It was as though the Chicago Bulls had won their first championship... Everyone was excited and filled with joy... but it was bittersweet... it was like, 'Okay, we won't kill you, but you have to spend the rest of your life in jail as an innocent man.' But where there's life, there's hope."

Explaining why he doesn't care if he's pardoned or simply has his sentence reduced, he simply wants to be free:
"I've seen people go to the execution chamber who have strong innocence claims... however way my freedom comes, I will accept it."

Explaining why sharing his story and having people listen is so important to his case:
"The most powerful asset that we have is out ability to communicate with people who see the system as unjust and who want to change the system... they've started monitoring our mail and made it extremely hard to get on the telephone... do not allow the system to discourage you from communicating with us."

Describing the conditions on death row:
"It's like a cemetary... Everyone there is scheduled for deatj... Nothing can take your mind from the execution chamber, especially when you saw friends of yours go there."

"What we were there for did not mean anything... we had to fight for one another."

"Death row was no different than any other prison. In fact, we had more love and respect for one another because of the seriousness of our cases... They treated us worse than people treat a dog... any way they could do to inconvenience us, the did."

[He also said thaton death row, everyone is in a solitary cell and are only let out of that cell for visitations, which are rare, and for 2 hours of recreation a day. So you spend 22 hours a day in a cell by yourself.]

Describing the night before the execution of one of his friends on death row:
"The night before, he was excited [and upset]... I had to talk to him all night long. I could actually see the death angel pulling on his spirit."

"I had to live with the idea that that may be me one day."

Discussing his education and goals:
"On death row, you can go no further than a GED... [and now it's the same with a life sentence.]... I do self-study... I want to be a master mathematician. I try to learn from the universe itself."

[He also studies a lot of religion, Buddhism and Islam in particular, and has a strong faith in god and a higher power.]

Describing the people from "Campaign to End the Death Penalty:"
"These people embody what I consider to be the spirit of God himself in their activism, not just their words."

His messages to us:
"Please continue to be involved... Whatever you can do to help, it always helps and it's not in vain... We appreciate everything that you do for us... It's a big machine that we're fighting against... and we must continue to fight."

"It's good to fight now because maybe someone you know will become a victim of the criminal justice system... because then you'll wish you'd done more."

"Whatever you do, keept it real, keep it simple, and fight."

Evil Trans Fats

Is anyone else picking up on all the grumblings about trans fats lately? Pretty soon all food containing trans fats will have to be labeled (and by "containing," of course the government means "containing more than this amount which the food manufacturing lobby has convinced us equals zero even though it is more than zero").

I've been reading about trans fats a lot lately and I had no idea that they were both really really bad for you and in just about everything I consume every day. Peanut butter... frozen dinners... donuts... yeah, that's a daily meal plan for me, and those trans fats are in all of it! Any time you see the word "partially hydrogenated" in a list of ingredients, you have to watch out, because that's trans fat. Start reading labels and you'll realize that every good and yummy thing you love to consumer is full of trans fats. It's been rather devastating to my eating habits! Thank god diet coke doesn't have trans fats... just cancer-causing nutrasweet.

Anyway, apparently trans fats not only raise the bad fat in your blood stream, but they also stop the good things that good fats do. In case you want it explained to you in simple form, I saw this article today which lays it all out.

It freaks me out that people weren't talking about this before... but maybe none of us were listening. I wonder if health experts have been cursing apathetic, un-health-educated consumers like me for the past few years for not realizing how bad trans fats are just like I sit around grumbling about people who don't vote and don't realize how bad the Bush Administration is. Hmmm...

When Reality TV Gets Ugly...

I admit it. I watch a lot of bad reality tv. I used to hide this aspect of my life, but now I'm out of the closet - I am a reality tv watcher! And speaking of being out of the closet on reality tv, I accidentally stumbled into "Wife Swap" last night on ABC.

I watch Alias on Wednesday at 9. Wife Swap comes on at 10. Usually I'm so appalled by the advertisements during Alias for the upcoming spousal switcheroo that I zap of the tv as soon as the credits for Alias begin. But last night I couldn't help myself. The set up? A lesbian in a long term relationship with her partner swaps places with a very conservative housewife. The promo that got me was the conservative housewife telling the lesbian partner who stayed home that she had to put a Republican yard sign up.

I'll try to be somewhat objective when I describe what led me to feel ill at the end of the hour. Here are some highlights:

1. Conservative wife and lesbian partner2 (the one who has to live with conservative wife for the week) get in a screaming match about gay marriage. Conservative wife thinks it's insulting to marriage that lesbians would want to get married "just for economic reasons." Lesbian partner2, who is a bit of a hot head, is outraged and yells about how unfair it is that if she's in a coma, her partner can't make her medical decisions, which is not "economic." Conservative wife retaliates by saying lesbian partner2 does not no what real discrimination is, like her sisters experienced in the South decades ago. Oh, did I mention conservative wife is black and her husband is white? (Ironic how some who share conservative wife's beliefs on gay marriage probably think conservative wife's marriage is immoral... but I don't think she's caught on to that irony.)

2. Lesbian partner1 (who is in the conservative home for the week) establishes the new rule of "no chores," because the kids, who seem very nice, don't realy let loose. When conservative husband makes his bed the next morning, lesbian partner1 asks the kids what his punishment should be. It's clear that neither lesbian partner1 nor the conservative kids have ever been troublemakers in their lives, as the kids declare they should... ... mess up dad's sock drawer. Lesbian partner1 thinks that's a great idea, and so they do. Even dad is kindof amused when his kids show him his "punishment."

There were actually nice moments in both families. The lesbians' daughter clearly liked it when conservative mom gave her a "princess day" and baked her cookies. The conservative dad admitted that he had fun when lesbian partner1 had the kids invite all their friends over for a 30 person slumber party despite the chaos. Lesbian partner2 learned that she should help around the house more because being bossed around by conservative wife was no fun. So I though, huh, this is pretty interesting, looks like conservative dad there might be some mutual eye-opening going on that people who disagree don't have to either 1) be afraid of each other or 2) hate each other. Oh silly me.

Then the two couples meet up and trade thoughts about their time in each others households. Conservative wife wastes no time telling the lesbian partners that they are shacking up and immoral. Then she says she was worried all week about her kids possibly spending time with a sexual predator. Yup. Lesbian partner2, the hothead, went nuts. After all, she'd been dealing with the moral lectures all week... and she's got a temper. Very sadly, conservative husband said nothing except to defend his wife's protective instincts.

And this is what got me. If this wife truly thought the lesbian woman was a possible sexual predator, would she have gone through with the show and let her kids hang out with that woman under the same roof? No way! What decent parent ever would take that chance? No way. She would have walked off the show as soon as she found out about the other woman's sexual orientation. She knows lesbians aren't sexual predators, but by going through the week she got to say on national television just what she thinks of lesbians and gays. It's clear that's what she was looking for all along... a venue for her venom.

Not surprisingly, lesbian partner1, who was soft-spoken and kind the whole week, just cried. She was incredibly hurt. Her partner was outraged. Conservative husband just sat silent. It was one of the meanest moments I've ever seen on television - to make a mockery of someone's life and family, to pretend like you think they're dangerous to justify your cruelty when you clearly know they are not. And now I'm just waiting for the conservative groups out there to start handing out awards to this woman for "bringing morality into a house of sin" or some other nonsense.

I don't think I'll ever watch Wife Swap again. The premise is just awful. I feel terrible for lesbian partner1 from last night, but I hope she knows that she probably made a huge difference in the lives of the kids she stayed with. They had fun with her. They thought she was nice. It may be the only significant contact they'll get with someone outside their ideological circle before they head off to college, and they all said they had a good time. Conservative wife and husband may be lost causes, but they may have unsuspectingly opened their kids minds up to a whole lot more tolerance.

Finally, I'm a Centrist Somewhere

I spent the past weekend in Boston at the Law Students for Choice first national conference. It was an excellent conference - I learned a ton; I met a lot of great, passionate reproductive rights activist/law students; and I felt very connected to a bigger community.

When I go to conferences, I often feel an interesting push-pull going on. In my day to day life, I imagine most people consider me to be one of their more liberal acquaintances. I like going to conferences on issues I'm particularly liberal on (whatever that means) to feel less like a person on the edge of a larger group... but I often find that I'm often on the edge of the conference population as well. I've attended conferences where I've been labeled a "corporate feminist." I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I guess I'm not radical enough some in the women's movement. Then I go to other conferences and I feel like I'm on the other edge, that my opinions are too radical for the other conference goers. At first I thought the LSFC conference was falling into the latter category, but as the weekend went on, I realized that I might actually be in the middle of the crowd in terms of "radical-ness." A very new experience.

I spend a lot of time complaining about the current state of the Democratic party... how I feel that it's trending ever to the right in hopes of capturing some idea of "centrist" voters that probably doesn't exist. This weekend made me think about that a little more. No one likes being in the minority all the time. No one likes being on the edge of a group all the time. Maybe it's just that middle school impulse that never dies that's driving the Democratic party these days... it's just a lot more comfortable to be a conformist than to stand out. Of course, as really unfun as it is to be on the outside looking in, didn't we all learn by looking back on middle school that we would have had a lot more fun doing our own thing than hiding in the crowd?

As nice as it was to be in the middle of the crowd at times this weekend, it wouldn't have been nearly as fun if the middle of the crowd was boring, uninformed, lacking passion, passive or just plain indifferent to the things I care about. I guess that's what I hope the Democrats don't forget. They can be in the middle... but make it a middle worth being in... lead the middle back to the left, instead of scooting to the right out of fear that the middle is leaving us behind.

The State of the Union -- Pass Me a Beer!

For those among us who may want a slight diversion tonight when we feel obligated to watch the State of the Union address, but can't fathom how to sit through it:

The State of the Union Drinking Game. So cliche, but whatever.

Still A Dean Believer

I caught a few minutes of Crossfire on Friday... just enough to hear so-called Democrats lament the possible election of Howard Dean as the new Chair of the DNC. God forbid the most succesful candidate at online fundraising and activism in the party's history be our new leader! God forbid the only presidential candidate to consistently speak out against the war in Iraq - which the majority of Americans now believe was a pretty crappy idea - be our new leader! We certainly don't want anyone to speak their principles before the Republicans have stuck us in a corner and prelabeled any opinion we might have as unpatriotic.

I understand that Howard Dean isn't universally loved. But let's get real. We've played it safe the past few years by putting a fundraiser, not a leader, in charge of the DNC. We've played it safe by making the uber-moderate Sen. Harry Reid in charge of our diminished minority in the Senate. We need someone who will yell a little. And yes, I know... there was that scream. But if the biggest criticism we have of someone is "He gets too excited when thanking the volunteers who worked for him," um, are we trying to make sure we never lead the country again?

I'd much rather have a DNC head who speaks Democratic principles first than one who sits around waiting for public opinions polls to be conducted and reconducted and reconducted until we're absolutely sure that maybe we won't annoy one swing voter in one county in Okahoma who might consider voting Democrat this year if we make sure not to stand up for our party platform when it comes to those silly little issues like civil rights and reproductive rights, which only affect the strongest Democrat supporters, not the "much needed" swing voters!