Washblog

Those who support Progressive causes are in an odd position these days: we’re often in the majority on issues that matter; and we’re seriously talking about how to turn what, just a few years ago, was a wish list...into a “reality list”.

Staying in the majority, however, requires the assistance of centrist voters--and that means, from time to time, finding philosophical compromise with voters we’d like to keep “in the fold”.

In years past, the issue of the death penalty has created a considerable chasm between Progressives and centrists; with the one side concerned about the misapplication of capital punishment, and the other convinced that, for the most heinous of crimes, the only way to achieve a truly just outcome is for the guilty party to face the most severe of punishments.

What if we could bridge that gap?

In today’s discussion we propose to do exactly that: to create a death penalty process that only executes those who are truly guilty and excludes those who might not deserve to be put to death...in fact, those who might not be guilty of any crime at all.

[Front paged: NM]

Today, public interest group Reclaim the Media released a position paper calling upon on the city to end the digital divide once and for all.

In the paper, Reclaim the Media spells out a vision of an affordable, public-owned Internet designed by Seattle for Seattle, built to address poverty, the digital divide, environmental sustainability, the need for civic engagement, education, and many other concerns, and calls on the city to commit to building it by 2015.

"Seattle has received national praise for being America's most wired city, but there is nothing approaching equality of access for low-income residents, immigrants, and many others," said Jonathan Lawson, Executive Director of Reclaim the Media.

It has been an amazing week in Iran, and you are no doubt seeing images that would have been unimaginable just a few weeks ago.

For most of us, Iran has been a country about which we know very little…which, obviously, makes it tough to put the limited news we’re getting into a proper context.

The goal of today’s conversation is to give you a bit more of an “insider look” at today’s news; and to do that we’ll describe some of the risks Iranian bloggers face as they go about their business, we’ll meet a blogging Iranian cleric, we’ll address the issue of what tools the Iranians use for Internet censorship and the companies that could potentially be helping it along, and then we’ll examine Internet traffic patterns into and out of Iran.

Finally, a few words about, of all things, how certain computer games might be useful as tools of revolution.

I don’t know if you’ve been thinking about it, but the costs of long-term care have been on the mind of some friends of mine lately.

For reasons that we won’t go into here, they are in the process of pricing long-term care at care facilities...and yesterday afternoon, we had a chance to have a look at the “menu” of services (the facility's term) that can be purchased at this particular location.

If you are facing this issue in your own family, if you are a taxpayer thinking about how we plan to fund long-term care in the future...or if, one day, you expect to be old yourself...this conversation will surely matter.

[Front paged: NM]

Crossposted from Ralph Maughan's Wildlife News

For quite some time news of wolves moving into Washington state has excited many wolf supporters and Washington residents.  A couple photos of the Washington wolves.

As is usually the case, news of Washington wolves has also prompted local ranchers' to kick up controversy and concern that their livelihood won't be able to compete with these conditions of the natural world - on our public land.  Recently, a dead cow was found near Twisp, Washington - and although wolves almost certainly had nothing to do with the kill, invariably - that's where local media put the attention first.

When last we met, Gentle Reader, it was to work through a series of legal precedents and statute law; the goal of the exercise being to determine if we could or could not define waterboarding as torture.

We have the kind assistance of Professor Jeffrey Addicott, who has provided us with his written testimony from his recent appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee and a personal interview, where he walked me through some of his thinking on the matter.

Today we’re going to take a look at the precedent that he has used to reach the conclusion that waterboarding is not torture.

It’s also possible that the analysis may result in the discovery of a bit of common ground…but as I noted in Part One, it’s common ground that neither one of us might have seen coming.

I can’t tell you the number of times I began a story with a plan for where it would go, only to discover that the plan isn’t going to work.

The stories sometimes seem to write themselves…but other times, the research seems to do the writing instead; this being one of those times.

When the production of this story began it was with the intention of trying to explain what should be the “controlling authority” in terms of defining torture, a precedent set by the European Court of Human Rights, or Title 18 of the United States Code.

Having reviewed both statute law and numerous judgments in law courts worldwide as well as the recent Senate Judiciary Committee testimony of Professor Jeffrey Addicott, and having conducted an interview with Dr. Addicott personally, I’ve come to two rather surprising conclusions:

It may not really matter whether waterboarding is torture…and although neither I nor Dr. Addicott might have seen it coming, it’s starting to appear that he and I might agree on one thing:

Waterboarding, whether it’s torture or not, is a war crime.

It’s great to see that people are starting to think about hybrid vehicles, but so far, they really haven’t been for me.

You know why?

Because for the most part, they have no...style.

The Prius?
If you look at it sideways, and squint, it looks more like a pepita than a car.

The Insight?
They say it’s stylish...but it looks like a Prius to me.

You know what I want?
I want someone to build the biggest, nastiest, most oversized hybrid the world has ever seen.

Something drenched with chrome, with seating for...many, and a convertible top; and maybe, if all my dreams come true: tail fins.

Something crazy.
Something ridiculous.
Something...American.

Well, guess what?

Somebody’s already gone out and had one built—and ironically, that somebody is Neil Young, Canadian.

Don't let Congress force everyone to buy the same old lousy health insurance policies from useless
for-profit middlemen!

Health care "reform" can mean anything.  What we get depends on what YOU ask for from Congress and the president.

Toll free number (ask for Cantwell, Murray or your congressional representative) 1-866-220-0044

White House Hotline 1-202-456-1414

So there’s a lot of conversation out there about car dealerships being told they won’t be selling cars for Chrysler and GM any more.

The idea, we are told, is to save the auto manufacturers money by reducing the number of dealerships with whom they do business.

I don’t really know that much about the car business; and I really didn’t understand where these cost savings would come from, but I was able to have a conversation with the one person I do know who actually could offer some useful insight.

Follow along, Gentle Reader, and you’ll get a bit of an education at a time when we all need to know a bit more about these companies we suddenly seem to own...and about the closure of thousands of local businesses that will make the news about our bad job market worse.

No one else is reporting this, so I guess I'll be the first to do so. Today Seattle Public Schools sent its principals a list of teachers who will be "non-renewed" due to a reduction in force (RIF). This is a fancy way of saying the district has informed its principals who in their building will be laid off, and the principals have begun to inform their teachers.

As recently as Sunday, the Seattle Times reported that the

Seattle district, the state's largest, will avoid teacher layoffs by drawing on cash reserves and other cuts, and it has frozen new hires. The district's teaching force will shrink, however, because as teachers retire, their jobs won't be filled.

This is a good illustration of how, on education issues, the Seattle Times is almost always wrong.

In any case, we'll soon hear how extensive the layoffs are in Seattle.

[Update] Seattle Public Schools made it official today:

Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Maria L. Goodloe-Johnson, Ph.D. today confirmed that the School District is implementing a Reduction in Force (RIF) in response to an estimated $34 million budget shortfall for 2009-10. The certificated RIF will affect approximately 172 teachers and other certificated staff (approximately 5% of the total certificated workforce), although Dr. Goodloe-Johnson said she was optimistic that retirements and resignations would allow the District to recall a number of the individuals who are being laid off.

The budget shortfall is, of course, the result of massive education cuts that Gov. Gregoire and the legislature made in the last session. Way to go Democrats.

Moulin Rouge.

The mention of that name, in the right circles, brings back a flood of associations.

Among them: a famous cabaret in Gay Paree, a Nicole Kidman movie rich in costume and set design and...well, a movie, anyway; or, if you really know your films, perhaps the association is with the 1952 John Huston “biography” film of the same name.

The one association that might not quickly come to mind, even though it should: ground zero in a battle that led to the desegregation of Las Vegas.

Today’s story will fill in the blanks that you might have regarding that association—and by the time we’re done, we’ll have covered, just as we promised last time, the 55-year history of a place that began in 1955, lasted for not quite six months, and ended just last week...maybe.

It’s another one of those American history stories you never heard before, and it’s well worth the telling...so let’s get right to it.

[Front paged, NM]

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

The Washington State Progressive Caucus will meet Saturday, June 20 from 10 AM to 4 PM at the Hal Holmes Community Center in Ellensburg, WA.

Yesterday afternoon Stevan Dozier, whose story was featured here on Washblog in December 2007, was released from a 3-Strikes sentence of Life Without Parole after Governor Gregoire approved the unanimous recommendation of Washington's Clemency and Pardons Board. He has served under that sentence since 1994, the year 3-Strikes went into effect. He is the first Washington 3-Striker to be released under clemency. Washington State is the first 3-Strikes state in the nation.

Stevan Dozier's clemency was recommended by King County's Prosecuting Attorney, Dan Satterberg; the judge who sentenced him in 1994; King County Councilmember Larry Gossett; John Carlson, the conservative talk show host who championed the 3-Strikes ballot initiative in 1993; and others.  Here's a Seattle Times article with more background.  Al-Kareem Shadeed, whose story appeared on Washblog in January, 2008, has a clemency hearing scheduled for June 11, 2009.  Supporters are encouraged to attend.  

If you agree with 24 faith, civil rights, legal, and other organizations that Washington's 3-Strikes law should be reformed -- at minimum to comply with the 2001 recommendations of the Sentencing Guidelines Commission to remove lower seriousness crimes from the list triggering life imprisonment, you are needed.  Please consider joining joining this email list to receive 1-3 emails per month on key times to contact legislators and take part in other opportunities to advance reform.

So a Supreme Court justice that hardly anyone noticed has announced his retirement and all of a sudden the lips of The Experts are all a-flutter with the word “Empathy”.

President Obama reports he wants his nominee to have it; and Republicans are convinced that the word is a secret code for something that eventually ends in the death of free speech, massive roundups of guns by the Secret United Nations World Police, and the Internment Of All The White People In Reeducation Camps Run By Americorps And ACORN And Gay People Who Want To Marry And Are Funded By George Soros.

It is suggested that Evil Activist Judges will trample the Constitution as they create Law out of whole cloth; and that only those who interpret the Constitution just as it was written can bring the proper attitude to the Court.

It sounds like somebody needs to come along and provide a couple of cogent thoughts about this whole empathy thing...and lucky for you, Gentle Reader, we have before us today specific examples of how the quality of empathy can express itself in Court Doctrine.