on this day... september 29

On September 29, 1780, the British spy John André was court-martialed, found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. An accomplice of Benedict Arnold, he had been captured six days earlier by American forces; arrested after the discovery of incriminating papers stashed in his boots. The exposure of these papers forced Benedict Arnold to flee to England aboard the British warship Vulture where he joined the British in their fight against the American revolutionaries.

After being sentenced to death, André requested that he be executed by firing squad because death by firing squad was considered a more "gentlemanly" death than by hanging. On October 2, 1780, General Washington wrote in his "general order" of the day, "That Major Andre General to the British Army ought to be considered as a spy from the Enemy and that agreeable to the law and usage of nations it is their opinion he ought to suffer death. "The Commander-in-Chief directs the execution of the above sentence in the usual way this afternoon at five o'clock precisely." John André was executed by hanging in Tappan, New York. He was 31 years old.

Fast forward to the year 2005

On September 29, 2005, NY Times reporter Judith Miller was released from federal detention in Alexandria, Virginia after agreeing to name sources in the "outing" of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame.

A little background...

In 1982, federal legislation was passed which made it illegal to reveal information about a covert agent to anyone not authorized to receive such classified information.

Ultimately Miller's source turned out to be none other than Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Eventually Libby was convicted of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements to federal investigators in the Plame investigation. Before he was incarcerated, President George W. Bush commuted Libby's prison term on July 2, 2007.

The bottom line... no one has ever gone to prison... no one (other than Libby) has been charged with a crime in this sorry episode quite possibly reaching in to the highest federal office. The criminal behavior remains intact.

Troy Davis is dead... long live the debate

Last night Troy Davis was executed... and the debate will go on as to whether or not an innocent man was put to death.

This meaningless death points out the absolute cruelty and enormous waste of money when the death penalty sentence is applied... yet in this country, we continue to view this barbaric exercise as "justice."

If we observe the issue from an alternate perspective, the death penalty serves no purpose... it's been proven time and again that it deters no one from taking another's life. The real victims are those who go to the death chamber declaring their innocence, as did Troy Davis. Even to the end, when asked whether he wanted to make a statement, Troy insisted the wrong individual was being executed, creating a cloud of lingering doubt over whether the state executed the wrong man. Even if the individual actually responsible for the slaying at last steps forward, no one in this state-sanctioned murder will be held responsible... and few will really care because in this country many still believe in the "old testament" form of justice... an eye for an eye.

After Davis was executed, his attorney Jason Ewart remarked "I had the unfortunate opportunity tonight to witness a tragedy, to witness Georgia execute an innocent man. The innocent have no enemy but time, and Troy's time slipped away tonight."

Today, those individuals who supported a commutation in Troy's sentence will mourn his death, and the deaths of others in similar circumstances who face the ultimate "sentence" with little recourse to alter the outcome.

Related to this... as I watched the recap, one thing struck me... the cavalier attitude of some reporters covering the event making statements like "the 'cop killer' was at last executed." I wondered how these remarks could have been made as there was no hard evidence presented at the trial to [without a doubt] convict Troy Davis... no weapon was found... the testimony presented was based solely on eyewitness accounts and jailhouse "snitches," potentially tainted by police intimidation.

The wife and parents of the slain officer remarked that the right man was executed for the crime. I wonder if they can really live with the fact that there is a tremendous amount of doubt surrounding this sad, shameful Georgia episode.

And I wonder if justice was truly served... If there is a God, may he have mercy on our collective "soul" as we continue to perpetuate this cruelty on our fellow humans.

the new debtor prison system in amerika

During a conversation with an acquaintance, I happened to mention the return of "Debtors' Prisons" to the American landscape, which a friend immediately dismissed as an idiotic notion.

According to Wikipedia, Debtors' Prisons were established for those unable to pay a debt and have been noted throughout history, but particularly in Great Britain and the United Kingdom during the 18th century.

Although some inmates were more fortunate than others [dependent on the amount of money they had], inmates were forced to pay for their keep [and if an individual incurred the wrath of their jailor, they could be forced into manacles, dungeons, unjust demands or worse...]

The explanation went on to state that in despair, many were driven to suicide.

Although the Debtor's Act of 1869 in Great Britain abolished imprisonment for debt, some debt-ridden individuals were still incarcerated for up to six weeks before being released.

In 1833, the United States also abolished this practice on a federal level, as did most states in America. Prior to the passing of this legislation, approximately 2,000 New Yorkers annually suffered imprisonment for debt. When the total NY population of the time was less than 100,000, this is a stunning figure.

That was then... this is now.

On April 5, 2009, an article ran in The New York Times concerning a woman in Michigan who had been ordered to reimburse the juvenile detention center for fees incurred for incarcerating her 16-year-old son. When she explained her inability to pay before the courts, she too was incarcerated. The article went on to report she spent 28 days behind bars before the ACLU was able to have her released.

28 days?  Yep!

What are we coming to as a country?

I also discovered that there are many For Profit prisons popping up all over the country. These privately-owned prisons operate under a different set of rules than state-run prisons, which is (in my opinion) a huge glaring problem which most Americans fail to realize.

If there is no real oversight, then prison authorities will never do the "right" thing, whatever that may be...

what do you want?

Jobs!

When do you want them?

Now!

If the House of Representatives was paying attention... jobs would (at long last) be in the pipeline...

However, the list of Republican nominees has given us nothing but platitudes... Mitt Romney suggested he would be releasing a plan soon to address the growing problem but so far, nothing forthcoming.

I can't wait to see what his plan will reveal for those sans income.

Still waiting...

Meanwhile, Obama is still being trashed by the very politicians and pundits responsible for this infernal mess!

Meanwhile, back to Romney's plan...

Still waiting...

racing to the bottom

Very quickly another election season will be upon us.

Much is at stake, and on my daily drive home, important items are ticked off ad naseum... health care (and who will have access in the coming years), the state of education in this country (dreadful), the endless wars fought on foreign soil and perhaps more importantly, jobs for those who want to work.

If one listens to the legislative branch in this country discuss the issues affecting most Americans, the one item least discussed is JOBS.  It's just not on their radar, yet most of the new crop in Congress was elected to address just that... jobs, jobs and jobs.

Somehow, the message has gotten lost, sadly for those trying to make their lives work in an environment  more concerned with privatizing everything in this country, while at the same time outsourcing jobs to other countries (willing to underpay workers). Michele Bachmann is even suggesting that we drop the minimum federal wage in order to compete with China.

I like the deep thinkng on her part... what a great idea... let's race to the bottom so we can "compete" with China.