Rowhouse Logic - Breathtaking Inanity

Note: I’m just reposting this from January to keep the noise level up a little. I’ll have new material up soon.

In case you missed it, Seth Williams officially announced his candidacy for Philadelphia District Attorney on Saturday, at Vernon Park in Germantown. He will be running in the primary against Lynn Abraham, America’s deadliest D.A., or so they say. In the last primary, Abraham was opposed by Alex Talmadge, who I believe had no prosecutorial experience but managed to receive 41 percent of the vote, despite running a severely underfunded, and largely unnoticed campaign. Unlike Mr. Talmadge, Seth Williams has a great deal of experience as a prosecutor and if he runs a good campaign, should have an excellent chance of winning the primary.

In the July 16, 1995 edition of The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Lynn Abraham was quoted saying she didn’t care “how many millions it costs” to put somebody to death. She also stated, in that same article, that “when it comes to the death penalty, I am passionate.” That’s some pretty ugly stuff. According to that same article (sorry no link, you have to pay to read it), her office seeks the death penalty in greater percentage of cases than any other District Attorney’s office in the United States. Although I haven’t seen any recent data, I would assume that is still the case.

Even if you aren’t opposed to the death penalty, you should be disturbed by the attitude displayed in those quotes. The application of the death penalty consumes many times the resources, both financial and human, consumed by prosecution and execution of life sentences. Philadelphia’s criminal justice system can scarcely afford the burden placed upon it by Abraham’s enthusiastic pursuit of the death penalty. That burden may be one reason that 50 percent of felony prosecutions in Philadelphia are thrown out due to the unpreparedness of the District Attorney’s office.

It should be noted that Mr. Williams also supports the death penalty but has said that “It should be the exception, not the rule.”. A refreshing if, in my mind, imperfect change.

Seth Williams’ campaign website is up and running. You can view it here. If you are at all interested in Philadelphia’s future, Please consider contributing to his campaign and/or signing up as a volunteer. It’s doubtful too many prominent Philadelphia Democrats will stick their necks out on Williams’ behalf, so he will need all of the grassroots support he can get.

[Update] Click here to have a look at Seth Williams proposals for reorganizing the DA’s office and implementing community based prosecution. The file is in PDF format and is campaign material. When I have some more time I’ll try to give a breakdown of my thoughts on his proposals which, at first glance, look quite promising.

If you are interested in the May District Attorney primary featuring Lynne Abraham and Seth Williams, Young Philly Politics has a nice little write up today which discusses Seth Williams‘ apparent inability to gain much traction as yet. It’s still fairly early for a low interest primary such as this one, so I’m still quite hopeful. For a brief glimpse into how the facts on the ground suggest that it is well past time to shake up Philadelphia’s law enforcement agencies, including but not limited to the DA’s office, have a look at this morning’s post from Will Bunch. Granted, he doesn’t discuss Abraham specifically but current spate of murders and gun crimes in our city implicate the whole law-enforcement system and she sits at the top of that system. Machine politics are Keeping Abraham’s career alive. The situation is just too grave to accept that as ‘just the way it goes.’ It’s well past time for a change

I shudder at the thought of putting this out in public.

I sometimes think that one solution to the political craziness in America is personally attacking Republican activists.

And I mean real, hardcore, heavy-duty attacks.

You’re a Republican, and you’re sleeping around? In the name of family values, we tell your wife. And your neighbors.

You’re in favor of renewing restrictions on civil liberties? In the name of public safety, we publish everything publicly known about you on the web. Maybe even a few interviews with a few former friends and colleagues about what a jerk you are.

I know someone who is a Republican activist who is divorced. He put his kids in a special school because they have a few problems. It’s not their fault, and it’s probably not his fault. Hey, he’s probably a good father. But I feel so isolated from folks like him and his ilk.

I don’t think I would feel much guilt if I said to him “Hey, you are a real stupid fuck, and since you’re telling the Shiavos how to run their lives, why don’t we take your kids from you since you obviously fucked them up?”

Publicly.

Repeatedly.

If you haven’t taken the time to read this Joe Hoeffel post on MYDD, you should really take the time to do so. He discusses a rather peculiar encounter he had with John Bolton and a few of the reasons the man is unfit to serve as our nation’s UN Ambassador. As for the bomb - Stop Bolton.

I’ll admit do being a little jealous whenever The Liberal Avenger announces that he’s the first hit on Google for something neat like Tom Delay Asshole. Not bad. Not bad at all. Well just today I discovered that I’m number 22 on MSN Search for the search string parasite removal for pets. I couldn’t be prouder.

Susan:

I’ve never felt apologetic or defensive about not having a degree, but it sure does seem to bother other people. How many times have I heard: “You don’t have a degree? But you’re so articulate and intelligent!”

To which I always reply, “Interesting assumption. Has it really been your experience that every college graduate you know is both articulate and intelligent?”

When it comes to political news, we’ve sanctified the wonk stuff and labeled good old common sense the province of wingnuts and morons. No wonder so many people don’t bother to interpret the news - we’ve already explained to them why they can’t.

This really hits home for me in a number of ways. Unlike Susan I did graduate college but I never did graduate from High School. Actually, I never made it past the eighth grade and even that was a struggle though not, I hope, because I’m unusually slow. Credentials are important to some, most especially employers, because it’s an easy and accepted way to judge a person without really knowing the first thing about them. In my own case, I don’t get too many questions anymore, for the simple reason that once you have a bachelor’s degree most people don’t concern themselves with things like how well you did in high school. Naturally, being a fairly self conscious person, my typical concern is that my lack of formal education will be evident to those I’m speaking to. That’s never actually happened (I hope) but the concern always lingers in the back of my head and can, from time to time, present self imposed barriers, even here on my own blog, with regards to what I’m comfortable discussing. Self deprecation aside, I wonder how many Interesting and insightful and inspiring voices we are not hearing because of the importance placed on formal education and even social status. Quite a number I would imagine and our political discourse is poorer for it.

Susan discusses the dearth of working class voices far more coherently than I ever could, so go read the whole thing.

Athenae wrote this last Friday. It’s well worth repeating.

Get a life. I’m not kidding. Find something to do with your time other than to insert yourself as a protester on either side of this case. Because it’s not about a woman who needs defending, it’s about you needing to be part of some larger drama, it’s about you wanting to be where the TV cameras are. It’s about you, you, you, you. It’s about the self-satisfied expression on your fat fucking face as you sit in your lawn chair, you fat white well-off slob taking a vacation from your job so you can be part of the spectacle.

It’s about your need to take a stand on something. It’s about your need to hear your own voice talking about how moral you are. It’s about you wanting to feel good about yourself, because you stood up for something. And it’s not that I don’t sympathize with that urge, but can’t you see, it’s unseemly when it’s about some person’s death. You don’t get your own way just because you feel something ought to happen. You don’t get to insert yourself into someone else’s life and demand that they live it or end it according to your rules.

And this goes for people who want this woman to be allowed to die as much as it is for the people who want to keep her alive.

This is a family tragedy. This is a dispute between parents and spouses over the life and death of someone they loved. Let them settle it between themselves. Let them work it out or not work it out. Let them do what they choose. They love her, they know her, they are bound by blood or marriage. There is a reason kin decide these things.

Opinions are like assholes, and a lot of you are acting like it today. You don’t get to have an opinion about everything. You don’t get to decide everything. You don’t get to go to Congress and demand they enact laws because you read about something or saw it on TV. You have no say in this. You shouldn’t.

I have utterly no idea if Terri Schiavo should have her feeding tube removed. And it would be beyond presumptuous to assume I should form an opinion. Who am I? Her friend? Her spouse? Her mother? Who am I to get to even say what I think should happen? What possible basis do I have for such determinations? How dare I even consider the question in light of my own desires?

There are people outside Terri Schiavo’s hospital with placards who are praying.

I hope it’s for humility.

Katha Pollitt:

Sexism, which is what we are discussing here, often justifies itself by assuming that women don’t want the thing that is being denied them.

I’ll admit to being overly simplistic here. The Liberal Avenger pointed out this Christian Science Monitor article which discusses a national conference held at the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Florida aimed towards “reclaiming America for Christ.” The article discusses some of the ideas, strategies and historical beliefs of the religious right with regards to our nation’s governance. This paragraph from the first page of the article is what piqued my interest:

Their mission is not simply to save souls. The goal is to mobilize evangelical Christians for political action to return society to what they call “the biblical world view of the Founding Fathers.” Some speak of “restoring a Christian nation.” Others shy from that phrase, but agree that the Bible calls them not only to evangelize, but also to transform the culture.

It makes me curious if they are fully aware the biblical views of at least a few of the founding fathers. Let’s take Thomas Jefferson who wrote this in 1820:

I say, that this free exercise of reason is all I ask for the vindication of the character of Jesus. We find in the writings of his biographers matter of two distinct descriptions. First, a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstitions, fanaticisms and fabrications. Intermixed with these, again, are sublime ideas of the Supreme Being, aphorisms and precepts of the purest morality and benevolence, sanctioned by a life of humility, innocence and simplicity of manners, neglect of riches, absence of worldly ambition and honors, with an eloquence and persuasiveness which have not been surpassed. These could not be inventions of the groveling authors who relate them. They are far beyond the powers of their feeble minds.

The biographers and authors with the feeble minds to which he refers are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Perhaps they’ve heard of them? I wonder if they would agree with Jefferson’s assessment of the Gospel? I doubt he could get elected dog catcher today. I’ve placed the full text of that letter in the extended entry as it really in quite a read. Many more quotes of this nature can be found here.

My point here is not to harp on one group of religious activists or another, it’s to point out that there often is a historical disconnect present when discussing the alleged “Christian” quality of our nation’s founding. A profound misreading or willful misinterpretation of our nation’s history seems to be one of defining characteristics of the Christian Right. This is unfortunate and more than a little alarming given that the Christian Conservative wing of the Republican Party is currently wielding a great deal influence over our government and our nation as a whole.

The Rage Diaries has a more on this same article.
Read the rest of this entry »

As if a sane person really needed any additional reasons to vote for Seth Williams in the May primary we learn from Young Philly Politics that the DA’s office, under the direction of Lynne Abraham, is seizing the homes of non-criminals in North Philadelphia:

As I said, this practice is unfair and inhumane. The government is going after the homes of those who cannot afford to defend themselves, and despite the fact that they are not even being accused of any crime whatsoever, their home is taken. In this case, because the woman’s file made it to the Penn clinic, her home was eventually saved. Those who are not so lucky? Too bad, they are simply poor and screwed.

But, lets forget basic moral questions for a second, and think about the public policy ramifications. We have a City with many struggling neighborhoods, that have abandoned homes, unstable populations, a plethora of mortgage foreclosures, and all the problems that stem from those issues. And within that context, we have the DA, the locally elected DA, helping to push these neighborhoods further into decline by taking long time residents out of their homes?

In the end, of course, the whole thing must actually cost Philadelphia money. Forget the real, but still somewhat abstract monetary effect that a Sheriff Sale has on a neighborhood (some estimates have been that it knocks $15,000 off of the property value of its neighboring homes). Forget the psychic cost to a population that sees a longstanding neighborhood resident forced out of her home by officials elected to represent the interests of Philadelphia residents. How about some very basic costs? Where, for example, do you think people are going to go when this happens? How about a homeless shelter ($$$)? How about public housing ($$$)? Can this really be justified?

Via Will Bunch

Juan Cole:

Republican Hisba will have the same effect in the United States that it does in the Middle East. It will reduce the rights of the individual in favor of the rights of religious and political elites to control individuals. Ayatollah Delay isn’t different from his counterparts in Iran.

Helena Cobban:

…I’ve increasingly been wondering– what with Neroponte first of all preparing to leave Iraq, and then leaving for his big new intel-management job in Washington… And what with the continued failure of the Iraqi parties to reach agreement on forming a government…

So I’ve been wondering: who the heck, on the US side, has been responsible for shepherding along the political process there?

Look, we might not like the fact, but under the international law of military occupation the US does have overall responsibility for the good governance (hah!) of Iraq, pending conclusion of a final peace agreement between Washington and a representative Iraqi government.

And hey, it’s not just that Neroponte was up and leaving the place, but don’t you remember, some time back, we were all assured that National Security Advisor Condi Rice was going to be “in charge of running Iraqi affairs from Washington”?? But since then she too has been given new responsibilities and now she’s off tooling around various parts of the world in her dominatrix jackboots…

So who is in charge of the Iraq “file”? Maybe just Rumsfeld? Maybe purely the military?

Or how about…nobody?

Sometime last week I walked into Doc Watson’s pub on 11th street because all of my normal bars were way too crowded. Something seemed a little off so I turned around and left. By “off” I mean that it felt a bit like being in a shopping center parking lot on a Friday night when the stores have closed and the kids from a local high school have arrived en mass to drink 40’s and huff glue. Now I know why:

Maybe the doorman fell asleep.

The owner of Doc Watson’s Pub (216 S. 11th) may want to try that line as an excuse for why, say police, there were more than 100 minors inside the bar Saturday morning.

Bar owner Daniel Flynn, 36, was arrested after, according to a police report, locking a large group of minors in his one-bedroom apartment on the fourth floor of the building to hide them from police. Police had initially responded to a call about loud music when they saw underage folks at a bar. They made eight underage drinking arrests and one for posession of narcotics.

Then, say police, Flynn announced that all underage persons were to proceed to the third floor, and later announced they should head to the fourth floor.

Philadelphia police called in the Pennsylvania State Police Liquor Enforcement Control Bureau and the Department of Licenses and Inspections. Liquor Control officers made and additional 88 arrests for underage drinking.

Washington Post:

When the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled a rule last week to limit mercury emissions from U.S. power plants, officials emphasized that the controls could not be more aggressive because the cost to industry already far exceeded the public health payoff.

What they did not reveal is that a Harvard University study paid for by the EPA, co-authored by an EPA scientist and peer-reviewed by two other EPA scientists had reached the opposite conclusion.

That analysis estimated health benefits 100 times as great as the EPA did, but top agency officials ordered the finding stripped from public documents, said a staff member who helped develop the rule. Acknowledging the Harvard study would have forced the agency to consider more stringent controls, said environmentalists and the study’s author.

So, I told you guys about the new Bella Vista Korean barbecue restaurant, Porky and Porkie last weekend. Well, I’m happy to report that I had the opportunity to have dinner there last night.

For those not familiar with Korean barbecue, particularly Korean barbecue all-you-can-eat buffets, this restaurant experience may be somewhat intimidating. All tables are outfitted with a cook-it-yourself gas grill and a smoke-sucking vent fan that feeds into long metal tubes that move the smoke out of the building. Yes, Virginia, you’re now cooking with gas, not to mention, cooking your own food.

Two buffet tables fill in the side of the room. The first table is a fiesta of marinated raw meat. Two different cuts of beef, two different types of squid, spicy pork, bacon (aka pork belly - well, I think so, anyway, looked and tasted like bacon to me), two types of marinated chicken, two types of tripe, and a fascinating food product called chicken large intestine. The second table held mixed salad, lettuce leaves for wrapping the meat, two trays of sushi (futomaki and inari - nothing very impressive by the standards of a serious sushi lover), sliced garlic, sliced mushrooms, sliced hot peppers, coarsely chopped onion, and fresh broccoli. Cantaloupe, honeydew, and pineapple provided the dessert options. But take it from me, this place is all about the meat.

Since Porky and Porkie currently have no menu, the buffet is the attraction and at $14.95 per person (not sure if there’s a discount for kids) it’s a relatively inexpensive one. The servers will happily explain Korean barbecue to novices, but for the more experienced person, they’ll fire up your grill and let you get to cooking. Last night, we started with a bowl of soup that was included in the price. The soup was only lukewarm, but I think that may have been by design. The broth was flavored of seafood and the main ingredient appeared to be clams. One of my companions enjoyed the soup, but I did not really enjoy it, nor did our other companion. Three bowls of Korean pickles were provided. Kim chee cabbage and daikon radish were satisfying as always. Another bowl included fish cake, which we all enjoyed, and lastly was the seaweed that seemed to be lightly seasoned with sesame oil. I would have liked more of these little dishes, but for the price and the all you can eat buffet, I really can’t complain too much. The server also brought white rice, butter (for coating the grill), and a few different sauces. My friends enjoyed the soy sauce, while I was more enamored of the spicy garlicky bean sauce.

After the meat is cooked, for all the barbecue virgins out there, you then wrap some meat, rice, maybe some veggies, garlic, and hot pepper in the lettuce leaves that are provided. We enjoyed all the food, but in the future I would get more information on exactly how to cook chicken large intestine. The buffet attendant convinced me to try it, but he neglected to tell me how long it needs to be cooked. Suffice it to say, it had a rather weird, chewy, crunchy texture that doesn’t seem appropriate to chicken. My dining companions were partial to the flavors of the two different types of beef and the bacon. I enjoyed everything, but particularly liked both varieties of squid.

My primary recommendation would be to provide each table of diners with metal tongs to handle the raw meat. We had to pick up extra sets of chopsticks from surrounding tables so that we could have raw meat and cooked meat chopsticks. We eventually asked for a pair of tongs and they were provided with no argument, but this should have been obvious to the owner.

The whole experience is exceedingly messy and quite fun, especially if you’re a person like me who loves to play with his or her food.

No flirtatious waiters this time around, but I’ll give and Porky and Porkie 3.5 out of 5 sets of chopsticks.

This arrived in my mailbox some time back and makes some good points. If the person who wrote it would like credit they should contact me.

The woman that everyone thinks is a tough cookie actually leads an office that loses over 52% of all felony cases at the preliminary hearing for themere fact that the Assistant District Attorney’s weren’t prepared.

In 2004 there were 327 homicides in Philadelphia and 80% of them were caused by handguns. Philadelphia leads the nation in percentage of murders caused by handguns, yet the tough cookie has an office where 7 employees are solely dedicated to prosecuting welfare fraud….18 are dedicated to prosecuting insurance fraud…but zero are assigned to investigating or prosecuting illegal gundealers.

Lynne claims to be the people’s D.A. but in reality is the insurance industry’s D.A. because they pay for her to go after insurance cheats, while no one is prosecuting gundealers.

She hasn’t tried a case since Nixon was president in 1974. How about this little known fact. Arnold Gordon is her First Assistant and is in charge ofthe daily operations of the office. He signed up for the D.R.O.P. almost three years ago. That is a retirement program designed to get senior city employees to retire. He retired accepted the $325,000 that was due him and Lynne re-hired him the next day at his same salary of $143,000. She told the Inquirer that she had to re-hire him because there was no-one else that could handle the job. This totally defeats the purpose of D.R.O.P.

I have some additional thoughts here and here. RHL contributor David has quite a number of thoughts on Lynne Abraham here. No time to write anything new now. Sorry.

Whew. Hurray for temporary reprieves.

From the Inquirer:

City Council this morning postponed its scheduled vote on a smoking ban in restaurants, bars and working places across Philadelphia.

Councilman Michael A. Nutter, the bill’s sponsor, said he would bring the bill up again as soon as possible. Council is not in session next week, but will resume work later in the month.

I suppose that if I were up for reelection in a state where one might find the second busiest train station in all of North America, I would probably think twice about voting against restoring funding to Amtrak. Then again, I suppose I’ll never quite get Rick Santorum.

An effort to defy the White House and back continued subsidies for Amtrak passenger rail service failed in the Senate on Wednesday.

The chamber defeated an amendment to budget legislation proposed by Sen. Robert Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat, to provide the beleaguered service with $1.4 billion in aid for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

The measure failed 52-46.

Now if I were to be so bold as to vote against an amendment to provide funding to Amtrak, and the state I represent in the United states senate happened to house the second busiest train station in North America, I would be damn sure to have some sort of bold, dynamic proposal ready to replace the “beleaguered service” on which so many of my constituents rely. I don’t suppose that Rick Santorum has a proposal of that sort.

I’m not going to pretend that Amtrak doesn’t need serious reform. I’m more than willing to concede that, as currently organized - with rail lines and infrastructure strewn across sparsely populated regions of our country in order to satisfy congressional whims - that Amtrak will never be a profitable enterprise. As if interstate highways will ever be profitable. But what, exactly, is the alternative? Before you allow a service whose service and infrastructure is vital to several of our nation’s largest cities and economies to die, shouldn’t you really have some sort of feasible alternative at hand? This isn’t just Amtrak, it’s SEPTA, New Jersey transit, Metro North, MTA, and any number of other local transit systems who rely heavily on Amtrak’s infrastructure.

[update] Here’s a decent article on Santorum’s sell out and some of the potential fallout for PA. (Via Will Bunch)

A little financial wisdom and foresight from President Bush’s nominee to head the World Bank:

“We are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon,”

-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz testifying before congress on March 27, 2003. He was referring to Iraq.

Make no mistake about it, this Terry Schiavo situation couldn’t be much sadder for all involved. But I just wish it would end…Someday. It appears that day may be Friday. I guess we’ll just wait, watch, and hold our collective breaths.

According to Reuters:

A Florida appeals court refused on Wednesday to intervene to extend the life of a severely brain-damaged woman whose feeding tube is scheduled to be removed on Friday after years of impassioned dispute.

A lower court had ruled Terri Schiavo’s husband could remove her feeding tube any time after 1 p.m. EST on Friday, and the appeals court refused to change that.

It continues on to say:

The appeals court declined and said all the issues raised by the parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, were resolved long ago in the seven-year court battle.

“Not only has Mrs. Schiavo’s case been given due process, but few, if any, similar cases have ever been afforded this heightened level of process,” the appeals court said.

The feeding tube has sustained Schiavo since a 1990 heart attack cut off the flow of oxygen to her brain.

The last sentence clinches this argument for me. From the very beginning, it appears as though the probability of this woman living without artificial means was nil.

Here’s some additional perspective on this situation from another thoughtful Reuter’s piece.

In most cases, there is no such drama because family members are able to agree whether to pursue further treatment. For an estimated 85 percent of the roughly 1.76 million people who die in America’s hospitals, hospices and nursing homes every year, death follows explicit decisions by their families to either stop or not start treatment.

“America is a place where death is thought of as being optional,” said Alan Meisel, a University of Pittsburgh law professor who specializes in bioethics and drafted a study for President Ronald Reagan on informed consent and end-of-life decision making.

The medical advances of the last three decades have made it frequently possible to delay death, for a while.

“Once you medicalize the process of dying, then the moment of death and the style of death is simply bound up in the whole set of medical decisions,” said Steven Miles, a Center for Bioethics professor at the University of Minnesota. “You instantly put on the table the question of when do you stop.”

Schiavo has depended on tube feeding since she suffered a heart attack in 1990 that starved her brain of oxygen and left her in what the courts have ruled is an irreversible and unconscious state.

A study done under the Reagan administration estimated there could be about 10,000 people in the United States in “persistent vegetative states” similar to Schiavo’s in which they could live for decades if they are fed and cared for.

I can understand the parents’ overwhelming desire to keep their daughter alive, especially since she reportedly responds on some levels. But I’m sickened by the way this discussion has become a devisive right to life issue, with many parties invoking the name of God and assuming their opinion is his will. It seems to me that God’s will may have been for Terry Schiavo to die that day in 1990 when she had the heart attack. Maybe all the people who think that pulling her feeding tube is akin to murdering her need to look at whether God or modern medicine kept her alive these intervening 15 years.