Fear of Obama Health Care

There are some opposed to health care reform who are equating President Obama to Hitler and they mis-quote a German theologian when they say that "..when they came for the Jews I didn't complain because I wasn't Jewish. When the came for the Catholics I didn't complain because I wasn't Catholic..." and so on. This source prints the exact quote from Martin Niemoller and it goes as follows. "First they came for the communists, but I was not a communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the socialists and the trade unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. Then the came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me".

(Source: "Hitler, Obama and Malthus" by Lou Dubose editor of The Washington Spectator from Sept 1, 2009.

The Court and forced confessions

Some preliminary notes on this subject follow. Question: What Supreme Court cases exist that deal with the issue of forced confessions and do they apply to the alleged torture of terror suspects being held today in US military prisons.

Williams v. US 1951: A robbery suspect was beaten and tortured by a private detective who was also a "special police officer". The confession obtained was ruled to be a violation of the suspects constitutional rights and legal action was taken agains the police officer. I do not know the outcome of the robbery case.

Screws v. US

Gardner v. NJ

US v. Classic

Brown v. Mississippi

Chambers v. Florida

This information taken from on line at "Justia.com" from the US Supreme Court Center.

THIS INVESTIGATION IS ON GOING. IF ANY ONE READING THIS HAS ANY SUGGESTIONS PLEASE ADD TO COMMENT SECTION.

Interrogations and the CIA

I will enter this post directly from the newspaper I found it in. "The CIA's interrogations are likely to have damaged the brains of terrorist suspects, diminishing their ability to recall and provide the detailed information the spy agency sought, according to a new scientific paper.

The paper, published Monday in the scientific journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences, scrutinizes the techniques used by the CIA under the Bush administration through the lens of neurobiology and determines the methods to be counterproductive, no matter how much the suspects might have eventurally talked". (If correct, this would argue against the use of torture to get useful information from detainees).

(Source: "Report: Interrogations of terror suspects are counterproductive" in a section entitled "nation & world at a glance". No author is listed. The Virginian Pilot on 9/22/09)

Mid East Peace

Former President Jimmy Carter believes that "Israel must stop building settlements in Palestinian territories if peace is ever to be achieved in the Middle East". The Israeli settlements in Palestine have been established by "...a determined minority of Israelis who desire to occupy and colonize east Jerusalem and the West Bank". Carter notes that all 22 Arab countries "...have offered diplomatic recognition and full trade and commerce...". if Israel would give up the occupied territories. He says the only solution to a "two state" arrangement would be a one nation in which Arabs would outnumber Israelis resulting in the "...end of the Jewish state or else an apartheid system..." with the majority population oppressed and denied equal rights. He made his comments at James Madison University while receiving an award for his humanitarian work. Carter has made a life-long concern of the Middle East problem since the Camp David Accords reached while he was president. (This, of course, is Carter's opinion. Some will disagree and some will dismiss it. He does, however, have some knowledge of the issue).

(Source: "James Madison center honors the Carter's efforts for peace" by Sue Lindsey of the AP. In The Virginian Pilot on 9/22/09).

Congress Votes

This post will start a new category with information taken from The Virginian Pilot and The Record.

The House voted to "repremand" Joe Wilson of S. Carolina for yelling "you lie" at President Obama during an address before a joint session. The vote was 240 in favor and 179 opposed. "The disapproval measure ...was the mildest punishment the House could give..." (and there were still 179 votes against it).

The House voted to deny funding to ACORN (345 to 75) and the Senate did also (83 to 7). The voter registration group was video taped "urging illegal activity".

The Senate voted to "...require Amtrak to allow passengers to stow handguns in checked luggage..." by a vote of 68 to 30.

The House approved $ 2.43 billion in funding thur 2014 to "...develop clean-vehicle technologies". The vote was 312 to 114.

(Source: "How they voted". The Virginian Pilot on 9/21/09)

Nobel Prize Winners

This post may be more useful for English teachers but I thought it worth noting here. The US has had only 11 winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature from 1901 until 2007. They are as follows: Toni Morrison in 1993, Joseph Brodsky in 1987, Czeslaw Milosz in 1980, Isaac Bashevis Singer 1978, Saul Below in 1976, John Steinbeck in 1962, Ernest Hemingway in 1954, William Faulkner in 1949, Pearl S. Buck in 1938, Eugene O'Neill in 1936, and Sinclair Lewis in 1930.

(Source: Internet "Powells.com/prizes/nobel.html".

Capital Punishment

Question: Can a felon be executed if the first attempt fails? Ohio will re-execute a convicted rapist murderer next week after an unsuccessful two hour attempt to find a vein in the felon to insert a lethal injection. His lawyer claims that this was torture and he should not be executed. The only US case dealing with this issue was from 1946 in Louisiana when an electric chair failed. The US Supreme Court ruled that to execute a "...prisoner in the wake of a failed first attempt was constitutional" (name of case unknown at this time).

(Source: "Ohio to try again after execution effort fails" from the NY Times re-printed in The Virginian Pilot on 9/17/09)

Update: A federal judge has ordered a delay-of ten days- in the second attempt to execute this convicted murderer. Romelli Broom's lawyers say the failed attempt at letha injection amounted to "cruel and unusual punishment", a violation of the 8th Amendment. Lawyers for the state "consented to the request for a delay". (Source: "Ohio: 2nd execution attempt is halted" from wire reports in The Virginian Pilot on 9/19/09)