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Kopel, in his opinion piece today in the Rocky Mountain News
KOPEL: Web, not bias, offing papers seems to put all the blame on CraigsList and all of we who use the world wide web.

Who or what do you think has caused the probable demise of the Rocky and perhaps the Denver Post as well?

Weigh in with your opinion on Kopel's article . Today.

Interesting article in today's Boston Globe:

US executions in a lull as court examines lethal injection

A quarter-century has elapsed since the United States experienced as long a pause in executions as the one the Supreme Court has occasioned with its current examination of lethal injections.
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No one has been put to death since Sept. 25 and the earliest that executions will probably resume is in the summer. Forty-two people were executed in 2007, the lowest total in 13 years. Last month, New Jersey became the first state in four decades to abolish the death penalty.

But when the justices return from their holiday break and hear arguments today in a lethal injection case from Kentucky, their questions are unlikely to focus on whether capital punishment or even the method of lethal injection is right or wrong.

The two death row inmates whose challenge is before the court are not asking to be spared execution or death by injection. Their argument, at its most basic, is that there are ways to get the job done relatively pain-free.

While the Supreme Court debates which drug cocktail will do the job "painlessly," states are revisiting their death row cases and finding wrongful convictions--sometimes too late. It's the fear of executing an innocent person that is slowing that nation's rate of executions, not concerns over pain suffered during lethal injection.

It will be interesting to see the technical results of this challenge, whether this poison or that poison is the most "humane" for administering the death penalty, but it won't answer the real question America is grappling with.

So you wanted to "play nice" with the White House on those Supreme Court nominees a couple years ago, did you? Formed that "Gang of 14" to keep our collective wheels spinning in greased grooves, no nasty contentious filibusters--right?

The result:

Precedents Begin to Fall for Roberts Court

No Supreme Court nominee could be confirmed these days without paying homage to the judicial doctrine of "stare decisis," Latin for "to stand by things decided." Yet experienced listeners have learned to take these professions of devotion to precedent "cum grano salis," Latin for "with a grain of salt."

Both Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. assured their Senate questioners at their confirmation hearings that they, too, respected precedent. So why were they on the majority side of a 5-to-4 decision last week declaring that a 45-year-old doctrine excusing people whose "unique circumstances" prevented them from meeting court filing deadlines was now "illegitimate"?

It was the second time the Roberts court had overturned a precedent, and the first in a decision with a divided vote. It surely will not be the last...

Sometimes the court overrules cases without actually saying so. Some argue that this is what happened in April, when a 5-to-4 majority upheld the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act without making much effort to reconcile that ruling with a decision in 2000 that found a nearly identical Nebraska law unconstitutional.

As a technical matter, the new decision, Gonzales v. Carhart, left the earlier ruling still on the books, doing its overruling "by stealth, without having the grace to admit that is what they were doing," in the words of Ronald Dworkin, the legal philosopher, who wrote a highly critical appraisal of the new decision in The New York Review of Books last month. "Justices Roberts and Alito had both declared their intention to respect precedent in their confirmation hearings, and no doubt they were reluctant to admit so soon how little those declarations were worth," Professor Dworkin said from London in an e-mail message.

Much of the news and blog coverage of the US Attorney scandal has centered on the US Attorneys in question prosecuting Republicans, as in the case of US Attorney Carol Lam and disgraced former representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham. But the larger over-arching issue what Republicans call "voter fraud." Voter fraud is almost nonexistent in this country, but Republicans like to wave this red herring in their attempt to suppress minority voter turnout.

McClatchy brings this out into the open in the mainstream media with a story about Hans von Spakovsky, the Republicans' go-to man in the Justice Department using unethical and strong-arm tactics to hide the effects of their vote suppression efforts.

But let's remember that these efforts at suppressing minorities, though being taken to a recently unheard of level, are not new. Republicans have long sought to use the law to suppress their opponents' right to vote. Before becoming a drug-addled Supreme Court appointee, the late Chief Justice of the Supreme Court William Rehnquist was a foot soldier in the Republicans' minority vote suppression machine in
Arizona.

Democrats have rightly long been apologizing for and distancing themselves from racist Jim Crow laws perpetrated by conservative Democrats in the South after the Civil War. But the racists just switched parties, and their efforts to marginalize minorities continues at full steam under the Republican Party's umbrella. Like Osama bin Laden in a cave, Jim Crow is alive and well, hiding in plain sight. The Republican Party gives Jim Crow aid and comfort, and furthers his insideous agenda from the highest levels of government.

We had a little fun with 'Foxy' the fox today... NO, not That Kind of Fun!

We heard that Frontier was doing a Campaign Interview style promo for the 'Foxy' Frontier's Favorite Animal at the Civic Center today across from the City Hall. So we thought this would be great test of our Concept of Instant Vigils.

We flew downtown and did a 'one indian' to their 'circle the wagons' maneuver. The media types applauded my arrival but grumbled later when they had trouble getting a shot without our signs in the background.

Our sign on one side said.

Call Foxy and tell her to
Stop the Iraq War
and impeach Bush

and on the other side

Call Foxy and say
Stop the War and
impeach Bush.

Amazing the amount of eyeballs these signs got.

It was Fun...
you all shoulda been there.

Maybe next time, eh! Join Us.
Impeachment can be fun.

John

WeeklyVigilsToImpeach.Us
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ProgressNowAction Member
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Clovis "Chuckie" Claxton was a happy, go-lucky Cub Scout in Washington until age 10 when he contracted meningitis and encephalitis, leaving him paralyzed and mentally retarded. In 1991 at age 20, but with the mental faculties of a 10 year old, he was convicted of child molestation after playing doctor with a neighbor girl. Chuckie served his sentence, and was deemed by his court-appointed therapist and law enforcement not to be a recidivism threat.

Things went as well as can be expected for a severely disabled man with aging parents for ten years until they moved to Ocala, Florida where they hoped the warm weather might make it easier for Chuckie to get around on his own. In accordance with the law, Chuckie was registered in Florida as a sex offender as a result of his previous conviction. The local sheriff performed a threat assessment and determined that Chuckie had no risk of re-offending. Things began looking up as Chuckie made some ground with Medicaid and gained approval for an electric wheelchair. But the good times would not last.   Read More »