Liz Cheney and the American Taliban

Liz Cheney and the group Keep America Safe is hellbent on keeping the conservative right's gunsights firmly fixed on the american system of jurisprudence. In a tactic reminiscent of the good old days of Joseph McCarthy and Alger Hiss, she now wants to root out terrorist sympathizers in the justice department. Because they may have had the audacity to defend alleged terrorists at Guantanamo. Read about the moslem baiting here.

This continues a long held republican tradition of attacking defense attorneys, or "hang them first and we will try them later." Not content to merely bash tort attorneys, we now must challenge the entire defense bar. I was taught in my law classes in college that in America, everyone has a right to mount a legal defense if they are charged with a crime. That is how the system worked, well, up to now. Because that is now un-American in the eyes of groups like Keep America Safe. Eric Holder, our Attorney General is suddenly in league with the enemy. 

I have met military JAG's who have recounted the enormous pressure they are under from their superiors for representing alleged terrorists. Now they are trying to put seven justice department lawyers under the same fire, for the affront of representing America's enemies.

Having a level playing field in regards to criminal justice has served us very well since our founding. I believe, for the most part, in the essential equity and fairness in our system of justice. It would be a shame to destroy that system on the pyre of false patriotism.

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Most of us read about the girl in Pakistan who was raped and then charged with fornication while her attacker was set free. The american Taliban are evidently of like mind. In Bristol, VA, girls and women are being given pamphlets suggesting that their sinful dress is provoking men to rape, and suggesting that they will be at fault.

“You may have been given this leaflet because of the way you are dressed,” it begins. “Have you thought about standing before the true and living God to be judged?”

It continues with one essential theme: The sins of men are, in part, the fault of women, specifically women in tight-fitting clothing. “Scripture tells us that when a man looks on a woman to lust for her he has already committed adultery in his heart. If you are dressed in a way that tempts a men to do this secret (or not so secret) sin, you are a participant in the sin,” the leaflet states. “By the way, some rape victims would not have been raped if they had dressed properly. So can we really say they were innocent victims?”

The hand-out is signed “anonymous.”

What do you want to bet the pamphlet was written by a man?

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In another salvo aimed at criminalizing women's behavior, the state of Utah has a new bill seeking to indict women who have forced miscarriages,  or indulge in reckless behavior like "drinking alcohol", even in the first trimester.

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They just found the body of the poor girl from Escondido who had gone missing at Lake Hodges. The sex offender who was charged with the crime, John Albert Gardner III, had a psychiatrist suggest that he needed to be incarcerated for a longer period of time and had shown absolutely no remorse, but was overruled by plea bargaining prosecutors who argued that he had a lack of a prior record.

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Interesting how Bunning, the lame duck Senator not running for reelection, is taking all the heat for throwing a wrench in and not extending unemployment benefits. The last time the deficit hawks tried this it was a public relations disaster. With the exception of John Kyl, who thinks that the unemployed are shiftless gamers of the system, not one other member of the GOP will publicly endorse the screwball ex pitcher's position. I hope that he sticks to his guns and helps solidify the american perception that the GOP is a party without heart or sensitivity to the problems of the common man, content to be pawns of the corporate establishment. Nice to see them come out against a Consumer Protection Agency recently, we all know that companies will police themselves.

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Many boomers, including moi, have been on record that we need to revisit the use of nuclear power, as a cheaper, cleaner alternative to other energy solutions. Unfortunately, some of our nuclear facilities are experiencing real problems and have been found to be less than truthful about their safety record. Where humans are involved, we tend to be assured of getting a certain amount of human error.

In Vernon, Vermont, the Entergy Co.'s nuclear power plant has been leaking the dangerous compound tritium very close to the Connecticut River. This after denying that their underground pipes at Vermont Yankee carry the dangerous radioactive substance. Bring on the Bloom Boxes! 

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On one of my genomic websites, someone has made the statement that Albert Einstein and I share haplogroups, in this case E1b1b1c1- d1. Supposedly a cousin of the good doctor has been tested by one of the DNA services. And I must state that while I am not particularly envious of his high intelligence, yawn, I wish that I had his musical aptitude.