Dearest Dharmanic friends in the Blogosfera,

In 1999 I was traveling in India when Columbine happened.  Everywhere I went, and I went to some pretty remote places, people I met, well at least those who had televisions, wanted to know one thing.  That one thing, loosely translated, is WTF is wrong with the US anyway?  What kind of crazy batshit country produces these kinds of homicidal maniacs?  And why?  I didn’t have a good answer.  If we had a few beers or got to know each other a little, I would might have a chance to begin to try to explain it, but I couldn’t.  And that’s not because I’m inarticulate.  It’s because there is no satisfactory answer.

And now this.  Tuesday I’m traveling to Ireland.  And you know what?  Everywhere I go, and I will go to some pretty rural places, people I meet will want to know one thing.  That one thing, loosely translated, is WTF is wrong with the US anyway?  What kind of crazyland country has black sites, extralegal extraditions, Gitmo, Bagram, waterboarding, torture, Abu Ghraib AND, and this is the important AND, AND announces that nothing should be done about those who tortured or ordered torture or wrote bogus “legal” memos to justify torture?  And what kind of country that does all of that has the chutzpah (that is a revered Irish word) to lecture other countries about human rights? Isn’t that against the law in the US, to torture prisoners?  Isn’t that against International Law, to torture prisoners, and then also to fail or refuse to prosecute the torturers?  Isn’t that what the US prosecuted various Japanese soldiers for about 60 years ago?  Didn’t the US say that the excuse of “just following orders” just wasn’t good enough to keep you from hanging?  Trust me on this.  On Tuesday evening, when I am sitting comfortably in a pub in Dublin, bemused by my good fortune and friendships, slowly working my way out of jet lag and into a reverie about James Joyce and looking greedily at the bottom of a pint, somebody will smile and ask me the question. And, of course, I don’t have a good answer.  How could I? I’m not inarticulate. I will buy a round from time to time.  But for heaven’s sake, WTF am I supposed to say about this?  There really isn’t a satisfactory answer.

Well, Mr. My Friend, I could begin, that’s quite a question you’re asking me.  I’m as enraged and unhappy about this as anyone, well, almost anyone.  I’m not nearly as enraged and unhappy as the people who were tortured or their families, but aside from them.  I haven’t got a f*cking clue why immunity or lack of action this was so prominently announced, and while we’re at it, I have no idea WTF you or I or anybody else can do about it at this point other than raise a ruckus.  Not at all.  And, Mr. My Friend, a first step toward making a ruckus is that you really need to visit the torture petitions and sign them, one and all.  And then, and only after yo do that, let’s have another pint and see what kind of ruckus we can create.

Your pal,

davidseth

cross posted from The Dream Antilles    

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968)



“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

May he rest in peace.

cross-posted from The Dream Antilles

Yesterday was a wonderful day for me and for everyone else who hopes that state killing will eventually be abolished in the US:

Gov. Bill Richardson, who has supported capital punishment, signed legislation to repeal New Mexico’s death penalty, calling it the “most difficult decision in my political life.”

The new law replaces lethal injection with a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The repeal takes effect on July 1, and applies only to crimes committed after that date.

“Regardless of my personal opinion about the death penalty, I do not have confidence in the criminal justice system as it currently operates to be the final arbiter when it comes to who lives and who dies for their crime,” Richardson said.

Europe’s human rights watchdog on Thursday hailed the decision as “a victory for civilization.” The American Civil Liberties Union called it “a historic step and a clear sign that the United States continues to make significant progress toward eradicating capital punishment once and for all.”

AP.

I wrote about this on several occasions, and I requested repeatedly in those essays that you call the Governor and urge him to sign the bill.  It is especially for all of those phone calls to the Governor and your emails to him that I want to thank you.  This is a great victory.  And, truthfully, it would not have happened without your support.  I applaud you!

I know that one abolitionist friend today is joyfully wearing a t-shirt that says, “Someday happens.”

For the record: New Mexico became the second state, after New Jersey, to repeal the death penalty legislatively since 1965, when both Iowa and West Virginia repealed their death penalty laws.  New York’s death penalty was struck down as unconstitutional, and it has not been re-enacted.   Twelve other states never had the death penalty: they either outlawed it before 1965, or after 1972 after Furman v. Georgia struck down all death penalty laws, they never enacted a new one. Fifteen states, including New Mexico, now do not have the death penalty.  Thirty-five states, the military and the U.S. federal government retain it.

Thanks!  Let’s do this again soon!!

h/t Abe Bonowitz  

cross-posted from The Dream Antilles

This morning, I re-wrote my dailyKos diary from yesterday, put it up, and again asked people please to call New Mexico Governor Richardson and to ask him to sign the Death Penalty Abolition Bill.  Here’s what I wrote:

I posted this diary yesterday.  I’m posting it again today because Governor Richardson is taking comments on the New Mexico Death Penalty Abolition Bill until Monday evening.

Friday, I wrote that the New Mexico legislature passed a bill calling for the abolition of that state’s death penalty.  The bill (pdf) has been sent to Governor Richardson for his signature.  That’s where you, my fellow Kossacks, come in.  We all need to call the Governor and ask him to sign the bill.

Governor Richardson has formerly supported the death penalty, but he says he has not made up his mind about this bill:

Richardson, a second-term Democrat, has opposed repeal in the past but now says he would consider signing it.

“I haven’t made a final decision,” the governor said this week.

I want you, fellow Kossacks, to help him make his final decision, a decision to sign the abolition bill.



You can make a lasting contribution to the abolition of the death penalty in New Mexico and ultimately in the entire US, by making a single telephone call to New Mexico Governor Richardson and asking him courteously to sign the death penalty abolition bill.  Just ask that he sign the bill.  Here’s the number:  (505) 476-2225. The number will record your request.  There is no human being on the phone, just a recorder.

Please spend 30 seconds making this call and make this request.



The logic for this is clear.  The more calls the Governor receives, the more he understands that there is enormous support for him and for abolition and for his signing the bill.  Huge support for signing makes it more likely that the Governor will sign the bill.

It’s unbelievably simple what is needed.  But it requires you, dear Kossacks, to take action, to make the call, to spend 30 seconds.

Please make this call.  Please bring abolition of the death penalty to New Mexico.

Despite their directness, neither diary/essay generated a large response.  Today’s had about 20 recommendations; yesterday’s, about 40.  I have no idea how many people actually called Governor Richardson’s number (505) 476-2225 and left a recorded message asking the Governor to sign the bill.  I know that I did, and I trust that those who said they called in the comments actually called.  Of course, I have no idea how many people just made the call after they saw the essay and didn’t bother to click anything on dailyKos.

I also sent the first request for calls essay to a number of well known, large, leftwing blogs to ask them to help out with this, to ask them to ask their readership to call the Governor.  This morning I awoke to see that none had responded to the request.

I don’t really claim to understand how something that seems to me to be so important and so easy to carry out can have so lame a response.  I’m not whining about this.  I’m just saying that I don’t understand it.  I have no intention of spending additional time or energy trying to figure this out.  I need to devote myself to trying to bring about results and not shunt myself onto some abandoned siding to analyze the meta.

So, dear readers, I am asking you to call Gov. Richardson and ask him to do the right thing, sign the bill, end the death penalty in New Mexico.  It’s easy.  And it’s the right thing to do.

Update (3/15, 3:35pm ET):  Richardson apparently is taking this decision very seriously.  Here’s the local Sunday story:

The governor said he is looking for the public’s input before he decides.

“I want to hear compelling argument, factual arguments. I want to hear from the clergy-conscious arguments,” he said.

Although the death penalty is still common in places like China, Africa and Middle-Eastern countries, The United States is on an increasingly short list of western nations that still execute prisoners–something the governor says he’s aware of.

“It bothers me that America is one of the few countries that still has the death penalty,” he said.

The governor’s office has been flooded with thousands of calls and e-mails on the issues, with opinion split evenly. Now, the governor says he wants to go face-to-face with voters.

“We’re going to be available all weekend to hear from constituents,” he said. “I’m going to meet with constituents on Monday–anyone that wants to talk to me about this issue,” he said.

You can call the governor at 505-476-2225. You can also e-mail him through his website under the “contact the governor” link.

Put another way, your call is especially urgent.  And, of course, you can email as well.

Update (3/16, 1:53 pm ET):  Last chance to make this call is today, Monday.  I’m doing what I can to solicit responses, including this at GOS.  Anyone else is, of course, free to post similar solicitations. Thanks for all the attention to this.

Long story short, the NM legislature has passed the bill abolishing capital punishment in New Mexico and has sent it on to the governor for signature.

This happened about 15 minutes ago.  Here’s a first link to prove it’s so.

Now you can open that bottle of champagne and offer a toast to New Mexico and to the abolitionists who worked so hard and well to bring about this wonderful victory.

Bravo!!

cross posted from The Dream Antilles

My friend Claudia, who is a wonderful writer, has a piece up at her blog and at Huffpuff, in which she asks the eternal, dreaded question for writers, “Am I getting paid for my work?”  The answer, as you probably expect, isn’t good:

Twice in the past week, I’ve heard the same bad news: two media outlets for whom I’d written articles informed me that they would not be paying me for the writing I had submitted.

Please join me below.

cross posted from The Dream Antilles

The New York Times reports that finally Britain, despite five years of denials, now admits that it was involved in illegal renditions extraditions kidnappings.  That’s not much of a surprise.  Britain is fessing up to two of these.  Nobody really thinks that is all there were.

Britain’s defense minister made an unusual public apology on Thursday, admitting Britain had taken part in the “rendition” of suspects detained in Iraq after denying it for years.

In a lengthy statement to parliament, Defense Secretary John Hutton confirmed that Britain handed over two suspects captured in Iraq in 2004 to U.S. custody and that they were subsequently transferred to Afghanistan, breaching U.S.-British agreements.

The Ministry of Defense has been repeatedly asked over the past five years about its involvement in rendition, the unlawful transfer of suspects to a third country, and consistently denied it played any role in the U.S.-administered program.

“I regret that it is now clear that inaccurate information on this particular issue has been given to the House by my department on a small number of occasions,” Hutton said. “I want to apologize to the House for these errors.”

“Inaccurate information” is diplomatic speak for lies.  “These errors” is diplomatic speak for five years of continuous lies.

According to the Times, the two men were captured by British troops in Iraq in February 2004 and were flown to Afghanistan, where they remain in U.S. custody.  And where, parenthetically, the Obama Administration says that they are not permitted to have access to the US Courts to contest the legality of their detention by filing habeas corpus.

Reprieve says about all of this:

“For years now the British government has been tossing us miserable scraps of information about its involvement in illegal renditions in Pakistan, Diego Garcia and now Afghanistan,” said Clara Gutteridge, an investigator with Reprieve, a charity that campaigns for the release of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

“Enough is enough. The British government must come clean and reveal exactly who it has captured, what has been done to them and where they are now,” she said. “I’m afraid this is only the tip of the renditions iceberg.”

Enough really is enough.  The US too needs to come clean.  And having a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, in which those who have committed these illegal acts, tell their stories and eventually receive immunity is just unacceptable.  It is not how the US should tell the story of its extensive human rights violations.  There need to be a criminal investigations.  And there need to be prosecutions.  And there needs to be an end of secrecy about crimes.

Anything less, after all of the lying and all of the illegal acts, and all of the contorted, disingenuous legal mumbo jumbo, falls far, far short.