Texas Death Penalty Ruled Unconstitutional--For Now, At Least
As David Kaib notes in Quick Hits, a Houston trial judge has declared the Texas death penalty law unconstitutional. The Death Penalty Information Center explains:
On March 4, Houston District Judge Kevin Fine granted a pretrial motion in a capital case and declared the death penalty in Texas unconstitutional. Judge Fine said the state's law violates a defendant's right to due process because of the risk of executing an innocent person. The judge based his ruling on studies around the country and in Texas that indicated, "it can only be concluded that innocent people have been executed....Are you willing to have your brother, your father, your mother be the sacrificial lamb, to be the innocent person executed so that we can have a death penalty so that we can execute those who are deserving of the death penalty?" Green's defense attorneys were pleased with the judge's decision, although they believe the ruling will be appealed and probably reversed. Sandra Guerra Thompson, professor at the University of Houston Law Center, said trial judges sometimes issue rulings that are unlikely to stand up on appeal to start a dialogue in the judicial branch. While Texas has consistently led the nation in annual executions, the state has followed a nationwide trend with a decline in new death sentences in 2009.
Christian Hate Group Kill Mary Magdalene 'Repent Amarillo' Terrorizes Texas Town, Harassing Gays, Liberals, And Other 'Sinners'
Think Progress reports:
An evangelical Christian hate group called "Repent Amarillo" is reportedly terrorizing the town of Amarillo, Texas. Repent fashions itself as a sort of militia and targets a wide range of community members they deem offensive to their theology: gays, liberal Christians, Muslims, environmentalists, breast cancer events that do not highlight abortion, Halloween, "spring break events," and pornography shops. On its website, Repent has posted a "Warfare Map" of its enemies in town.
Calling Repent an "American Taliban," blogger Charles Johnson notes that the group's moniker "Army of God" is a rough translation of "Hezbollah." Led by a man named David Grisham, a security guard at a nuclear-bomb facility called Pantex, Repent first gained media attention in Texas following a campaign to boycott Houston for electing a gay mayor. The group, which is associated with Raven Ministries, collaborates with other Christian groups as well as forced pregnancy advocacy associations like "Bound 4 Life."
According to a new exposé by the Texas Observer, Repent set out earlier this year to destroy a discreet club of swingers they discovered in town. On New Years eve, the harassment began, with Repent members, almost exclusively young men, showing up in military fatigues and bullhorns, blaring Christian music at the swingers' club building. The swingers, made up of "regulars" of middle aged, working class couples, were then stalked at every following visit to the club. Repent not only took video of each member, but obtained the swingers' license plates and dug through their trash, informing neighbors and coworkers of what was once private.
$2 Trillion-Plus Eco-Costs of "Business-As-Usual" Detailed
As I noted last week, a forthcoming UN report will detail enormous costs to the world's ecosystems from current business practices that result from treating the social and physical commons as an unpriced commodity, to be damaged or destroyed at will. The following chart, from the UK Guardian story I referred to in my post, gives a broad overview of how much damage various different sectors are responsible for:
Air Pollution Costs Californians $193 Million Over 3 Years In Hospital Costs Alone, Study Finds
On a more localized level, there's a new report from the RAND Corporation, which has a special project devoted to air pollution costs to Californians.
"Failing to meet federal clean air standards cost health care purchasers/payers $193,100,184 for hospital care alone," over a three-year period, according to a new report released by RAND on March 2, "The Impact of Air Quality on Hospital Spending." The total cost to the state is far higher--nearly $30 billion a year, according to a 2008 study--but the vast majority of that cost--94 percent--is due to premature deaths that can't be specifically pinpointed, much less organized politically. RAND's study is far more targeted, and could be a great help in overcoming the severe imbalance currently favoring the small handful of economic winners from the current high-pollution status quo.
The study focused on exposure to fine particular matter (PM2.5) and ozone--which cause respiratory problems, chronic and acute bronchitis, heart attacks, etc., restricted activity, school absences and work loss, hospital admissions/ER visits, and doctors' visits, etc., and premature mortality. State data was used to identify why, where and when ER visits and hospital admissions took place, and who paid for them.
Epidemiological studies were applied to actual care delivered to patients from each zip code. Equivilent data for care outside hospitals--such as for doctors visits--does not exist, so actual health costs are significantly higher.
Mega-Churches, Mega-Profits, As For Prophets, Not So Much
Rock bands, jumbotron screens, buckets of tears and oodles of money. Meet the next wave of Christian worship.
....
Featuring huge stages, rock bands, jumbotron screens, buckets of tears and oodles of money, as well as the enormity of the facilities, pastor personalities and income--over $8.5 billion a year all told--these churches are impressive forces flourishing at staggering rates....
Megachurches, considered Protestant, with more than 2,000 people attending each week, cut a wide swath across the country. In 2005, California led the nation with 178 of them, followed by 157 in Texas and 85 in Florida, according to the book Beyond Megachurch Myths: What We Can Learn From America's Largest Churches.
"We believe it is only a matter of time until every state has a congregation of megachurch size," write authors Scott Thumma and Dave Travis. "Americans have not only grown accustomed to large organizations, but they have even had their character and tastes shaped by them."
Thumma, a professor at Hartford Seminary, has since his book reported that the average megachurch income was $6.5 million in 2007, up from $4.7 million in 1999. About 50% of it was spent on salaries, the rest divided evenly between missions and buildings. Meanwhile, he says nine out of 10 megachurches more than doubled in size between 2002 and 2007....
But questions over tax-exemption status and squabbling over high-profile pastors are growing concerns. In recent years, none more than Joel Osteen, 46, the best-selling author and pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, the largest megachurch in the country, has been questioned more about his riches.
"God has blessed me with more money than I could imagine from my books," says Osteen, who gave up his $200,000 salary about five years ago, when royalties started flowing from his Your Best Life Now. He adds of he and his wife, Victoria: "I don't think it has changed our lifestyle, it has just given us the opportunity to help more people."
And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
Thank goodness, there's a coffee party movement underway which is growing explosively. I kept asking why there is not a progressive Tea Party, but it looks like there finally is one. While the leader is putting an emphasis on civility (which may preclude the sort of outspokeness that a healthy democratic ecosystem demands, at least as a component), there is still much to recommend to it. Indeed, yours truly has already joined the online group, and I am thinking of starting a local, face-to-face Coffee Party chapter.
In reality the Coffee Party stands for "cooperation" as in the bipartisan war on public education, I guess:
MISSION: The Coffee Party Movement gives voice to Americans who want to see cooperation in government. We recognize that the federal government is not the enemy of the people, but the expression of our collective will, and that we must participate in the democratic process in order to address the challenges that we face as Americans. As voters and grassroots volunteers, we will support leaders who work toward positive solutions, and hold accountable those who obstruct them.
At FDL, Stan (AKA TheCallUp) is not impressed, asking "Is The Coffee Party Shilling for the DNC?":
"Cooperation"?! That sounds A LOT like "BI-PARTISANSHIP" to me. You know, the term Obama uses as a means to promote corporatist (anti-populist) policies under the cover of "a need to compromise with Republicans or 'Centrists'." Let's face it, President Obama has rhetorically opted for bi-partisanship as a means to crush meaningful change since the very first day he took office. And yet this Coffee Party is ironically parroting Obama's key talking point in their 'grass routes' mission statement? Could this group be shilling for Obama's political arm - the now crumbling Organizing For America?
There's nothing in that Coffee Party's mission statement that suggests a move towards populism or an effort to pull Obama further to the Left (back towards the promises he ran on). Wouldn't that be the equivalent to what the Tea Party is trying to accomplish from their end? Aren't Tea Partiers, as delusional as they may be, trying to pull Republican politicians towards populist policies important to them?
Whereas Tea Partiers seem disenchanted with both the Republican party and the government, Coffee Partiers seem contented with the Democratic Party and the government. The only issue that seems to resonate with the Coffee Party is Republican obstructionism. In fact, I couldn't find a single criticism of the President, nor a mention of Democratic betrayals on their entire site. Some 'grass routes' movement!
The group asks every Coffee Party member to sign the following Civility Pledge:
"As a member or supporter of the Coffee Party, I pledge to conduct myself in a way that is civil, honest, and respectful toward people with whom I disagree. I value people from different cultures, I value people with different ideas, and I value and cherish the democratic process."
It appears this group is more interested in making a statement about the ugliness they see at Tea Party gatherings than they are in actually promoting policies that might improve Americans' lives. Their elected Democratic representatives (who control all branches of government) have been selling them out for one year now by putting entrenched interests above their own, and Coffee Partiers don't have a single thing to complain about with regards to their own party?
