Honduras: A Face Off On Thursday

Honduran police clash with pro-democracy demonstrators.

The military coup that deposed Honduran President Manual Zelaya has been denounced by almost everyone except the Honduran military. President Obama said, "We stand on the side of democracy, sovereignty and self-determination." The OAS has condemned the coup. ALBA has condemned the coup. The UN General Assembly has condemned the coup. Central American nations have sealed their borders with Honduras. Most (except El Salvador) have also withdrawn their ambassadors. Roads are blocked in the country.

Police and soldiers clashed with pro-Zelaya protesters in the capital on Monday, and about 5,000 anti-Zelaya demonstrators gathered at a main plaza in Tegucigalpa on Tuesday to celebrate his ouster.

What is to happen next appears to be a confrontation, a face-off between the deposed President and the military coup that arrested and deported him.

Earlier today it was reported that President Zelaya will return to Honduras on Thursday:

Ousted Honduran President Manual Zelaya has announced that he will return to Honduras on Thursday. "I'm going to finish my four-year term, whether or not you coup leaders are in agreement," he stated.

Zelaya will return to Honduras accompanied by the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, and a commission of Latin American presidents. The Argentine government has announced that its President Cristina Fernandez will accompany Zelaya to Honduras as part of the presidential commission. In a press conference following his speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Zelaya stated that Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa will also accompany him.

Colinas, Santa Barbara, Mayor Amable de Jesus Hernandez told TeleSUR that citizen caravans were being organized to travel from his region to the capital of Tegucigalpa on Thursday to receive President Zelaya.

At first, the return of the deposed president and other officials wasn't supposed to be a direct confrontation with the military forces that arrested and forcibly deported him to Costa Rica:

Reports in Honduran and international press that interim President Roberto Micheletti says that "if Zelaya sets foot on Honduran soil he will be arrested" are overblown, thanks in large part to a provocative headline in that regard published by Colombia's Radio Caracol. Yes, Micheletti has stated that Honduran courts have issued arrest warrants against Zelaya, but thus far he has not definitively stated that his forces will attempt to arrest Zelaya...

The [Radio Caracol] interviewer asked Micheletti how he planned to respond in the event that Zelaya ... returned on Thursday. Micheletti responded: "My country's courts have arrest warrants against him for breaking the law." He then went on to explain his case for why Zelaya had broken the law when he attempted to carry out a public opinion poll on forming a new constitutional convention to draft a new constitution. Micheletti never told Radio Caracol that his government planned to act on the aforementioned arrest warrants.

However, by later in the day, Micheletti wasn't so circumspect. In an interview with The Washington Post, Micheletti made an overt, explicit threat to arrest Zelaya:

"If he comes back to our country, he would have to face our tribunals and our trials and our laws," Micheletti said in an interview with The Washington Post late Monday night at his residence in the hills overlooking the capital. "He would be sent to jail. For sure, he would go to prison." ...snip

The new Honduran president said he did not see any way to negotiate with the Obama administration and international diplomats seeking a return of Zelaya to power because Micheletti insisted that Zelaya was guilty of crimes against the country.

"No, no compromise, because if he tries to come back or anyone tries to bring him back, he will be arrested," Micheletti said.

That's clear enough. Micheletti has unequivocally stating that Zelaya will be arrested. And so on Thursday, when Zelaya and his supporters return to Honduras, there will be a confrontation, a face off in Tegucigalpa. On one side, the coup's president, Roberto Micheletti, the parts of the Honduran military that support him, his citizen supporters from the upper classes; on the other, Manual Zelaya, the international leaders who support his claim for the restoration of democracy in Honduras, the masses of people in the Hemisphere's second poorest country.

I know which side I'm on. I know what side I hope you're on.

I want to be in solidarity with the restoration of democracy and the overturning of this military coup.

It's not clear what we can do to help restore Democracy in Honduras. Again, as individuals it's only the small things we can do. We can watch the news from Honduras, we can spread this story, we can ask our Traditional Media^TM to report it (it's not on the front page of the New York Times or CNN or MSNBC as I write this), and we can discuss among ourselves how we can eventually be of actual help to our brothers and sisters and their struggle in Honduras.

I know this isn't much. But it's only right that we support this struggle for democracy and oppose the military coup. We supported democracy in Iran, halfway around the world. We should be supporting democracy at least as strongly in our own backyard.

Honduras: Support The Pro-Democracy Resistance

Protesters on Monday faced off against the soldiers of an illegitimate Government to demand the restoration of their stolen democracy. It's not Iran. It's Honduras. And because it's Honduras, which is in this very hemisphere, squashing a democratically elected government like a Palmetto Bug seems in the Trad Media^TM to be less of an outrage. After all, Honduras doesn't have oil. It doesn't have nukes. It's not part of the dreaded axis of evil. It never held US citizens hostage. Sure, the US has destablized it in the past century, exploited its natural resources, turned it into a Banana Republic. But so what, the US did that to virtually every country in this hemisphere. Even now the Honduran military has strong ties to the US. So it's different from Iran, right? Real different. Or is it?

The New York Times reports:

One day after the country’s president, Manuel Zelaya, was abruptly awakened, ousted and deported by the army here, hundreds of protesters massed at the presidential offices in an increasingly tense face-off with hundreds of camouflage-clad soldiers carrying riot shields and automatic weapons.

The protesters, many wearing masks and carrying wooden or metal sticks, yelled taunts at the soldiers across the fences ringing the compound and braced for the army to try to dispel them. “We’re defending our president,” said one protester, Umberto Guebara, who appeared to be in his 30s. “I’m not afraid. I’d give my life for my country.”

Leaders across the hemisphere joined in condemning the coup. Mr. Zelaya, who touched down Sunday in Costa Rica, still in his pajamas, insisted, “I am the president of Honduras.”

President Zelaya said:

“They are creating a monster they will not be able to contain,” he told a local television station in San José. “A usurper government that emerges by force cannot be accepted, will not be accepted, by any country.”

He's right about that. The US, Venezuela, the OAS have all denounced the coup. Zelaya is scheduled to speak at the UN on Tuesday. But, of course, removing the democratically elected president couldn't be the end of the story in Honduras. No. That would be too simple. Instead, the military coup now has to secure itself, has to assert itself, has to eliminate the opposition:

The military also appeared to be moving against Mr. Zelaya’s allies. Local news outlets reported Sunday that Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas and the mayor of San Pedro Sula, the country’s second-largest city, had been detained at military bases.

The government television station and another station that supports the president were taken off the air. Television and radio stations broadcast no news. Electricity was cut off for much of the day in Tegucigalpa on Sunday, in what local reports suggested was on military orders. Only wealthy Hondurans with access to the Internet and cable television were able to follow the day’s events.

The Congress met in an emergency session on Sunday afternoon and voted to accept what was said to be a letter of resignation from the president. Mr. Zelaya later assured reporters that he had written no such letter.

Apparently, CNN en Espanol and Telesur and the Zelaya stations have all been cut off. The stations on the air are playing music, telenovelas, and cooking shows. There is no news.
Detaining supporters at military bases. Taking TV and radio stations off the air. Turning off electricity. Denying access to the Internet and to cable TV. This is really familiar. Didn't we just deal with these kinds of things in Iran? Yeah, but that was different, right?

Where is the Sea of Green in Honduras? Is there internal resistance to this coup? And if there is, where is it?

Community Radio “Es Lo de Menos” was the first to report that the Fourth Infantry Battalion has rebelled from the military coup regime in Honduras. The radio station adds that “it seems” (“al parecer,” in the original Spanish) that the Tenth Infantry Battalion has also broken from the coup.

Rafael Alegria, leader of Via Campesina, the country’s largest social organization, one that has successfully blockaded the nation’s highways before to force government concessions, tells Alba TV:

“The popular resistance is rising up throughout the country. All the highways in the country are blockaded…. The Fourth Infantry Battallion… is no longer following the orders of Roberto Micheletti.”

Angel Alvarado of Honduras’ Popular Union Bloc tells Radio Mundial:

"Two infantry battalions of the Honduran Army have risen up against the illegitimate government of Roberto Micheletti in Honduras. They are the Fourth Infantry Battalion in the city of Tela and the Tenth Infantry Battalion in La Ceiba (the second largest city in Honduras), both located in the state of Atlántida."

NarcoNews

Put another way, there is popular resistance to the coup, from citizens, and even from the army. Again, Twitter has the internal stories.

Again, I want the democratic resistance to win back their democracy. I want to be in solidarity with the pro-democracy struggle.

This might take more than turning my icon green. This might take a lot more than that.

Let's consider what we can do to support the restoration of democracy in Honduras. Let's see how we can move in solidarity with the restoration of democracy in this country.

Iran: It's Not Really Over

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Maybe I've been distracted by other things: Michael Jackson, Gov. Sanford, Farrah, Ed McMahon, US v. Brazil, Honduras. I missed something about Iran. I implied on Saturday that the Iran Revolution was in ashes, but that I hoped there was a fire under them. Then I disconnected from the story. I turned away. I assumed it really was over. Finished. But, thankfully, I was wrong. It's not really over. The demonstrations continued on Sunday. Despite the threats. Despite the arrests. Despite the violence. This movement has not succumbed to the brutality and violence. AP reports on Sunday evening: Several thousand protesters — some chanting "Where is my vote?" — clashed with riot police in Tehran on Sunday as Iran detained local employees of the British Embassy, escalating the regime's standoff with the West and earning it a stinging rebuke from the European Union. Witnesses said riot police used tear gas and clubs to break up a crowd of up to 3,000 protesters who had gathered near north Tehran's Ghoba Mosque in the country's first major post-election unrest in four days. Some described scenes of brutality, telling The Associated Press that some protesters suffered broken bones and alleging that police beat an elderly woman, prompting a screaming match with young demonstrators who then fought back. The reports could not be independently verified because of tight restrictions imposed on journalists in Iran. So, I was wrong. It's not over. The demonstrations are continuing. Smaller perhaps. But continuing. Twitter about #iranelection has slowed down. But it's still constantly updated. And from what I'm reading, it's not over. It continues. It continues despite brutal repression. It's dropped down on but not off the front page. The New York Times reports the Sunday demonstrations on page 1: In spite of all the threats, the overwhelming show of force and the nighttime raids on private homes, protesters still flowed into the streets by the thousands on Sunday to demonstrate in support of Mr. Moussavi. Mr. Moussavi, who has had little room to act but has refused to fold under government pressure, had earlier received a permit to hold a ceremony at the Ghoba mosque to honor Mohammad Beheshti, one of the founders of the 1979 revolution who died in a bombing on June 28, 1981, that killed dozens of officials. Mr. Moussavi used the anniversary as a pretense to call a demonstration, and by midday the streets outside the elaborately tiled mosque were filled with protesters, their arms jabbing the air, their fingers making a V symbol, for victory. The demonstrators wore black, to mourn the 17 protesters killed by government-aligned forces, and chanted “Allah Akbar,” or God is great. “There was a sea of people and the crowd stretched a long way onto the main street on Shariati,” said one witness, who remained anonymous because he feared retribution. What started as a peaceful demonstration turned into a scene of violence and chaos by late Sunday, witnesses said. So, it is not over. It may move down the front page. It may move off the front page. It may move off of this blog. But there was fire beneath the ashes, as we assumed, and this is not over. Not yet. As I wrote before, we need to remember the demonstrators and continue in solidarity with them: All we can do outside of Iran is bear witness as the struggle unfolds. And while we bear witness, we can continue to lift our voices as individuals (and not as a government) in solidarity with the demonstrators. And offer our thoughts and prayers* for a peaceful resolution. And find other, creative ways to support the struggle in Iran for democracy and freedom. The Iranian Democracy movement is absolutely worthy of our personal (as opposed to governmental) support. Support and solidarity at this point require, indeed permit only the simplest of things. There are only simple things we can and should do: Things like changing our location and time zone on Twitter to Tehran and GMT +3.5 hours. Things like making our avatar green. Things like reading the posts of those who are there. Things like posting and distributing their videos on youtube. Things like writing blogs and asking others to link arms with them in solidarity. Things like talking about what ideas we might have that could be of help to them. [Things like putting a green ribbon on docuDharma] These are things that might be completely ineffective to help Iranians achieve democracy, to get a new, fair election, to overturn the sham outcome of their last election, to prevent governmental violence and repression. I realize that. But that's not what's important. That's not what's important now. What's important, I think, is our continuing solidarity with this struggle, our saying, however we can say it, "Brothers and Sisters, we're with you. We want you to succeed. We want you to be safe, and free. We want you to obtain the change you seek." Let's stand firm with the Iranian democracy movement. Let's not forget them. Let's remain focused. .

Iran: Fire BeneathThe Ashes

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It's all but over. To virtually no one's surprise, the Iran Government's pervasive brutality has effectively silenced the demonstrations and the opposition against Iran's stolen election. Iran has begun to move off the front pages. And it appears that the government's violence has forced the democracy movement off the streets and into a pained and fearful silence. The media reports are a cause not for surprise but for sadness. The New York Times sifts the ashes of the Iranian resistance: The direct confrontation over Iran’s presidential election was effectively silenced Friday when the main opposition leader said he would seek permits for any future protests, an influential cleric suggested that leaders of the demonstrations could be executed, and the council responsible for validating the election repeated its declaration that there were no major irregularities. Rather than address the underlying issues that led to the most sustained, unexpected challenge to the leadership since the 1979 revolution, the government pressed its effort to recast the entire conflict not as an internal dispute that brought millions of Iranians into the streets, but as one between Iran and outside agents from Europe, the United States and even Saudi Arabia. It was a narrative that spoke both to the leadership’s belief that it had beaten back the popular outburst, and to the fragility of the calm. “There has been too much violence to forget about it,” said an expatriate Iranian analyst who is not being identified because he has relatives in Iran and is afraid of reprisals against them. According to CNN, the the Iranian Government's violence and threats of execution have stifled the demonstrations. And the Government persists in its groundless claims that outsiders caused the demonstrations, and that demonstrators were responsible for the death of Neda Agha-Soltan: Two weeks into turmoil, Iran's leaders turned up the heat Friday as a high-ranking cleric warned protesters that they would be punished "firmly" and shown no mercy. Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami says rioters in Iran will be "firmly" dealt with if they continue to protest. "Rioters and those who mastermind the unrest must know the Iranian nation will not give in to pressure and accept the nullification of the election results," said Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami during Friday prayers in Tehran, according to Iran's state-run Press TV. "I ask the Judiciary to firmly deal with these people and set an example for everyone," Khatami said. Khatami also blamed demonstrators for the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman who emerged as a powerful symbol of opposition after her death a week ago was captured on a cell phone video. Khatami said the foreign media had used Neda for propaganda purposes. Khatami's assertions will go unchallenged for now. Meanwhile, dozens of journalists who were trying to report the story and between 20 and 25 employees of a Mousavi organized newspaper remain in detention. Amnesty International noted that these were "at risk of torture in detention." Put simply, the democracy movement will now recede. The demonstrations will cease. Is there still fire beneath these ashes? The BBC reported on Friday: In the centre of Tehran there are many fewer security forces on the streets. A stadium where Basij militia - an arm of the Revolutionary Guard - were based is now being used for sport again. But the power of the regime is not far from the surface. On the main avenues black cars with the words special police painted on them move steadily through the traffic, each one containing four or five men in camouflage uniforms. It has been much quieter these last few days. One elderly witness said she felt it was the calm of the grave. ... When you ask Iranians about the way this might go, a phrase keeps cropping up. They say it might seem quiet to an outsider, but there is fire below the ashes. .

Iran: Fill The Sky With Green Balloons!

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The protest for Friday, as reported by The New York Times: 7:52 p.m. Now that it is early Friday morning in Iran, an Iranian blogger writes on Twitter of a new way of registering protest opposition supporters say they plan for this afternoon: at one PM people all over Iran will be airing green balloons and make the sky GREEN! Let's not waste energy on trying to launch balloons simultaneously with those in Iran (Iran is 3.5 hours ahead of GMT, 8.5 hours ahead of ET). Let's just blow up those balloons in solidarity. Let's see some green balloons on your car, at your home, at your work, on the street. It's easy. It's solidarity. This "defiance" is particularly appropriate today. Reuters is reporting that Ahmad Khatami has called for the execution of "rioters": A hardline Iranian cleric on Friday called for the execution of "rioters" in the latest sign of the authorities' determination to stamp out opposition to the June 12 presidential election. ...snip "I want the judiciary to ... punish leading rioters firmly and without showing any mercy to teach everyone a lesson," Ahmad Khatami told worshippers at Tehran University....snip Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts, said the judiciary should charge the leading "rioters" as being "mohareb" or one who wages war against God. "They should be punished ruthlessly and savagely," he said. Under Iran's Islamic law, punishment for people convicted as mohareb is execution. Last time I checked flying a green balloon was not being a "leading rioter." But definitions in Iran are extremely flexible. .

Iran: This Is What Lack Of Accountability Looks And Feels Like

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Today is Torture Accountability Day. Events in Iran yesterday show exactly what lack of accountability looks and feels like. It's not a pretty picture. And it hurts. CNN provides this small vignette: On Wednesday afternoon, security forces used overwhelming force to crack down on protesters who had flocked to Baharestan Square near the parliament building in Tehran, according to more than a half-dozen witnesses. Police charged at the gathering -- clubbing demonstrators with batons, beating women and old men, and firing weapons into the air to disperse them, witnesses said. "They were waiting for us," one witness said. "They all have guns and riot uniforms. It was like a mouse trap." ... "They emptied buses that were taking people there and let the private cars go on ... and then, all of a sudden, some 500 people with clubs of wood, they came out of the Hedayat Mosque, and they poured into the streets and they started beating everyone," she said. Government-run Press TV gave a starkly different account, saying about 200 protesters had gathered in front of the parliament and 50 others in a nearby square. All were dispersed by a heavy police presence, it said. This is what happens when there is no accountability. The Government gives a "starkly different account." Deadly force dictates the events. Demonstrators are clubbed. Women and old men are beaten. Government approved goons launch surprise attacks. Government approved media say nothing happened. Repeat as necessary. There is no official reckoning of events, there is no real investigation, there is no trial, there is nothing but official minimization and silence. Crickets. Silence until the next demonstration appears, then they do it again. Intense and brutal violence, followed by official silence. Repeat as necessary. My heart goes out to the demonstrators in Iran. Because their Government shuns accountability, they are, each of them, in mortal danger. Their Government believes that it is appropriate to use deadly force to shore up a stolen election. It believes that violence will end civil unrest. And if the present level of violence proves to be insufficient to bring compliance, even greater violence is threatened. No other course is contemplated. Of course, lack of accountability is nourished by lack of reporting, by officially imposed silence. It's important to the Iranian government to make sure that the whole world isn't watching (except on Twitter). It's important to Governments that are not accountable to thwart all inquiries about their activities, to impose secrecy, to resist disclosure, to disrupt investigations, to shield past misdeeds, to hide the truth. The New York Times reports the difficulties in knowing what is happening in Iran and a different version of the same Wednesday afternoon brutality: The government also stepped up its efforts to block independent news coverage of events all across the country. The government has banned foreign news media members from leaving their offices, suspended all press credentials for foreign correspondents, arrested a freelance writer for The Washington Times, continued to hold a reporter for Newsweek and forced other foreign journalists to leave the country. That made it difficult to ascertain exactly what happened when several hundred protesters tried to gather outside the Parliament building Wednesday afternoon. Witnesses said they were met by a huge force of riot police officers and Basij vigilantes, some on motorcycles and some in pickup trucks, armed with sticks and chains. Witnesses said people were trapped and beaten as they tried to flee down side streets. “It was not possible to wait and see what happened,” said one witness who asked for anonymity out of fear of arrest. “At one point we saw several riot police in black clothes walk towards a group of people who looked like passers-by. Suddenly they pulled out their batons and began hitting them without warning.” The authorities said they were moving to impose order and secure the rule of law. “I was insisting and will insist on implementation of the law,” Ayatollah Khamenei said on national television. “That means we will not go one step beyond the law. Neither the system nor the people will yield to pressure at any price.” That is what lack of accountability looks like. This is what it feels like. First it's the crime, the brutality, the torture, the violence. Then it's the lie, "We will not go one step beyond the law." That echoes previous official posturing in Washington, "The United States does not torture." That's what lack of accountability looks like. The Government can and does say anything it wants to about its activities. It lies when it wants to. And nobody dares to lift the curtain to see whether it's true. That's what lack of accountability is. .

Iran: This Is What Violent Repression Looks Like

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Iran's Government has decreed that the demonstrations must end. And if the Government kills many of its citizens, and assaults and imprisons and threatens numerous others, that's apparently just fine with the Government. The New York Times story is chilling in its understatement and lack of descriptions: Hundreds of protesters clashed with waves of riot police and paramilitary militia in Tehran on Wednesday, witnesses said, as Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, insisted the authorities would not yield to pressure from opponents demanding a new election following allegations of electoral fraud. It was impossible to confirm first-hand the extent of the new violence in the capital because of draconian new press restrictions on coverage of the post-election mayhem. But the witnesses reached by telephone said the confrontation, outside the national Parliament building, was bloody, with police using live ammunition. Defying government warnings, the witnesses said that hundreds, if not thousands of protesters, had attempted to gather in front of the parliament on Baharestan Square. They were met with riot police and paramilitary militia, who struck at them with truncheons, tear gas, and guns. One witness said he saw a 19-year-old woman shot in the neck. Truncheons, tear gas, and bullets. Riot police and paramilitary militia. And, of course, suppression of the press. Not only will the Iranian government not yield, it's evident that it intends to end all demonstrations with deadly force, which it naively hopes will not be widely reported. And, of course, it plan on massive incarceration: A New York-based human rights group, International Campaign for Human Rights, listed the names Wednesday of 240 of the 645 people the Iranian state media has reported detained in the crackdown. The total number of detained, the organization said, citing human rights activists in Iran, may be as high as 2,000. Among them are people arrested in a Monday night raid of a campaign office for Mr. Moussavi in Tehran, Press TV, state television’s English-language satellite broadcaster, reported Wednesday... snip The detained, most of whom are being held incommunicado, also include students picked up at their dormitories, dozens of street demonstrators, and “targeted, politically motivated arrests of intellectuals, civil society leaders, political campaigners, journalists, and human rights campaigners,” said Aaron Rhodes, a consultant with the organization in Vienna. I am having trouble watching these events unfold. I am very afraid for the people of Iran. I am afraid that what will now happen will be far worse than Tiananmen. I am having trouble reading the 140 character posts at #iranelection on Twitter. I am having trouble reading even the traditional media, like CNN, which doesn't withhold descriptions of the violence: Security forces wielding clubs and firing weapons beat back demonstrators who flocked to a Tehran square Wednesday to continue protests, with one witness saying security forces beat people like "animals." At least two sources described wild and violent conditions at a part of Tehran where protesters had planned to demonstrate. "They were waiting for us," the source said. "They all have guns and riot uniforms. It was like a mouse trap." "I see many people with broken arms, legs, heads -- blood everywhere -- pepper gas like war," the source said. About "500 thugs" with clubs came out of a mosque and attacked people in the square, another source said. The security forces were "beating women madly" and "killing people like hell," the source said. "They beat up a woman so bad, she was all bloody," the source said in a description that underscores the growing and central role of women in the uprising. And, of course, I cannot stand to watch the videos. Or look at the photographs. Who can? The Iranian Government's actions are brutal and inhumane. And as individuals and as foreigners and even as a foreign government, we are entirely powerless to protect the demonstrators. This is a frustrating and unhappy position for us to be in. The whole world is watching. And, I'm afraid, it's about to see a bloodbath photographed on cell phone cameras. .

Spain v US: How Embarrassing Will This Be?

I'm sorry. Just because the US managed to beat Egypt and managed on negative goal differential to make the semis (by one minus point) does not mean that the US team is an adequate, international team. It's not. Stop fooling yourself about this. The proof of inadequacy is coming on Wednesday at 2:25 pm ET on ESPN2 when the US team play Spain.

The commentators can say anything they want about the passion of the US team when they played Egypt. Playing Spain is a different matter. This is not a team ranked 45 in the world. I expect it to show that the US is dreaming to believe it will make the round of 16 in the world cup next year with this team. I expect it to reveal to all who watch how very lost this team is. You heard it here first.

Iran: Forget The Math, Do The Violence

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All of the obvious questions about the accuracy of the vote count don't mater, according to the Iranian Government because, well, because the Government says that the accuracy of the voting doesn't matter, Ahmadinejad won, and if you disagree about that Fact, don't dare show up on the streets to protest, or else. Or else what? Or else you die. The New York Times makes all of this crystal clear: Iran’s most powerful oversight council has refused to nullify the contested presidential election just one day after it announced that the number of votes in 50 cities exceeded the number of eligible voters there by three million, Iranian state television said Tuesday, further tarnishing a presidential election that has set off the most sustained challenge to Iran’s leadership in 30 years. On Press TV, the English-language state television satellite broadcaster, Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei, the spokesman for the Guardian Council, declared: “If a major breach occurs in an election, the Guardian Council may annul the votes that come out of a particular affected ballot box, polling station, district, or city.” “Fortunately, in the recent presidential election we found no witness of major fraud or breach in the election,” he said. “Therefore, there is no possibility of an annulment taking place.” The math here is quite something. Forget the oppositions numbers. The official story is that the number of voters in 50 cities was 3,000,000 more votes than there are eligible voters, but folks, there's nothing the matter with that. Why? Because there are no witnesses. The numbers are admittedly bogus, by 3 million votes or more, but that's not enough to annul an election. Evidently, in Iran the numbers don't speak for themselves. This kind of illogic, of course, reinforces criticism and stirs up more demonstrations. And it raises major questions: How did the government manage to count enough of the 40 million paper ballots to be able to announce results within two hours of the polls closing? How is it that Mr. Ahmadinejad’s margin of victory remained constant throughout the ballot count? Why did the government order polls closed at 10 p.m. when they often stay open until midnight for presidential races? Why were some ballot boxes sealed before candidates’ inspectors could validate they were empty? Why were votes counted centrally, by the Interior Ministry, instead of locally, as in the past? Why did some polling places lock their doors at 6 p.m. after running out of ballots? These are important questions. They are not going to be answered. The Government has its own answer for all of this. The answer, to no one's particular surprise, is more repression and more violence and more threats of repression and violence. The answer is what happened to Neda Agha-Soltan. Or the answer is what happened to 19-year-old Kaveh Alipour and the $3,000 bullet fee. The number of answers is, I fear, going to grow rapidly. The Iranian government has apparently decided that further demonstrations will not be tolerated and that the state will now try to end them. The prospect looms of something even more horrible than Tiananmen Square. Please keep the demonstrators in your thoughts and prayers. .

Iran: The Pain Has Begun

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There are no surprises in Tehran today. Today is Sunday. The New York Times informs us of what we already know to be the case: A day after police and militia forces used guns, truncheons, tear gas and water cannons to beat back thousands of demonstrators, a tense quiet set over this city Sunday as the standoff between the government and thousands of protestors hardened into a test of wills that has spilled blood and claimed lives. It was unclear how the confrontation would play out now that the government has abandoned its restraint and large numbers of protestors have demonstrated their willingness to risk injury and even death as they continue to dispute the results of Iran’s presidential election nine days ago. Iranian state television reported that 13 people were killed in the clashes Saturday. State television also reported that the government had arrested five members of the family of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former president who heads two influential councils in Iran, a move that escalates the government’s crackdown against the reform movement. There are no surprises. Guns. Truncheons. Tear gas. Water Cannons. Burning motorcycles. Injured bystanders. Arrests. Home invasions. Brutality. Murder. That "the government has abandoned its restraint" is a record breaking understatement. The violence, of course, was to be expected. After all, didn't Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threaten violence during Friday prayers: "Street challenge is not acceptable," Ayatollah Khamenei said. "This is challenging democracy after the elections." He said opposition leaders would be "held responsible for chaos" if they did not end the protests. There are no surprises. The Times, and just about everyone else, fears the very worst: There was no sign on the streets early Sunday of the heavy security forces from the night before, but there were reports that protestors planned to demonstrate again later in the day, beginning at about 5 p.m., giving both sides time to regroup, or reconsider. Since the crisis broke open with massive streets protests — posing the greatest challenge to the Islamic theocracy since the 1979 revolution — the government has declared its refusal to compromise, instead turning loose its security forces and militia to crush opposition voices. The government has pressed its policy of repression and intimidation the last several days, arresting reformers, intellectuals and others who promoted reform ideas or challenged the leadership’s version of events. But now as the numbers of dead and injured begin to mount, it is unclear how, even if the protests can be stopped, the leadership can patch over the deep divisions in the Iranian society and rebuild legitimacy with Iranians who believe the election was rigged. There are no surprises. Things, I suppose, will now grow even worse. The repression will become fiercer, even less restrained, even more purposeful and frightening. More people will be killed and injured and arrested. President Obama's statement on Saturday was strong, and he fortunately kept the matter at arm's length: Saying that “each and every innocent life” lost would be mourned, he added: “Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion. “Martin Luther King once said, ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’ I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian people’s belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness.” Sadly, he's right. All we can do outside of Iran is bear witness as the struggle unfolds. And while we bear witness, we can continue to lift our voices as individuals (and not as a government) in solidarity with the demonstrators. And offer our thoughts and prayers* for a peaceful resolution. And find other, creative ways to support the struggle in Iran for democracy and freedom. The Iranian Democracy movement is absolutely worthy of our personal (as opposed to governmental) support. Support and solidarity at this point require, indeed permit only the simplest of things. There are only simple things we can and should do: Things like changing our location and time zone on Twitter to Tehran and GMT +3.5 hours. Things like making our avatar green. Things like reading the posts of those who are there. Things like posting and distributing their videos on youtube. Things like writing blogs and asking others to link arms with them in solidarity. Things like talking about what ideas we might have that could be of help to them. These are things that might be completely ineffective to help Iranians achieve democracy, to get a new, fair election, to overturn the sham outcome of their last election, to prevent governmental violence and repression. I realize that. But that's not what's important. That's not what's important now. What's important, I think, is our continuing solidarity with this struggle, our saying, however we can say it, "Brothers and Sisters, we're with you. We want you to succeed. We want you to be safe, and free. We want you to obtain the change you seek." I am full of admiration for the courage of the Iranian movement. I applaud and support these people. Please join me in solidarity with them. Sign the available petitions. Take the numerous, available, small steps. It'll make you feel great. And it's the right thing to do. .

Iran: Let There Be Peace

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"If they seek peace, then seek you peace. And trust in God for He is the One that heareth and knoweth all things." Quran, 8.61 Let There Be Peace In Iran, Let There Be Freedom "Some day it's going to come, Take me home again." Let There Be Peace In Tehran, Let There Be Freedom. Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will live as one. Let There Be Peace Throughout the World, Let There Be Freedom. Let us hold in our prayers* and thoughts that those who are expressing themselves in Iran are safe, that they are happy, that they are well, and that they live in peace. .

Iran: Threats From The Supreme Leader As Demonstrations Continue

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Bad news from the Iranian government. No concessions will be made to the demonstrators. The New York Times reports that in his Friday speech, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, offered no concessions at all to the demonstrators and threatened leaders of the pro-democracy demonstrations with reprisals if the demonstrations do not stop: In his first public response to days of protests, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sternly warned opponents Friday to stay off the streets and denied opposition claims that last week’s disputed election was rigged, praising the ballot as an “epic moment that became a historic moment.” In a somber and lengthy sermon at Friday prayers in Tehran, he called directly for an end to the protests by hundreds of thousands of Iranians demanding a new election. “Street challenge is not acceptable,” Ayatollah Khamenei said. “This is challenging democracy after the elections.” He said opposition leaders would be “held responsible for chaos” if they did not end the protests. As to the claims of the protestors and numerous analysts that the election was rigged, Khamenei absolutely denies any irregularities: ...he endorsed the president’s policies and insisted that the margin of victory — 11 million votes — accorded to Mr. Ahmadinejad in the official tally was so big that it could not have been falsified. “How can 11 million votes be replaced or changed?” he said. He went on: “The Islamic republic state would not cheat and would not betray the vote of the people.” Of no. Not cheating. Some kinds of cheating are so huge that they're impossible. Not. According to the ever cautious Times, "The ayatollah’s remarks seemed to show that the authorities were growing impatient with the street protests. 'It would be wrong to think that turning out on the street would force officials to accept their demands,' he said." And, of course, the entire speech couldn't be complete without this: He blamed “media belonging to Zionists, evil media” for seeking to show divisions between those who supported the Iranian state and those who did not, while, in fact, the election had shown Iranians to be united in their commitment to the Islamic revolutionary state. “There are 40 million votes for the revolution, not just 24 million for the chosen president,” he said, referring to the official tally that gave Mr. Ahmadinejad more than 60 percent of the vote. Ayatollah Khamenei said the election “ was a competition among people who believe in the state.” The speech explicitly threatens a wave of repression. This morning's Twitter at #iranelection says that more large demonstrations will be held tomorrow. .

Iran: Here Comes The Backlash

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Wednesday evening in the US. Thursday morning in Iran. The demonstrations continue throughout Iran, but there's ominous news. Again. The New York Times reports: Iranians angry at the results of last week’s election pushed their protest forward on Wednesday, from tens of thousands who again flooded the streets here to six soccer players on the national team who wore opposition green wristbands at a World Cup qualifying game. But there were signs of an intensified crackdown: The government worked on many fronts to shield the outside world’s view of the unrest, banning coverage of the demonstrations, arresting journalists, threatening bloggers and trying to block Web sites like Facebook and Twitter, which have become vital outlets for information about the rising confrontation here. The senior prosecutor in the central province of Isfahan, where there have also been tense demonstrations, went so far as to say protesters could be executed under Islamic law. If you read the Twitter posts to #iranelection you see that Iran's government is trying mightily to suppress communication. Foreign journalists have been forced to leave the country. Writers have been arrested. A photographer was stabbed. Cell phone service is sporadic. The Internet has been slowed. Disinformation and stalking abounds. Arrests of bloggers and university students are common. Violence continues in the streets. Many have been killed and injured. And many more have been threatened. Despite all of this, defiance of the government continues. Twitter posts from Iran continue to describe the demonstrations. Six members of the Iranian football team wore green wrist bands for the first half of today's game in protest. Youtube is filled with photos of the massive, non-violent demonstrations by the pro-democracy opposition and the repressive violence of the government and its thugs. The Iranian Democracy movement is absolutely worthy of our personal (as opposed to governmental) support. Support and solidarity at this point require, indeed permit only the simplest of things. As I said yesterday. There are only simple things we can and should do: Things like changing our location and time zone on Twitter to Tehran and GMT +3.5 hours. Things like making our avatar green. Things like reading the posts of those who are there. Things like posting and distributing their videos on youtube. Things like writing blogs and asking others to link arms with them in solidarity. Things like talking about what ideas we might have that could be of help to them. These are things that might be completely ineffective to help Iranians achieve democracy, to get a new, fair election, to overturn the sham outcome of their last election. I realize that. But that's not what's important. That's not what's important now. What's important, I think, is our solidarity with their struggle, our saying, however we can say it, "Brothers and Sisters, we're with you. We want you to succeed. We want you to be safe, and free. We want you to obtain the change you seek." I am full of admiration for the courage of the Iranian movement. I applaud and support these people. Please join me in solidarity with them. Sign the available petitions. Take the small steps. It'll make you feel great. And it's the right thing to do. .

Solidarity With The Iranian Struggle For Democracy

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This is a brief essay about solidarity. In this case, it's about solidarity with the people of Iran who are protesting what appears to be a stolen election, the loss of democracy. How do we support those people, half the world away, in their struggle for democracy? How do we say just as people (and not a government) that we support their efforts to demand democracy? That they're right, they deserve their democracy and we want them to have it? We can only do simple things. Things like changing our location and time zone on Twitter to Tehran and GMT +3.5 hours. Things like making our avatar green. Things like reading the posts of those who are there. Things like posting and distributing their videos on youtube. Things like writing blogs and asking others to link arms with them in solidarity. Things like talking about what ideas we might have that could be of help to them. These are things that might be completely ineffective to help Iranians achieve democracy, to get a new, fair election, to overturn the sham outcome of their last election. I realize that. But that's not what's important. That's not what's important now. What's important, I think, is our solidarity with their struggle, our saying, however we can say it, "Brothers and Sisters, we're with you. We want you to succeed. We want you to be safe, and free. We want you to obtain the change you seek." Will they see it? Will they hear about it? Will they know that we are saying this about them? Of course they will. I say it by posting in green. You might have other ways of saying it. It's important to me to say, aloud, to whomever can hear it, "I support the struggle in Iran for democracy." Please join me. Please join me in giving to the Iranian people who are struggling for democracy the same support we'd like to receive in our struggles for democracy and equality and peace. .

Bloomsday

In today's NY Times we have Colum McCann:

Today is Bloomsday, the 105th anniversary of the events of the novel. All over the world Joyce fans will gather to celebrate the extraordinary tale of an ordinary day. There will be Bloomsday breakfasts, and Bloomsday love affairs, and Bloomsday arguments and, indeed, Bloomsday grandfathers hoisting their sons, and their sons of sons, onto the shoulders of never-ending stories.

Yes. Never-ending stories.

Activism: How Do We Support The Iranian People's Protests?

I've been riveted all day to the news coming via Twitter about Iran.

I seem to recall an election in the US in which there was a similar dispute about who had won. I don't recall millions going into the streets. I don't recall the "defeated" candidate calling on people to bring on non-violent, silent protests and mass gatherings. I wish that had happened in the US. But, sadly, it didn't. And look what the next 8 years brought. The Iranian people unlike the US seem to understand the significance and the consequences of a stolen election. And they appear to want to do something about it.

So it appears that Iran has at this moment a time of both intense risk and enormous opportunity.

As I type this, hundreds of thousands of people are in the streets across Iran because they know that their election was stolen, that their votes were not counted, that the election was a sham, that their democracy has failed them. They are angry, and they want a restoration of their democracy. And they are going to demand a fair election and a fair counting of the votes.

How do we in the US support the Iranian People's Protests?

I turn to you for the answers, for the tactics, for the approach. The Iranian People's Protests deserve our support. Let's put our heads together.

Here are two small examples of what we're looking for. Twitter users are being urged to change their location to Tehran and their time zone to GMT +3 to give protection, however slight, to those in Iran who are reporting the news who are being followed by the authorities. A second example: Twitter was scheduled for maintenance this evening. That would have shut off the Iranian news tweets. Twitter re-scheduled its maintenance.

And now I ask again: what can we do to help?

The Confederations Cup: Why We Don't Read About It In The US

The Confederations Cup starts today in South Africa. The teams are from across the world. And it's probably big news in places like Italy, and Barzil, and Spain, and Iran, and Egypt, and certainly in South Africa, all of which have teams in the tournament, but here in the US there's mostly silence. Crickets. Why? Well just take a look at the schedule the US team faces:

6/15/09 at 2:25 pm on ESPN: US v. Italy
6/18/09 at 9:55 am on ESPN2: US v. Brazil
6/21/09 at 2:25 pm on ESPN2: US v. Egypt

This could be yet another a potential national futbol embarrassment. One as gigantic as World Cup 2006, if not larger. The US, a team that was recently shellacked in Costa Rica (#41 in the world) and managed to play a mediocre game against Honduras (#35 in the world), could easily be easily and quickly eliminated in the qualifying round of the tournament. FIFA ranks Italy #4 in the world; Brazil #5; and for reasons I have never understood, the US is ranked #14. Egypt is ranked #40, a position far too low on the list. Put another way, it's possible for the US to lose its first two games in the tournament with a -6 or more goal differential. And it is entirely possible for this team to lose all three qualifying games. Hence the silence. Silence is better, I suppose, than embarrassment.

New York's Circus McGurkus

Dr. Seuss had it right about the New York Senate in If I Ran The Circus.

The plot summary of Dr. Seuss's classic story:

Behind Mr. Sneelock's ramshackle store, there's an empty lot. Little Morris McGurk is convinced that if he could just clear out the rusty cans, the dead tree, and the old cars, nothing would prevent him from using the lot for the amazing, world-beating, Circus McGurkus. The more elaborate Morris' dreams about the circus become, the more they depend on the sleepy-looking and innocent Sneelock, who stands outside his ramshackle store sucking on a pipe, oblivious to the fate that awaits him in the depths of Morris's imagination. He doesn't yet know that he'll have to dispense 500 gallons of lemonade, be lassoed by a Wily Walloo, wrestle a Grizzly-Ghastly, and ski down a slope dotted with giant cacti. But if his performance is up to McGurkian expectations, then "Why, ladies and gentlemen, youngsters and oldsters, your heads will quite likely spin right off your shouldsters!"

Please consider the New York State Senate the empty lot, filled with the rusty cans, the dead tree, and the old cars. The worst house of the worst state legislature in the United States. Inaccessible. Unapproachable. Worthless. Corrupt. Please consider me Little Morris McGurk, your humble, scribbling bloguero, thinking, nay hoping that the New York State Senate might be able to do wonderful things, things like legalizing gay marriage, and might become an example of open government and transparency. And please consider my fellow New Yorkers as Mr. Sneelock, standing outside our houses sucking on a pipe (a tobacco pipe, though a tail pipe might be more appropos), oblivious after all of these years to how very dysfunctional New York's State Senate really is, so resigned to this farce, so shackled by bad government that we don't even notice its fetters any more.

Let's face it. If you live in New York, and you don't live in the company town of Albany, or you're not interested in the bizarre party politics playing in the company town, you never hear very much about the wonderful New York State Senate. In fact, if you're not in the area covered by WAMC, you probably hear nothing about it. If you're in New York City, the silence about it is deafening. The fact is the Senate meets 130 miles away from New York City in Albany, there's little media coverage of their antics, and the rate at which incumbent pols are returned over and over and over again is astonishing, especially in light of the lack of any public examination of just what they have done, especially in light of the enormous amount of campaign funds that flow to incumbents and make running against them a bad idea. A very bad idea. What do these Senators do while we're not watching? Mostly they provide pork to their districts. Lots of pork. And favors. Lots of favors to donors. And they fight the kinds of Bizantine, internecine political battles that have culminated in this week's remarkable clown show.

Yesterday a judge addressed the two competing factions, democrats and republicans. The Republicans claimed a majority of the Senate in a legislative coup d'etat earlier this week with the assistance of two turn-coat democrats, Pedro Espada (D-nominally from the Bronx, but not living full time in his district, under investigation for extensive campaign finance misbehavior) and Hiram Montserrate (D-Queens, indicted for assault of his partner). The Democrats thought they had 32 votes in January at the start of the term and have tried to lock the doors to prevent the Senate from convening after the coup, claiming that the session in which the vote occurred had been gaveled to a close. Said the judge to the two combatant sides, "Work it out."

[Justice Thomas] McNamara told the attorneys -- in court and privately -- of the need to work things out away from the courtroom.

"There are three coequal branches of government," the judge said from the bench. "We have our job, the Senate has their job, and the governor's office has their job. The courts certainly do, on occasions that are appropriate, venture into other areas -- but there is a reluctance to do that. And it would be in everyone's best interests if the Senate over the weekend got together and with calmer heads resolved (the dispute) among yourselves."

If the factions don't "work it out" by Monday, the Judge threatens that he will rule. But what's the big threat? One of the parties won't like the ruling, so it will appeal. Meanwhile, the clowning will continue, probably to the end of the session, which is scheduled to close in two weeks.

And what clowning it is! The democrats locked the chamber and refused to provide a key to the republicans. The New York Post sent someone to the Senate dressed as a clown. The republicans showed up with a "magical key." The session ended before anything could be done because Mr. Montserrate, for reasons that seem to stem more from his desire for the spotlight than any other consideration, left the chamber, leaving the coup members with no quorum. And on it will go from here.

What the republicans have done is recruit two of the worst democrats. You wouldn't have known about them, I certainly didn't, until the present fiasco began. Then you could suddenly read all about them, their troubled legal histories, their flouting their constituents, the backroom deals, the coup, the wrangling to keep the coup in place, the deals on top of deals. In short, awful politics. Corrupt politics practiced by egomaniac, valueless hacks. And the more you follow it, the more it's clear that Dr. Seuss had it right. The Senate is really a vacant lot, replete with rusty cans, the dead tree, and the old cars. And you, the Mr. Sneelocks of the world, need to do something about it. You need to dispense the 500 gallons of lemonade, be lassoed by a Wily Walloo, wrestle a Grizzly-Ghastly, and ski down a slope dotted with giant cacti. You need to vote all of these bums out. All of them. Every last one. And if you don't, "Why, ladies and gentlemen, youngsters and oldsters, your heads will quite likely spin right off your shouldsters!"

State Killing: Travesties Of Justice Just Keep On Coming

Today's New York Times tells the story of yet another travesty of justice from Alabama in a death penalty case. This is the kind of thing that unfortunately is no longer a revelation. It's what you might expect. And it's happened over and over again. The Times reports:

Kenneth B. Trotter had been practicing law for less than a year when an Alabama judge appointed him to assist two more seasoned lawyers in defending a man facing the death penalty.

After the man, Holly Wood, was convicted in 1994 of murdering his former girlfriend, Mr. Trotter led the effort to persuade the jury to spare his life. The young lawyer came up just short: the jury recommended death by a vote of 10-to-2, the minimum allowed under Alabama law.

Mr. Trotter failed to pursue or present evidence that his client was mentally retarded, though he had a competency report in hand that said as much. In September, a divided three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in Atlanta ruled that he had made a strategic decision, not a grave error.

Judge Rosemary Barkett, the dissenting judge, saw it differently.

“An inexperienced and overwhelmed attorney,” Judge Barkett wrote of Mr. Trotter, “realized too late what any reasonably prepared attorney would have known: that evidence of Wood’s mental impairments could have served as mitigating evidence and deserved investigation so that it could properly be presented before sentencing.”

What is this saying? Maybe Mr. Wood wouldn't have been sentenced to death if the lawyer at his penalty phase had a couple years more seasoning. Or had introduced in evidence the document he apparently had in his hand showing that Wood was retarded. Or maybe Wood wouldn't have faced lethal injection if the Alabama courts literally followed Supreme Court decisions like Ring (forbidding the execution of people with an IQ less than 70) and didn't invent more "death friendly" interpretations of them. Or maybe Wood wouldn't have been sentenced to death if Alabama required a unanimous rather than a 10-2 verdict for death. And maybe Mr. Wood's death penalty wouldn't have been upheld if 2/3's of the Eleventh Circuit panel understood that leaving out mitigation evidence isn't ever a strategy for saving the accused, it's a lapse that can almost certainly kill him. Put another way, look how very close Wood came to a sentence of life without parole and not a state killing.

Is it tolerable to rational humans that all of these small, somewhat technical points are the differences between living and dying, between whom the state kills and whom it spares? I think not. These points only underscore the capriciousness of state killing.

Look at the admission of ineffectiveness Trotter made back in 1994 when he wrote to a colleague:

Mr. Trotter said he was anxious and lost. “I have been stressed out over this case and don’t have anyone with whom to discuss the case, including the two other attorneys,” Mr. Trotter wrote.

Clearly, the appointed defense lawyer was in over his head in the task of saving Wood from execution. He had one year of practice. He had no experience. He had two lawyers with him whom he couldn't talk. He had Wood's life in his hands. And he was being paid up to a maximum of $1,000 for the sentencing. It's a recipe for disaster. It's a recipe for the state's killing people who shouldn't be killed. But it's not unusual. And it's not just an Alabama problem. Not by a long shot.

Fortunately, the story doesn't end in the Eleventh Circuit. The Times informs us that the Supreme Court has now granted certiorari:

Last month, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear Mr. Wood’s case. It will give the court a glimpse of Alabama’s capital justice system, which is among the most troubled in the nation. The state lacks a public defender’s office, elects judges for whom death sentences are a campaign promise, pays appointed lawyers a pittance and sometimes leaves death row inmates to navigate the intricacies of post-conviction challenges with no lawyers at all.

The root problem is money, said Bryan Stevenson, the executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama, a nonprofit law firm that represents poor people and prisoners. The lawyers appointed to represent Mr. Wood in 1994 were entitled to a maximum of $1,000 to prepare for the penalty phase of the trial.

“It ought not be a shock to anyone that you get this kind of defense with that kind of funding,” Mr. Stevenson said. “The poor quality of indigent defense is still the ugliest scar on capital punishment in America.”

Bryan Stevenson is a brave and talented and resourceful lawyer. He's right that a root of the problem is money, but it's not "the" root. There's another, deeper root, one that is far more entrenched, and that is the insatiable desire of Alabama and the other states in the death belt for retribution in certain cases. An eye for an eye might leave the whole world blind, but that's not the culture in Alabama, and it's not something that deters revenge. Especially when the accused is not white, especially when the victim is white, especially when the accused is poor, or developmentally disabled. Providing inadequate, ineffective counsel is just a part of the revenge.

There's no question why revenge against Wood for his crime led to seeking the death penalty. Wood committed a horrendous brutal crime:

In September 1993, three weeks before Mr. Trotter was admitted to the bar, Mr. Wood broke into the home of a former girlfriend, Ruby Gosha, and killed her while she was sleeping with a shotgun blast to her head. Soon afterward, according to testimony from a cousin, Mr. Wood admitted to shooting Ms. Gosha, saying he had “blowed her brains out and all she did was wiggle.” Mr. Wood was the father of one of Ms. Gosha’s children.

You can easily understand why revenge called out for an execution. Given the culture, it made sense to prosecutors to seek the death penalty. So they did. And given the culture it made sense to appoint lawyers who were clearly not up to the task of saving Wood's life. That's not something that the state intends to "fix" by appointing better lawyers, by creating a statewide, capital public defender program. The inadequacy of the defense is just another part of the state killing machinery.

Sadly, we're going keep seeing these state killing stories from the death belt as long as there is a death penalty. Yes, it's barbarianism. Yes, it's disgraceful. And it won't be ended until voters across America are ready to say it's enough, we cannot have any more state killing, we cannot afford the extremely high expense of state killing, life without parole is more than enough punishment, and it adequately protects us.

Romeo, Romeo, Romeo

In what surely has to qualify as a sign that the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor has awakened New York and its newspaper of record (no, I'm not talking about El Diario La Prensa) to things Latin@, the New York Times today "discovered" Aventura:

Mr. Santos, 27, is the frontman of Aventura, a quartet that specializes in the slinky Dominican ballad style called bachata. The group has helped make bachata’s romantic tidings and spiky guitar syncopations a staple of Latin radio; Mr. Santos, Aventura’s suave, sweet-voiced singer — best known by his nickname, Romeo — is a major star and heartthrob. But he and his band mates, Bronx-bred New Yorkers of Dominican descent who sing in both Spanish and English, are nearly invisible in the Anglo news media. Even in their hometown their renown varies from block to block.

“If I’m in a Latin neighborhood, and I walk into a restaurant, I might not be able to eat,” Mr. Santos said. “They’ll be there with the cameras, ‘Romeo, Romeo!’ Down here, though” — Mr. Santos gestured to the indifferent crowd milling on the sidewalk outside the movie theater (at Union Square) — “it’s not like that.”

So, the Times has finally discovered a band I really like. Maybe I should write some snarky commentary about the timing. No. Not yet. But before I do that, there's still time to sing along with this:



Enjoy.

Covering Up Torture By Coercing Guilty Pleas

According to the New York Times, the Obama Administration may modify the military commission rules to permit require have Gitmo prisoners plead guilty and be executed:

The Obama administration is considering a change in the law for the military commissions at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, that would clear the way for detainees facing the death penalty to plead guilty without a full trial.

The provision could permit military prosecutors to avoid airing the details of brutal interrogation techniques. It could also allow the five detainees who have been charged with the Sept. 11 attacks to achieve their stated goal of pleading guilty to gain what they have called martyrdom.

The proposal, in a draft of legislation that would be submitted to Congress, has not been publicly disclosed. It was circulated to officials under restrictions requiring secrecy. People who have read or been briefed on it said it had been presented to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates by an administration task force on detention.

The proposal would ease what has come to be recognized as the government’s difficult task of prosecuting men who have confessed to terrorism but whose cases present challenges. Much of the evidence against the men accused in the Sept. 11 case, as well as against other detainees, is believed to have come from confessions they gave during intense interrogations at secret C.I.A. prisons. In any proceeding, the reliability of those statements would be challenged, making trials difficult and drawing new political pressure over detainee treatment.

How, you might want to know, does dispensing with a full, albeit difficult trial for prosecutors and avoiding inquiries about extensive torture benefit the detainees? How does it assure that their guilty pleas are knowing, intelligent, and voluntary? Doesn't dispensing with the requirement of any proof after years and years of confinement make the eventual killing of these prisoners even more egregious?

Think about it. The prisoners in Gitmo have been held for about seven years. They have not received a speedy trial. In fact, many haven't received any process at all. And while they've been confined there's been a worldwide uproar over their detention without trial and the conditions of confinement and their being tortured and the potential show trials conducted by military commissions and the utter lack of due process in these show trials and their having no real access to US Courts. These are all obvious problems. And now, added to these problems and not resolving them in any regard, we have the distinct possibility that prisoners will "volunteer" for death by pleading guilty, and we will have no way at all of knowing that they committed the acts for which they will be killed or that their confessions were truthful or even that their guilty pleas are minimally voluntary. Hence, the headline: guilty pleas coerced by torture, long term isolation, and desperation, will cover up the torture and the conditions of confinement. The prisoners, we are told, want to be martyrs, and they will be. The US, we are told, doesn't want to discuss their torture or how they got to Gitmo or what it's been like for them in confinement, and the US won't have to. It's a win-win.

Can someone who is held for seven years without procedural due process, who is tortured, who is in harsh conditions of confinement enter a knowing, voluntary, intelligent guilty plea? Theoretically, I suppose it is possible. But it's going to take a lot more than the accused's answering "yes" to a standard Rule 11 allocution (what you have to say "yes" to to enter a guilty plea in a federal criminal case) to convince me or anyone else who is watching that the plea is voluntary in any conventional sense. That's why in the Military Justice System, you cannot plead guilty to a capital crime. As the Times tells us, "to assure fairness when execution is possible, court-martial prosecutors are required to prove guilt in a trial even against service members who want to plead guilty."

Lawyers who were asked about the administration’s proposed change in recent days said it appeared to be intended for the Sept. 11 case.

“They are trying to give the 9/11 guys what they want: let them plead guilty and get the death penalty and not have to have a trial,” said Maj. David J. R. Frakt of the Air Force, a Guantánamo defense lawyer... snip

Cmdr. Suzanne M. Lachelier, a Navy lawyer for one of the detainees in the Sept. 11 case, Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, said of the Obama administration, “They’re encouraging martyrdom.”

The administration has not announced whether it will continue with the Sept. 11 case in the military commissions or charge some of the men in federal court. Officials involved in the process said that lawyers reviewing the case have said that federal-court charges against four of the men might be possible, but that the evidence might be too weak for a federal court case against one of the five, Walid Bin Attash, a veteran jihad fighter who was known as Khallad.

Usually, when "the evidence might be too weak for a federal court case" the prosecution recognizes that it cannot meet its burden of proof and it dismisses the charges. If the prosecution doesn't dismiss the charges, it's up to a jury or a judge to find the accused not guilty. And then? And then the accused goes free. Not so in Gitmo. Evidently in Gitmo, somebody who might be released because the case is "too weak for a federal court case" instead gets to plead guilty and be executed.

And to think that I was worried that those with weak cases would be "preventively detained" forever and ever. Even that would be better than coerced guilty pleas followed by execution.

Hypocrisy Watch: Excuses By Fundies, The Death of A Doctor

My wonderful phone company, Credo, sent me the following:

"Tiller the Baby Killer."

That's how FOX News host Bill O'Reilly referred to Dr. George Tiller who was murdered in cold blood Sunday while he attended church.

Tiller's crime? He provided healthcare to women. Including abortion.

Salon.com reports that FOX's "O'Reilly Factor" has featured attacks on Dr. Tiller on no less than 28 episodes:

"He's guilty of "Nazi stuff," said O'Reilly on June 8, 2005; "a moral equivalent to NAMBLA and al-Qaida," he suggested on March 15, 2006. "This is the kind of stuff happened in Mao's China, Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Soviet Union," said O'Reilly on Nov. 9, 2006.

What happened Sunday was devastating. And it might not have happened if it wasn't for the hate mongering of Bill O'Reilly and others.

There are two things you can do.

1. Sign our petition to Bill O'Reilly. Ask him to take responsibility for creating an atmosphere in which the assassination of Dr. George Tiller comes as no surprise. And tell him to stop spreading hateful rhetoric which encourages violence against doctors who provide reproductive healthcare for women.

2. Make a donation to Medical Students for Choice in honor of Dr. George Tiller. We must lift up a new generation of doctors who are willing and able to provide reproductive healthcare to women.

This Epistle to the Subscribers made sense to me. I signed petitions and I sent $$. I thought about it. It made sense, sort of: Billo spews garbage, crazy persons ingest garbage, garbage in garbage out, crazy person kills doctor who provides abortions. So it might go. But, alas, it didn't make that much sense, because if somebody believes that the life of a fetus is precious, how much more precious is the life of a doctor? Even a doctor who allegedly commits cardinal sins. Have we gone insane, I wondered.

Then I had the pleasure to re-read a short story by Jorge Luis Borges, "The Sect of the Thirty." The members of the sect are literal, they are deep fundamentalists. They read the Bible literally. Borges explains how they read this Biblical text, Luke 24-25:

Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls? The text forbids saving, for If God so clothe the grass, which is today in the field and tomorrow is cast into the over; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? And seek now what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind

This leads to no saving, and throwing away one's clothing, and going naked, and not planting crops, and so on. Members of the Sect follow this full throttle, the consequences be damned.

And Jesus' admonition Let the dead bury the dead, Borges points out, "condemns the showy vanity of our funerary rites", but it also leads members of the Sect to the belief that dead bodies will actually be buried by spirits of the dead. Hence, no burials. No funerals. Rotting bodies. Vermin eating bodies. Stench. Putrifaction. Pestilence. And public health crises.

I have no intention of spoiling the story. That would be unfair to you. Suffice it to say that the members of the Sect of the Thirty would read the proscription in the Sixth Commandment (Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17) literally, "Thou shalt not kill." They would not kill insects, or ants, or animals. Or people. They would not kill anything. There would be no exceptions for killing alleged "killers" either extra-judicially (like Dr. Tiller) or judicially (like Troy Davis). That distinction would be beyond their understanding. As it is beyond mine. Killing would be proscribed. Isn't that what the text says? "Thou shalt not kill" has no provisos, no exceptions, no quibbling, no excuses.

What then are we to make of the assassination of Dr. Tiller? Does it have anything at all to do with fundamental belief systems? Or hypocrisy? Or is it something else entirely? I suspect it is. I suspect it is a species of national, widespread, terrorist mental disease. What else, I ask, can it be? How can the thoughts exist simultaneously in a sane mind that "killing fetuses is wrong" and "those who kill fetuses are justifiably killed?" How can the "killers" of fetuses be condemned and the killers of doctors be called heroes? How can killing to end killing make sense, either as vigilantism (Dr. Tiller) or state killing (Troy Davis)? If killing is wrong, isn't killing always wrong? Will the person who killed Dr. Tiller answer these questions? Will his supporters? Will the news media? I doubt it. I suspect that applause for the killer will continue. And that the rest of us will continue to be stunned, shocked into silence.

I propose this to you for your consideration: There needs to be a new category in the DSM IV, that compendium of recognized mental illnesses, for this. I leave to you naming it. Our society has been breeding a specific kind of dangerous mental illness, and the assassination of Dr. Tiller proves it. Some members of our society have become unglued in their delusions, their religiosity, their violence, and the rest of us stand by in shock and horror as they play out their colossal hypocrisy.

Koko Taylor, RIP

The New York Times reports:

Koko Taylor, a sharecropper's daughter whose regal bearing and powerful voice earned her the sobriquet "Queen of the Blues," has died after complications from surgery. She was 80. ...snip

The break for Tennessee-born Taylor came in 1962, when arranger/composer Willie Dixon, impressed by her voice, got her a Chess recording contract and produced several singles (and two albums) for her, including the million-selling 1965 hit, "Wang Dang Doodle," which she called silly, but which launched her recording career.

From Chicago blues clubs, Taylor took her raucous, gritty, good-time blues on the road to blues and jazz festivals around the nation, and into Europe. After the Chess label folded, she signed with Alligator Records.

One more time:


Kick down all the doors.

The Barca Video

This is so great. From BarcoLodo the video Guardiola showed his team to inspire them before the Final. And unbelievable video. Pumps up everyone. Enjoy

Two things you can do about the murder of Dr. George Tiller

"Tiller the Baby Killer."

That's how FOX News host Bill O'Reilly referred to Dr. George Tiller who was murdered in cold blood Sunday while he attended church.

Tiller's crime? He provided healthcare to women. Including abortion.

Salon.com reports that FOX's "O'Reilly Factor" has featured attacks on Dr. Tiller on no less than 28 episodes:

"He's guilty of "Nazi stuff," said O'Reilly on June 8, 2005; "a moral equivalent to NAMBLA and al-Qaida," he suggested on March 15, 2006. "This is the kind of stuff happened in Mao's China, Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Soviet Union," said O'Reilly on Nov. 9, 2006.

What happened Sunday was devastating. And it might not have happened if it wasn't for the hate mongering of Bill O'Reilly and others.

There are two things you can do.

1. Sign our petition to Bill O'Reilly. Ask him to take responsibility for creating an atmosphere in which the assassination of Dr. George Tiller comes as no surprise. And tell him to stop spreading hateful rhetoric which encourages violence against doctors who provide reproductive healthcare for women.

2. Make a donation to Medical Students for Choice in honor of Dr. George Tiller. We must lift up a new generation of doctors who are willing and able to provide reproductive healthcare to women.

Please help out on this. Please spread this widely.