Why It’s A Very Good Thing That Mississippi’s “Personhood” Ballot Initiative Failed

The Mississippi initiative that would have legally defined life as starting at fertilization has failed! I don’t care what your positions on abortion are: that it failed should be considered good news. “Personhood” amendments go so far beyond banning abortion that, frankly, I think they’re absurd. Keep in mind, please, that there is an immense difference between believing that life begins at fertilization and believing that life should legally be defined as beginning at the moment of fertilization (essentially that a human zygote is legally a person, the same as any person on the planet). 

Rachel Maddow Explains Birth Control (Mitt Romney Doesn’t Get It)

First of all, either Mitt Romney just doesn’t understand how birth control works, or he actually thinks that the pill should be potentially be considered homicide. Secondly, Rachel Maddow is so much fun. Also, major props to the courageous Beth Schopis of Iowa, who actually called Romney out on the incoherence of his ‘I would absolutely support a personhood amendment, but I’m not against birth control’ position. 

House Republicans Approved $1.5 Million to Defend DOMA

“It is absolutely unconscionable that Speaker Boehner is tripling the cost for his legal boondoggle to defend the indefensible Defense of Marriage Act,” said Drew Hammill, spokesman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). “At a time when Americans are hurting and job creation should be the top priority, it just shows how out of touch House Republicans have become that they would spend up to $1.5 million dollars to defend discrimination in our country.”
–Amanda Terkel, The Huffington Post

This is ridiculous. No, wait, this is beyond ridiculous. I may need to check a thesaurus for a new word because, well, really? Are they serious? I know that the majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives are . . . shall we say, not people with whom I have many political views in common, but wanting to spend $1.5 million on a lawyer to defend the “Defense of Marriage” Act is just absurd. 

Alternatives to Columbus Day

Growing up, Columbus Day never really meant anything to me. After all, we still had to go to school, and don’t all real holidays grant us a day off from school? (Halloween doesn’t, I suppose, but it involves massive amounts of candy, and that’s pretty close.) I didn’t realize that today was Columbus Day until I noticed a bunch of posts on Facebook protesting Columbus Day with pictures like these:

Georgia Killed Him

Troy Davis died tonight at 11:08 PM ET. The state of Georgia killed him. After four hours of deliberation, the Supreme Court decided to deny a last-minute stay of execution, and so Georgia went throught with it.

Before Troy Davis died, he had the following to say:

I’d like to address the MacPhail family. Let you know, despite the situation you are in, I’m not the one who personally killed your son, your father, your brother. I am innocent. The incident that happened that night is not my fault. I did not have a gun. All I can ask . . . is that you look deeper into this case so that you really can finally see the truth. I ask my family and friends to continue to fight this fight. For those about to take my life, God have mercy on your souls. And may God bless your souls.

Don’t Let Them Kill Troy Davis

Troy Davis will be killed at 7:00 PM EDT tomorrow, Wednesday, September 21st, 2011. The state of Georgia has sentenced him to death for a crime for which “no forensic or DNA evidence linking Davis to the shooting has ever been found, and nor has the murder weapon.” He has been on death row for nearly as long as I have been alive.

Amnesty International urges people to demand that “Chatham County (Savannah) District Attorney Larry Chisolm seek a withdrawal of the death warrant and support clemency himself” (Chatham County’s District Attorney’s office’s contact information: Telephone: 912-652-7308   Fax: 912-652-7328). Their petition to the Georgia Pardons Board and District Attorney Chisolm is still available here. Call Judge Penny Freesemann at Telephone: 912-652-7252 who has to accept the DA’s withdrawal.

Regardless What Happens With Hurricane Irene, Rikers Island Will Not Be Evacuated

The entire East Coast is preparing for Hurricane Irene. For New York City, according to NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, this means a shutdown of the MTA and the first mandatory evacuation in NYC’s history, which will affect roughly 250,000 people.  It does not, however, mean that anything will be done about those at Rikers Island. To quote Jean Casella and James Ridgeway’s “Locked Up and Left Behind: New York’s Prisoners and Hurricane Irene,” “Rikers Island, which lies in the waters between Queens and the Bronx, is not highlighted at all [on the city's evacuation map], meaning it is not to be evacuated under any circumstances.” Let me repeat that, just in case you somehow missed it. It is not be to evacuated under any circumstances. 

Support the Hunger Strikers at Pelican Bay

“Prisoners in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at Pelican Bay State Prison (California) began an indefinite hunger strike on July 1, 2011 to protest the cruel and inhumane conditions of their imprisonment.” What they are asking for is heartbreaking — they shouldn’t need to be on strike: their demands should be a given. It has now been eleven days since the hunger strike began, and “the medical conditions for many strikers have deteriorated to critical levels, with fears some prisoners could start to die if immediate action isn’t taken.”

Feeling Disillusioned About Journalism

A bit ago, a friend was interviewed by someone from the Associated Press. He had a lot of really fierce, abolitionist things to say (because that’s just what he’s like), and I was so excited for him. When the actual article came out, it was like nothing we’d all expected. They barely mentioned him, and when they did refer to him, they made up quotes that he never said, they completely ignored all of the fierce things he said, and they basically misrepresented him. 

This Is Just Wrong

While I was checking Facebook a few minutes ago, I just saw a link to this article and video — “Utah police shot and killed a man within seconds of storming his parents’ home.” I’m not going to summarize the article or what happened; go to the article for that. I honestly don’t know what to say.

On so many levels, there is so much wrong with this.