In Defense of Bill Cosby

The OpEd defending Bill Cosby was right. There should be more of them to give the balanced perspective of today's social values being used to pass judgment on another era, another time. In the 60s and 70s there were a lot of pills and drugs floating around, and it was  common for youth to willingly take a little trip to get high or experiment and lose inhibitions. Dumb, but "free love" was the thing until we grew up​ or just got old. It was much like the Rave culture more recently. Celebrities got into that game too, even allowing black men to indulge at a time when color barriers were everywhere. If we should adjust out social lens and think about Cosby's youth and celebrity at the time, it's only shocking there weren't a lot more than 20 women. None could be considered victims by today's standards.

Obama Tax Cuts and Stimulus

Did anyone commenting here read (elsewhere) about the latest Obama business TAX CUT? If they think about it, I don't believe anyone is against the government giving us our money back, or spending it to help jump start job creation (we're so bad off, government or private sector really doesn't matter). It sounds good -- in theory. Problem is, the Federal Government is in the red, it doesn't have the money to spend, so the spending is debt. Taxpayers are ultimately supposed to foot the bill (in the future), but it's unpopular, and can hurt the recovery. Dems or GOP do the same stunts for obvious political reasons and to manipulate public opinion, so expect more for the next 2 years and beyond (whoever wins midterm or in 2012). Trouble is, tax cuts (of any kind), mean the government brings in less to pay down the debt, so it will continue to borrow from countries like China at the same time it's making them richer from "free trade" that always seems to benefit everyone but US citizenry. I'm not a Republican (anymore) and certainly have no love for the Tea Party or other right wing groups, but am reaching the conclusion that Federal spending is a problem and Keynesian economics will not aid this recovery as it seemed to during the Great Depression. New Protectionist have good arguments for microeconomics replacing Globalization with more stable and sustainable Localization. In a trade war, the US would win, because of abundant resources and educated workforce. Tragically, the US is so indebted to foreign governments that it may already be too late to stem the tide and break the cycle of borrowing and giving away our future,

Not In California - What's Wrong with the Arizona Immigration Law

http://www.truthout.org/behind-the-arizona-immigration-law-gop-game-to-swipe-the-november-election58877

Requiem for the Dream Ticket

It is perverse irony that Barack Obama probably feels his struggle, ambitions and dreams for the Whitehouse were snatched in an instant by a young usurper who came out of nowhere and overshadowed his celebrity and air of inevitability and destiny. Sound familiar?

Why Rev. Wright is Not Wrong

Perhaps going public will hurt the media and the political attack dogs Hillary Clinton and the Republican Right Wing have set on this man. Reverend Wright is still a Man of God, who has much greater moral authority than those who have publicly used him for their purposes. By all accounts, he has a lifetime of achievement and community service that reflect the best in our nation. ABC News and most other mass media are too exploitative to honestly report his sermons and life's work in context, and are too cowardly to defend him on the basis of the First Amendment their profession is charged to protect. That same First Amendment guarantees our right to religious freedom, freedom of religion and freedom to assemble. The Rev. Wright persecution and exploitation challenges all of these core values and is a test our the wisdom of our nation and our times. Bill Moyers is one of the few remaining TV journalists with integrity, and the Editors of CaliLaw Review have only praise for his courage to remind us what the First Amendment means, and how the scourge of McCarthyism is very much alive in our country. It has no place in our Democracy, and we should all hold the highest contempt for those who strive to resurrected it.

8th Amendment and the RIAA verdict

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), won a case against Jammie Thomas, a Minnesota resident, Ojiibwa tribe native and mother of two. The fine of $220,000 plus legal fees made Ms. Thomas not only the first individual in the U.S. convicted in trial of music piracy, but a striking reminder of how justice can be perverted when large corporations seek to make an example of individual citizens with less means to defend themselves. Is the 8th Amendmend of the United States Constiutution ignored in today's legal system? It reads:

"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."

As much as the Jena 6, this case brought attention to unequal prosecution in America, the Jammie Thomas case shows our courts are increasingly neither fair, or just. The freedoms we hold dear are in peril, and it can only be hoped this is appealed on 8th Amendment grounds, to the U.S. Supreme Court if needed. Towards that end, we encourage donations at http://freejammie.com.

Free Speech and the Taser Incident

Sentator Kerry's website invites comments on this topic, but doesn't post any of them. Therefore, I submit my post to the Senator here:

One website expressed a view I've heard over and over as the incident becomes a free speech debate. The view was that intervening -- telling the officers to STOP isn't something a politician would do, but it's what a man would do. I do not know what kind of man you are, sir, but I voted for you in 2004. I wasn't naive to think of you as some sort of hero, but I believed you had the courage of your convictions, and would do more to safeguard the Consitutional freedoms we hold so dear. I was deeply troubled that none of that courage surfaced when it was tested by this seemingly innocuous event. I remember Kent State. This was not it, but you saw the face of Fascism only a few feet away, and blithly turned away.