Gimme That Old Time Religion, err, Rick Perry?

I remember those days when we sang that song in church back when we all went to The General Baptist Church. "Gemme that old time religion" everyone belted out like it was their last chance for Heaven. I gave it a try, too. I also remember that we sang it one time when a tent revival came to town. I believe it was the opening song. It could have been the closing song, too. A huge tent, it seemed to me way back then, was erected where the water works and fire station is now. It seemed to me that we spent an eternity listening to that revival preacher. He was a long-winded guy, but I don't recall the sermon. Dad thought he was nuts. Mom and Grandma thought he was God-sent to Owensville; the answer to everyone's prayers. Everything was going to get better! Grandma's health problems, Mom's health problems and, finally, Dad would see the light; the same light, by the way, that Grandma saw - and on her terms. Grandma was a bit vengeful, especially when the Lord wasn't doing His job to suit her. She liked the idea of taking things into her own hands if she could. But, knowing Dad, it would be a cold day in Hell for him to ever agree with Grandma! In retrospect, I don't think Dad liked grand public displays of religion or the idea of running to God every time he had a problem, like Grandma did. She evaded responsibility for her own actions in that manner.

That's not saying that Dad wasn't a spiritual person, because he was. But, too much shouting, wailing and "Hallelujah!" and "Praise the Lord!" so that everyone in town heard, so to not mistake your faith and conviction, turned him off. I wonder what Dad would have thought if that preacher was running for President? It could be that Dad impressed on me, way back then, to take most preachers, especially those who shout the loudest, have the biggest mega-church along with a grandiose and rich life style and who claim to know what God does, says, wants, likes and favors, with a healthy dose of salt and a great deal of skepticism. They have, in most cases, a captive audience that they flimflam all the way to the bank.

Rick Perry is a revival preacher, as far as I'm concerned, and he is extremely good at flimflamming. He IS a state governor, which means that he convinced, which is to say flimflammed, over 50% of Texans to vote for him, astonishingly not once but three times, the longest Texas Governor to hold that office, and those same Texans had to have overlooked in all three elections all of his petty little deals, his disregard for human suffering and his unapologetic and blatant misuse of his office and taxes for his own personal use and for his cronies and, of course, his lies! The facts behind his governorship make me wonder "What the hell is going on in Texas?!" But, it isn't only in Texas. Grandma's type of religious fundamentalism appears to be spreading to all states, and that is a dangerous sign. It could mean that Perry will be our President simply because he drops God's name. That thought gives me the willies.

Grandma would have liked Rick Perry. They are alike in some respects. Perry appears to believe that God takes vengeance occasionally for the wrongs perpetrated by mankind and Grandma would have certainly agreed with that. In fact, I'm ninety-nine percent sure she would say that God is causing the drought in Texas and she would be on the stage praying for rain, right along with Perry. Grandma would have made a good Texan.

She would also like Perry in regards to his brand of criminal justice. During Perry's tenure as governor, Texas' notoriety for convicting innocent people has exploded to national fame and it is the most likely state to use the death penalty. Every year there is a Texan convict who has been exonerated because they were innocent and, in each case, Governor Perry appears to object to their release or he fights against each claim of innocence beyond any sense of reason. Grandma would have yelled, "If he's innocent, then why was he arrested?" Grandma didn't need a court trial to prove a person's guilt. That sounds a lot like Perry's response when he was asked why he didn't review the famous Cameron Tod Willingham case. Perry is reported to have said, "He's a bad man. He even cursed at his wife!" as if that was sufficient enough to show that Willingham was guilty and deserved his death sentence. Of course, that didn't answer why an expert hired by the Texas Forensic Science Commission disputed the arson claim by the small-town Corsicana, Texas Fire Department. The expert analysis reported that the fire that convicted Willingham of arson-murder was, in fact, an accidental electrical fire. It wasn't Willingham's fault at all. But, in Corsicana, Willingham didn't have a chance. After all, the Fire Inspector there, a guy with little education and training, with only a high school diploma, like Grandma, firmly believed that eighty to ninety percent of all fires were arson. Nobody stopped to think that that might be a bit high. In fact, Corsicana has more fires started by arson, according to the Corsicana Fire Inspector, than any community in the nation. The documentary showed many interviews with town citizens that reminded me a lot of Grandma, people who had no idea of the facts in the case, but nevertheless believed, beyond any doubt, that Willingham was guilty as hell and deserved to die.

Grandma experienced a murder trial in 1955-56 that she thought was a waste of time; the trial of Leslie Irvin, the "Mad Dog Killer." Dad was sequestered with the jury in a Princeton hotel for the duration of the trial, so we, Mom, Jean, Dan and I, stayed with Granddad and Grandma while he did his jury duty. I recall a couple of visits to Princeton to see Dad, although I don't recall who took us. On each visit we waited outside the hotel in the car and Dad would finally come out, give all of us a hug, and talk a few minutes to Mom, and then we'd go home. "I don't know why Wayne has to waste time on that jury," Grandma would rant. "That Irvin is a killer. They don't need to go through all that rigmarole to figure that out!" As I recall, Grandma didn't shut up about that for the entire trip to Princeton and back and continued until bedtime. The "rigmarole" of course was the trial. My niece reminded me that Irvin escaped the county jail while awaiting trial. Everyone in the county locked their doors while he was on the loose, including Grandma. His trial resulted in a death penalty sentence, but that was overturned by the Supreme Court because it decided that Irvin could not have received a fair trial because of all of the publicity. He was given a life sentence instead. Grandma would have been very upset by that decision. I got the impression that she didn't really believe in a fair trial if it interfered with vengeance or her idea of justice.

Of course, I now see Grandma's faults in regards to her version of justice, and I also think I see how she influenced me, adding to the baggage that I've carried all of these years and, hopefully, tossed out completely or modified to a more thoughtful fairness. But, back then I loved Grandma. She made the best corn patties, that I called corn cakes back then. After Granddad died and she moved closer, I dropped in on her fairly frequently. She would cook corn cakes and spinach or green beans or some other vegetable, and we would eat and she would read the Bible to me. She always read the story of David and Goliath, which made it my favorite Bible story in my youth, and I never tired of hearing it. But, now I think Grandma was a very poor voter and citizen. She really had no idea, nor could she ever be convinced to change her mind, about the basic fairness that founded the United States of America. Neither does Perry. Perry sees the government as a Goliath that needs to be killed. I see him as Goliath that needs to be stopped.

I'm going to keep an eye on Perry and speak up whenever I get the chance. I'm adding a new blog to my list of blogs to keep better track of his shenanigans, the Washington Spectator Blog by Lou Dubose. I heard Mr. Dubose on the radio recently and he made a lot of sense and he seems to be on top of all of Perry's nonsense. We all need to be alert that Grandma's ignorance doesn't spread or we could end up with President Perry. That would be a disaster.

Dave

Mob Opinion Driven Justice Begats Injustice

I guess what keeps me shouting is that I don't hear anything but silence on important issues, except from the Mob. The Mob, it seems, even wants to run our courts. In this case, Ghailani, a terrorist, was convicted of conspiring in one or both of the two simultaneous 1998 American Embassy bombings in Tanzania and Nairobi, Africa. He was convicted in a Federal Court instead of a Military Commission. And, the Mob is upset, as this story, A Terrorist Gets What He Deserves - NYTimes.com, says.

The fact is that a Federal Court has more laws that it can try a person for, such as criminal laws like hijacking, murder to a number of degrees, espionage, subversion, kidnapping, etc., while a Military Commission can only apply laws related to military law, such as treason on the battle field, hostile insurgency, military action against civilians, torture of war prisoners, etc. As a general rule, both the civilian court and military court should conduct court procedures the same. In one case, a civilian jury will decide guilt or innocence and perhaps punishment, and in the other a panel of three, five or seven military officers will act as a jury. In both cases, the intent is to base the trial and innocence or guilt on fact and evidence, not opinion or gut feeling or hyped media noise. In both cases, evidence obtained by coercion, such as by torture, is usually thrown out because there is no valid way of determining whether the evidence is the truth or not. Read the article. It cites other Military Commission cases in which evidence was tossed out because of the non-traditional manner in the way it was obtained, i.e., coercion.

So, why is the Mob upset. It is upset because Ghailani didn't get "the max." The jury did not convict on 284 counts. The jury convicted on only one count; conspiracy. I am much more pleased and assured that justice was served when I hear that a jury used discretion in its convictions than I am when I hear that a jury convicted on everything thrown at it or that a jury agreed totally with all the hype in media venting by some politician, such as Senator McConnell. McConnell wasn't on the jury. He didn't hear the facts and evidence and testimony. He knows nothing. He also, apparently, doesn't trust our legal system. Have to wonder why he is a Senator, one of a hundred that passes our laws.

Everyday we hear of cases where public opinion convicted a suspect and later we hear of scientific evidence, based on updated scientific forensic methods, that proves innocence. Everyday we hear that public opinion, prosecutors, courts and governors who will not acknowledge the new forensic evidence because of some gut-feeling based opinion. I wrote about a Texas case before Governor Perry was reelected in which new, advanced scientific evidence gave every indication that the suspect, Todd Willingham, was innocent. But, the whole town, Willingham's wife, and Governor Perry said, "he's a bad man," so Texas executed him.

I'm also reminded of the California conviction and death sentence of Scott Peterson for murdering his wife, Laci, and their unborn child. That case was plastered on every newscast for weeks and Nancy Grace prosecuted him on her show for no other reason than he was a liar. The trial was held in San Mateo, only twenty miles from my house, and I saw and heard every bit of evidence in the trial every day in minute detail with scurrilous convicting commentary. "He's a liar!" they yelled. "He's an adulterer!" they said. Well, he was all of that, and a foolish, hallucinating idiot to boot because he couldn't keep his mouth shut in spite of his attorney's advice and he concocted the tallest tales. But, a murderer? By the end of the trial, and after all of the evidence was paraded on every newscast, radio and television, the police admitted that there was not one iota of forensic evidence that actually showed that he murdered his wife. Not one drop of blood, not a sign of a fight, not a sign of dismembering his wife as she was found, not one timeline that indicated he might have done it. There was a lot of circumstantial "damning" evidence created by Scott himself, but the only forensic evidence was a single hair found on a pair of pliers in the family boat. His conviction was totally based on "theory." I have doubts to this day whether he really did it. After his trial, there was another pregnant woman found, dismembered as Laci was, in the Bay as Laci was. The second woman's murder never made the news like Laci's did. As far as I know, the second killer was never found, but it was eerily similar to Laci's murder.

I might have been able to justify in my mind that Scott Peterson killed his wife, but I'm not sure I could have been so convinced to vote to put him to death. I was really troubled by public display and mob behavior. Public opinion and Scott's behavior convicted him. But, in spite of Scott's behavior, it wouldn't surprise me if some day we learn through new evidence that he didn't do it.

When the Mob runs our courts, we can't trust our legal system. In fact, we can't trust anything.

Dave

When the Fox Persuade Us that Our Hen House is His

How many Foxes are headed toward our hen house? A legion. I am stunned that Republicans appear to be making a comeback after the destruction they've caused. Karl Rove, Dick Army, Fox News, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, the Koch Brothers, Rush Limbaugh, the Tea Party, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Rupert Murdoch, Goldman Sachs, all and more are headed our way and they are all slick, silky-tongued Foxes. They have all of the platitudes on the tip of their tongues in defiance of the historical proof on the error of their ways. The Foxes only tell you what they want you to hear. They only teach you want they want you to know. And, before you know it, your hen house is theirs.

A good example is Texas Governor Rick Perry. I'm stunned that Governor Rick Perry was still leading the polls over Houston Mayor Bill White at the end of September. You would think that a man who allowed an innocent man to be executed, because he was "bad man," according to Perry, would slink out of sight. Want to know why Perry called Todd Willingham a bad man? Because his last words cursed his ex-wife - not because Willingham was guilty. In fact, overwhelming scientific, forensic evidence discovered in the last few weeks before the execution proved that Willingham was an innocent man - he did NOT start the fire that killed his children. The fire was NOT arson. The fire was caused by an accidental electrical short. But, in those last few days his ex-wife changed her mind and her testimony and claimed, falsely, that Willingham confessed to her that he had set the fire. She lied - he did not confess to her. But, it was enough to for Governor Perry to ignore Willingham's request for a delay until the new evidence could be heard in court. Perry let Willingham die in the death chamber. Is it any wonder that Willingham's last words cursed his ex-wife when she came to the window to look at him strapped to the death chamber table? Here is the story, Cameron Todd Willingham, Texas, and the death penalty : The New Yorker.

And, so, the word got out that Texas put an innocent man to death, again, and a stink arose and Perry's excuse was, "he was a bad man." All of the so-called conservatives and the Republican Party were on Perry's side and the so-called liberals were outraged. I say "so-called" because the conservatives and the GOP were really not very conservative and the liberals were the ones trying to conserve the institutions (real conservatives "conserve" institutions) of "innocent before proven guilty," emphasis on "proven," and the idea of "due process and protection against false charges" which had not happened for Willingham before he died. In reality, the ones raising the stink were the true conservatives. So, where were all of those who shout about freedom and Tea Party liberty and the Constitution? They were silent. Or they "knew" he was guilty - of something - and they gave Perry a pat on the back. "Good riddance," they said. There are apparently more so-called freedom and Tea Party lovers in Texas than those who really want freedom and liberty and Constitutional rights. All of the yelping Foxes have convinced Texans that Perry is the "chosen one," and Perry is still ahead in the polls. Mind boggling!

I'd say that the Foxes have taken over Texas' hen house, and its statehouse. I have no problem it if wants to secede from the union. Good riddance. But, the disease is spreading like wildfire. Big corporate spending is buying the United States' hen house, and we're going to regret it. We are going to follow Britain; tax cuts for the rich and corporations, deep budget cuts that jerk the rug out from under the poor and middle class, and in the end - a huge disastrous transfer of money, the last cent they have, from the middle class to the rich - the top twenty percent will own everything.

The fact is that history has proven, over and over again, that when so few people, 20% of the population, own 80% or more (currently 83% in the U.S.) of the economy, the economy falls into a depression. If we have learned from history, then we will have to tax the rich and reduce taxes for the middle class and the poor. That redistributes the wealth to the people who will buy something with it. If you don't believe that, then ask yourself a few questions. Who can buy more televisions? Twenty-percent of the population? Or 80% percent of the population? The answer is 80% can buy more. Who can buy more tubes of toothpaste? 20%? or 80%? The answer is 80%. The answer is ALWAYS 80%!

Would you rather listen to all of the cute sayings, those platitudes, of the GOP, Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and Fox and Friends? Or would you rather listen and learn from history? When are you going to speak up? When are you going to share the truth? When are you going to vote? If you don't, then we are done - we lose everything, from freedom, liberty and the Constitution to the last pennies in our pockets. We're sunk.

Dave