jobsanger

Cartoon Magic

jobsanger@hotmail.com (Ted McLaughlin) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:03:00 +0000

Found at the humorous blog of BartCop.

Death Penalty Sentences Down In Texas

jobsanger@hotmail.com (Ted McLaughlin) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:02:00 +0000

There's an interesting thing happening in the state of Texas these days -- something very unusual. It seems that juries are not giving out as many death sentences as they used to. In fact, Texas is now experiencing a 35 year low in sending new inhabitants to Death Row. Here are the death penalty sentences for the last 15 years:

1995...............43

1996...............37

1997...............35

1998...............43

1999...............47

2000...............28

2001...............30

2002...............35

2003...............28

2004...............25

2005...............15

2006...............11

2007...............15

2008...............9

2009...............9

As you can see, the number took a fairly sharp dive in 2005, and hasn't been above 15 since that year. Did something happen in 2005 that made a difference in the number of people being sent to Death Row? Many people say yes. That was the year that Texas passed the law allowing life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prior to 2005, even life sentences for Capital Murder could result in a parole after 35-40 years.

It is believed that juries gave death sentences to people prior to 2005 to assur they would never walk the street again. With the new law guaranteeing no parole, juries suddenly had an option to the death penalty that would also assure the convicted felon would never be released.

The chart above shows the difference between death penalty sentences for the years right before and right after the 2005 law for the five most heavily populated counties in Texas. Tarrant County (Fort Worth) showed a small decline after 2005, while Harris (Houston), Dallas (Dallas) and Bexar (San Antonio) counties showed a significant decline. Travis County (Austin) is a liberal bastion in Texas, and the 2005 law actually resulted in harsher sentences being given there (life w/o parole instead of just life).

I have no problem accepting that the 2005 law has significantly reduced the amount of death sentences. However, some believe there is another cause also. State Senator Eddie Lucio Jr. (D-Brownsville), author of the life w/o parole law, says, "It isn't life without parole that has weakened the death penalty. It is a growing lack of belief that our system is fair."

For several years now, we have been hearing of many people being unjustly convicted -- not only in Texas, but all across the country. Just in Dallas County alone, at least 19 people have been released from prison because DNA has now proved they were innocent.

There is also the case of Todd Willingham, who was executed a few years ago. At least three separate investigations by forensic experts have now shown that he was probably innocent of the crime he was executed for.

Are death penalties down because of a growing awareness of the unfairness of the justice system, or because of the 2005 law giving juries an alternative that would guarantee the person would never be released. I imagine the truth is that both have had an effect.

Whatever the reason, I'm just glad death sentences are down. I've never been comfortable with state-sanctioned killing.

Sarah's Book

jobsanger@hotmail.com (Ted McLaughlin) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:01:00 +0000

Political Cartoon is by Nate Beeler in The Washington Examiner.

The Horror !

jobsanger@hotmail.com (Ted McLaughlin) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 06:05:00 +0000

Frim the hilarious blog Pundit Kitchen.

Too Stupid For Words

jobsanger@hotmail.com (Ted McLaughlin) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 06:04:00 +0000

Sometimes people will do something so stupid that you just know they would be dead if breathing wasn't an involuntary bodily function -- because otherwise there's no way they'd be able to breathe and walk at the same time. Consider this bit of idiocy in Paris, France.

A new internet company thought they had come up with a great way to advertise their business. They heavily advertised that they would be throwing envelopes containing from 5 to 500 Euros from the top of a bus near the Eiffel Tower. When it came time for the publicity stunt, over 5,000 people had shown up (I'm surprised it wasn't more than that).

Sounding completely brain-dead, a spokesman for the company said, "We couldn't anticipate that there would be so many people." Really? You promise to give away free money in the middle of a world-wide recession, and you don't think thousands of desperate people will show up?

Then the police show they're not much smarter (if any) than the promoters of the event. They take one look at the crowd and decide they represent a "security threat". But instead of just calling for reinforcements, they convince the promoters to call off the event.

Now what do you think happened next? I probably insulted you with that question, because any third-grader would know that a riot was going to happen. How could it not? You now have thousands of very angry people in a small space.

The crowd started to break windows and turn over some cars. Finally, the riot police were called out, and at least ten people were arrested before they finally got control of the situation.

Everyone involved should have their asses kicked -- the promoters, the police and the crowd. I don't think there was a fully-functioning brain in the lot.

NOTE -- The promoters now claim they will give the money to some charity.

Relapse

jobsanger@hotmail.com (Ted McLaughlin) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 06:03:00 +0000

Political Cartoon is by Jeff Stahler in The Columbus Dispatch.

Hutchison Cries "Uncle" In Governor's Race

jobsanger@hotmail.com (Ted McLaughlin) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 06:02:00 +0000

A year or so ago, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison decided she wanted to become the governor of Texas. She knew it would not be easy, because she would have to beat the darling of the ultra-right-wing, Rick Perry, to get the Republican nomination. She said at that time that she would probably resign her senate seat around the end of the summer to concentrate on campaigning for governor.

Most of us here in Texas know better than to take Hutchison at her word, and sure enough, a few weeks ago she did a bit of waffling and changed her resignation date to some time in November. Well, it's November now and Hutchison has changed her mind again. She now says she will keep her senate seat until after the Republican primary next March.

Announcing her plans to remain in the Senate, Hutchison said, "I am more determined than ever to become the 48th governor of the great state of Texas. But at the same time I must put what's best for my campaign aside and do what is best for our state. That is why I must stay in the Senate while running for the Republican nomination for governor."

That may sound good, but it's a huge load of crap. There's always something important going on in the Senate -- that's just the nature of the beast. The truth is she got a good look at the two latest polls that show her far behind Rick Perry, and she said "uncle". She saw that the odds were against her and she gave up.

She knows full well that she must come back to Texas and campaign full-time to have any chance of beating Perry in the primary. But if she resigns her senate seat and does that, she stands a good chance of being neither a senator or governor next year. So she has decided to keep the bird-in-hand and give up hope of snatching the one in the bush.

She'll keep spending her supporters' money and mouthing platitudes about wanting to be governor, but the race is now over. Rick Perry will be the Republican nominee for governor in the 2010 election. The only real question now is who'll be his Democratic opponent?

On Cutting Education

jobsanger@hotmail.com (Ted McLaughlin) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 06:01:00 +0000

Political Cartoon is by Larry Wright in The Detroit News.

Who Invented Porn ?

jobsanger@hotmail.com (Ted McLaughlin) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:05:00 +0000

From the web site called Atheist Cartoons.

Ex-Rep. Gets Prison Sentence

jobsanger@hotmail.com (Ted McLaughlin) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:04:00 +0000

In July of 2005, Rep. William Jefferson (D-Louisiana) was caught on tape by the FBI taking a $100,000 bribe. About $90,000 of that money was later found in his home freezer, and the FBI claimed Jefferson had been involved in 11 separate bribery schemes since August of 2000. He wasn't just a crook -- he was a big-time crook on a continuing basis.

I think he really thought he was above the law. He even took the FBI investigation to the Supreme Court, claiming they didn't have the authority to search his office. He lost that case, and his life has been on a downhill slide ever since.

Last November, he lost his seat in Congress to a Republican (Joseph Cao), even though the district is largely a liberal Democratic one. Then three months ago, a jury convicted him of 11 out of 16 counts of bribery. Yesterday, he was sentenced to a significant prison term.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III (of Alexandria, Virginia) sentenced Jefferson (pictured) to a term of 13 years in a federal prison.

Personally, I think he deserved every year of that sentence and I hope he has to serve every day of it. I don't care which political party Jefferson is in, bribery is one of the most serious offenses a congressman can commit.

I hope every congressman of either party that is taking bribes, is caught and convicted and sentenced to at least 13 years.

Options

jobsanger@hotmail.com (Ted McLaughlin) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:03:00 +0000

Political Cartoon is by David Horsey in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Repubs Take Hypocrisy To A New Level

jobsanger@hotmail.com (Ted McLaughlin) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:02:00 +0000

A few days ago, 176 Republicans joined a few blue dog Democrats in voting to attach the odious Stupak amendment to the Health Care Reform Bill passed by the House of Representatives. This horrid amendment made sure that poor and working class women would not be able to include the payment for voluntary abortions in their health insurance.

Of course, almost all of those voting for the amendment were men, who will never have to make the awful choice of having an abortion or an unwanted baby (which probably can't be cared for financially). This doesn't surprise me, because most Republicans believe women should be second-class citizens, and their bodies should be controlled by men.

That would be enough hypocrisy for a party that claims to believe in equality and freedom, but the Republicans have taken their hypocrisy to a new level -- a level I wouldn't have believed possible until now.

Politico has reported now that the health insurance policy provided by the Republicans Party actually includes payment for voluntary abortions. That's right, while they are telling the rest of America that abortions are an evil sin and should be outlawed, they are providing insurance that will pay for abortions for their own employees -- even though their party platform calls abortion "a fundamental assault on innocent human life." Is this not the epitome of hypocrisy?

Now some of you may be thinking this is a new policy and the Republicans didn't know what was in it yet. Wrong!!! They have had this same policy since 1991 -- that's eighteen years.

And the Cigna Company, who supplies the policy, said the provisions of the policy were explained to the Republicans when they bought it (and you would think at least a few of them would have read the policy by now). Republicans were given the chance to opt out of any provisions they didn't want in the policy, and they chose for 18 years to include the abortion provision.

Personally, I don't see how anyone could have a health insurance policy and not know what it covers and doesn't cover. I know when I worked for the state and received employer-provided insurance, every employee was notified of the health insurance benefits (and given a copy of exactly what the insurance would and wouldn't pay for). Are we supposed to believe the Republican Party (or Cigna) didn't do that for their employees?

But that's exactly what the Republicans want everyone to believe -- that they didn't even know the benefits provided in their own insurance policy. Evidently no one in the party has the ability to read.

They are also saying that there is no proof that anyone ever had an abortion that was paid for by the insurance policy. Really? In eighteen years? Is that even near the realm of believability?

Spokesmen for the party say now that RNC Chairman Michael Steele has made sure the clause has been eliminated from the insurance policy. Can we believe that? After all, they've been talking out of both sides of their mouth for at least the last eighteen years. This whole mess just emphasizes the fact they they consider themselves to be above the rules they want to lay down for the rest of us.

By the way, the Democratic Party's insurance policy contains the same provision. But most Democrats support choice and opposed the Stupak amendment. And their party platform says the party "unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay." No hypocrisy there.

How can anyone still vote Republican? They just can't be trusted.

Health Care Plans

jobsanger@hotmail.com (Ted McLaughlin) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:01:00 +0000

Political Cartoon is by Steve Sack in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Religion

jobsanger@hotmail.com (Ted McLaughlin) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:07:00 +0000

From the excellent blog of Yellowdog Granny.

Pervert Is Caught By His Wife

jobsanger@hotmail.com (Ted McLaughlin) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:06:00 +0000

You've probably seen the NBC show Perverted Justice. It's where some adults pretend to be children on the internet to trap some perverts into revealing themselves. Then when they show up to have sex with the young targets, they are humiliated and arrested. The same sort of thing happened in Great Britain -- with an unusual and very funny twist.

The pervert is 68 year-old David Roberts (pictured), a retired former pub owner. Roberts like to cruise internet chat rooms in search of young girls. He thought he's struck gold when a 14 year-old girl chatted with him and seemed to be interested in his advances. He performed some lewd acts for her on the internet, and then arranged to meet her to have sex.

There was just one problem. The 14 year-old girl wasn't 14 at all. In fact, it was his 61 year-old wife. She had become suspicious of him, and got on the internet to see what he was really doing. All the time he thought he was talking to a 14 year-old, he was actually chatting with his wife who was on a different computer in the next room.

After he performed the lewd acts and arranged to meet her for sex, she reported him to the police. It was several weeks before he knew he had been talking to and turned in by his own wife. Needless to say, they have now separated.

Roberts was arrested, and they also found some child pornography on his computer. He was given a three year community order (which we in America would call probation) and was banned from contacting anyone under 18, either in person or on the computer. He's lucky. If he'd been arrested here in the States, he'd be going to prison just for the child pornography on his computer, let alone the rest of it.

I just love the fact that he was caught and reported by his own wife. That has to be the ultimate humiliation. And I doubt it will help him in divorce court either. I don't know how British divorce courts work, but I hope she's able to clean him out. He deserves it.

Walls - Tear Them All Down !

jobsanger@hotmail.com (Ted McLaughlin) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:05:00 +0000

Political Cartoon is by Stephane Peray in The Nation (Bangkok).

Teacher Shortage Is Over

jobsanger@hotmail.com (Ted McLaughlin) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:04:00 +0000

A few years ago, there was a nearly critical shortage of teachers in the United States -- especially among poorer and rural schools. But the recession in this country seems to have taken care of that. Instead of a shortage, there is now a glut of people trying to find employment as teachers.

In Texas, the Round Rock Independent School District recently had a need for 322 teachers. They received over 5,000 applications for those teaching jobs. They have also seen their pool of available substitute teachers double to around 1,200.

Why is this happening? The first reason is cutbacks in funds due to the recession. Many school districts are cutting back on the number of teachers they employ. The demand for teachers nationwide has declined in 60 out of 61 subjects. The only area in which jobs are still available is mathematics (although more special education teachers are also needed).

John Black, a deputy superintendent in Augusta (Kansas), says that not long ago "we were recruiting really, really hard just to get people to take a look at us and take a look at our profession. Now we have these great applicants wanting to teach, and we don't have jobs to offer them."

At the same time that schools are cutting back on teachers, many who had planned to retire or find other types of work are hanging on to their teaching jobs because of the recession. In addition, many who have been laid off from other jobs are trying to find teaching positions, and of course, the colleges are still pumping out education graduates. All of this has combined to create the current glut of teacher applicants.

I wouldn't expect the situation to get any better any time soon. The rest of the economy is still dumping more jobs each month, and even the most optimistic prognosticators expect the unemployment rate to keep rising for at least another year. This will just create even larger pools of applicants for the few jobs that are available.

But that's just for us peons. Remember, the recession is over for the rich (and the corporations)!!

Saving Our Children

jobsanger@hotmail.com (Ted McLaughlin) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:03:00 +0000

Political Cartoon is from the blog of BartCop.

Dallas Gets Some Bad News

jobsanger@hotmail.com (Ted McLaughlin) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:02:00 +0000

Yesterday, Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle announced that he will retire in April of 2010. This verified what City Manager Mary Suhm had already told the City Council. This is not good news for the city of Dallas.

Chief Kunkle has been on the job in Dallas since May 2004. He was hired away from the city of Arlington, and has been a breath of fresh air when compared to the list of failures that preceded him. When Kunkle assumed the job, the crime rate was very high and many groups in the city felt like they were being picked on by police. There were a lot of bad feelings.

Chief Kunkle has turned all that around and provided the leadership to make the Dallas Police Department respected again. He has reached out to all groups in the city and convinced them they will have their concerns heard and addressed, and he has done it all in a low-key and respectful way.

During his five year tenure, he has presided over a 32% decrease in violent crimes and a 34% decrease in homicides. In addition, the department has had fewer deadly-force incidents and fewer in-custody deaths.

Chief Kunkle has done an excellent job for the city of Dallas. I hope his replacement is as competent as he turned out to be.

Ship Of Fools

jobsanger@hotmail.com (Ted McLaughlin) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:01:00 +0000

Political Cartoon is by Steve Sack in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

The Simpler Is Preferred

jobsanger@hotmail.com (Ted McLaughlin) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:07:00 +0000

From the hilarious blog called Atheist Comics.

Pfizer exaggerates Drug Studies

jobsanger@hotmail.com (Ted McLaughlin) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:06:00 +0000

To get a drug approved for use for a specific disease or condition takes years of critical studies which must convince the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) that the drug works well for the purpose it is meant to be used for. This is an arduous process, as it should be.

But sometimes a drug will be prescribed by doctors for off-label use. That's when a study shows the drug is actually useful for something the FDA has not approved its use for. For instance, a drug approved for fever and headache use might be found to be effective for reducing swollen joints. The company cannot advertise the drug is good for the off-label purpose (reducing swollen joints), but doctors are not prohibited from prescribing the drug for that purpose.

That's why the drug companies will make these studies widely known, even though they have no intention of applying to the FDA to approve the drug for the new use. Using drugs for off-label purposes doesn't sound like a great idea, but it becomes even worse when the drug companies are not honest about a study's results.

And that's exactly what Pfizer has been doing. They have a drug called Neurontin, which was approved by the FDA to control epilepsy. But most of the drug's sales have been due to prescriptions for off-label use. The company released studies that showed the drug also worked for nerve pain, migraines and bipolar disorder.

Unfortunately, the company "doctored" the results of the studies, making the drug look like it was far more effective than it actually was. That meant the doctors that believed the fudged studies, were prescribing a medication that really didn't work for the use they intended it, and their patients were paying for a drug that provided them no benefit. The only real benefit was to provide more profits for Pfizer.

Researchers at the University of California at San Francisco and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health learned about this by critically examining the studies done by the drug company. Their report, which appears in the newest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, accuses Pfizer of releasing misleading study results in order to increase off-label sales of their drug.

Dr. Sidney Wolfe, head of health research at Public Citizen, says the company "maliciously manipulated the data to make a drug look more effective than it actually was." All of this comes on the heels of Pfizer being fined $2.3 billion for illegally marketing other drugs.

This doesn't inspire much confidence in Big Pharma does it? Are the other companies doing the same?

Still Out In The Cold

jobsanger@hotmail.com (Ted McLaughlin) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:05:00 +0000

Political Cartoon is by Jeff Parker in Florida Today.

A.M.A. Changes It's Position On Marijuana

jobsanger@hotmail.com (Ted McLaughlin) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:04:00 +0000

The largest group representing physicians in the country is the American Medical Association (AMA), which has over 250,000 members. Traditionally, they have accepted without question the government's position on marijuana, and have always supported the idea that marijuana should continue to be classified as a Schedule I controlled substance (like heroin or LSD).

Of course, this is a ludicrous stance since marijuana is non-habit forming and far less dangerous than many legal drugs. Now it looks like the AMA is starting to come to their senses -- sort of. At least they've taken the first step toward sanity.

On Tuesday, the AMA asked the federal government to reconsider their classification of marijuana as a dangerous drug with no medical use. Dr. Edward Langston, an AMA board member, said, "Despite more than 30 years of clinical research, only a small number of randomized, controlled trials have been conducted on smoked cannabis, insufficient to satisfy the current standards for a prescription drug product."

The AMA made it clear that they were not saying marijuana should be legalized or they support the state medical marijuana programs. They just think the drug needs to get a fresh look and perhaps some more research should be done on its medical efficacy. Still it represents a radical change from their previous stance.

The AMA also should be commended for defeating an amendment to their stance. The amendment said that "smoking is an inherently unsafe delivery method for any therapeutic agent, and therefore smoked marijuana should not be recommended for medical use."

There have been some tests in the past where patients were given THC pills to control nausea, instead of smoking marijuana. The problem was that the pills did not work as well for many patients as smoking did. There may well be some calming effect in the actual smoking that the pills can never duplicate.

Someday, the recreational use of marijuana will be legal for adults. But old fears, however irrational, die hard and it may take many more years. In the meantime, I am consoled by the changing positions of organizations like the AMA and the American College of Physicians (who adopted a similar position last year).

The Vaccine Line

jobsanger@hotmail.com (Ted McLaughlin) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:03:00 +0000

Political Cartoon is by Mike Keefe in The Denver Post.