“At least sesame street is actually talking about prison; the rest of us are much happier completely ignoring it.  Perhaps because it’s so easy not to care about prisoners.  They are by definition convicted criminals.”

And when the Director of US Prisons testified before the US Senate, Sen Al Franken can’t even get an answer to the simplest of questions: what is the size of the average cell?  The Director of US Prisons stammers and looks confused as if there’s absolutely no conceivable reason how the “size” of a cell would be relevant to anything!  Sen Franken struggles to keep re-forming the question in more specific terms – “size, as in feet and inches” he says – and finally gives up turning to another Senator to ask, “Am I asking this wrong?”

Nope, you were not, funny man.  Eventually the Senators are told the average cell size is 10 x 7.

It’s pretty much impossible to pursue reform when there is no political concience willing to even asses the status quo.  :We don’t know because we don’t care” is the attitude, and perhaps understandably.

“What is clear is that we are doing a terrible job taking care of people that it is very easy for us all not to care about.”

Privatization of prison suppliers

Oliver also calls out how an exploding industry of private suppliers is failing prisoners.  Food suppliers have run out of food and one news report found maggots found in prison food.

Healthcare can be similarly lacking for prison inmates: 50 people died in Arizona DOC custody so far this year, for example.  Inadequate staffing and medical resources plague many facilities.  Oliver focuses on one woman who describes prison medical staff pouring packets of table sugar into her c-section for weeks after she gave birth in prison.

“You will never pay a political price for treating prisoners…badly.  You don’t even need to pretend to care.”  Then he plays a clip of an Arizona state legislator callously accusing the prisoner who had sugar poured into her wound of lying since inmates have so much time to think up allegations while incarcerated.

Total Reform Needed

“This is all so depressing.  Private prisons are bad, yes.  But the whole system just seems fundamentally broken.”

The post John Oliver Eviscerates US Prison System appeared first on Cliff Satell.

Absurd? Just a tad. In fact, as anyone who has bothered to think about it for more than 3 seconds knows, alcohol is orders of magnitude more dangerous to individuals and society. So for all my civil libertarian impulses (I was the head of the Duke Conservative Union at the time, after all), I offered up this reply (which was published virtually verbatim to my surprise.)

I’ve slightly edited the article below from the original Chronicle print version to make more sense on this blog.

Pot Does Not Kill Mexican Kids

By: Cliff Satell

Last week, the Chronicle published a column which made an impassioned case against marijuana use. It pleaded for us to prevent “another dead Latin American child,” by looking within ourselves as a nation and ceasing our rampant and destructive drug use. The author of that column, and his argument, is wrong for the following reasons.

First, he claims smoking weed is unethical because big mean people who bring pot here are violent. But you can’t argue weed is inherently unethical because the current distribution system is unsavory; his point has nothing to do with the “ethics” of marijuana use. Individual use is a choice everyone has the right to make, especially in a country that pretends to allow the pursuit of happiness. As a strong conservative, I’m embarrassed by the hypocrisy of most conservatives when they advocate the government first decide, and then tell us, what is ethical and what isn’t. The government should never be in the business of legislating morality unless another person’s rights are directly threatened.

Which brings us to his main point: he claims ‘blazing’ weed does threaten the rights of poor Mexican kids because of the border violence in sneaking the plant into America. Let’s analyze. People – especially Mexican-Americans originally – smoke a lot of weed. Some weed is imported. Weed becomes illegal as a way to control a growing Mexican-American population. Weed producers are forced to operate in an underground and illegal world, becoming ‘cartels’. They don’t want to go to jail. They fear jail so much they do whatever necessary to stay out, leading to violence. Poor Mexican kids die; UCLA kids get high.

Since demand is literally infinite and will never disappear, the only logical conclusion is to bring the production and distribution of marijuana out from hiding and into the bright light of sanctioned government regulation. Once regulated there would be no need to violently conspire to sneak drugs over because producers would operate like any other legal distribution business. Not only would it add new sources of tax revenue in a time of fiscal crisis, but it would stop the Mexican kids from dying since violence is no longer required. You don’t see gangs of French warlords killing each other trying to sneak Cabernet into America. Why? Because wine isn’t relegated to the dirty world of black markets where lots of bad people kill other people. Closer to home, you don’t see Massachusetts, New Jersey or any of the other 12 states that have legalized marijuana collapsing from gang activity or cartel warfare.

Third, the author’s logic clearly is misinformed. Most of the weed on campus at Duke and especially in the Northeast does not even come from Mexico. A significant percentage is made right here in America’s living rooms and bedroom closets. Another hefty percentage comes from Canada, where border regulations are less restrictive.

Most marijuana in the US comes from California’s so-called Emerald Triangle, not Mexico.

And finally, the open secret now is that high-end pot comes from California’s humongous “Emerald Triangle” weed industry, a three-county region where marijuana makes up two-thirds of the economy (taxes anyone?). Progressive Californians legalized medicinal marijuana, creating a need for large scale farms to supply state-sanctioned distributaries. Medicinal weed, or “Cali bud” generally, is the bees knees that most consumers crave, not low-end Mexican schwag.

Finally, while we’re on ethics, let’s look at the reality. Alcohol kills roughly 100,000 per year (and is legal). Marijuana kills zero (and isn’t). Wait, you’re surprised? Mexican kids dies from bullets, not weed. Even Advil causes more deaths per year (7,000). Don’t cave to the government’s pathetic War on Drugs and its almost-laughable propaganda campaign that began as a racist way to keep out Mexicans from the Southwest in the 1930’s. Moreover, weed is a life-enhancer that gives peace, tranquility and yes, happiness to millions of hard-working productive Americans and Duke Students.

It’s awfully easy to point fingers at the big scary pot plant, ignoring that its legitimate medicinal and recreational use dates back thousands of years. But to say little Mexican babies are murdered every time a joint is rolled is beyond self-gratifying, it’s intellectual dishonesty at its worst. Get the facts and open your mind, then you’ll learn a really inconvenient truth.

The post Marijuana Does Not Kill Mexican Kids appeared first on Cliff Satell.

On the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, it’s an especially good time to take a few minutes and rewatch Martin Luther King’s most famous speech.  One of the truly great orators of history, Dr. King could captivate an audience with a rhetorical dexterity rarely ever matched by any speaker.

While the Civil Rights Movement certainly had its share of charismatic leaders who could drum up a crowd, Martin Luther King uses his words to paint a picture of his message that is impossible to shrug off.  With accessible, positive, unifying language, Dr. King not only castigates the hypocritical status quo in 1960’s America, but he simultaneously touches the hearts of the American conscience, providing the very needed moral leadership to catapult the Movement’s goals into genuine motion.

Without King’s ability to speak to the Great Majority of Americans who believed in the Declaration of Independence’s words that “All Men Are Created Equal.”  Intellectually, most Americans were already on Dr. Kings side – even if they didn’t know it.  Instead of demanding that America change its fundamental being and bow to a minority group’s demands, Martin Luther King extolled the virtues of America’s ideals and urged all Americans to live up to our original founding creed.

King knew the Founders had got it right in setting the bar so high for the American experiment.  But while so many others excoriate the Founding Fathers as perpetrators of slavery, King used the lofty principles of the American Revolution to show how America didn’t need to fundamentally change, it needed to recognize what it already was: a beacon of liberty.

When the architects of our Republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.  This note was a promise that all men – yes, black men as well as white men – would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

King’s gift for persuasion is on full display here.  Keep in mind this speech was given during an extremely volatile time in American life.  The Voting Rights Act was languishing in Congress, the peace dividend after World War II was all but over, and race riots were a constant threat to a peaceful society.  In fact, many commentators were convinced the March on Washington would devolve into yet another violent demonstration.  King’s monumental task of inspiring a demoralized black America to continue fighting with positivity in order to claim the “riches of freedom and the security of justice” while also appealing to moderate whites and a bitterly stubborn Southern tradition of knee-jerk opposition to Civil Rights.

He could have complained on behalf of black people to the white establishment.  He could have lambasted white people for the sins of their fathers and a diminishing – though certainly prevalent – racist minority.  Dr. King could have used his unparalleled pulpit to instigate anger and sow seeds of division.  He could have transferred the “heat of oppression” his people were so used to into a vindictive quest to return the hatred onto the oppressors.

But he didn’t.  After warning that there “will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights,” King emphasizes the importance of entering “the palace of justice” with a clear moral imperative:

Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.  We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline… Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

All this and the speech was only mediocre to that point – at least to Dr. King himself.  He did not believe the speech was going as well as it should – he was not capturing the crowd in the same way he knew he had done before.  And with the increasingly volcanic political environment, he knew that to let this moment pass him by could mean missing out on the opportunity to move the Civil Right’s Movement a major step forward.

And then something happened.  Mahalia Jackson – the world-famous Queen of Gospel who had appeared many times with Martin Luther King previously – must have sensed that Dr. King was leaving something on the table.  “Tell them about the dream, Martin! she encouraged from just behind the podium.  And so he did, beginning one of the single most well-known and powerful sections of rhetorical awesomeness that have ever been recorded:

I say to you today, my friends, even though we face the diffichttp://www.cliffsatell.com/wp-admin/post-new.phpulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.  It is a dream deeply rooted in the American Dream.  I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.

.

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The post Worth Rewatching: Martin Luther King Had a Dream appeared first on Cliff Satell.

The case started when Justin made some comments online during a gaming-related argument:

Carter was first arrested in February after he got in an argument with fellow gamers on Facebook and posted a comment saying, “I’m f—ed in the head alright. I think I’ma shoot up a kindergarten and watch the blood of the innocent rain down and eat the beating heart of one of them.” Although Carter’s parents and attorney insist that the comment was a sarcastic response to another Facebook user, a Texan grand jury has indicted the teenager on charges related to terrorism.

Here’s how Justin’s father described what happened:

“Someone had said something to the effect of ‘Oh you’re insane. You’re crazy. You’re messed up in the head,'” Jack Carter told CNN affiliate KVUE in Austin.  “To which he replied ‘Oh yeah, I’m real messed up in the head. I’m going to go shoot up a school full of kids and eat their still-beating hearts.’  Jack Carter said his son followed the claim with “LOL” and “J/K” — indicating that the comment wasn’t serious.”

Apparently a “Good Samaritan” in Canada who participated in the exchange took him seriously enough to Google the area where Justin lived and saw he was next to a school.  She then contacted local police who arrested Justin back in March.  Instead of taking 10 minutes to examine the situation honestly, the prosecutors decided to indict Justin on charges of making terroristic threats.

Never mind that a search of his home revealed Justin had no weapons.  Never mind the fact that at no point was Justin’s “threat” in any way carried out or attempted.  Never mind the fact that he wrote “jk” and other phrases in the same conversation where he emphasized he was joking.

After the search warrant turned up nada, a judge still set bail for Justin at $500,000 – an astronomical number far higher than many suspects get when charged with gun charges or violent crimes.  But for a student arrested on charges even a child can quickly see are baseless, bail is half a million dollars.  He hadn’t been convicted of anything.  Yet for the privilege of walking out the door, Justin was told he needed to past half a million dollars in bail.

Now the case is just getting underway and the prosecutors are not backing down.  At a recent press conference, the prosecutors stated Justin could get as many as 10 years in prison – if he does not cave to the tremendous pressure and plead guilty to some minor charge.  Understandably, Justin is suffering a great deal as a result of being jailed – CNN reports he is on suicide watch.  And his mother has written that, “[w]hile stuck in jail, Justin has been assaulted a number of times. He has been locked in solitary confinement for weeks.”

“He’s very depressed. He’s very scared and he’s very concerned that he’s not going to get out,” Jack Carter, Justin’s father, told CNN on Tuesday. “He’s pretty much lost all hope.”

Next Steps for Student Arrested for Joke

While Justin now has a lawyer defending him for free, a Change.org petition titled “Release Justin Carter and Change the Investigative Criteria for Terroristic Threat Laws” had received nearly 35,000 digital signatures as of Tuesday afternoon.  Fortunately, an anonymous donor stepped in to post Justin’s bail so he can escape prison purgatory.

Justin’s father says he understands the need for authorities to remain vigilant about threats of school violence.  Especially after Sandy Hook – the massacre took place just weeks before Justin’s alleged threat.  “I definitely see the need to investigate such claims. Absolutely,” he said. “But at some point during the investigation there has to be some common sense.”

Yes – common sense.  What happened to common sense?  As soon as the prosecutors conducted their investigation and realized Justin’s threat was at worst an incredible stupid thing to write – but by no means was any person in any jeopardy whatsoever – the case should have been dropped.  Justin never should have been charged.  Prosecutors are supposed to use common sense in evaluating which cases to pursue.  They are supposed to be on the front lines so they can review all the facts and apply the law in a fair and reasoned manner.

Perhaps more important, the Supreme Court has clearly protected speech of this sort.  Speech is always protected unless a person is directly inciting an act of violence – or should have known that a listener would be roused to violence.  Even “fighting words” are protected when the context is a joke or not serious.  Words in and of themselves are never a threat and should never be punished.  It is when those threats are accompanied with genuine intent to harm someone that police must step in consider charges or making an arrest.

But in this tragedy, the only victim is the student arrested: Justin Carter.  Not only is he victimized physically in jail, but since being arrested and charged he’s had to quit college and fight this life-shattering battle to clear his name.  We have a system that is supposed to protect against these kinds of injustices.  There are supposed to be checks and balances that prevent trumped-up charges from getting off the ground.  We have a Constitution that is supposed to protect us from the abuses of corrupt and/or incompetent government officials.

But just ask any student arrested unfairly (Duke Lacrosse Case anyone) and you’ll realize quickly that prosecutors too often are out to make a name for themselves, not protect the public.

Let’s hope that the judge has the common sense to do the right thing.  And if not, we must keep faith in the jury system to confront the facts of this case with the common sense neutrality all cases deserve.

+Cliff Satell

The post Student Arrest, Jailed for Facebook Joke appeared first on Cliff Satell.

Smerconish may have his thinking cap on, but he is wearing it backwards apparently.

Boy has Michael Smerconish fallen off the wagon as he comes to Obama’s defense. He used to be a highly respected centrist voice in Philly radio, and now he is a willing sycophant pushing this nonsense spin onto the world. Smerconish endorsed Obama out of nowhere 4 years ago, and he is so desperate to justify that very poor decision that he can’t see past his own keyboard.

The “context” of Obama’s remarks – as well as the remarks by Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren upon which his were based – show how truly out of touch this President is. It’s a pathetic “straw-man” argument… WHO, exactly, is arguing that America doesn’t create an environment beneficial to all? Who is arguing that successful people do it 100% on their own? Romney sure isn’t. The GOP sure isn’t. Just Obama, Warren and Smerconish’s made up enemies.

We need a President who believes in the ingenuity and industriousness of the American entrepreneur… someone who nurtures the competitive spirit; someone who challenges us all to take risks and thing big; someone who subscribes to the notion that individuals matter and that successful people are what powers everything that Obama cited (who do you think pays the tax bill to fund research programs like DARPA?)

This line particularly irked me because it is a total non-sequitur designed to de-legitimize any dissent. Ironically, it is Smerconish who is avoiding a “substantive conversation” by refusing to analyze and understand President Obama’s world view:

The trouble with the president’s remarks? They extended beyond the 20-second attention span of this campaign. And when the edited version made the rounds, a legitimate, substantive conversation about social contracts was instead reduced to silly charges of socialism.

Shame on you, Mr. Smerconish.

The post Michael Smerconish Makes Stupid Point appeared first on Cliff Satell.

Since I can remember, David Akers has been the Eagle’s kicker.  Except for that one time he got hurt and they had position players kicking for a couple of games.  Going to games, I used to watch him warm-up two hours before the kick off.  He’d start relatively close, easily knocking down 30 yard tries.  Then he’d move back to 38 yards, then 45, then 50, then 55, then 58, then 60+.  And he would always nail it.  For a small guy, he has one hell of a leg.  For years he was as sure as anything the Eagle’s have had.

And he is a good guy.  He never moaned, threw teammates under the bus, criticized his coaching staff or ripped the fans.  He was one of the easier guys in the NFL to like, mostly because he did his job better than anyone else and did it for a long time.  Obviously, he’d on the decline, though, and just like when McNabb, Iverson, Recchi and Brian Dawkins left, it was definitely the right time to move on, however sad it makes fans.  He is the last remaining vestige from the 2004 Superbowl team, too, which puts the nail in the coffin of the most successful era in Philadelphia Eagles history.  And any honest assessment has David Akers securely in the top echelon of the best Eagles players of the 2000’s.

The Eagles did try to keep him, by placing the “transition” tag on him.  But since he apparently lost a ton of money in a bad investment scheme, Akers declined the tender.  And when the Eagles drafted a kicker in the 4th round of this year’s NFL draft, it was all but inevitable that Akers would have to find work in another city, despite his professed desire to want to retire as an Eagle.  But it is a business, after all.  And he chose to head out West to join the, um, powerhouse 49ers where he’ll kick at Candlestick Park.  [Note: … guess the joke’s on me, the 49ers went to the Superbowl last year and lost to the Baltimore Ravens.

As Joe Tansy writes:

Eagles fans should remember how Akers won the 4th-and-26 game in 2003 against the Packers or how his magnificent onside kick opened the 2000 season against the Cowboys to make the beginning of a new era in Eagles’ history.

Eagles fans should also remember the consistency that Akers, whose field goal accuracy is a career 81.9 percent and has only missed six extra points in his 12 seasons in Philadelphia.

As a Eagles fan, it will be very different not seeing the veteran from Louisville in the No. 2 Eagles jersey, but it is a change that was coming and as the last member of the 2004 Super Bowl is almost certain to leave Philadelphia this off-season, the time for change is now, and I, on behalf of all Eagles fan, would like to thank David Akers for everything over the 12 years he spent in Philadelphia as a model of consistency and veteran leadership to the Philadelphia Eagles franchise.

Well said Joe.  Thanks David Akers for doing all that you did in your 12 years playing football here.

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