politics: September 2007 Archives
Justices to decide if lethal injection is 'cruel and unusual' - CNN.com
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to delve into a divisive controversy over capital punishment -- whether lethal injection causes excruciating pain and violates the Constitution's ban on "cruel and unusual punishment."
The justices have never directly addressed the fundamental question over the use of the chemical "cocktail" of drugs used to execute convicted killers.
All 37 states that perform lethal injections use the three-drug mixture at issue in the case.
Kentucky inmates Ralph Baze and Clyde Bowling Jr. brought suit in federal court three years ago, questioning the state's chemical mixture and the procedures used to administer it.
They claim the first drug -- sodium thiopental -- which renders the prisoner unconscious, wears off too quickly, and some prisoners are actually awake and able to feel pain as the execution continues.
The second drug -- pancuronium bromide -- paralyzes all muscle movement and prevents the condemned person from speaking out and expressing awareness of the pain, according to the men's lawyers.
The third drug -- potassium chloride -- then induces cardiac arrest and is "excruciatingly painful in a conscious person."
CNN.com - CNN Political Ticker Bill Clinton slams "smearing" Republicans
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Former President Bill Clinton blasted Republicans Wednesday for their recent uproar over a MoveOn.org newspaper ad questioning Gen. David Petraeus' credibility, telling CNN's Anderson Cooper their "feigned outrage" was completely "disingenuous."
Collecting of Details on Travelers Documented - washingtonpost.com
The U.S. government is collecting electronic records on the travel habits of millions of Americans who fly, drive or take cruises abroad, retaining data on the persons with whom they travel or plan to stay, the personal items they carry during their journeys, and even the books that travelers have carried, according to documents obtained by a group of civil liberties advocates and statements by government officials.The personal travel records are meant to be stored for as long as 15 years, as part of the Department of Homeland Security's effort to assess the security threat posed by all travelers entering the country. Officials say the records, which are analyzed by the department's Automated Targeting System, help border officials distinguish potential terrorists from innocent people entering the country.But new details about the information being retained suggest that the government is monitoring the personal habits of travelers more closely than it has previously acknowledged. The details were learned when a group of activists requested copies of official records on their own travel. Those records included a description of a book on marijuana that one of them carried and small flashlights bearing the symbol of a marijuana leaf.
AlterNet: Rights and Liberties: Jena Ignites a Movement
On the ground at the Jena protest on Sept. 20, one got the sense that Jena could be the beginning of a larger movement for racial justice.
THE DREAM, DOWNSCALED - Yahoo! News
PORTLAND--White policemen patrol black neighborhoods, less as guardians of public safety than troops subduing occupied territory. They hassle young black men, subjecting them to "random" searches. Sometimes--too often--they shoot them. All-white juries acquit them, validating tall tales of squirt guns and wallets and shadows that look like guns.
Our prisons look like America--the part of America that's downtown and predominantly African-American. Being born black means you'll probably attend substandard, poorly funded schools, that you'll earn less than if you'd been born another race. You'll get sick more often and die sooner. Why aren't these life-shattering, soul-crushing injustices, rather than the overzealous prosecution of the schoolyard thugs known as the "Jena 6," attracting thousands of marchers?
Life sentence - The Boston Globe
Life sentence
It's a government program whose impact rivals the New Deal. It pushes whole communities out of society's mainstream. It costs tens of billions of dollars a year. Scholars are just beginning to understand how prison is reshaping the country.
