Author: Trish

When did we as a society and individuals become a lynch mob? A very sad case in Florida shows what happens when hysteria over recent child killings by sex offenders takes on a life of its own.

Southwest Florida Herald-Tribune:

A convicted sex offender apparently committed suicide in despair over signs posted in his neighborhood calling him a “child rapist.”

Clovis Ivan Claxton was found dead by his father Thursday with one of the signs beside his body, less than a day after his release from a psychiatric hospital.

Like 75-year DUI records and throw-away-the-key sentences for non-violent drug violations, laws to brand sex offenders forever seem terrific on paper. Supporting them is also a winner on a politician’s campaign resume. But in real life…

Bright yellow, laminated signs displaying Claxton’s picture, date of birth, address and the words “child rapist” appeared earlier this week on utility poles in his neighborhood after a county commissioner proposed posting such information in the community. The sheriff rejected the idea…

After seeing the signs, Claxton, 38, told the sheriff’s office that he felt “extremely scared and feels that people in the neighborhood are now out to possibly hurt him.”

When he threatened suicide, he was involuntarily committed to the mental health hospital Tuesday and released the next day.

Well, good riddance, right? That’s what he gets for doing whatever he did. Ah, if only life were so simple.

Claxton was convicted in Washington state in 1991 of molesting a 9-year-old girl. He was 20 at the time, but his mother said he was developmentally much younger due to a brain injury.

Sounds like Clovis wasn’t much of a threat, especially after 18 years without a single incident of recidivism.

Jane Claxton blames County Commissioner Randy Harris, who proposed the flyers, for her son’s death…

She said her son required constant care and recently relied on leg braces and a wheelchair.

“He hasn’t been in trouble for 18 years, and he’s branded for life,” she said.

So does the county commissioner with the bright idea have any remorse? Nah.

Harris said sex offenders need to take responsibility for their actions.

“I don’t blame his death to the signs,” he said…

Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s Truth and Reconciliation movement says that even the worst sinner can be redeemed, after owning past mistakes. Focusing on restorative, not retributive justice, changes lives. Clovis Claxton was doing everything right but he was still considered by an ignorant community deserving of threats and harassment.

Today, Florida’s Senate unanimously passed the Jessica Lunsford Act. It provides a minimum mandatory prison sentence of 25 years to life for people who molest children under 12. Any offender released from prison must wear an electronic monitor for life. And since life is so simple, so black and white, who could be against that?

One of the things that probably kept Florida’s new senator, Mel Martinez, too busy to notice his staff writing memos was his vote to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He claimed he sold out Alaska in order to save Florida, but the state’s other senator, Bill Nelson, scoffed and said all Mel did was take credit for protection that was set to expire anyway.

Nelson continues trying to get real preservation.

Southwest Florida News-Press:

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Melbourne, sent a tersely worded letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton on Thursday…

In the letter, Nelson complained that Norton failed to respond to a previous request from him and that her staff had been dismissive of his inquiries.

“I’m surprised you haven’t responded directly, and that your staff seems to feel it would be a waste of our time to discuss the issue before you make your decision,” Nelson wrote.

Nelson wants Norton to say that a large chunk of the eastern Gulf of Mexico, south of Pensacola and west of Tampa, will be included in the moratorium on new drilling off the Florida coast that expires in 2012.

But wait a minute, didn’t Mel already bag that?

Triggering Nelson’s concern are recent media accounts that reported the Interior Department plans to include the area in the comprehensive five-year oil and gas leasing program that covers 2007 to 2012.

“They are starting to develop the leasing plan now,” said Mark Ferrulo, director of Florida PIRG (Public Interest Research Group), which for years led opposition to drilling off Florida’s coast.

The issue is being raised as Congress attempts to craft an energy bill which includes nothing about conservation but plenty of tax breaks for the energy industry. South Florida Sun-Sentinel:

The House voted to dispense billions of dollars of tax breaks for energy producers, rejected new standards for fuel efficiency and approved relatively few incentives to develop alternative energy sources. One of the most controversial provisions would shelter from liability the makers of a gasoline additive that is polluting water supplies…

The bill would provide $8.1 billion of tax breaks over 10 years, mostly for oil, natural gas, coal and nuclear industries. It also calls for $2 billion to fund research into oil and gas recovery in deep waters in the Gulf of Mexico.

More signs of life from Florida Democratics, whose House members continue to challenge Republican-sponsored attempts to shut voters out of the state constitution. From their press release today:

Driven by their purported desire to “rescue the voters” by restricting a citizen’s right to participate in their government, the Republican-led Florida House of Representatives rejected a proposal by three House Democrats that would have allowed everyday voters to amend state law.

“The legislature is trying to close the door in voters’ faces by making it harder to amend the constitution,” Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Dania Beach) said…

The Republican drive to restrict a voter’s ability to change their own government stems from their belief that “the people of Florida need us [the legislature] to rescue them.” These words, uttered by State Representative Dennis Baxley (R-Ocala) at a Judiciary Committee meeting in January, illustrate a belief by some Republicans that the legislature is better informed than everyday people to make decisions about the state’s future.

“We are building a moat around the Capitol and drawing up the bridges,” said Rep. Dan Gelber (D-Miami Beach). “It’s like some are saying that democracy would be a whole lot easier without the voice of the people.”

It must be hard to make the Army sound appealing these days. At least, that’s what some top ad agencies so rudely found out today.

AdAge.com:

In a blow to six agencies that have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to pitch the U.S. Army for its advertising account, the government today canceled the long-running review…

The government had originally intended to announce a review winner last December, but decided to delay the award for six months. Executives familiar with the matter said the Army today told agenices that “at this time, Government anticipates re-soliciting for the ‘U.S. Army Recruiting and Advertising’ program,” in a fax distributed to the contenders…

Calls to the Army were not returned at press time.

A review, as you probably gather, is when a client invites several agencies, usually including the one they’ve already got, to take a fresh shot at things. Yours truly, and most freelancers, avoid such shenanigans, in which agencies give up their best ideas on spec.

Anyway, it’s interesting that some of the biggest names in the biz (the article goes on to list them) couldn’t come up with anything the Army thought would help them. Maybe it goes back to the old truism that even a great ad can’t sell a bad product.

My hero (yes, I have met him), Archbishop Desmond Tutu is among the many who are just not that into the new pope, according to
Reuters..

Tutu, a Nobel Peace laureate and Africa’s best-known cleric, criticized both Joseph Ratzinger’s conservative views on social issues and doctrinaire defense of the Catholic faith…

“There is a multiplicity of faiths and you’ve got to be open to the realization too that Christianity doesn’t have a corner on the God market,” he said…

“God is not a Christian and we sometimes make out that God is the preserve of one particular faith,” he said.

“We need church leaders who are open to interfaith dialogue, who are aware that the truth is not encapsulated only in the Christian faith.”

Ratzinger has in the past dismissed other churches as “deficient.”

The archbishop, and all of us fed up with extremism, was hoping for someone who would take the church in a different direction.

Tutu told Reuters last week an African or Latin American Pope would reflect the growth of Catholicism in the developing world.

He also said he hoped John Paul’s successor would lift the Church’s ban on condoms, viewed by many African governments and health experts as one of the best ways to halt the HIV/AIDS epidemic ravaging the continent.

Some 25 million sub-Saharan Africans live with HIV/AIDS.

Tutu said he hoped Pope Benedict would prioritize the needs of the poor and adapt his views.

“In his record as heading the congregation responsible for the (Catholic Church) doctrine, the new pope was clearly someone who held very strongly to a rigid line that most people would find to be a very conservative line.

“We hope that sitting on the papal throne will have the effect of easing these rigidities,” he added.

One of the main thrusts of this year’s legislative session in Florida was to be limiting the supposedly runaway propensity of residents to amend their state constitution.

Even though Florida has the kind of constitution that is intended to be amended (unlike the federal one), and no one had any complaints until some initiatives that Jeb was against passed, the “problem” has been painted to be so egregious as to demand immediate action.

Floridians still remember Jeb pledging to work up a “devious” plan to keep the class size amendment from ever being enacted. Today’s Miami Herald shows he is still determined to overturn the voters’ decision.

Voters in 2002 approved the class-size amendment, which mandates that class sizes be reduced between now and 2010. Although the amendment so far hasn’t been as costly as first predicted, Bush and Republican legislative leaders want voters to change it…

Powerful South Florida, where most state education dollars go now, isn’t too thrilled. Under Jeb’s new plan, they might be worse off than they are now.

Bush insisted that his push in recent days to stress the extra money for South Florida school districts does not mean his class-size proposal is in trouble.

It would take a three-fourths vote of both the House and Senate to put the governor’s class-size amendment before voters in a special election and a three-fifths vote to place the amendment on the ballot in the 2006 election. Democrats are unified in opposition so far to Bush’s plan, meaning a special election is unlikely.

Rep. Dan Gelber, a Miami Beach Democrat, also expressed skepticism about Bush’s funding proposal, saying he does not want to alter a constitutional amendment based on a promise for more money.

“None of this is covered by a constitutional amendment,” said Gelber. “It’s an unenforceable promise. This isn’t a game show where you say let’s take the mystery prize behind Door No. 1.”

Florida House Democrats put out a great statement on the issue today and plan a news conference in the morning to really shred Jeb.

The Legislature—Not the People—is Responsible for “Cluttering” the Constitution

…the ongoing debate has failed to stress one important fact—it is not the voters who are behind most constitutional amendments; it is in fact, the Legislature.

…the voters account for less than 20 percent of all constitutional amendments that have made it to the ballot since 1968. Clearly, if there is a problem, it is with the legislature, not the voters…

Despite the fact that the first line of the Constitution says that all power is vested in the people, the Republican majority apparently believes they are in a better position to decide what should be in the people’s constitution…

The citizen initiative process exists to provide voters an opportunity to have their voices heard after becoming weary from attempting to get the legislature to pay attention to their concerns. Without Florida’s initiative process, many important constitutional amendments would never have been adopted, including Florida’s smoking ban, pre-kindergarten initiative, homestead exemption, limitations on property taxes, and class size reduction. In each of these cases, citizens took their case directly to the people after the legislature ignored their pleas…

Outstanding analysis of Bush’s latest pick for undersecretary of state for public diplomacy (longtime drink-the-Koolaider Karen Hughes) in a recent Media Week, which I just got around to reading. Before he wowed us with the stunningly bad Bolton nomination, the MSM gave Bush a pass on Hughes, the article said.

‘He’s playing for his place in the history books,’ seemed to be the big theme on the Sunday morning talk shows.

If his place in the history books is “most self-delusional president,” then those pundits are clearly right, because the appointment of Hughes proves nothing more than the fact that Bush doesn’t understand diplomacy and never will. For Bush—and for Hughes, who played a major role in both of Bush’s presidential campaigns—diplomacy means staying “on message,” even when that message is being undercut by facts and common sense. That’s a good strategy within the U.S., because our media is so cowed by this administration—and so starved for access to the administration’s key players—that it seems unwilling to seriously challenge anything coming out of the White House, lest that access be withdrawn.

The rest of the world’s media are not so cowed… Somehow, I don’t think the threat that Condi and Rummy won’t come on and do interviews is going to stop Al Jazeera or Al Arabia from running the latest Abu Ghraib photos…

Before it uses advertising and public relations as part of a worldwide diplomacy effort, this administration needs to understand the basic rule of marketing: even the flashiest ads can’t sell a lousy product. In this case, that lousy product is our foreign policy.

True that!

The Memo is having at least a passing effect on the polls for Mel Martinez. It’s also exposing him as a chip off the old “Take no blame and retaliate hard if criticized” Bush block that put him in office. The St. Petersburg Times reported what it’s like to be Mel these days.

After a spate of public criticism and humiliation, Sen. Mel Martinez vowed to sit down and talk about his mistakes and possible changes in how his staff operates.

But on Friday, a day after a new poll showed he has lost favor with voters, Florida’s freshman senator said he won’t talk about it, he just wants to get this episode behind him.

“I don’t intend to dwell on it,” Martinez said… “We’re learning from it and we’re moving on.”

What happens if you’re one of his goons and you talk to the press has a familiar ring. Oh yeah, it’s pure W.

Several Florida supporters who got reassuring calls from Martinez’s staff said they were reluctant to talk about their conversations because they feared they would be shut out of the senator’s inner circle.

Also eerily familiar is Mel’s ability to flip-flop without irony, especially on accountability.

Earlier this week, Martinez and his staff indicated he would sit down and talk about the memo following reviews by his office and the Senate Rules Committee. “I’m waiting to do it right,” he said.

By week’s end, Martinez did not want to talk about it. His spokeswoman Kerry Feehery said there was nothing more to say.

No, there couldn’t possibly be any questions left, especially when you read the Times’ recap of Mel’s version of the events.

Martinez said last week that he had not known that a senior staffer wrote a controversial memo explaining how Republican members of Congress could exploit the Terri Schiavo case. Unbeknownst to him, he said, the memo ended up in the pocket of his suit jacket and he handed it to another senator without realizing what it was.

Makes perfect sense to me. No questions.

Senate Democrats are still trying to avert the nuclear option (blocking every last bit of Republican legislation). They are asking nicely that Bill Frist pull out of a telethon to fan the flames of ignorance and Christian fundamentalist righteous indignation.

According to Reuters, the telecast is

organized by Christian conservatives that portrays Democrats as “against people of faith” for blocking President Bush’s judicial nominees…

Frist aides said he had no plans to withdraw from the event, scheduled for April 24 and billed as “Justice Sunday.”

The telecast may come just days before a Senate showdown over Republican threats to change the chamber’s rules to ban procedural hurdles known as filibusters that Democrats have used to block 10 of Bush’s judicial nominees while helping confirm 205 others.

Wait. It gets worse.

Organized by Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group, the telecast is to being offered to churches and Christian radio and television networks nationwide, a spokesman for the group said.

A flier for it includes the message: “The filibuster was once abused to protect racial bias, and now it is being used against people of faith.”

Personally, I think Democrats like Ted Kennedy and Harry Reid, who are urging Frist not to do this bad thing, should instead continue the successful strategy used to fight the fake Social Security crisis: ignore it. If Republicans scream and sputter and no one takes the bait, they are left running back and forth, mouthing both sides of the “debate.” Works for me.