Tuesday Reads: Wisconsin Recall, Willard on the Defensive, SCOTUS, Another School Shooting, and Trayvon Martin Updates
Posted: April 3, 2012 Filed under: Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Crime, Labor unions, Mitt Romney, morning reads, religion, Republican presidential politics, SCOTUS, U.S. Politics | Tags: Benjamin Crump, Bob Dylan, FBI, George Zimmerman, interracial marrage, Medgar Evers, Mormon church, Norman Wolfinger, Oakland CA, Oikos University, Sanford FL, School Shooting, Scott Walker, strip searches, Trayvon Martin, Wisconsin primary 38 Comments
Tea and Scones, by Kristine Diehl
Good Morning!!
Today is the Wisconsin primary, but there isn’t much suspense. It looks like Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee, even though no one really likes him. I guess Romney wants the job so bad, he doesn’t care that that he’s basically a laughing stock. [UPDATE: Maryland and the District of Columbia also hold their primaries today.]
Yesterday, Romney was asked some uncomfortable questions at a Town Hall meeting in Howard, Wisconsin. One man, a Ron Paul supporter, asked Romney whether he agreed with Mormon Church scriptures that say interracial marriage is sinful. Romney became visibly upset.
The questioner, Bret Hatch, 28, a local supporter of Rep. Ron Paul’s, read from typed notes as he asked Romney whether he agreed with a verse from Moses 7:8 from the “Pearl of Great Price.” As he began citing the verse, Romney interrupted: “I’m sorry, we’re just not going to have a discussion about religion in my view. But if you have a question, I’ll be happy to answer your question.”
Hatch asked his question. “If you become president,” he asked, “do you believe it’s a sin for a white man to marry and procreate with a black?”
“No,” Romney said. “Next question.”
Then another person asked Romney “about his ability to connect to average Americans.” Romney then cited his experience as a church leader in the Boston area.
“That gave me the occasion to work with people on a very personal basis that were dealing with unemployment, with marital difficulties, with health difficulties of their own and with their kids,”
He then claimed that he is running for President because he wants to help people like that.
The big excitement in Wisconsin isn’t about the primary, but about the recall of Governor Scott Walker.
For Wisconsinites, the most important political news of the season came Friday, when the state’s Government Accountability Board announced that the effort to recall Republican Governor Scott Walker had amassed enough valid signatures to force an election June 5. It will be the first such election in state history, and if Wisconsin votes out Walker, he will be only the third sitting governor in U.S. history to be recalled, joining North Dakota’s Lynn Frazier in 1921 and California’s Gray Davis in 2003.
The precipitating event was Walker’s quick move, upon taking office, to reward the 1 percent with a tax cut while asking the 99 percent to sacrifice. He didn’t campaign on his antipathy for public unions. Yet within his first few weeks as governor, Walker declared war on public-sector workers (except for police and firefighters, many of whom supported his candidacy), cutting benefits, limiting pay increases and sharply curtailing collective bargaining rights, even after the unions agreed to many of his demands.
Minx wrote about the horrible SCOTUS decision that came out yesterday, but I wanted to give you a little background on the case they heard. This decision is shocking, IMO.
Albert Florence, his wife and little boy were on their way to his parents’ home in 2005, when they were pulled over by a state trooper. Mrs. Florence was at the wheel, but the trooper’s roadside state records check showed a seven-year-old outstanding arrest warrant for Albert Florence for failing to pay a fine. Florence said he had paid the fine, and pulled out a receipt, which he kept in the car. But the trooper said there was nothing he could do. Florence was handcuffed and taken to the local county jail.
The state would later admit it had failed to properly purge the arrest warrant, but at the time of the arrest, the error turned into a “nightmare,” Florence said. He was held in jail for seven days and strip-searched twice.
Florence said the experience “petrified” and “humiliated” him. Upon entering the jail, he was ordered to take a delousing shower, then inspected by a guard who was about “an arm’s distance” away and instructed Florence to squat, cough and lift up his genitals.
If that isn’t an unreasonable search, I don’t know what would be. But five “conservative” justices think it’s just fine for law enforcement officials to strip search people even for minor offenses. This will surely have the effect of frightening people away from being involved in peaceful political protests.
Occupy and political protesters beware. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday held that local police can strip-search anyone who is arrested for minor offenses if they are to be held within the jail’s general population before being released.
The 5-4 decision, with the Court’s conservative majority overruling its four moderates, is a further erosion of the Fourth Amendment’s protection from unlawful search and seizure. It overturns laws in 10 states that place limits on suspicionless strip-searches and upholds a technique used by some local police forces against Occupy protesters last fall, prompting protesters to sue.
Among the jurisdictions seeking expanded authority to strip-search anyone arrested were the City of Chicago, where the NATO summit will be held this May and where protests have been planned, as well as the state of North Carolina, where the Democratic National Convention will be held in early September in Charlotte.
There was a school shooting at a Christian college in Oakland, California yesterday. Seven people were killed and three injured.
Police captured the suspected gunman inside an Alameda grocery store five miles away from the shooting site at Oikos University after he allegedly walked to the customer service counter and told employees, “I just shot some people.”
A law-enforcement source close to the investigation confirmed to The Chronicle that the suspect is 43-year-old One Goh of Oakland.
The suspect used a .45-caliber handgun, spraying a classroom with gunfire and firing additional shots as he ran out, said the source, who did not wish to be identified because the investigation is ongoing.
Goh had been a nursing student at Oikos University, located at 7850 Edgewater Road in East Oakland, and there was some kind of dispute that may have resulted in him getting kicked out of at least one class, the source said.
I have a number of Trayvon Martin links. I won’t quote extensively from them, but I’m still very interested in the case and want to pass on things that I’ve learned.
Some new recordings have come out that show that either George Zimmerman or police decided he didn’t need to go to the hospital after the shooting. If Zimmerman had actually had his head pounded on concrete multiple times, he would have had to be evaluated for a serious head injury, because sometimes you can have internal injuries or hemorrhaging that doesn’t show on the outside.
Trayvon Martin’s parents have formally requested that the Feds investigate whether Norman Wolfinger, the states attorney actually interfered with a police detective who wanted to arrest Zimmerman on the night of the shooting. But Wolfinger is denying that it ever happened. He didn’t deny it in a very nice way either.
Benjamin Crump, a lawyer for the Martin family, asked the Justice Department in a letter on Monday to investigate those reports. Though the letter reported the events without attribution, Crump told Reuters his information came from the media reports and he did not have independent verification….
“I am outraged by the outright lies contained in the letter by Benjamin Crump,” Wolfinger said. “I encourage the Justice Department to investigate and document that no such meeting or communication occurred.” [….]
Lynne Bumpus-Hooper, a spokesman for Wolfinger, said the state attorney never spoke with Lee on the night of the shooting. Instead Sanford police consulted that night with Kelly Jo Hines, the prosecutor on call, Bumpus-Hooper said. She declined to say what was discussed.
“Police officers can make an arrest at virtually any dadgum point they feel they have enough probable cause to make an arrest,” Bumpus-Hooper said. “They do not need our permission and they do not seek our permission.”
So who made that decision? The plot thickens.
Today FBI agents appeared in Sanford and began examining the area in which the shooting occurred, and reviewing evidence in a “parallel investigation” with the one being carried out by special prosecutor
The New York Times had an excellent review of Zimmerman’s evolving story about what happened on the night of February 26. If you’re at all interested in this case, be sure to read it. It’s very helpful.
Richard E.J. Escrow had an interesting think piece on the Trayvon Martin case. His conclusion comes from Bob Dylan’s song about the murder of Medgar Evers: Zimmerman is “only a pawn in their game.”
The deputy sheriffs, the soldiers, the governors get paid
And the marshals and cops get the same
But the poor white man’s used in the hands of them all like a tool
He’s taught in his school …
That the laws are with him, to protect his white skin
To keep up his hate, so he never thinks straight
‘Bout the shape that he’s in, but it ain’t him to blame
He’s only a pawn in their game.
Escrow writes:
Whose game? As it turns out, the ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws used to protect shooters like Zimmerman were written and promoted by ALEC – the American Legislative Exchange Council. As the Center for Media and Democracy notes, the corporate-funded right wing group behind Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s attack on worker rights is the same group that has promoted ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws all around the country.
You could put a thousand people on Neighborhood Watch and they’d never see the real threats to Zimmerman’s community. Those threats can’t be seen with the eye. The real threats are things like joblessness, financial insecurity, hunger, lack of medical care. They’re threats you can’t protect yourself from with a gun.
Shooters like George Zimmerman are the product of an economic system that benefits from misdirected fear and anger – emotions that are too often channeled into violence instead of peaceful change.
Here’s Dylan performing his song at a voter registration rally in Greenwood, Mississippi in 1963.
Have a great day everyone! Now what’s on your reading list today?
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Thanks for writing about the case regarding strip searches BB, I tell you…when you see all the injustice with Wall St., big banks, cops with pepper spray in hand and hot-headed neighborhood watch people…the decisions from our high court make me question where our justice system is heading.
About Romney, Jon Stewart had a great segment last night: Jon Stewart Mocks GOP’s Weak Reasons To Support Romney: ‘We Have Voted Enough’ | Mediaite
This story from NPR about Marion Hammer, a former NRA president, was interesting. Apparently she was the person behind the passage of Florida’s Stand Your Ground law.http://www.npr.org/2012/03/29/149591067/the-lobbyist-behind-floridas-stand-your-ground-law
This segment from The Daily Show was just so disturbing: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-april-2-2012/tucson-s-mexican-american-studies-ban Please listen to the school board member’s responses to Madrigal’s questions. I’m so glad I don’t have children or grandchildren. The state of America’s educational system is appalling.
And in case anyone missed this last night when I posted it, listen to or read the story about precious metal mining in the ocean: http://www.npr.org/2012/04/02/149838302/seafloor-becomes-next-frontier-for-gold-diggers According to the mining company, it’s all okay because there are no people who will be adversely affected by the mining operation. Of course, there are sea creatures adapted to this specific, special habitat.
Transcript for this will be up later: http://www.npr.org/2012/04/03/149898848/zoos-as-a-choice-to-polar-bears-melting-environment It’s too short for me & captive breeding in zoos is a red herring – very few species have been bred in zoos & then returned to their natural habitat, mostly because their habitats have disappeared.
Ecocatwoman is Connie from Orlando’s new WordPress handle. I let your comment through, Connie. Every “new” commenter gets their “first comment” moderated.
Oops. I thought the cyberuniverse ate it! Might as well delete the duplicate comment bleow then.
Oh, I didn’t notice it was a duplicate. I’ll delete it.
Thanks for the FYI on Michael Hicks who admits he and the GOP in Arizona are targeting Mexican Americans to delete them from history and then informs us of Rosa Clark (bangs head on desk) and how African Americans were like 1/4 of a person (head desk again).
The part about it being wrong to eat burritos is beyond strange and shows he is filled with hate and lack of a good education.
And another disgruntled idiot went on a shooting rampage in CA leaving 7 people dead while the NRA holds sway over the convenience of just anybody obtaining guns to create mayhem when someone is having a “bad day”.
It has gotten so ridiculous that even gang bangers can claim “self defense” during a shoot out over drug turf in proving who got shot first in a territorial dispute.
The fact that none of these shooters have a permit, or that what they were involved in was criminal in the first place, but who had the right to “stand their ground” if the dead person is proven to have shot first.
Stupid people making stupid laws that put the rest of us at risk and diving for safety.
I just saw a link on Memeorandum that they are allowing people who have concealed weapon permits down in Tampa for the GOP convention.
Oops! Tampa Officials Can’t Restrict Concealed Weapons Inside RNC Protest Zone | Crooks and Liars
Wonder where they will conceal their gun when they are strip searched……or is that only done to non-Republicans?
So many jokes and they are all inappropriate.
Apparently, however, you will NOT be able to bring an unconcealed squirt gun to that Convention. Safety first.
(And, just for RalphB, no, that is not a joke. I wish it was.)
Between Willard’s very comfortably lying about everything under the sun and Santorum saying that American History isn’t taught in California universities, I feel comfortable saying the Republican voters are living in their own alternate universe. Now if we could only keep them from crossing over into our own to screw things up.
Romney: Obama Hopes To Establish ‘Secularism’ As An Official Religion
Pres. Obama just delivered a great speech in front of the AP Press luncheon that basically ripped apart the Ryan Plan plank by plank.
Now if he can only keep this up for the next 6 months we Dems may have something to vote for. If only and I say this as someone who has been let down too often by him.
Romney may be a “loser” in some quarters but people have an ability to “forget” what he actually stands for and Obama must, must, must keep repeating what he said today as often as he can.
His speech today “drew a definite line in the sand” between the two parties and what will result if the GOP manages to pull out a win considering what is at stake.
I saw it and it was a barnburner. Everything in it needed to be said and bears repeating over and over for as long as it takes to get it into people’s heads. He certainly drew a “line in the sand”. I particularly liked the use of “social darwinism” in describing the Ryan/Romney budget. (They are in it together now).
Even the questions after the fact didn’t dilute any of the speech. Very good.
Ralph, did you ever think we would see the day when either one of us offered any support, tepid or otherwise, to Obama?
I must be getting softer in the head in my old age but setting him alongside the GOP and their radical engineering leaves me no other choice at this stage of the game.
Pat, honestly no I didn’t but I don’t see how I can fail to do it when everything I care about is under siege by the GOP. They have got to go down in 2012!
Oh, oh, tornado warnings outside of Johnson County, Texas.
Yes, apparently there are two, with the larger one touching down and live coverage via the networks. Praying for the people in Texas.
The live coverage on MSNBC is really good. It hit in Hutchins, southeast of Dallas, but there are more tornadoes around. I just talked to my son and he said it looked like they would largely go over the east side of Dallas later. The whole area is under tornado watch or warnings until 8:00 pm now.
Now there is a funnel cloud on the way toward DFW Airport and they’ve given orders to evacuate to shelter areas in the airport.
It sounds pretty bad. I’ve been listening to the radio.
Radar looks like the storms are gonna go right across the DFW area on the way to Oklahoma. Reports of some baseball size hail and not soft but hard hail. It’s definitely really nasty weather.
Oh great, there’s a new line of storms to the west coming in and a tornado watch for downtown Dallas now.
Frankly, I think having Dallas wiped off the face of earth would be a good thing. It would certainly up our culture and political climate in this country.
of course I just mean the buildings and not the people … especially the big barn churches
Here is an idea…we pool our money together and buy a town..like this: Buford, Wyoming Is Being Sold By The Owner | digtriad.com
Then we all set up a sky dancing commune…Opening bid is 100,000…damn, that mega millions would have come in handy.
Great idea.
Opening bid is 100,000 not to bad for a whole town. 🙂
Who knew that mandating insurance coverage would force women to use them when they didn’t want to do so? Which right wing pod did that come from?
Nikki Haley(R- Appalachian Trail): ‘Women don’t care about contraception’
forgot the url. must be storm damage.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/03/nikki-haley-women-dont-care-about-contraception/
You okay Ralph, I saw video of the train cars being thrown around…
Yes, I’m in Austin a couple of hundred or so miles away. My son and his family live in the Dallas suburb of Prosper and they are also fine as of now.
That is a relief…
“Women don’t care about contraception”
Poor Nikki, What she meant to say is “Women don’t care about Nikki Haley.”
Too cute to describe …
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/03/tiny-kitten-cheats-death-thrives-adorably/
Kitteh – kitteh – kitteh. The cure for whatever ails.
Awwwww…. what a cutie-pie!