Ralph Nader is our guest and says that as the situtation in Iraq deteriorates it’s time to take a serious look at Bush and Cheney’s culpability in all this. Down With Tyranny’s Howie Klein on why President Obama wants to fund the so called, sigh, “moderates” in Syria. Also Will Ryan and The Cactus County Cowboys.
The GOP is already insane, but imagine how crazy it gets in the Oklahoma GOP. Tim Murray used to be a Democrat, now he’s a Republican. Murray ran in Tuesday’s primary for Congressman Frank Lucas’ seat, but Lucas defeated him. So now Murray is insisting the election doesn’t count because the real Congressman Lucas was hanged by the World Court four years ago and the man who currently occupies Lucas’ congressional seat is a body double. It’s actually a lot crazier than it sounds.
Darren Rainey was serving two years for drug possession.
Given how inmates are abused in America, perhaps lethal injection isn’t so much cruel and unusual as it is a welcome relief from our prison system.
There’s a terrifying story in today’s Miami Herald detailing treatment of Florida’s psychiatric ward inmates. Yes, hard to believe but Florida does have psychiatrists.
Americans are often comforted by our leaders who insist this country does not torture. But the ACLU, Amnesty International and the American Council of Churches think otherwise, and are now demanding that Obama’s Justice Department investigate the death, let’s call it murder, of a 50-year-old mentally ill prisoner named Darren Rainey.
Witnesses inside Florida’s Dade Correctional Institution’s psychiatric ward told the Miami Herald that Rainey, serving a two year sentence for drug possession, probably self medication, was handcuffed for defecating in his cell, dragged to a stall where the shower was turned on and left screaming for several hours underneath a scalding spray of 180-degree water.
The next day, Rainey was found with “chunks” of his skin peeled off. After he was taken to the infirmary, nurses reported that his temperature was so high a thermometer could not measure it. He later died.
The article profiles Mark Joiner, an inmate who witnessed Rainey’s murder:
Another inmate, identified by Joiner as Josh Allen, had told him shortly before Rainey’s death that he, too, had been placed in the shower. “He told me he could hardly breathe,” Joiner said. The inmate then proceeded to describe how the guards laughed and joked, saying “Is it hot enough for you?”
Rainey is now dead. He was a mentally ill black man serving a two-year sentence for narcotics possession. Today’s story is a tough read with descriptions of floors soaked in urine, littered with human excrement, and prisoners forced to chow down food fortified with insect protein.
This is the stuff of Third World nations, not the imperial powerhouse Americans fancy themselves to be as we expend billions overseas promoting our special brand of democracy. If this is what America’s vision of “freedom” is we should keep it for ourselves and stop trying to share it with the rest of the world.
This is either very sweet, or very sad. Benjamin Neufeld showed up on the scene after his 85-year-old wife, Elizabeth Neufeld, flipped their blue Honda. She was still in the driver’s seat. But since she wasn’t hurt the Bel Air, California couple posed for a picture.
One in ten adults die from alcohol, so why is pot still not legal?
The argument for legalizing marijuana just got a whole lot stronger. According to a new report issued today by the Centers for Disease Control, one in ten working Americans will die from excessive drinking this year. The CDC goes on to call alcohol abuse the fourth leading cause of preventable death. The cost to taxpayers comes out to roughly $223.5 billion a year or “about $1.90 per drink.” New Mexico is the deadliest state for drinkers, New Jersey the least. Read more of the report here.
A clip from the Ralph Nader Radio Hour now available for free as a podcast on iTunes.