Archive for May, 2010
Arizona – Good place to be a lawyer
That new law in Arizona on immigration (SB 1070) is generating a lot of business for lawyers. If you’re a lawyer, better consider getting an apartment in Arizona! Obviously any citizen who is wrongly held in jail is going to sue the state or county. There are several suits by civil rights groups already named against the state. But there’s more. Even the citizens and the Arizona cities are getting on the action to sue the state of Arizona:
The law enables citizens to sue their local law enforcement agencies if they feel the law is not being enforced.
and
Some municipalities in Arizona, including Flagstaff and Tuscon, are suing the state over the law.
and
The Wall St Journal reports the Department of Justice is likely to sue the state. CBS reports that police chiefs from across the US met recently with the DOJ to express their dissatisfaction with the Arizona law.
If Arizona enforces the law, they will face lawsuits from civil rights groups, cities, and citizens.
If Arizon does not enforce the law, they will face lawsuits from citizens.
That’s a lot of lawsuits! And more specifically, a lot of lawyer bills. I think the whole thing was designed by lawyers as a get-richer strategy (successfully).
I guess this law is going to generate a lot of new revenue for the state of Arizona? (I don’t think so). It seems like a pretty expensive risk for an immigration program that conservative think-tank Goldwater Institute says has had a negative effect on public safety.”
I’m curious to see how the voters respond when the local fired department cuts it staff. When the school their kids go to cuts programs and teachers. I’m curious how they’ll react when property taxes increase, and sales taxes increase.
But lawsuits aren’t the end of it: Multiple cities in other states are moving to cut off their economic ties with Arizona in protest. By the first week in May: “the state has lost between $6 million and $10 million in projected business revenue, with 23 group hotel bookings–from small meetings to large conventions–having been canceled in protest since the stroke of Brewer’s pen, according to the Arizona Hotel & Lodging Association. (This in addition to calls for Major League Baseball to pull its 2011 All-Star Game from Phoenix, and a wave of criticism from the sports world.)”
And when you add to it the cops like Marcus Jackson who are employed by Arizona… I hope the taxpayers in Arizona are ready to start paying more to fund vacations and boats and summer houses for lawyers. Because the “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhood Act” is really the “Support Our Lawyers Act“.
Good Ole Arizona Cops
Officer Marcus Jackson
Abel Moreno called 911 when a man began assaulting his girlfriend. He alleged [that] a Charlotte police officer was trying to fondle his girlfriend after a traffic stop. [The officer then arrested both of them].
Several things then happened. Five other women came forward to allege that the officer, identified as [a sack of shit named] Marcus Jackson, now 26, had tried to molest them, too. Moreno was released after investigators debunked the resisting arrest charge. So was his girlfriend.
Marcus Jackson was fired and faces 11 counts of sexual battery, extortion and interfering with emergency communication. Police Chief [For now] Rodney Monroe admitted that Jackson should never have been hired in the first place because of previous charges related to a restraining order filed by an ex-girlfriend. The local 911 system is under review because Moreno’s call wasn’t acted upon.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37263917/ns/us_news-immigration_a_nation_divided
It’s not just Arizona cops. It’s everywhere. Check the local news in Dallas or Houston and you’ll see cops abusing minorities at every 4th traffic stop. That’s why you better be careful how much power you give police. This cop who felt he could do whatever he wanted – to the extent of groping/molesting women in front of their boyfriends.
Right now, conservatives may not really care since they’re only abusing/harassing minorities. But…most every projection has ‘white’ as a minority in the very near future (it’s already a majority-minority in several states). So the lesson is: Be careful turning a blind eye to cops who abuse minorities! There are scumbag cops (like Marcus Jackson) being employed by people who look the other way (like Rodney Monroe). And they’re in your city right now.
As for Abel Moreno – He was arrested as an illegal immigrant. Yes, he did the right thing in reporting the piece of shit, power-abusing, morally deprived law-enforcement official. Yes, this is why you have to be careful how much power you give cops and government agents – because cops abuse power.
The Church’s McBride Mistake
While showing God’s zero-tolerance policy for performing abortion, I have to ask why God permits such a high-tolerance for allowing people in the most trusted of professions to prey on children. According to articles the odds of the death of the mother was extremely high – “near 100%“. Perhaps that’s not enough? What about the four children she has at home – what of their needs?
After much deliberation, the abortion was performed saving the mother and permitting her to raise her four kids who are already alive. After no deliberation, Bishop Thomas Olmstead decreed that “Sister McBride — along with any other Catholic involved in the decision, including the patient — were automatically excommunicated.” I’m not involved, but I’m in agreeance with Sister McBride. So excommunicate me, too.
The church is less concerned about protecting the children that are already born. The pope needs to override this idiot in Arizona.
Excerpts:
Excommunication was sickening
Mary Jo McDonald,Phoenix/Sedona
Being a practicing Catholic for “many” years and working directly for two archbishops and one bishop in the Midwest, I have seen the heartbreaking decisions they were forced to make.
But never did I witness them issuing such a disgusting and ridiculous order as this.
Bishop Olmstead, our church has so many problems, namely loss of vocations, scandals and, since you have taken over the reins of the Phoenix Diocese, the continuing exodus of parishioners, especially young people.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2010/05/22/20100522satlets223.html
If Sister Margaret McBride is No Catholic, Neither Am I
Liliana Loofbourow
The Catholic Church has shown itself to be ethically and morally compromised. It has dedicated its resources to self-interest and self-protection. It has shown no concern for its children, its women, or any of the vulnerable populations it ostensibly serves. It has consistently protected only two things: its power and its priests.
http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2010/05/18/if-sister-margaret-mcbride-is-no-catholic-neither-am-i/
Sister Margaret McBride: Don’t Confess
by Julianna Baggott
In 1941, my grandmother was 22 and in labor with her second child. The baby was in distress. Afraid a C-section would kill her, the doctor let the infant die. The baby, a boy, was stillborn. The decision was merciful. No one in our family has ever second-guessed it — most of all not my mother, a 5-year-old at the time.
“I needed my mother to survive. Tha t doctor saved my life too.”
In November, Sister Margaret McBride, an administrator at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, made the decision to save the life of a 27-year-old pregnant woman. The woman, a mother of four, was 11 weeks pregnant, suffering pulmonary hypertension that would very likely kill her and, as a result, her unborn child. Sister McBride agreed to the abortion that would save the woman’s life. Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted has excommunicated her for it.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127033375
Rebel Nuns
by Michelle Goldberg
The Catholic Church has claimed that it lacked the resources to properly investigate its sexual-abuse epidemic. It has blamed church bureaucracy for its failure to act quickly against pedophile priests, and has made much of the need to protect priests before they’re proven guilty.
When it comes to nuns, though, the church is somehow able to act with alacrity. This week, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix announced the excommunication of Sister Margaret McBride for the crime of approving an abortion necessary to save a woman’s life. The patient, a 27-year-old [mother of 4] who was 11 weeks pregnant, had pulmonary hypertension, which interferes with the functioning of the heart and lungs. Pregnancy exacerbates the condition, and doctors at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center determined that she would die without an abortion.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-05-21/catholic-nuns-go-rogue/?cid=hp:exc
Church Ousts Nun Who OK’d Abortion to Save Woman
CBS News
Rev. Thomas Doyle, a canon lawyer, told NPR that the bishop “clearly had other alternatives than to declare her excommunicated.” Doyle said Olmsted should have shown McBride some mercy given the agonizing moral dilemma. He said the case highlights a “gross inequity” in how the church chooses to handle scandal.
“In the case of priests who are credibly accused and known to be guilty of sexually abusing children, they are in a sense let off the hook,” Doyle told NPR.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/21/national/main6506448.shtml
Non-Vatican Catholic Bishop? No Such Thing
The Vatican’s U.S. attorney, Jeffrey Lena, contends that the 1962 document, “Crimen Sollicitationis,” did not preclude clergy from notifying secular authorities if they learned that a priest was sexually abusing a minor. Lena also maintains that U.S. bishops do not work directly for the Vatican, and that legally the Vatican is not liable for their actions.
http://www.aolnews.com/crime/article/kentucky-case-may-hold-key-to-pending-catholic-priest-sex-abuse-lawsuits/19480239
Bishops do not report to the Vatican? If that’s the case, then wouldn’t logic then dictate that the priests who report to the Bishops are also not reporting to the Vatican and therefore neither are the church-goers who are following their priest?
Look here, it’s plain and it’s simple – A Bishop that does not work for the Vatican is called…an Episcopalian Bishop. If he’s called a Catholic Bishop, then he’s working for the Vatican. Done and Done.
Had they cleaned house back when it first started occuring, perhaps things would be different. Had they loosened their grip on the ridiculous (and flawed from very founding of the church) belief that women are not equal to men, perhaps they could have easily ousted these clergy in favor of other replacements. But instead of ‘fessing up to a few violations and settling the few suits and the bad press…their apathy allowed it to continue on and on, in different countries, and in different decades. And now the number of confirmed violations has ballooned. And as a double-whammy to their pockets, many followers who are disgusted by the lack of action have stopped or slowed contributions on Sunday.
Statement from All That Is Inc.
Very funny article! “The Christ, apparently, had had enough.” As well he should.
Jesus Bans “Christian” Group
Shocking announcement sends militant Focus on the Family organization into crazed tailspin
http://articles.sfgate.com/2005-12-09/bay-area/17401501_1_gay-rights-family-group-office-party
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must
be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an
irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Bye Bye Newsweek
I had subscribed to Newsweek for several years, but when it came up for renewal late in 2009, I let it run out. Apparently I wasn’t the only who thought it had gone downhill.
It’s lost so many readers that it’s bleeding $2 million per month. It’s got far too many opinion articles like “Why it’s a good idea to charge for Facebook” and other banal topics instead of actual news on what’s going on around us – which, as pointed out in this article, there are plenty of blogs out there for opinion. It used to have one or two opinion articles, located on the back couple of pages, that were extremely well written. Now we have vacous opinions proffered by….whoever. Fine – but I can get that for free on the ‘Net – no need to pay for a subscription.
Newsweek photography used to be heralded for bringing images to us, not just words. Pictures – they’re still worth a thousand words, right? Now the essays/articles are more likely to have a banner across the top and a picture of the author.
Hopefully they’ll fix it and I’ll be buying it again. Until then, I’d miss the cartoons, but Cagle has those available online: http://cagle.msnbc.com/
As the fabled magazine faces a fire sale, the Pulitzer Prize-winning editor faces criticism for “absentee” management.
In a year and a half, he boasted in an interview at the time, he’d already upped the amount of text in the magazine by 30 percent and reduced the number of photos.
Were readers really clamoring for more gray space in print magazines? And more opinion pieces when the blogosphere abounds in opinion?
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-05-06/who-killed-newsweek/
Go Earth! 