By Email from Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
September 3, 2010

Teresa Lewis, a woman assessed as having "borderline mental retardation", is scheduled for execution in Virginia on September 23 as the “mastermind” of the murder of her husband and stepson. The men who carried out the killings received life sentences.

Teresa Lewis is the only woman on Virginia’s death row. No woman has been executed in Virginia since 1912. Without your help, Teresa will die on September 23, 2010.

Teresa is a mother, grandmother, sister and daughter. She believes deeply in her Christian faith. And for the last 7 years in prison, she has been a model prisoner and an example of faith and courage.

Chuck Collins and Sam Pizzigati
Alternet
August 30, 2010

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the most ‘radical speech’ an American ex-President has ever delivered.

Ex-Presidents almost always follow a small number of well-worn scripts. Some rush to cash in on their celebrity. Some do charitable good deeds. Some just lay low.

Exactly one century ago, on August 31, 1910, we had an ex-President who took a brash and bold leap that took him far beyond these narrowly circumscribed roles. On that day, in the middle of Middle America, a former President — Theodore Roosevelt — essentially called on his fellow citizens to smash the nation’s rich down to democratic size.

Read the rest.

Via Email
August 30, 2010

ACLU of Virginia filed amicus, urged UVA to fight AG's demands

Charlottesville, VA- An Albemarle County Circuit Court judge today ruled that the University of Virginia is not required to respond to a demand from Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli for the records of a global warming expert once employed by the school.

"This is an important step in protecting academic freedom and privacy in Virginia," said ACLU of Virginia executive director Kent Willis. "The court made it clear that the Attorney General does not have the authority to demand to see private records on whim."

Cuccinelli, whose opposition to global warming theories is well documented, used the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act to demand records from UVA related to the communications and research of former professor Michael Mann, a widely published proponent of global warming theory who received state and federal grants for his work. Among the broad range of records sought were emails that Mann sent to and received from colleagues since 1999.

Amy Goodman
Truthdig
Aug 25, 2010

What do a half-billion eggs have to do with democracy? The massive recall of salmonella-infected eggs, the largest egg recall in U.S. history, opens a window on the power of large corporations over not only our health, but over our government.

While scores of brands have been recalled, they all can be traced back to just two egg farms. Our food supply is increasingly in the hands of larger and larger companies, which wield enormous power in our political process. As with the food industry, so, too, is it with oil and with banks: Giant corporations, some with budgets larger than most nations, are controlling our health, our environment, our economy and increasingly, our elections.

John Feffer
Institute for Policy Studies
August 24, 2010

There's a debate over the proposed mosque on ground zero. But as it turns out, it's not a mosque, not on ground zero -- and not really a debate.

Law became sexy in the mid-1980s. I still find this a bewildering transformation in American society. At the time, I thought that there could be nothing quite so boring as a court case or a legal brief. But then the TV show L.A. Law debuted in 1986, and lawyers never looked so good. The following year, Scott Turow published Presumed Innocent, and several years after that John Grisham brought out his second novel, The Firm. U.S. publishing was never the same.

Since then, law has thoroughly permeated our popular culture. But I wonder whether it has also taken over the way we think. I'm not talking about the how litigious we are in the United States. I'm talking about how we talk.

Via Email from Virginia ACLU

Fourth Circuit reversed lower court decision striking down ABC ban on alcohol ads

Richmond, VA--The ACLU of Virginia today asked the U.S Supreme Court to review a ruling by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that allows restrictions on alcohol-related advertising in college publications in Virginia.

In April, on a divided vote, the Fourth Circuit upheld the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Board's prohibition on the advertising of beer, wine, and mixed drinks in college student publications (unless in the context of an ad for a dining establishment).

The Fourth Circuit's ruling overturned a 2008 U.S. District Court decision striking down the ABC regulation. The district court found no evidence that the advertising ban had any effect on underage drinking and that there were other legitimate ways the state could reduce student drinking--including increased taxation on alcohol and counter-advertising--without infringing on freedom of the press.

Alex Hannaford
Guardian UK
22 August 2010

The case of the first woman to be executed in Virginia for a century highlights America's death row shame

A death chamber in Huntsville, Texas, where execution is conducted by lethal injection. In Virginia, inmates may choose between lethal injection and electrocution. Photograph: Getty Images/Joe Raedle
On 23 September, 40-year-old Teresa Lewis will become the first woman to be executed in the state of Virginia for almost a century. She'll also be the first woman put to death in the US since 2005. Considering that, in the intervening five years, around 220 men will have been executed, it puts it into perspective: executing women is unusual. Of more than 1,200 executions carried out since the US supreme court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, only 11 were of women. And each time that happens, it's stunningly bad PR for an increasingly unpopular facet of the American justice system.

Tanya Somander
Think Progress
August 21, 2010

While most states are experiencing debilitating budget deficits, Virginia is “feeling flush” after turning a $1.8 billion deficit into a $403.2 million budget surplus at the close of the fiscal year. In a celebratory speech before the Virginia legislature Thursday, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) credited higher tax revenue, state agencies’ fiscal responsibility, and serious budget cuts for the state’s ability “to balance the books.”

McDonnell’s victory tour continued with a stop on the Fox Business network to tout “fiscal prudence and conservative budgeting” as “the key” to his surplus. When enamored host Gerri Willis asked him whether Washington “could learn something from Virginia,” McDonnell replied he hoped his fiscal responsibility in Richmond “would be a model for Washington”:

Alexander Cockburn, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed
Truthout
20 August 2010

The last American combat brigade in Iraq has left the country, so the Pentagon has announced. The 40,000 personnel from 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division began crossing into Kuwait on Aug. 19. The U.S. combat mission in Iraq -- Operation Iraqi Freedom -- is scheduled to end Aug. 31. But the U.S. State Department feels it necessary to emphasize that U.S. involvement in Iraq is far from over.

The least credible human in America is a president or a general guaranteeing imminent victory, plus withdrawal of troops from the quagmire of the day.
The rhetorical embroidery decorating this pledge changes little from decade to decade. In 1970, President Richard Nixon declared that the Vietnam War was proceeding so auspiciously that he was planning to pull out 150,000 American troops. The South Vietnamese forces, he asserted, were now of sufficient military competence to carry the brunt of the fighting.