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http://ipoftexas.org/texas-cases/texas-exonerat…

…On September 17, 1986, a jury convicted Timothy Cole of rape and sentenced him to 25 years in prison. Prior to his trial, Timothy was offered probation in exchange for a guilty plea, but he refused to admit guilt to a crime he did not commit. During his time in prison, he was offered parole in exchange for admitting his guilt. Again, he refused. On December 2, 1999 Cole died in prison from heart complications caused by an asthmatic condition. He was 39 years old…..

http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/020609/loc…
(Lubbock Online title: Timothy Cole returns to court)

That headline made me grind my teeth. Timothy Cole is DEAD. Another brother dead because of the testimony of a pure white flower and the prosecutors and cops wanting to put a brother — any brother — in jail to pay for the sullying. Didn't matter that this brother had returned to school after faithfully serving his country. His country didn't give a damn about him.

The following are excerpts:

Much of the prosecution's case against Cole relied on his identification by Michele Mallin, the victim….

…But the photo and in-person line-ups that led to Mallin choosing Cole may have improperly encouraged her to choose him, testimony showed….

She began to cry, alone in her home, overwhelmed with guilt as investigator George White gave her the news, she testified.

“'You shouldn't feel bad about this, Michele,'” she said White told her. “'[Cole] let himself be in that lineup.'”

She said he later added, “It's OK. He had asthma. He was going to die anyway.”

White was not present at the hearing and did not return a call for comment Thursday evening.

Cory Sessions, Cole's youngest brother, said after the hearing that he had never heard of that conversation before, and grew angrier with the investigation and the district attorney's office.

Hello

I hesitated a lot whether to open this can, but I can't stay silent anymore, so…

* blackwaterdog's diary :: ::
*

I don't think anyone was under some real illusion that the election of Barack Obama actually means the end of racism in America. I'm pretty sure that the president-elect knew it better than anyone. After all, he saw it every day, from the moment he announced his candidacy. To some degree, he saw it within his own party during the primaries. And he saw it in all ugliness during the general election. For half of this country, he was “That One”. No matter how big and clear his victory was. No matter how smart he is. No matter how decent he is. No matter what a true patriot he is. No matter how optimistic and positive his vision for America was. All that didn't matter. Because at the end of the day, he was still black.

I'm quite old. I remember, vaguely, where my parents been on November 22, 1963. I've seen so many presidents. Some were feared, some were hated, some were adored, some popular and some not. But all of them, without exception, were treated with the highest respect deserve to the office of the president of the United States.

That is until a black man won the right to occupy this office. It's been 13 months now, and in the eyes of so many, Barack Obama is still that one. He is being disrespected and at the same time being held to the highest standard of any president I've ever seen – and not just by the Republican side. He has to perform three times better than any president in history, and even that may not be enough.

For the media, he is many more times just “Obama” than “President Obama”. They create scandals out of nothing issues. It took them at least 6 years to start giving Bush a small part of the shit he deserved. It took them 6 months to begin crap all over Obama because he's yet to fix the catastrophe that was left for him.

They use condescending tone when they talk about him, and only mildly less condescending when they talk TO him. With anyone else, CNN wouldn't dare go to commercials every time the president speaks, like they did during that summit on Thursday. They wouldn't dare counting how many minutes George Bush or Bill Clinton were talking. Chris Mathews wouldn't dare making an issue out of Ronald Regan calling members of congress by their first name, like he is not actually the freaking president. They fully cooperate with the Right-Wing smear machine when it comes to president Obama's national security performance – even if almost every independent and military expert actually thinks that he's a terrific Commander in Chief. You'll never see them on TV, and virtually no one from the Left, in congress and outside, defend the president on this matter.

I don't care about the Far-Right. They're just crazy ignorant Neanderthals. It's the way the beltway and the mainstream treats this president that is shocking. On Thursday, almost every Republican had no trouble interrupting him in the middle of a sentence. They looked like they're going to vomit every time they had to say “Mr. president”. They all had this Eric-Cantor-Smirk whenever he spoke. Then they went out and started to spit their stupid talking points, to the delight of the media. Sarah Palin, a woman who can hardly read, thinks that he was “arrogant” towards John McCain, and somehow this is an important news. Because you see, “Obama's Arrogance” is the talking point of the day.

Oh, those talking points. He is arrogant (because he knows the facts better than all of them combined). He is an elitist (because he uses big words that they don't understand). He is weak on national security (because he actually thinks about the consequences). He divides the country (well, he did that the day he had the audacity to win the election). Worst of all, he actually thinks that he's the president. He even dared to say so on Thursday. How arrogant of him. You'd think that previous presidents didn't have any ego. Somehow it turned out that the one president who treats even his biggest opponents with the utmost respect – is the arrogant one. I wonder why.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/2/27/841…

Since I am back from having a tooth pulled, a second column on dentistry seems in order.

My last column noted a terrific story by NPR reporter Sarah Varney about how hundreds of thousands of poor and disabled Californians have lost dental coverage through California Medicaid. Tens of thousands of these men and women have intellectual disabilities.

Dentistry is a sore spot in our family. Finding a dentist willing and able to treat an intellectually disabled man for the pittance paid by Medicaid hasn't been easy. We've gotten some very shoddy care before finding the good dentist we now use. Many intellectually-disabled adults have crummy teeth. It's a serious problem.

This is the kind of practical challenge that people with disabilities, and their caregivers, face every day. This is also the kind of problem that public policies could address more effectively and more humanely than they currently do. Unfortunately, this kind of nuts-and-bolts problem elicits a collective yawn from many people who seem more interested in jousting about the R-word than they are interested in getting down to the details in making sure that people receive proper care.

It's been weeks now since Governor Sarah Palin publicly scolded Rahm Emanuel for his use of the R-word in a private briefing. Emanuel rightly apologize for his remarks. His blustering profanity shtick is pretty juvenile. People with intellectual disabilities are rightly offended by the R-word. It's not a complicated issue. Palin also had a point in criticizing the crude television show Family Guy.

It seems a bit rich for Governor Palin to demand apologies these days, given her transparent partisan hypocrisy in excusing Rush Limbaugh's far more offensive comments made over the airways to millions of listeners. The juxtaposition of this latest R-word controversy with her silence regarding deep cuts in disability services underscore why I am so appalled by Palin's political posturing in the area of intellectual disability.

Many liberals (and others) express dismay about the political uses Governor Palin is making of her son Trig. I can't get all high and mighty about a candidate who deploys her child as a stage extra in her own political drama. That's how they do.

The problem is Palin's superficial and toxic script itself. Unlike scores of other liberal or conservative politicians, Palin does conspicuously little of substance to help the community of caregivers she purports to represent. As Dana Goldstein notes in a great column in the Daily Beast, Palin's desire to be a show horse while failing to do her homework on important issues has not endeared her to the disability community.

Many parents of intellectually disabled children regard her with genuine affection and hope. Governor Palin commands remarkable access to the nation's leading medical, education, and policy experts in intellectual disability. She has a remarkable platform to explain many disability issues to the American public.

How has she used this platform? She gave one policy speech in the 2008 campaign to check that box. To my knowledge, she has done virtually nothing of substance since then. Instead, she left her day job—in which she really might have done something to help thousands of Alaska families less blessed than her own–to work the mashed potato circuit hawking books and performing as a television commentator.

It's a sign of progress that people no longer use the R-word. I'm happy that Governor Palin is furthering this trend. Yet the R-word is not the only or the most important issue in-play. Many intellectually disabled adults have no surviving parents or connected family members. Where I live, many have only the $50 they are allowed to keep each month from their Social Security or SSI and food stamp benefits once their basic group home expenses have been met. That $50 needs to cover every new pair of socks and underwear, the occasional trip to McDonald's or a movie. That's it. Men and women in this predicament don't have the money California now requires for routine teeth cleanings, let alone the $600 apparently required for a discount root canal or for costly dentures.

I'm more concerned about these matters than I am about a crude comment by Rahm Emanuel or by some dumb TV show. I'm more concerned about the poor conditions in many state institutions and group homes across the nation. An estimated 700,000 intellectually disabled adults live with caregivers over the age of 60, often an elderly parent. How can we help these families?

Governor Palin often implies that big-city liberals are not real Americans in the way that she is. Before pursuing that familiar culture war theme, she might familiarize herself with World War II conscientious objectors assigned to state homes for the disabled. These men were among the first to sound the alarm about deplorable conditions in these places. She might familiarize herself with the activist housewives who helped found the National Association for Retarded Children. She might even examine the contribution of liberal community activists and ACLU lawyers who filed landmark class action lawsuits to improve conditions at state mental hospitals and to pry open the doors of local schools for students living with physical and mental disabilities. She might familiarize herself with Ted Kennedy–who saw no contradiction between his lifelong advocacy for the disabled and his pro-choice views.

Most of all, she might get serious about matters that affect million of disabled people and their families. Many have complex problems. Others face simpler challenges, such as rotting teeth. Until Governor Palin accumulates a real track record in addressing such matters, she would have limited standing to admonish other public figures.

Imagine for a moment how more substantial political figures have responded to their own personal predicaments. Consider Bob Dole and Lowell Weicker's work on disability. For that matter, consider Mitt Romney's efforts on health care and Orrin Hatch's work on state children's health insurance.

The contrast is damning.

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/02/debasing-d…

http://coloronline.blogspot.com/2010/02/commerc…

I believe a literate reader is a critical thinker and a critical thinker is contributes new ideas and perspectives to our ongoing dialogue. I want to encourage black readers to read more. Come by Color Online for free books.

http://coloronline.blogspot.com/2010/02/commerc…