Author: Alan Bean

We need a new vision

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Paul Krugman thinks Washington should drop its phoney preoccupation with things like debt and inflation and get down to the real issue–employment.

I agree.  Unfortunately, the political-economic tides have been running in the other direction for over three decades.  Between 1932 and 1980, American presidents tried to bring the nation as close to full employment as possible–it was their primary preoccupation.  In his book, The Great Inflation and Its Aftermath: The Past and Future of American Affluence, Washington Post economics columnist Robert Samuelson argues that everything changed for the better following the recession of 1980.  The goal of full employment was replaced by the goal of stimulating economic growth by controlling inflation and creating a corporate-friendly environment.  (more…)

The Savior of Angola

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Aerial view of Angola prison, January 10, 1998.: USGSBy Alan Bean

You don’t work in the criminal justice reform world very long without running up against Burl Cain.  The man is larger than life and, like the hero of the old Kris Kristofferson song, “he’s a walking contradiction; partly truth, partly fiction.”

According to legend, Burl Cain tamed the most corrupt and violent prison in the world with the love of Jesus.  But as James Ridgeway argues in this compelling piece for Mother Jones, the story has been greatly enhanced in the telling.

Many of those who have embraced Cain’s religious regime really have turned their lives around; but what of those who maintain their independence?  That’s the story you never hear, and Ridgeway is here to tell it.

This story is personal for me.  Friends of Justice is working, individually or as part of larger coalitions, on behalf of at least six Angola prisoners who we believe to be innocent.  Burl Cain knows a lot of the folks in his prison didn’t do the crime.  He also knows the death penalty (which he personally administers) is in serious tension with Christian non-violence.  But all of that pales to insignificance compared to his primary task of claiming souls for eternity.

James Ridgeway came to Angola to talk to warden Cain, but spent his time in the company of PR whiz, Cathy Fontenot.  Cain, he learned at the end, was in Atlanta that day.  The warden was wise to decline an interview.

I have pasted a few choice highlights below, just to whet your appetite, but I encourage you to read the entire article. (more…)

Appeals court thinks defendant may be innocent but denies appeal

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A federal appeals court thinks John Kinsel (pictured to the left) may be innocent, but that will do him little good.  Kinsel’s 1999 conviction for aggravated rape drew a sentence of life without parole.  Barring intervention, he will die in Louisiana’s Angola prison.

The federal court acknowledged the obvious: when the single witness to a crime recants her testimony there should be a new trial.

Unfortunately, the Anti-Terrorism Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (passed in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing) makes it virtually impossible to pursue a federal appeal once you have had your first bite of the apple.  The fact that the single witness changed her story after the initial appeal makes no difference. (more…)

Is Grover Norquist controlling the government he hates

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Grover Norquist

In this New York Times article, Frank Bruni points up just how ideological Grover Norquist really is. He is obsessed with strangling the federal government, “reducing it in size until you could drown it in a bathtub,” as Norquist puts it.

In a post awhile back, Alan Bean argued that Norquist has captured the U. S. Government. I took exception to that claim. But, however the debt ceiling battle turns out, Norquist has won.

Will his victory be permanent, or a Pyrrhic victory which turns back on the Groverians when people see the perils of that philosophy when it moves beyond a right wing rant to actually being enacted? Even if it is rejected in two, four, or six years I fear it will cost the most vulnerable among us dearly in the meantime.

But read Bruni for yourselves.

Charles Kiker

Retired pastor, founding board member of Friends of Justice

Taxes, and a Dangerous Purity

By FRANK BRUNI

Published: July 30, 2011

WHAT does the face of antitax absolutism look like?

It has a tentative beard, more shadow than shag, like an awkward weigh station on the road from callow to professorial. It wears blunt glasses over narrowed eyes that glint mischievously, and its mouth is rarely still, because there’s no end to the jeremiads pouring forth: about the peril of Obama, the profligacy of Democrats and the paramount importance of opposing all tax increases, even ones that close the loopiest of loopholes.        (more…)

Is Rick Perry having second thoughts about The Response?

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You may be wondering what happened to The Response, Texas Governor Rick Perry’s Christians-only pray-for-America extravaganza.  This article in the Texas Observer should bring you up to date.

One word of caution.  Although the Observer piece gives the impression that The Response has been an unmitigated disaster for Governor Good Hair (as Molly Ivans called him), Mr. Perry’s political fortunes have risen considerably since The Response hit the airwaves.  The folks associated with the event may sound silly to worldly sophisticates like Rachel Maddow, but it sends all the right signals to the conservative wing of the Republican Party.  In other words, the Texas Governor’s stock is rising with the most powerful political and social movement in recent American history.

Meanwhile, Perry has been balancing the political ledger by supporting New York’s support for gay marriage on states’ rights grounds.  AGB

Is Rick Perry Getting Cold Feet Over the Response? 

 

Forrest Wilder

You’ve gotta wonder if Rick Perry may come to regret “initiating” The
Response, his Christians-only prayer rally. As I documented in a cover
story for the Observer, Perry has thrown in with a strange band of
fundamentalists from the bleeding edge of American Christianity. (more…)

Confederate license plates in Texas?

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By Alan Bean

Please check out the Progress Texas website and consider signing the petition which is explained below:

The Sons of Confederate Veterans want to display the Confederate flag on Texas license plates. You can do something to stop that right now.

This conservative group proposed a Texas specialty license plate  featuring the controversial and offensive image of the Confederate flag.  They want to harken back to the days of conflict, civil war and racism  that plagued America and the south.  We need your help to stop this  symbol of oppression from being put on cars across Texas.

The application to put this racist relic out for public consumption went before the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles board and stalled  with a tied vote of 4 to 4 – the 9th board member Ramsay Gillman  unexpectedly passed away before the vote.  Rick Perry must now appoint a 9th member to the board who will be the deciding vote on this  controversial issue.  With all eyes on Perry’s political future, your  voice makes a difference. (more…)

Marlowe’s Mississippi

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By Alan Bean

Lara Marlowe generally writes for an Irish audience, but when she turns her attention to the American South it is wise to take notice.  American journalists are generally reluctant to address our nation’s racial history honestly and openly; aggrieved southerners wail and lament when they feel mistreated and misunderstood.  Nowhere is this more true than in Mississippi.  But Marlowe’s carefully crafted piece on the Magnolia state draws on the insights of those who know the region best.

Most of the sobering facts cited below will come as no surprise to readers of this blog.  But how many Americans know that the public schools of Mississippi lost half a million white students when the feds finally got serious about school integration in the South?   A recent article in The Christian Century, notes that “only 2 percent of high school seniors could name the social problem that the Supreme Court addressed in Brown v. Board of Education.” (more…)

Marlowe: The Unrepentant South

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I first met Lara Marlowe of the Irish Times in 2004 when she was crisscrossing the country researching stories on George W. Bush’s America.  Since then, she has been following the Friends of Justice blog and occasionally references my opinionated outbursts in her articles. 

Marlowe is now stationed in Washington DC and writes about America for an Irish audience.  Her column on the Neo-Confederate movement is the first of a series of articles on race, the South and the heritage of the civil rights movement.  (She contacted me while I was in Meridian, MS and I put her in touch with some allies who should be featured later in the week.) (more…)