Executive Overreach

So, the President is going to force BP to pay, up front, for oil damages:

David Axelrod, Obama's senior adviser, has said a new claims plan would call for an independent third party to handle the process, and a White House spokesman said Monday the administration is confident it has the legal authority to force BP to set up an escrow account for the purpose of paying damages. [CNN]

I have a little problem with this. The Bill of Rights in the Constitution of the United States of America. Specifically, the 5th Amendment:

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

I don't remember BP, nor any of its employees, being so much as indicted yet. How the current administration rationalizes this overreach will be the bedrock of the next totalitarian regime's legal interpretation. Stare decisis, y'know.

Deniable Plausibility

Say I tell a racist joke, but then immediately afterward say that it's not nice to be racist. Do you think I'm a racist? Do you buy my quick disclaimer afterward?

ex abundantia enim cordis os loquitur (For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh).

Judge Sonia Sotomayor:

The Court of Appeals is where policy is made.

And I know -- and I know this is on tape and I should never say that, because we don't make law. I know.

She spoke her opinion from the heart, and then the brain said "whoa, grab a fig leaf" and she made that hasty disclaimer. "She's neither advocating judicial activism, nor indicating a personal predilection for it" screams partisans on the left.

You buy that? If so, I have some land in Florida you may be interested in.

Descriptive

A local laundry operator was held up at knifepoint, and the local paper gives the usual details:

The man walked into the business, asked for a piece of paper and wrote a demand for money. He left without further incident and no injuries were reported.

The man was described as being about 40 years old, about 6-feet tall, about 225 to 250 pounds and with a light mustache.

Wow, the description avoids any racial description, but offends other gender, age, and physical attribute groups.

Describing the suspect as male is sexist, as the perp could be a woman trapped in a man's body. The facial hair trait is also sexist. So, we better scratch the descriptors "man" and "with a light mustache".

Giving an age range is patently offensive, as age shouldn't be a factor in assigning blame for a crime. So, scratch the "about 40 years old".

By announcing his height, you've disparaged people of moderate stature. So, you'd better lose the "about 6 feet tall" as well.

The overweight are constantly discriminated against, and would be insulted by a weight bias in the paper's report. Better to eliminate the derogatory "about 225 to 250 pounds" as well.

That leaves us with a more socially just description of the unfortunate offender:

The suspect was described as being.

Everyone happy now?

A Pig by Any Other Name

Nobody knows the trouble that Genarlow Wilson's seen.

The courtroom was packed with supporters and cameras Friday as Georgia's top justices heard arguments over whether a young man serving a 10-year prison term for consensual oral sex with a fellow teenager should be freed.

Poor boy, somehow got busted for what the media's calling "consensual oral sex" with a minor. Only It wasn't some awkward episode in the back of his parents' car. This was a romp at a party that included sexual contact with multiple underage, inebriated females, videotaped for future self-aggrandisement. So lurid was the video, it was labelled as Child Pornography by federal authorities.

The sex act was videotaped by another partygoer -- and that tape shows the faces of several underage girls. David Nahmias, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, said earlier this week: "We have advised that the videotape at issue constitutes child pornography under federal law and should not be knowingly distributed, received or possessed outside of law enforcement and judicial proceedings."

Wilson was acquitted of a rape charge, stemming from the same party, for having sexual relations with another girl that prosecutors asserted was too drunk to consent. This kid, though only 17 at the time of the offense, has perfectly emulated his hip-hop heroes in their objectification of women and using them for careless sexual gratification. Whatever his mother may say, he's far from innocent.

You may see the smiling visage of the young man on CNN, clean cut, with a cross dangling around his neck. Here's a shot from the party:

Sorry, but this image has been deemed Child Pornography. If you were to see this image, you'd see a smiling, happy Genarlow Wilson at a gang-bang. Sorry to disappoint.

Wilson's supporters are pushing for retribution against the D.A., who released the tape to media and other judicial bodies. Ostensibly, the outrage is that the tape makes their unfairly persecuted angel look like just another pig.

"Why do you care about this, St. Jimbob" you may ask. I've got daughters, and believe me, after a stunt like this, jail is the safest place for guys like Genarlow Wilson.

The Big Punchline

"They think they're killing me. They think they're punishing me. They've already punished me. I've already had 16 years of punishment. They're releasing me. They're letting me go. That's helping me out. That's the way I look at it."

- Convicted murderer Patrick Knight,
facing his impending execution.

Meat Sacrificed To Idols

1 Corinthians 8:

5 For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords,

6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.

7 However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.

8 But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat.

9 But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.

10 For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols?

11 For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died.

12 And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.

There has been much discussion in circles catholic about the Death Penalty and Saddam Hussein, and that discussion is mainly about the permissability of capital punishment in catholic tradition and doctrine. But, does being permissible also make it good?

Saddam Hussein was hanged for his crimes against Shiites, and would have been for his crimes against the Kurds as well, not as a protection against future crimes. This application follows from America, where juries are given to option of Life Without Parole as an alternative to execution. The executions, are not necessary for the protection of society, but are revenge for the crimes of the accused. If one needs evidence of this revenge, witness the celebrations that follow such executions.

The people who desire retribution are our weaker brothers, and the rope an idol of justice. Let's not encourage their worship of revenge by justifying the sacrifice of meat to their idols. Instead, we should be continually preaching mercy and redemption. Imagine if Saddam had a conversion while in prison, like Tim McVeigh before his execution, what a powerful witness that would have been. Now, we'll never know.

Double-Edged Rope

So, Saddam got the short drop, and a sudden stop. While Shiites and Kurds (and not a few NeoCons) will be dancing with glee, something tells me that the world has not been markedly improved with the execution of Saddam Hussein. The blood on his hands and in the Iraqi soil, still cries out, but will get no answer. There will never be any penance, and never any reconciliation.

It was a foregone conclusion that Saddam was going to hang, from the moment that they pulled him out of his hidey-hole, and he knew it as well. Despite the efforts to put on an apparently fair trial, it will always the seen as just a veneer of civility to an otherwise delayed execution. There was never any question as to the eventual outcome, it was just a matter of observing formality.

There was a TV movie, in 2000, about the trials at Nuremberg. In the movie, Hermann Goering sums up the trials as such; Yes, I understand, we lost the war and now you're going to hang us. To him, and by extension, many others now, Saddam's hanging will be seen as only a consequence of losing an armed conflict with the United States.

Calling Al Sharpton

The lab, DNA Security of Burlington, found during tests performed last April that not only did the DNA not match the three defendants, but that it also did not belong to any of their lacrosse teammates or anyone else who submitted DNA samples to police, including the accuser's boyfriend. Those findings were not turned over to the defense until October, when District Attorney Mike Nifong's office turned over thousands of case-related documents.

The DNA evidence that does not instantly convict must in turn, be repressed, lest someone think that the accused are innocent. Or so thinks District Attorney Mike Nifong. After it hit the presses that Nifong colluded with management of the DNA lab to conceal exculpatory evidence, the case continues to disintegrate, to the point that it's starting to resemble the Tawana Brawley incident.

Nifong said in court papers the accuser told an investigator Thursday she is no longer certain whether she was penetrated vaginally with the men's penises during the alleged March 13 attack, as she had claimed earlier. Without any "scientific or other evidence independent of the victim's testimony" to corroborate that aspect of the case, he said, there is "insufficient evidence to warrant prosecution" for rape.

Now, something terrible may have happened to the young lady in question, but continuing a prosecution with nothing more that scattered and inconsistent testimony smacks more of malicious intent more that upholding the rights of all the citizens involved.

Charges of sexual offense and kidnapping remain, but District Attorney Mike Nifong for the first time admitted weakness in his case: "The state is unable to meet its burden of proof with respect to this offense," he wrote.

D.A. Nifong must be beside himself that he had to drop the Forcible Rape charges against those three, white, college boys. As the case goes forward, it's getting weaker and weaker. When it finally crumbles, Nifong should be fitted for an orange jumpsuit himself.

Dad29 Brings it.

Homosexual Marriage is a big issue, and one that's facing Wisconsin voters. The Catholic Archbishop of Milwaukee, Timothy Dolan, has supported and encouraged Wisconsin catholics to vote for the measure, banning gay marriage. Clergy and laity that dissent from Catholic teaching and the archbishop's exhortations, are rallying to at least muddy the waters surrounding the gay marriage issue. One such dissenting cleric was planning on speaking at St. John Vianney parish in Brookfield. Enter Dad29, catholic blogger and amateur Inquisitor:

So at around 7:00 yours truly hauls through the parking lot at St John's. Counted cars, because there would be a "magic flyers" assignment--the news item would appear on all those cars' windshields during the lecture on Dissent.

Got back from Kinko's and most of the cars were gone. A few people (quite old, by the way) were standing around outside.

The lecture was cancelled. Awwwwww......

Aww indeed. Not that his presence alone made the dissenters flee, I do believe that he, with other faithful catholic bloggers, are raising general awareness of dissenters' activities. Heretics love attention. Sometimes. They love to chat with Commonweal writers and National Catholic Reporter columnists (calumnists?). It makes them feel authoratative in the Church.

But the thrill dissipates when people start complaining to their bishop. Then, the dissident can put on the airs of a martyr, fighting against the rigidly orthodox. More chats with Commonweal ensue.

It seems to be a never-ending cycle of public griping and sniping in the press. Orthodoxy just doesn't get much play in the MSCM, and many catholics easily dismiss the EWTN crowd as overly scrupulous and pious. Bloggers provide the counterbalance, collating small, unnoticed items, and circulating the news. Like the USCCB publishing thier calendar with a Call To Action conference on it. Bloggers quickly nailed it, and the USCCB made it vanish in a twinkle.

Keep the heat on, ladies and gentlemen, it's Springtime.

Plank: Crime and Punishment

Criminal offenders are citizens, and human beings with inherent dignity, regardless of their poor choices and pernicious habits. The corrections system should be corrective, to educate the offender on socially expected behaviors, and mitigate factors that contribute to the inclination to offend. Yes, it's more expensive than throwing them in a prison for a few years, as the current corrections environment is not conducive to reformation. A concerted effort to implement restorative justice should be made.

- The Death Penalty should be a punishment of absolute last resort, not a violent reaction to a violent offense. Efforts to rehabilitate a violent offender should be proportional to the crime itself.

- Many, if not most, offenders will need treatment for mental illness, as well as substance abuse, and will aid in their rehabilitation.

- Offenders at all levels should be rehabilitated to the point where they are an asset to the community versus an ongoing liability.

anyone else want to chine in?

Hope for the Worst

h/t Sparki, fellow Lincolnite.

A story of a priest and Timothy McVeigh's redemption:

"When I first came in (to see him) I thought 'God is the owner of my life,' and I went to him and he threw his feces on me and called me all types of names and said, 'You can't be a priest because I've never seen a you-know-what as a priest,'" Father Smith said Aug. 5. "The devil was messin' with me."
...

But Father Smith persevered in his ministry to McVeigh and the convicted murderer, who was a baptized Catholic, began to repent. "He did a lot of things, but in the end we had confession, reconciliation. In the end he asked me a question a lot of people ask me. He asked, 'Father Charles, can I still get to heaven?'"

Wow, I hadn't heard the end of that story. Maybe there's hope for murderers, with time and patient ministry of the Gospel. It maybe a good enough reason for the period of time between conviction and execution, time for the hardened to seek God and His mercy. Though an evil of claimed necessity, the death penalty may be a mercy in itself, if one has been reconciled with God before death, slain by the State in a state of Grace.

I certainly hope that Timothy's repentance was genuine, and that he's washed his robe in the Blood of the Lamb.