// August 6th, 2004 // 3 Comments » // tagged: Politics
I heard a great comment/metaphor about presidential elections:
That’s usually how the presidential elections go. I’m always left thinking — THIS is the best the Democractic and Republican parties have to offer?
// June 11th, 2004 // No Comments » // tagged: Politics
President Reagan was the president of my childhood – he’s the first President I have real memory of watching on television and knowing what The President was and what he did. If only more of our politicians today could approach governing the way he did.
When Nancy Reagan came in to the rotunda, laid her hands on Reagan’s casket, spoke to him and then kissed it …. I had tears in my eyes. The depth of commitment and dedication between these two in their life together – is precious and amazing. Tom Brokaw was doing the voiceover and talking about their 52 years of marriage – and how until the very end Nancy Reagan was totally devoted to the care of her husband.
The American public has such respect for the Reagans. Brokaw said that Nancy has been astounded at the response of the American public. The Reagans had dignity – they respected each other and the office to which he was elected. How many people can say that of our contemporary leaders? It’s always true that if you respect the people you serve … they will almost always give you back that same respect.
We have truly lost a great American leader – May God bless his family and friends as they mourn the loss of a great man.
// May 20th, 2004 // 5 Comments » // tagged: Politics > Treo Pics
What’s your city like?
// February 28th, 2004 // 6 Comments » // tagged: Politics
Did anyone see the Oprah show from last week about the Marcus Dixon rape case in Georgia? A black 18 year old and a white 15 year old had sex … and the girl claims rape a few days later. The show wasn’t actually about the rape … because the jury found Dixon NOT GUILTY of the rape after only 20 minutes of deliberation (and I agreed with their findings after listening to his story and the girls story. I think she was embarassed to have had sex with him, her father was a blatant racist, and so she comes up with the rape accusation. And for me, as a woman, to think this – that says a lot. And it says a lot that the entire jury unanimously agreed on the not guilty verdit. And it says a lot that the Oprah audience was supportive of Dixon, and not the girl accusing him of rape. When women are supporting the guy — I think thats a good clue about who is lying and who is being truthful.)
So – Dixon is found not guilty of the rape, but the DA had put a “safety measure” charge onto the case. The show was about a charge that the DA attached to the case, as a “backstop” so that if Dixon was aquitted of the rape, he would still automatically get a mandatory 10 year prison sentence for “aggravated child molestation”. (The law could be applied in this situation because Dixon was 18 and his accuser was 3 months shy of being 16 — and the law states that if there is injury in sex between a minor and an adult, the “aggravated child molestation” charge could be applied and it carries a mandatory 10 year prison sentence.) The girl was a virgin when she and Dixon had what the jury termed consensual sex – and the DA used her torn hymen as the injury necessary to use this charge. This law was created to protect CHILDREN from ADULT sexual predators. It wasn’t designed to punish teenagers having consensual sex.
Do I agree that a 15 year old should be having sex? No … but I also don’t think Dixon should be spending 10 years of his life in prison. Remember, the jury found him NOT GUILTY of the rape. So he’s spending 10 years in prison for a crime he wasn’t convicted of. The aggravated child molestation law is what is keeping him in prison. Bryant Gumbel interviewed the DA who prosecuted the case … and he insists he wasn’t being overzealous (even though this is the ONLY time this law has been applied to teenage consensual sex in the entire history of Georgia law).
Oprah had several of the jurors on the show – and none of them were aware that even though they found him not guilty of rape that he would still have to go to prison simply based on the fact of their ages.
Dixon’s family now has a great team of lawyers, working pro-bono, who presented his case before the Georgia supreme court for appeal. They are hoping the child molestation charges can be overturned and Dixon can be released from prison. He’s already been in prison for over a year and if the molestation charges were dropped, he would be free to go home.
The lawyers on the other side just can’t seem to get over the fact that the jury found him not guilty of the rape. That is a moot point now – but they argued about that the entire show and Oprah had to keep shutting them down because they were basically wanting to retry the case on Oprah. I was just appalled at learning about this case – and I’m sure things like this happen all over the country and we don’t know about them because they aren’t on Oprah or splashed on the news everywhere.
Laws are put in place for a purpose … and when overzealous prosecutors misuse those laws it does more than punish just that one person. It undermines the legal system and all it stands for. These laws should be used for their intended purpose — to protect children from child molesters. It shouldn’t be there to make sure a DA gets a prision sentence when he can’t make his case for a jury. Which is exactly what happened here. He attached that charge so that Dixon would still go to prison, no matter what, even if the jury did find him not guilty of the rape.
// December 14th, 2003 // No Comments » // tagged: Politics
In case you haven’t heard (and if you haven’t by now, where have you been???) ….
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — After eluding coalition forces for months and vowing never to be taken alive, a disheveled Saddam Hussein was found hiding in a hidden hole near a farmhouse and was captured without firing a shot, coalition authorities announced Sunday. (read the rest)
// March 17th, 2003 // 15 Comments » // tagged: House > Politics
Just another manic Monday …oh-woe … I wish it was Sunday … oh-woe!
Four days and counting until we close on our house. Friday at 8:00 AM we’ll spend more money than we have ever spent before in our lives. How exciting is that? Really exciting if you’re us. We’re so hyped up about finally having a house that we can paint and tile and landscape and do whatever we want to with. I’ll post some pictures after we get settled in and the place looks halfway clean :) We’re leaving for England 8 days after we move in — which means we won’t be unpacked before we leave. It’s all good though — it will be GREAT to see Steve’s family again, and to be able to go to one of Steve’s friends wedding (which is the reason we’re going over in the first place). When we get back, we’ll just plow headfirst into the unpacking at the house!! Woohoo!
A few brief words about our world situation. (Please just skip this section if you’ll feel the need to rant and act immature if you disagree with my opinions.) While I’m not gung-ho for going to war … I also don’t think waiting around for Iraq to comply with policy is a good idea. We’ve already waited around for over 10 YEARS . The UN made these decisions about weapons of mass destruction a long time ago — and Iraq STILL hasn’t complied with the rules. Sadly, the UN has lost it’s teeth and won’t stand up for (or stand behind) the decisions it made. When you try to satisfy everyone …. you satisfy no one. I don’t think they’ve learned that lesson yet. How can they possibly be a governing body when they don’t do anything to back up their rules and restrictions? That said ….. It looks like we’ll be going to war tonight or tomorrow — which, in my opinion, means we should all stop our complaining and bickering over whether we should or shouldn’t go to war. Now that we’re almost certainly doing it — we need to put all that aside and show our full support for our troops. They didn’t choose to go to war – but they are the ones that are going to be fighting and dying in it. I hope we don’t have another Vietnam embarassment of the American people treating the Vietnam vets with such disrespect and disgrace — how sad is a country that blamed their military troops for decisions our government made? We can still have differing opinions about the war … but we should be unanimous in our support for the U.S. Military.
What’s up with no comments anymore too? I used to get comments. Now I just get lots of people I don’t know commenting on my tagboard … which I think has something to do with the quilting bee (?). I know I’ve not been the most regular of bloggers lately … and my blogs might not be super interesting, but. dang blastit, comment! (please? )
// September 6th, 2002 // No Comments » // tagged: House > INS > Politics
We just got home from Memphis about an hour ago. Steve is now the proud owner of a greencard STAMP in his passport. He won’t actually get the physical GREENCARD for about 3 months (it has to go off to some huge place in Texas to be processed & created) — but for all intents and purposes, he has it. What a relief. The interview wasn’t all that bad — a lot less stressful than we had thought. We were at the office for about 3 hours — and only 15 minutes of that was actually the interview. The other 2 hours and 45 minutes was waiting.
Not much blogging this week. Sorry. I just really haven’t felt like it. There’s a lot going on personally that I really don’t feel comfortable blogging on here about (where everybody and their brother can read it). That’s really about all I’ve been thinking about this week — hence no blogging.
We did NOT get the house either — a carpenter/contractor bid on the house several thousand more than we did — and he got it. He waived all inspections too — which most normal people wouldn’t ever do. Sooooo, I guess it wasn’t meant to be. We’ll probably start looking again next week.
Thanks to Rob for letting me drop stuff on him this week. You and Jeff should open your own counseling service. Between Hillary, Addie and I — we’d keep you in business.
// June 26th, 2002 // No Comments » // tagged: Politics
I didn’t really have anything to blog about today. But then I read Promo Guy’s blog in which he mentions that a U.S. Federal Court ruled that the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional because of the words “under God”. (Click here to read the MSNBC article) Un-freaking-believeable. If they’re going to change it, it needs to be “one nation, under a bunch of idiots”. While we’re at it … why don’t we just start using the EURO as our currency. We’re going to have to turn in all our dollars and coins since they also contain the word GOD. We should really reprimand Congress for singing “God Bless America” post September 11th. Shame on them — that wasn’t very constitutional, was it? I bet they infringed on somebodys rights. Grrr.
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