Cass McCombs - The Executioner's Song

Perry announces and Cameron Todd Willingham spins in his grave

So Texas Governor Rick Perry’s throwing his hate, er, hat in the presidential ring today.

He’s been described as one of the best fundraisers in politics, with a vast network of wealthy supporters, so money should be no object.

Great. Just what we need: another Texas governor who’s not what he seems to be, can’t be counted on to represent the majority of his constituents, and has no qualms about innocent people being sent to their death while he’s in charge.

Perry has embraced religious extremists and claimed God Almighty wants him to hold elective office. He's suggested that Muslims be barred from becoming naturalized citizens. He’s created massive budget deficits. He’s advocated that Texas secede from the union as a result of national health care reform. And he’s made taxpayers pay his outrageous personal expenses: according to a May 2010 report by Texas Watchdog, taxpayers were forced to cough up almost $600,000 in rent and other living expenses for Perry’s West Austin mansion, including a $700 coat rack.

Cameron Todd Willingham

Most disturbingly, the State of Texas executed Cameron Todd Willingham, 36, on February 17, 2004, for a crime he didn’t commit.

Here’s a quick summary of the case by the Innocence Project, which tries to exonerate wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing and other means:

Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in Texas in 2004 for allegedly setting a fire that killed his three young daughters 13 years earlier. He always claimed his innocence, and the arson investigation used to convict him was questioned by leading experts before Willingham was executed. Since 2004, further evidence in the case has led to the inescapable conclusion that Willingham did not set the fire for which he was executed.

On December 23, 1991, a fire destroyed the Corsicana, Texas, home Cameron Todd Willingham shared with his wife and three daughters, killing the three girls. Willingham, who was asleep when the fire started, survived. His wife was at the Salvation Army buying Christmas presents for the girls.

He was convicted based on the testimony of forensic experts who said they had determined that the fire was intentionally set and a jailhouse informant who said Willingham had confessed to him.

Thirteen years later, in the days leading up to Willingham’s execution, his attorneys sent the governor and the Board of Pardon and Parole a report from Gerald Hurst, a nationally recognized arson expert, saying that Willingham’s conviction was based on erroneous forensic analysis. Documents obtained by the Innocence Project show that state officials received that report but apparently did not act on it. Willingham was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville on February 17, 2004.

In 2009, an arson expert hired by the Texas Forensic Science Commission issued a report finding that experts who testified at Willingham’s trial should have known it was wrong at the time. Days before that expert was set to testify, however, Gov. Rick Perry replaced key members of the panel, delaying the investigation for months.

An investigative report in the September 7, 2009, issue of The New Yorker deconstructs every facet of the state’s case against Willingham. The 16,000-word article by David Grann shows that all of the evidence used against Willingham was invalid, including the forensic analysis, the informant’s testimony, other witness testimony and additional circumstantial evidence.

Too bad today’s media coverage of Perry’s announcement is all about campaign tactics and positioning and fundraising and messaging and voter blocs. It would be nice to learn who he is, what he stands for and what he’s done. It would be interesting if he were made to justify his actions in the Willingham case.

Anita and I watched a video clip several months ago of Perry responding to a reporter’s question by saying Willingham was executed because “he was a bad man.” If we’re killing people for being “bad” now, I suspect more than a few elected officials are biting their nails and squirming in their seats.

This time, can we keep the Texas governor in Texas where he belongs, people?

The Motor City Madman and the Ass from Austin

Kenny Nolan - I Like Dreamin'

Anybody wanna interpret this?

I dreamed I had this nice older couple – a man named Kathy and a woman named Lynn – as neighbors. We lived in the same apartment building in New York or Chicago or some sprawling metropolis with lots of sounds – music and sirens and car horns and screeching and shouting. Everyone kept their canned food on large wooden shelving in the building’s basement, for some reason, and even though there were no locks or numbers or labels or cabinets, no one’s cans were ever stolen or moved or tampered with.

I remember feeling nervous as I prepared to have dinner with Kathy and Lynn for the first time. I remember wondering what I should wear and what I should bring and what I should talk about and how long I should stay. I didn’t want to miss any hints that it was time to call it a night, as I’ve done before, and I wondered if they would be direct like my dad – who, when he became tired, would say to his guests, “Everybody out of the pool” even though there was no pool – or more subtle, like maybe making sure I noticed the wine bottle was empty or getting up and closing the curtains.

I don’t remember anything else.

I thought about visiting one of those online dream interpretation sites but I wouldn’t even know what category Kathy and Lynn fall under. I doubt the dream had hidden meanings about sex or mysticism or animals or betrayal. No one was naked or distressed or ranting and raving. I don’t remember any revolving bookcases or fake fireplaces or giant chattering teeth or bugs climbing up the walls. No one chased me and I don’t recall falling.

Was this a healing dream? Was it a prophetic or epic or signal dream? This was the first time I met Lynn and Kathy so it wasn’t recurring, and it wasn’t a mutual dream because Anita denied having it.

All I know is that it wasn’t a nightmare because there were no debt ceilings or credit downgrades or demands that we cut taxes on corporations or rob from the poor to give to the rich.

Too bad we forget half of a dream five minutes after it ends and 90 percent after ten minutes. If more of my dreams featured Kathy and Lynn and the cans in the basement, I’d want to spend more time asleep.

Johnny Paycheck - Take this job and shove it

Snyder squeezes state employees

I’ve been paying so much attention to the shenanigans in Washington that I missed the latest crap news about Michigan Governor Rick Snyder. Michigan Messenger’s Todd Heywood and others pointed out last month that Snyder is willing to fire state workers if he doesn’t get $145 million in concessions from state employee unions.

State employee union contracts are scheduled to expire September 30. The Governor’s Office has apparently instructed state agencies to sharpen their guillotines if the Nerd doesn’t get his way.

First he slashes funding for schools, cuts taxes for businesses, raises them for poor people, sticks it to consumers by repealing Michigan’s item pricing law, and eliminates representative government by authorizing emergency financial managers to swoop into cities and nullify the will of the people.

He’s also decided to tax pensions; get involved in rewriting Detroit’s city charter; make major changes to our teacher tenure laws; and sign redistricting laws designed to give the GOP a political edge.

And now this.

It makes a lot of sense to send more people packing at a time when our state’s overall unemployment rate stands at 10.5 percent.

Most state employees I know – not all, but most – are dedicated, talented, hard-working professionals who have been making concessions for at least the past decade. Contrary to studies released by right-wing think tanks, many don’t earn what they could make in the private sector. They’re paying more for health insurance. Morale and job satisfaction are low.

Nothing like dangling an axe over public employees’ heads to increase productivity and make sure taxpayers get what they’re paying for, Mr. Snyder.

Too bad the effort to recall the guy fizzled. Organizers – and I use that term loosely – raised just $25,000 of the estimated $1 million a recall election costs and collected fewer than half of the 807,000 signatures they needed by their August 5 deadline; now they’re hoping to keep collecting and place the issue on the ballot next February.

Snyder’s latest move shouldn’t come as a surprise. His business pals are now paying $1 billion less in taxes thanks to him. That missing revenue has got to come from somewhere.

Michael Franti & Spearhead : Time To Go Home