Over The Line In The Health Care Debate

It's the Summer of Discontent for those who want to stop health care reform. Town Hall meetings for Representatives and Senators have been hijacked by protesters who have shouted any real discussion of issues into silence. Town Halls have turned into violent confrontations across the country. Death threats even forced the cancellation of a Town Hall in Vancouver, Washington.

While Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, says that criticizing the protesters shows that Democrats "don't want a debate over the merits," he has it exactly backward. The Town Hall Crybabies aren't wanting to discuss merits -- they use scare tactics (like Sarah Palin's infamous misrepresentation that "death panels" would decide if some one's elderly family member would receive end-of-life care) and refuse to allow anyone to respond to them, most often by shouting "Just Say No" during the discussion.

As we now know, these protests are not some "grassroots" explosion against health care reform. Instead, it is a coordinated, strategic attempt by conservatives to frustrate discussion:
Town Hall Action Memo



"Americans for Prosperity," an anti-health care group that should really be called "Prosperous Americans for Themselves," is organizing a bus tour to take protestors across the country. The "Patients First" group contends:

"We don't want legislators to come between them and their doctor. The relationship that exists between doctors and patients is sacred and should not be interfered with."

Imagine that. I guess Prosperous Americans have never had to get their health care pre-cleared by their insurance company before going to the hospital.

At Y'all Politics, the focus has been on Rep. Travis Childers, who has yet to declare himself on the President's proposal. And this time YP has gone too far. The two-minute video attack on Rep. Childers' visit to Israel is -- yes, I will say it -- Anti-Semitic. What else do you call an ad that plays Jewish music in the background, tells the Representative to "get a souvenir yarmulke" on the trip and shows pictures of orthodox Jews juxtaposed with Americans at Town Hall meetings? (Note: I am attacking the ad, not the website or its owner.)

Sid Salter finds a "liberal double standard" at play in the criticism of the Town Hall Crybabies.

Sorry, folks. This is not just "protest." Lest we forget, disruption of public meetings was part of Hitler's original strategy to undermine democratic debate in Weimar Germany. That's exactly what the "Brown Shirts" were formed to do:

Hitler also organized the Stormtroopers (S.A. or the Brown Shirts) to protect the Nazi meetings and disrupt the meetings of other parties, for example, the Communist Party.

See full article here.

You want a full debate on the merits of health care reform? Let's have one. Let's talk specific logistical issues of delivering high-quality health care to every American. Let's ask how many people have had some or all of their health care costs denied by their insurance company. Let's ask how many people have had to seek pre-clearance of a specific health care procedure by their insurance company. Let's ask how much of an average person's health care invoice is increased in order to pay the hospital, doctor, etc for the uncompensated treatment of uninsured Americans.

You want to scare people by calling health care reform "socialist" or playing Jewish music? Then the word for your tactics is un-American. Sometimes Nancy Pelosi is right.

No Excuse for This Nonsense, Rep. Evans

In a post today on Y'all Politics, Alan Lange calls our attention to, and condemns, this print screed by Rep. Jim Evans regarding the upcoming Mayor's race:

Crisler and Horhn too costly for mayor

By Representative Jim Evans
April 30, 2009
Jackson Advocate

The Capitol Street Gang has decided who their new slaves will be for the May 5th Democratic primary. This gang, consisting of control-minded thugs like Leland Speed and Billy Mounger, as well as Dixie-rats (sic) like Kane Ditto and William Winter, have lined up behind the Minstrel Man, John Horhn, and that cartoon cop, better known as Marshand Crisler. The Capitol Street gang has invested over $600,000 in these two slaves to carry out the mission of turning the city over to them. . . . .

This low-down bunch of robber barrons [sic] and white supremacists cannot be given the keys to City Hall ever again. . . . .

The only thing standing in their way is a strong black person in the mayor’s office. A free person, a person that doesn’t act like a cuffe or a coon in front of the self-proclaimed elite. In order for Jackson to move ahead, we have to be in charge, not black folks that act as gatekeepers or yes-men to this evil power structure.

My two cents: I'm not sure which is worse: the racist diatribe against Sen. Horhn and Councilman Crisler, or the delusional notion that Kane Ditto or William Winter were or are "Dixie-rats" or "white supremacists." Note that this is a written, published piece that took time, effort and thought (if one can call it that), not a slip of the tongue at some heated campaign event or at a bar. Malice aforethought is presumed.

Make no mistake about it: this hit piece is part of a concerted strategy by the incumbent Mayor (Rep. Evans' wife is City Attorney) to blame Mayor Melton's problems on "The Man" and to suggest that the leading new faces for the job are "The Man's men." I have argued before that the Department of Justice's push to re-try Melton is fodder for this plan.

There is one way to repudiate this trash, and that's to throw the incumbent out.

Correction -- Error in Post on Paul Minor case

In yesterday's post about the Fifth Circuit's denial of Paul Minor's renewed motion for release pending appeal, I stated that "[t]he Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied Paul Minor's request for bond pending appeal, then also denied his request for a brief furlough to visit his wife."

As Alan Lange of Y'all Politics has pointed out, that is not correct. The Fifth Circuit denied Minor's first request for release on bond pending appeal, and then more recently, denied a renewed motion for release on bond based on the circumstances of Mrs. Minor's illness.

Y'all Politics' post on the issue is here:
http://yallpolitics.com/index.php/yp/post/15577/#43620

I wish the Court had granted the motion; it seems to me that the original offense for which Minor's bond was revoked in the District Court -- using alcoholic beverages -- has long sense been adequately punished. Serious issues regarding the jurisdiction of the Federal courts have been raised, and although questioning during appellate argument is not an indicator of the ultimate result of any case, it appears that, at least, the judges on the Fifth Circuit panel are concerned about this question.

However, my statement about what the Fifth Circuit denied was erroneous. I regret the error and stand corrected.

Johnny-Come-Lately Don't Know Much About History: Why Judge Buffington Was Right

I have to laugh (smiling isn't enough) at the conservatives who are SO up in arms about Chancellor Larry Buffington's appointment of former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz to a post as Simpson County Youth Court Defender.

For example, a "Simpson County resident" named Tom Bruckner has announced that he is filing a complaint with the Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance against Chancellor Buffington. The right-wing (but highly entertaining) blog Y'all Politics reports Brucker's screed verbatim here:

http://yallpolitics.com/index.php/yp/post/simpson_county_resident_to_file_complaint_against_judge_larry_buffington/#When:16:38:00Z

Among other things, Bruckner says:

I attended the Board of Supervisors meeting in Simpson County on February 11 and feel obligated to make a formal complaint against Judge Larry Buffington. His actions warranted a complaint when he used his power as a judge to make an unnecessary appointment, just so one of his friends could earn state retirement.

Put aside for the moment that Judicial Performance complaints are supposed to be confidential (a requirement honored in the breach more than the observance).

ALSO put aside this writer's experience that the Commission never targets judges in the "in" group, and has a history of racially disproportionate prosecutions.

My question today is simple: where, oh where, have Citizen Bruckner and Y'all Politics been? Many of us have, FOR YEARS, attempted to change the system which allows local judges to appoint their public defenders. It creates a situation where the defender feels more obligated to the judge(s) than to his or her own client.

The most recent example has been the debacle with the Mississippi Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel under the leadership of former director Robert Ryan. The Mississippi Supreme Court had originally appointed Jack Williams from Oxford to head that office. But when Williams insisted on having sufficient time to prepare capital post-conviction petitions, then Chief Justice Edwin Lloyd Pittman fired Williams and appointed Ryan (without ever advertising for other applicants).

Think Ryan got the message? He filed numerous post-conviction petitions that merely copied and pasted from the prisoner's prior appeals, attached hearsay affidavits from investigators and paralegals instead of from the witnesses they interviewed, fired pro bono investigators who had found real evidence of mental illness and instead filed spurious mental retardation claims without evidence, and in a case where the client WAS mentally retarded, rested his case without calling a psychologist or other mental health expert. "Just going through the motions" doesn't begin to cover it. "Good enough for government work?" Not.

Note: the JFP story I wrote about the execution of Earl Berry, and Ryan's woeful work, is at http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/index.php/comments/the_execution_of_earl_wesley_berry/

The JFP's Ronni Mott did her own excellent reporting on the subject of MOCPCC:http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/index.php/site/comments/dereliction_of_duty_070908/

Did Y'all Politics say ANYTHING about the fact that Ryan evidently cared more about pleasing the Chief Justice who could hire and fire him, than about his clients' welfare? Did Citizen Bruckner? If they did, I didn't see or hear it.

Another example: under Governor Kirk Fordice (of all people), the Mississippi Legislature created a State Public Defender Commission, which was charged to implement a statewide public defender system with the lawyers appointed by a neutral, non-political, non-judicial body. Just think: lawyers for indigent defendants appointed on the basis of merit, not by fear or favor. The PROSECUTORS Association howled after the bill was passed, and succeeded in having it repealed the next session (under Governor Musgrove).

Did the conservatives complain then? I was there, and unless I'm deaf, I didn't hear it.

So clearly, then, our Johnny-Come-Lately Citizen Bruckner and his favorite red-meat blog don't care about neutral appointments of indigent defenders. They're just trying to gore the ox of their choice.

On the other hand, if Citizen Bruckner means what he says, maybe he could persuade his legislators to re-institute the Public Defender Commission. I'm sure Y'all Politics will endorse the idea . . . right?

Until that day comes (watch for the tell-tale outdoor hockey rinks in Hades), Judge Buffington has the prerogative to appoint the lawyer(s) of his choice to be youth court public defenders.

And it seems to me that a former Supreme Court Justice is more than qualified for the post.