Slow as thick ketchup

The long-awaited public corruption trial of Buncombe County’s former sheriff, Bobby Medford, has commenced with a tedious day of jury selection. Seventy potential jurors were called from throughout the Western District with at least one traveling 150 miles to make a court appearance.

Judge Thomas Selby Ellis III, who refers to himself as “Tim,” announced at the outset that he had excused one juror due to recent serious medical issues. After introductory comments and delivering a brief overview of the federal charges, Ellis sent the jury pool to a meeting room to complete multi-page questionnaires and accorded them an hour for the task.

After an ensuing lunch break, the prosecutors and defense attorneys were handed thick folios containing copies of the completed questionnaires while Ellis was presumably reviewing them in chambers. At 2 p.m. the trial resumed. Ten jurors were dismissed out of hand with agreement from all parties, based on their written answers, and the judge commenced one-by-one interviews with the remaining 59.

Ellis questioned each potential juror to clarify answers, to ascertain whether each felt she or he could evaluate the evidence presented in the court room without bias, and, importantly, whether each entertained any strong feelings about gambling or video poker.

At 5:40 p.m. proceedings were concluded for the day with only 25 interviews complete. Jury selection will continue this morning at 9 a.m.

“Now it begins. Let it begin.”

Today I’ll be in a federal courtroom covering the trial of Bobby Medford. My intent is to follow this one gavel-to-gavel and file frequent updates here. At the same time, this is the final week of my campaign for county commission. Hoo boy!

Judge Thomas Selby Ellis III has promised that jury selection will be swift and that opening arguments will begin before adjournment today. Back atcha later.

(The title of this post seems appropriate to me, excerpted from John Lennon’s throw-away dittie “Clean-up Time.”"

Who shot the sheriff? Medford and me

Progressive groups endorse candidates on WNC ballot

Often the best way to select candidates with whom you are unfamiliar is to look at who is supporting the candidates. The following endorsements are by generally progressive groups in the county and state,

Buncombe County Board of Commissioners
Cecil Bothwell (endorsed Obama early)
(endorsed by National Organization for Women, Sierra Club, Buncombe County Green Party, Democracy for America-Asheville, Progressive Democrats of America)

Holly Jones
(endorsed by Sierra Club, Democracy for America-Asheville, Progressive Democrats of America)
***
U.S. Senate Jim Neal (endorsed Obama early)
(endorsed by Democracy for America-Asheville, Blue America PAC, Black Political Caucus of Charlotte-Mecklenburg
***
Governor - Richard Moore (first governor candidate to endorse Obama)
(endorsed by Equality NC
***
Lieutenant Governor - Dan Besse
(endorsed by Sierra Club, Democracy for America-Asheville, Durham People’s Alliance, Progressive Democrats of North Carolina, ccnc.jpg Conservation Council of North Carolina, Sierra Club)
—-OR—
Lieutenant Governor - Hampton Dellinger
(endorsed by NC AFL-CIO, Char-Meck Black Political Caucus, NARAL, Durham People’s Alliance)
***
Auditor- Beth A. Wood
(endorsed by The North Carolina State AFL-CIO, Durham People’s Alliance Political Action Committee, N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers)
***
Commissioner of Insurance - Wayne Goodwin
(endorsed by Democracy for America-Asheville, Equality NC, Black Political Caucus of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina Association of Educators, N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers, United Transportation Union, The Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People)
***
Commissioner of Labor - Robin Anderson
(endorsed by N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers, Black Political Caucus of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association)
***
Superintendent of Public Instruction -June Atkinson
(endorsed by AFL-CIO of N.C., NARAL North Carolina, Black Political Caucus of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association, Simkins PAC, Planned Parenthood Action Fund of Central North Carolina, Equality NC)
***
State Treasurer - Senator Janet Cowell
(endorsed by Equality NC, NARAL, Sierra Club, Democracy for America, Conservation Council of NC, Black Political Caucus of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, AFL-CIO of N.C., N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers, Emily’s List, NASW -PACE )
***

(Back of the ballot, non-partisan judgeships)

Court of Appeals - James Wynn
(endorsed by North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers Endorsement, North Carolina Association of Educators Endorsement, Wake County Voter Coalition, The Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, Raleigh Wake Citizens Association, NC Police Benevolent Association, Black Political Caucus of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Equality North Carolina, AFL-CIO)

Court of Appeals - Kristin Ruth
(endorsed by North Carolina Association of Educators, North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys, North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers,North Carolina AFL-CIO, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Black Political Caucus, Raleigh Wake Citizens Association, Durham People’s Alliance, Equality NC PAC, Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, Simkins PAC -Greensboro)

Why I endorsed Obama

GM crops fail their own test

If you’re among the many gardeners and farmers who have entertained suspicions that corporate claims for Genetically Modified crops were overblown, congrats. You were right. Recent research has established that crop yields fall when farmers switch to GM seeds. The only thing that gets greener is corporate profits.

Exposed: The Great GM Crops Myth

By Geoffrey Lean

Genetic modification actually cuts the productivity of crops, an authoritative new study shows, undermining repeated claims that a switch to the controversial technology is needed to solve the growing world food crisis.

Read more, click here.

Michael Moore endorses Obama

My Vote’s for Obama (if I could vote)
by Michael Moore

April 21st, 2008

Friends,

I don’t get to vote for President this primary season. I live in Michigan. The party leaders (both here and in D.C.) couldn’t get their act together, and thus our votes will not be counted.

So, if you live in Pennsylvania, can you do me a favor? Will you please cast my vote — and yours — on Tuesday for Senator Barack Obama?

I haven’t spoken publicly ’til now as to who I would vote for, primarily for two reasons: 1) Who cares?; and 2) I (and most people I know) don’t give a rat’s ass whose name is on the ballot in November, as long as there’s a picture of JFK and FDR riding a donkey at the top of the ballot, and the word “Democratic” next to the candidate’s name.

Seriously, I know so many people who don’t care if the name under the Big “D” is Dancer, Prancer, Clinton or Blitzen. It can be Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Barry Obama or the Dalai Lama.

Well, that sounded good last year, but over the past two months, the actions and words of Hillary Clinton have gone from being merely disappointing to downright disgusting. I guess the debate last week was the final straw. I’ve watched Senator Clinton and her husband play this game of appealing to the worst side of white people, but last Wednesday, when she hurled the name “Farrakhan” out of nowhere, well that’s when the silly season came to an early end for me. She said the “F” word to scare white people, pure and simple. Of course, Obama has no connection to Farrakhan. But, according to Senator Clinton, Obama’s pastor does — AND the “church bulletin” once included a Los Angeles Times op-ed from some guy with Hamas! No, not the church bulletin!

This sleazy attempt to smear Obama was brilliantly explained the following night by Stephen Colbert. He pointed out that if Obama is supported by Ted Kennedy, who is Catholic, and the Catholic Church is led by a Pope who was in the Hitler Youth, that can mean only one thing: OBAMA LOVES HITLER!

Yes, Senator Clinton, that’s how you sounded. Like you were nuts. Like you were a bigot stoking the fires of stupidity. How sad that I would ever have to write those words about you. You have devoted your life to good causes and good deeds. And now to throw it all away for an office you can’t win unless you smear the black man so much that the superdelegates cry “Uncle (Tom)” and give it all to you.

But that can’t happen. You cast your die when you voted to start this bloody war. When you did that you were like Moses who lost it for a moment and, because of that, was prohibited from entering the Promised Land.

How sad for a country that wanted to see the first woman elected to the White House. That day will come — but it won’t be you. We’ll have to wait for the current Democratic governor of Kansas to run in 2016 (you read it here first!).

There are those who say Obama isn’t ready, or he’s voted wrong on this or that. But that’s looking at the trees and not the forest. What we are witnessing is not just a candidate but a profound, massive public movement for change. My endorsement is more for Obama The Movement than it is for Obama the candidate.

That is not to take anything away from this exceptional man. But what’s going on is bigger than him at this point, and that’s a good thing for the country. Because, when he wins in November, that Obama Movement is going to have to stay alert and active. Corporate America is not going to give up their hold on our government just because we say so. President Obama is going to need a nation of millions to stand behind him.

I know some of you will say, ‘Mike, what have the Democrats done to deserve our vote?’ That’s a damn good question. In November of ‘06, the country loudly sent a message that we wanted the war to end. Yet the Democrats have done nothing. So why should we be so eager to line up happily behind them?

I’ll tell you why. Because I can’t stand one more friggin’ minute of this administration and the permanent, irreversible damage it has done to our people and to this world. I’m almost at the point where I don’t care if the Democrats don’t have a backbone or a kneebone or a thought in their dizzy little heads. Just as long as their name ain’t “Bush” and the word “Republican” is not beside theirs on the ballot, then that’s good enough for me.

I, like the majority of Americans, have been pummeled senseless for 8 long years. That’s why I will join millions of citizens and stagger into the voting booth come November, like a boxer in the 12th round, all bloodied and bruised with one eye swollen shut, looking for the only thing that matters — that big “D” on the ballot.

Don’t get me wrong. I lost my rose-colored glasses a long time ago.

It’s foolish to see the Democrats as anything but a nicer version of a party that exists to do the bidding of the corporate elite in this country. Any endorsement of a Democrat must be done with this acknowledgement and a hope that one day we will have a party that’ll represent the people first, and laws that allow that party an equal voice.

Finally, I want to say a word about the basic decency I have seen in Mr. Obama. Mrs. Clinton continues to throw the Rev. Wright up in his face as part of her mission to keep stoking the fears of White America. Every time she does this I shout at the TV, “Say it, Obama! Say that when she and her husband were having marital difficulties regarding Monica Lewinsky, who did she and Bill bring to the White House for ’spiritual counseling?’ THE REVEREND JEREMIAH WRIGHT!”

But no, Obama won’t throw that at her. It wouldn’t be right. It wouldn’t be decent. She’s been through enough hurt. And so he remains silent and takes the mud she throws in his face.

That’s why the crowds who come to see him are so large. That’s why he’ll take us down a more decent path. That’s why I would vote for him if Michigan were allowed to have an election.

But the question I keep hearing is… ‘can he win? Can he win in November?’ In the distance we hear the siren of the death train called the Straight Talk Express. We know it’s possible to hear the words “President McCain” on January 20th. We know there are still many Americans who will never vote for a black man. Hillary knows it, too. She’s counting on it.

Pennsylvania, the state that gave birth to this great country, has a chance to set things right. It has not had a moment to shine like this since 1787 when our Constitution was written there. In that Constitution, they wrote that a black man or woman was only “three fifths” human. On Tuesday, the good people of Pennsylvania have a chance for redemption.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MichaelMoore.com
MMFlint@aol.com

Times investigation blows lid off Pentagon propaganda in U.S.

A New York Times investigation has exposed the fraudulent activity of “military analysts” employed by the mainstream media to push the White House and Pentagon agenda in their misguided “war on terror.”

No. Really? The U.S. government propagandizing its own citizens? Peel me from the pavement.

An excerpt:

” Analysts have been wooed in hundreds of private briefings with senior military leaders, including officials with significant influence over contracting and budget matters, records show. They have been taken on tours of Iraq and given access to classified intelligence. They have been briefed by officials from the White House, State Department and Justice Department, including Mr. Cheney, Alberto R. Gonzales and Stephen J. Hadley. In turn, members of this group have echoed administration talking points, sometimes even when they suspected the information was false or inflated. Some analysts acknowledge they suppressed doubts because they feared jeopardizing their access.”

To read more, click here.

Obama Ahead By Too Much, Leading Bloggers Call For His Withdrawal

With Barack Obama surging in the Gallup tracker, which shows him up by 10 points over Hillary Clinton and 2 over John McCain, influential voices renewed their calls for him to withdraw across this site today.

Great fun. To read the rest of this one, click here.

Testing the currents of hope

by Mike Hopping

In any list of defining American values, hope and ambition have to rank high. European colonists and later immigrants landed on these shores hoping for a new and better life. Where they’d come from, the social order was well-established. Here they had a chance to remake it.

Hopeful ambition wrested the continent from indigenous inhabitants and built empires on every scale. We authored the book on modern free trade and created the most powerful military in history. The United States didn’t invent the law of the jungle, but American-style initiative continues to employ and even admire ruthlessness in the pursuit of private interests.

Former president Bill Clinton recently defended this trait before a West Virginia audience: “If a politician doesn’t wanna get beat up, he shouldn’t run for office. If a football player doesn’t want to get tackled or want the risk of an occasional clip he shouldn’t put the pads on. . . . Let’s just saddle up and have an argument. What’s the matter with that? That’s what America’s about, right?”

History is in no position to argue with him. But it was a different sort of hopeful ambition General Omar Bradley spoke of when he said, “It is to the United States that all freemen look for the light and the hope of the world. Unless we dedicate ourselves completely to this struggle, unless we combat hunger with food, fear with trust, suspicion with faith, fraud with justice - and threats with power, nations will surrender to the futility, the hopelessness, the panic on which wars feed.”

To read the rest, click here.