But here’s a great Olbermann segment on health care:

Well, well. An online journal which dubs itself the American Thinker has published a piece which purportedly proves that the stimulus package has caused unemployment to be worse than it would have been without the stimulus. This, the author claims, establishes the “fact” that we are experiencing the “Obama recession.”

To accomplish this piece of legerdemain, they published a graph which illustrates the unemployment figures Obama’s team projected if there were no stimulus bill, and the figures they projected if the plan went forward. (One has to accept on faith that the two graphs are, in fact, those of the administration.) Then the author(s) plot the actual unemployment stats for recent months and argue that since the jobless rate is higher than Obama’s team predicted, he must have caused it.

Uh-huh.

There are so many problems with this logic that it’s hard to know where to start, but the most glaring bit of nuttiness is that the graph shows that the steep rise in unemployment started long before Obama became the front-runner for the Democratic nomination. Therefore we must conclude that it was his candidacy which caused unemployment to climb.

My own conclusion, based on the evidence in this article, the rantings of Rush, the vile self-justification of Cheney, and all the rest, is that Obama is having a very negative effect on the mental health of right wing ideologues. He’s driving them nuts. They all clearly need medication (well, not Rush, it didn’t work out very well last time).

And the tragedy of this is that we are supposed to believe that we can have a civil debate about issues in this country, with two (or more) sides offering reasonable arguments that lead to the best outcome for all. Instead, one wing of the American experiment has gone utterly looney-tunes.

Advocates for justice staged an international day of action, May 19, to raise awareness of the plight of Troy Davis, a 40-year-old man who has spent the past 18 years on death row in Georgia for a crime he evidently did not commit. Davis was on the scene when a law enforcement officer was murdered and was convicted on the basis of witness testimony which has since been recanted. Jurors have come forward to insist they were misinformed about evidence in the case. No weapon was ever found. Furthermore, one of the witnesses who testified against Davis is a principal suspect in the case.

In Asheville, more than three dozen people gathered at the Brooks-Howell Home, for a candlelight service and vigil Tuesday evening. Dr. Kiran Sigmon, a local physician and friend of Davis, led the service, describing her family’s contact with Davis over several years, and reading a profoundly moving letter the inmate had sent to his supporters around the world last November. Sigmon’s daughters participated: Joy played a quiet piano accompaniment and read a list of states which still embrace capital punishment, together with the number of inmates on each state’s death row; Lee lit a candle of hope for each state as the names were read. The ceremony was interspersed with song, “How can I keep from singing?” and poetry.

Yesterday the NC Senate approved the Racial Justice Act on the second reading but added a provision that will make it easier to execute people in this state. The amendment was added in apparent reaction to the NC Medical Association rule prohibiting doctors from participating in executions. (Anyone recall, “First, do no harm” ?)

The Republican majority on the NC Supreme Court ruled last week that the medical group could not impose penalties on its members if they helped kill people. Their convoluted ruling said, in effect: Lethal injection is not a medical procedure, therefore it is appropriate for the state to require a doctor to oversee the execution.

Huh?

Well, the pro-execution majority in the Senate has now moved to enshrine that rule in the Racial Justice Act. If the bill passes as now written, we can only hope that the doctors themselves will simply refuse to participate.

This says it all. We need to pass the NC Racial Justice Act.

It’s one of those relatively meaningless polls that anyone with too much time on their hands can game by deleting cookies and re-voting. But for what it’s worth, click here.

The filmmakers believe post-production work will be complete this summer. Click on the title below to see a short trailer.

On Coal River Trailer from On Coal River on Vimeo.

Donations, however small (or large) are welcome. I wrote them a check the other night at a fundraiser because I believe this story needs to be told.
Click here to help them out.