Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

The first thing they noticed is that their cats were missing.

The thing about a housecat, of course, is that it’s difficult to know for sure if it’s really missing, or just out having a good time. So, it was at least half a year before the residents of Frenchtown Road in Trumbull, Connecticut came together and realized their common problem.

As the neighbors talked with each other about the loss of their pets, they also began to share stories of the strange noises they had been hearing at night. “I swear that it’s just like that sound they made in the movie Bringing Up Baby for the jaguar,” explains one resident, who asked that her name not be made public.

A few described having seen something that could have made the sounds, something that was the size of a large dog, but moved like a cat, with ears that stood up straight, with tufts on the end. Rumors began of strange breeding programs at the Beardsley Park Zoological Gardens, just a half-mile to the east of Frenchtown Road, which houses multiple species of wild cats. The purpose was said to be the creation a hybrid between the specimens in the American Lynx and the Amur Tiger, and perhaps other species as well.

Could one of the offspring of this program have gotten loose from the park, or been purposefully disposed of in attempt to cover up the unethical project? Could the creature survive? There is a large park on the northeastern side of Frenchtown Road, and Lake Forest offers an easy supply of water. Many previously wild animals, such as coyotes and foxes, now make suburban areas their homes.

At this point, the neighbors are unsure about what happened to their cats, whether they were eaten by the creature of Frenchtown Road, or were captured and made part of the breeding program that produced the hellcat that haunts their park in the first place. The staff at Beardsley Park Zoological Gardens have not issued a statement on the matter.

I don’t subscribe to cable television — it’s a lot of money to pay every month for a lot of commercial-laden dreck. I don’t watch the commercial networks over the air on television either for the same reason. But I do watch PBS, and so do my kids, and I value a good number of their programs. I didn’t want to lose the ability to watch PBS in the February 2009 switchover from analog to digital signals. I also noticed that the PBS station here in Columbus, Ohio has been broadcasting three channels with digital signals. One of those channels broadcasts Ohio state legislative deliberation along with a local civic and political talk show and the occasional speech or public forum. That’s a service of great benefit to me as a political blogger, and I wanted to take advantage.

So off I went to DTV2009.gov and got my complimentary Department of Commerce coupons for $40 off a converter box that would allow me to watch digital television on my analog TV. I bought a converter, which after the coupon only cost me $19.99. It easily installed, and that’s nice.

But then I discovered that even though I live very close to downtown Columbus itself, my indoor antenna can’t pick up PBS digital stations! None of the PBS stations come in. That is a major bummer on a personal level — and it also makes me realize on a social level that if I can’t pick up the PBS digital station and I’m living right here in central Columbus, there must be many people also in the city or living outside the city who receive PBS analog signals and will lose that PBS station come February 2009.

From the vantage point of me and many people like me, the conversion from analog to digital television isn’t an upgrade — it’s a blackout.

P.S. Anybody have any ideas about how I can boost the signal inexpensively? I rent and don’t have permission (or frankly the money) to attach a big outdoor antenna.

The presidential primary in North Carolina comes soon, in less than a month, on May 6. So, is it too late for you to register to vote in the primary? Not at all. The voter registration deadline is this month.

That’s an invitation for election manipulation.

North Carolina’s primary is semi-open, meaning that independents can vote in either the Democratic or Republican primary, just by showing up at a polling station on the day of the election and saying which party’s primary they want to vote in.

That’s bad enough, but the election deadline just weeks before the North Carolina presidential primary is practically an invitation for people of one political party to re-register as members of the other party in order to meddle in the other party’s election. This year, with John McCain already selected as the nominee of the Republican Party, there is no reason for North Carolina Republicans to go vote in their own party primary.

Instead, those North Carolina Republicans, along with the state’s mostly right wing independents, can flood into the Democratic presidential primary, and vote for the candidate that matches their values. There’s even the possibility that Democratic voters could be outnumbered by Republicans and independents.

Why would any state arrange for such a corrupt primary election system?

Let’s put this plainly: Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius has saved a huge part of the United States from filth.

The air that blows across Kansas eventually blows over most of the continental United States. If Kansas keeps that air clean, then the millions of Americans who live downwind from Kansas. If Kansas spews filth into the air, then the millions of Americans who live downwind from Kansas will breathe that filth.

On Friday, Governor Sebelius vetoed legislation that would have allowed the spewing of filth into America’s air, and into America’s lungs, from new dirty coal-fired power plants that would have been built in Kansas.

Thank you, on behalf of downwind America, to Kathleen Sebelius, for protecting us from this filth.

Daniel Gardner of Oberlin, Ohio is cool. George Luna of Atascadero, California is cool. John Bork of Grafton, Iowa is cool.

Is your mayor cool? You can check at Cool Mayors.

A mayor is counted as cool if he or she has committed the municipal government of his or her city or village to reducing greenhouse gas emissions through the Cities for Climate Protection Campaign (CCP) or the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. In other words, these mayors are trying to get around the inaction of the Bush White House in confronting climate change, and working to make things better where they live.

Cool.

Barack Obama has got the endorsement of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The hometown newspaper explains,

Who wants to relive the soap operas of the 1990s?

Bill Clinton says his wife excelled at “making positive changes in other people’s lives.” Consider that construction. Then listen as Obama talks of bringing people together to change their own lives.

America needs a fresh start. Barack Obama is the Democrat to provide it.

Ohio Treasurer Richard Cordray has also endorsed Barack Obama, and was out in Youngstown campaigning for him yesterday.

Obama has the endorsement of Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman too.

Of course, the endorsement that matters is the endorsement of Ohio’s voters, and that won’t be given for another two weeks.

We’ve been writing about the Protect America Act here at Irregular Times now for about six months, so our regular readers know the danger of the law, which allows functionally unrestricted electronic spying against American citizens by the U.S. government. The FISA Amendments Act, which would renew the Protect America Act, and make its spy powers permanent, is now being debated in the Senate, but an equivalent law, only lacking telecommunications corporate immunity, has already been passed.

Though that House vote is done with, there still is something that can be done about it. Punish the Democrats who betrayed the American people by voting in favor of government spying against us.

In Georgia, one of the congressional Democrats who has been targeted by outraged Democratic voters is Representative Jim Marshall. Jim Marshall has a long record of collaboration with the Bush Republicans. He voted for Patriot Act, and the Military Commissions Act, and for starting the Iraq War too. Whenever a vital vote comes up in Congress, Jim Marshall falls in with the failed ideology of George W. Bush.

Democrat Robert Nowak has stood up to challenge Jim Marshall in this year’s congressional primary. But, is Nowak a better Democrat than Jim Marshall? Oh, you bet he is.

Here’s what Robert Nowak has to say about Jim Marshall’s support for the Protect America Act, and its programs of government spying against law-abiding American citizens:

“The latest demand from President Bush, that the US Congress shield telecommunication providers from liability for breaking federal law, is a real step backwards in the important mission of authorizing an effective intelligence surveillance program. Congress should not give blanket immunity for any unlawful acts, and it should renew its call for increased oversight of the telecom providers that may have broken federal surveillance laws.

Further, the US Congress must not budge in insisting that any surveillance program with the capability of eavesdropping on US citizens be subject to court oversight.

Congress should insist on codifying in the statute a court order requirement for any surveillance done on American citizens.

This last August, Representative Marshall voted for a temporary bill that allowed for expanded wiretapping and surveillance on Americans without a court order. Allowing that regime to continue is unacceptable.”

There’s an interesting story about people seeing lights in the sky in Texas. Some say that they’re alien space ships. Others say that they saw military jets chasing the lights.

MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network, is on the scene, “investigating”. Helpfully, Kenneth Cherry, the leader of the Texas chapter of MUFON, announced to reporters that “We believe there is some sort of phenomenon in action here.”

What an expert opinion. A phenomenon? A phenomenon in action?

You mean that something happened?

Thanks for the insight, MUFON. We none of us could have figured that out. Keep up the good work.

Thanks to the Associated Press too, for reporting that essential insight.

Here’s a great indication of the difference between the current state of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party: During the Iowa caucuses, the web site of the Iowa Democratic Party is running smooth and fast. The web site of the Republican Party of Iowa, however, is running as slow as slugs, taking minutes to load, when it loads at all.

Take note, voters, of which political party is better able to execute a plan.

I’ve been keeping track of the news from Atlanta about their drought, and how there’s a state of emergency, and how everyone there is getting in a tizzy about. You know when it’s going to be news for me? It’ll be news for me when Coca-Cola, headquartered in Atlanta, stops producing its beverages in that region.

Until Coca Cola shuts down its bottling plants so that ordinary people can drink water without worrying about it, there is no real water shortage, and no story worth paying attention to.

This weekend, the Roman Catholic Church diocese for Buffalo and Western New York announced that a large number of their churches would be closed as part of a program entitled, “Journey in Faith and Grace.” Non-Catholics may not be familiar with that phrase, which comes from a Latin term that can also be translated as “A Whole Bunch of Our Priests Had Sex With Little Boys and then We Had To Settle in Court and so No One Wants To Give Our Churches Money Any More”.

Monster storms have nothing on scantily clad women.

I’m trapped in the Minneapolis St. Paul Airport because we’re under a tornado warning. Apparently, someone has seen a tornado moving very close by, and we have just been ordered away from all windows and doors. The airport emergency plan has been activated

Nonetheless, across the hall from me, at the Northshore News stand, a man has just bought an issue of Maxim magazine, which this month features a woman named Erica Durance wearing an outfit made out of black, translucent material.

T&A beats a twister. Smackdown.

A Tornado Hits Brooklyn

The violent rainstorms that hit My Fair City yesterday morning including a little package that no one expected: an F2 tornado. Now you know what those things are like and can do in the Midwest and Southwest. Consider that Brooklyn, alone, has 3 1/2 million people.

Imagine the effect if this thing had hit Manhattan, with its hundreds of towers of glass and steel.

Such violent storms are a predictable result of global warming.

RED DAVE

Word comes this evening that Republican Congressman Ray Lahood from Illinois will retire at the end of 2008. Representative Lahood is often described as a moderate Republican, and that’s half true. In our system of legislative rankings, Representative Lahood earns a rating of 42 out of 100 in our progressive scale. That’s not very good, but it’s better than most Republicans. On the other hand, Ray Lahood has a 60 out of 100 rating on our right wing scale. That’s not really a moderate position.

Nonethless, Ray Lahood’s district is a swing district in the sense that the number of voters who tend to vote Republican is pretty close to the number of voters who tend to vote Democrat. In the current anti-Republican mood, that makes it a reasonable assumption that the 18th congressional district of Illinois will go to a Democrat. In fact, it’s that likelihood that convinced Ray Lahood that another campaign for re-election might not be worth it.

The question is, which Democrat will replace Ray Lahood? No Democrat has announced an intention to run in the district yet. Any guesses?

I’m in New York City: It’s a 20 inch steam pipe. There is a geyser of steam and mud.

It’s near Grand Central Terminal.

It’s a mess but no panic.

#4, #5 AND #6 subway trains are bypassing Grand Central, but service is not interrupted.

Probably, commuter trains are halted and incoming trains are halted.

RED DAVE

Ever heard of the Yowie? People looking to gain tourism dollars for Batesman Bay are hoping you will soon.

They’re saying that the photograph you see here shows the Yowie, a wild Australian ape-man cryptid. The Yowie is supposed to be the Australian equivalent of Bigfoot or the Yeti.

They say that this photograph of the Yowie is real evidence of its existence.

If you believe that, then let me give you some more information: In the photograph you see below of Barack Obama, you can see the Loch Ness monster in the background.

Don’t see it? You’re just not looking hard enough.

Flipping around through the world associated with Irregular Times, I found a new corner today - Progressive Bumper Sticker. It’s a web site that is what it sounds like, but is more than what you might think.

It’s not just a catalog of progressive bumper stickers. In fact, it doesn’t even seem to be quite that yet - not enough entries.

Besides, the bumper stickers are from all over the web - different systems like Zazzle and CafePress, and different stores within those systems.

The idea of the web site is interesting to me. They don’t just put in a link to a progressive bumper sticker. They discuss the concepts behind the bumper sticker design.

It’s kind of like reading the cards of text on the wall next to the paintings in an art museum, except there seems to be a lot more relevance to these ideas, as they overtly political, and overtly progressive… or, well, liberal, as I would describe it.

It’s not a big sweeping site purporting to unite the masses behind a new movement of enlightenment and liberty and super genius charismatic leadership, though Progressive Bumper Sticker does good in its own way. It’s just a web site that looks at an unexplored niche, and tells what it sees. Simple.

Vroom, vroom.

Here’s a link for the Southern readers of Irregular Times: Atlanta Progressive News. I know, it sounds a bit like an oxymoron, but it isn’t. The truth is that Atlanta is a mix of Northerners and Southerners, plus people from elsewhere in the country, and so there is, finally, a real local struggle to establish a genuinely progressive presence.

Atlanta Progressive News doesn’t always go as far as progressives outside Georgia might expect it to go, but hey, at least it’s a step in the right direction. Georgia still isn’t Vermont, but some people are trying to move the culture ahead, at long last.

Does anyone else have some local progressive links to suggest?

You’d think that, 20 years plus, we would have gotten past the stage of AIDS scare talk. Yet, in Ithaca, New York today, in lieu of a Halloween trick or treat, there’s going to be a lecture on AIDS - and people will have to pay to get in.

Maybe there’s something I don’t get, but bringing Dr. Len Horowitz into Club Euphoria on Halloween, from 6-8 PM, the height of trick or treating time, to “share his extensive knowledge about vaccines and reveal with thorough, scientific documentation the true reasons why we now have an epidemic of AIDS the world over”, charging $10 to enter, doesn’t seem like a real winner of an activist idea…

…unless it’s all a costume gag in poor taste.

I saw this linked from one web site I frequent to another that I visit less often, and I felt it was worth showing to everyone here. When I saw where this happened, I arched an eyebrow but in truth I wasn’t surprised. I have the misfortune of living in the same state so I know quite well what these people are like.

But, without farther adieu, I present you with the story written by Chester Smalkowski along with a foreword from the American Atheist News editor.

The original post can be found here.

JUST ANOTHER SALEM
by Chester Smalkowski

Web Posted: July 8, 2006

From the AANEWS Editor: Below, we are reproducing, “as is” and
un-edited, the account circulating on the internet and the
democraticunderground.com web site penned by Chester Smalkowski and
aptly titled “Just Another Salem.”

It is his personal story about the ordeal he and has family have been
swept up in after their daughter, Nicole, refused to join a prayer
circle during a basketball game at their local high school. Nicole,
instead, recited the “godless” Pledge of Allegiance.

From there, events went out of control. Chester Smalkowski and family
members attempted to hold a conversation with the high school
principal. That turned into a physical altercation, Mr. Smalkowski was
arrested under a battery of charges, and the authorities offered to
dismiss the case if the Atheist family fled the state.

monthly special American Atheists joined in the subsequent criminal
case, and Chester Smalkowski — battling incredible “Bible Belt” odds
in the courtroom — was found innocent of the charges. News of that
can be found on the American Atheists web site..

Edwin Kagin (ekagin@atheists.org), National Legal Director for
American Atheists, is preparing a federal action which will touch on a
number of issues in the Smalkowski case including violations of this
Atheist family’s civil rights.

Chester Smalkowski vented his thoughts about this experience on a
blog. AANEWS is reproducing this story for the benefit of our readers,
unedited and in its original format. This conveys the honest,
emotional, “from the heart” sentiments of Mr. Smalkowski, and
constitutes one man’s recollection of an agonizing experience due to
religious intolerance and fanaticism.

American Atheists welcomes support so that we may continue our efforts
on behalf of Chester Smalkowski and his family.

There are lessons to be learned. Perhaps the most important, though,
is that “it can happen here,” in America, in the year 2006.

— Conrad Goeringer,
AANEWS - American Atheists

JUST ANOTHER SALEM

The bailiff took the piece of paper from the foreman of the jury and
handed it to the Judge. He opened the paper and while staring at it he
nodded. The courtroom was silent and the jury stared straight ahead.

I have been in many situations where my life or limb were on the
line but I was still in the game and had a hand to play. But not here,
here I just sat waiting for the verdict.

Though I worried about being sent away for five years on bogus
charges, my dread was the Christian mob. They knew I must be found
guilty in order to slow or stop the civil case being filed in Federal
court. Since the start of my daughter’s stand against the public
schools disregard for the law of the land, it was imperative to run us
out of the county to make any civil action non valid. With me in jail
for five years running my family out would be a whole lot easier, or
so they might have thought.

The courtroom was packed for it is the Bible belt. There was no
love in this courtroom.

The loving Christians brought their children to hear the verdict.
They brought the town. They brought ministers. I even saw another
Judge in the back of the room. The Judge who in an earlier hearing
while slapping an inch thick stack of papers on his bench saying with
a list of witnesses this big you had better be a good boy. It was lies
then, it was lies now and the DA knew it! (She was later forced to
hand over a written statement she denied for over a year existed!)
People prayed openly for a conviction. Many holding their bibles.
During the trial the Prosecutions side of the courtroom was packed.
Only my son and Edwin Kagin’s wife, Helen sat behind me, but now there
was not enough room in the whole courtroom.

Yet now the so-called victim, the 325 lbs victim, the ex Marine,
hurrahs, was nowhere to be found. Neither was the woman assistant
district attorney anywhere to be found. Whose vindictive, bogus case
this was from the start.

What sort of place is this?

Well this is not the place for a little debate in a coffee shop
with the sweet salt air rolling up from San Francisco bay. This is a
place where the children write on their schoolbooks the south will
rise again. This is a place where they say that black people caused
slavery! Where they burn rock CD’s. Mormons are the tools of Satan.
That my daughter is gay cause only homosexuals vote for Kerry and
Christians vote for Bush. Atheists worship Satan! Where religious
fanaticism is fused with political rhetoric and political leaders
pander to this madness. This place has a sickness, a malignant disease
and it is spreading. Edwin saw it first hand.

There has not been many a trial with a Not Guilty verdict in this
county for years. The head DA is good friends with the self-righteous
in the courtroom and greets them all by name. You know the type.

Many old women in the courtroom are taking notes. Others have been
taking notes at every hearing for the past year and a half! They
strain to listen not wanting to miss one juicy word. With the pens and
pads they write continuously. The pads shaking with every push of the
pen. Even writing down what my children spoke amongst themselves.

Blue gray haired old Christian spinsters bitter for wasting all
those fruitful years now just waiting for those pearly gates. These
are truly the wicked. You have seen them before. With their bogus
self-righteousness they strut and sneer. How far we have not come.

Others had walked out into the hall and warned a police witness
saying that justice must be served, that justice better be served. The
judge called a hearing on the threat.

He warned the crowd that if it happens one more time he would have
no choice but to throw out the case. He was between a rock and a hard
place. He knows my lawyers are watching and the loving Christians are
out for my blood, and they are watching too. The law, elections and
politics were all in play. The Judge left the court for his chambers
and stayed away for a quite awhile.

The Christians, the loving Christians! Praying to a God whose wings
are dripping in the blood of innocent men, woman and children down
through the ages. Truly hypocrisy is one of their commandments and the
blood of the innocence one of their sacraments!

Christian against Christian, Christian against Moslem, Christian
against Mormon. Basically Christian against anyone or anything that
challenges their pathetic little fairy tale.

Go to any Indian reservation and see the lies and broken promises
by a country with “Under God” in their pledge.

I assume I need not have to explain about the loving hymns sung in
church on Sunday and beatings of black slaves on Monday. But on Monday
night the good old Master has a little tippy toe over to slave huts
for a little brown sugar. While the queen of the manor is in the
master bedroom past out on an opium tonic. Praise the Lord!

Well that was then but now the court was about to hear the verdict.
There was a feeding frenzy about to begin with the dirty little
atheist and his family put in their place with him in jail and the
family run out of town. Like the teacher told my daughter “This is a
Christian country and if you don’t like it get out!”

I could hear my heart beat in my ears and I dreaded the cheers from
the righteous mob that were about to begin. The pain of having my
family being in the front row to witness this swirling cesspool of
hatred come to its inevitable end with my head on a pike, sucked the
air right out of my lungs.

It was truly just another Salem. Different time and place. Same
characters with new names. Oh, no gallows or big oak tree this time.
But if they could they surely would. How far we have not come. I know,
I already said that but do you really understand what a tragedy it
means? The whole universe is ours if we want it but instead we must
gravel in the dirt having to debate the obvious.

I have been standing against injustice most of my life. It is my
nature. I am a child of the 60’s and proud of it. But what of my poor
family? They stood so proud and strong. They are tougher than I will
ever be. I had told them do not cry. Do not give these bastards any
satisfaction. I told my wife if I see you cry I will surely loose it.
I said it is in the Federal courts we will set things right and send
that wall higher than it has ever been. On the wall behind us was a
painting of the signing of the Declaration.

The judge handed the verdict to the clerk. The only sound was the
paper. The paper in the clerk’s hands with the hand written words that
spelled my doom, my family’s fate and the inevitable cheers from the
Christian mob.

With my guts in my throat and no air to breathe. The court clerk
read the decision of the jury.

We the jury find the defendant:

On the charge of Aggravated Assault and Battery:
Not Guilty!

On the charge of Assault and Battery:
Not Guilty!

On the charge of Assault:
Not Guilty!

On the charge of Battery:
Not Guilty!

Not a word, not a sound. The lynching had been cancelled. I took my
first free breath in almost two years. I looked at the jury and mouth
the words thank you. I gazed at the floor as floodgates opened, I
dared not move my head that others might see. Charley don’t cry, but
free air has its effects.

With all their praying, lies, crooked cops, warning that justice
better be done, packing the courthouse with their followers, Even a
teacher on the jury who had taught at the Hardesty School. (Our motion
to take her off the jury denied.) Not guilty was still the outcome.
The evidence was obvious. This was a bad case. And 12 men and women
had the guts.

From the start of this legal fight my lawyers said Atheism must be
kept out. That it was a no go in the Bible belt. I was just adamant
that Atheism be brought in. For it is the reason. It was the motive
for all the lies and hate. I felt it was about time that this dirty
little secret of hate, persecution, Christian madness and hypocrisy is
brought out into the light of day. When I told my lawyers this they
all gave me the same bewildered stare.

So one by one, I dropped one lawyer then two. Then I had a hard
time in finding another one. My third lawyer was still trying to
convince me to keep my atheism out even up till the day of the trial.
I still said no. Somewhere along the line I talk to the ACLU out of
San Francisco. Who let me know my first civil lawyer was not telling
me the whole story. I was advised by them and many others to complain
to the Bar about him.

You see he never told me that the prayer in itself is illegal. That
the schools in this area were not following the state and federal
funding guidelines. When I asked him after finding out from the ACLU.
He said yes it is against the law.

I told him I want to have it stopped. He told me he would not for
he was a Christian and he believed there should be school prayer. His
statement floored me for it bordered on madness. I said what you
believe and what you do for a client is two different things and that
you took an oath. He still refused.

It did not matter to him that I had already given him $10,000
dollars. He knows we are not rich. So I wrote a letter to him to
complain about his refusing to take my daughters civil case where it
should have gone from the start. And I asked for my money back. He
sent me a bill for another $5000 saying it was the charge for reading
my letter and wasting his time.

In my search for a civil attorney it became clear that no one would
touch this case. In all of Oklahoma I could not find an attorney. My
criminal attorney said he would look at it but only after I paid him
his $15000 for the criminal case. He sent me a letter that the funds
for the criminal were coming too slow and suggested that I seek other
counsel for the civil matter. But even after he got his $15000 he
would only take it if I paid him more. (Now that I have won the
criminal case he wants on the civil. Suffice to say he is off the
civil!)

Eventually I contacted the American Atheist, which was referred to
me by Edward Tabash, who was referred to me by a Mr. Robert Tierman. I
told them my problem in finding an a