the absurdity of prosecutorial justice, extensive wiretapping, and iowa opens its doors...

today the supreme court reminded us again why trust in the ethics of the nations prosecutors is severely misplaced. while they take an oath to seek justice, not vengeance or convictions, but justice, all too often they seem to transform into conviction at all cost drones. in cone v. bell, the supremes chastized tennessee prosecutors for what is becoming a rather common story in the criminal justice world...withholding evidence that doesn't fit with their theory of the case (which comes with the wonderful benefit of preventing the defense from presenting its best case...afterall, nobody wants to screw up their conviction rates when there is an election on the horizon). this time it was a vietnam vet that claimed PTSD and drug addiction led him to do some scary shit. and during trial, the prosecutor mocked these claims, implying that there was no way this guy was at all mentally unstable or had any issues with drug addiction...even put an officer on the stand claiming it was a load of bullshit. right on cue the jury (already hand-picked to only include a small section of the community that is gung-ho for capital punishment thereby knocking out a large portion of society from even having a chance to sit) declined to accept the mitigation of PTSD and drug addiction and voted for death. only there was a problem that Mr. Cone would not discover until years later when a local freedom of information law gave him access to the prosecutor's files...it was full of evidence that corroborated his claims - police reports and BOLO's referring to him as a "drug addict" and "heavy drug user"...witness statements describing him as wild looking, crazy and drunk and high...even statements from the officer the prosecution put on to rebut cone's claims that referred to him as a "heavy drug user." unbelievably, the state had the gonads to tell the supremes they were not required to turn over the evidence clearly favorable to the sole defense offered at trial...prompting justice souter to declare "I believe you have just made a statement to me that is utterly irrational." and that is exactly the problem with prosecutors throughout the country...they are utterly irrational. the only thing that matters to them are convictions...it doesn't matter if its the right guy, it doesn't matter if all of society is better served through other means...all that matters is another notch in the belt.

which leads me to another observation. it has become extremely obvious that during the "damn the constitution, full speed ahead" era of the boy king and his "putting testicles in a vice works" walking dead sidekick wiretaps were not used to hunt for terrorists or keep an eye on anything that had to do with national security. they became the quick and cheap way to investigate anything and everything...and everybody's phone got tapped. somebody says you sell drugs - no problem, we'll just tap your phone and listen for months until you say the magic words. it has begun to seem like there is not a single marijuana case in this state over the last few years that did not involve a wiretap...regardless of what the pesky constitution and supreme court had to say about it. and if officers are turning to it that quickly...I guarantee they are going hoover on your ass too. next stop - political opponents.

iowa opened its doors to gays for marriage this week. and guess what...all hell did not break loose. hellfire did not reign down. iowa did not become a dustbowl. children did not go all catholic priest overnight. all of this despite the best efforts of the fringe folks still clinging to the idea of a hard-line "christian" america...including the very effective petition turned in by one man in iowa city which contained...wait for it...8 signatures. one such fool had the quote of the day...although somehow I guarantee he entirely missed the deeper meaning. chuck hurley of the "family policy center" (one of those "we wanted to call it death to queers but we are far too cowardly for that" groups) turned in a petition asking the clerks to disobey the law and to refuse licenses. he said more people did not come out in person to protest because they had important things like "raising children and going to work" to attend to. it seems he missed the point of his own remark though...in the end, regardless of who you put what into at night within the confines of a consensual relationship, all you really want out of life is to be free to raise your children and go to work. although apparently mr. hurley is not concerned with his children...and his work is preventing others from raising children and working.

step on my old size nines and I'll take you round...