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The New York Times has an excellent article on the problems with lethal injection from the NYT Magazine (also kudos on the Neil Young lyric for the title).

I am morally opposed to the death penalty. I believe there is only one to judge the living and the dead and I believe that anyone that gets the death penalty will have theirs in the afterlife.

That’s not to say I don’t have purely secular reasons for opposing it. I wish I had the leftofthemiddle archives for easy access to a lot of the stories I wrote about. I grew up in Illinois, which freed more death row prisoners than they executed and whose own Governor pointed out that the state likely executed an innocent man. The state of Kentucky has banned the three drug cocktail from euthanizations on animals because it is inhumane, but still executes people that way.

I currently live in Missouri which has been the focus of the method of execution thanks to a Federal court ruling in a death penalty case that executions must be carried out by a licensed physician. The AMA has stated that participation in an execution violates medical ethics and most doctors have chosen to stay away. But why did the judge in Missouri come to this conclusion? Was it a pang of liberal guilt? No, it was the testimony of the main executioner in Missouri.

About a third of the way through two hours of questioning, in response to Taylor’s attorney, Ginger Anders, asking why Doerhoff gave inconsistent answers to questions concerning the amounts of drugs used, he said: “I can save you a whole lot of time and offer my apologies to the court, but last night I was trying to pay my cable bill. . . . I realized I had copied my account number by dropping one digit and transposing two. In surgery that’s not important. But I am dyslexic . . . . so it’s not unusual for me to make mistakes.”

Over the course of Doerhoff’s testimony, Anders uncovered many significant details similar to those uncovered in other states. For instance, Doerhoff testified that executions in Missouri have taken place in the dark, an execution team working by flashlight, and that the execution team routinely consists of “nonmedical people.” For most, the day of the execution is “the first time probably in their life they have picked up a syringe . . . so it’s a little stressful for them to be doing this.” Doerhoff stated that he determined if an inmate being executed had been adequately anesthetized by observing the condemned’s face through a window, which others noted was obscured by partly opened blinds. He also told the court that he reduced by half the five grams of anesthetic he had been using after the pharmaceutical company supplying it started packaging it in smaller bottles, which made it tricky to get the five grams in a single syringe. When Anders asked if he used calculations to determine the quantities of drugs to administer, he replied, “Heavens, no.”

Later Anders asked, “Is any part of the execution procedure written down?”

“I’ve never seen it.”

“There’s no guide that you follow as you’re doing it?”

“Absolutely not.”

Think about the answers he gave and how he gave them.  He volunteered the fact that he’s dyslexic and has trouble with amounts. He lowered the anesthetic because it was too difficult to get the amount he was using in the syringe. That amount wasn’t even scientifically derived, it’s from observing if there is pain in the inmate’s face through a partially obstructed window and into a dark room. Most people on the execution staff have never handled a syringe before sticking it into an inmate’s arm.

Some people would say that it’s just too bad that an inmate has to suffer before he dies. Unfortunately, the framers of the Constitution knew this to be the case and included the 8th Amendment into the Bill of Rights specifically to ban the practice of inhumane treatment of prisoners by their own government.

The problems with the three drug cocktail are well documented. The first drug is a short acting barbiturate that renders the inmate unconscious. The second drug paralyzes the person so they won’t do things like scream in pain or shake and scare the witnesses. The third drug stops the heart and the lungs but causes horrific pain in a person that has not been properly anesthetized; a sensation like fire in the veins.

We’ve finally gotten past the point that challenging the lethal injection procedure is seen as a delaying tactic. Judges have started to realize that euthanizing people in a way that encourages mistakes clearly violates the 8th Amendment. Even the President’s own brother stopped executions in Florida after one went horribly wrong and the inmate was left with chemical burns on his arms after the executioner put the IV in wrong and it caused the execution to last half an hour.

The time has come to join the rest of the world and ban executions all together. Go, please read the article and let me know what you think.

Which means it won’t go anywhere.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-CT., said Tuesday that Congress should consider a special tax to pay for the nation’s war against terrorism. The Republicans and the Bush administration have tried to hide the costs of the war since the very beginning burying it in off-budget requests and refusing to include any money in their “official” budget that kept showing an improving fiscal situation. Even today, they included the money for 2007-2008, but nothing thereafter which makes their goal of eliminating the deficit a lot easier to do on paper. A special tax would make the American public think about the war every time that they have to pay it.

The problem is that special taxes to pay for things generally become permanent. Think of the telephone excise tax that was overturned last year that was designed to pay for the Spanish-American war. Generally, politicians have the spines of jellyfish and even if a tax was passed, it would be buried similarly to the telephone excise tax (how many people knew they were even paying it?).

I really don’t expect this proposal to go anywhere but with the cuts to social programs looming, and the Social Security/Medicare timebomb after that, we’ll need to fundamentally rethink how we fund the Federal government.

If you want to see where each dollar of taxes go, check out my post from last year detailing the percent of the budget going to various programs. You’ll see that there’s not much there to cut outside of defense and health spending.

That’s what we’re looking at if a story in the NY Times today comes to fruition. Basically, four very large states (California, Florida, Illinois and New Jersey) are likely moving their primaries to a single, early date. That date would be February 5th in 2008. That would essentially eliminate any smaller campaigns and require that campaigners be well funded up front.

The problem with being well funded up front is that you already have to be a known national quantity. That could eliminate a lot of state governors that would otherwise have a chance to run in the more drawn out process. Three of the last four Presidents came from state government positions and Clinton was a relative unknown. The Clintons and the McCains will obviously benefit from their national exposure while the Vilsacks and the Romneys will have to fight hard to even get recognized and will have a lot of trouble with early fundraising.

These changes will lead to one of two scenarios. One is that both nominees are decided in early February and the Presidential campaign becomes a nine month affair. The other is that two or three national candidates split the vote on the new Super Tuesday and essentially leave the race deadlocked in a West Wing-ish tragic comedy.

I think they are pluses and minuses to one major primary for each party. One in each category is that no-names can’t get nominated. It’s kind of like having a laptop for work, you can take work home and you can take work home. Some no-names go on to be President (Clinton), some go on to be punchlines (Kucinich) but both Clinton and Kucinich had an impact on the race (I voted for Kucinich). Both would likely be eliminated in the future scenario for safer candidates that can raise a hell of a lot of money and put their own fortunes to work in the campaign.

And that is bad for the country as the little guy with big ideas is shut out of the race for the big guy with little ideas. This will further make politics an aristocracy rather than a meritocracy and may lead to really smart people with world-changing ideas being shut out of the process entirely.

And that’s definitely a bad thing.

I took a governmental budgeting class for my Master’s degree with the city manager of my town, so I got to know him a little bit. We live in a suburban area, so I’d imagine it’s an easier spot to fill than the towns in rural Oklahoma profiled in this NY Times piece.

However, the point is still valid that it’s not a fun job. For those that don’t have city managers (I didn’t until I moved here) they’re basically an unelected mayoral position that actually runs the city functions. Basically, they are the CEO of the city. We have a mayor as well, and I’m not sure what his job is besides being head of the City Council (maybe that is his job).

Like CEOs, the city manager is responsible for everything from budgeting to potholes in the road. But he makes a heck of a lot less than the CEO of major corporations.  The article says the average salary of a city manager is $97,075, which seems like a great job until you realize it is a 24/7 endeavor. It’s also less than many schools and hospitals pay for similar jobs overseeing their operations.

One city manager interviewed, who complained the job was “too political” (well, what did he think), summed it up pretty well.

“You can’t go to the grocery store, cafe or convenience store without someone telling you they have a leak in the front yard or a pothole in their driveway,”

A lot of you may not know who your city manager is and that is a shame. Unfortunately, it’s the city managers that do their jobs well that run into this problem. The position should seek feedback from the community in the same way as elected positions. However, doing that opens you to the “can you do something about this?” problem. It’s the ones that don’t do their job that have the easiest time (hmm….).

All in all, I’m not surprised that fewer of my generation go to work for government. We grew up in the shadows of Watergate, Iran-Contra, and Monica. Most of my generation would just as soon work at Wal-Mart than take a government position. A lot of the really bright ones that would go to government skip that step and work for not-for-profits if they want to make a difference.

On the other hand, being a city manager can be very rewarding. Watching a city thrive under your leadership is very gratifying to the ego. And while it’s harder to know that than if you ran a business and could measure profits, there is a real tangible benefit for the citizens of the city if a city is well run.

Engadget, one of my favorite websites, has a regular feature called CE-Oh No He Didn’t, where they post outrageous quotes from tech CEOs. Sony’s Ken Kutaragi is a recent favorite with his comments about the PS3 (”work harder”). I think I will steal the bit for this story.

Apparently, Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) isn’t too happy about the election of Keith Ellison (D-MN). See, Representative Ellison converted to Islam and has asked to use the Koran rather than the Bible to take the oath of office.

First, let me point out that there is a Constitutional ban on a religious test or other religious ceremony for taking higher office. Second let me point out this guy is a nutjob. Here’s an excerpt from a letter he wrote to a constituent:

“I do not subscribe to using the Koran in any way,” wrote Goode, according to a copy of the letter provided by his office. “The Muslim Representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran.”

“I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America,” Goode wrote.

I’m more used to seeing this kind of crap from the far right in Europe, where Islamophobia is in full swing, than the far right in the US. There are elected officials in the US that believe this, but they often temper their words because the US is a nation of immigrants. I wonder how many generations the Goode family has been here? My bet is 3. That’s usually how long it takes to forget the family’s immigrant roots.

Most people that want immigrants out never knew the first generation that came over. Everyone they knew in their family was born here so they have a right that new immigrants do not. I wonder how Mr. Goode would feel if we wanted to ban European immigration? Usually, anti-immigrant forces just don’t want dark people here, they don’t care about immigration from Northern Europe. That’s where most of their forefathers came from anyway.

For what it’s worth, I think we should throw open the borders and let everyone in. We’re a country of immigrants and that is one thing that has made America stand above the rest. True innovation has come from those outside our borders and it will continue to come from there. The true American way of life is more Keith Ellison and less Virgil Goode.

Banks, just off their victory in Congress on the Visa/Mastercard Protection Act new bankruptcy law, have gotten their lobbyists to insert a provision in yet another rushed tax bill that puts about 1 billion new provisions in the tax bill that was only supposed to extend existing provisions.

This time, PMI will be deductible for loans that originate in 2007. PMI, for those who gleefully haven’t had to deal with it, is foisted upon borrowers with less than 20% equity by the mortgage bank in order to get the loan. The PMI will pay your loan if you go into default.

PMI is not deductible as mortgage interest is and has led to a great competition among banks. Some banks will forgo PMI if you take a second mortgage with a higher rate for the portion above 80% of the selling price. The banks that are making boatloads of money off of require PMI didn’t like this tax competition.

So, they got the provision in the tax code to deduct PMI only in 2007 for mortgages originated in 2007. But as we all know, “temporary” provisions have a habit of living on forever. Most of the provisions that got extended this year (and last and the year before that) were “temporary” tax breaks only for that year. It helps hold the cost down for budget purposes when they can assume that the tax breaks will be allowed to expire, even when everyone knows that they won’t.

And it’s another example of poking a hole in the tax code to benefit a small number of banks (yes, individuals will benefit and that’s the official line, but it’s the banks that will get the most benefit from lessened competition). Which means we’ll go through this whole extenders fiasco again next year with the PMI provision added to the list.

Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of the destitute. Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.- Proverbs 31:8-9

I’m not sure if the Verse of the Day from Sojourner’s was selected intentionally for today, but it sure lends itself well to the story over the latest row in the Christian Coalition. Reverend Joel Hunter of a nondenominational congregation in Longwood, Florida, was selected to be the next leader of the political organization. He was to take over in January, but resigned the position yesterday as a result of a battle inside the organization.

Reverend Hunter wanted to broaden the organization’s focus from abortion and gays to include other issues such as environmentalism and poverty. The organization said “no thanks” and he walked out the door.

He hoped to include issues such as easing poverty and saving the environment.

“These are issues that Jesus would want us to care about,” Hunter said.

The resignation took place Tuesday during an organization board meeting.

Hunter said he was not asked to leave.

“They pretty much said, ‘These issues are fine, but they’re not our issues; that’s not our base,’ ” Hunter said of his conversation with the group’s leadership.

First, their problem is that the organization is political and not religious. They have been at the forefront of politicizing religion and building power (and diamond mines) for themselves. The organization has been all about glorifying themselves rather than God.

Second, they have a real base problem. They claim that their base only cares about gays and abortion, which might be true. However, their base has dropped precipitously in the past few years. Several chapters split from the organization and the overall budget is a fifth of what it was a decade ago.

I have no problem hoping for the Christian Coalition to implode in a wave of scandal. However, it’s sad that an organization doesn’t see that this guy was the way to building themselves back up. Organizations on the decline often don’t realize they are the problem until it is too late.

One of the things I hate about not having the Left of the Middle archives available is that many of my posts from 2003 and 2004 are coming back to haunt us. One of the themes that I had was the myriad of problems with electronic voting machines leading up to and including the 2004 elections. I even had a separate category for these posts as they began to multiply.

Some of the problems had to do with the companies themselves. Diebold was a favorite target as their CEO promised to deliver Ohio to President Bush even as his company was installing voting machines with no audit capabilities. The state became the focus post-election and Ohio do go for Bush and installed him back in the White House. They also liked to install updates to their software without telling states (or going through audit procedures) in the days leading up to Election Day.

ElectionLine has been at the forefront of these and other problems (malfunctions, calculation errors) and is a nonpartisan site. The NY Times has a fantastic article about them and the problems that they found with the 2006 election.

Basically, it comes to do the fact that we’ve spent $4 billion on machines and we have no idea if they work. There is no verifiable audit trail on any of these machines. Votes are lost or miscounted (Arkansas tabulated the votes three times in one county and the total shifted by more than 30,000 each time). Sarasota County Florida may have had 18,000 votes disappear in a Congressional race. And other states ran out of paper ballots when the electronic ones malfunctioned.

Colorado was even worse. As many as 20,000 voters simply gave up trying to vote after their new electronic voter database failed miserably.

In Denver, the culprit was a new electronic poll book, which workers had to consult through laptop computers. The system was supposed to verify each voter’s name in less than a minute. But it started slowing at 7 a.m. and eventually had to be turned off and rebooted, after taking up to 20 minutes to find each name.

As a result, voters waited in line for two to three hours. Liz Prescott, a computer industry executive, said she twice tried to vote but was deterred by the lines. “I’m just flabbergasted that this system at all levels failed,” Ms. Prescott said.

John Gaydeski, Denver’s election director, acknowledged that the system had not been tested properly before the election.

They didn’t even properly test the system that was required for people to vote? Oy vey!

We need to update voting systems, but to me this sounds like the space pen issue. In Canada, you get a piece of paper and mark an X next to the candidate you want to vote for. The results are available just as fast, if not faster, than they are in the US. And they haven’t spent $4 billion (and counting).

Per CNN

I think having Rumsfeld go now is brilliant. Take away the Dems spotlight and you know the hearings are going to be a zoo. Give the Dems every chance to hang themselves (and we all know they will) before 2008. This is the Democrats wet dream. They’re going to try the Iraq War on national television. But they’ll overstep and some members are going to say things they’ll regret in 2008.

The Bushies are masters of the media and they’ve just taken the spotlight off the large losses of yesterday with one fell swoop.

I waited over an hour to vote yesterday (at 4:00, mind you) and I couldn’t have been happier. They were estimating a 70% turnout in St. Louis County (as of last night) for a midterm election. The all-time high was 68%. So not only did STL County reverse trend, it did it in a blowout.

Thumbs-up

• Democrats taking the House- I believe a split government is the best government. Democrats taking the House means that legislation should move back towards the middle, where it belongs, rather than being used as purely a partisan tool.
• Joe Lieberman’s win- I voted Green in 2000 partly because I am not a huge fan of Joe Lieberman. But I saw a danger in the “nutroots” taking over the electoral process in 2008 to get a left-wing candidate for President. This smackdown is exactly what the Democrats needed and I hope they learn their lesson.
• Missouri Amendment 3 Fails- As I posted, I voted against Amendment 3 because I didn’t believe this belonged in the Constitution. It failed, though I am afraid the Legislature will take this to mean that people don’t want the tax rather than people don’t want it in the Constitution.
• Missouri Prop B Passes- Missouri upped their minimum wage by a 3-1 margin yesterday. It’s a step closer to getting people a living wage. $6.50/hr still isn’t much, but at least it will be indexed for inflation.

Thumbs-Down

• Missouri Amendment 2 Passes- I voted against the Stem Cell initiative because I didn’t believe that Government should fund research that necessarily has to come from killing a human being. Proponents painting everyone that was against the amendment as wanting to kill sick people also turned me off.
• Democrats taking the Senate- If this happens it is a thumbs down for 2008 because the Democrats won’t be able to help themselves to doing some stupid things to hurt the 2008 candidate. I have little faith in the Democrats to keep themselves in check.

Overall, I was fairly happy with the results. Speaker Pelosi still gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Oh, and thank God for the filibuster.