hild advocates, former prosecutors, mental health professionals, former jury members, and the victim’s widow are asking for clemency for a survivor of child sexual abuse who killed his abuser and is scheduled to be executed October 3. Terrance “Terry” Williams was raised by a physically violent mother and was first raped at the age of 6, before being raped repeatedly by his school teacher. As a teenager, he was sexually abused by two adult men, one of whom used his position as a church leader to prey on teenagers and boys. Three months after turning 18, Terry killed one of his abusers, the day after he had raped him.
But the jury had no idea about this abuse. Terry was too ashamed to bring it up. The prosecution, which knew about the abuse, didn’t share it with the defense lawyer, who was soincompetent he met with his client for the first time the day before the trial started. Terry’s co-defendant didn’t testify about the abuse because, as he now states in a sworn affidavit, the police and prosecution pressured him not to because they wanted to present the murder as a robbery. […]
When you hear the name Joe Walsh, you may think of the Eagles guitarist. But Joe Walsh is also the name of a tea-partying Republican lawmaker from Illinois. That Joe Walsh has released several of his own hits — really, really offensive hits.
Most recently, the congressman attacked law school grad and women’s reproductive rights advocate Sandra Fluke (although by the time you read this, he may have produced another hit). But what makes Walsh great is his range. He doesn’t limit himself to attacking any one group, but rather slams African Americans, veterans, the disabled, Muslims, and even his own constituents. The incumbent House member’s fluid bigotry crosses genres, genders, races, and ages. Here are some of Rep. Joe Walsh’s not-so-rocking greatest hits:
At a campaign event for his re-election, Walsh released his latest hit, Get a Job, Sandra Fluke. It begins with, “Think about this, a 31-32 year old law student who has been a student for life, who gets up there in front of a national audience and tells the American people, ‘I want America to pay for my contraceptives’…You’re kidding me. Go get a job. Go get a job Sandra Fluke.” Walsh’s vitriol comes as no surprise, since he defended Todd “legitimate rape” Akin: “I’m bothered by this rush to pile on…And I’m bothered by the silence of members of our own party to stand up for him.”
In April, at a town hall in Wheeling, Illinois, Walsh came out with Idiotic Obama Wouldn’t Be President if He Weren’t Black: “He’s our first African-American president. The country voted for him because of that… it helped that John McCain was about 142 years old…But he never would have gotten there without his historic nature.” Walsh also told Slate’s David Weigel, “Why was he elected? He was black.” Joe also told the “idiotic” president to “quit lying.”
It’s not easy to disrespect the disabled and the military in the same breath. And yet, Joe managed to rise to the challenge in his recent classic, Shut Up, You Disabled Veteran. In an interview with Politico, Walsh dismissed the fact that congressional contender Tammy Duckworth lost two legs in Iraq. Here’s that news outlet’s account of what he said:
“‘I have so much respect for what she did in the fact that she sacrificed her body for this country,’ said Walsh, simultaneously lowering his voice as he leaned forward before pausing for dramatic effect. ‘Ehhh. Now let’s move on. What else has she done? Female, wounded veteran…Ehhh.'”
More recently he suggested Duckworth wasn’t a true hero: “Now I’m running against a woman who, I mean, my God — that’s all she talks about. Our true heroes, the men and women who served us, that’s the last thing in the world they talk about.”
It also takes a special kind of artist to insult both Jews and Palestinians. But Joe Walsh accomplishes that with his release of Wake up Jews, Stop Complaining Palestinians. “Too many American Jews aren’t as pro-Israel as they should be and too many share this belief that the Palestinians are victims of Israeli occupation,” the Catholic Congressman said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.” Not only are the Palestinians not victims, they have it great, according to Walsh: “The Arabs living in that land right now under Israeli control have a better quality of life. They’re freer, more prosperous than in any other Arab country.”
In his hit, I’m a Deadbeat Dad, but I’m Gonna Tell You how to Raise Your Kids, Walsh claimed that studies show it is better for children to be raised by a mother and father than by a same-sex couple. This advice comes from a man who tried to fight paying his wife the more than $100,000 he owed her in child support.
Stay tuned for more releases from the bigoted songwriter as Election Day nears. As for the Eagles guitarist by the same name, he’s backing Rep. Walsh’s opponent, Tammy Duckworth.
Anyone following politics knows Republicans are launching a full out war on women. But you may not know how many anti-women votes the Republicans cast since January 2011. Well, areport released last week by Rep. Henry Waxman (D – Ca.) has the answer: 55! That’s right, Republicans voted to take away women’s rights or make their lives miserable 55 times. […]
A test that determines the grade level of writing found Michelle Obama broke a record by delivering a speech written at the 12th-grade level. Ann Romney broke a record too, with a 5th-grade levelspeech — the lowest in the history of convention speeches by wives of presidential nominees.
The grade level is based on sentence length and the number of polysyllabic words used. Longer sentences with longer words mean a higher grade level. For example, on women’s issues, Mrs. Obama said, “He believes that women are more than capable of making our own choices about our bodies and our health care…that’s what my husband stands for.”
Mrs. Romney addressed women by saying, “I love you women…You are the best of America. You are the hope of America. There would not be an America without you. Tonight, we salute you and sing your praises.”
To be fair, Ann Romney’s original draft was written at a much higher level than the speech she wound up delivering. I found a copy of her draft edited by Romney’s campaign managers. Here’s an excerpt.
“While there are many important issues we’ll hear discussed…tonight I want to talk to you from my heart about our hearts. I want you to turn off your brains, especially if you’re a woman, and really concentrate on your hearts. That’s what I try to do. That’s the only way I’m able stand up here tonight and encourage you to vote for my husband…
Remember when Mitt Romney said that “corporations are people”? In all fairness, Mitt may be a little less human than others, which could explain his confusion. Well, at last night’s convention, a very patient Elizabeth Warren broke down the difference between people and corporations for those who don’t quite get it.
Do Mitt Romney’s birther “joke,” Rick Santorum’shands fetish (and I had him pegged as an ass man) and Paul Ryan’s compulsive lying make you wonder what exactly the strategists behind the RNC are thinking? Well, we took a stab at figuring that out. Here’s a sneak peak at what we can only imagine goes on behind the closed doors of Republican spin doctors. It turns out, they knew about Clint Eastwood and the empty chair!
Because disenfranchising black voters isn’t sufficiently racist, two Republican National Convention attendees decided to make their party’s racism more explicit by throwing nuts at an African American CNN camera woman and saying, “This is how we feed animals.” The incident was first reported via twitter by David Shuster and has been confirmed by Talking Points Memo. CNN told TPM it could confirm “there was an incident directed at an employee inside the Tampa Bay Times Forum earlier this afternoon. CNN worked with convention officials to address this matter and will have no further comment.” […]
“Everyone thinks that Norway is a paradise, and of course it is in many ways — if you compare it with India or Guatemala…. But you cannot say that a country has no human rights problems if women suffer from violence and you are not protecting them.” This is what motivated photo-journalist Walter Estrada to point his camera at the violence against women that occurs in Norway. Estrada has documented this epidemic in countries like Guatemala, India, Congo, but showing violence against women in a country that is not war-torn, in conflict, or notorious for its mistreatment of women highlights how pervasive violence against women really is. […]
On Friday, Judge Marina Syrova convicted three members of Pussy Riot the women of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, sentencing them to ”two years deprivation of liberty in a penal colony.” This is one year less than the three-year sentence sought by prosecutors. Syrova said the punk prayerPussy Riot had performed in a Moscow cathedral had ”crudely undermined social order.” She stated that ”These three plus others… plotted together to undermine civil order, motivated by religious hatred.” Syrova justified her sentence, saying, “Considering the nature and degree of the danger posed by what was done, the defendants’ correction is possible only through an actual punishment.”
Lawyers representing Pussy Riot anticipated the guilty verdict and plan to appeal the sentence through the courts, rather than to Putin. The sentencing sparked protests around the world, some of which are captured in this photo gallery from The Guardian.
On Friday, Judge Marina Syrova 
katiehalper.com 