Carlo Musso, M.D. President, CorrectHealth Fax: 770-692-4754
Dear Dr. Musso:
You have a crucial decision to make. You may be in the position to help spare the life of a very likely innocent prisoner, Troy Davis. While it may seem that your decision has already been made for you because you are expected to provide medical oversight for his execution, I ask you to think again.
The code of ethics of the Society of Correctional Physicians, of which I understand you are a member, releases you from your obligation by unequivocally stating, "The correctional professional shall not be involved in any aspect of execution of the death penalty."
The American Medical Association also releases you from any obligation to oversee an execution. AMA president William Plested is quoted in a 2006 statement:
"The guidelines in the AMA Code of Medical Ethics address physician participation in executions involving lethal injection. The ethical opinion explicitly prohibits selecting injection sites for executions by lethal injection, starting intravenous lines, prescribing, administering, or supervising the use of lethal drugs, monitoring vital signs, on site or remotely, and declaring death.
"As the voice of American medicine, the AMA urges all physicians to remain dedicated to our ethical obligations that prohibit involvement in capital punishment." (http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/1... )
Should you still feel an obligation to participate in the execution of Troy Davis, I'd like you to look at the obligations of some of the others involved in this case, how they did or did not carry them out, and their reasons for their decisions.
Did the Georgia Board of Prisons and Paroles carry out its obligation to (according to its mission statement) enhance public safety by making informed parole decisions when it refused to consider multiple recantations by witnesses who say they were manipulated by the police into false accusations? Doesn't the refusal to acknowledge Troy Davis's likely innocence actually decrease public safety because of the possibility the real killer is being allowed to walk free? Did the GBPP make this decision as a result of compelling ethical issues, or political expedience?
Did the United States Supreme Court carry out its obligation to uphold the laws of this land when it refused to grant a hearing for Davis, despite compelling new evidence that has not been heard in court, and the likelihood that their refusal would result in the death of a man who may very well be innocent? Did SCOTUS make this decision as a result of compelling ethical issues, or political expedience?
One might argue that by agreeing to oversee the execution of Troy Davis you would be following the examples set by the GBPP and SCOTUS. But is political expedience the correct basis for a moral decision? Of course not. So instead, I ask you to consider the shirking of duties by the GBPP and SCOTUS as releasing you from any sense of duty you might have to do what is expected of you by your employers, and instead follow the codes of ethics of the professional organizations to which you belong, and your own conscience. Refuse to participate in the execution of Troy Davis.
Fortunately, my own polling place was just changed. If it hadn't been, none of this would have happened!
I went online to check my polling place, trying to figure out the best way to tell other people to check theirs. The California Secretary of State's office has a page where you can check your polling place, and the League of Women Voters has one as well. I decided to check both and compare the ease of using the two systems. Lo and behold, in response to my entering my home address, these two systems came up with two different polling locations!
I called my county election office. A helpful election worker told me I should definitely check with my local office, not one of those outside organizations, that the local info would always be the most up-to-date. She checked it for me and -- guess what? -- it was the League of Women Voters information that was correct!
We dug deeper and I eventually discovered that the Secretary of State's webpage for voters to check their polling places contained links to outdated polling place location information for several counties! I called the SoS's office, and my local election worker called them, too. Within an hour, I'd received a call back from the SoS office that links for all the counties had now been updated.
What will happen to people who go to the wrong polling place as a result of this (now repaired) problem? According to the local election worker I spoke with, voters who show up at the wrong polling place in my county will be instructed to call the county elections office and find the right polling place or to vote on a provisional ballot. In my county, those provisional ballots will likely (!) be counted. I'm not sure that's true in all of the counties involved. Provisional ballots stand a smaller chance of being counted than do regular ballots. And they're not counted until many days after the election, in most cases well after winners have already been announced.
So, if you have recently used the California Secretary of State's website to find your polling place, try it again now. The information may have changed. Perhaps better yet, contact your local elections office directly to check you polling place location. In California, you can find that contact information here. If you're outside of California, find the information for your state at VoteSmart. You can also check your polling place online at SmartVoter (similar name, different site).
If you discover a problem, remember that it may not be a problem just for you. In this situation, literally thousands of voters may have had their ability to vote a regular (not provisional) ballot restored by the hour I took today to work on this. One person CAN make a difference.
Want to find out what else you can do to help increase the integrity of the November 4 election? Go to the action site for the film STEALING AMERICA: Vote By Vote.
Thanks to Video The Vote, here's video from SuperDuper Tuesday at a polling place unbelievably called "Welcome All Community Center" in the Metro Atlanta area (Fulton County, GA).
The problem this time wasn't insufficient electronic voting machines such as in Columbus, Ohio and other areas in the November 2004 election, but was a "bottleneck" created by two new "advances" in Georgia voting systems and procedures: the new Voter ID law and the new Diebold ExpressPoll electronic pollbooks. The paperless Diebold DRE voting machines stood idle while voters waited to sign in.
EXCLUSIVE: Elizabeth Kucinich Says Political System 'Rigged, Fake, Undemocratic'
The BRAD BLOG Speaks with Dennis and His Wife About Voting Rights, Election Reform, Impeachment, and the Need for an Outcry from the American People
Rep. Kucinich Vows to Use 'Privileged Resolution' to Force Vote on Impeachment of Cheney in U.S. House...
Guest Blogged by Emily Levy ED NOTE: The BRAD BLOG's Emily Levy sat down with Dennis Kucinich on Sunday, just before serving as a hand-counter for votes in the first Democratic San Mateo County Presidential Straw Poll. Results of that poll are below. Kucinich spoke about his plans to force a vote in the U.S. House on the Impeachment of Dick Cheney; on having officially removed his name as co-sponsor of Rep. Rush Holt's flawed Election Reform Bill; his interest in hand-counted paper ballots; and concerns about e-voting systems. As it turns out, however, his wife Elizabeth may have stolen the show with an impassioned speech on what America must do to restore "a rigged and a fake political system," which, she told Levy, is "very, very undemocratic."
===
Candidate Kucinich was surrounded by supporters after his speech to Democrats in San Mateo County, just south of San Francisco, over the weekend. One asked the U.S. House Rep (D-OH) about the failures of the current Congress to protect the Constitution. "If Congress did the right thing," he answered, "they would be talking … about impeachment."
At that point, I broke in with a question: EMILY LEVY: What do you think it'll take for more of your colleagues to do the right thing?
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: The American people: an outcry. That's what we ought to be talking about.
EL: What do they hear? What do they hear? I mean, I hear the American people screaming. How come they can't hear?
DK: They aren't. You're exactly right. You know, I introduced House Resolution 333 because I heard from the American people and they said they wanted some response to make Dick Cheney accountable for the statements that he made that took us into a war based on lies. And the statements he made that would take us into a conflict against Iran. Again, more lies.
The President is now openly invoking the specter of World War III with respect to Iran. He ought to be held accountable also. I'm the only member of Congress who stepped forward on the issue of making Dick Cheney accountable. And now we have 21 members who've joined me. That's a step in the right direction. But I'm going to go beyond that. I'm going to call a privileged resolution, at which point, would force a vote --- at least if it's only on a procedural motion --- members are going to have to confront this issue of impeachment. They're not going to escape it. This is a question of defending our Constitution. It really is.
(In a follow up phone call with the Congressman last night, I asked when he intended to introduce the privileged resolution in the House. He said it would happen in "the next few weeks," but couldn't be more specific. Now back to San Mateo...)
Kucinich burst into laughter when I showed him the teabag tag hanging from my shirt pocket. I praised his ingeniously deadpan appearance on The Colbert Report. He searched around in his jacket pocket for his mini-Colbert but was unable to produce the little guy.
I've compiled this thread to help keep the info and links about the current situation in Burma easy to find in one place. If you want to add to this, please take a moment to see how it's organized.
Categories of information are posted as replies to the OP (in caps). Resources under each category are posted as replies to the category. Comments about the resources are invited to be posted as replies to the resource.
Note about posting news updates: In an effort to keep this thread as usable as possible with resources that will remain helpful, I've decided not to post news updates here. However, I invite you to link to news about Burma in as a response to the post below called "NEWS UPDATES and OTHER HELPFUL DU THREADS."
Disclaimer: I don't vouch for the political position or accuracy of any of the resources presented here. Basically I've gathered stuff people have posted on other threads and put it together in one place. I hope it's useful and that it will encourage you to take action! If you want to email this thread to people who are not DU members, consider emailing the "printer-friendly format" copied into an email.
I invite you to link to this thread at the bottom of any new thread on Burma! Here's a tinyURL: tinyurl.com/3d728w
to celebrate this victory. Share it with someone who feels hopeless. Share it with someone who forgets that people coming together to make change really can work. Share it with someone who lives in Texas and might not have heard. Share it with someone who doesn't live in Texas and needs reminding that there is good in people everywhere.
Let's each take a moment to imagine what it might be like to believe you had less than one day left of your life, that your life would be taken for unjust reasons, and then suddenly to learn that your life had been extended, indefinitely. And to know that thousands of people, most of whom you had never met and would never meet, had spoken out on your behalf, and that their voices, coming together, had made all the difference.
Let's each take a moment to imagine what it might be like to be an eleven year old girl who has just learned that her father will not be killed after all, and that after ten years of not being allowed to hug him, you will get to hug him again.
Let's each take a moment to remember that it is this coming together and rising up of our voices that must build and spread and encompass every injustice in the world, until every single injustice has been halted in its tracks.
Troy Davis is at risk of being executed despite strong evidence suggesting he is innocent. Davis was sent to death row 15 years ago for the shooting of a white police officer in Savannah, Georgia.
The conviction was not based on any physical evidence.
The murder weapon was never found.
All witnesses, but two, have recanted or contradicted their story.
Many were coerced by the police.
The remaining testimonies are dubious!
One witness has been implicated as the murderer by nine people!
The other witness could only recall the color of the shooter’s clothes.
Death penalty appeals are very difficult and no court has reviewed all the new evidence that came out since his initial trial! We need your support to stop this execution!
For more information please contact Georgians For Alternatives to the Death Penalty call (404) 876-5661 ext. 12.
Troy Davis was sentenced to death for the murder of Police Officer Mark Allen McPhail in Georgia. The case against him consisted entirely of witness testimony which contained inconsistencies even at the time of the trial. Since then, all but two of the state's nine non-police witnesses from the trial have recanted their testimony. Many of these witnesses have stated in sworn affidavits that they were pressured or coerced by police into testifying or signing statements against Troy Davis.
How, though, can we capture the screams of the rest of us? How can We the People best show our outrage?
Let's be creative, move beyond the usual demonstrations and call Congress days. I'm looking for something louder than lots of people calling in to talk shows or putting the same bumpersticker on their cars. Preferably something that people can participate in whether or not they have internet access.
What are your ideas?
Request: In the spirit of brainstorming, I ask that people respond in ways that build on each others' ideas and not knock them down.
CO-ANCHORED BY RADIO HOSTS PETER B. COLLINS AND ELECTION INTEGRITY ADVOCATE/JOURNALIST BRAD FRIEDMAN LIVE
Team Broadcast to be Carried over Multiple Radio Networks, Stations, Internet Outlets -- All Invited to Carry Program Free All Night Long!
Coverage will focus both on continuing, growing election problems around the county, as well as the "horse race."
Beginning Tuesday, Nov. 2nd at 3pm PT (6pm ET) and continuing until 1am PT or as long as events on the ground warrant
Peter B. Collins (host of the daily syndicated Peter B. Collins radio show) and Brad Friedman (radio personality, investigative journalist at BradBlog.com, election integrity advocate and co-founder of VelvetRevolution.us) are announcing plans for a coast-to-coast Election Night Marathon Broadcast to be carried LIVE over multiple air affiliates via the Jones satellite feed and multiple streaming internet outlets. The landmark broadcast is as a joint effort of Collins, Friedman and VelvetRevolution.us' Election Protection Strike Force effort in coordination with a number of national organizations and sponsors to be announced soon.
This broadcast is being offered to any radio station free for live coverage. Contact your local stations and get them to carry it! This is a fantastic opportunity to get the news out *on election night* about what's really going on around the nation.
Election Nullification Officially Rejected! Appeal to be Filed By Plaintiffs in CA-50 Election Contest! Plaintiffs Seek to Prevent National Use of the Constitution as a Weapon!
Guest blogged by Emily Levy
The BRAD BLOG has learned that the plaintiffs in CA-50 election contest will be appealing the dismissal of the case in the 4th District. Briefs are now being prepared and funds being collected for what may be a rather expensive appeal. Notice of appeal may be filed as soon as today.
The appeal is a rejection of Judge Yuri Hofmann’s August 29 ruling which echoed GOP claims that the U.S. House of Representatives, not the state courts or voters, have the power to determine the outcome of elections of members of Congress. In California’s 50th Congressional district in San Diego County, Republican candidate Brian Bilbray was announced to be the winner of the June 6 special election, flown to Washington and sworn in before all the votes were counted or the election certified.
Despite there being no way to determine who actually won the election, short of counting the paper ballots and paper trails, Brian Bilbray (R) was declared the winner and sworn into office.
Sound like democracy to you? It doesn't to leaders in the election integrity movement, either.
Statements of No Confidence have been issued in the San Diego Busby/Bilbray election by BradBlog, Progressive Democrats of America, California Election Protection Network, Velvet Revolution, Commonweal and the Election Defense Alliance and other groups. Lou Dobbs and conservative talk show host Roger Hitchcock have added their voices, as have Jeeni Crescenzo, John Bonifaz, Clint Curtis and more. (You can read them all here.) All are calling for a hand count of the paper ballots and paper trails. Several DUers are key organizers.
Timelines are very tight for the few legal methods of calling elections into question. While we're all working hours and hours without pay, we need to raise money for legal fees. Specifically, we need $10,000 by Monday July 10 to retain our attorney.
DU, you've done it before and we're counting on you to do it again. An amount this small for a cause so important should be easy for this committed group of over 90,000! Velvet Revolution (a group started by DUers) is accepting donations on our behalf. Please give what you can this very minute by clicking here.
Those of us who are working long hours without pay to drag our democracy up the beach and attempt to revive it depend on occasional support like this-in dollars and words-to keep us going. Please, let us know you're there, you appreciate our work, and that you'll do what you can to help.
Please post a reply to this thread, saying a few words about why this is important to you and/or what more you'd like to do to help. Then contact your friends and ask them to do the same. It'll take you a few minutes and makes you part of a plan that's critical to the greater fight for electoral justice and true democracy.
Remember: San Diego was and remains a test case for the November elections. If we allow fatal compromise of the laws protecting our elections to go unchallenged, we can count on seeing more of it-multiplied thousandfold-in every state come November. Momentum is building to toss out the electronic voting machines. Government officials are our employees, not our bosses. Arise and Supervise!
Required disclaimer: The administrators of Democratic Underground have given permission for one discussion thread on this topic. The administrators of Democratic Underground make no claims regarding the legitimacy or illegitimacy of this fundraising effort. Permission was granted by Skinner on July 6, 2006 and the moderators have been notified.
It turns out I had more to say than I said in my first email to her, which I sent after I was unable to get through on the phone.
Dear Francine Busby:
This is your moment.
Right now you have the opportunity to take action that is so important to the future of democracy that it could have more meaning than anything you would do as a member of Congress.
It is absolutely imperative that you publicly suspend your concession to Mr. Bilbray and demand a full hand-count of all paper ballots in the District 50 election. The election results as reported on election night are inconclusive. The public has a right to confidence in our election results. We cannot have confidence in results reported as final before tens of thousands of ballots have been counted, nor results from machines that were kept in pollworkers homes, nor from voting machines that can read a vote for one candidate and count that vote for an opponent.
The constitution states that the government derives its just power from the consent of the governed. In the case of your Congressional race, the consent of the governed cannot yet be determined. Any claim to power by Mr. Bilbray is therefore, by definition, unjust and must be challenged.
It is time to stand up and be counted. This is your moment. Carpe diem.
Emily Levy (my city, CA)
Now, to you at DU I say: please notice that a lot of what I've said in that email, and a lot of what Brad's said about this, is directly derived from the work of DU's GuvWurld. He's the one who's talked about the importance of voter confidence and "guaranteed inconclusive results" with electronic voting machines. I also swiped the constitutional reference from his work. If you haven't read his stuff, now's a good time to start! http://wedonotconsent.blogspot.com
Barbara Boxer decided not to join members of the Congressional Black Caucus in challenging the 2000 slate of presidential electors from Florida. On January 6, 2005, right before she joined Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones to challenge Ohio's slate of electors from the 2004 race, she stated that her decision four years previously had been wrong. She said Al Gore had asked her not to challenge the Florida electors. By 1/6/05 she had realized that it wasn't about Al Gore. It was about Democracy.
The need to challenge the premature announcement of your opponent's supposed victory is not about Francine Busby. It is not about CA-50. It is not even just about California. It's about our Democracy. It's everybody's business.
You prematurely conceded this race. The votes have not been counted. The machines were not secure. The machines cannot be trusted. By standing by your concession, you will be conceding our Democracy. You have no right to do that. Our Democracy belongs to all of us and WE DO NOT CONCEDE!
We are fighting for our Democracy. Your race is the new battleground. Will you stand up for Democratic values? Will you demand a full vote count and an investigation of irregularities? My deep hope is that you will.
Sincerely,
Emily Levy
Note: I served as Project Coordinator for Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D. in his precinct-level investigation of the 2004 presidential election in Ohio. I would be happy to help you in any way I can.
This is the very same GuvWurld who brought us the Voter Confidence Resolution, which you can find here: http://wedonotconsent.blogspot.com
He's a great thinker, speaker and resource to the movement. This is a big gig for him and he deserves our support. PLEASE KEEP THIS KICKED until he's on!
"One problem is that many of the new voting machines that will be deployed are arriving from offshore manufacturing sites – mainly China – and are being rushed into service without adequate quality controls, says Kimball Brace, president of Election Data Services, a voting consultancy firm."
From Stephen Colbert's speech:
"I believe democracy is our greatest export. At least until China figures out a way to stamp it out of plastic for three cents a unit."
Anybody know anybody who could shoot some video in a Chinese voting machine factory?
