Tag Archives: Georgia

Georgia Lawmaker Compares Pregnant Women to Livestock

Posted on March 9, 2012 by | 10 Comments

Georgia state representative Terry England (R-Old-McDonald) knows everything he needs to know about birthin’ babies because dadgummit, he’s delivered cows and pigs and chickens and whatnot, and it made him so darn sad when the animals didn’t make it.

Given his experience with livestock, Terry England believes women should be forced to birth their babies after 20 weeks of pregnancy.  Why 20 weeks?  Because he lived on a farm that’s why.  And if you don’t listen to him, he might break down and cry about it.

From Crooks & Liars:

Republican Georgia state Rep. Terry England says that his experience with cows, pigs and chickens has proven to him that women should be forced to have their babies after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

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Posted in Please Die in a Fire, War on Women, What the Crap!?

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Georgia Democratic Rep. Yasmin Neal Seeks State Ban on Vasectomies

Posted on February 21, 2012 by | 18 Comments

Tit for tat

 As the War on Women marches inexorably onward, Democrats are starting to fight back —  cheekily.

In Virginia, state Senator Janet Howell attached a “rectal probe” amendment to the Virginia State-Sanctioned Rape bill.  The amendment would have required men to have a rectal exam and a cardiac stress test before obtaining a prescription for erectile dysfunction medication.  (It failed to pass.)

In Oklahoma, Constance Johnson attached an “every sperm is sacred” amendment to the GOP’s Personhood bill.  The amendment would have construed any action in which a man ejaculates or otherwise deposits semen anywhere but in a woman’s vagina as an action against an unborn child. (Democrats voted to table the amendment in order to demonstrate that it was introduced in jest.)

And now Georgia Democrats are stepping up.   Continue reading →

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Posted in Balloon Juice Cross-Posts, Body/Health Shenanigans, Kick Ass, War on Women

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School Students Claim Teacher Organized a 'Slave/Slave Catcher Game'

Posted on January 26, 2012 by | 6 Comments

Come on, now.

Students at an elementary school in Gwinnett, Georgia have claimed that a teacher organized a tag-like game of slave/slave catcher during recess.

The school admits that the students played “slave/slave catcher,” but deny that a teacher participated.

Some children at a Gwinnett elementary school played a tag-like game as slaves and slave catchers at recess, and a teacher allegedly participated, Channel 2 Action News reported.

The incident happened at Camp Creek Elementary School in Lilburn last week, the report said.

Three children and their parents told Channel 2 that a teacher organized and participated in the game.

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Posted in Now That's Some Racist Bullsh*t, What the Crap!?

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A circle of prayer for Troy Davis—and the country that would kill him.

Posted on September 21, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Troy Davis with family members before the State of Georgia ended "contact visits" for death row inmates.

Please read this post at Colorlines by my friend Jen Marlowe, about her friend, Troy Davis. Jen made Amnesty’s series of videos about Mr. Davis, and has been active on his behalf for years.

A Circle of Prayer for Troy Davis—and the Country That Would Kill Him

Motivational posters line the hallways en route to the visitation room. Images of rock climbers, an eagle soaring over clouds, a collection of hands of all pigmentation on a basketball, each with an inspirational one-word message: LEADERSHIP, OPPORTUNITY, ACHIEVEMENT, FOCUS, TEAMWORK.

Opportunity? Achievement? The irony was outrageous. The hallway was in the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison and I was walking down it with the Davis family en route to visit death row inmate Troy Davis.

Though I had been corresponding with Troy for years via letters and phone, December 2009 was my first visit. I knew I would not have the opportunity to be sitting in the same room as Troy; contact visits had been taken away from death row inmates a few months earlier. Instead, I spoke to Troy through a black iron grate, alongside his mother, sisters and teen-aged nephew. At the end of every visit, the Davis family formed a prayer circle, holding hands, Troy leading a prayer thanking God for their blessings and praying for the strength to continue their quest for justice.

With contact visits revoked, Troy could no longer hold hands with the rest of his family. Instead, he pressed his hands flat against the black iron grating. His family and I formed a semi-circle. Troy’s mother pressed her hand on the opposite side of the grate as Troy’s right palm, and his nephew did the same on the left. Everyone bowed their heads, closed their eyes and offered prayers. I couldn’t help but take a peek. Troy looked like a silhouette through the dense iron grill, his head bowed, his hands pressed against the grate, with his mother and nephew’s hands pressed just as firmly on the other side, finding a way, despite the steel and bars, to maintain their circle of prayer.

Please click here to read the rest. And please keep Mr. Davis in your thoughts today, especially at 7:00 pm EST, when he is scheduled to be executed.

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Posted in Culture Critic, Legal Shenanigans, Miscellany

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ACTION ITEM: Troy Davis Has Twelve Days Left

Posted on September 9, 2011 by | 3 Comments

Act now.

What follows is a comment about the injustice surrounding the Troy Davis case left by Stephen Matlock at Emily L. Hauser’s blog, In My Head:

Well, we had a short writing session yesterday in a symposium I attended, “Social Media for Social Justice.”

Here’s what I wrote:

More than 20 years ago on a hot muggy night Officer Mark MacPhail worked as a security officer at a fast-food restaurant. An altercation outside escalated, as often happens when people are tired and angry. Officer MacPhail intervened, and two shots ended his life.

A man now sits in a Georgia State Prison awaiting execution for that crime. All is in order, rules followed, jurors instructed, penalty phases adjudicated. And Troy Davis, 13 12 days away from his own death, awaits the response to his near-futile pleas for clemency.

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Posted in Legal Shenanigans

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Troy Davis given execution date.

Posted on September 7, 2011 by | 8 Comments

UPDATE: Many thanks to Glenn Greenwald, at Salon.com, for linking to this post in his piece “Cheering for state-imposed death.” The number of click-throughs to the various Amnesty petitions and sign-on letters has jumped exponentially since he linked, and it is my sincere hope that these additional names will serve to help Troy Davis win clemency.

Troy Davis in the Chatham County Superior Court during his trail in the shooting death of off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail. (AP Photo/Savannah Morning News)

Troy Davis, the death row inmate about whom I wrote last week, has been given an execution date of September 21.

I repeat: Mr. Davis is almost certainly innocent of the crime for which the state of Georgia wants to kill him.

There is no physical evidence connecting him to the crime, seven out of the nine eyewitnesses have recanted, stating that they had been pressured, coerced or frightened into testifying, and jury members have said flat out: “If I knew then what I know now, Troy Davis would not be on death row.”

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Posted in Emily L. Hauser, Legal Shenanigans, What the Crap!?

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UPDATE: Calling legal professionals and clergy for Troy Davis.

Posted on August 30, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Yesterday I wrote about Troy Davis and the fact that he has been sentenced to death for a murder that he almost certainly did not commit. Despite copious evidence pointing to Mr. Davis’s innocence, the state of Georgia will likely give him an execution date in September.

In that post, I asked that you watch a video and sign the Amnesty petition, but Jen Marlowe pointed out that if you are a legal professional or member of the clergy, you can take an extra, crucial step: Joining a sign-on letter to demonstrate that those most familiar with the law, and those most intimately attuned to this nation’s spiritual and ethical standards, support Mr. Davis in his request for clemency. Legal professionals can sign the appropriate letter by clicking here; members of the clergy can add their names by clicking here.

This cannot be stated baldly enough: Troy Davis may soon be put to death for a crime he almost certainly did not commit.

Please ask someone you know to join you in taking a stand.

Crossposted at Emily L. Hauser In My Head.

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Posted in Legal Shenanigans, What the Crap!?

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“A verdict that is not ironclad is not good enough to support the death penalty.”

Posted on August 29, 2011 by | 8 Comments

Let me get this out of the way: I am opposed to the death penalty under any circumstances. I think that Adolf Eichmann should have been allowed to rot in prison. I don’t think that killing people helps society in any way, if it’s not absolutely necessary for reasons of defense, and I don’t believe that the death penalty acts as any kind of deterrent.

And yet, I do understand the impulse behind the death penalty. Some people really have done monstrous things, and I can understand the desperate feeling that such monsters produce in our hearts, the horror, the sense that monsters do not deserve to live.

But at the very least, should we not be absolutely certain that the person about to be executed is, in fact, a monster? Did, in fact, do what we’re killing that person for doing?

Twenty years ago, Troy Davis was convicted of murdering Mark MacPhail, a police officer in Savannah, Georgia. There is no physical evidence tying Mr. Davis to Officer MacPhail’s murder, and seven of the nine non-law enforcement witnesses have recanted, saying, time and again, that they were frightened and coerced by police, and that moreover, they were terrified by the man they believe to have actually committed the crime. Mr. Davis has himself always maintained his innocence, and jurors have said, flat out: “If I knew then what I know now, Troy Davis would not be on death row.”

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Posted in Emily L. Hauser, Legal Shenanigans, What the Crap!?

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Georgia: New Slavery? Same as the Old Slavery!!***

Posted on June 22, 2011 by | 13 Comments

Fucking hell.

A Georgia parolee works the fields.

In the wake of Georgia’s Arizona-esque immigration bill, thousands of immigrants who were content to do the work that — as Stephen Colbert pointed out months ago — few if any Americans want to do, have fled the state, leaving crops to rot in the fields.  Needless to say, somebody has got to pick these crops, and who better than the O.G. Croppickers — black folks!

Georgia, which passed an Arizona-style immigration bill in April that is due to take effect next month, has seen thousands of undocumented immigrants flee the state. A state survey released last week found 11,080 vacant positions on state farms that needed to be filled to avoid losing crops.

At the same time as the survey’s release, Deal, a first-term Republican, announced a program to link the state’s 100,000 probationers with farmers looking to fill positions, the vast majority of which pay less than $15 per hour.

The AP reported the first group of probationers began working last week at an Americus farm owned by Dick Minor, the president of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association.

I read about this over at The Reid Report — I urge you to head over there and read her take on this fuckery —  and, needless to say, I’m stunned and sick to my stomach.

Here’s the AP:

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Posted in Miscellany, Political Shenanigans, What the Crap!?

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