Chamblee54

This content was published August 18, 2009. … The one thing I am sure of in the Troy Davis case is the abundance of material on the internet. This is true of all death penalty cases. When you have celebrities calling for clemency, the data crush gets heavier. Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a district court needs to have a hearing on the Troy Davis case. The Supremes were convinced that there is enough evidence to doubt the conviction of Troy Davis for the murder of Mark MacPhail. Justices Scalia and Thomas dissented. …
… The dissenting opinion, written by Justice Scalia, is a doozy. “This court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is ‘actually’ innocent.” It should be noted that I am not a lawyer, and some of the arguments I am reading make my head swim. Some say that Justice Scalia was correct in his opinion. Others think he is crazy. …
The one thing I have not been able to find is a picture of Sylvester “Red” Coles. Mr. Coles is known to have been present at the murder site. Mr. Coles owns a .38 pistol with a chrome finish, similar to the pistol that shot Mr. MacPhail. On the morning after the murder, Mr. Coles and an attorney showed up at the Police Headquarters. Soon, a decision was made that Troy Davis was the killer. The reason I want to see a picture of Sylvester Coles is to know, for sure, if he is black or white. Mr. Coles is described as a “a fearsome neighborhood thug” and a drug dealer. …
… If Troy Davis (black) takes the blame for killing Mark MacPhail (white) and allows Sylvester Coles (?) to go free, is this racism? Perhaps it is sloppy policework, or a bribe from the Coles attorney. While we are talking race, please note that Clarence Thomas concurred with Antonin Scalia in his dissent. … There are some who don’t think the ruling yesterday will change much. The MacPhail family and the Chatham County police are convinced of the guilt of Mr. Davis. This case has been bouncing around the courts for twenty years. Several courts have upheld the original guilty verdict. …
This content was published August 22, 2009. … There is a lot of hot air about health care. It is an intensely personal subject. Almost everyone has a story to tell. Hidden agendas, payoffs, straw men, and misleading rhetoric are the order of the day. I decided to try and make a bit of sense out of the mess, and share what I found. There was a google search, under the phrase “what is the health care proposal?” I found a pdf on the BHO website. It is not known when this pdf was written, or if other plan summaries are available. …
… It is not known how closely this summary corresponds to the bill before congress. I tried to break down the BHO plan summary, with key parts set off in bold type (the ob health plan-c54). … There are three parts to the plan. The summary this is based on did not mention “death panels”, abortion, or illegal aliens. I feel these are red herrings, designed to divert attention away from the plan. The current debate is a huckster’s paradise. … The first part of the plan involves lowering costs. There are three major parts to this. The first part is to modernize and digitize our health records. …
… The second part is better maintenance of chronic disease. This part of the plan calls for health insurance for all Americans. The two big steps here are the elimination of the pre existing conditions issue, and the establishment of the “National Health Insurance Exchange”. This part is in trouble, and may be compromised away. … The third part is an overall reform of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. This part of the plan is a call for prevention and public health. There are a few big brother like calls for “interventions”. …
… I suspect there is a great deal more to the debate than this pdf, but that it is a place to start. 12 pages can only scratch the surface. The phrase “God is in the details” comes to mind. … Clearly, the system we have is not working for large numbers of people. Employer based insurance requirements are a leading factor in the outplacement of jobs overseas. While I have doubts about what I read today, I do not see the talk radio crowd offering a better solution. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Arthur Rothstein took the social media picture in October 1939. “Unloading shelled corn for ever-normal granary storage. Grundy County, Iowa” · selah ©Luther Mckinnon 2025