Peltier to remain caged

Right on! (That's an in-joke.) Let's see if Wart has any more to say about this than he did about Mumia's denial of a new trial (nothing--at least published). The LAT. Go to Snapple's site for more. (h/t to her, but, yes, she's still banned here.)


Right on, murderer! And he's not eligible for parole again until 2024! At 79!

Update: Duh Underground notices. Read the comments. Fuck!

Update: Son, you got an eagle on your haid:

CU answers Wart's appeal--er--"notice to amend"

Devastating, in my non-lawyerly opinion. JWP, who has it, has his fave quote; here's mine:

[P]rofessor Churchill next reargues his belief that the Court’s Order is inconsistent with the jury’s finding that Professor Churchill was harmed by the University’s actions. What he cannot escape, however, is the fact that the jury’s finding of harm did not quantify the harm in any manner. Instead, the best understanding of the extent of any harm that befell Professor Churchill is reflected in the jury’s award of damages shortly after the Court issued the following instruction: If you find in favor of the plaintiff, but do not find any actual damages, you shall nonetheless award him nominal damages in the sum of one dollar.” Court’s Response to Jury Question 1 (emphasis added).

One Yankee dollar.

The jury’s verdict and award of nominal damages ultimately “signif[ies] that the plaintiff's rights were technically invaded even though he could not prove any loss or damage.” . . . Where the jury’s award necessarily indicates that Professor Churchill failed to establish any actual economic or non-economic damages, the Court appropriately followed the United States Supreme Court’s clear statement that “nominal damages, and not damages based upon some undefinable ‘value’ of infringed rights, are the appropriate means of ‘vindicating’ rights whose deprivation has not caused actual, provable injury.” . . .

Try as he might, Professor Churchill has been unable to escape the jury’s award of nominal damages and continues to be unable to cite a single case indicating that a trial court should grant equitable relief in the absence of any actual damages. It naturally follows that a Court should not grant prospective equitable relief in the absence of actual damages, rather than a technical violation that the jury has declined to compensate through an award of economic or non-economic damages.

Perhaps recognizing that the jury’s actual verdict does not support his position, Professor Churchill has solicited an affidavit from one of the jurors, in which she attempts to recast the verdict in her own terms. With all due respect and appreciation to Ms. Newill for her service on the jury, Professor Churchill knows that Colo. R. Evid. 606(b) categorically prohibits this type of collateral attack.

Rule 606(b) states that “a juror may not testify as to any matter or statement occurring during the course of the jury's deliberations or to the effect of anything upon his or any other juror's mind or emotions as influencing him to assent to or dissent from the verdict or indictment or concerning his mental processes in connection therewith. . . A juror's affidavit or evidence of any statement by the juror may not be received on a matter about which the juror would be precluded from testifying.” (emphasis added) Rule 606(b)’s “exclusionary principle reaches everything which relates to the jury’s verdict, unless one of the exceptions applies.” Stewart v. Rice, 47 P.3d 316, 321 (Colo. 2002). No exception applies to Ms. Newell’s affidavit and Professor Churchill does not offer any.

Applying these principles, the Colorado Court of Appeals even prohibited a juror from submitting an affidavit stating that the other jurors had yelled at her and coerced her into reaching a particular verdict. People v. Ferrero, 874 P.2d 468, 474 (Colo. App. 1993). As the Colorado Supreme Court noted less than a year ago, “Colorado does not allow verdict by affidavit.” People v. Richardson, 184 P.3d 755, 765 (Colo. 2008).

Yelled at her. There's all kinds of stuff about official capacity and all that, too. I'll let RacetotheBottom explicate all that happy crappy (which they haven't yet).

Benjie to the rescue!

The Post:

Huge enrollment jumps at Colorado's community colleges are prompting officials to scramble for more classroom space and instructors for subjects as varied as air-traffic control and anthropology.

And Ethnic Studies?

At some community colleges, enrollment is up more than 25 percent. The Community College of Denver appears to lead the trend, with a 37.5 percent increase in students heading into fall classes. . . .Administrators attribute the surge to the bad economy and the affordability of a community college
education. . . .

Duh.

But there are problems accommodating all those new bodies. Classrooms are filled, and colleges are encouraging more students to take online courses.

At Aims [Community College in Greeley], where enrollment has jumped at least 20 percent, administrators are scrambling to get more desks and chairs into classrooms, pushing up against fire-code limits. . . .

The school is also hanging out "Help Wanted" signs for just about every academic offering. Part-time instructors are needed for subjects including developmental reading, college-level math and biology. Humanities courses are also lacking, so Aims needs instructors for psychology, ethics, economics and anthropology.

And Ethnic Studies?

D-blog readers: Keep watching the skies! Benjie didn't erase two blogs only because he was afraid of getting sued. He wants to "teach."

Update: In his last 20 posts Benjie has gotten two (2) comments. He's right: blogging is a waste of time. For him.

DNC protesters file suit

What a bore. Der Posten:

Eight people who were arrested on the second day of the Democratic National Convention during a mass protest filed a lawsuit against the City and County of Denver last night alleging wrongful arrest.

Took long enough.

The plaintiffs - who filed their case in Denver District Court - are represented by lawyers for the ACLU of Colorado and include a legal observer for the People's Law Project, a journalist, students documenting the protest and onlookers along 15th Street and Cleveland Place on Aug. 25.

In addition, the lawsuit is seeking class-action status for nearly 100 people who were held at a special jail, dubbed "Gitmo on the Platte" and claim they were denied access to attorneys who came to provide advice.

Denver police have said they were trying to control the crowd moving from Civic Center. The officers testified in court that they had intelligence that anarchists planned to gather in the park, then move toward the 16th Street Mall to wreak havoc at delegate hotels and other businesses. The activists had posted that plan on a publicly available website.

It all seems so long ago.

Update: In comments Wartie "Lori" links to a 7News story that has a few more details:

Meanwhile, 7NEWS learned a handful of undercover Denver police officers may have posed as protesters in the months leading up to and during the DNC.

Now there's a flash.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, law enforcement sources said the officers are believed to have infiltrated several protest groups and provided intelligence to police after attending meetings and other gatherings. . . .

I feel a TV pilot coming on: Spagz: Revolutionary for the DPD! Only problem is, it says the person(s) provided "intelligence" to the police. As we all know, that's beyond Spagz.

Then Glee Spagulla himself is quoted:

"It makes us very uncomfortable,” said Glenn Spagnuolo, a principal organizer of one of the largest protest organizations, Recreate 68.

"The city of Denver has not learned from historical mistakes they've made," Spagnuolo said, while recalling the so-called “spy files” of 2002. Back then, the ACLU went public with documents accusing police of monitoring, recording keeping files on peaceful protest activities of Denver-area residents.

"They were slapped on the hand once before, and I believe as this story unfolds they'll be slapped on the hand again,” Spagnuolo told 7NEWS reporter Lane Lyon.

"People are not engaging criminal activities, they are engaging in constitutional rights and we're being treated as if we are criminals,” he added.

Eloquently.

One source told 7NEWS the officers may have been instructed to work outside clear policies for undercover operations by not having appropriate back up.

Not having appropriate backup? Defemd Children and Elders!

Factoid

In the decade-plus that we've owned this romantic shithole, and in the scores of applications we've taken from potential renters, we've never had a single black person apply. This is a Hispanic neighborhood, of course, but there are certainly blacks living around here too. Weird. I just chalk it up to black people having innately better taste. (Such a racist.)

Wart speaks!

With a DJ at some D.C. FM station that's running a pledge drive ("At the $150 level, you get the six-CD set of the speeches of the Black Panthers!").

Wart says his appeal will go to the state Court of Appeals "within the year," then, if unsuccessful there, to the Colorado Supreme Court, and then to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he thinks he might find a friend in Antonin Scalia.

That's about all that's newsworthy in the thing. He goes after the AAUP for not supporting him, then devolves into his standard drivel. Wart is really stuck in the 60s. He pledges $150 for the six-CD set--"Everyone should have it!"

Update: JWP! Come back! Come back, JWP! Mother wants you! I know she does!

That is, PB seems to have been down for several days. As Laurie says in comments, his parrot probably didn't pay the broadband bill like he was supposed to. Or maybe he (the parrot) just got fed up and gouged out JWP's eyes. Well, he has put up with a lot.

Update II: Boe! Everything okay? Haven't seen you around for a while!

Update III: JWP's back up, with another example of the (almost--whew, that was close) Repression of Wart.

It wasn't Bill

Yes, a Clinton rescued those two American journalists, but it wasn't Bill--it was Roger He paved the way.

Like his idol

Careful writer, all-'round genius and RCP ("Our Chairman is Bob Avakian!") stooge Reggie Dylan on the Chutch decision:

There is a great deal at stake for academia and for society overall right now in upholding and defending this verdict, and deepening its lessons. An ugly, high-stakes public witch-hunt by dangerous, reactionary, and powerful forces, aimed at spreading a repressive chill over the universities, has been dragged into the light, and dealt a setback. But these forces, far from retreating, are regrouping, and trying to turn the meaning of this verdict on its head. This absurd, twisted and clearly unjust decision by Denver Chief Judge Naves only contributes to those objectives, and it must be opposed. And at the same time, the debate we called for in that article is needed more than ever, with those within and outside academia who, in spite of the verdict, are still taken in by a distorted view of what the case is about.

Uh-huh. And once again, the unheeded (well, two nearly illiterate comments) call to arms:

As the fall term approaches, faculty and students, and everyone concerned with the defense of the unfettered search for the truth, intellectual ferment, and dissent, need to step forward on campuses around the country and develop plans for how to call out, build opposition to, and to delegitimize, this ruling, calling meetings and rallies, writing letters to newspapers and to CU and the Colorado court, taking out ads, and more. And broader segments of society need to join with them.

Then, the obligatory self-plagiarization:

The challenge to administrators, faculty, and especially students is to stand up to this assault. And broader segments of society must join with them. We must continue to defend those like Ward Churchill when they are singled out for attack, and, more generally, defend the ability of professors to hold dissenting and radical views. It is vitally important that the new generation of students step forward to defend an unfettered search for the truth, intellectual ferment, and dissent. One way or another, this struggle over the university and intellectual life will have profound repercussions on what U.S. society will be like, and on the prospects for bringing a whole new society into being.

Compare that with this:

The challenge to administrators, faculty, and especially students is to stand up to this assault. And broader segments of society must join with them. We must continue to defend those like Ward Churchill when they are singled out for attack, and, more generally, defend the ability of professors to hold dissenting and radical views. It is vitally important that the new generation of students step forward to defend an unfettered search for the truth, intellectual ferment, and dissent. One way or another, this struggle over the university and intellectual life will have profound repercussions on what U.S. society will be like, and on the prospects for bringing a whole new society into being.

No indication that he's quoting himself (for the third time). Reggie Dylan: original, and flexible, thinker. At least he didn't put it under someone else's name and then quote (and cite) it as if it were written by that someone else. Our Chairman is Bob Avakian!

Never know what interesting tidbit you'll find . . .

In comments at WattsUpWithThat. This one's in a long, long thread on coral, ocean temps and CO2 from some months ago. The D-blog understands the entire thread, but his somewhat algae-like readers--maybe not so much. But I bet they won't forget this (sorry, comments don't seem to have individual links; it was made by E.M. Smith at 18:49;45):

In humans it is widely known that when lost at sea you will die if you drink salt water (due to the inability of your kidneys to excrete a stronger salt concentration than sea water). Less widely known is that you can take a ’sea water enema’ and survive. The colon has active transport of water (to solidify feces) and can extract fresh water from sea water. I know of at least one scandinavian family lost at sea that survived using this trick.

Luckily the D-blog always has an enema-bag about his person (don't ask), so next time he goes on a cruise (the D-blog has never been on a cruise), he'll survive if the ship sinks--at least until the others in his lifeboat kill (and eat) him for administering himself enemas right in front of them. Mmmmm, salty.

Update: Fucking Scandinavians.

Update II: No sharing!