May 1st, 2010
Dear Friend of Justice,
I just came upon this post at the Real Cost of Prisons blog: http://realcostofprisons.org/blog/archives/2010/05/ma_house_passes.html
The Massachusetts House has passed a bill to authorize a charge of up to $5 a day for Massachusetts prisoners.
Even the few prisoners lucky enough to have jobs don’t make as much as $5 a day. The burden would fall on the family and friends of prisoners, most of whom could ill afford to pay such an outrageous fee. If I had to pay $5 a day for every prisoner I’m supporting I’d have to give up eating.
This bill has not yet become law. I hope Massachusetts residents will complain to the idiots who voted for this. Members of the Senate and Governor Patrick need to be contacted as well.
-Bob Chatelle
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Posted in Prisons, Rants | No Comments »
April 24th, 2010
Dear Friend of Justice,
Here is a trailer for Freeing Bernie Baran, a new documentary about the Bernard Baran case by Daniel Alexander.
-Bob Chatelle
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Posted in Baran, Innocents | No Comments »
March 28th, 2010
Dear Friend of Justice,
A great many good friends urged me to hold my nose and vote for Martha Coakley because it was vital to save health-care reform. But I could not bring myself to do this.
Ironically, the defeat of Coakley turned out to help Obama pass HCR.
His prior strategy was to preserve 60 votes in the Senate. This gave conservatives (from insurance-industry states) Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson veto power over the content of the bill. And they used their power in December to get what they wanted.
Once Coakley was defeated, however, Obama had to go with Plan B. He switched to a reconciliation strategy, which only required preserving a majority in the Senate. Lieberman and Nelson lost their veto power.
Would they have used it? Lieberman did vote for the bill. But Nelson did not.
So if Coakley had won, Obama would probably have gotten a bill less to his liking. And Martha Coakley would be Senator-for-life in Massachusetts.
-Bob Chatelle
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Posted in Martha Coakley | 1 Comment »
March 7th, 2010
Dear Friend of Justice,
I received a phone call from Joseph Allen yesterday afternoon. Even though Allen and his co-defendant, Nancy Smith, were acquitted by a judge, the prosecutors (aided by the Ohio Attorney General) have appealed the acquittal and are trying to send Smith and Allen back to prison. The appeals court will have a hearing on the prosecutors’ motion this coming Tuesday.
Let us hope for the best so that these two good people can get on with their lives. Sending them back behind bars would be a terrible tragedy.
You can review my past posts on this case here.
For general background on the case, click here.
-Bob Chatelle
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Posted in Innocents, Smith/Allen | 2 Comments »
February 18th, 2010
Dear Friend of Justice,
Our friend David Foley yesterday sent me this essay, which he had written over seven years ago, about Bernard Baran. On my request, David gave me permission to share it with you.
-Bob Chatelle
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Posted in Baran, Innocents | No Comments »
February 11th, 2010
Dear Friend of Justice,
I am creating this post using Internet Explorer, a browser I had hoped I’d never have to fall back on. But I just can’t live with Firefox anymore. Maybe I will give it another try on its next release.
My problem started when I tried to install a Firefox add-on called Firebug. I could not get it to install. I googled around for advice. I was told to create a “clean” profile. I did. Finally, I uninstalled completely and reinstalled.
I then discovered that all of my add-ons were gone and that nothing I did would bring them back.
So I tried Firefox support and discovered that it basically doesn’t exist. You are allowed to ask a question in their forum. But your question quickly gets lost, because it turns out hundreds of other people are also having terrible problems with Firefox.
I have no more time to waste on it. I don’t like Internet Explorer, but at least add-ons work with it.
I will leave Firefox on my computer because I still need it to test changes in web pages. I also have Opera, Chrome, and Safari installed for this purpose.
I’ve been using Firefox for many years. I feel I’ve been let down by an old friend.
-Bob
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Posted in Rants | 1 Comment »
