INFIDEL

Yesterday, I went out to purchase basic non-necessities for the comfortable life I live in this small quiet suburb with Eric and our rescue animals. This was the monthly run for fabric softener, laundry detergent, bleach, Lysol, large bags of dog food, large boxes of special cat food, English muffins, special coffee beans Beggin Strips, DVD's etc.--all the lovely little non-necessities that my spoiled safe life appears to require. There was nothing special about yesterday's shopping trip.

While out and about, in our remarkably free country, I noticed a book. Being a reader I picked it up and flipped through it and then tossed it in the cart. Books are staples in my life and sometimes it pays off to take a chance on an author I have not previously read.

Yesterday, when I got home, I read the book all the way through--every word. It's an easy, compelling read of only a little more than 300 pages. Even if it had been difficult to read, the truth is that I literally could not put it down. This may well be the most important book I've read, from the first page to the last, in ten years. I simply could not put this book down.

The book is titled INFIDEL and is written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. I believe Ms Ali now lives somewhere in the United States.

You can buy INFIDEL at bookstores for under $30.00. Or, if you can't afford $30.00, you can borrow it from one of the public libraries in this country. We live in a free country. We can all read this book without fear of being murdered. The hardest part about reading the book was the names of people were strange to me and it was hard to keep track of who people were.

Ms Ali writes in a soft, clear, calm voice. She does not rant! She simply tells her story and the story of millions of Muslim women in countries that are not free although they may claim to be free and they may be recognized as free.

Buy or borrow this book and read it. Read every word!

"SHAME ON YOU"

I don't know for whom I'm going to vote. I'm interested in the political process, but I'm not convinced that anyone running is actually in the race for the good of the country. To be honest, I think all of them are probably in the race for self aggrandizement. Further, I suspect this entire race is about the pursuit of power strictly for power and not for what power might be able to do to help the citizens, the country and the world. There's a bit of the cynic in me when it comes to politics.

However, yesterday I observed Hillary Clinton shout "Shame on you, Barack Obama". She went on to accuse him of using the tactics of Karl Rove. The "Shame on you" comment immediately cause me to think "What has he done?" . "Is he beating his children?" Good Heavens, what has the man done?

Well, turns out that part of the "Shame on You" comment related to him or his staff putting out a flyer about her support of NAFTA.

I'm not an Obama supporter, but I can tell you that back in the 1990's when he was working as a community organizer on the streets in Chicago he had a burr up his butt about NAFTA and NAFTA like bills and all the efforts of Congress to pass them.. I don't know him personally, I've never met him, and I haven't donated money. But, back in the day I was aware of a young upstart Harvard educated black lawyer working on the streets of Chicago with the unemployed and the homeless. Back in the day, I was working in Illinois. He had a burr up his butt about NAFTA and all such efforts to develop trade agreements to unbolt the machines from the floors and ship them overseas--leaving American's unemployed, unable to make their house payments, and unable to afford health care.

Hillary Clinton has been touting her 35 years of experience and counting her time as the wife of President Clinton as "experience". I'm sure being married to Slick Willie was quite an experience. And, I doubt that she could have stopped him from signing the NAFTA agreement. But, while it was in the Congress and when he signed it she did not speak out against it. The reality is that she has been running for President and basically claiming credit for everything her husband did. She calls it "experience". She's been hanging onto his coat tails for this entire election period. She's even written about NAFTA in a book where she said it was one of their great triumphs. Well, folks it was not a triumph for the working and middle class. They lost their jobs, their houses, and their health care. This was not helpful to a large segment of America.

He told the truth about her support of NAFTA. If she didn't support it, she should have spoken up before her husband signed it.

Now the other issue she was upset about is the healthcare plan. In truth, I can't tell their health care plans apart. And, neither of them are going to work because Congress and the Insurance Industry will block both of them. The only difference I can see between the two plans is that her plan says it's going to stiffly fine people (apparently by garnishing their wages) if they don't voluntarily buy health insurance. Right, that's really going to help people. Many people can't make their house payments as it is right now. Let's garnish their wages and increase the foreclosure rate.

Now the one thing he did where she might have a right to kick him is he did not go into detail in the flyer about the steps she's proposing to lower the cost of health insurance. Truth is the steps she proposing to lower the cost of health insurance are a mirror of his. Or, his are a mirror of hers. He did go into detail about how he is going to lower the cost of health insurance. It would have been more chivalrous if he had mentioned that their proposals are identical in terms of attempting to lower the cost of health insurance. But, why should he spend his money to advertise for her? It's politics folks! He's not auditioning for a Knight at the Round Table.

So, on this health care issue we can probably say "Shame on You" for not being chivalrous. But, on this NAFTA issue, she was in on it. She didn't speak up before the bill was signed. She didn't speak up while it was in the Congress. And, she's been running on Bill's coattails for over a year claiming her time as his wife as "experience". She has no right to complain about Obama telling the truth. If anything, it's "SHAME ON YOU, HILLARY". Shame on you for not standing up before NAFTA was signed.

Probable Cause Hearing

Had Probable Cause Hearing this morning. He stipulated. That means he chose to give up and not fight the hearing. Given the severity of his case, it was a really smart move. Those hearings are open to the public and he had a 20 year history of sneaking around town, stalking women, gathering information, blackmailing them, peeking in their window and watching them undress, public masturbation on the side of their houses while he watched and hands on skin on skin contact offenses at knifepoint including one completed rape.

There are some things that it's just better not to have come out in open court.

Returned home and attempted to call or contact by fax a parole officer in a northern county. I have not dealt with this county previously. When we are unable to refer an inmate because they don't meet the statutory criteria we inform the parole supervisor of our findings and provide any information we can that might help them supervise the inmate when he is released. There are many of these men that do not meet criteria and we do not refer. Actually, most of these men do not meet criteria and they are released.

So, I'm trying to provide required information that may be helpful to parole and every time I try to call or fax I get a recorded message that the phone and fax machine only accepts local calls. This is ridiculous. Basically, they have the phone system set up so they can't get the information they need.

I've got Catherine working on it. Thank God for Catherine! I don't have the time or resources to hunt down the parole officer. Frustrating!!!!! Truth is, Catherine doesn't have the time to do it either. But, she will get me the info I need so I can do my job.

BASEBALL AND STEROID USE

We're in the middle of two wars, the foreclosure rate on the homes of American citizens is at (probably) an all time high, the economy is rapidly approaching disaster, citizens are being banrupted because they accessed health care, other citizens are dying because they could not access health care and Congress is spending hours (not to mention millions of our tax money) investigating whether multimillionaire baseball players and their associates are using steroids and human growth hormore.

I personally don't care if these overpaid, muscle bound jocks take drugs they believe will help them perform better, but end up damaging themselves. They have enough money to buy the very best of health care. If they want to succeed in baseball so much that they are willing to risk killing themselves, so be it.

I care enormously about Congress wasting my tax money to investigate this entire mess. My tax money has better work to do.

NIGHTMARE TRAFFIC

I drove to a small town (5500 people) down South yesterday to interview an inmate. States put prisons in these out of the way places for two reasons. First, they put them out in the country away from heavy populations in case of escape. It's easy to shoot an escapee in a rural area. Second, they put them in economically challenged geographic areas to provide work for the otherwise unemployable. Obtaining a prison for your district is a major political plun. Those prison provide good wages for people who otherwise would not be able to get even a minimum wage job.

I went the same place Friday. I always dread going to that prison because they are so disorganized and so incredibly slow about getting their work done. For example, this law has been in effect since 1999 and they have been dealing with evaluators coming to interview these men since 1999, but this prison never quite knows what to do with us. This does not happen at any of the Northern prisons.

They are informed in writing 7 days prior to our interview of the date, time of arrival and inmate to be interviewed. Yet, when you arrive with your identification badge, they stare with slack jaw at you as if they have never encountered this situation previously. To make the situation worse, they were on lockdown Friday and Monday. So, they really didn't know what to do with a female psychologist. The Correctional Officer was required to escort me to the bathroom! It's standard to go through a metal detector, be required to remove my watch, get patted down, and have the car searched. But, having a correctional officer escort me to the bathroom only happens in this one Southern prison. And, it's a bathroom way up front by the gatehouse so you have to be searched a second time.

I explained to them as courteously as I could that they do the exact same thing with me as they always do. They are supposed to clear me through the gatehouse (after a through search), send me to Master Records, then forward me to Medical Records, then stand outside the door while I interview the inmate. This procedure has taken place over 10,000 times since 1999 across the state. At the northern prisons you are searched and cleared for Master Records in about 15 minutes. I leave my purse, cell phone, cigarettes, lighters, etc. locked in the car so that they only thing that has to pass the search is my body, my watch, one pen, and the interview booklet/paper data that I need for the interview. Money, credit cards, ATM cards, cell phones, lap tops, cigarettes, matches, lighters, medicine, cosmetics are all contraband in prisons. Attempting to enter with a cell phone, beeper or laptop is a felony. So, the smart way to do things is leave everything you need locked in the car. And, sometimes they search the car.

Nearly 2 hours later, they arrived with the inmate. Then it took another 90 minutes for them to find a Lt. to take his handcuffs off so that he could sign the informed consent and replace the handcuffs. At this particular prison, they never seem to "get it" that I cannot speak at all to any inmate until the inmate has signed and dated the informed consent. The informed consent is a very comprehensive paper that serves as sort of his Miranda warning.

This informed consent is important. Without a valid signature any work I did would be thrown out of court. More important, ethically I'm not interviewing anybody anywhere without them genuinely understanding the danger that interview may pose to their liberty. In truth, that interview can help them and they have a legal right to it. But, it's a double edged sword. That interview can put their liberty (for the rest of their life) at serious risk. The results of the interview depend on what they tell me and how that integrates with the rest of the data available in the records about them.

If everything goes smoothly, these interviews can take as much as six hours. That's assuming the inmate is actually brought to me in a timely manner. The six hours starts after the informed consent is signed. So, because the staff basically wasted nearly four hours, we're talking potentially a ten hour day before I can begin to drive home. I had arrived very early because it takes two hours to drive to this place.

Fortunately, the inmate was cooperative and intelligent. So, except for his sobbing the interview went rapidly and well. This is a young man in his 30's who was frightened. He's looking at the possibility of spending the rest of his life in a treatment facility with no home passes, fourlough, etc. It's basically a life sentence that follows his prison sentence. These men are justifiably frightened. By the way, all the sobbing doesn't work with me. What matters is the information he provides and how it integrates with his record. By the time they get to me, they are beyond crying and begging.

While I'm interviewing him, it begins to sleet--heavy sleet. The correctional officers want to go home. I understand this. I want to go home. But, the bottom line is that this man has a right to that interview and he has a right to provide me with all the information he can that he believes will help his case. He has a right to speak. That speech may not help him, but he has a legal right to it. So, I'm not going to shut him up just so the correctional officer or I can go home. If worst comes to worst on those roads, I'll check myself into some hotel and spend the night even if I have to foot the bill myself.

Finally, I get out of there. The country roads down near the prison were a nightmare. But, by the time I got to the Interstate the highway crews had been out with ice trucks and scrapers. The Interstate was in good shape. At 3:30 precisely, I crossed the MLK Bridge and was back in Missouri on Highway 70. I only had 18 miles more to go. I drove into our driveway at 5:55. It took 2 hours and 25 minutes to drive 18 miles on Highway 70. I kept looking for police cars, ambulances, fire trucks---something to explain the traffic. But, I never saw anything to explain the traffic. No accidents or fires or sick people or dead people------just the back end of cars and trucks at an absolute standstill.

I felt as if I had been transported to some version of Los Angelos or Chicago traffic.

BEEN AWAY A WHILE

The last time I wrote, I believed I was over the Flu. More or less, I was although I still don't feel all that great. I was a lot less over it than more over it.

The overwhelming problem is that I gave it to Eric. So far, he's been through two entire courses of medication from the doctor. Then, when he needed to see the doctor again because he was no better, the doctor was so overwhelmed with Flu cases that he told him to go to the ER. The ER was just as overwhelmed. Fifteen of the hospitals have been on diversion due to being overwhelmed by Flu victims. The ER experience bordered on a surrealistic circus experience.

After spending the day in the ER, he was able to see a very nice, apparently competent young doctor. They did chest Xrays and discovered that he not only had the Flu but he had pneumonia. So, he's now on two more medications. He does appear to be a little better the first few hours after he takes the medicine. Then, his lungs sound just as gurgly and full as they did when this started.

I actually requested that he update his Will. Of course, he hasn't yet, but I did get him to write up an Advanced Directive. I don't know when I've ever seen him this sick and it is really scary.

Usually, he gets one of those Flu shots. This year, the availability of the Flu shot was not announced or he didn't hear it and he forgot. I think from now on, I'll be on his behind in the early fall to not only get his Flu shot but a pneumonia shot.

It's just been a really bad two weeks. Hopefully, things will get better soon and I'll be back. I evaluated an inmate January 28 when I thought I was better. I'm hoping and praying that I did not infect the inmate and the entire prison. No living creature deserves this.