Child Rapists

Convicted Child Rapist

Courtesy of CBS News - Richard Troy Gillmore was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 1987 for raping 13-year-old Tiffany Edens. Gillmore, an admitted serial rapist who terrorized Portland, Oregon-area woman in the 1970s and '80s, stalked his victims while jogging and became known as "The Jogger Rapist," reports Early Show national correspondent Hattie Kauffman.

Last year, the parole board recommended Gillmore be set free, despite a psychological evaluation that showed he has a 75 percent chance of raping again.

So, Edens joined the local district attorney's office in a lawsuit seeking to keep Gillmore behind bars. Edens says she wanted the parole board members "to get a sense what it was like to be a 13-year-old girl on a Friday night doing her chores so that she could go to a movie with a friend and to have a sleepover, and then to be brutally raped and ambushed in her home. And that's what I wanted everyone in that room to get a sense of what that's like for somebody that goes through that."

"I think he's a serial rapist waiting to get out and commit rapes again," declared Multnomah County Deputy D.A. Russ Ratto. Their opposition comes despite a condition of parole that Gillmore wear a GPS tracking device.

Tiffany Edens today

Well, if you are like me, these stories just really make you mad. I am always doubly mad when the press is complicit, and enables irresponsible conduct by public officials, by not identifying who they are. It's just "the parole board." I just bet old Richard Troy Gillmore got a real kick out seeing his rape victim have to come into court again. And I bet those folks on the parole board will be really really sorry if he decides to go see her again once he's out. Really sorry.

For more on the history of this case click here and here.

So who are these people? Well, they are right here:

Steven R. Powers

Steven R. Powers served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Appellate Division of the Oregon Department of Justice before coming to the Board. In that role, he briefed and argued a variety of civil, administrative, and criminal cases before Oregon and federal appellate courts, and was a member of the team of attorneys who defended Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act before the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Powers received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Western State College of Colorado and his Juris Doctor degree from Willamette University College of Law. During law school, Mr. Powers was a Public Honors Fellow/Extern at the Oregon Supreme Court and following graduation he served as a Petitions Clerk for the Oregon Supreme Court. Term(s): 02/05/2007 - 06/30/2009

Darcey Baker

Prior to being appointed to the Board, Ms. Baker served as a parole and probation officer and unit supervisor with Clackamas County Community Corrections for 25 years. Ms. Baker is a recognized leader in sex offender notification and was instrumental in the enactment of SB 444 into law respective to predatory and sexually violent dangerous offenders. Additionally, Ms. Baker is an advocate of educating the public on sex offenders in our communities and a social service professional through her involvement with the Oregon Sex Offender Supervision Network. Ms. Baker is a 1979 graduate of Southern Oregon State College with a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminology. Term(s): 06/25/2004 - 12/10/2007 12/11/2007 - 12/10/2011

Candace Wheeler

Candace Wheeler possesses a Masters of Social Work from Portland State University and a Bachelors of Arts from Western Oregon University, as well as a certificate in paralegal studies. From 1999 to 2006, she was employed by the Oregon Department of Justice as a paralegal. She supported a team of attorneys representing the board and the Department of Corrections in civil and criminal appeals. Previous to her work with the Department of Justice, Ms. Wheeler worked for the Alaska Citizen’s Foster Care Review Board overseeing program development and day-to-day program service delivery, and spent many years as a social worker in the field of adoption and foster care placement. Term(s): 02/01/2006 - 01/31/2010

MEANWHILE, Back in Washington, DC, The US Supreme Court Says,

"We conclude there is a national consensus against capital punishment for the crime of child rape." - Kennedy v. Louisiana, to see the full opinion click here

Well, I for one did not even get a chance to vote on that national consensus. I'm not a big fan of the death penalty, but I could probably pull the trigger on these guys.

The Iraq Surge - So What?

American Soldiers in Iraq

David Brooks today takes a break from reality for a trip to Never-Never Land (notably not to Iraq) in writing rapturously about how courageous President Bush was to defy his generals, and the will of the American people after the November 2006 Elections, by sending thousands more of our brave, young people down into the rathole of Iraq for The Surge. And what a success Mr. Brooks sees there. To quote our Mr. Brooks,

David Brooks

Bush, who made such bad calls early in the war, made a courageous and astute decision in 2006. More than a year on, the surge has produced large, if tenuous, gains. Violence is down sharply. Daily life has improved. Iraqi security forces have been given time to become a more effective fighting force. The Iraqi government is showing signs of strength and even glimmers of impartiality. Iraq has moved from being a failed state to, as Vali Nasr of the Council on Foreign Relations has put it, merely a fragile one.

Well. That all sure does sound pretty good. Doesn't it? This Surge has really helped America, right? It's really all been worth it, right? We Americans are a lot better off because of all of this, because . . . well, why exactly?

Guess Which One David Brooks Calls Courageous?

How does this help America? Exactly?

Pop Quiz Time!!!

Q: The Iraq War (II) and The Surge has helped America by (fill in the blanks):
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

(Answers Below)

Coincidently, Bob Herbert also appeared in the NYT today writing about a RAND Corporation study on our returning Veterans. Here's Bob referencing that study,

The study found that approximately 300,000 individuals who served in Iraq or Afghanistan are currently suffering from P.T.S.D. or depression, and that 320,000 have most likely experienced a traumatic brain injury.
-----
Add to that burden the mental torture of depression or P.T.S.D. or the debilitating effects of traumatic brain injury, and you have the stuff that leads to alcoholism, drug abuse, family dissolution, homelessness, trouble with the law and sometimes suicide.

Bob Herbert

Obviously Bob is choosing to be a Negative Nelly about how courageous President Bush is in this time of war. If only Bob and the other Debby Downers out there would open their eyes and see all the good that war has done for us.

Oops. Don't look at this chart.

Crude Oil Prices

Answers To Pop Quiz:

1. Makes huge profits for Cheney's bosses at Halliburton
2. Disrupts oil production for 5 years and counting, spurring interest in alternate energy sources
3. High oil prices keep oil industry profits and oil stock prices high, saving the US stock market, and our 401-K's, from complete collapse in otherwise crappy economy (TX is doing fine btw)
4. US weapons industry gets to field test all their products, helping sales
5. Neocon nerds get to pretend they're tough by talking about fighting


OK, those could be construed as actual benefits. But what about the cost? Mr. Brooks?

Stupid Republican Contest

This is US Representative Thaddeus McCotter. Really. He is from Michigan, the state with the worst economy in the country, if you don't count Iraq. Of course, at least in Iraq things seem to be improving.

So, you might naively think that perhaps Ichibod, I mean Thaddeus, might be hard at work in the Congress trying to reform and revive the auto industry, or help bring new business to the economic dead zone of the Mitten State.

But no. Instead, Thaddeus is spending Congressional time to warn us that after 7 plus years of Republicans In Charge!, we are in danger that the Democrats will ruin the economy and tax everyone out of a job and lose the war in Iraq. And just to show just how detached from reality, and his job, he really is, Thaddeus delivered his message in a little skit, on the floor of the US House of Representatives, where he sarcastically pretended to "translate" words that Democrats use into what they really mean.

The people of Michigan should really be embarrassed by this.

It is painful to watch, but useful. Because, if keeping our country viable is important, then we really need to ask ourselves if it is OK to have people like this in Congress.

Just watch it as long as you can stand it. It's only 3 and a half minutes.