Monday’s Social Justice Shorts

THE INCARCERATION GENERATION

According to federal data, on any given day 1.5 million American children have a parent in prison, usually a father. Yet, until now there have been few studies on the affect of parental incarceration on kids. (I can attest to this, because I’ve made a point of ferreting out the studies that do exist.)

Finally, the hole in the research is beginning to be filled, reports an excellent New York Times article on the subjectthat ran over the weekend. Here are a couple of representative ‘graphs but the whole piece, written by Erik Eckholm, is worth reading:

The chances of seeing a parent go to prison have never been greater, especially for poor black Americans, and new research is documenting the long-term harm to the children they leave behind. Recent studies indicate that having an incarcerated parent doubles the chance that a child will be at least temporarily homeless and measurably increases the likelihood of physically aggressive behavior, social isolation, depression and problems in school — all portending dimmer prospects in adulthood.

“Parental imprisonment has emerged as a novel, and distinctly American, childhood risk that is concentrated among black children and children of low-education parents,” said Christopher Wildeman, a sociologist at the University of Michigan who is studying what some now call the “incarceration generation.”

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THE NEWEST CONSERVATIVE ARGUMENT FOR ABOLISHING THE DEATH PENALTY

Conservative strategist Richard Viguerie has become the latest person to vocally to jump to the growing anti-death penalty camp with a thoughtful essay in this month’s Sojourner’s magazine. Being a conservative, says Viguerie, he doesn’t believe that a moratorium should be imposed by the courts, but has another idea, that is state-based, not federally imposed.

On how society would ever get to the point of abolishing the death penalty, if it were to do that, I have my conservative views. It must be done in a way consistent with our constitutional system. That means it cannot be imposed by the courts or by the federal government (except for federal cases). In my opinion, the Constitution does not grant the federal government the authority to ban the death penalty in the states. That must be left to the people’s representatives in their respective states, which also means that judges must not take it upon themselves.

This is why I am joining my friend Jim Wallis in a coalition of liberals and conservatives calling for a national moratorium and conversation about the death penalty, so people can study, learn, think, pray if they wish, about whether or how the various state death-penalty systems should be changed. I hope you’ll join us.

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MONTANA’S SQUABBLING PRO-LIFE COALITION

Montana’s Right to Life advocates are trying to pass a “personhood” amendment to the state’s constitution in order to precipitate a Supreme Court challenge aimed at overturning Roe V. Wade. But—as is often true with advocates if any ilk, right or left—they are thus far fighting too much with each other too agree on a strategy.

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SARAH PALIN & THE WISDOM OF THREATENING TO SUE THE PRESS

As most of you likely know, on Sunday Sarah Palin’s attorney Thomas Van Flein released a letter in which he threatened to sue blogger/radio personality Shannyn Moore for saying on MSNBC that there had been persistent rumors that Palin was about to be indicted by the Feds for naughty monkey* doings around the building of the Palin’s Wasilla home.

(The LA Times put an end to the rumor with a report that an FBI spokesman said it had no such plans to indict, that Palin was not under investigation, and that the speculation was baseless.)

Press reacted to this threat with hilarity and/or delighted defiance [“THERE ARE RUMORS.

There. I said it. Sue me”]

It is hard to imagine what Palin, Thomas Van Flein and company hoped to accomplish with the threat, which is not in the same universe as realistic from a legal perspective.

(FYI: The standard for public figures wishing to sue for libellor slander is the 1963 case of the New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, which made it to the Supreme Court.)

FRIENDLY NOTE TO TOM VAN FLEIN & CLIENT: Aside from the legal unwisdom of your recent lawsuit-waving, it is a rule of thumb that frivolously threatening the press—be they right, left or resolutely MSM—rather than slowing them down, makes them/us want to find something on your and your client, even if we had no desire to do so before.

SECOND FRIENDLY NOTE TO TOM VAN FLEIN & CLIENT: those of us who’d never previously heard of Shannyn Moore, sure know her now—and are cheerfully following her twitter feed. Since the lawsuit won’t be working out for you guys, you might want to see about collecting some royalties on Moore’s career that you have effectively catapulted out of comparative obscurity.

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COLIN POWELL SAYS ITS TIME TO REVIEW DON’T ASK DON’T TELL

On Sunday, Colin Powell told CNN’s State of the Union that it was time to revisit the issue of gays in the military.

So will Powell’s statement get Barack Obama to move on the issue?

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THE STORY OF ONE MAN’S DEATH IN A FEDERAL IMMIGRATION LOCK-UP

The NY Times Nina Bernstein has pieced together a heartbreaking tale of how a 43-year-old Pakistani immigrant named Tanveer Ahmad who was a longtime New York City cabdriver died in a New Jersey immigration jail in 2005.

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HOW GOLDMAN SACHS CONTROLS EVERYTHING (OR AT LEAST A WHOLE LOT OF STUFF)

If after a nice 4th of July weekend, you have the emotional stamina to get really unnerved, now might be the time to read Matt Taibbi’s killer Rolling Stone story on “how Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression.”

Taibbi is, by the way, emerging as an increasingly important journalist.

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*FYI: The origin of the Naughty Monkey references that sometimes crop up in relationship to Sarah Palin have to do with her pre-Presidential-campaign-shopping-spree fondness for a certain pair of red open-toed high-heeled pumps made by the firm Naughty Monkey. ( Evidently after the prez campaign she was less fond of the things as the red Naughty Monkey’s were then offered for sale on eBay by Palin’s niece.)
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Photo from Good Housekeeping article by Nicole Gregory with more photos here.