Doing a quick email check and blogger posting from Kinko's in Oklahoma City. It looks like I won't have home internet access until after Christmas regretably.

Latest news of note:

• Defending, and Recasting, an Unloved Client: A prominent San Francisco lawyer is trying to alter public perceptions of John Walker Lindh, the American captured with the Taliban. - This is how the system should work. Defendants deserve a vigorous defense, to ensure that justice is met. Unless the defendants in the WTC bombing are allowed the chance to defend themselves in a fair and constitutional trial, there will always be doubt as to their guilt. I want to see justice done, and that is why I think the secret military tribunals are a farce.
  

• http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/19/national/19PHIL.html">Mumia's Death Sentence Overturned
  

• <Fire Damages North Wing of St. John the Divine - This is so sad. I almost visited this church when I was in NYC this summer. I wished I had seen it before the fire.
  

posted by J.M. Branum at 10:36 PM | link

Sorry for the lack of updates of late, but I've been rather swamped with work & getting ready for my move to Oklahoma these last few days. Today is moving day, so as of tonight my new smail address will be:

James M. Branum
Rt. 1 Box 525
Ft. Cobb, OK 73038

I will not have internet access at the farm for likely a 1-4 weeks (phone lines are poor in that area, so I have to get satellite internet access installed). In the meantime, I will only be able to post to this blog & check my email at least 2-3 times per week. (from public library terminals and when I am in OKC area) Sorry for the slowdown, but hopefully it will give me some time to do some non-political writing for awhile.

Also one last parting shot... in private conversations I have found out that my readers may misunderstand what this website is all about, and might even think I am "unpatriotic" because I dare to criticize the administration in a time of war.

So, I want to set the record straight. It is because I love America that I criticize what is happening in the world. I believe that the founding fathers articulated an incredible vision in the Declaration of Independence with the immortal lines, "We hold these truths self-evident, that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights --- the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." (sorry it's not an exact quote, but I don't time to look it up right now)

Those men were flawed men who were unable or unwilling to fully live that vision. (It boggles my mind that the author of those incredible words, Thomas Jefferson owned slaves and even took advantage of his position as master by impregnating at least one of them.) Yet despite their failure, these were men of vision. I think they were willing to throw out that vision, because they had hope that future generations would fulfill it. As such, I think it is the duty of every generation of Americans to work to bring that vision closer to fruition. It is because I share their dream, that I must cry out against the injustice that our great nation commits. I challange our government because I love America and want it to fulfill that dream.
posted by J.M. Branum at 12:35 PM | link