More on the Murder by the Texas Government

Talking Points Memo rounds up further details on the cover-up of Cameron Willingham's murder here.

Covering Up a Murder

Texas governor Rick Perry has acted to cover up his role in the murder-by-the-state of an innocent man. Here, in its entirety, is an article from the September 30 edition of the New York Times:

Gov. Rick Perry replaced the chairman and two members of the state’s Forensic Science Commission, two days before the commission was to hear evidence that Texas executed an innocent man. The new chairman canceled the hearing, at which an arson expert was to present a report critical of the arson analysis that led to the conviction of the man, Cameron T. Willingham. Mr. Willingham, above, was executed in 2004 after being convicted of setting a 1991 fire in which his three children died. Governor Perry, who was in office at the time of the execution, has expressed confidence in Mr. Willingham’s guilt. “This is like the Saturday night massacre,” said Barry Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project, which has been working on the case. “It’s like Nixon firing Archibald Cox to avoid turning over the Watergate tapes.” But a spokesman for the governor, Chris Cutrone, said the governor’s decision was “business as usual.” “Some people’s terms expired,” Mr. Cutrone said, “and we reappointed new people.”

h/t Tartuffe at BOTF.

Pity the Poor Insurance Companies

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

Hat Tip to The Arkansas Daily Blog.

"Characteristic of Mystics or Psychics"

Two years ago, I linked to an article about a man released from death row in Virginia after he was exonerated by DNA evidence. In that post, I mentioned the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed despite evidence that the fire he was accused of setting (and which killed his three young children) was accidental. A heart-breaking article in the New Yorker tells Willingham's story. One scientist says that the original arson investigator's methods "deny rational reasoning," and are "more characteristic of mystics or psychics." Read the article and be sickened.

Yeah, the Mets Pounded the Cards Yesterday

But we've got this guy coming up through the minors. So all is well.

Oh, No! I'm Exposed!

My actual birth certificate has been discovered!

(Click it, and it gets big enough to read.)

No Need to Rearrange the Deck Chairs--the Iceberg's Melting.

Previous estimates of the effects of global climate change include the melting of the ice pack on Greenland as a "worst-case" scenario.  Guess what?  The climate models underestimate the rate at which the pack-ice is melting, and also the amount of carbon that melting permafrost will inject into the atmosphere.  Greenland is losing 52 cubic miles of ice each year, and the permafrost emits three to six times as much greenhouse gas as the entire U.S. car and light truck fleet.  Meanwhile, the G8 and the United States Congress fiddle while the planet burns.