philly

So I went back to my office after jury duty to break the news to my boss, she immediately went into action to try to get me out of it. Now I have a letter from one of the bigwigs in the company to bring to the court Friday morning to see if it'll help me get out. But I don't know how much it will help at this point, I've already been selected.

But deep down, I do want to fulfil my civic duty. I think one HUGE deterrant of jury duty is the loss of wages. For serving on a jury you are paid $9 A DAY for the first three days and then $25 A DAY for the duration of the trial. Isn't that a little insane? I was talking this over with Lady and I suggested that one's job should be legally bound to pay you around 75% of your daily wage and the city/state/government should have to kick in the last 25%. That way, at least jurors won't have to really worry about getting into a hole for doing the right thing and not lying to get out of jury duty.

I thought about it, lying, and I didn't. I answered the questionnaire truthfully and answered the questions the lawyers asked me truthfully as well. And I got picked.

If I do serve on the jury, I [obviously] won't be posting on the matters at hand, but I'm definitely going to post on the procedures that go on. I'm sure that there are horrible problems with the system that I'd like to address and bring to the attention of the folks who happen upon this blog of mine. Maybe it'll dissuade you from wanting to serve on a jury or maybe it'll help prepare you for serving on a jury. I think it is the right thing to do, but I totally understand how a person who can't afford to do so will lie to get out of it; the system seems to discourage you from serving which is a shame.

Any lawyers, judges or hoi polloi want to chime in?

Let's see… Johnny Cochran died yesterday, Schiavo died today, the Pope was read his last rites and Wolfowitz was confirmed as the new head of the World Bank.

I was picked to serve on the jury. Trial starts on Monday. It'll last about two weeks. Great. More reactions later.

Happy 1^st Birthday to Air America Radio! And maaaany moooooooooooore.

I'll be in jury duty all day Thursday. Ugh. At least I'll get a discout at Reading Terminal Market for lunch. But it'll be crazy hectic.

So, off to bed to get up early to fulfil my civic duty.

The Inquirer just got around to printing/posting a profile of Chuck Pennacchio's candidacy for Rick Santorum's (R) Senate seat in 2006.

Don't be surprised if you [PA bloggers] are contacted by Tim Tagaris or someone else on Pennacchio's staff. They're going to be extremely blog-heavy.

Pennacchio, who hopes to raise $3 million for the primary, has asked his supporters to start their own blogs. He spent $5,000 on his first ad buy. But that kind of money wouldn't buy a few seconds on TV or radio, so he blanketed 18 national and local blogs. Pennacchio held his first conference call in late February. But instead of gathering print and broadcast media, he discussed his campaign with 10 Pennsylvania and New Jersey bloggers, including a 16-year-old.

"They are opinion leaders and they need to be respected," Pennacchio said.

Pennacchio is not part of the established politicians, but rather, an academic with a political background.

"They can't touch me," said Pennacchio, 45, a Plumsteadville, Bucks County, resident and history program director at Philadelphia's University of the Arts. "They have nothing I want. I want a rebirth of the Democratic Party as a whole. I am not looking for patronage, a job, a career."

It's been rumored that Al Franken would jump ship from Air America Radio for awhile now. First people said that if Kerry won, he'd leave. Then it was that he'd leave in 2005 to work on a 2006 run for Senate in Minnesota.

I was just watching Conan O'Brien [for the first time in ages] and he was the first guest. Conan asked Franken about the rumors and Franken frankly responded that a 2008 run is not out of the question. He said that he was planning on moving back to Minnesota next year and that the show may go with him. I hope that he discussed this with Katherine, the crew and the rest of AAR beforehand.

I've found Franken to be funny for a long time and I've also found him to be pretty full of himself as well, so letting the cat out of the bag this way isn't beyond him, but I really hope it is.

Tune in Wednesday between Noon and 3p to see what happens on the show.

I'm home for lunch and I just saw Jesse Jackson on CNN pleading the case to re-insert the feeding tube into Schiavo. Where'd he come from? Whaaaa? Rev?

And here's an AP story via N.Y. Times on Jackson's arrival.

"I feel so passionate about this injustice being done, how unnecessary it is to deny her a feeding tube, water, not even ice to be used for her parched lips," said Jackson, who has run for president as a Democrat. "This is a moral issue and it transcends politics and family disputes."

Looky, looky. Seems like the Hammer's stance on this whole Schiavo ordeal is purely political! Who woulda thunk it? He faced a very similar situation with his own father in 1988.

From a story via AlterNet citing the original story from the L.A. Times.

The Los Angeles Times revealed that Tom DeLay personally endured an end-of-life crisis similar to the tragic Schiavo case. In 1988, DeLay's 65-year-old father Charles was seriously injured during a freak tram accident at the family's home in Canyon Lake, Texas. His injuries left the DeLay patriarch suspended in a coma, with doctors advising "that he would 'basically be a vegetable,'" according to the congressman's aunt, JoAnne DeLay. After several weeks, as Charles' organs began to fail, his family "confronted the dreaded choice so many other Americans have faced: to make heroic efforts or to let the end come." And, in a decision that belies his bellicose rhetoric of recent weeks, Tom DeLay "quietly joined the sad family consensus to let his father die."

As the last straw of hypocrisy, the Times detailed how DeLay's family later filed suit against two companies responsible for a machine part that the family said had caused the accident. The case was resolved in 1993 with payment of about $250,000, compensation for the dead father's "physical pain and suffering" and the mother's grief and loss of companionship, among other things. "Three years later," the Times notes, "DeLay cosponsored a bill specifically designed to override state laws on product liability such as the one cited in his family's lawsuit." Despite the benefits for his family, DeLay has taken a leading role promoting tort reform. He condemns trial lawyers who "get fat off the pain" of plaintiffs with "frivolous, parasitic lawsuits" that raise insurance premiums and "kill jobs."

The issue of pharmacists across America refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control and morning-after pills has been around for a little bit. But now, it's getting a little more attention as more and more pharmacists are refusing.

One of the pharmacists leading the charge is Karen L. Brauer, president of Pharmacists for Life — yet another convoluted name for a group. "Love the fetus, hate the child" as Randi Rhodes sarcastically says almost every day.

An increasing number of clashes are occurring in drugstores across the country. Pharmacists often risk dismissal or other disciplinary action to stand up for their beliefs, while shaken teenage girls and women desperately call their doctors, frequently late at night, after being turned away by sometimes-lecturing men and women in white coats.
…
Supporters of pharmacists' rights see the trend as a welcome expression of personal belief. Women's groups see it as a major threat to reproductive rights and one of the latest manifestations of the religious right's growing political reach — this time into the neighborhood pharmacy.

I am fortunate to live in Philadelphia, not only a liberal city with a real culture of life, but with hundreds of pharmacies; five within five blocks from my house. But what about all of those who are not as fortunate? Those living in smaller towns in rural areas where 72 hours between unprotected sex [whether accidental or not] and ingesting the pill may not be enough to find a pharmacist who will prescribe the pill. What happens when that child is born?

Lady wrote a very good essay on the "culture of life" this administration has taken on. Take a read.