On Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, James Carville recently quipped: “If she gave him one of her cojones, they’d both have two.”

It was far from the first time that a political pundit used testicles as a metonymy for power, courage, boldness, or guts. In fact, Hillary’s “balls” have been the subject of much praise (and disdain) throughout the course of this exhausted Democratic primary.

Introducing Clinton at a rally in Indiana, Paul Gibson, president of a steelworkers local union, proclaimed that the nation needed a leader like Clinton with “testicular fortitude.” Clinton thanked him for the compliment, though she did note that women, too, can have fortitude.

Reporting on the incident, Salon editor Joan Walsh wrote, “Clinton does indeed have … fortitude. Hell, she has balls.” Walsh says that Clinton handled the situation as best as she could and did not employ a double-standard by accepting this incredibly sexist “compliment.”

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Many of you know that, for the past two years, I have been facilitating arts and writing workshops at the Rhode Island Adult Correctional Institutions (ACI) through Space in Prison for the Arts and Creative Expression (SPACE).

This Sunday, May 4, SPACE will be opening its annual exhibit of art and writing from the ACI. The exhibit will take place in the Youth Gallery at AS220, 115 Empire Street from 4 PM to 7 PM.

In addition to displaying art and writing, we will be reading selections of poetry written by the men and women who participate in our workshops. We will also be distributing our annual Zine, a collection of their work. Refreshments will be served. If you can’t make it on Sunday, the exhibit will be up in the AS220 Youth Gallery through July; please stop in and check it out!

More about SPACE and the exhibit after the jump.

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This time with a commentary on race and the death penalty. I’m starting to love this guy. In today’s Times, Liptak examines a forthcoming study by the Houston Law Review on racial disparities in the application of the death penalty in Harris County, Texas. He writes:

The unexceptional finding is that defendants who kill whites are more likely to be sentenced to death than those who kill blacks. More than 20 studies around the nation have come to similar conclusions.

But the new study also detected a more straightforward disparity. It found that the race of the defendant by itself plays a major role in explaining who is sentenced to death.

Check it, and look for more of Liptak’s pieces in which he brings to light the harsh truths of our criminal justice system.

For some reason, it takes fancily-worded articles in the New York Times for my family and friends to realize what I’ve been hollering about for years… America’s addiction to incarceration. Anyway, props to Adam Liptak for consistently bringing these issues to public eye. Today, Liptak sheds light on an important and staggering statistic: that the US, with 5% of the world’s population, incarcerates nearly 25% of the world’s prisoners. He writes:

Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations.

Oh, and speaking of crimes that would not produce prison sentences in other countries, scope my bit on how lil’ Rhody incarcerates its debtors in this week’s Phoenix.

UPDATE: Footage, courtesy of the Greenwash Gorillas themselves… even as this was a pretty amazing spectacle, the footage kind of makes me want to give Tom a big hug. While I understand the criticisms of Friedman’s work, I wonder if this was an effective way to get the message across, or whether this merely reflects poorly on the University… thoughts? Could the pie-throwers have raised their dissent during the Q&A with as much flair?

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv6nvMUq10U]

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman had just begun his Earth Day lecture at Brown last night, when Molly Little ‘08.5 and a colleague let him know what they thought of his work. The Brown Daily Herald reports:

A female audience member ran on stage last night and threw a green pie at New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman [...]. The woman had been sitting in the south side of the auditorium’s front row when she pulled the pie out of a Brown Bookstore plastic bag that had been tucked in a red backpack and leapt out of her seat.

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Please Join Lt. Governor Elizabeth Roberts for a Health Care Reform Community Meeting

Monday, April 28, 2008 — 6:30 PM

Temple Beth El — 70 Orchard Avenue, Providence

A discussion with Lt. Governor Roberts, other elected officials, community leaders, and your neighbors about how the problems in our health care system are affecting Rhode Island’s families, businesses, and communities. Lt. Governor Roberts will share the details of her Healthy Rhode Island Reform Act of 2008, which will transform the health care system in our state by putting in place a strong new structure for ensuring that all Rhode Islanders will have access to high quality health care at a price they can afford.

For Information Contact:
Brian Monteiro, Office of Lt. Governor Roberts
(401) 222-2371

From Kim Ahern at RIFuture:

I just returned from my visit to the US Supreme Court and meeting with Justice Alito. While it was a great way to cap off RWU Law’s “Supreme Semester,” I can’t help but think of one of the worst decisions that came down last term: Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company.

In this case, the Supreme Court held that employees cannot challenge ongoing compensation discrimination if the employer’s original discriminatory decision occurred more than 180 days before, even when the employee continues to receive paychecks that have been discriminatorily reduced. Basically this decision goes against Congressional intent of eliminating workplace discrimination and essentially, ignores what may be really going on in the workplace. Justice Ginsburg (who founded the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project) had to watch as a woman’s statutory right to equal pay was diminished. This was a rare time when Ginsburg read her dissent aloud from the bench:

In our view, the court does not comprehend, or is indifferent to, the insidious way in which women can be victims of pay discrimination…

The bit of good news about this case is that YOU can do something about it! If you believe in women’s equality in the workplace, please e-mail Senator Whitehouse and Senator Reed and tell them to support the Fair Pay Restoration Act (S. 1843), which will correct the Court’s reading of Title VII. The House passed the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007 (HR 2831) earlier this year.

Click here to watch Lilly Ledbetter herself discuss her experience, courtesy of the Alliance for Justice.

From Kim Ahern at RIFuture:

While other states in the country are passing Constitutional Amendments to ban same sex marriages, civil unions and even as far as contracts between same sex couples - New England has turned into a bastion of equality and rights. From Massachusetts’s landmark decision in Goodridge to Connecticut currently taking up the case if there is a legal difference between civil unions and marriage - why has New England (with the notable exception of Rhode Island) been such a unique place for LGBT equality?

Come learn more at Roger Williams School of Law, in what is bound to be a provocative discussion involving a fantastic panel and keynote:

What: The Culture of Same Sex Marriage Symposium

Where: Roger Williams School of Law (Bristol, RI)

When: Friday, March 28 from Noon - 4:45PM.

Panel 1: The Same-Sex Marriage Debate in the State of Rhode Island

Panel 2: Civil Unions v. Marriage in New England

Cost: Free! Includes lunch and wine and cheese reception following the panels. However - if you are an attorney and would like to receive the 5 CLE credits available, the cost for that is $25. Co-sponsored by the Massachusetts Lesbian and Gay Bar Association and the RWU Law Alliance for LGBT Students.

Click HERE to register and to read more about the Keynote Address [David Wilson - original plaintiff in Goodridge and Board Member of both HRC and Mass Equality] and each of the panelists!

Don’t forget about two awesome events happening tonight:

• The Black Air Foundation Fundraiser to Benefit the Lambert Lima Flying Squadron Cadet Program from 7:00-9:00PM at the Cape Verdean Progressive Center, 329 Grosvenor Avenue, East Providence.
• The Incarceration Rate for Males of Color In the State of Rhode Island, hosted by the Rhode Island Young Professionals, taking place from 6:00PM and 9:00PM at Brown University’s MacMillan Auditorium, 167 Thayer Street.

While the progressive gamers over at Breakthrough are producing socially conscious video games like “ICED” (I Can End Deportation), others have more…problematic ideas on what constitutes an exciting and appropriate video game. I was appalled to come across “Prison Tycoon,” produced by the folks over at ValuSoft. For all those kids who dream big and say, “When I grow up, I’m going to have my own private prison,” this game is for you. The game’s tagline:

YOU are the WARDEN… THEIR future is in YOUR hands… Rehabilitate them… or BREAK them…

The game allows users to build and design the layout of their prison, cultivate their managerial skills by maintaining discipline over their inmates, raise funds to improve the quality of their prisons, and determine the extent to which they will punish or rehabilitate their offenders. As you advance in the game, you gain privileges like increasing the security of your prison from minimum to maximum, building a death row, and sending in guards to enforce your rules by any means necessary. The game incorporates key elements such as location, race, religion, gang affiliation, and aggression.

Anyone else extremely troubled by this? Joe B., I know you’ve got something to say about this one…

It’s extraordinary to realize that it’s been four years since Miguel Luna and I spoke at Beneficent Church, upon the first anniversary of the Iraq war. Tomorrow at noon, we’ll be gathering at there once more to demonstrate our continued opposition to the war:

In order to raise local awareness of these issues and their impact on the Providence and Rhode Island community and resist their ongoing existence, Providence SDS and fellow anti-war activists will engage in direct action and civil disobedience on Thursday March 20th at 12:00pm. We invite and encourage the press to attend in the interest of reporting on world issues that intersect with local events.

Earlier that morning, there’s the kick-off of the ‘We Can Stop the Hate Rhode Island’ initiative:

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Thanks to tipster Bill M. for alerting us to this story:

Chinese Laundry, which opened March 11th at 121 North Main Street (right in my neighborhood!), is not receiving the warm welcome for which its owner, Chow Fun Food Group owner John Elkhay, had hoped. The restaurant, which claims to offer, “a modern pan Asian dining experience with an intoxicating vibe, incredible worldly flavors, and a sensual, sophisticated atmosphere,” opened amidst a firestorm of controversy.

The Projo explains:

John Elkhay, who has brought fun, trendy restaurants to the Providence dining scene, arrived at his VIP party on Friday night after a stressful and unexpected debate that emerged in the blogosphere earlier in the day. An ad for his newest restaurant, Chinese Laundry, in Providence Monthly featured the naked torso of a woman and the words “See what you are missing.” It caught the eye of a student at Brown University who referred it to a blog written by a self-proclaimed “angry Asian-American woman.”

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With Jeremiah Wright’s fiery and scary-to-white-people sermons on endless, Fox-driven repeat, Obama needed to step up and deliver a huge speech to define himself and change a growing negative racial dynamic that’s been hurting him since Gerri Ferraro went buckwild last week.

This morning, he did, with a huge speech in Philadelphia. It is definitely worth reading the full text, after the jump. But a few points, for now.

First, on substance, a soaring, moving, deeply personal speech about the complicated, fearful, deep-seated views on race that we all have, which condemns Reverend Wright’s more crazy views while seeing in them the divisive fear that racial issues can stoke in any community. I think what Andrew Sullivan is getting at is probably that there is much of the best of Christian theology in some of the ideas that Obama was putting forth. There is also a deep, broad, frankly inspiring understanding of the cruel and beautiful complexity of American history.

I almost feel bad block-quoting it, so just watch the video.

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Take a break from getting waste off green beer to come out and see “Iraq for Sale: the War Profiteers”, which will be kicking off Providence Students for a Democratic Society’s anti-war Week of Action during this the week of the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War. It starts at 7:30 at MacMillian Hall, Room 115 (on Thayer between George and Waterman) on Brown’s campus. It sounds pretty cool:

The story of what happens to everyday Americans when corporations go to war. Acclaimed director Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed) takes you inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children who have been changed forever as a result of profiteering in the reconstruction of Iraq. Iraq for Sale uncovers the connections between private corporations making a killing in Iraq (Blackwater, Halliburton/KBR, CACI and Titan) and the decision makers who allow them to do so.

Oh and no excuses because admission is free.

Join Providence Students for a Democratic Society, Operation Iraqi Freedom (Brown U’s anti-war group), and others in saying no to five years of imperialist war.

Monday, March 17
Screening of “Iraq for Sale“
7:30 PM at MacMillian Hall, Room 115
(On Thayer between Waterman and George)

Tuesday, March 18
FUNK THE WAR
Student Power Dance Party Against Empire
Dress code: Supah fly.
6:00 PM in Kennedy Plaza
(folks from Brown meeting up to walk down at 5:30 from Faunce Arch)

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This post, written by my good friend Andres Idarraga, ran on the Brennan Center for Justice blog and Alternet. Andres, a senior at Brown University, was one of the primary spokespeople for the Rhode Island Right To Vote campaign, and he is one of 15,000 Rhode Islanders with a conviction in their past who had their right to vote restored on November 7, 2006.

I just voted! For first time in my life, I stepped inside the polling place and “completed the arrow” that selects the candidate I think would best run our country. It was a simple action that took only a few minutes, but far too many years to achieve.

I was sent to prison nine years ago when I was twenty years old. When I was released six years later, I hit the ground running—determined to give back to my community and become the role model that I never had. I got a job and I was accepted into Brown University. But under Rhode Island’s state constitution, I would have to wait more than thirty years to be able to vote. I couldn’t wait that long. So I joined the Rhode Island Right to Vote campaign and began to work to change the law.

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