The journal of Zachariah Chiaia

Table of Contents:

Thursday 8 December 2005

I'm resuming my journal project today. It's been quite a while since I've written anything for this journal. I've had quite a year. I began writing a journal in either January or February of 2005, took a few months off to focus on my college courses, and resumed entries after my spring semester finals, in June of 2005. On September 23 (2005) I was placed in Ad-Seg pending the outcome of an "investigation," and my property was inventoried, packed and stored; all of this is out of my sight.

When I was released from Ad-Seg on October 24 (2005) much of my property was missing. After about three weeks of asking various officers to help me to locate and retrieve my missing property items I finally met with some success. The bulk of my missing property was located and delivered to me on November 12, 2005. However, some of my stuff is still missing.

I filed a 602 (Inmate Appeal, just for insurance, on November 7, 2005; within the fifteen-day time limit for filing an appeal (within fifteen days from the date I was released from the hole [10-24-05] and given only a portion of my property back). Among the items still missing are all of my previous journal entries, and my address book.

Yesterday, on December 7, 2005, I received the informal-level response to my 602 (Inmate Appeal). I was told in the response that ISU (the Investigative Services Unit) took my missing property as part of an ongoing investigation.

So, it seems that my journal has become the subject of an ISU investigation. I don't think anything I wrote in that journal will get me into trouble, but you never know around this place. I guess that's what I get for holding onto the entries for so long.

Originally, I had planned to send the entire off to Gary at CRESP / Prisoner Express in monthly submissions. Then I decided II would save myself some postage and send it in all at once at the end of the year, like a book manuscript. Now, because of what has happened, I have decided that the smartest course of action would be to send in weekly submissions.

I'll try to get my previous entries (and other property items) returned to me, but I've heard how ISU works: I'll be lucky if I ever see again any of the stuff they took. I sent off my request for a first level formal review of my 602 last night (12-07-05), so I should have a pretty good idea about what is going to happen with my missing stuff by mid-January of 2006.

There is, of course, a distinct possibility that I won't get my missing property back; so I think it would be wise at this point to summarize a bit about the events I have experienced this past year.

I began my journal in either January or February of 2005. Shortly thereafter the South Asian Tsunami happened and all of those people died. A while later, on April 4, 2005, I began my Spring Semester at Coastline Community College (in Fountain Valley, California), via correspondence.

I took two courses - Astronomy 100, Introduction to Astronomy [3 Units], and Counseling 105, Succeeding in College [3 Units] - and I earned A's in both courses. I was also placed on the Honors List for the spring semester of 2005 by the President of the Academic Senate, Margaret Lovig. This is the first time I have ever been placed on a list that isn't negative. Well, not really. But it is the most positive list I have ever been placed on, as far as I know.

I resumed my daily journal entries in June (2005) and continued all the way to the day I was placed into Ad-Seg (09-23-05). Prior to my Ad-Seg placement I had enrolled for the Fall Semester of 2005 in two more courses at Coastline Community College: Spanish 180, Elementary Spanish [5 Units], and Philosophy 100, Introduction to Philosophy [3 Units].

I was forced, by my Ad-Seg Placement situation, to drop my courses for the Fall 2005 semester, but I would have had to drop the courses anyway (eventually) because I never received my course materials (textbooks, study guides, student handbooks, Scantron forms, etc...). I was depending on a family member to purchase some of these for me, and depending on else to get me the rest of the materials. None of the required materials found their way to me. I guess that's what happens when I depend on other people.

Before I was paced in Ad-Seg (Administrative Segregation), in late September, I was following - pretty intensely - all of the post-Hurricane Katrina news-coverage about the destruction and devastation in New Orleans; the approach of Hurricane Rita as it threatened to hit New Orleans again; and the Confirmation Hearings for the US Supreme Court Chief Justice Nominee, John Roberts.

By the time I was released from Ad-Seg, thirty-one days later (10-24-05), Jon Roberts was the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, Hurricane Rita had come and gone, and Hurricane Wilma was battering Florida. For that thirty-one days I spent in the hole, I was in an information vacuum: I couldn't find out anything about what was happening in the world.

Boy, was I glad to get out of the hole. It really sucks in Ad-Seg. I was not in the hole for disciplinary reasons; I was placed in the hole pending the completion of an "investigation". I was not charged or found guilty of any violation of any type. It happens. I'm just glad to be back in the population where I can have my property and TV set and typewriter. I REALLY missed my typewriter.

I sent a quarterly-package order from home to my Mom on December 4, 2005. I don't know if she will purchase a package for me or not, but I hope she does. I need one. It's only $47 worth of stuff: mostly Ramen-noodle soups and about $23 worth of personal hygiene supplies. The worst that can happen is she doesn't purchase it for me. Can't hurt to ask. Maybe since it's the Christmas Holiday Season and all...

That reminds me, I've got to mail out these Christmas Cards. First I've got to hustle up the stamps for the postage. I've got stuff to trade for the stamps I need, so that shouldn't be too difficult. But it could take me a few days to find someone willing to trade, since we are on lockdown status at the moment.

We have been locked down since November 26, 2005. Supposedly some dude (prisoner) got caught on the yard with a knife (shank) hidden in his shoe. Supposedly this knife this guy was carrying around in his shoe was intended for a get-together with somebody's cardiovascular system, and supposedly this knife was manufactured from a large hunk of flat steel that the guy cut out of the steel locker welded to the wall in his own cell. Brilliant!

So the cops are freaking out. They've got everyone on handcuff and escort status anytime anyone exists their cell, and they are searching the whole facility and checking to see if any more steel is missing from lockers or desks or bunks or doors in the cells and so on. I don't expect that we will be coming off of lockdown before mid-December anyway: Stanley Tookie Williams, the Nobel Prize nominee founder of the CRIPS gang, is about to be executed.

He is scheduled to be killed by the people of the State of California, at Sam Quentin State Prison, on December 13, 2005. Today, December 8th, his lawyers are having a Clemency Hearing with the Governator. I know BIG ARNOLD had anti-death penalty learnings due to his Austrian/European origins, but I honestly don't think the Governator is going to harm his own political career to spare Tookie's life. A simple cost-benefit analysis make that a no-brainer. I hope the Governator surprises me and proves me wrong, but if I was betting man my money would be on Tookie being murdered by the People on December 13th.

We ought to go back to stoning people to death for gathering sticks on the Sabbath [Numbers 15: 32-36]; for teaching people about different religions beliefs [Deuteronomy 13: 10]; for being a stubborn and rebellious child, or a glutton or a drunkard [Deuteronomy 21: 18-21]; and for engaging in pre-marital sex [Deuteronomy 22: 20-21]. And let's not forget that adulterers and homosexuals used to get the death penalty too. That should be reinstated as the law of the land as well.

Hey! I have an idea! Let's just start executing people for any behavior with which we disagree. Oh! That's right! That would be uncivilized, primitive and barbaric. Especially since our society contains so many obese gluttons, drunks, adulterers, homosexuals, students of religions, and engagers in premarital fornication. That would overburden the death houses anyway. We wouldn't want that. We need to make sure we have plenty of time and space in which to execute the other undesirables.

You see, we are part of the culture of life. We are opposed to a woman's right to control her own body, because if she has that power she can choose to kill a helpless fetus, and get away with murder. And everybody knows how wrong it is to kill. Life is sacrosanct.

Thus, female autonomy equals the right to kill babies, the right to murder babies. And also, we are opposed to stem cell research because it is wrong to kill; and we are for, not against, life.

We are a culture of life. That's why we are all-for imperialistic invasions of foreign nations resulting in thousands of deaths, and also all-for protracted military occupations that ensure more deaths on a daily basis. We are a culture of life, which is also why we kill people who have killed people. Killing is wrong. And life is sacrosanct. What better way to demonstrate that killing is wrong than to kill? What better way to illustrate that sanctity of life than to deprive people of life? Makes sense to me. No hypocrisy there. Do as I say, not as I do.

That's enough of an entry for today. I'll have more to write tomorrow. I always do.

Friday December 9 2005

Another day, another entry. I have decided to help this guy in here with his petition for writ of habeas corpus. He wants to withdraw his guilty plea and go back to court for a jury trial. Long story short: he pled guilty to attempted murder and wound up with a life sentence; the judge failed to explain the elements of the offense to which he pled guilty, rendering his plea legally involuntary; and now he must win a writ petition just to get back to court for a jury trial.

I don't understand why anyone would plead guilty to any crime for which the sentence is life in prison. Make them prove it, I say, if they are going to give you a life sentence anyway. Unless you are taking a deal to avoid the death penalty, you should never just agree to a life sentence. That seems a bit retarded to me. I know "retarded" is not a politically correct term, but I felt it was the most appropriate description.

Anyway, I like the guy. He's a likable dude. And he isn't too sharp, so he was really taken advantage of by the crooked-ass system in his county. A hinky-ass judge, a hinky-ass prosecutor, and a hinky-ass State appointed defense lawyer were all in cahoots to sell this dude out. They deceived the poor dude into believing that if he pled guilty to attempted murder he would be paroled from prison in seven years, even though the sentence is a vague "life with the possibility of parole". He has been locked up over nine years now, since 1996.

It's all in his sentencing transcript. Unbelievable how brazen these hinky far-riggin bastages are: they didn't even try very hard to conceal the fact (on the record) that they had fed this guy a line of bullshit to manipulate him into pleading guilty to attempted murder. I think it borders on criminal conduct, what they did to him. I hope I can draw enough heat, with the writ petition that I am going to prepare for him, that all of those far-riggin ice-holes get fired, or even better, thrown in jail too.

Sure, the guy is no angel, but he still has a Constitutional Right to not be bamboozled (by his own lawyer, the judge and the prosecutor) into pleading guilty to a crime which carried a mandatory life sentence. He was tricked into a guilty plea and then handed a life sentence. That ain't right.

I've got a pretty much slam-dunk grounds for relief for him, so it is just going to be a matter of time until I get him back to court again. His primary claim, or "grounds for relief," is that his imprisonment is unconstitutional because it is the result of a conviction suffered without Due Process of Law. The Due Process violation is, specifically, that the elements of the crime of Attempted Murder were never explained to him (on the record, or off the record), which means he had no understanding of the law in relation to the facts of is case and his guilty plea was, therefore; involuntary and invalid. He also has related Ineffective Assistance of Counsel claims, which I intend to raise in the writ petition as well.

I would have made a great lawyer. Man, I should have gone to law school. Speaking of legal issues, Stanley Tookie Williams, the co-founder of the CRIPS gang, has about three and a half days of life left, unless he gets lucky, before the State of California exacts revenge and murders him. I honestly don't see him getting a stay of execution. Nobel Peace Prize nominations and all, they are going to kill him, and he may in fact be innocent.

If they do kill him, I hope that it is later discovered and conclusively proven that he was totally innocent of those four murders for which he was held responsible and executed. Maybe that'll be the wake up call that America the Morally Superior needs; the eye opener; the enlightener. God forbid an innocent man is murdered by the State as retribution for a crime he did not commit! I think it has already happened, and I thing it will continue to happen until the death penalty is abolished in the United States of Amerigo.

Anyhow, I think that's enough for today. I'm out!

Saturday 10 December 2005

So I'm still locked down, no end in sight. It is sunny outside, but probably a bit cold. Supposedly there is some arctic blast of air zooming directly over California before turning east and flowing over the southern United States. Cold air is coming into my cell through the ventilation system. Well, colder-than-normal air.

I saw on the TV news that Richard Pryor died today. That's too bad. He was a great comedian. Really funny. Sharp wit. I didn't know he had MS.

I've got a bust day ahead of me. Lots of legal research to do; plus some studying , some writing, and some reading. (Sweet use of the Oxford Comma!)

I wonder when I'll get my next letter from Professor Kuttner. I last wrote to him on November 15, 2005. (Professor Fred Kuttner is a physics Ph.D. who teaches quantum mechanics at the University of California, Santa Cruz.) I recently sent him an explanation of my own personal interpretation of quantum mechanics at present. Anyway, I am waiting to seem what he has to say about my interpretation of quantum mechanics.

I have been corresponding with him for just over two years now, and he has become a friend and a sort of mentor. What a cool guy. He doesn't really appear to care that I'm in prison, or pass judgement on me like most of society does. He respects my intelligence and encourages me to strive for excellence in my educational pursuits. I'm lucky to have such a cool professor to correspond with and to bounce ideas off.

Since I began corresponding with him I have become a college student, earned A's in my college courses and a 4.0 GPA, and made the Honors List. He has had an enormous positive impact on me, and I have never met him face to face. I aspire to be like him, in some ways. Anyway, that is enough deification of Professor Kuttner, for one day.

I've got other things to do, so I'm going to end this entry now.

Sunday 11 December 2005

Yup, it's that time again. Gloomy day today. Still on lockdown status. That's how it goes, I guess.

Spent most of the day watching football (NFL, not soccer) and reading a bit, and writing a bit while the games were on TV. My football-pool ticket wound up being a loser. "Bobby Boo-shay, Fooze-ball is the Devil!"

Still no word from the Governator about Tookie Williams. He (Ahhhnold) made up some kind of statement at a new conference that he was looking at the case really closely, that he was up until almost midnight reading about it to try to help him make the right decision. I find that line of crap hard to believe. It's a no-brainer. If Ahhhnold grants Tookie clemency he can pretty much kiss his presidential office aspiration goodbye. And he DOES want to be the President of the United States of Amerigo (Vespucci), because he said as much in an interview where he was asked in he thought that the US Constitution should be amended to allow Naturalized Citizens, like himself, to become the President.

Anyway, I've got some legal work to do, so I'm gonna cut this short. Just wanted to get SOMETHING written for today. Out.

Monday 12 December 2005

Today is one of those days where I don't feel like doing anything but sleeping the time away. I think I am a bit depressed. I'm letting this death penalty thing get to me, empathizing with Tookie's plight. Still no word from the Governator about Tookie.

The California State Supreme Court refused to consider a last minute appeal by Tookie's lawyers. Supposedly the California Legislature is scheduled to consider a moratorium against the death penalty in California Legislature is scheduled to considered a moratorium against the death penalty in California in January or February of 2006. Wouldn't that be sad if they execute Tookie tonight and then put a moratorium on the death penalty shortly thereafter? That is the basic thrust of the argument Tookie's lawyers made in their petition to the California State Supreme Court; along with the argument that he is totally innocent of these murders (about which they could care less) and that some other prisoner in a Canadian prison (I think) has confessed to doing the murders Tookie is scheduled to die for.

That's some heavy shit. You would think these freaks would want to be absolutely certain that someone actually committed the murder or murders for which they are about to die. But these weirdos seem to be content that there is a strong probability that someone is guilty.

I think the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard of proof is unreasonable in death penalty cases. If executions are going to happen, then at the very the standard of proof for such cases should be higher: "guilty with absolute certainty" is the only standard of proof that seems reasonable in a death penalty case. Anything less is simply gambling with the ultimate currency, for the highest possible stakes, and will eventually lead to innocent people being executed.

Anyone who thinks otherwise is a freakin' moron. Yeah, I said it! You've gotta be some kind of simpleton to think otherwise.

Contemplate all of the people who have been on death row for years, or even for more than a decade, convicted by a jury of their "peers"; found to be "guilty" of their crimes "beyond a reasonable doubt", who are then proclaimed innocent when they are exonerated by DNA testing.

Well, wait a minute; a jure already said they did it. Oh! Right! Juries get it wrong sometimes because a jury trial is a game of probabilities, under the present standard of proof scheme. The important point here is: what if there had been no DNA to test which resulted in those exonerations? Those innocent people most certainly would have been murdered by the States as retribution for crimes they did not commit.

Consider all of the cases wherein people have been found guilty ("beyond a reasonable doubt") of a crime, who are or were sitting on death row, and who had or who have no DNA in their particular case to exonerate them. Those people may very well have been, or may be, totally innocent, and wrongfully convicted, but will be executed or have already been executed. Since there is no DNA in their cases, they are doomed, or were doomed, from the start. How is that fair? How is that "just"? It's not.

I don't know why people go through all the trouble of saying that punishing crime and criminals is about "justice". Maybe they are just lying to themselves because they don't want to admit how childish and primitive they really are. It's really about vengeance, retribution, getting even, settling the score, payback. That is the meaning of the visual symbol, "the scales of justice": to even things out; to make things equal. An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind. The Department of Justice ought to be called what it really is: The Department of Vengeance.

The worst part about it is that the death penalty is just the tip of the iceberg. What of all the wrongfully convicted people who are not sentenced to death? What about all of the wrongfully convicted sentenced to life in prison? And what about all of the people who are wrongfully convicted and sentenced to 300 years or 200 years or 100 years or 50 or 20 or 10 years? Injustice is injustice, no matter what the sentence.

Assume for the sake of argument that the probability-game we call a jury trial has a 99.99% accuracy rate (which itself is not likely). That would mean that 0.01% of all prisoners who went through a jury trial are actually innocent of the crime of which they are convicted. That is unacceptable. Especially since there are about 2.1 million prisoners in the in the USA right now. Assume that only a quarter of those are convicted by just trial, and that three-quarters are convicted via plea bargains. That would mean that about 500,000 prisoners are convicted via jury trial. With a 99.99% accuracy that would mean that 0.01% of that 500,000 prisoners, or exactly 50 of those 500,000 prisoners, are totally innocent.

In a more reasonable accuracy rate is assumed, say %90, then the number of innocent people in prison, who have been convicted via jury trial, increases dramatically. With an accuracy rate of 90% the fraction of innocent prisoners would jump from 50 to 50,000. Is it okay for 50,000 innocent people to be in prison, some of them for life? Is that acceptable? I think not. But I am probably in the minority.

I'm going to stop for the day. I'll rant more tomorrow. Out!

Tuesday 13 December 13 2005

Well, still locked down. Rumor has it we may come off of lockdown at the end of the week, or sometime next week. I'll believe it when I see it.

Tookie is dead. The State murdered him last night. The Governator refused to grant him clemency, citing his failure to admit to the murders as evidence that he is not worthy of clemency. Yeah, that's good logic. The man says he is innocent and because he maintains his innocence he is unsuitable for clemency. Brilliant! I wonder what excuse they would have used to deny him clemency if he had admitted guilt.

The US Supreme Court refused to grant Tookie an eleventh hour stay of execution, as well. He was basically definitely going to be executed by the time the half-time break of the Monday Night Football game rolled around. "Fooze-ball is the Devil!" An announcement came rolling across the top of the TV screen during the game, that the US Supreme Court refused to grant a stay. Then another announcement came that the Governator said hasta la vista, baby. At that point it was all over but the funeral. I remember thinking, "Well, he better enjoy his last few hours of life, 'cuz his number's up."

Turns out the incompetent buffoon of a medical technician charged with inserting the lethal injection IV line into Tookie's arm couldn't find a vein for quite a while. It was reported that at one point Tookie looked at this idiot and asked, "do you know what you're doing?" Supposedly he had no final words, and died quietly, without a fight.

I think he should have put up a fight. He shouldn't have just let them take his life like that. They should have had to take his life by force, to demonstrate just how violent an execution really is. Make them forcibly manhandle him as a group. He was a big, strong man. He could have given them some pretty serious resistence. That way they would FEEL the effort it required to deprive that man of his life

He should have made them breathe hard and break a sweat while they were trying to force him onto and strap him down to the death table. Make them work hard for that paycheck. I know he had converted to the non-violent mind set and all, and I am not suggesting that he should have attacked anyone. I'm just saying he should have resisted as vigorously as possible, like a stubborn ole' mule, just refusing to cooperate.

He should have made it as difficult as possible for them to take his life, because that's what they were doing: TAKING his life. Maybe that would have drawn some serious attention to just how much force and violence is required to execute someone. It is not sanitary. It is not humane. It is not clean and neat and lickety split. It should be as messy and foul and disgusting as possible. All the smoke and mirrors has people believing it is humane because there is no resistence and it seems so clean and hygienic.

I've gotta stop writing now. More tomorrow.

Wednesday 14 December 2005

So I've worked out a payment plan with this guy I am doing the writ petition for, and I am pleased with the deal. He is going to pay me $500 to do the work for the writ, win or lose. Then as incentive for me to do the best possible job for him, which I would do regardless of how much he paid me, he has promised to pay me another $2000 if I can get his plea withdrawn and get him back to court for a jury trial. That is the goal.

I told him to pay me about half of the $500 up-front, and the remainder when I finish the writ petition and he files it. Instead of cash I told him to have his people order my course materials for my college courses this coming semester (spring 2006). I've enrolled in Italian 180 - Elementary Italian [5 units], and Philosophy 100 - Introduction to Philosophy [3 units]. The total cost of the course materials for these two courses is $257.87, which includes tax and shipping & handling fees.

In addition to that, I had him order me a $30 legal book call the "California Habeas Handbook." Basically, that is a how-to and reference book for writs of habeas corpus in California and in Federal Courts. It is a new revised version, last revised in May of 2005, so it is pretty up-to-date. I have an old book on writs, but it is from 1996, so it is a bit outdated. The California Habeas Handbook is authored by a lawyer named Kent A. Russel, who is also a columnist for a magazine called Prison Legal News (PLN). That's a good magazine. I intend to get a subscription to that sometime in the next year. Maybe when I get paid the remainder of that $500 for the writ work.

My spring semester 2006 begins January 30. I should have my course materials by January 10th, and I should have the Habeas Handbook by that time as well. It is going to be a 16 week semester, so I'll have plenty of time to study the materials thoroughly. I know I'll get A's in both courses. I want to learn not just Italian, but also Spanish, French, German, and Russian. That's a lot of languages, but I think I can do it.

I've got other things to do, so more tomorrow.

Thursday 15 December 2005

Well, we came off lockdown today. I went to dayroom this morning. No yard for my housing unit today. We get yard tomorrow, if we are not locked down again by that time.

Last night I got a notice that my property appeal has been processed to the first formal level. The deadline for them to respond to that is January 20, 2006. I'll win it. It's just a matter of time.

I also got a short reply letter from professor Kuttner last night. He was asking if he could send a money order for $3.95 to the Department of Corrections to pay for the return postage for the 125 pages of printed material that he sent to me (which the mail-room withheld). They made some lame-ass rule that we can only receive a maximum of 20 pages of printed material per envelope, in the mail. So, I can get 200 pages of printed material distributed over 10 separate envelopes (20 pages in each of the ten envelopes) but I can't get the same 200 pages mailed to me in a single envelope. Brilliant! How retarded is that rule? What the hell is that?

The withheld 125 pages of printed material is the last 250 pages (125 front and back) of a preprint of professor Kuttner's book manuscript, which will be published by the Oxford University Press in 2006. The book is entitles, "The Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness."

I've previously read it in its entirety. Good book. Although, I disagree with the premise. I already have one complete copy of the manuscript.

When I was in the hole (Ad-Seg), from 09-23-05 to 10-24-05, I had no property or reading material whatsoever (because the cops pack all of your stuff up and store it in boxes in a storage room when you go to the hole), so I wrote to professor Kuttner and asked him to send me another copy of his book manuscript so I would have something to read in Ad-Seg. (You can't have you property in the hole, but you can get new stuff sent to you.)

So anyway, Professor Kuttner sent me another copy of his manuscript while I was in the hole, but the cops made up some rule that we can only receive 20 pages of printed material per envelope. Professor Kuttner had sent his manuscript all in one envelope, so the mail-room cops confiscated the last 125 pages of his manuscript, and only delivered 20 pages of it to me. Then they (the cops) demanded that I pay $3.95 for postage to return the "disallowed" pages to Professor Kuttner.

Well, I have no funds in my trust account, and I had no postage stamps while I was in the hole, as a result of having all of my property stored due to my Ad-Seg placement, so I could not provide the $3.95 they were demanding of me to pay for the return postage. They gave me fifteen days to pay up or the withheld 125 pages would be destroyed per operational procedure blah blah blah. The pages were, in fact, destroyed by 11-03-05. I wrote to Professor Kuttner on 11-15-05 explaining what they had done and apologizing to him.

So now I get this letter from him dated 11-28-05 asking if he can send a money order for $3.95 to Department of Corrections to pay the return postage. He just does not have a clear understanding of how petty, childish and cruel these cops try to be every day. Many take pleasure in fucking people around.

They destroyed a copy of his intellectual property (his book manuscript) without any reservations. I bet you they wouldn't like it if someone vandalized their home or their can, but that is essentially what they did to Professor Kuttner. They destroyed his property.

Now I've got to write to him again and try to clarify for him just how little these people give a damn about him, or me or his property, or my property, and apologize again. He'll get it, eventually. The cold part is that the postage to send the manuscript to me was only $1.84; but the mail room removed 20 pages, making it lighter, and then demanded $3.95 for "postage" to return the withheld 125 pages. How does that work?! How does the "postage" for the same material go from costing $1.84 to costing $3.95, after making it twenty pages lighter? The envelope is lighter, yet the "postage" is more than doubled! What a scam! These crooks actually have the audacity to look down their noses and judge me? They are worse than most of the prisoners I've met in here. They are the ones who should be in prison. They are the ones who are a danger to society. Unbelievable!

Anyway, Professor Kuttner also asked me if I could receive books from the Physics Library at UC Santa Cruz. Hell yeah! Shoot 'em! He said that when the quarter was over in a few weeks he would have more time to think about my ideas on Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics (upon which my interpretation of Quantum Mechanics is based), and that he would let me know what he thinks then. I'm really interested to hear what he says about this, because I think I may have resolved some of the major paradoxes in modern physics with my interpretation of Quantum Mechanics.

Turns out that president dumb-ass is in hot water again: this time for personally approving of spying on US citizens, which is apparently illegal. I wish they would put his retarded ass in prison already. Just cell him up with Saddam Hussein. Curious George; my god, that dude is an idiot!

Don't even get me started on mister "misunderestimate". I mean, what the hell is going on in the world? "Curious George" is our president? Has the country gone mad> Ahhhnold is the Governor of California? Bush Jr., the learning disabled crack-head neocon puppet, is the president? Lies and propaganda and illegal invasions and wars, and the government spying on everyone. Orwellian. Shades of 1984; and Huxley's Brave New World. It's only going to get worse. Good luck with that.

Gotta stop now. Out!

Friday 16 December 2005

We were supposed to get some yard today, but it didn't happen. Maybe Sunday. I won't be going to yard on Sunday, even if we do get yard time. Sunday is NFL Football day, "Fooze-ball is the Devil!" Just as Bobby Boo-shay.

I spoke today (over the phone) with the father of the guy for whom I'm preparing the writ petition. Bombshell time.

Turns out the judge in this guy's case was a lawyer with a private practice back in the mid 1980s, and represented, in a civil lawsuit, the parents of the guy for whom I'm doing the writ petition. He bungled the case and was then sued by this guy's parents for legal malpractice.

The judge (he was only a lawyer back then) settled the malpractice lawsuit out of court with the guy's parents. The settlement was $225,000. That is 225,000 reasons to be biased against the guy that he helped to manipulate into that guilty plea (resulting in a life sentence). Now that is some hinky shit. The plot thickens.

The California Code of Judicial Conduct requires that judge to disqualify himself from any case in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned by anyone aware of all of the facts, and in order to avoid even the appearance of impropriety. This dirtbag of a judge did not disqualify himself from this guy's case when he should have done so. In fact, he actively assisted in screwing the guy over. I hope I can now actively assist him off the bench and into a prison cell (next door to me would be great). Maybe I can even get him for a cell mate. That would be fun, for me.

Anyhoo, I've got this guy's father sending me all of the paperwork from that malpractice lawsuit and the resulting $225,000 settlement in 1985. I'm also having notarized affidavits sent by both of the guy's parents, which will detail all of their dealings with this judge prior to him becoming a judge. In addition, I am going to have the attorney who represented the parents in the malpractice suit send me an affidavit detailing what he knows about the case. He collected $50,000 of that $225,000 settlement as attorney's fees.

I saw a television program on PBS this evening that I really enjoyed. It's a British comedy program called "As Time Goes By," produced by the BBC. Judy Dench stars in it, along with some more obscure actors. It is really good. Funny stuff. I may be a bit biased, being a bit of an Anglophile, but I think that it is better than any of the American comedy programs I've seen.

I like the British sense of humor. And those British accents sound awesome, especially the women's accents. Sexy. There is just something about a woman with a British accent. Irresistible. Maybe I've got some kind of weird British fetish? Ha! Ha!

I think that's just about enough for today. Out!

Saturday 17 December 2005

Another day. Gloomy outside. Went to dayroom this afternoon and played some poker. Won $3. Beats losing $3. Liquor in the front, poker in the rear. She'll appreciate it. Ha! I saw that on a T-shirt once. Good stuff, despite the fact that it's slightly vulgar. Well, I guess that depends on how one defines vulgarity. I personally find nothing at all vulgar about it. But most people are prudish and easily offended by stuff like that.

I've got to get a letter written and sent off to Professor Kuttner before the weekend is over. I've also got to send off these Christmas cards. I have the stamps now.

Can't wait to get this new California Habeas Handbook and begin my research work for this writ petition. I've already done some preliminary work on the writ petition, found helpful case law and so on, but I've got to figure out how to navigate through all of the procedural bars that the courts have erected to make it difficult for prisoners to even get their writ petitions considered.

The courts like to try and throw out any petition that is "untimely" or barred for some other procedural reason. They call it procedural default or procedural bars. It doesn't help that the Government of the USA has passed laws to try and limit prisoner's use of petitions for writ of habeas corpus.

For more than 200 years in this country no restrictions were placed on the "Great Writ" as the US Supreme Court calls it. Then in 1996, after the Oklahoma City Bombing, the Government used the public outrage to garner support for limiting use of the writ by prisoners, signing into the law the 1996 Omnibus Anti-Terrorism and Death Penalty Enforcement Act. Buried in some of the fine print of that "Act" were the first ever limitations placed on prisoner's use of the "Great Writ." It has been all downhill from there.

I see a pattern emerging. The steady erosion of civil liberties in the name of "security". First the ADPEA was passed in 1996, limiting remedies available to the wrongfully convicted and imprisoned, among other things. Then, after 9/11, the Patriot Act was passed. The Patriot Act, as if one is unpatriotic if one disagrees with its provisions. Pure propaganda. Now the Patriot Act is up for an extension, as it is set to expire at the end of this year. I hope it does not get renewed, but I suspect that it will be. I hope my suspicion is wrong.

I have some very strong opinions about what is being done to the civil liberties of Americans in the name of "security," but I'll have to write about that another day because I have things to do right now. I can sum it up with a single name: Jose Padilla. Out!

Sunday 18 December 2005

It's Sunday. Fooze-ball day. Fooze-ball is the Devil! Gonna have to see how my football-pool ticket does today. The pot is only $33 this week. Beats a blank.

It is gloomy and raining outside today. I didn't go out to the yard today, but I did go out to the dayroom this morning (for a couple of hours) and hit the poker table. I won another $3. That's right! Gimmie my money! Yo' shit is now my shit.

It's just a little nickel and dime game they have going. Nothing to extravagant. If I could go out there and hit that table for $3 every day I could earn myself an extra $1095 per year. But we would have to stay off lock down to get that kind of action, and this place likes to keep us locked in the damned cells. Crazy lazy bastages.

President dullard is still catching heat over that illegal domestic spying deal. He is trying his best to justify breaking the law, and to try and deflect heat by attempting to re-frame the issue into, essentially, "whoever exposed the fact that I broke the law is endangering American lives." He is a real piece: a piece of work, a piece of... you name it. Unbelievable, this guy. He thinks he is King George, but he is closer to "curious George." I can't stand him.

I wish I still had access to the San Francisco Chronicle. Man, that's a great newspaper. When I was over on B-Facility (before I went to the hole) I had a buddy over there who had a subscription to the San Francisco Chronicle. He used to send it to me every day, as soon as he finished reading it. I was first on the list, after his, to get to read that paper. I really miss that.

I've been told that the Sacramento Bee is also an excellent paper, but I've never read it. I know the San Francisco Chronicle is good. Maybe one day I'll be able to afford a subscription. If I get this guy back to court with this writ petition then that'll be $2000 more I can spend. I would probably want to invest that in something like my college education, but I might be tempted to blow some of that on luxury items like newspaper and magazine subscriptions.

I think that's enough for today, so I'm out.

Monday 19 December 2005

Gloomy and raining again today. I went out for dayroom this afternoon and played some more poker. I didn't win anything, but I didn't lose anything. My football-pool ticket was a loser yesterday. Can't win every time. Fooze-ball is the Devil!

I have now been hired to do a writ petition for another guy. Same case, but this is the codefendant of the first guy I agreed to help. The first guy is the one who was tricked into a guilty plea; the second guy took his case to jury trial and lost.

Now they both want to go back to court for a new trial based on the fact that their proceedings were fundamentally flawed by the fact that the judge was biased against the first guy. It is pretty cut and dried. That judge shouldn't have been anywhere near this case, simply because he was sues for legal malpractice by the parents of the first guy, and paid out $225,000 to the first guy's parents to settle the suit.

The California Penal Code, section 170.1, is pretty clear about when judges must disqualify themselves from presiding over cases. This judge clearly violated that penal code by not disqualifying himself from the case. Additionally, that California Code of Judicial Conduct is just as cut and dried about the same issue. That is pretty much the thrust of one argument I will be making in both of their (separate) writ petitions. The fact that the judge should have, but did not, disqualify himself from this case, renders all of the proceeding in this case fundamentally flawed, and requires reversal of the convictions and retrial with a fair and impartial judge.

I'm getting paid another $500 by the second guy to do his writ petition too, so that will be $1000 just for doing the legal work on the two writ petitions, win or lose. I'm not trying to lose because I have been promised ab additional $2000 from the first guy if I can get his guilty plea withdrawn and get him back to court for a jury trial. When I get done with their writ petitions then I'll see about putting mine together.

I am also trying to get back to court, but I need to gather more evidence before I file a writ petition. I strongly suspect I have been framed for a homicide that was never really a homicide. Alas, suspicions are not evidence, and the burden of truth is on me in a writ petition. Hence the need to gather more evidence.

I strongly suspect that the cause of death determination in my case is intentionally false, fabricated, an unscientific physical impossibility, and manufactured specifically for the purpose of send me to prison for life. They guy that they say I killed was in the hospital for nearly three months (in a comatose state) before he dies. I was already in jail for putting him in the hospital when he died, so they just took the opportunity to blame his death on me. I have good reasons to suspect that I did not cause his death, and therefore; that I cannot be guilty of murder. I suspect that at the most I am guilty of Felony Assault or Battery.

I was an eighteen year-old hot-head of a kid who thought fighting and other forms of violence an acceptable way to deal with conflict. I'm learning the hard way that this is not necessarily the case. Unless you are invading foreign nations, of course. Then all you have to do is justify your actions by claiming preemptive "self-defense". I should have thought of that for my jury trial. The sheep believe Curious George, so I might have been able to pull off that defense strategy in my jury trial. I might have been acquitted had I thought of that twelve years ago. Darn it!

That's about it for today. Dame mas gasolina!

Thursday 22 December 2005

Another wonderful day in Camp Snoopy. It is still cold and gray and rainy outside. It has been all week.

I got my ass handed to me on the poker table yesterday. I lost $18. No big deal. I paid it off, but damn! I had quite a run of bad luck there! I was getting either no hand at all dealt to me, or a hand just good enough to keep me in the game, to keep me betting, and then I'd get beat by a slightly better hand. If I had a straight someone else would hit a slightly higher straight or flush. If I hit a flush, I'd get beat by a full-house. It was unbelievable. So it goes. Can't win 'em all. I'm still up, overall, so all I did was lose money I had already won earlier. I'm not playing with my own money at this point, just with previous winnings.

Today I write a letter to the State Bar of California asking for information about an "attorney" named Thomas Lloyd. I asked the State Bar for his Bar number and also for the date he became certified to practice law in California. I suspect that he is not licensed to practice law in California because of some documents I examined.

Thomas Lloyd is the "attorney" who represented the guy who wants to withdraw his guilty plea (for whom I am preparing the writ petition). This "attorney" has a "law office" address which is a P.O. Box in Ashland, Oregon.

Why the hell would an attorney who is licensed to practice law in California not have a law office in California? Why would he have nothing more than a P.O. Box in another state as his "law office"? That's just a little fishy to me, so I want to investigate and see if my hunch is correct.

I suspect that this Thomas Lloyd guy is a paralegal-type out of Oregon who took it upon himself to impersonate an attorney in California (another state), and who somehow tricked that Norther California Superior Court into appointing him as an attorney for indigent defendants. It would not be the first time something like that has happened in California.

About six months ago I saw in the newspaper that some woman had been employed as an attorney at the Public Defender's Office in San Francisco, that she had represented about fifty people, and that it was discovered that she did not have a law degree and was not even licensed to practice law in California. Like fifty people had gone to jail or prison or pled guilty as a result of her "representation," and I think they said that all of those cases would have to be overturned and redone because those defendants were entitled to be represented by an "attorney," and not by someone impersonating an attorney.

What really makes me believe that this Thomas Lloyd is not an attorney or licensed to practice law in California, besides his lack of a California law office and his P.O. Box address, is the fact tht on every single motion he filed in the Superior and Municiple Courts in this guy's case Thomas Lloyd never wrote a State Bar number under his name, above his address.

All of the other attorneys who were representing the other defendants in the same cae were attorneys in California with law offices in California. They all wrote in the upper left-hand corner of all of the motions before the Courts their names, followed by their State Bar numbers, followed by their addresses and phone numbers.

The conspicuously missing State Bar number under Thomas Lloyd's name on all of his motions is just too much to ignore. The dude may not even be, or may not have been in 1996, an attorney in California; which means he possibly is not or was not up on California law and practices in California Courts. If he is not or was not licensed in 1996 to practice law in California by the State Bar of California they he officially is not or was not up on California law and practices in California Courts.

So, if the State Bar of California writes back to me and tells me that they have no record of this guy, and that he is not licensed to practice law in California or was not in 1996, then I thing I will have even more solid grounds on which to base this guy's writ petition. I'll send that letter out to the State Bar tonight. Git 'em!

I've got other stuff to do. Gotta do a thing at a place. More manana.

Friday 23 December 2005

The freakin' Patriot Act has been extended for another five weeks, as a compromise. That's just great! Welcome to Amerigo. Here is your Social Security Number, and now we are entitled to tax your income. Thank you very much, sucker. We'll see you soon. Count on it. We see you when you're sleeping. We know when you're awake. We know if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake.

I hope to God they put Bush Jr. In the pokey for his illegal activities, but I know that's not going to happen. Even if they did convict him of something, he would get a presidential pardon, just like Nixon got a pardon from Gerald Ford. They all have each other's backs, so basically the presidency of the USA is a green light to break any laws one might wish to break.

The president is, in effect, above the law simply because he is guaranteed (by the way our political system is structured) to get a presidential pardon for any crimes committed while in office. He might get the boot, or be forced to resign in shame, but he ain't goin' to prison.

He ain't gettin' the Death Penalty for his Crimes Against Humanity, but he approved the executions of many, many men while he was Governor of Texas. Yeah, that's fair. That's Justice. More like Just Us (and not you).

Get used to it, America. Welcome to your police state. I can't believe that people are so blind that they don't see that our "Democratic Republic" is evolving into a fascist police state. Does nobody read dictionaries anymore?

A Fascist government is an Authoritarian government characterized by rigid one-party rule, extreme nationalism and extreme militarism. It is anti-communist and places restrictions on personal rights and liberties.

At present the U.S. Government is under rigid one-party rule, as the Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the Presidency. This makes Bush a de facto dictator, and our government a de facto dictatorship. Bush is certainly acting like a dictator. Of late our government is characterized by extreme nationalism and extreme militarism: if you are not for Bush and his or the Rupublican policies then you are "unamerican" or "unpatriotic". The Patriot Act (alone) is a prime example of this extreme nationalism. The face that a law named "The Patriot Act" was passed in evidence of extreme nationalism. The "war on terrorism" is the extreme militarism in action. The restrictions on rights and liberties are evident in the new laws being passed and enforced every year. Thus, or government is beginning to bear a striking resemblance to a fascist government.

A police state is acountry in which secret police are employed to detect and stamp out any opposition to the government in power. The U.S. government (the Bush Administration) had just admitted to using secret police (the NSA) to spy on American phone conversations and internet communications (illegally) in an effort to detect and stamp out "terrorists," which obviously oppose the U.S. government that is presently in power.

I don't know how much more clear this could be. Our "Democratic Republic" seem to have become, or is presently evolving into, a fascist police state right before our eyes. If it is not a fascist police state already, then it will be soon. Shades of ancient Roman history and the dictatorship of the Emperor, Julius Caesar. But Bush is no Caesar, and saying you are Caesar does not make it so.

Anyway, enought about that. I finally recieved that California Habeas Handbook in the mail today. It came via Legal Mail, so it got to me faster. It was ordered, according to the invoice, on 12-21-05. I got it today, on 12-23-05, so it only took two days to get to me. Cost $29.95, but the information it contains is valuable, so it's worth it. I've got to spend some time studying that, so I'm gonna end this. Gotta see a guy about a horse.

Saturday 24 December 2005

Well, I spent some time last night studying this new California Habeas Handbook. I also spent sometime on it earlier today. There is a lot of information to process, so I think it may take me a few weeks to get a firm handle on this stuff. The first writ petition I am preparing is just basic fill-in-the-blank stuff, but the nuances of all the little procedural defaults are what I have to study up on. If I can get beyond those procedural defaults then this guy has a guaranteed trip back to court, because he will be granted the writ petition. It is just those damned defaults I'm sweating.

I drew the words "Baby Girl" in black ink on a white handkerchief for this guy in here today. He wants to send it home to his woman. Got five bucks for it. It came out pretty cool lookin'. The letters were about 2 inches by 2 inches in a modified calligraphic script style, with a background shadow. This gave it the effect of appearing three dimensional, like the letters were floating just above the surface of the handkerchief. They I put on some random starburst patterns around the letters to give it a sort of clean, sparkling appearance. That just improved the image. The guy was totally stoked with the are, so everybody wins.

I really don't feel like writing anymore today. I think I'll stop now.

Sunday 25 December 2005

Happy commercialized pseudo-religious Judeo-Christian/Pagan holiday ritual-day to me! Or is it Merry Fishmas? You know, because the fish shape is the symbol people use for Jesus on the back of their cars. Merry Fishmas everybody! And Happy New Year too! Fooze-ball is the Devil!

I watched some NFL football yesterday, and I had a big fat Christmas dinner earlier this evening, so I guess today wasn't all that bad.

Just another day in paradise. Those knack-ass dudes around here were trying to be all Holiday Cheer and Peace on Earth and shit. What the fuck is there to be Merry about, asshole? I'm in fucking prison on Christmas. Why the hell should I be in a good mood? Some of these fuckin' creeps were fortunate enough to get visits from their families. They have no idea how lucky they are. I hate them. They don't deserve what they have.

I've got to stop writing now. I just went to my dark place, and I don't want to write about that.

Monday 26 December 2005

I won six bucks at the poker table today. Yup>

Out of the blue today I was called to the gym to pick up a package. Someone I don't know, who lives in Cerritose, sent me a book via Barnes and Noble dot com. The book is called "Why Christianity Must Change Or Die: A Bishop Speaks to Believers in Exile." A retired bishop named John Shelby Spong is the author. I'll read the book.

I suspect that an old friend names Jon had one of his family members send me the book, because much of the book's content appears to cover topics Jon and I had many hours-long debates over. He probably read the book himself and thought of me due to its content, and asked one of his family members to send me a copy. A nice gesture, whoever sent it to me. It cost $14.95, so somebody spent some money on me. Thanks, whoever you are.

I don't really feel like writing today, and I've got to get some other things done anyway. Out.

Tuesday 27 December 2005

This morning I saw a story on the ABC morning news, at 8:08 A.M. pacific time, about a young Texas woman who was wrongfully convicted of murdering her own baby, and who is now free because she was able to prove that the official cause of death determination was incorrect. I didn't catch her name, but I wish I had.

I have been suspecting the same thing about my own case for quite some time now (that I am innocent of murder because the cause of death determination is incorrect and fabricated), but I need to get in touch with a forensic pathologist who can tell me if my suspicions are correct or not. That would give me the evidence I need to prove my innocence of the crime of murder.

In this young Texas woman's case the medical examiner said the cause of the baby's death was "shaken baby syndrome," wherein the mother shook the baby violently, causeing brain damage resulting in death. The medical examiner never examined the medical records of the baby, who had been brought in to the emergency room for treatment just prior to death, so the medical examiner drew an incorrect conclusion arising from a lack of information. This medical examiner just basically performed an incomplete autopsy and then jumped to an incorrect conclusion as to the cause of death.

I suspect that the medical examiner in my case did the exact same thing, but I also suspect that in my case there was something more nefarious at work than simple incompetence. I suspect that in my case the entire thing was a set up and fabrication. Further, I suspect that there may even have been a cover up of the true cause of death for the purpose of framing me for a homicide that never was.

In my case the medical examiner never examined the medical records of my "murder victim," who has been hospitalized for 79 days in a comatose state prior to his death. The medical examiner was an employee of the Sheriff's Department by virtue of the fact that he was employed as a Forensic Pathologist by the County Coroner's Office (A division of the Sheriff's Dept.). The medical examiner was also employed as a Staff Pathologist (at the time of the autopsy) by the same hospital in which my "murder victim" died. That is a conflict of interests. It turns out that the hospital gave my "murder victim" a drug-induced Hepatitis, which can lead to death from Acute Liver Failure within 8 weeks of onset. My "murder victim" died within tht 8 week window. This was never considered or ruled out as a cause of death because the medical records were never examined.

Further, the autopsy examination was woefully incomplete. There were no toxicology tests conducted. The reason given for this on the cover sheet of the Coroners Report is that the decedent had been hospitalized for an extensive period prior to death. This makes absolutely no sense to me. As if being hospitalized for an extensive period is a guaranteed way to avoid a death which could be diagnosed via toxicology tests. That is the most ridiculous presumption I have ever heard. The guy was being given morphine and valium for "restlessness." He could have been accidentally overdosed, or intentially overdosed as a "mercy killing." This was never ruled out either. As I said, incomplete.

In my case the medical examiner said that the cause of death was "old" blunt force trauma. When pressed for an explanation by the judge in my preliminary hearing, the medical examiner said that the"old' brain injury has caused a fatal "cardiac arrhythmia", although he had no direct evidence of this and could not see this microscopically. Assuming for the sake of argument (without conceding) that he actually did die from fatal cardiac arrhythmia, it is impossile to say what caused the cardiac because normal healthy people without brain injuries occasionally drop dead from lethal cardiac arrhythmia.

It turns out that in order to conclude that a person has died from a cardiac arrhythmia (I now understand) all other possible causes of death must first be ruled out. A "death resulting from cardiac arrhythmia" determination must be made only after a scientific process of elimination is completed. Without completing this process of elimination this conclusion cannot be drawn. It it is drawn in such a way this conclusion is unscientific and invalid.

In my case this process of elimination was never completed, as the medical records were never examined and toxicology tests were never conducted, yet the conclusion as to the cardiac arrhythmia was drawn. This is simply bad science. The conclusion is unscientific and invalid.

Then, on top of that, it turns out that my "murder victim" appears to have been suffering from Congestive Heart Failure, and may have in fact died as a result of this Natural Cause of Death. It's all in his medical records. He had a "Left Anterior Fascicular Block," also called a "Left Bundle Branch Block" in his heart. He had a persistent tachycardia (racing heart rate), persistent high blood pressure, and his lungs and liver were congested with blood (this is in the autopsy report). These are all classic textbook symptoms of Congestive Heart Failure.

The cops were told by the guy's doctor that he was not going to die from the brain injury itself, but that he could likely die in the future from an infection of some type, such as pneumonia or a urinary tract infection or bed sores, because he was in a coma. Then the guy dies months down the road. He had no infections when he died, so they said "oh, the brain injury killed him, so you are guilty of murder." How convenient.

What makes this even worse is the fact that the medical examiner found necrosis on the guy's heart during the autopsy (another classic textbook symptom and/or cause of Congestive Heart Failure), and then concealed this fact, left it out of his autopsy report, committed perjury about finding it (denied finding any injury to the heart) in my preliminary hearing, and then admitted to finding the necrosis in my jury trial a year and a half later.

I've got him dead to rights for that stuff. It is all in the records for anyone to see. I was set up for a homicide that never was, I suspect. If I did not cause his death I cannot be guilty of murder. It's that simple.

Anyway, I gotta do a thing at a place, so I'm out.

Wednesday 28 December 2005

Yeah, yeah, yeah... another one of those days in the gulag. Just wonderful.

I am not really in the mood to write, to be honest. I'm tired for some reason. Maybe I have that chronic fatigue syndrom I keep hearing about on TV. Nah! My fatigue is occasional, not chronic. I think that's just about enough blabbidy blab for today so I'm gonna shut my yapper now. Out.

Thursday 29 December 2005

Back on lock down status again. I have no idea how long it will be this time. Last night at about 8 P.M. some hinky shit went down just down the tier from my cell. Three cops rushed the cell door of this guy's cell down the way. They opened the door and ordered him out of the cell. I don't know why.

He seemed to stall or delay for a while, probably asking why they want him to step out of the cell. When he did step out of the cell one of the cops grabbed him and then violentyl slammed him to the ground, face first. Then they all emptied their pepper-spray canisters on the guy's head while they were screaming, "Get down! Get down!", making a big production out of their attack on this guy. After that, they handcuffed the guy. He was face-down on they ground, with his hands cuffed behind him. Only then did they activate their "personal alarms". Straight fuckin' set-up.

The response team cops came running into the building about ten seconds later, all ready to spray someone in the face with their chemical weapons, but the "situation" was under control at that point. The guy was they escorted out of the building in handcuffs, being namhandled along the way. That's crazy! These fuckin' cops can just run around attacking people with chemical weapons, gand banging on inmates, and get away with it, because they have the power to do shit like that, with absolute impunity. If you figt back you are really fucked! Good luck!

Now that guy is sitting in the hole (Ad-Seg), probably accused of assaulting staff; and he is the one who was hunted down and attacked! That's that "Green Wall" shit that was all in the news about this prison. They had State Senate hearings about this shit about a year and a half ago. California State Senators Gloria Romero and Jackie Spier exposed just how hinky this prison is in their public hearings into corruption in the California Department of Corrections.

Anyone who wants to learn some of the details about this prison I'm in should visit www.monteryherald.com (The website of a local newspaper) and look up the front-page article from Thanksgiving Day of 2004, written by Jonathan Segal, a Herald Staff Writer. The date on that is Thursday, November 25, 2004. The headline is, "Documents detail prison cover-up: Lieutenant allegedly fostered code of silence in beating."

Nine correctional officers were fired behind that beating and cover-up, but that has not changed anything, really. That was the largest mass-firing of correctional officers in California history. They were fired from the prison in which I am confined, the most corrupt prison in California: Salinas Valley State Prison. I have been in this particular prison since May of 2001, so I have seen a ton of dirty shit go down. Nobody would believe the things I have seen. They would think I am lying.

So it goes. Maybe that is why I am so jaded. I see all of this corruption in the government, on the TV news, and I look out my cell window and I see even more government corruption. It is very real for me. There is no demarcation for me between Bush's Crimes Against Humanity and the abuses of power I see in here on a regular basis. They are all symptoms of societal illness. And I have a front row seat, and have experienced the hink first-hand. So maybe I have a right to be jaded.

It was very foggy this morning. I couldn't see more than about 20 feet out of my back window, because the fog was so thick, until about noon. I guess I'm done for the day, as far as this journal goes. I've got other stuff to do besides rant about the hinkfest. It's not gonna fix itself.

Friday 30 December 2005

They let us off of lock down status today, so we were only slammed for one day behind that incident of Wednesday night (the 28th). Ole' boy has been "disappeared." He is probably sitting in the hole somewhere, all lumped up and trying to heal. You don't like it... don't come to prison.

I received the affidavit I requested from the mother of the guy who wants to withdraw his guilty plea and go back to court for a jury trial. It is actually closer to a letter than an affidavit, but it will work. She gave a bunch of details about all of her dealings with this judge, so I'll be able to put that to good use. I'm still waiting for the affidavit from the guy's father and for a response from that attorney, Patrick Beasley. Maybe next week,

I should also be hearing back next week from the Commission on Judicial Performance and the California State Bar. The next couple of weeks should be real interesting. Plus my textbooks and other course materials should be arriving by the 10th of January. Taking Italian and Philosophy.

Evanescence (the band) is on the radio right now. Man, that Amy Lee can really sing. I like her a lot. I also really like Alison Krauss. My god, what an angelic voice. Then, of course, there is always Mariah Carey. I would marry any one of them in a heartbeat, just so I could hear them sing to me every day. Ha! Like they would be interested in me! A guy can dream.

That reminds me, I should be having a hearing on my property 602 (Inmate Appeal) soon. The deadline is January 20, 2006. I'll win the appeal. They are going to have to replace my CD/Cassette player boombox radio, or compensate me with items of equal value, if they are not able to locate it. They (the cops) "lost" my stuff, and so now they owe me if they cannot find it. They have already admitted on the appeal that ISU took my property, so I don't have to prove anything. Just find my stuff or replace what you lost.

I hope they find my stuff, because I would much rather have my own stuff back than some other replacements items. Plus, all of my old journal entries from before September 23, are still missing. I want those back too. Plus my address book. There are other missing items too, but I'm not going to write out a whole list of my missing stuff in this journal. I already did that on the 602 form.

My CD player (also a Cassette player and AM/FM radio boombox) is pretty cool, so I hope they can locate that for me. I really enjoy my music. I like all kinds of music. I'm not one of those types that like just one or two genres of music. I enjoy Vivaldi just as much as I enjoy Metallica or Alan Jackson or Suicidal Tendencies or The Butthole Surfers. Country, Rock, Metal, Punk, Blues, Jazz, R&B, Hip Hop, Gothic, Industrial, Techno, House, Gangsta Rap, Classical and even Gospel: I like it all.

I should qualify that. I don't like everything I hear, but I enjoy more than just one narrow category of music. I like that Celtic and New Age stuff too. I even like the Gregorian Chants that were recorded a few years back. Good stuff.

I think I'll stop writing now. Gotta do a thing at a place.

Saturday 31 December 2005

Last day of the year. Yippie!

El Presidente has supposedly ordered the Department of Justice to conduct an investigation into the source of the leak about the secret spying that the NSA has been conducting on Americans' communications. Now that is some funny shit. Ironic.

When the whole "Valarie Plame, CIA Agent" leak to the media came about (which originated in the White House, and for which Scooter Libby is going down) there was no order for the Department of Justice to find the source. Bush gets exposed for ordering and approving illegal spying and all of a sudden he wants an investigation conducted into the source of that leak.

Notice that he did not order a Department of Justice investigation into the illegal spying that he ordered and approved. He just wants the person who exposed him as a criminal to be prosecuted for leaking that information. He got his covers pulled and now he wants someone to pay. More government corruption.

The audacity! It's breathtaking. Imagine if a serial killer demanded an investigation into the anonymous source that exposed him as a serial killer. Ha! But exposing him as a serial killer was illegal, so, prosecute the anonymous source. "Never mind that I have been murdering people; that guy over there leaked the story illegally. Put him in prison, not me."

Just can't get enough... of that hinky stuff.

We've got some pretty serious weather going on in California. The forecast is for heavy rains and flooding. Yeah, that'll be fun. We are locked down once again. Don't know why. I gotta cut.

Sunday 1 January 2006

Happy New Year! Yeah, yeah, yeah. Happy-happy joy-joy.

We are still locked down. No idea why this time.

I resolve to do everything in my power to get my ass out of prison. I resolve to exercise my body more than my usual three times a week. I resolve to spend my hours more efficiently by living by an hourly schedule. And I resolve to eat as much damned food as I can stuff down my neck everyday.

I also resolve to see a guy about a horse. QUIT TRYING TO TEAR DOWN MY WALL! YOU DAMNED MONGOLIANS!

Monday 2 January 2006

Off of lock down status today. Mothing much else. It's cold and raining and windy outside. Northern California is suffering major flooding. Broken levees and overflowing levees and swollen rivers and evacuations. Texas is on fire. Oklahoma is on fire. New Mexico is on fire. Global Warming in action.

I can't believe Bush has the audacity to officially deny that Global Warming is real. Actually, I can believe it, I just can't understand how he could be so flippant in his denial of reality. It's not like he cares about preserving the global environment anyway. His Energy and Environment policies are obviously influenced by his religious beliefs.

Bush thinks that Jesus is coming back, and that Jesus is going to create a New Heaven and a New Earth when he comes back, so we can go ahead and trash and destroy this earth to our hearts' and wallets' content. Consume all the natural resources now. No need to conserve. Jesus will fix it when he come back, so we can pollute consume all we want.

This is a dangerous foolish way to determine the long-term fate of the world and all of its life forms. His policies and inaction have long-term global consequences. It ought to be illegal. It ought to be illegal for people who hold such foolish beliefs to hold positions of power, to be able to determine the fate of all of the life forms on our planet via harmful, irresponsible and asinine policy decisions. Has this imbecile ever heard of the planet Venus? It has a surface temperature of 882 degrees Fahrenheit.

That's hot. No life forms. That's what happens when the greenhouse effect takes over and runs away. You get a dead, HOT planet which is incapable of supporting any form of life. If we don't soon set some kind of global standards for preserving our environment, and enforce them vigilantly, we are going to kill the whole damned planet. QUIT TRYING TO TEAR DOWN MY WALL! YOU DAMNED MONGOLIANS!

But don't worry, Jebus will come back and fix it. Save us Jebus! Yes, Jebus. In the name of Jebus we pray. In all fairness, it is not Bush's fault, entirely. He is just a part of the problem; a cause of the problem and a symptom of the problem. Bush did not get it started, but to deny that Global Warming is real, and to create Energy and Environment policies like the ones he has put out there is just incredibly irresponsible.

I saw a program about Shakespeare this evening on PBS. A bunch of Black kids in England were doing Romeo and Juliet. Pretty cool. I like Shakespeare. Especially Othello. Hamlet is great, but I like Othello. Macbeth is also great. Shakespeare rocks!

I would like to find some people with whom I could trade my art for specific books. I have a huge list books I want to acquire and read, including all of Shakespeare's plays and poetry. About half of the books I want to get are really cheap "Thrift Editions" published by Dover Publications. They are like $1.00 or $1.50 or $2.00 each. I wish I could just find some rich couple to sponsor me, to become my patrons and buy me a bunch of books. Ha! That would be so much easier. Bill and Melinda Gates would do just fine.

I would be more than willing to paint or draw or sculpt custom works or art for people in exchange for specific books, if I could just find people interested in such a trade. There are textbooks I want to acquire, as wellas books for pleasure reading. Yeah, that would be really cool.

I like ancient history almost as much as I enjoy classic literature. I prefer the classics to modern works. I want to read The Annals of Imperial Rome, by Tacitus; The Works of Cicero; Arrian's Alexander the Great; The Twelve Caesars, by Suetonius; Livy's Early History of Rome; Plutarch's Lives; Virgil's Aeneid; The Histories of Herodotus; and Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War. I would also like to read Saint Augustine's Confessions; Dante's Divine Comedy; Beowulf; Gilgamesh; Darwin's Origin of Species; Newton's Principia; and Euclid's Thirteen Books of the Elements.

That doesn't even scratch the surface of my book wish-list. I could probably fill ten pages with lists of stuff I want to read.

Anyway, I think I've written enough for today. Bake a pie, eat a pie! Out!

Tuesday 3 January 2006

Locked down. Handcuffs and escorts for everyone. That does not mean everyone gets a hooker who handcuffs them to the bed. That means anyone exiting their cell is being handcuffed (behind their backs) and escorted by a cop or two to their destination. Rumor has it that a White prisoner got killed by his cellmate over in one-block, in cell 206. If that is true we could be slammed here for a while. So it goes.

We were cell-fed breakfast this morning, due to being locked down behind this rumored murder. Had pinto beans and scrambled eggs with two tortillas (and a half-pint of nonfat milk) for breakfast. Essentially it was two breakfast burritos. Not bad, but not great. The beans were undercooked. Just not enough food for a growing boy like myself. I always seem to be hungry here. Maybe I have an intestinal parasite eating all my food. Ha! The portions are not extraordinarily puny, but, I mean, COME ON! I'm an eating son-of-a-drug-addict. I need my food mang! Passa la comida, buey!

I saw on the morning news that seven Northern California counties have been declared Disaster Areas by the Governator. They said there is an estimated $100 million in damages so far.

Some Washing lobbyist named Abramoff (or something similar) supposedly cut a deal with Federal Prosecutors to give up all of the corrupt Senators and Congressmen he bribed. Now they are all trying to give the money back and distance themselves from the guy, trying to smut HIM up. Ha! All those hinky fucks in Washington are sweating bullets right now. I love it! Hinkfest, 2006! Only in America!

I watched a "Travel the World, with Rick Steves" video this morning on the Institutional video channel (channel 4). That was cool. It featured Burgundy and Provence and Loire and other parts of the South of France. Rick Steves cruises around Europe showing all kinds of cool stuff. I've never been to Europe, but I would love to go someday.

After that video was over they showed that "Catwoman" movie starring the gorgeous Halle Berry. She's hot. Smokin'! Sharon Stone is in the movie too. She is also quite hot. So I got to lust after a couple of gorgeous women today. What a rich fantasy-life I have.

I don't know why people talk bad about older women, saying they are unattractive. There are lots of totally smokin' older women in the world. Some of the more famous ones: Sharon Stone; Kim Katral; Jean Smart; Gail O'Grady; Marg Helgenberger; Demi Moore; Goldie Hawn; Stockard Channing; Catherine Zeta-Jones; Sheryl Crow; Patricia Heaton; Kathy Lee Gifford; and the list goes on and on. Just because a woman ages does not mean she is any less desirable. Some of the world's greatest hotties are in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. Ashton Kutcher has the right idea, man. That's the good stuff.

I'm not saying younger women don't have it goin' on too. I'm just saying younger women don't have the hottie market cornered. I guess it all comes down to the fact that beauty is subjective. As an artist, I can identify the aesthetics in just about any subject.

I think people are too caught up in the media-driven ideal of feminine beauty to be able to understand what makes a woman beautiful or attractive. A woman does not have to fit into the narrow category of beauty, as defined in the media, to be attractive. I've seen plenty of women who are not "gorgeous" like Heidi Klum or Tyra Banks or Anna Nicole Smith or Pam Anderson, but who are nevertheless incredibly, irresistibly attractive. The cruel part is that many of these women do not think themselves beautiful or attractive. They have an incredibly negative self-image.

The female form is infinitely variable, which is why it is my favorite subject to portry in are. I can find beauty in the simplest curve of a shoulder or in the curve of a calf muscle; in the way an imperfect nose graces a face or in the way certain eyes sparkle with reflected light. What many women regard as physical flaws are often what makes them unique and distinctly attractive. Most people don't see through artist's eyes, so they miss so much of the beauty in the world.

It is probably good that most people don't see the worls the way I see it. My perceptions are as much a curse as a blessing. I also see all of the ugly things in the world much more clearly than most. My experiences are thereby richer than those of most people, I believe. If perception is reality then my reality must be much more profound than that of other people.

QUIT TRYING TO TEAR DOWN MY WALL! YOU DAMNED MONGOLIANS! I'M NO STEREOTYPE! Gotta do a thing. Out!

Wednesday 4 January 2006

Locked down, still. Dude over in one-block did, in fact, get murdered by his cellmate, in his cell, at like 3:00 in the morning. He got beat to death. Got his cap peeled. Got caught bobbin' when he should have been weavin'. Prison is dangerous. So it goes.

It's said that the dead guy had been arguing with his cellie over the contents of a book they had both read at some point in the past. The argument escalated into a pissing contest, or, if you like, a dick-measuring contest (who is the better man?), and then further escalated into a physical altercation. It is obvious who lost that fight.

Now the "winner" of the fight will be prosecuted for murder and he will be put on The Shelf (on Death Row). He was already serving a double-LWOP (Life Without Parole X 2) for two First Degree Murders he committed on the streets, so they are definitely going to put him on Death Row for this prison murder he just did. No more breaks for him. He will likely end up in a cell next to Scott Peterson. Enjoy your last meal, dude.

Two boiled eggs, a hash-browned potato pattie, a scoop of cracked wheat hot cerial, and a half-pint of nonfat milk for breakfast. Oh boy. I can hardly contain my happiness.

Twenty-three counties in Northern California have now been declared disaster areas by the Governator. The damage estimate has now risen to $300 million. 600,000 acres have now burnt in Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico.