JERRY S. ON TOOKIE

Was anyone listening to Jerry Springer's show on AIR AMERICA today? He's so entertaining! He doesn't have the bitter bile of brilliant battle-axe Randi Rhodes, but he really connects with the callers so you get to hear and sometimes sort of understand what their points are, though Jerry often disproves them in a clever and friendly way. Who'd have thunk that the guy who created the insanity of "tabloid tv" would now be dispensing sense on the radio? (Even if AIR AMERICA isn't broadcast everywhere on the radio, you can hear it online at www.airamericaradio.com). On Thanksgiving day, Jerry's good old-fashioned American holiday topic was the ins and outs (or should I say on's and off's?) of transsexualism! Jerry--whose tv show once featured a totally demented theme of COUNTRY DRAG vs. CITY DRAG which culminated, naturally, in a cross-dressing basketball game?!?!?!--is now clearing up misunderstanding towards transsexuals which often lead to discrimination and violence? Amazing.

Transsexualism can be tough to understand, even for gays and drag queens. And I've often heard it expressed that "So-and-so shouldn't live in drag cuz she's too ugly", which really misses the point that it's how the transgendered feel, not look. One male-to-female post-operative (ie: dick chopped off) tranny phoned up to say she was happily married for years, and it seemed shocking to me that this person would undergo the hormones, therapy, electrolysis, surgery, etc. and still sound like Barney Rubble--no attempt to feminize the voice whatsoever! Or who knows? Maybe that was his/her feminized version and the regular version sounds like the manlier Fred Flinstone. Then the tranny shared that her wife was also transsexual and it did get very confusing. Some male-to-female trannies get the chop and then become dykes--I guess they love pussy so much that they simply had to get one of their own! But enough nookie and onto Tookie!



Today, Jerry was advocating that state executions be broadcast on tv. "If it's not to disturbing to be done then it's not too disturbing to be seen"--to paraphrase him. It's a good point. If you are advocating the death penalty, be prepared to watch it. Maybe we'd even develop a taste for it like the ancient Romans or bring back pillories in town squares. Jerry also made the point that centuries ago, we did many things which would disgust people today. There are, according to some guy on Larry King last night, only 3 other countries beside the US which still use the death penalty. And with the Bush administration making a rare pre-emptive attack like the one on Iraq and hiding military torture, it wouldn't be out of line to suggest that under Bush, we're becoming more barbaric and war-like. Don't many Texans traditionally pride themselves on their gun-totin', "Don't mess with Texas" belligerent, cowboy mentality? Kinda reminds ya of Bush's "You're either for us or against us" brand of "diplomacy" which has made the whole world despise us.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not very familiar with the facts on the Tookie case. It kind of exploded in my face 2 days ago and I missed the movie. But some very interesting notions came out last night on Larry King.


Schwarzenneger claimed he could not pardon Tookie because he espressed no remorse.

But Tookie has maintaned his innocence--so how could he express remorse for something he didn't do?

There was never any physical evidence to convict Tookie. He was convicted on "snitch testimonies", which are apparently so unreliable that reliance on them is now being reviewed by some CA government branch.

The tweety-birdish looking red-head who wanted Tookie's death to vindicate her dead relatives refused to comment on Larry's assertion that other family members claimed she was never very close to the relatives which Tookie supposedly killed. So why would she cling to this? Her 15 minutes of fame? Racism? Delusion?

A black friend mentioned that Tookie was never given a second trial on a technicality. Is this true? Someone on Larry King mentioned that the best lawyers had duked it out for 20 years. Anyone know the score on this for someone who is too lazy to google?

The same friend said Tookie was convicted by an all-white jury and asked "Why aren't there ever any all black juries?" (I'm guessing--they are a minority so it's against the law of averages ? Or maybe there are all black juries but they're rare and so far none in famous cases?)

Another black friend claimed that "White people get pardoned" and that "blacks don't get the same kind of justice". Well, OJ, Michael Jackson, Kobe Bryant, Jayson WIlliams--the one who killed his white chauffeur for fun--and the blacks with money do. Many agree that the justice system is slanted against people of color, but then again, maybe this case is as simple as Tookie did the crime, so take the punishment.

One comment made on Larry King in defense of the death penalty was that "all human systems have errors." Trucks sometimes kill people, and doctors sometimes kill people mistakenly. Does that mean that we get rid of doctors and trucks?

And most importantly of all---Bianca Jagger's hair looked gorgeous! I'm kidding, but it was interesting to clock the varied celebs which came out in support of Tookie: sexy self-help guru/Lurch-impersonator Tony Roberts, Jamie Foxx, that guy from Mash, Bianca and Snoop Dogg. Quite a motley crew! Snoop made a ridiculous comment like (paraphrasing again) "Tookie inspired me and thousands of kids and I've inspired millions so if you multiply that, it's hundreds of millions of lives he's touched." Ugh, Snoop. Precious. Dumplin'. Your last smash DROP IT LIKE IT'S HOT name-checks the Crips gang which Tookie founded and has a verse about you threatening someone with cement shoes. I don't exactly think you make the best spokesperson for a former gang member convicted of murder. But what would bring all of these very different people together in support of Tookie if there weren't some grave injustice afoot?

Personally, I think commuting his sentence to life might make sense--they aren't asking to release him. But then again, wasn't there some suggestion that Tookie continued to engage in gang activity from "the inside"? But I'm conflicted on the death penalty in general. I don't believe in god, so I don't buy into the "we shouldn't play god" idea. Someone raised the interesting question that how can these pro-lifers advocate the death penalty?

Someone else on Larry King--I gotta hand it to him--Larry was actually "on" last night--advocated the death penalty for especially gruesome crimes like those committed by Hitler. I think I agree. I mean, if a sissy like me were to go to jail for anything, I'd be raped and probably infected with a multitude of diseases, including that fatal one. So if you're a queen who looks even half-way effeminate, going to jail for even nail polish theft can be a death sentence by lethal injection--of AIDS cum! (Maybe I'd try to ward them off or at least get them to wear a condom by tattooing a lesion on my face before I got shipped off to the slammer.) Enough about my jail-rape fantasies. I'm just trying to say that if jail didn't seem scary, it wouldn't be much of a deterrent to crime. Same with cops. I don't condone police brutality any more than I do AIDS infection through prison rape, but if the cops seem too much like cuddly sweethearts, ain't nobody gonna be scared of 'em! It's that "all human system have errors" again. Maybe the death penalty could deter people like Hitler? I doubt it. And I think there have been plenty of studies of which indicate that the death penalty DO NOT deter criminals. So I'll conclude that for now, I am pro-death penalty only for especially heinous crimes. I'm not saying that Tookie was guilty cuz I don't know all the history of his trial. But a committee is investigating whether or not George Bush deliberately falsified evidence to lead us into a war which has killed tens of thousands. On a "heinosity scale", Bush is a lot closer to Hitler than Tookie was. And will Bush ever even be tried?