Some bits of bittersweet

Allen Ray Andrade, murderer of Angie Zapata, was just charged at his preliminary hearing with first-degree murder after deliberation, bias-motivated crime, felony motor vehicle theft and felony identity theft in her death. The case will go back to court on November 16th. Helen has a lot more info, and links to her previous writings on Angie's murder and murderer. I hope he gets life in prison with no chance of parole ever.

Police finally confirm that there was no violence on the part of the trans* folks at London Pride.


A federal court found that the Library of Congress refusing to hire Diane Schroer because she was transitioning is a clear-cut case of discrimination based on sex. This sets an amazing precedent and hopefully the court of appeals will agree with this amazing ruling.
I really like this part:

Imagine that an employee is fired because she converts from Christianity to Judaism. Imagine too that her employer testifies that he harbors no bias toward either Christians or Jews but only "converts." That would be a clear case of discrimination "because of religion." No court would take seriously the notion that "converts" are not covered by the statute. Discrimination "because of religion" easily encompasses discrimination because of a change of religion. But in cases where the plaintiff has changed her sex, and faces discrimination because of the decision to stop presenting as a man and to start appearing as a woman, courts have traditionally carved such persons out of the statute by concluding that "transsexuality" is
unprotected by Title VII. In other words, courts have allowed their focus on the label "transsexual" to blind them to the statutory language itself.

This isn't bittersweet, its just wrong:

Troy Davis was denied clemency last week by the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole and is scheduled to be executed on September 23, next Tuesday, despite the tremendous amount of doubt that surrounds his conviction. Besides the Board of Pardons and Parole, the only entity that can stop the execution is the US Supreme Court. However, Amnesty International sent out an action alert today that states that the Board of Pardons and Parole can still reconsider its decision
...
Amnesty International is asking that people send emails and letters to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole urging that they reconsider their decision in the face of the considerable doubt cast upon Troy Davis’ guilt. Please take a few moments to do this; this may be one of the last chances that Troy Davis has to escape being murdered unjustly by the state.