A monster has died

I still remember the morning when I first heard the news. I can still see my old white clock radio as it went off to get me up and off to school, the news radio station blaring the news about a murder in the town in which I lived, Westfield, New Jersey. It was early December, 1971, and I was a junior in high school.

At first I wasn't sure I heard correctly. That was in the days before 24 by 7 cable news. A case like this happening today and Jeremiah Wright would be gone from the airwaves. But then it was just a news report. It wasn't until I got to school and a girl I knew from the Westfield Drama Workshop grabbed my arm in the stairwell and looked at me in horror that it really hit me that what I'd heard that morning was true: Pat List was dead, along with the rest of her family -- killed by her father.

I'd been involved in the Workshop for about a year and a half at that point Pat and I hadn't been close friends, but that we were both in this theatre group gave me a certain amount of acceptability to the kind of kids that would have shunned me otherwise. Pat and I were in the same gym class that year, and she would talk to me about her boyfriend and we'd gossip about "the group." She was always nice to me in a way that pretty high school girls usually aren't to the short, overweight misfit with the sense of humor that no one really understands. You wouldn't know it from this ubiquitous family photograph, but Pat was by then a very sexy girl. I suppose her father knew this and it probably scared the shit out of him, as did her involvement in this drama workshop.

Most community theatre groups do lighthearted musicals, but not this one. This was a drama workshop led by someone who was teaching method acting to a bunch of suburban high school kids in between the kind of nonthreatening musicals that were the group's bread and butter. I had gone from being a spectator to a participant when I inherited the role of Mammy Yokum in L'il Abner from a friend whose mother (who ironically attended the same Lutheran church that the Lists did) refused to allow her to participate any longer. It wasn't exactly a method part, but I was a kid who wore her hair over her face and hid underneath a poncho every day, and I still remember the day I had to pull my hair back into a battle axe bun the first time, feeling like the French women I'd seen in a documentary on PBS having their heads shaved for collaborating with the Nazis. But the musicals were just there to pay the bills so that the group's leader, a frustrated opera singer named Edwin Illiano, whose name turned up later for accompanying the police to the gruesome discovery, could mount full-fledged productions of plays like A Streetcar Named Desire.

There was talk after the murders of Pat dabbling in the occult. I'd heard her talk about pentagrams and such a few times, and attended a Halloween party at the List home not three weeks before the murders took place; a party held in the very same ballroom where the bodies were found. I'd only been at the house once before, when we went to build scenery and their horrible pomeranian bit me. But I'd known that Mr. List was NOT happy at this bunch being in his house.

The only death I'd ever had to deal with was a grandfather with whom I wasn't close. So my first real exposure to death and funerals came with TV cameras outside the church and following us to the cemetery, a church with not one but five caskets at the front, and keening relatives. I remember that after the funeral, I took Valium for a few nights because I was terrified that if Mr. List had done this partly because Pat was involved in the drama workshop, he might come for the rest of us.

But time marches on. The drama workshop was disbanded shortly thereafter, probably due to the notoriety caused by the murders. I graduated high school, went to college, and went about my life. I've often thought about Pat over the years, and of course in my memory she is forever sixteen, strutting around a stage in a swimsuit as Stupefyin' Jones or whispering to me more information than I ever wanted about experimenting with sex with her boyfriend. I think about her swishing around the ballroom at her house in a nearly Elvira-like witch costume, mercifully unaware of how she would be laid out on a sleeping bag in that very room three weeks later. But as the years pass, those thoughts become less frequent.

I'll never forget where I was when I heard that John List had been apprehended after the case was profiled on America's Most Wanted. I was in the car, driving west on Route 4 in Teaneck. I whooped so loudly I nearly ran off the road. Finally, we were going to hear exactly why a man decided that killing his wife and children was the right thing to do.

In 2002, Connie Chung interviewed John List in one of the most chilling pieces of television I'd ever seen. He said, "It was my belief that if you kill yourself, you won't go to heaven So eventually, I got to the point where I felt that I could kill them, hopefully, they would go to heaven and then maybe I would have a chance to later confess my sins to God and get forgiveness.

"After I made the plan....It's just like D-Day, you go in, there's no stopping after you start."

In these days when we see so-called Christians attempt to justify just about anything, that this man who professed to be a devout Lutheran would find a way to make killing his wife, mother and three children, then going on the lam for eighteen years seem like a perfectly OK thing to do, no longer seems as shocking as it used to. But today, with many people in danger of losing their homes, one wonders if similar thoughts are lurking behind the placid exteriors of other fathers who find themselves out of work and unable to support the lifestyle to which their families have become accustomed.

John List got away with murder for eighteen years. He spent another seventeen years in prison, in the kind of ordered, neat and tidy world in which he probably thrived and probably felt comfortable. And now he has died -- on Good Friday no less -- in that place that was more haven than prison; gone off on the journey where he will find out if his beliefs were correct -- and if his God agrees with him that it's better to kill your children than let them play Stupefyin' Jones.

And now Pat and her brothers and mother and grandmother can finally rest.



More from Rix.

In case you're pissed off at the court ruling about airlines today....

...it could be worse. You could be Deborah Shank.

Today we've seen a taste of what the Corporate States of America are going to be like, after Hillary Clinton finishes the job of being 2008's Joe Lieberman and handing the presidency to John McCain to keep warm for her until 2012. We've already seen that there's no money for children's health care or to rebuild the Ninth ward of New Orleans, but $236 billion can be found overnight to help J.P. Morgan Chase take over Bear Stearns. And today we had another taste when a Federal court overturned New York's Passenger Bill of Rights law. This audacious law dared to claim that when passengers are held captive on grounded aircraft for more than three hours, they are entitled to things like water to drink and toilets to use. In declaring the law null and void, the court declared that only the Federal government is authorized to pass such a law. And you know how likely THAT is. After all, it might cost the airlines money, and it's the government's job to throw money at the airlines, not make them provide basic necessities to the human cattle they transport.

But even so, it could be worse. You could be Deborah Shank.

Our good friend and sometime colleague Jurassicpork explains:

In my three plus years as a political/social blogger, I’ve read and have written about some incredibly outrageous stories that had tempted me to try to alter my DNA so I could no longer be considered human even at the genetic level. Because what Wal-Mart is doing to this family, one that seems to attract tragedy like a magnet attracts iron filings, makes me ashamed to be a terrestrial human.

I’ll give you the abstracts:

Debbie Shank, former Wal-Mart employee, was hit by a semi eight years ago. To this day, she has no short term memory, is incapacitated and will live in a nursing home for the rest of her life. Her husband, just recovering from prostate cancer, has to work two jobs to pay for her medical costs.

Or, should I say her ex-husband, because he divorced her just so she could get more disability benefits.

When Debbie was almost killed by that semi, Wal-Mart’s health insurance paid the medical bills promptly. However, what they didn’t go out of their way to tell Debbie when she first signed on for that coverage was that the company (a self-insured entity, in case you’ve yet to come to that conclusion) reserves the right to recoup all the medical bill money if they receive a settlement, which in this case was $417,000.

When Wal-Mart got wind of it, they immediately sued the Shanks for that amount plus $51,739, making nearly $470,000 in all. The trust fund opened for Debbie now contains roughly $277,000, far short of the money Wal-Mart, which pulled down $90,000,000,000 (that’s ninety billion) in retail sales in their last quarter alone, is trying to squeeze out of them. In fact, Wikinvest states that Wal-Mart’s annual revenue, based on the 2008 fiscal year, would place it in the world’s top 25 nations’ GDP.

If Mr. Shank were to somehow magically pull the other $200,000 out of his ass, not only would the family be broke and unable to pay Debbie’s medical expenses, their 17 year-old son wouldn’t be able to go to college.

Oh, and a year and a half ago their 18 year-old son Jeremy was killed serving in Iraq.

So ask all those friends of yours -- you know the ones I'm talking about, we all have them -- the ones who are so troubled by the fact that Barack Obama's pastor said mean things about America that they're going to vote for John McCain this fall -- if they think Wal-Mart ought to be able to garnish money that's supposed to care for a disabled woman. And if they talk about greedy plaintiffs and trial lawyers, ask them what they would do if THEY were disabled and their employer tried to sue them for money spent on their medical care.

And meanwhile, because Hillary Clinton is showing herself to be every bit as narcissistic as George W. Bush, this clueless, babbling, senile man is very likely to be taking the reins on January 20 of next year:

And ten bucks says Ohio goes for McCain in November anyway

Because after all, the Republicans may someday let food stamp recipients in Ohio into their rich man's club:

Nearly one in 10 Ohioans now receives food stamps, the highest number in the state's history.

Caseloads have almost doubled just since 2001, with 1.1 million residents now collecting benefits, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

Low wages, unemployment and the rising cost of groceries, gasoline and other necessities are to blame for financial hardships facing many Ohio families.

Caseloads have been rising steadily in the past seven years, said Brian Harter, spokesman for the state agency which oversees the food-stamp program.

"Look at unemployment during this time," he said.

Ohio's jobless rate is 5.3 percent, up from 4.4 percent in 2001.

"The economy and loss of manufacturing jobs are at the root of what's going on. But lately (it's) the rising cost of transportation and food -- people who were barely getting by, are not getting by," said Jack Frech, director of the Athens County Department of Job and Family Services.

"It has pressed folks to the edge to have to rely on food stamps."

Advocates estimate another 500,000 Ohioans are eligible but not enrolled in the food-stamp program.

Individuals in households with incomes up to 130 percent of the federal poverty level and with assets no greater than $2,000 in most cases are eligible for food stamps. That's earnings of no more than $22,880 a year for a family of three.

Recipients receive $100 a month. The federal government pays for the benefits while the state covers administrative costs.

But as the price of milk, fruits and other groceries climb, advocates say, recipients can buy less and less with that $100.

"Food stamps provide only about $1 per person, per meal. Who in the world is buying groceries with that?" asked Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Food Bank.

On average, food stamps are now providing less than two weeks of groceries.

"There's the presumption that folks have the cash to make up the rest. Well, they don't," Frech said.

Not surprisingly, food pantries and soup kitchens across the state have been reporting record demands. Like the families they serve, they, too, cannot keep pace.

This is why the media's hammering of visceral but ultimately unimportant issues like Barack Obama's former pastor saying inflammatory things is so dangerous. We've seen people in Rust Belt states like Ohio voting against their own interests for the last twenty-eight years. Those of us who eat, sleep, live and breathe politics and television news-o-tainment separate out the infinitesimal smidgen of wheat amidst the avalanche of chaff. But when voters whose sole perspective on current events is what they get from 15 minutes of cable or network news hear day after day about Barack Obama's pastor, they forget that their kids have had nothing to eat but macaroni and U.S. surplus cheese for the last month.

Or perhaps not

I can't decide whether this is funnier if it's serious or if it isn't:

The production values are getting better

I think perhaps "Obama Girl" might have more luck talking to another woman if she weren't writhing around sofas in Victoria's Secret lingerie, but this is pretty clever. Note the reference to Chris Matthews' mancrush about 3:28 in:

The unaccountable lame-duck president

We've long known that the Bush Administration is allowed to do anything it wants, and no one -- not Congress, not the press, not an American population more interested in how much Heather Mills got in her divorce from Paul McCartney -- will ever hold them to account.

But we haven't before seen a major press outlet come out and admit that they are just not going to pay attention to anything this president does because of his lame duck status.

Earlier this month, George Bush, in a video conference with military and civilian personnel in Afghanistan, said:

"I must say, I'm a little envious. If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed. It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks."

And the press ignored the fact that the commander-in-chief of the U.S. armed forces doesn't seem aware that war isn't a video game.

That's no surprise; we're used to the press refusing to report on anything that might reveal what a sociopath we've had occupying the White House for the past seven years. What IS a surprise is the admission by the New York Times that just as George Bush lost interest in Osama Bin Laden just six months after the September 11 attacks, saying "I truly am not that concerned about him":

...so has the New York Times decided that even though George Bush is eminently capable of dropping nuclear bombs on Iran in a final blaze of glory before leaving office, the paper is truly not that concerned about anything George W. Bush says or does:

I would argue that that this is not news. You may see this as absurd, hypocritical fantasy, and as such, if he were a new president about whom we knew little, with many years ahead of him, his words would be worth noting. But this is a lame-duck president with less than a year left in office, who I would guess has said many things that you object to equally (if not more). His statements in that conference are of no particular significance, they reflect no new policy.

The media are generally not paying a lot of attention to Bush, focusing instead on the people who are competing to succeed him.

After the last seven years, you'd think the press would be all to well aware of the kind of havoc this man can wreak while our attention is elsewhere.

How a Republican Dirty Trickster nailed Eliot Spitzer

I'm not defending Eliot Spitzer, not by a long shot. Bill Maher can talk all he wants to about how it's perfectly OK for a married guy to fuck whoever he wants to because everyone needs sex, and if a guy doesn't want to fuck his wife anymore because she's not 22, there's no reason for him to "suffer" -- it's still a really sleazy, hurtful thing to do. That Maher is a raging misogynist isn't news, but hearing him last Friday vocalize his view that women are just holes for men to put their dicks into made me wonder if having him on our side is worth it.

But all that notwithstanding, Spitzer, as another one of those holier-than-thou virtuemongers isn't at all a sympathetic figure.

Until you find out that known Republican dirty trickster Roger Stone seems to be the one who tipped off the FBI about him:

Almost four months before Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned in a sex scandal, a lawyer for Republican political operative Roger Stone sent a letter to the FBI alleging that Spitzer ''used the services of high-priced call girls'' while in Florida.

The letter, dated Nov. 19, said Miami Beach resident Stone learned the information from ''a social contact in an adult-themed club.'' It offered one potentially identifying detail: The man in question hadn't taken off his calf-length black socks ``during the sex act.''

Stone, known for shutting down the 2000 presidential election recount effort in Miami-Dade County, is a longtime Spitzer nemesis whose political experience ranges from the Nixon White House to Al Sharpton's presidential campaign. His lawyer wrote the letter containing the call-girl allegations after FBI agents had asked to speak to Stone, though he says the FBI did not specify why he was contacted.

''Mr. Stone respectfully declines to meet with you at this time,'' the letter states, before going on to offer ''certain information'' about Spitzer.

''The governor has paid literally tens of thousands of dollars for these services. It is Mr. Stone's understanding that the governor paid not with credit cards or cash but through some pre-arranged transfer,'' the letter said.

''It is also my client's understanding from the same source that Gov. Spitzer did not remove his mid-calf length black socks during the sex act. Perhaps you can use this detail to corroborate Mr. Stone's information,'' the letter said. It was signed by attorney Paul Rolf Jensen of Costa Mesa, Calif.

The letter also notes that while Stone believes the information is true, he ''cannot swear to its accuracy'' because it is second-hand.

James Margolin, a spokesman for the FBI's New York office, would not say whether the bureau had received the letter. A spokeswoman for Spitzer also had no comment.

The letter was written several months after allegations were leveled at Stone that he had left a threatening phone message at the office of Bernard Spitzer, the ex-governor's father, regarding ''phony'' campaign loans involving his son's unsuccessful 1994 bid for attorney general. Stone denied making the call but resigned as a consultant for state Senate Republicans in Albany.

So does anyone actually still believe that the IRS just "happened" to find Spitzer moving money around in a suspicious manner?

Right now the national polls are showing either Democratic candidate running neck-and-neck against John McCain. With Roger Stone still up to his old tricks from 2000, they'd better wrap this up soon and set about building a lead that not even Roger Stone can steal.