Thursday, February 06, 2003

I've written about each of these issues in the last few days, but a couple of things are worth noting from the news: Issue number one According to the New York Times John Ashcroft is apparently going hogwild in his quest to advance the honorable cause of the death penalty.  There are about a dozen cases in New York and Connecticut where he's ordering prosecutors to go against their own recommendations and seek the death penalty.  The explanation for this is that Ashcroft wants to standardize the national application of the death penalty.  Great quote in the above article: "They want to set a consistent national standard for these cases," said David A. Ruhnke, who represents a defendant in the new Manhattan case, "but the standards they're using are the standards used by Texas district attorneys running for re-election." Excellent.  Standardization does seem to be an excuse for forcing the death penalty down the throats of locals--again running counter to Bushco's claims of supporting states' rights.  The US Attorney in Manhattan, defending Ashcroft, had this to say: He said decisions on death penalties were "often very close calls, so the fact that the attorney general and a U.S. attorney reach a different conclusion does not mean that one of them is out to lunch." "Very close call" is a euphemism for "utterly subjective decision based on political leanings and religiously driven piety." Issue number two Well, Secretary Powell has spoken.  I am convinced that Saddam is bad.  Oh, wait.  I was already convinced of that.  Can we get someone--anyone--in the government to talk about why they believe that A) containment of Saddam won't work B) attacking Saddam won't cause him to unleash terrorism worldwide and use his WMD on the way out C) what the plans are for the post-Saddam world D) Osama bin Laden can be set aside? Hell, I'd be happy if someone would explain to me why we can take pictures of a poison-producing terrorist camp located in a Kurdish-controlled area of Iraq that Saddam has no say in, but we can't destroy the goddamned thing. Hello?  Anyone?  Mr. Wolfowitz?  Mr. Vice-President?  Hello? 1:57:09 PM    Let's hear it. []