A Vote For Bush
...is a vote against science and modernity. From a Charlie Savage story in The Boston Globe:
''I worry about a culture that devalues life and believe, as your president, I have an important obligation to foster and encourage respect for life in America and throughout the world," Bush said Aug. 9, 2001, calling life ''a sacred gift from our creator."
He's worried? I'm terrified that the most powerful nation on the planet is being run by a guy who bases policy on his belief, based on zero evidence, that there's a god.
Luckily, he's had plenty of experience with devaluing life. Check out this bit from Common Dreams:
Bush was a governor in love with the death penalty. He executed 152 prisoners, more than any other governor in US history.One was Carla Faye Tucker, for whose death Bush became justly infamous. Tucker was convicted of murder, but in prison underwent a dramatic conversion to the kind of fundamentalist Christianity Bush claims to embrace. She became an astute observer of the prison system, and asked Bush for a meeting. He refused.
After Bush had her killed, he sadistically mocked Carla Faye Tucker on a conservative talk show. Asked what she might have said had he met with her, Bush assumed a scornful whine and imitated a woman pleading for her life. Governor Bush apparently found this as funny as his recent presidential search under a table for the Weapons of Mass Destruction that never were found in Iraq.
As governor, Bush also executed an immigrant who was denied access to representatives of his home country, as required by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The US was a party to that convention. But Bush explained that "Texas did not sign the Vienna Convention, so why should we be subject to it?"
In that spirit Bush scorned the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child by joining Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and Yemen in executing minors. More than 90 percent of the children held on Bush's death row were non-whites.
Because Bush slashed Texas mental health programs, his prisons were full of psychologically impaired victims, whom he also held eligible for execution.
Pro-life president? Where?
Amy, while some of the opinions you pull out of your ass are interesting, others are stupid. This post is in the latter category.
Texas law gives the governor virtually no role in deciding who's put to death and who isn't - all he can do on his own authority is postpone an execution one time for 14 days. So whine about the Texas death penalty all you want, but know that it's the people who sit on juries that should draw your ire, not the governor.
You claim, with zero empirical support, that Bush is anti-science. If you would take a little time and study the issue, I think you would find that his Administration is more honest with science - especially social science - than any Democratic administration in your brief lifetime. The Clinton Administration in particular practically ran a "junk science" mill funding and publishing trash research on child welfare, family incomes and finances, living standards in single-parent families, domestic violence, mental health, and the environment. The Bush Administration has played it much more down the middle on social and environmental science, and has also been the only administration to support stem-cell research with federal funds, period.
So while I know you like to fantasize, every once in a while you should consult some real data.
Richard at August 12, 2004 12:08 PM
Sorry, Richard, but this time Amy is dead on. He's against stem-cell research, for one thing, based upon his religious belief that stem cells, that are doomed to never mature beyond the non-viable strands that they are, are somehow considered human beings, with all the rights afforded to living, breathing human beings you see on the street.
And the fact that he has limited decision making in the execution of criminals does not somehow exonerate his demonstrable and shameless contempt for the life of Karla Faye Tucker. Don't get me wrong. Although I am against the death penalty, if a jury finds someone worthy of execution, then I would be loathe to make fun of someone for it.
Patrick at August 12, 2004 3:05 PM
Amy, sometimes I think you don't have your feet on the ground. Why would you want to grant any convicted butcher, contract killer, mass murderer, etc. his/her wish? Ask them what they would choose: life in prison or death, and I believe they'll all choose the life cell. Wouldn't McVey be smirking at you if you had spared him? I still remember when Richard Speck methodically killed more than twenty young women. He mocked the system that spared him. Some people should forfeit their right to exist based on the choices they make. As an athiest I'm not burdened by feely-good Judeo/Christian redemptive teachings. We'll still be OK if we eliminate the Mengeles when we find them.
Rojak at August 12, 2004 5:37 PM
Gee Patrick, if Bush is against stem-cell research, why is he the only president in the history of the USA to ever provide federal funding for it?
And his decision-making as governor of Texas in death-penalty cases wasn't "limited" it was non-fucking-existent.
That Kool-Aid you're drinking must be pretty tasty.
Richard at August 12, 2004 5:45 PM
Rojak writes: "Ask them what they would choose: life in prison or death, and I believe they'll all choose the life cell."
Rojak, you'd be very very surprised at the answer you would get from an awful lot of inmates.
Richard writes: "Gee Patrick, if Bush is against stem-cell research, why is he the only president in the history of the USA to ever provide federal funding for it?"
Yes, let's crucify James Buchanan for not funding stem-cell research. Since science has only succeeded in isolating human stem cells and growing them in a laboratory since 1998, and Federal fundiung for stem cells hasn't been requested at all until 2001, it would kind of make sense that Bush would be the first president to provide Federal Funding for it, now wouldn't it?
Also, President Bush has allowed federal funding ONLY for those stem cells ALREADY isolated in private laboratories. He is NOT allowing federal funding for FURTHER isolation of stem cells for additional research.
Source: World Book Encyclopedia.
By the way, stupid as Bush is, I think he knows his position on stem-cell research better than you: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/08/20010809-2.html
And here's the official word on Bush's position from the Department of Bioethics: http://www.bioethics.gov/reports/stemcell/
Who taught you your debating skills, oh, disingenuous one? Bull O'Lielly?
Richard writes further: "And his decision-making as governor of Texas in death-penalty cases wasn't "limited" it was non-fucking-existent."
Excuse me, but you're the one who said, "Texas law gives the governor virtually no role in deciding who's put to death and who isn't - all he can do on his own authority is postpone an execution one time for 14 days."
"Virtually no role," or "non-fucking-existant"? Which is it?
And as for the Kool-Aid I'm drinking, at least it IS just Kool-Aid. I don't know what you spike yours with. Don't get all bitchy-queeny with me because you decide to post half-truths and contradict yourself between posts.
Patrick at August 13, 2004 9:56 AM
2 quick points-
1.) Stem cell research is going to happen, so it should be done here in America where it may produce high paying jobs, highly profitable products, and possibly a miraculous drug or two. Right now South Korea and Great Britian are the stem cell research leaders of the world.
2.)When George Ryan, governor of Illinois, saw how unfairly the dealth penalty was being applied, primarially on minorities and the poor, his Christian conscience led him to a blanket commutation of every death sentence in Illinois to life without parole. This was not a left wing whacko, but a Republican with moral character and the bravery to stand tall with a politcally very unpopular decision.
I truly believe that George Bush has neither a sense of humanity, the desire to learn/understand about the system he ran (as he now runs), or a basic comprehension of the ramifications of his actions. He rules through a politically expedient set of absolute principles that he believes were granted to him through a higher source.
eric at August 13, 2004 11:56 AM
"When George Ryan, governor of Illinois, saw how unfairly the dealth penalty was being applied, primarially on minorities and the poor, his Christian conscience led him to a blanket commutation of every death sentence in Illinois to life without parole. "
The governor of Texas doesn't have this power.
Richard at August 13, 2004 1:11 PM