by Nick on July 29, 2008
President Bush authorized the execution of Army Private Ronald A. Grayyesterday. Gray was convicted of committing numerous rapes and murders in the 1980’s and has been in prison (Fort Leavenworth) on death row. In military cases, a death sentence must be authorized by the Commander in Chief before it is carried out. The last time this occurred was when President Eisenhower authorized an execution in 1957.
I oppose the death penalty, and I wish we could move past it as a nation. I think it’s a violation of our constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment. Further, since the punishment is so permanent, it requires that we know for certain in each case that the convicted person is actually guilty. We certainly don’t know with 100% certainty in every case.
That being said, I can’t necessarily fault the President for this. Gray committed some horrible acts, and surely deserves what’s coming to him. I think it would have been a better decision if President Bush had commuted Gray’s death sentence to life in prison instead.
by Nick on July 15, 2008
Posted By: Nick
OK, maybe not everyone. But President Bush held a press conference about the economy and Barack Obama gave a speech about Iraq to follow up on his Op-Ed from yesterday.
The President said the economy really isn’t that bad and any problems we do have are the Democrats fault. Thanks for informing us George. And then he offered up this wonderful insight:
Bush acknowledged it could take years before opening the Outer Continental Shelf to oil drilling would result in increased U.S. production. But, he said, at least it would put the nation on the right track toward reducing its reliance on imported oil.
Brilliant. What is it? 6 more months of this guy? Ugh….
Obama is still talking as I write this, but since the campaign releases advanced copies of the speech (and it’s basically just saying what his NYTimes Op-Ed said) we already know what it’s all about.
“This war distracts us from every threat that we face and so many opportunities we could seize. This war diminishes our security, our standing in the world, our military, our economy, and the resources that we need to confront the challenges of the 21st century….”
“By any measure, our single-minded and open-ended focus on Iraq is not a sound strategy for keeping America safe,” Obama will say, according to excerpts of his prepared remarks.
I’m sure the McCain campaign has an opinion on some (all?) of these issues, but who really cares, right?
