On Principle
Well...
I don't usually comment on the news (this is not a 'political blog') but I feel compelled.
Luckily, I don't really think too much commentary is necessary. Here are three stories I heard, all in a row, on NPR News. I feel there is a theme developing...
President Bush has promised to veto a Congressional funding bill because it requires troop withdrawal by August 2008. In his comments, he expressed his outrage that the Democrats are delaying important emergency funding to the troops who need it.
There is a defendant up for the death penalty in Georgia whose trial is being delayed, for the second time (the first time was one month, this time was six), because the Georgia public defender system is running out of money. The case has so far cost them $1.4 million, and is projected to exceed $2 million.
Relatedly: the Colorado House Judiciary Committee recently voted to replaced the death penalty with life sentences, and will use the money saved (Colorado has spent an estimated $40 million in the last 30 years, and the death penalty has been sentenced thrice in that time) to try and solve the 1200 or so cold-case homicides in that state. It has been suggested that the same could be done in Georgia, but many continue to defend the death penalty.
In Colorado, due to recent measures restricting illegal immigration, there is a shortage of farm workers this season. There is a plan to offer the work to inmates in Colorado prisons, a controversial notion; an alternative, proposed by Bush and others, is a program that would bring in immigrants during the farming season and then, when the seasons ends, remove them.
So: Bush won't let the Democrats let the troops have what they need, unless he can keep them there longer. Georgia will continue trying to kill people who kill people, even if it costs Georgians a whole lot of money (which could actually be used to stop other people from continuing to kill people). And we've gotten rid of a bunch of foreigners who are the only ones willing to do the work we need done (except, of course, for the prisoners we don't want doing the work), and so maybe we'll invite those foreigners back in but then politely ask them to leave when the work gets done.
It can at least be said that many of us here in the US are sticking to our guns (an expression which, unfortunately, I use quite literally).
Okay, so maybe that's a little bit of commentary; I couldn't resist.
P.S. One of my favorites: My favorite people right now: the people who answered the question in my last post. Fewer than I expected, but clearly the best of the best.
I don't usually comment on the news (this is not a 'political blog') but I feel compelled.
Luckily, I don't really think too much commentary is necessary. Here are three stories I heard, all in a row, on NPR News. I feel there is a theme developing...
President Bush has promised to veto a Congressional funding bill because it requires troop withdrawal by August 2008. In his comments, he expressed his outrage that the Democrats are delaying important emergency funding to the troops who need it.
There is a defendant up for the death penalty in Georgia whose trial is being delayed, for the second time (the first time was one month, this time was six), because the Georgia public defender system is running out of money. The case has so far cost them $1.4 million, and is projected to exceed $2 million.
Relatedly: the Colorado House Judiciary Committee recently voted to replaced the death penalty with life sentences, and will use the money saved (Colorado has spent an estimated $40 million in the last 30 years, and the death penalty has been sentenced thrice in that time) to try and solve the 1200 or so cold-case homicides in that state. It has been suggested that the same could be done in Georgia, but many continue to defend the death penalty.
In Colorado, due to recent measures restricting illegal immigration, there is a shortage of farm workers this season. There is a plan to offer the work to inmates in Colorado prisons, a controversial notion; an alternative, proposed by Bush and others, is a program that would bring in immigrants during the farming season and then, when the seasons ends, remove them.
So: Bush won't let the Democrats let the troops have what they need, unless he can keep them there longer. Georgia will continue trying to kill people who kill people, even if it costs Georgians a whole lot of money (which could actually be used to stop other people from continuing to kill people). And we've gotten rid of a bunch of foreigners who are the only ones willing to do the work we need done (except, of course, for the prisoners we don't want doing the work), and so maybe we'll invite those foreigners back in but then politely ask them to leave when the work gets done.
It can at least be said that many of us here in the US are sticking to our guns (an expression which, unfortunately, I use quite literally).
Okay, so maybe that's a little bit of commentary; I couldn't resist.
P.S. One of my favorites: My favorite people right now: the people who answered the question in my last post. Fewer than I expected, but clearly the best of the best.
posted by lee at 4:44 PM
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