More Lovely Reasons to Defeat Candle Wax Al

Though I'm not listed at Kos (which I don't mind, it gives me a chance for bitter sounding mockery -- oops, was I not supposed to tell you that?)* we too at Rising Hegemon are opposed to the approval of Al Gonzales (and Rice too naturally).

Via fellow SCTV fan (and who amongst you old enough to remember it wouldn't be?) James Wolcott comes this link to Nat Hentoff of the Village Voice on why the "Marquis de Sad" (damn that's almost witty) should not be confirmed:

I expect that many Americans have forgotten that during his tenure, Governor Bush was the chief executioner in the United States. As Alan Berlow wrote: "During Bush's six years as governor 150 men and two women were executed in Texas—a record unmatched by any other governor in modern American history. Each time a person was sentenced to death, Bush received from his legal counsel a document summarizing the facts of the case, usually on the morning of the day scheduled for the execution, and was then briefed on those presumed facts by his counsel.

"Based on this information, Bush allowed the execution to proceed in all cases but one." Berlow says the first 57 of these summaries were written by Gonzales and were Bush's primary sources of information in deciding whether someone would live or die. "Each is only three to seven pages long. . . . Although the summaries rarely make a recommendation for or against execution, many have a clear prosecutorial bias, and all seem to assume that if an appeals court rejected one or another of the defendant's claims, there is no conceivable rationale for the governor to revisit that claim."

...

One of the cases in the article was that of "Terry Washington, a mentally retarded thirty-three-year-old man with the communication skills of a seven-year-old." In his three-page report on Terry Washington, Gonzales never mentioned that Washington, as a child, along with his 10 siblings, was "regularly beaten with whips, water hoses, extension cords, wire hangers, and fan belts." And this was "never made known to the jury, although both the district attorney and Washington's trial lawyer knew of this potentially mitigating evidence." Just hours after Gonzales's brief report to Bush, Washington was executed.

In the July 20, 2003, Washington Post, Peter Carlson wrote, "It's hard not to conclude that both Gonzales and Bush were rather callous, even cavalier, about the most profound decision any government official can make—the decision to kill another human being." And now Gonzales will be our chief law enforcement officer.

So now in addition to things like salivating for the chance to go to war with Iraq so we could "kick ass and show Daddy" and considering the Geneva Convention "quaint" we have MORE evidence of Bush & Gonzales being callous or cavalier.

Not just, as Champollion says, fuckers, but sociopaths.

I'm really delighted that Bush supporters really think supporting their "Cult of Personality" representative Dear Leader, is more important than things like competency or, well, let's face it, basic decent levels of humanity.

Congrats "the Corner"; huzzah Ernest T. Bass, ESQ; bully for you Hugh Hewitt; have another blue pill Rush; enjoy your retirement Safire; crank out another piece of shite David Brooks, you've managed to pull it off, the Bush Reich! Congratufuckinglations.

And while you are now all aghast Andrew Sullivan, thanks for enabling Chimpy Magic Pants to the point where he and his other enablers can bring this about. If nothing else you're the guy on the old Twilight Zone episode that figured out what "To Serve Mankind" finally means to no avail. Hope you enjoy your new, belated knowledge.



*Just so you know, bitter self-mockery is the mother's milk of snark, try not to think I'm too pissed about such stuff, it gives me material (maybe it's funny maybe its not but I like it) Now, forget I ever typed this.