Thursday, September 8, 2011

Beneath contempt, item # 3,604

Again, from last nights Republican "debate":

(BRIAN) WILLIAMS: Governor Perry, a question about Texas. Your state has executed 234 death row inmates, more than any other governor in modern times. Have you...
(APPLAUSE) [Some of the most vociferous of the evening.]
Have you struggled to sleep at night with the idea that any one of those might have been innocent?

PERRY: No, sir. I've never struggled with that at all.

(The vociferous applause even got Brian Williams nonplussed -- though not the Wall Street Journal writer James Taranto  who blames it on the liberals.)

Perry goes on to list all the safeguards there are for accused murderers -- safeguards that he and his followers mostly oppose, incidentally, such as legal appeals. He is currently pondering whether to allow DNA testing that might exonerate three prisoners on Texas' death row. You would think that for such a strong supporter of safeguards this would be a no-brainer...

Perhaps Perry should have read this about a likely innocent man who was executed in Texas, and the New Yorker story on which it is based.

Just for a moment -- whatever your religious beliefs or non-beliefs -- just for a moment imagine that the Jesus Christ of the Sermon on The Mount were in the audience. Could you imagine that Jesus applauding along with this crowd of Republican Neanderthals?

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