2007.10.30
Discuss Tuesday's editorials
Easy fees instead of hard decisions
Abusive driver fees are the type of leadership voters can continue to expect from a Republican majority.
Candidates hope voters remain hopping mad over abusive driver fees and will vote against those who enacted them. Trouble is both Democrats and Republicans blame the other. Who's really to blame? The people who think it's good public policy to pay for roads this way, that's who.
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Review state death penalty systems
Halt executions until their weaknesses are addressed -- or abolish the inhumane practice forever.
An American Bar Association report citing problems in state death penalty systems has been unjustly criticized as reflecting an anti-death penalty agenda. The lawyers' organization, which has not taken a position on the death penalty, raised concerns about systemic failures serious enough to warrant a nationwide halt on executions, at least temporarily.
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"The lawyers organization, WHICH HASN'T TAKEN A POSITION ON THE DEATH PENALTY, raised concerns about systemic failures..."
The ABA is raising this issue through a group called THE DEATH PENALTY MORATORIUM IMPLEMENTATION PROJECT... this group was launched by the ABA in Sept. 2001 as THE NEXT STEP to a nationwide moratorium on executions. The PROJECT was created to encourage other bar associations to press for moratoriums in their jurisdictions.
no position on the death penalty?? i think they have!
Comment by BUD — October 30, 2007 @ 1:35 pm
Bud,
They have called for a moratorium until the issues they have identified can be addressed, but they have not called for a permanent repeal of the death penalty.
Dan
Comment by Dan Radmacher — October 30, 2007 @ 1:55 pm
Dan,
this group has been in existence for 6 years with the goal of a nationwide moratorium. That's a distinction without difference. If you have a moratorium or a repeal, how many executions are carried out? I imagine a repeal would involve some sort of constitutional amendment or state by state review (judicial or at the ballot box) which would be extremely time consuming and more than likely ineffective.
Comment by BUD — October 30, 2007 @ 4:00 pm
I'll have to give it to the Times. By calling for the repeal of the death penalty they have, for once, openly revealed their agenda on a given topic.
But I'm not sure calling the death penalty ineffective is accurate. Are the people sentenced to die not actually (eventually) ending up dead?
Comment by C Ramsey — October 30, 2007 @ 11:19 pm
Exactly C. Ramsey, they view the death penalty as a deterrent instead of a solution.
I can
Comment by terry — October 31, 2007 @ 9:10 am