If Gov. Dukakis’ action of releasing Willie Horton early from jail was successfully used by opponents to hurt Dukakis’ run for President, then surely someone (Democrat or Republican) should be able to hang the murder by Texas Government of an innocent man around Perry’s neck.

Thanks for the post EW. Williams is not as astute as you. And our country is worse because of that fact.

What a sad night the debate turned out to be.

@klynn: Makes me wonder if there’s somebody off camera signaling Williams when to drop a subject.

Boxturtle (Thinks the goal was to boost Perry and dump Bachmann)

@pdaly: Osama stayed in “office” after than longer than any American president except FDR.

But I was intending to limit the question to the US political system.

Were I a USA, I would charge Perry with voluntary manslaughter for that execution.

Boxturtle (I’d be replaced at once, but I’d leave with my head held high)

EW,

We were watching a PBS Frontline special last night, The Nature of Evil and Religion. The content was challenging and brought a great deal of dialogue into our home. Our daughter-of-klynn then heard the debate response replayed as you note above.

She jumped right on how this debate moment could be added to the Frontline special. She asked many questions about eternity and how does God (for Christains) judge those in power. She asked, “If someone uses their power in multiple ways to deny an innocent person justice, is that not a systemic spiritual problem within that politician? If someone uses their power from a number of angles to kill an innocent person, does that fall into a state of unforgivable action because the first act of using political power would be forgiven but the other acts would be ‘cheap grace’? And if you then use your action of murder to further establish your political power (bragging about your execution rate) is that pretty much a full embrace of eternity in hell — if you are a Christain, which Perry claims to be? From the perspective of eternal opportunity would this not be a kind of a “had your chance and you muffed it,” spiritual moment for Perry? This is all the more reason to not listen to him or follow his lead. To cheer him is to embrace his walking further away from faith.”

“Perhaps the heat and fires in Texas are just a primer for Perry’s eternal destination,” she quipped while noting what is going on in Texas is very serious and that it would not be her choice as a leader of a state to cut fire department budgets by 75%…

I would think it would make it into some ads, although Box Turtle is correct in how the RW Wurlitzer will play the response. After all, the GOP thinks some people are worth more than others, and Willingham wasn’t one of the ones worth looking at. As for Dukakis, any tools needed to bash D’s are fair game, even if the hypocrisy must be “managed” later. FWIW, it’s why Huckabee isn’t too keen to run, he’s got a “Horton” too, with more intervention on Huck’s part to free the perp.

In the end, however, it will be lost $$$ for Texas that will cause changes, when it becomes known for hillbilly “justice” and people start canceling conventions and such. That’s why AZ is regretting SB1070 so much, as well as half-heartedly doing something about Arpaio.

OT – the supermarket rag Globe [if I remember which one correctly, it’s all a blur y’know] says Arpaio is looking into the falsified birth certificate, so it must be time to recycle the birther stuff. Too bad I recycled all my BC Generator paper.

pdaly, since Osama was assassinated,fitting nicely into the US’s due-process-free “justice” system, you have absolutely no way of knowing that he was guilty of 9/11. He was already more guilty than the Nazis who WERE accorded due process.

@BoxTurtle:

This is why you need Mike Gravel, or someone like him (is there–?) on stage with the other candidates. He’d go where moderators wouldn’t. Of course GE-NBC’s Chuck Todd disappeared him. But, oh, I still treasure his moments. Gravel calling out Hillary and Barack on their vote for (Hillary) or absence to vote on (Barack) the Iran authorization to use force bill, and Hillary laughing in response — priceless. Frost-Nixon? Gravel-Hillary.

@BoxTurtle:

To the credit of the coffee talk group, they are no happier about O’s Super Congress and the SS policy “kill jobs” they are tasked with carrying out.

I simply relayed the portion of their addressing the Perry Ponzi scheme commentary.

@klynn: Never heard of Zingermans. Went out to their web site. Started drooling. Boss came in on me and halfway through the dirty look he gives for shopping on company time he told me to mail him the URL and walked away.

Boxturtle (not sure if I’m in trouble or not, but I know what to bribe with)

@pdaly: Won’t happen because the pro-lifers in both wings of the money party love it when the state executes people.

So, EW, did you ask for a comment from Ramesh Ponnuru?

It was Bush’s creepiness over mocking the woman he was sending to her death that sealed my opinions of Bush, at a very non-political moment in my life.

Also, just wanted to say youtube did a better job of followup than Brian Williams did — after playing the embedded debate clip here, the related video that came up next was “Barry Scheck on Rick Perry Execution” — a clip from Ed Schultz show that exposes and refutes Perry and would have been wonderful for Williams to have questioned Perry with.

Have to say, though, the Scheck video came up as next this morning, but it didn’t do that for me again just now. I had to go scrolling to get the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE9IdqmpgJE&feature=related

@Bill Michtom:
“since Osama was assassinated,fitting nicely into the US’s due-process-free “justice” system, you have absolutely no way of knowing that he was guilty of 9/11.”

True. The only way we “know” of his guilt –or death for that matter– is because the Government told us so. (although wrt guilt, at least someone believable such as Richard Clarke has said as much).

IOIYAR is a curious thing. I marvel at the way Bush, Jr.’s abject failure on 9/11 was in no way a stumbling block in the subsequent grab for more power for a “Unitary Executive.” The Press and Congress belief it too, for they refused to announce ‘Bush lied us into war’ or even to shout the word ‘torture’ despite the fact that Bush put our troops in harm’s way and turned them into torturers.

@G.S. Artie: Just for the record, though I know this thread has run its course, there was another major posting the morning after (@8:47 AM PDT) Brian Williams moment of cowardice (I find it impossible to believe that he could just be “uninformed” on this subject). Daily Kos FP’er, Laura Clawson, posted Rick Perry had an innocent man executed, and should be made to answer