What is *a* Governor to do?
Consider the terrible plight of Rick Perry, Governor of Texas:
He presides over a state where support for the death penalty runs at just under 70%, judging from recent polls, and one 'Johnny Ray Conner, 32, has just (23/8) been put to death by lethal injection for the 1998 fatal shooting of a grocery store clerk.' Source
Meanwhile, the EU has a position on this, and showing its usual timeliness and competence has just published a call for halt to the execution. The EU presumes to lecture Texas thus: "The European Union is unreservedly opposed to the use of capital punishment under all circumstances and has consistently called for the universal abolition of this punishment. We believe that elimination of the death penalty is fundamental to the protection of human dignity, and to the progressive development of human rights".
So, in the light of this statement also being supported by that beacon of 'human dignity', Turkey, the Governor must find himself in a terrible quandary.
Update.
I am indebted to Mr Eugenides for digging up Rick Perry's response:
"“230 years ago, our forefathers fought a war to throw off the yoke of a European monarch and gain the freedom of self-determination. Texans long ago decided that the death penalty is a just and appropriate punishment for the most horrible crimes committed against our citizens. While we respect our friends in Europe, welcome their investment in our state and appreciate their interest in our laws, Texans are doing just fine governing Texas.”
He presides over a state where support for the death penalty runs at just under 70%, judging from recent polls, and one 'Johnny Ray Conner, 32, has just (23/8) been put to death by lethal injection for the 1998 fatal shooting of a grocery store clerk.' Source
Meanwhile, the EU has a position on this, and showing its usual timeliness and competence has just published a call for halt to the execution. The EU presumes to lecture Texas thus: "The European Union is unreservedly opposed to the use of capital punishment under all circumstances and has consistently called for the universal abolition of this punishment. We believe that elimination of the death penalty is fundamental to the protection of human dignity, and to the progressive development of human rights".
So, in the light of this statement also being supported by that beacon of 'human dignity', Turkey, the Governor must find himself in a terrible quandary.
Update.
I am indebted to Mr Eugenides for digging up Rick Perry's response:
"“230 years ago, our forefathers fought a war to throw off the yoke of a European monarch and gain the freedom of self-determination. Texans long ago decided that the death penalty is a just and appropriate punishment for the most horrible crimes committed against our citizens. While we respect our friends in Europe, welcome their investment in our state and appreciate their interest in our laws, Texans are doing just fine governing Texas.”
Labels: crime and punishment, United States
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, August 29, 2007 at 9:36 am.
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It's always refreshing to see politicians responding to their voters not trying to lecture them. What a shame we can only watch it from afar...
Does a country have to abolish the death penalty in order to join the EU? Or maybe a country would get kicked out for reintroducing it :-)
Ed - I like your thinking.
Opposed to the death penalty- but thats telling them straight
Update: Can he be nominated to be mayor of London?
And there you have it, in truth, laid out for all to see. The smirking, arrogant sense of superiority over the United States. The sly, vile loathing of the US for being successful, democratic and rich.
Well said Mr Perry and I am going to send him an email.
Good to hear that Texas got rid of another piece of human slime, by the way. Too bad they don't run London.
I have just sent Governor Perry an email of support.
Ed, given that he is the chief executive of a state that is 3 1/2 the size of Great Britain, why on earth would he want to be mayor of London? What is more, it is a state that has THE DEATH PENALTY!
I'm not wholly convinced about the death penalty, but there is something thoroughly sickening about commissars presuming to lecture an elected official, so I add my support for the Governor to Verity's.
To contact the governor of the great state of Texas: http://www2.governor.state.tx.us/contact/
I don't know whether Governor Perry is a Dem or a Republican, but he is a fine man who had a swift and robust response to euroscum democracy thieves.
For their information, the people of Texas VOTED for the death penalty. I realise the tax slaves in Eurograd do not have real votes on real issues, but they do in Texas.
Well, I'm just waiting for Iran to add its name to the statement...
Iran is a country where people get executed publicly for : voicing dissent of its Government.
Mountjoy - Waiting for Iran to add its name to what statement?
I think you may not have understood this thread.
Verity, sorry I was being cryptic and ambigious (one of my faults!).
What I meant to say is that if Turkey (a non EU member) has added its name to the 'EU statement' -which Croydonian referred to in his last paragraph - then I wouldn't be surprised if Iran adds its name to the EU statement too.
My view is that the EU should keep its nose out of the US - as the Governor rightly points out, it's what they fought the War of Independence over.
Mountjoy, thanks for the explanation, although it is what my mother would have called peely waly.
But the point of our gracious host's post was, this was the EU. You dilute it by bringing Iranians into it because they are not Europeans and they are not motivated by the same instincts. (Neither are the Turks,but they'll never get in, anyway. Why don't those people start their own EU? It worked so well in the USSR and it works so well in the EUSSR and would suit their fascist Weltanschauung.)
Ever a nitpicker where the US is concerned, I will snipe at you further by noting that Texas did not fight the (American)War of Independence. Texas was just a part of Mexico in 1776 and later fought its own war of independence.
But taking your larger point, yes, the American colonies fought the War of Independence to get away from royalty and the British and run themselves with their own laws. And I honestly believe that those New England rebels not only had a point, but formed a far better society than the one which they had left behind.
They re-ordered society on a more equal basis and then they ring-fenced it. I still think what they accomplished was astounding.
That may be one reason why the EU should not heave itself up on its hind legs to lecture its betters. Texas and the United States will still be there when the EU has, USSR-like, simply collapsed and drizzled away down the sewer of over-mighty fascist ambition.
Verity, I'm well aware of the history of Texas. I am sniping at the EU by saying they may as well include Turkey. As for the EU opposing the death penalty, EU countries murder countless unborn babies in their abortion clinics each year.
correction: they may as well include Iran as well as Turkey
Ronald Reagan once said, "I've noticed that everyone who is fighting for the right to abortion on demand has already been born."
Gov Perry of Texas is a Republican.
Don't Mess With Texas.
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