[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
You all know by now that I hate the government. But no United States government would do such a thing to its people, and make us go through the horror that weâve all endured. Itâs not in the character of the country, be it rich men or poor, senators or president. Its not in them to do this to all of us.
[/quote]
Unfortunately Bush is still the same guy he always was â and we were warned.
Amnesty compares Bush to Pinochet
May 24, 2006
Amnesty International says President George Bushâs tactics in his fight against terrorists have made the United States comparable to Augusto Pinochetâs Chile and Hafez Assadâs Syria in its acceptance of torture and disregard of legal restraints.
[âŠ]
In its annual report of human rights conditions around the world, Amnesty included the US alongside China, Russia, Columbia, Uzbekistan and others as states that claim anti-terrorism to justify gross violations.
Amnesty officials, speaking in a news conferences about release of the report in London and Washington, had particularly harsh words for the Bush administration.
âItâs difficult to believe that the United States government, which was once considered an exemplar of human rights, has sacrificed its most fundamental principles by abusing prisoners as a matter of policy, by disappearing detainees into a network of prisons and by abducting and sending people for interrogation to countries that practice torture,â Cox said.
âGovernments around the world are using doublespeak and double standards to take advantage of this vacuum of moral leadership,â he said.
Looking back to the year 2000 to get a little look at Bushâs character before he was appointed President and BEFORE 9/11.
Bushâs Death Factory
Boston Globe
October 25, 2000
GEORGE W. BUSHâS dogged denial of factory defects in the death machinery of Texas invites memories of Lyndon Johnson telling us how we were defoliating the North Vietnamese into target range. In the beginning, one could charitably concede that the two men were merely bullheaded souls, filled with false pride and false missions, trying to persuade us we needed to slaughter some criminals or a whole nation into submission.
Johnsonâs stubbornness became massacres and suicide battles abroad and dead students at home. Bushâs pathological denials have exploded into a time line that makes it easy to depict him, in the political sense, as a serial killer, indiscriminately dispensing with the despised and chuckling over their bodies.
Bush, remember, has gloated about the death penalty in more than just the presidential debates. He is the same Bush who last year ridiculed death row inmate Karla Faye Tucker, whining in mock exaggeration in an interview that Tucker begged, ââPlease donât kill me.ââ Bush, who has made his Christianity part of his resume, mocked Tucker even though she said she had found Christ.
In Texas, 232 people have been executed since 1973, and more than 450 are on death row. If Texas were a nation, it would rank fifth in the world in executions. Studies, reports, and exhaustive newspaper stories have shown that Texas is so careless in executing its executions that it, like Illinois, should call a moratorium on capital punishment.
In May, The Washington Post wrote how death penalty defendants receive lawyers who are chronically inexperienced, incompetent, and indifferent to the point of sleeping at trials. No matter. Bush said, ââIâm absolutely confident that everybody that has been put to death ⊠are guilty of the crime charged, and, secondly, they had full access to our courts.ââ
In June, the Chicago Tribune found that of 131 Texas executions done under Bush, there were 40 cases of the defense presenting no evidence during sentencing, 29 uses of psychiatric practices that have been condemned by the American Psychiatric Association, and 43 where a defendant was represented by a lawyer who was later disbarred or disciplined.
[âŠ]
The Defenders Service report found rampant racial disparities. African-Americans make up 23 percent of the murder victims in Texas, but fewer than 1 percent of executions result from the murder of African-Americans. White women are only 1 percent of murder victims, but 34 percent of executions result from killings of white women. Asked if Texas should call a moratorium as Illinois has done, Bush said no. Asked why, he said, ââThe reason why is Iâm confident that every person that has been put to death under our state has been guilty of the crime charged.ââ
Such confidence in the face of the evidence borders on the deranged. Three decades ago, a president refused to change course, and it cost thousands of American lives. In two weeks, the nation may elect a president with a similar hubris. If Bush will not change course on the death penalty, there is no telling what he will not change course on if elected president.
http://www.commondreams.org/views/102500-101.htm
LOL