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By: Judge Greg Mathis
On April 29, a death row inmate in Oklahoma died of a heart attack after a botched execution. At age 23 Clayton D. Lockett was convicted of murder and had been on death row for 15 years. During his recent execution, shortly after the anesthetic drugs were administered, Mr. Lockett began to writhe in extreme pain and died shortly after. The drug mixture used to execute him was not wholly administered due to a vein failure. His death has raised serious questions about the humane nature of capital punishment and following Mr. Lockett’s death President Obama indicated that the U.S. Department of Justice would begin a review into capital punishment in America. Mr. Lockett’s death has provoked all of us into an overdue conversation on the merits of the death penalty.
For years research has indicated that there is a disturbing racial bias when deciding who gets sentenced to the death penalty. According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice - Bureau of Justice Statistics there were 3,082 death row inmates in 2011 and more than half of them were African American or Hispanic. African Americans and Hispanics only make up about 30 percent of the U.S. population, but more than half of prison inmates on death row. There is significant evidence that suggest jurists are more likely to sentence minority offenders to the death penalty than white offenders. A Michigan State University review of North Carolina’s court system found evidence that African-American’s were systematically excluded from juries determining sentences for convicts eligible for capital punishment. They found that qualified black jurors were twice more likely to be removed from juries than whites. In addition, the review found that individuals who committed crimes against whites were more likely to receive the death penalty. More than 80 percent of executions in North Carolina involved white murder victims.
I also am concerned with the number of individuals on death row who have been wrongfully accused. Since 1973, more than 130 people have been released from death row due to wrongful convictions. The most recent case occurred in 2012. A joint study led by University of Michigan Law Professor Sam R. Gross found that 4.1 percent of death row inmates during the modern era have been wrongfully executed. Famously, in 2004 Cameron Todd Willingham was executed after being accused of burning his home down and killing his three children. After his death investigators discovered there was no evidence to suggest the fire was started by arson. Mr. Willingham and several others have been wrongfully executed under our nation's existing capital punishment laws.
Following the botched execution in Oklahoma the Justice Department announced it would begin a review of executions in America. Additionally, President Obama acknowledged that there is evidence of uneven application of the death penalty as well as individuals who have been wrongly convicted on death row. Attorney General Eric Holder, an established opponent of the death penalty, will be responsible for the upcoming review on capital punishment. I welcome this upcoming inquiry and hope to see changes in current policy. The death penalty in America runs contrary to our nation’s commitment to international human rights and racial equality and it should be repealed.
By PATRICK J. BUCHANAN
In 1933, the Holodomor was playing out in Ukraine.
After the "kulaks," the independent farmers, had been liquidated in the forced collectivization of Soviet agriculture, a genocidal famine was imposed on Ukraine through seizure of her food production.
Estimates of the dead range from two to nine million souls.
Walter Duranty of the New York Times, who called reports of the famine "malignant propaganda," won a Pulitzer for his mendacity.
In November 1933, during the Holodomor, the greatest liberal of them all, FDR, invited Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinov to receive official U.S. recognition of his master Stalin's murderous regime.
On August 1, 1991, just four months before Ukraine declared its independence of Russia, George H. W. Bush warned Kiev's legislature:
"Americans will not support those who seek independence in order to replace a far-off tyranny with a local despotism. They will not aid those who promote a suicidal nationalism based upon ethnic hatred."
In short, Ukraine's independence was never part of America's agenda. From 1933 to 1991, it was never a U.S. vital interest. Bush I was against it.
When then did this issue of whose flag flies over Donetsk or Crimea become so crucial that we would arm Ukrainians to fight Russian-backed rebels and consider giving a NATO war guarantee to Kiev, potentially bringing us to war with a nuclear-armed Russia?
From FDR on, U.S. presidents have felt that America could not remain isolated from the rulers of the world's largest nation.
Ike invited Khrushchev to tour the USA after he had drowned the Hungarian Revolution in blood. After Khrushchev put missiles in Cuba, JFK was soon calling for a new detente at American University.
Within weeks of Warsaw Pact armies crushing the Prague Spring in August 1968, LBJ was seeking a summit with Premier Alexei Kosygin.
After excoriating Moscow for the downing of KAL 007 in 1983, that old Cold Warrior Ronald Reagan was fishing for a summit meeting.
The point: Every president from FDR through George H. W. Bush, even after collisions with Moscow far more serious than this clash over Ukraine, sought to re-engage the men in the Kremlin.
Whatever we thought of the Soviet dictators who blockaded Berlin, enslaved Eastern Europe, put rockets in Cuba and armed Arabs to attack Israel, Ike, JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan and Bush 1 all sought to engage Russia's rulers.
Avoidance of a catastrophic war demanded engagement.
How then can we explain the clamor of today's U.S. foreign policy elite to confront, isolate, and cripple Russia, and make of Putin a moral and political leper with whom honorable statesmen can never deal?
What has Putin done to rival the forced famine in Ukraine that starved to death millions, the slaughter of the Hungarian rebels or the Warsaw Pact's crushing of Czechoslovakia?
In Ukraine, Putin responded to a U.S.-backed coup, which ousted a democratically elected political ally of Russia, with a bloodless seizure of the pro-Russian Crimea where Moscow has berthed its Black Sea fleet since the 18th century. This is routine Big Power geopolitics.
And though Putin put an army on Ukraine's border, he did not order it to invade or occupy Luhansk or Donetsk. Does this really look like a drive to reassemble either the Russian Empire of the Romanovs or the Soviet Empire of Stalin that reached to the Elbe?
As for the downing of the Malaysian airliner, Putin did not order that. Sen. John Cornyn says U.S. intelligence has not yet provided any "smoking gun" that ties the missile-firing to Russia.
Intel intercepts seem to indicate that Ukrainian rebels thought they had hit an Antonov military transport plane.
Yet, today, the leading foreign policy voice of the Republican Party, Sen. John McCain, calls Obama's White House "cowardly" for not arming the Ukrainians to fight the Russian-backed separatists.
But suppose Putin responded to the arrival of U.S. weapons in Kiev by occupying Eastern Ukraine. What would we do then?
John Bolton has the answer: Bring Ukraine into NATO.
Translation: The U.S. and NATO should go to war with Russia, if necessary, over Luhansk, Donetsk and Crimea, though no U.S. president has ever thought Ukraine itself was worth a war with Russia.
What motivates Putin seems simple and understandable. He wants the respect due a world power. He sees himself as protector of the Russians left behind in his "near abroad." He relishes playing Big Power politics. History is full of such men.
He allows U.S. overflights to Afghanistan, cooperates in the P5+1 on Iran, helped us rid Syria of chemical weapons, launches our astronauts into orbit, collaborates in the war on terror and disagrees on Crimea and Syria.
But what motivates those on our side who seek every opportunity to restart the Cold War?
Is it not a desperate desire to appear once again Churchillian, once again heroic, once again relevant, as they saw themselves in the Cold War that ended so long ago?
Who is the real problem here?
Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of the new book "The Greatest Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose From Defeat to Create the New Majority." To find out more about Patrick Buchanan and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Web page at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2014 CREATORS.COM
By Tammy Derouin
I’ve heard the argument that we either have a president who is completely out of touch with reality, or he is so inept that it’s impossible for him to make a good decision. I contend that it’s neither. He told us many times over, that it was his intention to fundamentally transform America. Most didn’t believe he actually meant to strip this nation of its freedom, independence, self-reliance and God given rights.
There are many in government who have studied and learned from the radicals who came before them. They know exactly what they are doing. Every action or seemingly inaction is a calculated move. It’s their desire to destroy the American way of life. They are waiting for the opportunity, the final self-inflicted wound which will end life as we know it.
The president is allowing the United States to be invaded. He created this crisis by not securing the border and by allowing misinformation to travel south. He’s done nothing to correct it; yet another calculated move. The president is taking a page out of the Cloward and Piven play book. They believed overwhelming the system would eventually cause it to collapse.
Government assistance has gone up drastically since Obama became president. Apparently, system failure isn’t happening fast enough so a crisis was created. We know, thanks to Rahm Emanuel, that you never waste a good crisis. It gives opportunities that weren’t previously available. Our borders are flooded with illegal aliens. Instead of our government putting an end to this activity, they encourage it. Benefits, which many Americans and certainly many veterans can’t even get, are being handed out to those who enter our country illegally. Many illegals are being transported throughout the country. If that isn’t insane enough, some buses stop at Walmart so illegals can make purchases with government issued EBT cards.
The illegals now seek capture, and why not? They are given food, shelter, clothing, medical care and transportation to new locations inside the U.S.A! They are given a court date but it’s assumed they won’t show up. Some are even put on planes, no ID required. All that TSA harassment and humiliation was designed for legal American citizens.
Mexico’s illegal immigration laws are much tougher than the U.S. They too have issues with illegal immigration from the south. The Mexican president met with the Guatemalan president and together they came up with a rather ingenious way to resolve this issue. Their solution was revealed during a recent press conference to “officially announce an agreement to make it easier for those making the illegal journey to the United States from Central America, to cross into Mexico.” Isn’t this wonderful! Mexico will be issuing “Regional Visitor Cards” to help those who would otherwise be crossing through Mexico illegally, now legal. But only for 72 hours, just long enough to cross into the United States illegally. I wonder why this wasn’t mentioned in the main stream media. A deliberate invasion is occurring and our president does nothing. Well, he campaigns, deliberately avoids the border and the chaos he created, blocks efforts of the southern states to defend themselves and ignores the fact that U.S. Marine reservist, Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi is still in a Mexican jail. I guess he is doing something.
Our president has weakened our military and has refused to protect our borders. Border patrol agents should be securing our border, not wiping noses and changing diapers; another calculated move. This administration hampers any effort to enforce immigration laws.
Americans are compassionate. Even though the president has allowed yet another disaster to take place, many Americans will do the right thing. Temporary aid has been given to many who have made this journey. This by no means, is condoning the despicable actions of our president. The illegals must be sent back home. He created this humanitarian crisis. He could end it at any time but it wouldn’t benefit his agenda.
Once again the smoke and mirrors are center stage. With so much attention focused on the children, who else is crossing our borders undetected? Many Middle Eastern items, including bi-lingual dictionaries have been found.
There is a conspiracy to destroy the United States. The United States is under attack. We’ve ignored too many signs. Our president and his administration are taking advantage of yet another manufactured crisis. If we as a nation have any hope of surviving, we must peacefully stand together to reclaim our country.
The American people elected many individuals who are proving just how harmful they can be to American way of life. To rise up violently would create the ultimate crisis. We must follow the law, even when others ignore it. We can reclaim our country, but it will take time. Vote out of office those who wish to destroy the United States.
“When did we forget that a nation owes its first allegiance to her own citizens?”
Senator Jeff Sessions