Tookie is dead ... and nothing has changed

Tookie is dead ... society has not changed one bit. The radical anti-death penalty kooks' argument about the all the good he could do is moot. The pro-death penalty side's argument that somehow this will deter crime is not quite as moot, it is just plain wrong.

The anti-death penalty crowd once again demonstrated why they probably will never be successful in ever winning the day, especially in the new world. The major news media did their best to paint ol' Tookie as this second incarnation of Christ Jesus, with big biceps; and once again were handed their ass by the "alternate media" broadcasting the brutal images of Tookie's victims. This guy ended up being the poster child FOR the death penalty ... and when honest, decent folks (even run-of-the-mill liberals) were presented with ALL of the facts, the radicals were marginalized all the more. Heck, even ol' Jesse thought he could squeeze some racism points on this one, scoring yet another embarassment in the long line of failures he has had over the last 5 years or so.

I am fascinated at how dumb liberals continue to be in terms of totally overestimating their control of the information flow. How many times do they need to lose before they finally realize they no longer have absolute control of the information people have access to? Do they not realize that at least a good percentage of Americans get pissed off when they are lied to (like being told Tookie is this big, lovable teddy bear right before people see his victim, a picture of a woman with half her head blown off)? If you really want to have an impact on abolishing execution as a punishment, you need to stop rallying behind brutal, detestable scum like Tookie.

The pro-death penalty crowd at best is break even, with perhaps some points scored in victory because of how dumb the anti-execution crowd played this. The pro-death crowd scores best when the argument comes up while the crime is still fresh on the minds of the public, not 20+ years later when most folks cannot even tell you the criminal's name, let alone the victims.

My view

Despite my strong conservative views, or maybe because of them, I am opposed to the death penalty. I believe that my views are consistent ... I want "smaller" government because I generally distrust government and assume it is either corrupt or incompetent. If I think this way about government in general, why would the justice department wing be the exception? So as far as I am concerned, these should not be the ones who have the capacity to hold life/death of "We the People". Actually, the justice department has its problems, but is on one side of the issue and are probably the best of the lot. The other guys in this game are defense lawyers, judges, and ultimately politicians ... so the levels keep dropping lower and lower and lower.

No doubt there are "poster children" for the death penalty ... Tookie being a prime example. However, there are many more "poster children" within the ranks of elected officials and other government operatives which should cause anyone to reasonably question whether capital punishment should be in their hands. I am not arguing that we need a "perfect" system to be able to justly apply this punishment, just that it has to be a helluva lot more perfect than it is now.

For crying out loud, we just had the supreme court rule that it is OK for the government to throw people out of their houses so that the rich and shameless can build themselves bigger and better yacht clubs.