Sunday, November 5, 2006

Send in the Clowns

Jules Crittenden, writing in the Boston Herald:

It’s that time of the election cycle when we get ready to take one for the team. I’m talking about conservatives. Here in Taxachusetts.

Ted Kennedy, Barney Frank and Mike Dukakis. Gay marriage and Willie Horton. The strictest gun controls in the nation, and gun violence is skyrocketing. John Kerry, still reporting for duty.

We all know the jokes, we’ve heard them all before. People are always amazed to learn that conservatives live here in Massachusetts. They wonder what that can be like. It can be galling to think that, in presidential elections, your vote doesn’t count.

It is nothing more than a symbolic gesture, to let the world know, for example, that more than a third of John Kerry’s voting constituents prefered a Republican from Texas.

But to view the national stage from Massachusetts is to know the bitter truth that our state plays an important role in America’s political theater. Every two years, bluest blue Massachusetts sends in the clowns. We show America what could be and America generally sees it and acts accordingly: runs in the other direction.

From Kerry’s insulting jibes at our troops, to the efforts by Kennedy and others in our delegation to undermine a wartime presidency and give Euro-style socialism a foot-hold in the New World, Massachusetts gives America its bogeymen.

An unexpectedly interesting piece of commentary from this source — do go read the whole thing.

Rope. Tree. Saddam.

Saddam Hussein, convicted of crimes against humanity (along with two co-defendents). All three sentenced to death by hanging.

I cannot think of a single better use for a coil of rope.

There’s an automatic appeal to a nine-judge panel. The outcome of the appeal is not in doubt; they will sustain the conviction. The timing, however, is a bit up in the air. Once the panel sustains the conviction, Iraqi law says he must be executed within 30 days. This is an issue for the Kurds, who (quite understandably) would like to see Hussein convicted and sentenced for his genocidal actions against them (the Kurds). So the conventional wisdom is that the appeals panel will find a way to make their deliberations last just long enough for the next trial to finish.