samizdat

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Texas Gov. Rick Perry has authorized more executions than any governor in the history of the United States. He said at a Republican presidential debate Wednesday that he has never worried that the state of Texas has executed an innocent man.

“I’ve never struggled with that at all. The state of Texas has a very thoughtful, a very clear process in place,” Perry said. […] “In the state of Texas, if you come into our state and you kill one of our children, you kill a police officer, you’re involved with another crime and you kill one of our citizens, you will face the ultimate justice in the state of Texas, and that is you will be executed.”

When NBC’s Brian Williams asked Perry the question about the death penalty and pointed to the 234 executions – even before Perry answered – the Republican debate crowd erupted in applause for the governor’s actions.

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“Death Penalty: Applause for Rick Perry’s ‘Ultimate Justice’ at Republican Debate”, ABC News

This is where US politics have arrived: probably the most crowd-pleasing moment of last night’s Republican debate was an enthusiastic ovation for killing people. And it’s not just the GOP: the most popular moment of Barack Obama’s presidency thus far has been his announcement of Osama Bin Laden’s assassination. Bill Clinton also bragged, during his presidential campaign, about ordering the execution of a mentally ill inmate as governor of Arkansas, flaunting his tough-on-crime support of the death penalty (and mandatory minimums). As the empire erodes and its institutions crumble and fail, you can always fall back on bloodlust and the spectacle of killing.

(via zuky)

history shows that the U.S. specializes in this sort of “spectacle of killing”

(via ziatroyano)