Death Penalty?

There are many legal and social justice reasons to stand against capital punishment. The death penalty is biased against the poor, as they cannot afford adequate legal representation. Also, death penalty cases have been shown time and time again to be extremely racially disproportionate.
We know the Old Testament clearly supports capital punishment, but read what Jesus had to say in Matthew 5: 38 regarding the “eye for an eye” law, value and mentality. Jesus changed the values and the old way of doing things.
As Christians, we know each and every life is sacred; each person, regardless of their actions, is valued and loved by God. Under the New Testament, Christ commanded us to have love for our enemies – the “worst” of society (Matthew 5: 43-47). He said this is how the world would know we are Christians – this identifies us. This is the kind of radical Savior we serve. A Savior who loves and wants us to love even those who are on death row. We stand against giving our courts the right to condemn another person to death – if you are pro-life, then you will stand with us against capital punishment.
Scriptures reflecting the values:
Matt 5:38-39
“You have heard that it was said, ‘eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ but i tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
1 Thessalonians 5:14-15 (New American Standard Bible)
“We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone. See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people.”
Job 33:4
“The spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the almighty gives me life.”

UN: Texas execution broke international law

July 8, 2011 By ChristianDems Leave a Comment

That the UN has to step in because the U.S. is in violation of human right’s laws is so shameful. The TX outlaw mentality went much too far this time – this will negatively affect our relationship with Mexico and how we are viewed around the entire world. See our statement on the Death Penalty under Issues>Pro-Life>Death Penalty.

Top official: Case ‘raises particular legal concerns,’ including whether Mexican citizen had access to consul, fair trial

From MSNBC — A top United Nations’ rights official said the United States was in breach of international law over the execution of a 38-year-old Mexican citizen in Texas.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Friday the Texas execution of Humberto Garcia Leal “raises particular legal concerns,” including whether he had access to consular services and a fair trial.

Pillay also cited a 2004 International Court of Justice ruling saying the U.S. must review and reconsider the cases of 51 Mexican nationals sentenced to death, including Leal’s — but, she said, that never happened.

Texas executed Leal Thursday over objections from President Barack Obama’s administration that the action would violate international treaty obligations and put U.S. citizens abroad at risk.

Leal was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m., 10 minutes after the lethal drugs began flowing into his arms at a prison in Huntsville, Texas.

Leal was sentenced to death for the 1994 murder of 16-year-old Adria Sauceda, whose brutalized nude body was found hours after he left a San Antonio street party with her. She was bludgeoned with a piece of 30- to 40-pound chunk of asphalt.

In a last statement, Leal apologized to the victim’s family and asked for their forgiveness.

‘Irreparable breach’The Obama administration warned that executing Leal would violate the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and leave U.S. citizens traveling abroad at higher risk of arrest without cause or denial of diplomatic representation.

Leal’s lawyers said Texas authorities did not inform him of his right to consult with Mexican consular authorities and violated the Vienna Convention, which guarantees foreign detainees the right to consult with representatives of their governments when they are arrested.

In legal briefs filed before the Supreme Court, the U.S. government had warned that the execution would create an “irreparable breach” of international law, and Mexico’s government said it would “seriously jeopardize” cross-border cooperation on joint ventures and extraditions.

Mexico strongly condemned the execution, lodged an official protest with the U.S. State Department and sent letters to Texas Governor Rick Perry “underscoring the importance of fulfilling the international obligations,” according to a press release from the Mexican Foreign Ministry.

Obama To Congress: You Have 36 Hours…Before Our Next Meeting

Brian Beutler | July 14, 2011, 6:50PM

President Obama told Congressional leaders to reach a final agreement on a path to raise the debt limit in the next 24-36 hours or...he'll call another meeting at the White House.

A Republican aide described today's nearly two hour gathering as "composed and polite" -- probably because, according to a Democratic aide, unlike on Wednesday evening Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) didn't pipe up once.

Democrats and Republicans will now brief their caucuses on potential spending cuts and figure out whether the cuts they've identified are workable, or whether they have to resort to Mitch McConnell's Plan Z. According to a Democratic official familiar with the talks, while the president "appreciates Senators Reid and McConnell trying to solve the immediate problem," in his eyes it "remains a fallback option." We'll find out more when President Obama briefs the media about progress tomorrow.

A salute to a leader

By Chris Matthews

  -  

Wed Jul 13, 2011 8:00 PM EDT

Let me finish tonight with a salute to a leader.

It took someone to break this crazed stranglehold on America's economy, someone to say that it's time to release the hostage, time to move on.

Sen. Mitch McConnell came out yesterday and did it. He offered up a basic proposal: separate the fight we are having in this country over spending and taxation, a fight that will be settled in next year's election, from the fight over whether we allow the debt ceiling to rise, a basic requirement of sound accounting.

When I worked in politics, I learned that political leaders in the Congress think from a somewhat different perspective than journalists. Journalists think of the day's story.  It's what the word means.  What do you write about that's happening today? Political leaders think on two horizons - one is next week, the other is the next election. 

Sen. McConnell is thinking about what could happen if Congress doesn't deal with the debt ceiling by the end of next week, what that failure will mean to the next election. No matter what the protesters say, this is right and it is true. Failure to act on the debt ceiling will create a horror for our country, a horror we've never seen before. 

Suddenly one day we will find ourselves like Greece or Ireland or Portugal, one of those countries at the "periphery" of the strong economies - Germany, China, India. 

Suddenly we will be one of those countries that the strong world looks at with disdain, looks down on really. We will have become objects of pity - pity not for what was done to us - like 9/11 - but for the pathetic sight of what we've done to ourselves.

So put me down with Sen. McConnell and Sen. Reid and the people President Obama trusts here, those who care most about the country, then about their parties, then about themselves. 

I "hope" that's the order in which leaders make decisions. I "hope" that's the way the people we've trusted to run our country approach their days, especially days like now, days of reckoning. 

Web Extra: Countdown Contributor Mark Ruffalo on Fracking

Opponents of hydraulic "fracking" say it pollutes water and causes illness. Actor, activist (and newly-mintedCountdown contributor) Mark Ruffalo joins Keith to discuss the lucrative practice that potentially threatens supplies of drinking water, and why so many have their heads in the sand.

"This is an industry that is the dirtiest, slimiest, most arrogant, and negligent that you can imagine," Ruffalo says.

Ruffalo also talks about rumors of blacklisting actors who speak out on political matters, and ponders why he was singled out by CNN to comment on it. 

"You can do what's right or you can put your head in the sand," Ruffalo tells Keith, shortly before Keith bestows the ultimate Countdown honor -- welcoming Ruffalo into the ranks of official on-air contributors.

Markos Moulitsas on the Debt Ceiling Drama

Keith Olbermann

July 13, 2011 at 4:44 pm

Keith and Markos Moulitsas, Daily Kos Founder and Countdown Contributor, discuss how Republicans refuse to get serious about the debt ceiling, and the price we may all pay for it.

via Keith Olbermann

Poll: 59 percent disapprove of Walker's performance

Written by

Carrie Antlfinger

12:00 AM, Jul. 14, 2011

MILWAUKEE -- A majority of Wisconsin residents disapprove of Republican Gov. Scott Walker's performance and are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the state, according to a new poll released Wednesday.

The University of Wisconsin Survey Center's Badger Poll found that 59 percent of residents disapprove of the performance of Walker, who took office in January and wasted no time pushing divisive legislation through the Republican-controlled Legislature, including a law that stripped most public employees of their collective bargaining powers.

The poll found that legislative Democrats, among them 13 state senators who fled the state to try to block a vote on the union rights law, aren't doing much better, with 48 percent of respondents disapproving of their job performance.

Walker, who previously served eight years as
the Milwaukee County executive, said he was not concerned by the findings.

"If I governed based on polls, I would have never been the county executive," Walker said. "There's not a pollster alive in 2002 who would have told you I could even come close to being elected. I was elected three times because I think in times of crisis, what people want more than anything is leadership. ... We're going to continue to show leadership."

The pollster noted that the likely reason for Walker's disapproval rate is that 55 percent of respondents said they opposed his two-year budget plan, which made deep cuts to public education to deal with a $3 billion budget shortfall.

Democratic Party of Wisconsin chairman Mike Tate said the results show the state is very partisan and that people are unhappy with Republicans.

"There are a lot of voters who gave Republicans a chance last November and we are seeing a pretty serious case of buyer's remorse," he said.

The poll found that 55 percent of respondents were dissatisfied with the way things are going in Wisconsin, the highest percentage since the university started asking the question in 2006.

This, like many of the results, was split down party lines, said Katherine Cramer Walsh, a political science professor at UW-Madison who helped with the poll. Sixty-three percent of Republicans were satisfied, compared with 21 percent of Democrats.

Nine state senators -- six Republicans and three Democrats, are facing recall elections next month -- the fallout from the bitter fight over Walker's collective bargaining law, which eventually survived a court challenge and took effect. The Democrats would need a net gain of three seats to give them control of the Senate and check on Republican power.

Walker said he believes a majority of people said they were unhappy with the direction of the state because of anger over the recall election campaigns and frustration with the national economy.

"I think a lot more people will be happy come Aug. 10 when most of these recalls are done because in general people are tired of these endless campaigns," Walker said.

However, the poll found that 78 percent of respondents believe having the recall option is a good thing, and half of the respondents said the current recall efforts made them feel better about Wisconsin politics.

The poll also found that:

--Nearly two-thirds of respondents felt that state government is run for the benefit of big interests, rather than the benefit of the people, and that state government can only be trusted to do the right thing some of the time.

--Fifty-six percent of respondents disapproved of the performance of the Republicans in state Legislature.

--Four out of five respondents said Wisconsin is in "bad times," economically. Fifty percent of respondents expected that the state's economic conditions would remain about the same over the next 12 months, and 20 percent expected they would worsen.

Walsh said she was a little surprised that so many people supported the recall option in the state constitution. But that was about the only surprise, she said.

"It's been pretty clear that Wisconsinites are a bit dismayed with the state of things, both the economy and politics, and that comes across pretty clear in these results," she said.

The random telephone poll of 556 people conducted between June 17 and July 10 has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.

Dayton, GOP leaders have reached a deal to end government shutdown

Updated: July 14, 2011 - 5:25 PM

GMD 7.14.11 Letter to Speaker and Majority Leader

Updated at 5:15 p.m.

By Rachel E. Stassen-Berger, Mike Kaszuba, Eric Roper and Baird Helgeson

DFL Gov. Mark Dayton and GOP legislative leaders announced Thursday evening they have reached a budget deal to end a two week government shutdown.

After a three-hour meeting with GOP leaders, Dayton said the shutdown will be done “very soon, within days.”

Dayton agreed to drop his insistence on a tax hike and accept the Republican offer to borrow money to balance the budget.

But the governor said the deal must include a $500 million bonding package for new building projects around the state, withdrawal of the divisive social issue proposals now threaded through Republican spending bills, and elimination of the GOP proposal to reduce the state workforce by 15 percent.

House Speaker Kurt Zellers, R-Maple Grove, said he will have the votes in the House to pass the agreement.

Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, R-Buffalo, agreed. “We believe the caucus will ultimately support this.”

The GOP offer had two primary components. The state would drive down the deficit $700 million byincreasing the amount of deferred school payments. It would then borrow from future tobacco settlement payments, which Dayton wrote in a letter Thursday would net $700 million.

"Despite my serious reservations about your plan, I have concluded that continuing the state government shutdown would be even more destructive for too many Minnesotans," Dayton wrote to legislative leaders. "Therefore I am willing to agree to something I do not agree with -- your proposal -- in order to spare our citizens and our state from further damage."

Dayton said if Republicans agree, commissioners and staff are prepared to meet "around the clock" to wrap up the budget. A special session could occur within three days, he wrote.

At a morning speech in Minneapolis, Dayton said he was "disappointed we can't do better."

During the speech and afterwards, the governor repeatedly said that Republicans could avoid the unpalatable tobacco bond revenue by offering up a more substantial form of revenue. Their leadership has not done so in the weeks of shutdown.

Even if House Speaker Kurt Zellers and Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch agree to the plan, they may still face hurdles wrangling the votes within their own caucus. Borrowing from tobacco bonds will likely mean the final deal is larger than the original $34.2 billion GOP budget, which some Republican members will not agree to.

Republican leaders plan to meet with Dayton at 2 p.m. Thursday to discuss the offer. For several hours after Dayton made the offer, both Zellers and Koch stayed silent.

"The clock is ticking for Republicans to accept their own offer," House Minority Leader Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis said in a news release. "By offering the Republicans their budget, Governor Dayton is rising above politics, above partisanship, and making Minnesota his top priority.  It is now up to the Republicans to end this costly and destructive government shutdown by accepting and immediately passing this offer."

Sen. Michael Jungbauer, R-East Bethel, was one of the first Republicans to react to Dayton’s proposal.

“When he [says drop] all the policy positions, if that means that we don’t get any structural change to government, I guess I’m not really excited about that,” he said. “If we don’t have any structural change, we’re going to be in this position – we’ve been in this position the nine years I’ve been here” in the Senate.

“That would be a real non-starter for me, but I don’t want to see this shutdown,” Jungbauer added. “If he’s saying drop all structural changes, I don’t like that."

“I’m excited that we’re, you know, moving in the right direction. I’ll be excited to have this thing done,” he added. “[But] is it enough to just vote green?"

Sen. Dave Thompson, R-Lakeville, indicated via Twitter that the conditions may be problematic. "Let's be clear. Governor did NOT 'accept' the June 30 offer," Thompson tweeted. "He has simply attached new conditions to the June 30 framework."

Though some DFLers privately were critical Thursday of Dayton’s move, feeling he had gone too far in placating Republicans, Rep. Alice Hausman, DFL-St. Paul, said most people did not realize the position the DFL governor had been put in. “He’s going to get understanding from me, and not criticism,” she said.

But Hausman also said she thought the offer would not go very far – because the Republicans would reject it.

“I frankly assume they’re going to turn him down flat,” she said. Dayton’s new conditions for accepting the offer, she said, “are the stumbling blocks” for Republicans.

Although the deal has Dayton accepting an offer Republicans made some weeks ago, he insisted: "I don't think I'm caving," Dayton said.

He said the state will spend $35.5 or $35.6 billion over the next two years, saving crucial programs. Republicans' initial budget has spent $34 billion.

If the deal is sealed, Dayton will have failed in his campaign promises to "buy back" the existing school education shift, raise taxes on the rich and right the state's books. Asked if he would need a Democratic House and Senate to fulfill his campaign promises, he said, "it would help."

Sen. Carla Nelson, R-Rochester, one of the influential group of first-year Senate Republicans, said she would withhold comment on Dayton’s proposal to allow the governor and the Republican leaders to negotiate.  “There’s some things that I like, and there’s some things that I don’t like,” she said.

 

“I think it’s a great thing that he put forth a proposal,” said Nelson.  “I didn’t like seeing the silence, the days of silence.”

 

She said her constituents were sending hundreds of emails Thursday in response to Dayton’s offer, with a wide range of comments. “Some are saying, let’s get this done.  Some are saying, let’s not get this done [because], you know, it depends on the cost,” said Nelson.

Rick Perry platform: Let God figure it out

THURSDAY, JUL 14, 2011 11:40 ET

"I think it's time for us to just hand it over to God," the Texas governor tells evangelicals

BY JUSTIN ELLIOTT

AP

Rick Perry

We've previously noted Texas Gov. Rick Perry's plans for The Response, a stadium prayer meeting next month, and the various extremist pastorswho have signed on to the event. Now remarks that Perry delivered to a group of evangelicals in May in preparation for The Response have been released, and they provide an interesting look at his worldview.

First flagged by the Dallas Morning News, Snopes has posted the transcript of the remarks here (I've asked Perry's office to confirm the transcript is accurate and will update if I hear back).

In the most interesting section of the remarks, Perry lists various problems facing America and, instead of offering policy prescriptions, he says he would simply hand things over to the Lord:

I tell people, that "personal property" and the ownership of that personal property is crucial to our way of life.

Our founding fathers understood that it was a very important part of the pursuit of happiness. Being able to own things that are your own is one of the things that makes America unique. But I happen to think that it's in jeopardy.

It's in jeopardy because of taxes; it's in jeopardy because of regulation; it's in jeopardy because of a legal system that’s run amok. And I think it's time for us to just hand it over to God and say, "God, You’re going to have to fix this." ...

I think it's time for us to use our wisdom and our influence and really put it in God's hands. That's what I'm going to do, and I hope you'll join me.

This rhetoric echoes Perry's letter to those attending the stadium prayer meeting, in which he wrote: "Right now, America is in crisis: we have been besieged by financial debt, terrorism, and a multitude of natural disasters. As a nation, we must come together and call upon Jesus to guide us through unprecedented struggles." Though handing over the country's political problems to God seems to go one step further than merely asking for Jesus' guidance.

Earlier this year, Perry responded to a historic drought in Texas by officially designating three days -- April 22 through April 24 -- of prayer for rain. How did that work out? The AP reported June 29: "Drought-stricken Texas declared natural disaster area."

If Perry does launch a presidential campaign, it will be interesting to see how much he sticks with this God-based policy platform ...