The fundys spend every day from the middle of November to Christmas Day itself howling that if you're not screaming "Merry Christmas" at the top of your lungs 18 hours a day, then you're persecuting the hegemony. Mike Huckabee, however, regularly practiced a rather vile form of religious discrimination, with utterly tragic results (not related to the discrimination end of things, but still utterly tragic), and the reaction from everyone is "meh".
I understand that in the wake of mass murder, discrimination seems minor, but this is a big deal.
As you are no doubt well aware by now, Huckabee as governor commuted more sentences than a number of other governors combined. It's not just the commutations themselves that bother me (some people deserve 100 years in prison, clearly), it's how Huckabee, in his secular position, made the decision to commute sentences. He based it primarily on religion. In fact, he jettisoned our legal system to make way for biblical principals of justice (must be New Testament or something)- but only for Christians. I find that just a bit disturbing.
In a 2007 story, the Associated Press noted that Huckabee granted 1,033 pardons and commutations in his 10 1/2 years as governor of Arkansas. The acts of clemency benefited the stepson of a staff member, murderers who worked at the governor's mansion, a rock star and inmates who received good words from their pastors.
"It seems to be true at least anecdotally that if a minister is involved, (Huckabee) seems likely to grant clemency," prosecutor Robert Herzfeld said in 2004 after successfully battling the then-governor over the release of a killer.
Also in 2007, Garrick Feldman of the Arkansas Leader raised questions about a convicted killer named Glen Green, who was granted clemency by Huckabee. "Huckabee may not have realized it," he wrote, "but every prisoner knew how to get on the governor's good side. Call it Huckabee's religion test. It's a sure ticket to freedom: Tell him you've found religion."
So, tell him that studying philosophy has shown you the error of your ways and no clemency. Tell him that you're a devout Buddhist (a rather gentle people) and you can rot. Praise Jaysus and you're on your way. "Justice" for the Christians, none for the rest. Lovely.
Religion and politics: discriminitory and dangerous.
Interesting that the soft-on-crime Left is squawking about Huckabees commutations. When criminals are sentenced to many years in prison, the left squawks about the harshness of the criminal justice system. When the number of prisoners is discussed, liberals usually say that there should not be so many citizens in prison.
ReplyDeleteWhatever is most politically expedient at a given moment, I guess!
At least you can't accuse Huckabee of being a racist, since Maurice Clemmons was black.
I have known a few convicts, and they all had made jailhouse conversions. I would not think much of the correlation statistically, between the inmates' professions of faith and Huckabees clemency toward them.