Magna Carta Redux

--Like, Simon C. Page

There are no morals in politics;
there is only expedience.
A scoundrel may be of use to us
just because he is a scoundrel
--Vladimir Lenin

When law becomes despotic,
morals are relaxed, and vice versa
--Honore de Balzac

When there is a lack of honor in government,
the morals of the whole people are poisoned
--Herbert Hoover

The convoluted wording of legalisms
grew up around the necessity to hide
from ourselves the violence
we intend toward each other.
Between depriving a man of one hour
from his life and depriving him of his life
there exists only a difference of degree.
You have done violence to him,
consumed his energy
--Frank Herbert
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Last month Georgia inmate Troy Davis was executed, proclaiming his innocence until the end (Troy Davis, from gurney, proclaims innocence before execution). The Atlanta-Journal Constitution (link provided) gave the most complete summary, and was first in the search rankings.

Second was Policemag.com's "Georgia Cop Killer Executed"; same story, only different.

The "We Are All Troy Davis" meme has capital punishment in the spotlight again, but no one seems to notice the odd juxtaposition of that concern against our Presidentially-mandated death sentences against U.S. citizens suspected or accused of being terrorists, such as that which recently killed Anwar al-Maliki. The death-listed people are not given a trial but are condemned by intelligence analysts acting on a presumption of guilt. This is not the American way.

Odd that a Peace Prize-winning president and supposed legal scholar does not recognize the contradiction in dropping missiles to blithely rub out people a la The Sopranos. Even the Constitution's predecessor, the Magna Carta (1215), recognized the necessity of applying the law of the land so as to avoid monarchical tyranny. Here we are, a mere 800 years later, and everything old is new again.

When did liberals become death-dealing tyrants? Obama is looking more like BushCheney's dream boy every day. If he were truly of the progressive lineage, he would remember that FDR opposed assassination and refused to sanction any personal U.S. attempts on Hitler's life during WW II. If we refused to rub out Hitler, how can we justify murdering a piss ant like al-Awlaki? Surely the gods are laughing at our pathetic and futile actions.

We are killing our own values when we kill men like al-Awlaki outright. Even if he were evil incarnate (presuming there were such a legal entity), the U.S. has no right to execute him sans legal decision. If we do, how does the U.S. differ from Henry VIII, Hitler, Stalin, Qadaffi, Saddam or Osama bin Laden?

When the good guys become killers, we are lost puppies without a tit.