The Times editorial page was a good one today...
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-farrell21mar21,0,2757417.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinionsAn Indecent Administration Rolls On
Once again, Bush scorns international humanitarian standards. This time he's fighting to save capital punishment.
By Mike Farrell
Mike Farrell is president of Death Penalty Focus, which seeks to abolish capital punishment.
March 21, 2005
There's a lot of huffing and puffing about "indecency" these days in Congress. Our representatives appear determined to protect us from the filth spewed from radio and television programs today, but theirs is a narrow view of what constitutes decency. Words and images easily shut off at the press of a button are less likely to do injury than some recent indecencies that appear to have escaped the attention of our national hall monitors.
Torture is certainly more indecent than four-letter words, as is appointing a man renowned for perfidy to oversee the nation's intelligence agencies or putting an imperialist zealot in the United Nations.
The latest example of governmental indecency was the casual renunciation earlier this month of part of a decades-old international treaty intended to protect Americans when they are traveling abroad. That may not sound as bad as torture, but the motive behind the withdrawal was contemptible.
The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations is a reciprocal agreement ratified by the U.S. in the 1960s that guarantees our citizens the right to seek help from a U.S. consulate if they somehow run afoul of the law when traveling abroad. An "Optional Protocol" in the accord gives the International Court of Justice in The Hague jurisdiction over disputes in such matters.
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