Good thing we have an opposition party

Joeseph Lieberman, the very same Joeseph Lieberman who announced his plan to run for the Democratic presidential nomination, had this to say on Governor George Ryan's actions:

"Governor Ryan's action was shockingly wrong," Mr. Lieberman said in an interview on Friday. "It did terrible damage to the credibility of our system of justice, and particularly for the victims. It was obviously not a case-by-case review, and that's what our system is all about."

I don't even want to comment, especially since Tom already does a good job of it. But I will say that Lieberman is not the man to run for the '04 elections. If it's Bush vs Lieberman, I'm moving to Canada.

Ted Rall already wrote a great column on the subject, in which he says this:

Ryan is no bleeding-heart liberal. As a state representative in 1977, Ryan voted to bring back capital punishment. But when he became the state's chief executive, this conservative Republican decided to devote serious attention to the question of government-dealt death. (In contrast to George W. Bush. As governor of Texas, Bush allocated a mere 15 minutes to consider the fate of each inmate, on a work schedule which allotted up to two hours to playing video games. During his tenure Bush issued zero commutations.)

Ryan read studies that found that if you killed someone in rural southern Illinois rather than Chicago, you were five times more likely to fry in Old Sparky. Black murderers got sent to death row more frequently than white murderers.

And those were only the guilty ones.

And for my own part, all I can think to add to the subject is a Gandalf quote, for you all to think on.

"Many who live deserve death, but there are some that die who deserve life. Can you give it to them . . .? Do not be so quick to deal out death in judgment, for not even the very wise can see all ends."

Ah, my nerdiness shines on through.