Iraq's al-Maliki presses reconciliation
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's army has "opened its doors" to all former members of Saddam Hussein's army, the prime minister said Saturday at a national reconciliation conference boycotted by one of his main Shiite allies, a major Sunni group and Iraq's exiled opposition.
- Don't you see? Peace will never happen. One guy tries to be nice, so his best friends boycott him.
Searches revive debate: Who pays?
Deputy Gerry Tiffany, spokesman for the Hood River County sheriff's office, said its office does not charge for its searches. The same is true for where Kim was lost, Josephine County Undersheriff Brian Anderson said.
The no-pay policy is the norm nationwide.
The Coast Guard and other federal agencies don't make rescued persons responsible for expenses. In 2000, troubled by frequent rescues on 20,320-foot Mount McKinley, the National Park Service considered recovering search costs from Denali National Park climbers.
Mountaineering groups protested and in a compromise climbers now pay a $200 fee to help fund the Alaskan park's mountaineering program, which includes safety briefings before climbs.
Colorado, Utah and Oregon have state laws that allow their agencies to charge victims for rescues. Servis says he expects the issue of cost recovery to be examined soon by other states.
"It's a cyclical issue that comes up periodically, and it tends to come up with high-profile cases like this one on Mount Hood," he says. "It's usually attached to people doing extreme sports — rock climbing, winter mountaineering, skiing out of bounds, things above the norm. The question arises: Should these people pay for the cost of search and rescue?"
Oregon passed its law in 1995 amid a public outcry over three college students who cost taxpayers $10,000 for a search on Mount Hood. The climbers turned up safe, warm and playing cards in their tent. They hadn't carried a cellphone or a radio locator beacon.
Some officials involved in searches say it's bad public policy to ask victims to pay for rescues. Washington state doesn't have such a law, "and we don't want one," says Sgt. John Urquhart of the King County, Wash., sheriff's office. "We're afraid that people would not call us to rescue them soon enough because they'd fear getting a bill."
Sheriffs in Oregon enforce the cost-recovery law only "when people do really dumb things," Tiffany says.
An Idaho law allows ski resorts to charge up to $4,000 for saving out-of-bounds skiers. Ski areas in most states lack legal authority to charge for searches, Servis says.
Leniency goes out the window in many places when people make hoax reports of emergencies. The Coast Guard seeks reimbursement for all-out searches triggered by false reports. In 2005, Jennifer Wilbanks, the "runaway bride" who disappeared four days before her scheduled wedding and phoned her fiancé with a phony tale of being abducted, was ordered by a judge to pay $15,800 to Georgia city and county officials who had searched for her.
- Simple: Charge the people doing 'really dumb things.' Charge the out-of-bounders. Double-charge the hoaxists (hoaxers?) and prosecute them to the same extent allowed for people who prank-call 911. Don't charge the 'innocent' lost climbers (the hoaxers will pay for them). See? Simple.
Lethal injection halted in Calif.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Botched executions in California and Florida that required more than 30 minutes to kill condemned prisoners prompted a moratorium of the lethal injection procedure in both states on Friday.
Death penalty opponents have for years argued that lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment barred by the U.S. Constitution, but only such recent instances have given legal and political traction to their arguments.
"When properly administered, lethal injection results in a death that is far kinder than that suffered by the victims of capital crimes," said Fogel, who earlier this year visited the death chamber at San Quentin State Prison north of San Francisco.
- 30 minutes? And...?
Do you really feel sorry for Angel Diaz when he’s sitting there in a glass cubicle for an extra 30 minutes because the IV wasn’t in his vein? Did he feel sorry for shooting Joseph Nagy just because Mr. Nagy was trying to defend his bar from three armed robbers? A botched robbery turns into a botched execution. What goes around comes around, eh?
Or how about poor, poor Tookie? They didn’t set up a backup IV for him. Very cruel and inhumane, no? Almost as cruel and inhumane as shoving a sawed-off 12-gauge in someone’s back, telling them to ‘shut up and keep walking,’ then making them lie face-down in a back room, and shooting them twice in the back just because ‘he was white.’ Very humane treatment, eh? Or how about shooting some ‘Buddha-heads’ in the chest, stomach, back, and face from point-blank range? Is that a little more humane?
I’m sorry, but no matter how much they claim innocence and reform, poor Angel and Tookie lost their opportunity for a quick, painless, and natural death when they pulled the triggers on their botched robberies. A botched robbery for a botched execution. An eye for an eye. Sounds fair to me.
It's all about the Golden Rule, man! Remember that? That's been the foundation of quite a few religions and philosophies for quite a while. And for good reason. If you want to kill someone, expect to be killed. If you want to make some terror-stricken person walk to his death and lay face-down to be shot in the back, then expect to be stricken with terror for a few moments as they're trying to find out exactly what they're pumping into you and if it's in exactly the right place. Seems fair to me. Once again, you lost your chance to complain when you did what you did. Simple.
Forget botched needles. Go back to botching the electric chair. If they’re going to be accused of cruel and unusual punishment, they might as well get their money’s worth. Go for the fireworks. Go for the flame-thrower. Go for Old Sparky!
This was supposed to be a one-liner. Whoops.
