Kerry says terrorists alone merit execution

Chicago Tribune ^ | March 10, 2004 | Jill Zuckman

[Land_of_Lincoln_John]

Though he always has opposed the death penalty, Sen. John Kerry said Tuesday that the Sept. 11 attacks made him realize that he would want to "blow Osama bin Laden's brains out."

Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, makes an exception for terrorists in his otherwise unflinching opposition to capital punishment. That exception, he said, was sealed by the realization that war had been declared against the United States that balmy autumn morning more than two years ago.

"That status of war led me to find it impossible to suggest I wouldn't want to blow Osama bin Laden's brains out and treat him as an enemy," he said in an interview with the Tribune while visiting the Chicago area for several campaign stops.

"I walked out of the Capitol and said, `We're at war."' said Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran. "That was my instant reaction as I looked in the air for another airplane that was heading toward us. I think you destroy the enemy."

The death penalty is a subject that Kerry's political opponents have tried to use against him over the past two decades, to little effect.

[Land_of_Lincoln_John]

Registering for the online edition of the Chicago Tribune (whose articles we can only excerpt here) is free.

[goldstategop]

I support the death penalty for all killers. It shouldn't matter if one life is taken or if its 3,000. The punishment should be the same across the board as a matter of principle.

[rabidralph]

"I walked out of the Capitol and said, `We're at war."' said Kerry

That statement ranks right up there with Chelsea's criticizing tax cuts as the twin towers burned.

[rhombus]

Kerry is just being a weasel again. He's going to run to the right now and make a lot of huffing and puffing sounds so he doesn't sound sooooo Massachusetts.

[goldstategop]

And Kerry now thinks we need a more legalistic approach to fighting terror. What happened in the past three years to change his mind about our being at war?

[dagnabbit]

The death penalty is a subject that Kerry's political opponents have tried to use against him over the past two decades, to little effect.

And which national election would those decades encompass?

[mware]

Another flip-flop by Kerry. He was against the death penalty for terrorist who killed Americans several years ago.

[goldstategop]

Kerry Weasel.

[OldFriend]

Kerry against the death penalty for criminals but FOR the death penalty for unborn babies?

[skinkinthegrass]

Another flip-flop by Kerry. He was against the death penalty for terrorist who killed Americans several years ago.

..another flop-flip by Kerry.. :)

[SolutionsOnly]

The man has no core beliefs. It's the flip-flop du jour. This is more evidence that he'll say whatever he thinks he has to in order to get elected.

[goldstategop]

Exactly. I wouldn't trust him to watch my home while I was on vacation.

[Paul_B]

Arbitrary, relativistic, and darned politically convenient.

Again, it's Just For Kerry.

[GAGOPSWEEPTOVICTORY]

I love the smell of liberal opportunism in the morining.

What exactly does Kerry actually stand for again? Which way is the wind blowing?

[The Mayor]

a decorated Vietnam veteran.

A chickenshit Vietnam Veteran

[anniegetyourgun]

Isn't this the same guy who says the prez has exaggerated the terrorism threat?

[Spotsy]

I walked out of the Capitol and said, `We're at war."' said Kerry

Hmmm, Kerry has been stumping lately ridiculing George for calling himself a "war president." Kerry went on to say that he isn't "comfortable" with the term "war" to describe our current circumstances.

Exactly, Mr. Kerry. And I wouldn't be comfortable with you as our Commander and Chief!!!

[Cboldt]

Another flip-flop by Kerry. He was against the death penalty for terrorist who killed Americans several years ago.

A bill to provide for the imposition of the death penalty for the terrorist murder of United States nationals abroad. - Roll Call Vote : Vote Date: October 26, 1989, 03:22 PM

On Passage of the Bill (S.1798) <-- Link

[GailA]

hanoi john has flipped flopped on every issue of importance, last year he was against the death penalty for terrorist who kill Americans. Now he's for it.

One thing he had been steadfast on is his stance on the death penalty. He says he supports a moratorium on the death penalty at the federal level. Which means there would soon be a national moratorium on the death penalty, because of the liberal social engineering judges and Supreme Court Justices he'd appoint.

He is OPPOSED to the death penalty for non-terrorist who would murder an American child, even a 5-year-old.

As the mother of a murdered 16 year old son, Jeremy Peter Flachbart, who was brutally murdered by a sociopath wanting to see what it felt like to kill, I am alarmed and APPALLED by this man who would be our president soft attitude toward crime, who would eliminate a form of punishment for a horrific crime.

He says HE FEELS MY PAIN.

Horse Feathers! he can't feel my pain, he hasn't had a child brutally murdered. He only was a junior prosecutor from 1976-78. He didn't loose a Loved One to homicide.

There is a hole in my heart and in my life created by the brutal murder of my beloved child.

To me he is soft on crime just as Mike Dukakis who furloughed that brutal killer Willie Horton was.

Presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Kerry was irresponsible in blindly accepting the fraudulent claim that 111 innocents have been released from death row. As has been repeatedly proven, this innocent claim is a fraud pushed by the anti death penalty movement.

This does not speak well to his ability to be responsible on major policy issues.

"Kerry say 111 were found innocent from death row via DNA. If so, that is even more absurd. It is 12." But, for solid evidence of actual innocence, my evidence and that from others indicates its from 17-30. I use 30 to be on the safe side." Dudley Sharp, Resource Director with Justice For All 713-935-9300.

Sincerely,

In memory of Jeremy Peter Flachbart

Gail Keasling (Freeper GailA)

KING: I've done a lot of shows recently dealing with the death of little children. A person who kills a 5-year-old should live?

KERRY: Larry, my instinct is to want to strangle that person with my own hands. I understand the instincts, I really do. I prosecuted people. I know what the feeling of the families is and everybody else.

But we have 111 people who have been now released from death row -- death row, let alone the rest of the prison system -- because of DNA evidence that showed they didn't commit the crime of which they were convicted.

After spending -- I myself worked to get a person out of jail who had been there for 15 years for a murder that person did not commit.

Now, our system has made mistakes, and it's been applied in a way that I think is wrong.

Secondly, I don't believe that, in the end, you advance the, sort of, level of your justice and the system of your civility as a nation -- and many other nations in the world, most of the other nations in the world, have adopted that idea, that the state should not engage in killing.

(APPLAUSE)

Because they have very bad memories of what happens when the state engages in killing.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10722-2004Feb26_2.html

[TomGuy]

Kerry's statement is about as ridiculous as BClinton saying he'd grab a gun, hunker down, and protect Israel.

[binger]

[TomGuy]

"I walked out of the Capitol and said, `We're at war."' said Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran. "That was my instant reaction as I looked in the air for another airplane that was heading toward us. I think you destroy the enemy."

Rendition of Hillary's tale of Chelsae jogging around downtown Manhattan, stopping to call Hillary and blame the 2 planes hitting the towers on Bush's tax cuts.


[Do these people really 'hear' what they are saying? They need to start listening to what is coming out of their mouths. Most times, with Kerry, his speeches and interviews don't even make much sense. They consist of a bunch of 'bit sounding' words strung together. Oh, maybe that's the 'plan' Kerry is always saying he has for America.]

[cyncooper]

Such measured and presidential language.

/sarcasm

(I said yesterday and I say again today, he is going insane before our very eyes. Watch. Rhetoric like "blow his brains out" is not reassuring, presidential, in command.)

[TomGuy]

"I walked out of the Capitol and said, `We're at war."' said Kerry

That statement ranks right up there with Chelsea's criticizing tax cuts as the twin towers burned.

I was responding to the article (I had not read any comments) when I made my post #22 comments.

Seems we both can relate Kerry's statement to Chelsea. lol.

[Happy2BMe]

J-FK making an "exception" for "terrorists" now is he?

What exception would he give to John Allen Muhammad?

[evad]

..another flop-flip by Kerry.. :)

zakly..
this nut has flip flop'd and flop flip'd so much I think he has redefined the term.

Maybe we should actually call it what it is...a LIE perpetrated by a congenital LYER.

[GraceCoolidge]

"We're at war." said Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran.

I thought it was a "law enforcement" issue or an intelligence matter. And appending the "decorated veteran" tag to everything is really getting old. I don't seem to recall Bill Clinton's "don't ask/don't tell" policy being reported as the brainchild of "President Clinton, Vietnam draft dodger," or "President Clinton, military loather."

[usmcobra]

So Like what does he think about the death penalty for Traitors?

[astounded]

"That status of war led me to find it impossible to suggest I wouldn't want to blow Osama bin Laden's brains out and treat him as an enemy..."

Huh??? Can anyone interpret this "Kerry-speak" for me? This guy is just like either Clinton - hedging, qualifying, never saying anything directly. These bites are just politicking, which the media dutifully report in their job of mouth-piece for the DNC and the democrat party.

Kerry makes me sick to my stomach - I want to puke every time I hear his voice and see his face. He is the worst sort of opportunistic leech on America - his "chestful of medals" be damned. I'm certainly not impressed by them or by him. Kerry has turned his "wartime service" into a mere political tool to be used by himself and the democrats. Despicable.

[Brilliant]

Kerry says that execution is not the toughest penalty--life in jail is the toughest penalty. But he says that terrorists should be executed. I guess he wants to give them an easier sentence.

[auboy]

Maybe we should actually call it what it is...a LIE perpetrated by a congenital LYER.

I love the sound of plain talk in the morning.

[Jaxter]

Actually, though I disagreed with Kerry, his (previous) argument against the death penalty for terrorists was better than his argument against the death penalty for your run of the mill baby raping murderer. I believe that he said having the death penalty for terrorists may keep certain countries from extraditing them to the USA. This is a pretty good argument, although I'd say that failure to extradite the terrorists would be the same as harboring them and we all know what the Bush Doctrine says about that. In any case it's just another opportunistic, which way is the wind blowing, flip-flop by Kerry.

[William McKinley]

"I walked out of the Capitol and said, `We're at war."'

...and what I remember about war is that I want America to surrender to end the war, and that we should treat it like a law enforcement exercise, and I am counting on people not realizing over the next 8 months how craven I am.

[dpa5923]

Though he always has opposed the death penalty, Sen. John Kerry said Tuesday that the Sept. 11 attacks made him realize that he would want to "blow Osama bin Laden's brains out."

This fool thinks this makes him sound strong and manly. It shows he is a little girl run by emotions. The death penalty should not be employed out of anger or frustration or fear, but only after cold deliberate thought with the intent to make the guilty pay the ultimate price for their crimes. Kerry wants to deploy it because his adrenalin was pumping and it might buy him a few political points.

[trebb]

"I walked out of the Capitol and said, `We're at war."' said Kerry

But, of course it was wrong to go in and do anything about it...

[xp38]

Did the article or any reporter ask him about the John Mohammed case? Did he support the sentence?

[sr4402]

This article is not "fair and Balance" (as they say on Fox News) since they didn't reference his flop, having voted against the death penalty for terrorists.

Why isn't the press telling the whole story?

[Agnes Heep]

Janus F. Kerry

[TomGuy]

That pic brings to mind this classic:

Two Faces Have I Lou Christie

I don't want the world to know
I don't want my heart to show

Two faces have I
I pretend that I'm happy
But I'm Mr. blue
I pretend that I'm happy
Since I lost you

Two faces have I
One to laugh and one to cry
Two faces have I
One to laugh and one to cry

Will I ever laugh again
She'll never see me cry
Will I walk with a smile on my face
Kniowing I live a lie

I pretend that I'm carefree
But what am I
I pretend that I'm carefree
But I'm living a lie

Two faces have I
One to laugh and one to cry
Two faces have I
One to laugh and one to cry

[doug from upland]

Well, well, Mr. Kerry. You want vengeance for the families of 9-11. The death penalty. That's good. But what about the children who have seen parents murdered in front of their eyes? Does that deserve the death penalty? What about a 5-year-old child kidnapped, tortured, and murdered? Does that deserve the death penalty? What about teenage girls raped and murdered? Does that deserve the death penalty? Oh, I get it. You will set the rules. If something is offensive enough to you, then you will allow the death penalty. Arrogant, self-centered ass.

[skinkinthegrass]

...a LIE perpetrated by a congenital LYER.

It seemed the 'RAT party was "the Natural Place for Liars" (the Clintoons, Kerry, Kennedys, Da$$hole,..etc.)...and then, I think of the RINOs in the GOP... :/

[jimt]

I support the death penalty for all killers.

I like to think of it as "permanent rehabilitation. It is."

That said, Kerry is an idiot on this issue as he appears to be on all others.

[chris1]

What would he say about Malvo and Mohammed? Are they Terrorists in his mind????

[evad]

I think of the RINOs in the GOP.

Natural Lyers Lite

[jimt]

What would he say about Malvo and Mohammed? Are they Terrorists in his mind????

Like everything the pinhead says, it's politically calculated. If he actually has a real opinion, you'd have to mine awfully deep to find it.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Nothing worse than watching a democrat stand up for his principles.

[fella]

I support the death penalty for all killers. It shouldn't matter if one life is taken or if its 3,000. The punishment should be the same across the board as a matter of principle.

Does the name Ted Kennedy come to mind?

[Semper Vigilantis]

"blow Osama bin Laden's brains out."
But only after someone else cut ObL down with a 50 cal. Then and only then would Kerry the "war hero" "blow Osama bin Laden's brains out."

[MeekOneGOP]

What exception would he give to John Allen Muhammad?

It would likely depend on who the audience John Clintoon-Kerry is talking to at the time.

[Shermy]

Rhetoric like "blow his brains out" is not reassuring, presidential, in command.)

Kerry had a flashback.