While on the California campaign trail, a state known obviously for its population of bleeding hearts such as Barbara Boxer and the People's Republic of Berkeley, George W. Bush came under severe fire from the local double plus liberal media (yes, I am descending into Newspeak) as well as the national liberal media for his stance on the death penalty. Again, never mind that Bush usually has absolutely nothing but the final say on executions, the media managed to portray him as the overseer of the Texan death penalty, the judge, jury and executioner all rolled up into one (to quote Judge Dredd). So he delayed a single execution, then as soon as he left SoCal, he gave the "go order". The media cried foul. Ugh.

Let's look at it this way. The Governor, in truth, has the ability to delay an execution, but that's about it. The American judicial system, no matter how screwy it sometimes is, has already decided that this convicted criminal is to die for his crimes. If an execution is delayed, all it does is waste time and money, because the case will go back to appeals, costing more money, the prisoner will spend some more time on taxpayers' money, and basically, it's pointless. In addition, the Governor is just basing his decision on recommendations from the judicial system. Frankly, I don't think the Governor should even have that power, but now that he does, it creates all sorts of opportunities of tomfoolery, blame and fingerpointing from the press.

So what. It just so happens that Texas gets more death penalty convictions than other states. Big deal. Texas is a big state. Heck, never mind Texas, the total number of executions in the whole United States pales in comparison to the monthly total in China. It isn't George W. Bush's fault he has to say "Kill the sod" more times than other governors. And why should he give them more time? So they can pray hopelessly and face the dread of impending death once again?

Add this factoid to the fact that most Americans support the death penalty, then you realize that the whole deal about George W. Bush being a murderer is no more than simple slander from the liberal media. True, compassionate conservative is a bad choice of words, but admit it, Al Gore is no more compassionate than Bush is. You heard me, liberals are not kind people by default. I've met plenty of nasty Democrats. I mean, Al Gore released heavy metals into rivers in his hometown! You call that compassionate? Sounds like idiocy to me.