"I shall ask for the abolition of the penalty of death until I have
                      the infallibility of human judgment demonstrated to me"
                                                                                                 -- Lafayette, 1830
 

When the great Lafayette spoke his words of warning against the death penalty, he pointed especially to "the execrable use made of it during the former revolution."

However, one wonders if even the great Lafayette could have guessed at the fatal fallibility of today's politicians in the USA who make execution not an act of grand revolutionary passion but a routine matter of "business as usual" -- and a ritual for political survival and advancement. Such is the strange world of George W. Bush, Jr., Governor of Texas, and now candidate for President.

In a country where "foreign policy" typically means either bombing people in other countries or selling other governments the weapons to do so (e.g. the Turkish government, which bombs villages in Northwest Kurdistan within its own borders), we shouldn't be surprised that
"domestic policy" often means killing one's own citizens.

From this viewpoint, George Bush, Jr., has spent his time as Governor of Texas in accumulating the best credentials for a run at the Presidency: a long chain of executions. Human rights standards, basic norms of justice, even international treaties, are beside the point: in Texas, as in _Alice in Wonderland_, the execution comes first.

Bush's performance as "Lord High Texecutioner," even more than the French Revolution, might be seen as a proof both of Layafette's wise warning, and of the adage that life is a comedy for those who think, and a tragedy for those who feel.
 

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                     Observing an Anniversary:  17 June 1999
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By some coincidence, Lord High Texecutioner Bush presided over the execution of Canadian citizen Joseph Stanley Faulder -- contrary to international law -- on 17 June 1999, just 27 years after another noteworthy act by a Republican administration: the break-in at the Watergate Hotel in 1972.

From one point of view, this might be seen as a kind of "progress": from a mere "third-rate burglary attempt," as President Richard Nixon called it, to murder successfully accomplished as a routine ceremony of state.

From another perspective, however, President Nixon does hold the unique distinction of being the only President so far in the history of the USA _not_ to preside over any executions during his term of office. This wasn't by his own doing, of course: rather, it was the result of a judicially sponsored moratorium on executions (1967-1976) which happened to include his entire tenure as President. Indeed, Nixon during his 1962 campaign for Governor of California proposed the death penalty for "big-time dope peddlers," and as President sponsored new federal death penalty legislation.

Nevertheless, the historical fact remains: during Nixon's watch as President, no one was executed in the USA.

Is it possible that Lord High Texecutioner Bush is striving to compensate for this aspect of his Republican predecessor's reign -- to make up for lost time?
 

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                Selective Breeding, or Natural Section?
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While it's easy to explain George Bush, Jr. simply as "a twig off the old Shrub," the serious political ecologist must probe for deeper environmental patterns behind this "Am-Bush" of state killing.

At a superficial level, one could argue that homicidal violence in the name of "law enforcement" is a family tradition for "the Little Shrub." Many will recall how, in 1989, George Bush, Sr. was likely the first politician to bring a B-52 bomber to a drug bust -- the "bust" of Manuel Noriega in Panama, of course. Hundreds of civilians were reportedly killed in Panama City's district of El Chorillo.

After this excitement, George Jr.'s record of killing both domestic and foreign citizens one by one might seem just another variation on a great family tradition.

However, to take this resemblance between Big Shrub and Little Shrub as merely hereditary would be to overlook the political forest for the trees -- or bushes.

Sadly, that proverbial "forest" might better be called the river of a bipartisan bloodbath. Politicians in the USA, Democratic or Republican, believe in the survival -- or reelection -- of the fittest. Evolutionary theory tells us, of course, that "fitness" is measured by a given environment. In the USA, given the degeneration of the political environment to a killing field, willingness to kill is an electoral plus, and therefore a mark of "fitness."

Consider, for example, the achievements of such Democrats as Governor "Bloody Bob" Graham in Florida during the late 1970's and early 1980's (the Texas of that epoch), or Governor Gray Davis in California, or for that matter Governor Bill Clinton in Arkansas. During his first
campaign for President, Clinton presided in his gubernatorial role over the execution of Ricky Ray Rector, a prisoner so psychologically impaired that he said he would save the dessert from his last meal (literally) for after the execution.

Thus we see how simplistic theories of "heredity" do justice neither to the Bush family, nor to the truly degenerate and violent atmosphere of politics south of the 49th parallel.
 

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                      Dancing the Anti-Vienna Waltz: Trampling Over International Law
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The execution of Stan Faulder was a declaration by the Lord High Texecutioner and the system he represents that neither evolving standards of international decency against the death penalty, nor even the specific provisions of the Vienna Convention, will protect
Canadian or other foreign citizens from "Texas justice."

In Stan Faulder's case, being deprived for 15 years of his consular rights under this treaty to contact the Canadian government for assistance in his legal defense proved indeed a fatal flaw in the Texas criminal injustice system. As a result, Stan received a trial where his serious neurological and psychological disabilities were never presented to the jury, either in assessing his degree of responsibility in the charged murder or in considering mitigating
factors weighing against a sentence of death. Nor did the jury learn of his character and background, including the saving of a woman's life after she was involved in an automobile accident during a Canadian blizzard.

Canadian officials might also have assisted Faulder in raising the issue of his degree of participation in the crime: his alleged accomplice received complete immunity in return for her not necessarily disinterested testimony against him.

However, in Texas, the object of being Lord High Texecutioner is to "make a political killing" -- literally. When a delegation from Canada sought to present their case for mercy at a meeting of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles called at the request of the Canadian government, they were actually threatened with arrest.

Such is the sense of diplomatic protocol shown in the land of Texas, a style of hospitality which fits with the prevailing level of respect for human life itself.
 

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                         Lord High Texecutioner:   An Esteemed Office
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In fairness to George Bush, Jr., it must again be emphasized that he is merely the latest holder of an esteemed office, whose imperatives seem almost to shape the incumbent of the moment.

Thus some years ago, when Democrat Mark White was in this office of esteem, he campaigned for re-election with words like this: "In Texas, only the Governor can make an execution happen. I have, and I will."  (In 1984, some human rights activists and dissidents in the USA
protested at the Democratic Convention in San Francisco against White's "death-dealing" record -- likely with little effect on his political fortunes, however.)  are also a fine spectator sport. At one execution in the early 1980's, students from a University near the prison celebrated the occasion by displaying a gigantic hypodermic needle as if it were a prop for
some halftime festivities at a football game, along with the words: "Hit me with your best shot."

The "modern" technology of lethal injection -- incidentally used as one of the methods of killing at Nazi extermination camps -- also provided a motto for students celebrating the first such execution in Texas on 7 December 1982: "Kill them in vein." This was the execution
of Charlie Brooks, an African-American with an uncertain degree of participation in a robbery-murder. His codefendant got a lesser sentence -- and the crude motto of the students at the execution may best suggest the ultimate senselessness of state killings.

Such is the heritage and tradition of Lord High Texecutioner which George Bush, Jr. has inherited -- and done more than his fair share to transmit to the next occupant. However, the time has come for worldwide action to stop this madness.
 

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                    Let's Not Beat Around the Bush!   Help Texas Turn Over a New Leaf
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Coming to political maturity -- or the closest local equivalent -- in an environment filled with the acid rain of state killing, our Little Shrub has adapted accordingly. It's time to exert some international efforts to improve this deadly political climate, and encourage this Bush to grow in a kindler, gentler direction.

A tourist boycott is one way of sending a message that we wish neither to risk our own lives by visiting the territory of the Lord High Texecutioner, nor to participate in an economy of death.

Finally, it comes down to what Lafayette said almost 170 years ago. The power to kill by fiat is simply too much power for "the Little Shrub" -- or for _any_ human being or government.

As opponents of the death penalty, we are well aware that there are private individuals who kill. Rejecting violent revenge (under form of law or otherwise), we nevertheless recognize that certain people must be kept safely indoors for the sake of the public safety.

There are other people who can safely remain at large -- provided that they aren't placed in a seat of government with the power of judicial homicide. This includes, you, me, George Bush, Jr. -- and any other human being.

A tourist boycott of the land of Texecutions is one way of moving toward a world where such seats of government are no longer available to tempt those incapable of handling such a power -- which means everyone.
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                     For a Kinder, Gentler Shrub --  Tourist Boycott of Texas
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