The Republicans are serving up a heaping helping of win today:
They’re PROUD of themselves. They think Willie Horton is a good thing:
The day before Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine takes the debate stage in his home state, Republicans are attacking his record on the death penalty.
In a new web ad that recalls the Willie Horton attack on 1988 Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, the Republican National Committee is highlighting two of Kaine’s clients when he was a defense attorney.
Richard Lee Whitley was convicted of murdering a 63 year-old neighbor in Fairfax County, while Lem Tuggle was found guilty of raping, sodomizing and murdering a 52-year old woman from Smyth County.
While numerous executions took place on Kaine’s watch as Virginia governor, he had come up as a defense attorney working to keep people convicted of capital offenses from facing the death penalty.
***The RNC spot also references the commutation of the death sentence of convicted triple murderer Percy Levar Walton. In a statement released with the commutation, Kaine said that the commutation of Walton was due to lack of mental competence, despite court rulings indicating the sentence could be carried out.
“I am again compelled to find that one cannot reasonably conclude that Walton is fully aware of the punishment he is about to suffer and why he is to suffer it,” Kaine said. “Given the extended period of time over which Walton has exhibited this lack of mental competence, I must conclude that a commutation of his sentence to life in prison without possibility of parole is now the only constitutionally appropriate course of action.”
And then on the other side of the debate, you have this scumbag:
In 1997, Keith Cooper was arrested and convicted for an armed robbery in Elkhart, Indiana. After serving 10 years for the conviction, DNA evidence pointed to another man, already in custody for a similar crime. Every eyewitness account also recanted their testimony that led to Mr. Cooper’s conviction, as the witnesses were denied a police line up they requested before the trial. Cooper’s retrial was ordered, but the new prosecutor, Curtis Hill, offered Keith a plea deal which would give him an immediate release, rather than waiting months or years for the retrial. All Keith had to do was admit his guilt for a crime he didn’t commit. Keith’s wife and children were about to become homeless, so what else could Keith do? What would you do? Keith has been living with the stigma and real limitations of being a convicted felon ever since.
And now, Governor Mike Pence, Trump’s Vice-Presidential running mate, refuses to provide justice to Keith Cooper, even after admitting Cooper’s innocence. In an ongoing battle to remove his felony status, Mr. Pence finally responded…by delaying a decision. His reasoning?
“Although the judicial system may not be perfect, given the extraordinary nature of Mr. Cooper’s request, we need to be certain the judicial process is complete and has been given every opportunity to address any error that may have occurred.”
In other words, he basically doesn’t want to, and goes on to make the absurd argument that no governor has ever pardoned an innocent man. Yes, you read that correctly.
Bonus points to discerning readers who can guess the race of Keith Cooper.
MattF
I saw that tweet and just assumed that Spicer was calling out the RNC for racism. Silly me.
Trentrunner
So far, today:
1. Trump team flaunts “Willie Horton” ad, by name.
2. Trump calls vets with PTSD not “strong,” says they “can’t handle” war.
3. NY AG issues cease-and-desist order for Trump Foundation.
And I haven’t even had lunch yet.
Percysowner
They are such sleazes! In other news Trump Suggests Vets Who Need Mental Health Services Aren’t ‘Strong’. Apparently he’s doing the veterans outreach the same as his minority outreach
Peale
I guess they figure both candidates are so atrocious that the VP choice will make all the difference. But seriously, wasn’t the problem with Willie Horton that he was out of prison?
Jibeaux
The Horton ad worked because he was paroled, going on to rape and murder again.
Saying someone’s death penalty was commuted to life in prison lacks a certain….everything.
shomi
Oh noezzz. First there was Al Gore and now this. It’s hopeless. Hillary can’t win.
–Said by just about every Ball Juice pantswetter ever.
Probably about half of all Ball Juice commenters by my estimate. Progressives are really pathetic people sometimes. Always worried about losing. At least the right wingnuts always think their world view is the right one and always think they are gonna win. They are pathetic for a whole other set of reasons but at least they are not a bunch of pantswetters always seeing the world as cup half empty.
eric
@Percysowner: I look forward to John McCain’s weasel dodge on this statement from a draft “dodger.” someone wake me when it comes across the telegraph….
Srv
i am pathetic, but at least I don’t type “ball juice” constantly.
Sayne
This just broke on the Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-foundation-ordered-to-stop-fundraising-by-ny-attorney-generals-office/2016/10/03/1d4d295a-8987-11e6-bff0-d53f592f176e_story.html?tid=sm_fb
The NY State AG has ordered the Trump Foundation to cease collecting donations and ordered it to re-register under the proper legal framework within 15 days.
eric
and for today’s visit into the fevered swamp
gex
And of course Huckabee’s parolee who committed violence afterwards was a non issue to the GOP who is just so very concerned about such things. I have some guesses as to the race and/or religion of that parolee too.
Shell
First Bill Clintons peccadilloes. Now Willie Horton. The GOP is resurrecting all (what it hopes) of its greatest hits. Too bad nobody cares.
Humdog
Damn Trump again. I believe it has been an uphill struggle to convince service members to reach out for help when they get stressed. Here is the preferred nominee of the armed forces shaming those who seek out help. Sick son of a bitch, actively making the world a worse place for service members and those who share society with them. Added damning for cherishing misplaced vengeance over compassion by preferring a governor who won’t pardon the innocent over a governor who won’t kill the mentally handicapped. I hate all that they stand for!
James E Powell
@Srv:
There’s a hierarchy among trolls? Who knew?
schrodinger's cat
@Shell: That was NYT, investigating Clintons’ marriage but can’t bothered to investigate n Trump scandals, where n is a large number.
Trentrunner
FYI, right now in her address Clinton is hitting Donny with the chair: “Trump was taking from Americans with both hands, and leaving the rest of us to foot the bill.”
Then: “What kind of ‘genius’ loses a billion dollars in a single year?”
sukabi
@Srv: when all you’ve got to comfort yourself is your own ball juice, it becomes a sort of mantra….
Aleta
Cat Discovers Cosmos (Let’s hope cats succeed in taking over the guidance of human consciousness from these taffy-head suits in ties.)
eric
@Trentrunner: Good God Almighty!
Capri
I’ve heard that every time you say Willy Horton, a bigoted white person gets his hood.
You can tell that Roger Ailes is advising the campaign because Trump has been saying “Law and Order” like it’s some type of magic password and now this. All because the GOP convinced itself, about a month after the 2012 post mortem came out, that there were huge numbers of white people out there that just haven’t been motivated enough by the regular spineless GOP squishes to turn up at a polling place and vote.
What makes no sense to me is that, in the unlikely eventuality that they are right and there are tons of white voters who will turn out if you appeal to their most racist thoughts and fears, the chances are excellent that most reside in states that are already deep red, not in the ring counties around the big cities in Ohio, which is where they’d have to live to make a difference in the election outcome.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
@shomi:
@Srv:
When srv is calling you out for bad trolling, you’re doing something wrong….
Barbara
@Peale: Right. Maybe they don’t understand the difference between parole and commuting or trying to avoid a capital sentence (which basically means the person serves life in prison, if convicted). I am struggling to understand which swing state voters would find this information to be consequential.
Major Major Major Major
@Srv: I’m loving Srv, I must say.
Peale
@Barbara: Those who want as much death as possible? Who want more executions, not fewer? Who think that Clinton made a bad call picking a governor to be a running mate when she could have picked the Undertaker or Dexter?
SFAW
Mr. Cole –
Although you do not ban trolls, except under certain circumstances, what about bots? Considering the latest comment from “shomi” is just a re-hash/rewording of his typical comment (including his bot-generated pantswetters, ball juice, Gore), and bears zero relation to anything said either in your post or the comments preceding, it seems pretty likely that there’s no actual intelligence on the other end of the pipe.
At least srv makes a funny once in a while. No such luck with shomi.
Just a suggestion.
Barbara
@eric: Thanks, I needed the laugh. Obviously, they searched for “lester” and started tweeting away at the first one on the list. What a hoot.
hovercraft
@Trentrunner:
And Hillary is taking him out to the woodshed in Toledo.
Excellent start to the week.
sukabi
It’s pretty clear that besides trying to destroy public education with their “business expertise” they’ve been applying the same lessons to their own organizations. Or they’ve been eating lead paint.
BR
Only one way to defeat Trump and his Trumpers — VOLUNTEER, sign up here. We have one month left in this crazy and immensely consequential election. Remember, the press spends about three weeks beating up on each candidate in cycles. So we have one more Clinton-bashing cycle ahead of us, in late Oct, when it will matter most. That’s why we need a ground game to soldier on no matter what attacks are unleashed.
Villago Delenda Est
This is why you fail, Cole. You don’t give bonus points for something as painfully obvious as this. You give them for a .gif of Chris Evans as Steve Rogers saying “I got that reference”.
Major Major Major Major
@SFAW: you know who I haven’t seen recently? NR. I guess there just hasn’t been much DOOOOOM! lately in the polling news.
Barbara
@Peale: Well, as difficult as I find this, there are few states that are more committed to the death penalty than Virginia and we elected Kaine to the U.S. Senate after electing him to be governor. His so-called lack of support for the death penalty was brought up in both elections and the evidence that he was not sufficiently pro-death was considered and rejected both times.
Villago Delenda Est
@Capri:
Like “Islamic Terrorism” or “Wingardium Leviosa”.
Bobby Thomson
@Srv: literal lol.
Anoniminous
Just wait until the GOP rolls out the “Roosevelt regime has merely deepened the Depression!” attack and in the final days Wilson’s socialistcommie plan of smashing the monopolies and driving us into penury will propel Trump into the White House.
Percysowner
@eric: He’ll go with Hillary is WORSE! WAY WORSE! And please, please, please re-elect me. All he cares about is keeping his power and he thinks if he doesn’t support Trump, Trumps voters will not support him.
hovercraft
@Shell:
Which is stupid, while Willie Horton worked, this one is different, and I guarantee the response will be different from the campaign. Bubba and Hillary only became more popular the more the GOP pursued the Clenis.
I guess desperate times demand desperate measures.
Bobby Thomson
@SFAW: I think that one’s been banned before
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Yeah, well, Trump now seems to look upon his 0% among Black voters as something to feel proud about, and now wants to get numbers like that from as many groups as he can. Today, he’s working on the military!
Yep. If going to war fucks you up, and you need some help dealing with what you saw or what you did or what happened to you, you’re a weakling. Classy!
Punchy
So…I’m fuckin OLD and even I dont remember this Willie Horton crapola. Theres no way anyone under 35 has the slightest clue who that is. So who are they pimping this shit to? 78 year olds? Arent they already voting Trump? Whats the point?
hovercraft
@James E Powell:
Well this one appears to be trolling @ srv, so he/she/it ranks higher?
EDIT: Which is better a troll or a trolls troll, does the double negative create a positive?
Major Major Major Major
@hovercraft:
The latter; yes.
Mike E
@Srv: you do too, DougJ!
ETA note the cap ‘S’ in ‘Srv’
Anoniminous
@Punchy:
Old, bigoted, embittered, white people is all the GOP has. If they don’t turn out the SheDevilFromHell will destroy Trump, the Senate will flip, and their control of the House endangered.
Shomi
Haha ball juice pants wetters! Ain’t I funny? ( I am aren’t I?) Please clap.
Calouste
So the only new thing that the GOP has come up with in the last 20 years is “Islamic Terrorism”. For the rest it’s all rehashing stuff from 20 or 30 years ago, or with Trump’s new found neo-Nazi friends, 80 or more years ago.
hueyplong
Every time the Trump campaign launches something aimed to please the 27% instead of the people that get them from 27% to 47%, we should probably be happy.
Why not point to a picture of Jack Johnson and express outrage at how the big buck is grinning so much?
Citizen Scientist
@Percysowner: Really? Was this before, after, or while he addressed that veterans group today.? On second thought, don’t answer.
Villago Delenda Est
@eric: They are every bit as stupid as we claim they are.
SFAW
@Major Major Major Major:
Nor I, not for a few days. Likewise with Reggie M. and Hollandaise Bechamel, although they may have been banned and I missed it.
@Bobby Thomson:
Don’t recall that happening, but I’m old and I forget … uh, forget … uh …
Villago Delenda Est
@Punchy:
Rabid base needs red meat. If you feed them, they may not take off your arm.
SFAW
@eric:
Good Christ, what a bunch of morans.
Of course, if they pick Lester Holt for their fantasy team, they’re going to be disappointed.
Mai.naem.mobile
@Villago Delenda Est: Are you saying Keith Cooper is not a caucasian? I am shocked. Shocked.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mai.naem.mobile: /cue Claude Rains
scav
@SFAW: well, little smart devices have to amuse themselves somehow and as there aren’t any little friends for shomi to become a botnet with, she’s reduced to a GOTO loop to drive up her numbers on major4’s list. Or something. This is just a low-energy DOS attack but it is apparently viewd as devestating in certain venues.
Mike E
@eric: Ha Ha Clinton-Dix ftw
Elizabelle
@BR: I love that you bring this up as often as you can.
Keep on keeping on!
eric
@SFAW: not if it involves throwing to first base.
Schlemazel
@shomi:
Do you even read the comments? Nobody had said anything like that and nobody will say it.
You need to up your meds. If you won’t do that than at least up yours
Hal
Can you believe it folks! He did his job as a defense attorney!? Wimp!! And how about not executing someone just because they lack competence? What is this, France?
Villago Delenda Est
@Jibeaux:
But mainly because Willie Horton was blah.
You have a case in Arkansas where the governor personally intervened in a case for a parolee candidate, to grant him parole, and he went on to rape and murder again. But the parolee was white, and had embraced Jeebus as his personal savior. Also, too, the crime he was in prison for was against a distant relative of the utterly evil Bill Clinton.
So Mike Huckabee gave him a pass to rape and murder again.
Villago Delenda Est
@Anoniminous: As fact free now as it was then. It’s true, the New Deal did not solve the problem of the Great Depression. WWII did. WWII involved more massive government spending than the New Deal even dreamed of.
Ajabu
The GOP is so determined to “play all their past hits” I fully expect to see them touring obscure casinos come November 9th just like barely remembered bands from the 70’s.
hovercraft
So msnbc tries to get the reaction of a Trump supporter (the first guy in line to see him later at a CO rally), to the tax story, his response, Bill Clinton is a rapist, look it up INFOWARS, Bill Clinton is a rapist INFOWARS. These people are beyond reason.
Major Major Major Major
@SFAW: I think Reggie and Bechamel stopped coming once people stopped doing anything other than berating them.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
That picture of W is hilarious.
Republican after Republican after Republican is bailing on this clown show. Even Michael Reagan – the deeply conservative son – is done. The GOP is now Prison Planet. W was an incurious lazy moron who outsourced his duties to evil Cheney, but, can you imagine Michelle ever hugging Trump, or Trump wanting to hold hands and swing his arms with her? (LOL). I hate to sound all revisionist and shit, but I don’t think W was ever as vicious and racist and as personally cruel in his personal life as Trump (notwithstanding his sneering contempt for Karla Faye Tucker’s execution) plus, he was at least apparently on the surface a good family man with a long term marriage. He was as entitled as Trump, but (god help me for saying this), I think he was brought up better than Trump. Now I’m going to go jab knitting needles in my eyes for defending Bush.
hueyplong
@Villago Delenda Est: But a bunch of GOPers got rich on WWII government spending and it involved war, so it doesn’t count as government spending at all.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
“Retired American Warriors.” Just the name of that organization is pathetic.
I really resent this whole “warrior” theme that has taken hold in our society. Everybody in the military is a warrior. The cops are warriors. (Yes, “warrior cops” is a thing.) Athletes are warriors: they’re “going to war” this weekend against cross-state archrival Bumfuck State! Give me a break.
Were we really missing a warrior class in our country? I hadn’t perceived the lack.
And there shouldn’t be any retired warriors. They should have died gloriously in battle or, more likely, behind their desks at 2nd Logistics Command headquarters.
Schlemazel
Some ambitious reporter should ask Trump which he likes least, POWs or vets with PTSD. I belive the answer would be enlightening.
Mnemosyne
@Punchy:
I do remember the Willie Horton thing, and comparing the two cases is kind of insane. Apparently Kaine is being held personally responsible for these prisoners still … being in prison for the rest of their lives? Um, okay.
Villago Delenda Est
@hovercraft: Infowars is a sure sign that they have gone batshit. They believe whatever Jones spouts out without the slightest hesitation or reservation. No critical thinking going on. My wingnut sister rejects anything I say as coming from the “liberal media” by which she means anything slightly to the left of Faux Noise. And here I am with a nym that tells you exactly what I think of the “liberal media”.
sukabi
@Ajabu: pretty sure that’s why Gingrich and ghouliani are back, this is their last crap shoot.
Trollhattan
@Trentrunner:
Jeez, he should find a VA hospital and go slap some concussion patients. Channel his inner Patton. “Our blood, his guts.”
Villago Delenda Est
@Steeplejack (tablet): Yeah, this “warrior” thing has always rubbed me the wrong way. There’s a reason why “warriors” are a pretty early on unit in Civilization. They represent a people just getting started on the climb…half barbarians. Not settled down. Quick to anger, hold a grudge forever.
Schlemazel
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
Well he told stories of killing frogs with firecrackers as a kid so I don’t buy that he didn’t have a mean streak.
But he was more ammoral thaan immoral. He would say or do whatever he needed to in order to get power. He might not be as racist as the GOP as a whole but he was more than willing to play along. In many ways that is much worse, he knew better but did it anyway.
Trollhattan
@Villago Delenda Est:
Are we forgetting Maurice Clemmons?
Mnemosyne
@Villago Delenda Est:
There was also the other guy Huckabee released, Maurice Clemmons. Clemmons was African-American, but he said that Jesus was talking to him, so Huckabee thought it was safe to let him out of prison. Unfortunately for 4 cops in Washington state, Clemmons was hearing more voices in his head than just Jesus’s, and those voices apparently told him to go kill those cops while they were working on their laptops at a coffee shop.
Humdog
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: Could you even imagine defending GWB in 2003? Not even in science fiction! But spare your eyeballs the needles, you will want to see Madame President inaugurated in 3.5 months.
SFAW
@hovercraft:
That’s nothing. Apparently, Moochelle is a guy, Barry is a gay Muslim, and Sasha and Malia are pod people, or perhaps kidnapped to serve as props for their “parents.”
I don’t know if the Darwin Awards are still given out, but there should be a contest — no firearms allowed — with Alex Jones and his acolytes as contestants. Only test they’d have to pass: put a half-yard of anti-freeze in front of them, then tell them that Obama told them it was a bad idea to drink it.
Hilarity would ensue.
Jibeaux
@Villago Delenda Est: oh, I’m not denying the race angle at all. But assuming these commutations are also blah dudes, how scared are even racist ol white folks supposed to be of someone behind bars without possibility of parole? It’s not much of a boogeyman.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Schlemazel:
@Humdog:
I am not going to argue with anything you said. I have used up my once in a lifetiime “defend George W. Bush” card with my previous post. Mark your calendar.
Felonius Monk
@SFAW: Who thinks that Alex Jones really believes any of the bullshit that he peddles? He’s just another con man and grifter who knows that there are many idiots out there ripe for the fleecing. And fleecing he does.
Elmo
@Villago Delenda Est: My people!
PPCLI
@Jibeaux: Perhaps Kaine might note that as a Catholic, he takes the Pope’s opposition to capitol punishment very seriously. And not just the current Pope, who right wingers see as to the left of Marx. Benedict and John Paul II as well. You know, the real popes
hovercraft
@SFAW:
Unfortunately I’ve been aware of the Obama gay, Moochelle man theory for a few years now. My favorite part of the “stolen kids” meme, is that according to the theory neither one of the girls looks anything like their parents. Apparently they’ve never actually looked at the girls, Malia looks like her mom and grandma. Oh but maybe that’s the answer, maybe they are Craig Robinson’s illegitimate kids, and he took them from their real mother and gave them to his sister to raise. I thin I’ve solved the mystery of where the girls came from. My works here is done. I’ve schooled America, Michael and Barrack adopted his nieces.
Uncle Cosmo
@Anoniminous: Well FFS, they’re already running Warren Harding 2.0* for Veep:
“He’s dead, Jim.”
(Put these & these up in separate browser windows & enjoy, you lazy barstids.)
hovercraft
@Felonius Monk:
I do. Beck and Hannity and Levin are a bunch of charletons, Jones I think is actually insane. If he was evaluated he would be declared unstable, paranoid, the man is crazy.
Aleta
@Ajabu: The GOP is so determined to “play all their past hits” I fully expect to see them touring obscure casinos come November 9th just like barely remembered bands from the 70’s.
You mean like
“No One Can Take My Freedom Away”
and “You’re Having My Baby” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZNtcCM3Cvo ?
Schlemazel
@hovercraft:
I thought maybe they are Webb Hubbles kids!
Lyrebird
@Villago Delenda Est: So sad, so true. But I’m hoping for what @PPCLI already said, that this hands a slow pitch (okay lousy metaphor, from a lousy pitcher) to Kaine to brandish his (sfaik deep and genuine) religious convictions.
The only people I’ve met using the term “pro-life” in a way I could respect thus far were (like Kaine?) Roman Catholics, namely a couple of nuns whose chief calling in life was to go spend time w/Death Row inmates and when they could to advocate for life w/o parole.
Does anyone else remember when Mike Farrell teamed up with that conservative judge to protest the death penalty? Pretty —ing awesome, I thought.
a thousand flouncing lurkers (formerly fidelioscabinet)
@Shomi: Bless your heart, child.
hovercraft
@Lyrebird:
Simple question was John Adams a traitor? Was he against law and order? Does our constitution mean anything to you. or is the third amendment superfluous, what’s the point of a court if there’s only a prosecutor and no defense?
BruceFromOhio
DAMMIT, JIM, I’M A defense attorney, NOT AN EXECUTIONER.
Legal system, how doez it werk
ETA, if this is what’s getting churned out of the Grift-O-Con for puke funnel consumption just five weeks out, it’s time for totally stumping for the downticket races, as El Presidente is already in the books.
Lyrebird
@hovercraft: Excellent questions, though if we apply our Iraq-insurgent standards, Sam Adams at least probably was on questionable territory.
Sigh.
Note to self to make more food for canvassers.
I couldn’t hack it as a defense attorney, myself, but yeah, constitutional rights, how do they work?
Gravenstone
@James E Powell: Pretty sure this “Srv” is a riff on the much hated “srv”, not the genuine article.
catclub
@Villago Delenda Est: me too. Soldiers are an improvement, as part of an organized army.
But rugged individuals are all that matter.
Gravenstone
@Bobby Thomson: Many times. Hence the Rolodex of former names.
catclub
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
Bush the idiot told Cheney to fuck off over bombing Iran. That was an unalloyed good thing.
schrodinger's cat
@efgoldman: It wasn’t Adam, it was me and Adam agreed. He then restored Srv’s comment that he had deleted.
ETA: Also too, SD if memory serves me right recognized that Srv was a parody troll’s parody troll.
schrodinger's cat
@efgoldman: It wasn’t Adam, it was me and Adam agreed. He then restored Srv’s comment that he had deleted.
ETA: Also too, SD if memory serves me right recognized that Srv was a parody troll’s parody troll.
sukabi
@schrodinger’s cat: back in the box time shifter.
Ruckus
@Percysowner:
Knocking anyone else’s needs for mental health services is rich coming from that mouth.