Apparently the Duke thinks we are all one collective hive mind. If one person speaks out of step with the Hive mind then the mind, as a whole, is guilty of hypocrisy
Must be how it works on his planet.
Utter tripe. I will right here and now bet you $100 or a case of Scotch or whatever the hell you like that the Bush Administration will do no such thing. Hell, I’ll bet you my $500 to your $5 that it doesn’t happen. And I say this as no fan of the Bush Administration.
Eric Robert Rudolph will not be pardoned, offered clemency, or paroled, or given any deal beyond the dubious mercy of being locked up for the rest of his life rather than executed, which deal I have no real doubt he was offered because the prosecutors wanted to know where his bombs were stashed, and maybe because they feared it would be difficult to get the death penalty in any case, and not out of any secret Republican sympathies for a cop killing anti-gay bigot who also murdered a mother of two for no better reason than that she was at a free concert in a public part, and who set off bombs designed to maim or kill paramedics and police.
As for those of you who are bewailing the fact that Rudolph will be lying around in the lap of luxury on your dime, he will likely go to the “Administrative Supermax” prison in Florence, Colorado. He will then spend the rest of his life in an 8 foot by 12 foot room, with a concrete chair, a concrete desk, and a concrete bed, and a 4-inch wide window giving a view of a concrete recreation yard, in which room he will spend as much as 23 hours a day. After a few years of good behavior, he may be allowed the privilege of eating in a dining room full of other hardened criminals rather than eating all his meals in his cell. A lethal injection would probably be a less harsh sentence.
Which is not to say I have any particular sympathy for the murdering fanatic, but come on, people, it’s not exactly a wrist slap we’re talking here.
FTR, I support the death penalty when the person has admitted to murder or there is overwhelming evidence inidicating guilt (eyewitnesses, some sort of recorded evidence, etc).
Eric Rudolph, that sleazebag in Florida who raped and murdered the 9-yr-old, that guy in Texas who killed the pregnant woman and her 7-yr-old kid are all well deserving.
They have all admitted their guilt.
As for Rudolph’s sentence of 23 hours a day in a concrete cell, I’m waiting for someone to come along and tell me how “cruel and unusual” THAT is.
Let’s just gather all those guys at the supermax facility and fucking throw them a party every day.
I think this is a good idea. Reverend Jim Jones will be providing the punch.
If it’s the money that’s bugging you, just be glad he wasn’t sentenced to death; maintaining a prisoner on death row through the mandatory appeals (paid for by the government) is much more expensive than a sentence of life in prison.
Or morality, for that matter.
I have morals a lot higher than Mr. Rudolph. If I’m upset with the goverment, I don’t go around killing innocent people to show it.
I don’t go around maiming and killing people because their beliefs don’t match mine.
If ever there was a case of damning with faint praise. 
No, you just profess hope prison guards will do the dirty work for you…
Strap him to a gurney and give me the needle.
but you want the government to kill a guy because he doesn’t operate by your moral standards, right?
I want the guy to get what he deserves for the way he carries out his beliefs.
If he was truly angry with the government, why not target it directly?
Er, not quite. People who think that abortion clinics should be bombed suck, but people aren’t advocating killing or imprisoning them. It’s the actual bombing that is the distinguishing factor.
I imagine Rudolph had similiar feelings about abortion doctors.
I heard a local woman interviewed yesterday. She said that Rudolph was not guilty of any of this. He was just admitting it because he had no choice – if he didn’t, the goverment would have railroaded him into the death penalty.
Oh, and the 250 pounds of explosives? She said that was entirely normal and necessary. She said terrorists are everywhere, and we need to be prepared with firepower just like the Minutemen.
Scary stuff.
From what I’ve read, Rudolph was upset that the government was condoning abortions and that was wrong. Rather than directing his anger at the gov’t, he chose to kill the doctors and destroy the clinics (which do more than abortions).
Since that wasn’t good enough, he chose the Olympics. Yeah, the best way to get me to believe in your cause is to randomly murder innocent people who have absolutely nothing to do with what you’re fighting against.
Rudolph is a coward, plain and simple.
In the immortal words of Tonto, “What you mean ‘we’, paleface?”
The only serious issue I have with the death penalty is the record of inadequate safeguards to prevent wrongful executions. In a case like this (where there is no rational doubt of the perp’s guilt or the heinousness of his crimes), I regret that he will be permitted to keep using the planet’s oxygen supply.
Like Timothy McVeigh?
I think Eric Rudolph deserves to die. He’s a serial, terroristic murderer of innocent people.
Not that I, in the least bit, admire this idiot, but he did take it directly to the target of his hatred (the gov’t). Unfortunately, his victims had nothing to do with Waco.
He did the right thing and took the needle.
I’m seeing less that would lead me to believe he’s a man following his moral convictions and more that he’s just a bastard that likes to terrorize and/or kill. Many of his actions just don’t follow the logical rationale you’d expect from someone making those claims of purpose.
I was in Centennial Olympic Park 40 minutes before the bombing and was on my hotel balcony several blocks away looking down toward the park when the bomb went off. Like Maddy mentioned, the atmosphere from that day on was such a sad departure from the enthusiasm of before. I grieve for the mother he killed there and for those from all the other incidents and was furious to hear that at his sentencing he was arrogant, joking and mocking the prosecution and families of the victims.
While IMHO he deserves death, Like MEBuckner said this sentence is no cakewalk. For five years he’s lived in the mountains, tenaciously clinging to the freedom he apparently holds so dear. Now he’s permanently bound on every side by concrete and boredom and I think it’s going to drive him batshit crazy. Good, he’s got a lot of suffering to catch up on.
Somehow, I don’t think he’ll be suffering too much. Remember, what he did was right (in his twisted mind, at least).