From the American Progress Action Fund:
The Senate yesterday issued a rare formal apology (its first of any kind to African Americans), expressing regret "for having rejected decades of pleas to make lynching a federal crime." Could there possibly be a less controversial resolution? Surprisingly, the answer is yes. Several senators waited until the last minute to add their names to the resolution, when they knew it was scheduled for a vote. And outrageously, at least six senators refused to co-sponsor the resolution, including Sens. Richard Shelby (R-AL), Thad Cochran (R-MI), Trent Lott (R-MI), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), John Cornyn (R-TX), and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX).
~~
Wow. Is there a better way to tell your African American constituents that they're better off dead? I don't think so. These senators have basically thrown in with the lynchers, because let's face it: if you're not against lynching, you're pretty much for it. There really isn't room for fence-sitters on this issue.
And in related news, government-sponsored terror directed at its own citizens doesn't just happen here.
One month ago, White House ally and Uzbek dictator Islam Karimov ordered his military to massacre hundreds of his own citizens in "probably the worst atrocity conducted by a government against protesters since Tiananmen Square." President Bush stayed silent about the killings for weeks, then called only for an international investigation into the massacres. But now, it seems, he doesn't even want that. The Washington Post reports that U.S. defense officials have "helped block a new demand for an international probe" from NATO into the killings.
~~
What a guy our president is, with a heart as big as Texas.