House Votes to Expand Hate Crimes Definition

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/us/politics/09hate.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=house%20vote%20says%20antigay&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 8:45 AM
Subject: re: House Votes to Expand Hate Crimes Definition
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Representative Boehner contradicts long-established American jurisprudence when he argues against considering intent in defining a crime. In doing so, he puts himself into a pretty rhetorical box. It is established that the U.S. under president George Bush waterboarded detainees, that waterboarding is torture, that torture is both illegal and a War Crime and that responsibility rests with the president. The only barrier to trying and convicting Mr. Bush for a War Crime is the argument that--on the advice of an incompetent Office of Legal Counsel--the authorized criminal acts without criminal intent.

Barry Levine