I'm so fucking embarrassed to be an American

[Sauron]

What in the hell....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...-2005Mar9.html

U.S. Withdraws From Death Penalty Protocol

By Charles Lane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 10, 2005; Page A01

The Bush administration has decided to pull out of an international agreement that opponents of the death penalty have used to fight the sentences of foreigners on death row in the United States, officials said yesterday.

In a two-paragraph letter dated March 7, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice informed U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan that the United States "hereby withdraws" from the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The United States proposed the protocol in 1963 and ratified it -- along with the rest of the Vienna Convention -- in 1969.

The protocol requires signatories to let the International Court of Justice (ICJ) make the final decision when their citizens say they have been illegally denied the right to see a home-country diplomat when jailed abroad.

The United States initially backed the measure as a means to protect its citizens abroad. It was also the first country to invoke the protocol before the ICJ, also known as the World Court, successfully suing Iran for the taking of 52 U.S. hostages in Tehran in 1979.

But in recent years, other countries, with the support of U.S. opponents of capital punishment, successfully complained before the World Court that their citizens were sentenced to death by U.S. states without receiving access to diplomats from their home countries.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments March 28 in the case of a Mexican death row inmate in Texas who is asking the justices to enforce an ICJ decision in favor of Mexico last year. That case has attracted wide attention in Mexico and caused a diplomatic rift between the Bush administration and the government of Mexican President Vicente Fox.

[Dingfod]

To: The rest of the civilized world
From: A sorry American

Re: Every treaty that ever meant anything positive for the planet

Please accept my deepest apologies for what is being done in my good name. You don't deserve what you're getting and neither do I.

Thank you.

P.S. Please petition your governments to allow Americans to seek asylum there.

P.P.S. Can I crash on your sofa?

[godfry n. glad]

Sign me up, too.

I've always wondered if Canada would take us if we seceded. Yo, Canucks...that likely?

I also hear British Columbians aren't too enthralled with the Ottawa government. Anybody interested in a new nation? Oregon, Washington, Idaho, western Montana and British Columbia. We'd be Mountain Pacific, the world's leading source of buttwipe and books.

Pipedreams.


godfry

[Crumb]

I'm with you godfry, let's write up a ballot measure to get things rolling.

[Godless Dave]

See, we're America so the rules should be different for us, because we're the greatest country in the world, freedom on the march and all that. YOU can't invade another country without justification, but we can. YOU can't execute American citizens for breaking laws in your country, but we can execute your citizens for breaking laws in our country. YOU can't have nuclear weapons, but we have a right to have them. etc. etc. etc.

[wildernesse]

First, the title of the article quoted is misleading--this is not a death penalty protocol. It has been a tool for anti-dp people because the Vienna Convention is pretty much ignored in this country (well, I'm sure not for business-suited types, but for everyday people)--people arrested don't know to ask to see a rep from their country and I'm sure that the gov doesn't volunteer that info to foreign nationals. Also, according to the protocol, it doesn't have to go to ICJ if both parties agree within the two months following a complaint--it can go to an arbital tribunal of some sort which might even be a domestic court, for all I know.

Anyway, like others have said, this is just more do as I say, not as I do for us here in the US. We're not withdrawing from the Vienna Convention, oh no, just from the part that gives it much bite. Goodness knows that you don't have a chance here within the borders with an international law argument.

[Shake]

Originally Posted by warrenly

To: The rest of the civilized world
From: A sorry American

Re: Every treaty that ever meant anything positive for the planet

Please accept my deepest apologies for what is being done in my good name. You don't deserve what you're getting and neither do I.

Thank you.

P.S. Please petition your governments to allow Americans to seek asylum there.

P.P.S. Can I crash on your sofa?

Kinda like the whole Kyoto clean air thing, too. Huh?

[Clutch Munny]

Remember when there was an Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty?

Ah, Clinton.

[Dragar]

Don't worry guys, I'm embarressed you're American too.

[Dingfod]

Originally Posted by Dragar

Don't worry guys, I'm embarressed you're American too.

Thanks.

[Dragar]

Thanks.

Any time.

[viscousmemories]

I wouldn't choose to live anywhere else, obviously. Never ceases to amuse me how many Americans don't seem to realize they can leave any time.

[godfry n. glad]

Originally Posted by viscousmemories

I wouldn't choose to live anywhere else, obviously. Never ceases to amuse me how many Americans don't seem to realize they can leave any time.

Y'know, I used to think that. I changed my mind.

I like the setting in live in now, but I haven't seen too many other places in the United States that I'd want to live. I do know that I'd happily live in Victoria, outside of Vancouver proper, Kelowna, or even Halifax.

If you visit Canada, and you don't mind the cool (or the mosquito, the national bird), I'd bet you could find plenty of nice places. They tend to be a decent sort, which is more'n can be said for much of our lot (the 'Merkins).

The problem is, as an immigrant to Canada, I'd have to pay my own way without working...I don't have that kind of wealth. They don't want my skills background at all (I'm not a computer nerd) so I couldn't earn income....as I understand it. I have thought about retiring there, though.

Hey, maybe I could go drive slow on their roads!

godfry

[godfry n. glad]

Originally Posted by Dragar

Don't worry guys, I'm embarressed you're American too.

Would you let your daughter marry one?

[Dingfod]

Originally Posted by viscousmemories

I wouldn't choose to live anywhere else, obviously. Never ceases to amuse me how many Americans don't seem to realize they can leave any time.

You really think its that easy? How many countries in the world do you think want to accept a middle-aged, balding, fat, white American with no higher education, no marketable skills and no money? None. Zero. Zilch. Zip. Nada. Not one that I know of. What do you think would happen if I bought a plane ticket and just showed up in Berlin or even Lima or even Ulaan Baatar? I'd probably get a complimentary return trip after a couple months or maybe even years of very unpleasant detention.

[godfry n. glad]

Originally Posted by Clutch Munny

Remember when there was an Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty?

Ah, Clinton.

Yes. A hint of sanity.

I remember the Bay of Pigs.

And the "missile gap".

[viscousmemories]

Good points, godfry and warrenly. I've never seriously considered leaving America and it didn't occur to me that it might be difficult or impossible to become a citizen of any country one might want to move to. I'll be less flippant on the topic in the future.

[Ensign Steve]

I know I'd be welcome in Mexico. The again, I'm young, blonde, and female. And I speak broken Spanish that is just so charming. Hehe.

[Godless Dave]

Hey, I like it here too, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't talk about the things I want to improve.

But some of this shit is pretty fucked up. The arrogance in foreign policy just keeps getting worse. Then there's the whole anti-education movement.

[Sauron]

Originally Posted by Ensign Steve

I know I'd be welcome in Mexico. The again, I'm young, blonde, and female. And I speak broken Spanish that is just so charming. Hehe.

Did you see the "King of the Hill" episode where Peggy Hill's broken Spanish gets her landed in jail?

[Ensign Steve]

No, I missed that one. Sounds funny, though. Anyway, Peggy's neither young nor blonde.

[viscousmemories]

Originally Posted by Godless Dave

Hey, I like it here too, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't talk about the things I want to improve.

Oh I hear ya, I just don't understand why anyone is embarrassed to be an American. I'm embarrassed by many of the things our government does and by many aspects of American culture, etc. but overall I'm not embarrassed to be an American. I just don't think there's anything inherently less embarrassing about being a Canadian, Beligian, German, or other nationality.

[wei yau]

Originally Posted by viscousmemories

Oh I hear ya, I just don't understand why anyone is embarrassed to be an American. I'm embarrassed by many of the things our government does and by many aspects of American culture, etc. but overall I'm not embarrassed to be an American. I just don't think there's anything inherently less embarrassing about being a Canadian, Beligian, German, or other nationality.

Hmm, I just realized I never took that sort of thing literally. I've always understood it as being embarassed by those things you mention and not the nationality per se. Although, there is plenty of overlap as some aspects of nationality can be defined by culture.

[Clutch Munny]

Originally Posted by viscousmemories

Oh I hear ya, I just don't understand why anyone is embarrassed to be an American. I'm embarrassed by many of the things our government does and by many aspects of American culture, etc. but overall I'm not embarrassed to be an American. I just don't think there's anything inherently less embarrassing about being a Canadian, Beligian, German, or other nationality.

Well, if other nations do fewer things, or do them to fewer people, of which to be embarrassed, that'd be one reason, wouldn't it?

[viscousmemories]

I think what I'm trying to say is I don't really personally identify with the country I was born, raised and live in. I'm neither proud or embarrassed to be an American, and I can't imagine I'd be any more or less proud to live in any other country. I guess I'm more concerned about who I am and what I personally do in the world than what my country does.

I don't know. The first time I went to Europe and lived amongst people where it was the norm to speak multiple languages, understand the metric system, have a much firmer grasp of history and geography, etc. I was embarrassed to be an American. But I realize now that any given European born and raised in America would quite probably be the same as me. It's not my fault I grew up the way I did, so I don't know why I should be embarrassed about it. Similarly I only have limited influence in the operation of the government, so I don't see much point in being personally embarrassed about their stupid actions.