Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2005 Stanley "Tookie" Williams, founder of the Crips gang in Los Angeles, was executed this morning at San Quentin Prison following a widespread campaign to save his life. Here is BBC coverage. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4523502.stm Wade O'Dell, the chairman of Diebold and prominent Republican supporter, had resigned over alleged securities fraud. He was the leader of the electronic voting company who promised to "deliver" Ohio's votes in the 2004 election. http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/051212/clm060.html?.v=31 I could go on for a page about both of these. We must end the death penalty despite its widespread support. It may seem like a big step to not want to kill someone for murder. But actually it's a lot bigger step in the other direction. Wally O'Dell was the mastermind of the Hack the Vote project that got us a second Bush presidency. He will make an interesting Google search if you add Paul Krugman to the search string. Krugman wrote many op-eds on the subject in 2004.