The Republicans created this economic mess, and now they’re trying to stand in the way as Obama tries to clean it up.
Category: Conservatives (Page 15 of 40)
New York State might finally repeal the idiotic Rockefeller drug laws.
The Rockefeller drug laws is the term used to denote the statutes dealing with the sale and possession of “narcotic” drugs in the New York State Penal Law. The laws are named after Nelson Rockefeller, who was the state’s governor at the time the laws were adopted. Rockefeller, a staunch supporter of the bill containing the laws, signed it on May 8, 1973.
Under the Rockefeller drug laws, the penalty for selling two ounces (approximately 56 grams) or more of heroin, morphine, “raw or prepared opium,” cocaine, or cannabis, including marijuana (these latter two being included in the statute even though they are not “narcotics” from a chemical standpoint), or possessing four ounces (approximately 113 grams) or more of the same substances, was made the same as that for second-degree murder: a minimum of 15 years to life in prison, and a maximum of 25 years to life in prison. The original legislation also mandated the same penalty for committing a violent crime while under the influence of the same drugs, but this provision was subsequently omitted from the bill and was not part of the legislation Rockefeller ultimately signed. The section of the laws applying to marijuana was repealed in 1979, under the Democratic Governor Hugh Carey.
The New York Times has an editorial arguing for the repeal of the laws.
After 35 years of filling the state’s prisons with drug offenders who needed treatment and disproportionately punishing poor and minority offenders, New York is on the verge of dismantling its infamous Rockefeller drug laws. To get there, Gov. David Paterson and some prosecutors will have to drop their objections to a reasonable provision on second-time offenders.
The Assembly voted last week to restore judicial discretion and end mandatory sentencing for many nonviolent low-level drug crimes. The bill, which has been introduced in the State Senate as well, would limit the longstanding and widely discredited system under which prosecutors decide who goes to jail and for how long.
Once the measure becomes law, courts would be able to sentence many addicts to treatment instead of cramming them into prisons where addiction generally goes untreated.
Republican senators who represent prison districts have long obstructed reforms like these. The latest attempt seems likely to succeed now that Democrats control the governor’s mansion and both houses of the Legislature — if Assembly lawmakers can broker a deal with the governor and some prosecutors in the state.
The last paragraph struck me. It’s stunning that Republican politicians blocked reform of these laws just to keep prison populations high to protect prison jobs in their districts. Disgusting.
All around the country, our prisons are bursting and states are going broke. We need to stop locking up non-violent offenders and focus on violent criminals.
It’s stunning how far the GOP has fallen. We expected some turmoil after the party got smoked in 2006 and then again in 2008, but this is getting ridiculous.
Putting aside for a moment the hilarious ass-kissing taking place as Michael Steele and other Republicans bend to Rush Limbaugh’s knee. The GOP leadership in Congress has decided they want to play their own part in making the party look like a bunch of buffoons.
The latest and greatest idea coming from Republican geniuses like John Boehner is the “spending freeze.” Basically, their actually TRYING to sound like Herbert Hoover.
Someone has decided that Republicans need to “rebrand” themselves as spending hawks, but they’re putting that political effort over the need to drag this economy out of a recession. They can certainly argue about spending, and they can vote no on all spending bills to make their point, but a spending freeze in an economic downturn is moronic.
The Republicans deserve to be in the minority. They deserve a chairman like Michael Steele who thinks he’s the coolest man alive but who puts his foot in his mouth every day. Finally, they deserve a blowhard spokesman like Rush Limbaugh who dresses like Johnny Cash and does his best to alienate two-thirds of the country.
Meanwhile, Newsweek just released a new poll that has President Obama’s approval rating at 72%.
It’s quite an accomplishment to be the dumbest person on a business network that completely missed the financial crisis, but Melissa Francis takes the cake. She argues like a teenager, like today when she became totally fixated on a 30-point drop in the Dow while Obama was speaking, conveniently ignoring that the market had been up over 100 points, and had given back those gains just as Obama began speaking (meaning that the trend was down as he began speaking). Anyone with half a brain knows that swings in the market in the short term are often not rational. The market is rational over the long term, not the short term. Steve Leesman was totally exacerbated as he tried to reason with her to no avail. I’m sure he would have told her to shut the f%#& up if they weren’t on the air. It was one of the most embarrassing exchanges I’ve seen on a network that has come to be known for it’s inability to understand the financial markets it’s supposed to cover.
Unfortunately, this is the kind of “analysis” we’ve come to expect on CNBC. Commentators like Larry Kudlow have one answer to everything – lower taxes on the wealthy. Idiots like Jim Cramer scream about socialism, even though he supported Obama in the fall. They’re becoming the Sarah Palin of financial analysis.
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