Category: Politics

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Sarah Palin????

I have to say that Sarah Palin is the reason that I for the first time EVER, voted for a Democratic Presidential candidate.

I’d voted for the other Republican candidates in the primaries but as they were eliminated in favor of McCain/Palin I found myself facing a conundrum.

I didn’t like Obama but was flat out terrified of McCain dieing in office, and Palin becoming president.

In short Sarah Palin WAS and may still be Barack Obamas greatest political ally. She  single handedly insured Obamas election.

I caught a link about Palin earlier today and marveled at what has to be the BEST trainwreck of a sound bite ever!

This is Palin speaking about Paul Revere’s 1775 ride. In fact he wasn’t making a lot of noise, he was quietly warning his fellow revolutionaries about the whereabouts and plans of the British army.

There are SEVERAL frightening things about this sound bite.

  1. Every elementry school child has heard the poem (Longfellow) about Paul Revere’s midnight ride.
  2. This woman has been a Mayor, Governor, AND VICE PRESIDENTIAL candidate.
  3. This woman could have had access to THE BUTTON. (What’s this pretty button do?)
  4. She is once again mucking about in presidential politics and will probably sink whichever party she’s associated with.  (Wonder if she’d go Democrat?)
  5. She HOME SCHOOLED her children! What kind of education did they actually get? Clearly American History isn’t on the list!

This is another train wreck person that needs to recognize her 15 minutes of fame is OVER.

Please Mrs. Palin go home.

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This is a serious WTF?

Due to prison overcrowding in California a significant number of convicted criminals are being released.

So what exactly does this say?

Is this a condition where California has TOO DAMN MANY LAWS?

Or and this may be more likely,

Does California have TOO DAMN MANY CRIMINALS?

I’m blown away by the kind of thinking that says it fine to release known criminals back into society simply because they’re crowded.

Prison is supposed to be a deterrent. In general I agree with Sheriff Joe Arpaios of Arizona methods. His philosophy is in general pretty much like what I was raised with in the South. In the South they still use chain gangs for road cleanup and repair. YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE IN PRISON IN THE SOUTH!

I was taught that when you were convicted of a crime and sentenced to prison, all but your basic rights were suspended. So you were entitled to an appeal, you were entitled to food, and shelter. Anything beyond that was at the discretion of the Warden.

It astounds me that a California inmate costs the state on average $47000 a year. According to Legislative Analyst’s Office about 2/3 of the cost is administrative in nature (Security, health care, & operations) I think we AS TAXPAYERS are entitled to some kind of compensation. I think that all the inmates should be doing some kind of productive work. Instead of sitting around watching TV, working out, and getting degrees on the taxpayers dime.

Unfortunately, if California tried to use the prison population as a labor force offsetting the cost of incarceration, we’d spend more money fighting legal challenges than we’d save.

There is a subtext in all of this. It’s that there is in fact NO punishment or accountability. Why would the police spend any real effort to deal with petty theft when they know there’s no jail time even if they catch the perpetrator. The problem with this is, now the police are in a position where they’ll pick and choose which cases are more important.

So what’s the answer?

Deport Illegal aliens? Well that would work except that the hardened elements would be back in a week

Accelerate the execution of the prisoners on death row? Well, that would give us a few more cells to work with. It would certainly put the fear of California prison into potential criminals. But cleaning out death row isn’t a viable long term solution.

Eliminate the 3 strike Zero Tolerance laws? I think this actually would help. Zero Tolerance ANYTHING is stupid. When you have mandatory prison terms for certain offenses you automatically stress the prison system. Lets eliminate Zero Tolerance and get back to enforcing the spirit of the law not the letter.

Ship prisoners to out of state prisons? I don’t know if that’s a good idea or a bad one. Eventually, all the prison system will be overloaded, if it’s not already.

Whatever the solution, I don’t think dumping prisoners into society is the answer. Especially not with the state / local budget in crisis and police forces that are understaffed and overworked.

Lets face it most of the time the police arrive in time to clean up the blood, they rarely have an opportunity to actually prevent a crime. Dumping our prison population is far more likely to increase their janitorial duties.

As always, this blog is just my opinion and if you’ve got a different opinion you’re welcome to express it.

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Circumcision as a Political Football?

I heard about a group in San Francisco that had managed to get an anti-circumcision law on the ballot in The City.

On the one hand I personally think that circumcision is a barbaric practice.

On the OTHER HAND I don’t think it’s reasonable in our society to add to the body of Nanny State laws.
When the State has a say in what happens with MY dick or the dicks of the males in my family then something is very wrong.

I suggested to my brother that he leave his sons intact. Not because of religious issues, or hygiene issues or anything other than a philosophical position.

I don’t know what my brother decided, but after saying my piece, the matter was closed.

If I, as the Patriarch of our family know when it’s time to butt out, what makes the state of California think that they have any greater say in what is clearly a personal issue.

Lets NOT even begin to discuss the interference in freedom of religion that this San Francisco law would create.

I wasn’t going to comment on this legal silliness UNTIL some nutjob in Santa Monica started to try to get the same kind of law enacted down here.

Folks, Circumcision is barbaric. However, it’s a personal choice for various reasons  AND it should remain a personal decision. This does not belong in the body of law. It also begs the question, are you going to have little boys dropping their trousers so that teachers can report the boys circumcision status to the state?

Again, and I can’t stress this enough Think for yourselves! Don’t eat the pudding.