Letters to the Editor
Silenced
Published Letters: 1358 Editor's Choice: 75
-
But a sea of angry prosecutors might riot if Hillary loses
[Read the article: Jonah Goldberg and Glenn Reynolds warn of "social unraveling" if Obama loses]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I just learned last night, thanks to Hillary's idiot campaign manager who let the cat out of the bag, that Hillary is positioning herself to the right of Scalia and Thomas on mandatory minimum sentencing.
The Supreme Court recently struck down mandatory minimum sentencing and recommended that they be seen only as guidelines, not requirements, for judges during sentencing.
Scalia and Thomas voted with the majority. Only ONE Bush appointee dissented.
But Hillary's campaign manager said Obama was too liberal because he voted to abolish these things in 2004.
Hillary and her campaign staff need to reconsider exactly how Gray Davis lost his job. Gray Davis was booted out in favor of a moderate Republican who wanted to solve California's prison crisis by letting nonviolent offenders get out early.
The problem with overincarceration is that the prison budget can't be cut as easily social programs can be cut.
When you have a tight budget, you can cut the number of poor people that your social programs are meant to serve.
But what can you do about prisoners? There's only three ways to cut a prison budget:
1. Violate the constitutional guarantees against cruel and unusual punishment and cut the amount of food and heat and water going to prisoners.
2. Fire prison guards and endanger the public and the prisoners as well with unsecured prisons.
3. Reduce the prison population by sending nonviolent offenders to prison for less time and letting some of them out early.
I believe America is going to choose door number 3.
Arnold, Obama and Huckabee are standing behind that door.
I'm finally starting to enjoy this campaign season. It's finally getting interesting.
-
I'll tell you what happens when people don't read newspapers
[Read the article: I Like to Watch]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]They say embarrassing things, like claiming that Obama's opposition to mandatory minimum sentencing marks him as too liberal.
See, if those people read newspapers, they might have found out that the Supreme Court recently voted 8-1 against mandatory minimums. Thomas and Scalia voted with the majority, as did 50% of the Bush appointees on the court.
That's why it's good to read newspapers. Then you won't be accusing people of being too liberal for agreeing with powerful conservatives.
-
Joan could you ask someone in Hillary's campaign for me
[Read the article: The debate through the eyes of Clinton loyalists]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Do they think Clarence Thomas is too liberal because he voted against mandatory minimum sentencing in 2007?
-
Something to think about Joan
[Read the article: The debate through the eyes of Clinton loyalists]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If Salon had reported on the recent Supreme Court decision against mandatory minimum sentencing, where it became clear that there is a movement among conservative judges to abolish these things, then maybe Hillary's campaign workers would have had a heads up and she wouldn't have come off sounding so completely out of touch with the times.
We're not living in the incarceration-happy nineties any more. People are becoming much more thoughtful about this issue then they were back then.
I prefer Hillary's health care plan but I refuse to be governed by fear.
And that's the image she giving herself when she stands up for mandatory minimum sentencing as if it were still the fearful, vengeful nineties.
She's reminding me that her husband built bipartisanship in Congress partly by having his lying ass Drug Czar instill public fear that there were WMDs hiding in marijuana.
She's reminding me that her husband's successful fear-mongering over marijuana could have served as a dress rehearsal for Bush's successful fear-mongering over Iraq.
Even conservatives are getting tired of this nonsense nowadays.
I mean, hey, Bob Barr took a lobbying job for the Marijuana Policy Project.
Does Hillary not get that clue?
She talks about working so hard. Well maybe she should have taken a break from her work to read the news.
-
Here's the more you can tell me
[Read the article: Listening to Obama]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'll bring you more on Obama, Edwards and Clinton before Tuesday.
I'd like to know why Hillary doesn't think judges are competent enough to do their jobs without minutely detailed written instructions from Congress.
-
Walter you're forgetting about the issues that have been censored in Salon
[Read the article: Heartbreak ahead for Hillary Clinton?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The Democratic race has not been a clash of ideas, since all the major candidates agree on broad themes, from sweeping national healthcare coverage to prudently withdrawing from Iraq. That frees up voters to make their choices based on grounds other than coldblooded logic and what's-in-it-for-me green-eyeshade arithmetic.
Not all the candidates agree on incarceration, but since this is one of the issues that has been censored from Salon's coverage of the external world, I forgive you for failing to realize it.
Hillary's campaign staff let the cat out of the bag. Opposing mandatory minimums makes Obama too liberal.
Now we do see a lack of agreement between the candidates on a major issue.
Overincarceration is a major issue.
In California we're having to cut wonderful social programs that everyone wants to keep, because we put too many people in prison during the incarceration mania of the eighties and nineties.
It's a lot easier to cut a health care program than it is to cut prison spending. Once you put people in prison, you've committed the funds to take of them, whether those funds exist or not.
If your state revenue declines, then you have to take those funds from other programs, like health care and education.
It's the "morning after" and America is now facing the consequences of this incarceration binge.
Look at Hillary's website. She avoid this issue and anything related to it.
Obama doesn't avoid it. His views are right there where you can see them.
Hillary needs to step up and show that she recognizes that times have changed.
-
Isn't fart gas technically a toxic substance?
[Read the article: My office mate lets off noxious farts]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Doesn't the smell come from hydrogen sulfide?
I thought hydrogen sulfide turns to sulphuric acid when it's combined with oxygen and water, say, in your respiratory tract after inhalation.
If you're inhaling a toxic substance, then it's not whining to complain.
-
This is where it becomes valuable to pay attention to evolution
[Read the article: My office mate lets off noxious farts]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Humans evolved the sense of smell partly to detect toxins in their food. We can tell when food smells rotten, for example.
We don't like the smell of rotten food. That's what keeps us from ingesting the toxins that are produced by rotting food and the pathogenic organisms that made the food rot.
If something smells bad enough to make you leave the room, then I think your brain is telling you that toxins are present nearby.
It's not weak to complain of being poisoned.