Obama shoots Rule of Law again. Wants to give clemency to THOUSANDS of drug criminals

[Harry Dresden]

It's not about black and white it's about giving more time for a crime that today would be less...But you can continue your B.S

What a silly thing to say. Of course the offenders were sentenced according to the laws in effect when they committed the crime. Not according to laws passed 20 years in the future. THINK

THINK......

so when the fuck are you going to start?.....

 

[Harry Dresden]

Jail doesn't rehabilitate anyone. But then even rehab doesn't rehabilitate anyone. At best, prison keeps them off the street. Letting these guys go is done in the hope they will be democrat voters. At least in those states that restore voting rights upon release.

obama doesn't care very much about the communities who will be victimized by thousands of violent felons.

violent?....i seen NON-violent....i know ...to you a guy in for Smoking Pot is a violent felon....but then you dont know much about that kind of thing....

 

[nodoginnafight]

My feelings on this all hinge on "the player to be named later."

I found a much more credible source that the OP's linked blog, and no one is saying what the soon-to-be-released criteria will be.

If he is talking about folks who have just been charged with possessing or selling pot, I have absolutely no problem with this.

But jail is probably the cheapest way to detox meth-heads, heroin addicts, etc ... It's probably the best place for them.

 

[Londoner]

Reagan launched the War on Drugs in the 80s. I remember when his administration would pump propaganda into our homes, "You can't fly when you're high". He was supplanting the role of families. I don't want government playing any role in raising my children. I don't care if their message is good, bad or neutral, I don't want Big Brother to play a paternal role over the population. Of course, republicans feel differently. They love giving Washington more power.

The War on Drugs has been a spectacular failure. It has merely served to give the federal government more power over state law enforcement. Like any Washington agency, it has devolved into a bloated bureaucracy with near criminal cost over-runs. I hope Obama overturns the entire program, from its failed legal applications to its sweeping control over the states. Of course, we all know that if Obama fucks with one of the GOPs favorite bureaucracies, he will be blamed for destroying the world. God forbid we let individuals decide for themselves what to do with their own bodies. Conservatives said the same things about alcohol, which lead to prohibition. They're always trying to use government to protect the individual and social body from "evil" substances, or maybe they just needed a better tool for moving blacks from welfare to cages. Hard to say.

 

[Mad_Cabbie]

Drugs should be decriminalized.

The war on drugs is a failure and the OP once again has his head up his ass.

 

[bendog]

Drugs should be decriminalized.

The war on drugs is a failure and the OP once again has his head up his ass.

True. Locking up violent drug trafficers is one thing, and mandatory sentences for non-violent addicts is another, and they're stupid to boot. BushII and his predecessors pardoned thousands more. It's like the OP gets a chain email from a partisan whacko and goes whacko.

 

[Mad_Cabbie]

Oh Brother.

Lets be FAIR about drug users??

What a load of horseshit. I could care what color they are.

As for "ineffecive and expensive way to address crime. .

Lets just slap em on the wrist, tell em not to do drugs or sell drugs and let em go.

Better yet lets let em all kill themselves with drugs. and stop wasting millions trying to rehabilitate em. Sounds good to me.

Really?

You think jail "rehabilitates" drug users.

Seriously?

Seriously there S. There are loads of rehabilitation programs out there that are payed for with tax dollars.

As far as prison goes?? These folks get dried out and off drugs. Of course the minute they are free they had back down that road again.

Yes seriously. Catch a clue.

Drugs are easier to get in prison than on the street.

 

[ClosedCaption]

I dont get the point of the OP. Does he like long jail sentences for non violent people because he's an authortarian? Or does he want longer sentences just because Obama is on the other side of the issue?

Everyday I tell people sarcasm isnt a point and it seems there is no point being made here

 

[g5000]

Drugs should be decriminalized.

The war on drugs is a failure and the OP once again has his head up his ass.

True. Locking up violent drug trafficers is one thing, and mandatory sentences for non-violent addicts is another, and they're stupid to boot. BushII and his predecessors pardoned thousands more. It's like the OP gets a chain email from a partisan whacko and goes whacko.

Bush II pardoned 189 people, and commuted the sentences of 11. Only a small fraction involved drugs.

In comparison, Clinton pardoned or commuted 456 people, 140 of them in the last hours of his presidency.

To date, Obama has pardoned or commuted 61 people.

 

[bendog]

Drugs should be decriminalized.

The war on drugs is a failure and the OP once again has his head up his ass.

True. Locking up violent drug trafficers is one thing, and mandatory sentences for non-violent addicts is another, and they're stupid to boot. BushII and his predecessors pardoned thousands more. It's like the OP gets a chain email from a partisan whacko and goes whacko.

Bush II pardoned 189 people, and commuted the sentences of 11. Only a small fraction involved drugs.

In comparison, Clinton pardoned or commuted 456 people, 140 of them in the last hours of his presidency.

To date, Obama has pardoned or commuted 61 people.

Perhaps amusingly, I put up a link to the comparison's yesterday, with a swarmy sarcastic title about Obama throwing open the jail doors. I figured the outraged RW would leap on this with factual misconceptions, and they did not prove me wrong on that. LOL I'll take a wild guess that RW media was in full splendor this a.m. with disinformation.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Draft dodgers were quite a different strain than drug using felons.

Quite a few of those draft dodgers were drug users.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Reagan launched the War on Drugs in the 80s. I remember when his administration would pump propaganda into our homes, "You can't fly when you're high". He was supplanting the role of families. I don't want government playing any role in raising my children. I don't care if their message is good, bad or neutral, I don't want Big Brother to play a paternal role over the population. Of course, republicans feel differently. They love giving Washington more power.

The War on Drugs has been a spectacular failure. It has merely served to give the federal government more power over state law enforcement. Like any Washington agency, it has devolved into a bloated bureaucracy with near criminal cost over-runs. I hope Obama overturns the entire program, from its failed legal applications to its sweeping control over the states. Of course, we all know that if Obama fucks with one of the GOPs favorite bureaucracies, he will be blamed for destroying the world. God forbid we let individuals decide for themselves what to do with their own bodies. Conservatives said the same things about alcohol, which lead to prohibition. They're always trying to use government to protect the individual and social body from "evil" substances, or maybe they just needed a better tool for moving blacks from welfare to cages. Hard to say.

Why do people have an obsessive need to blame everything on Reagan/Bush?

The war on drugs dates back to 1914, Reagan was 3 at the time, only a complete moron would blame a 3 year old for prohibition.

War on Drugs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[emilynghiem]

All citizens have the right to void bad laws.
What matters if we take responsibility for our response to them, either way.

Every time recreational drug users deliberately break the laws, they are exercising freedoms and actions they believe they have the right to even though the law states otherwise. but lawabiding taxpayers end up paying for the consequences.

Neither the law breakers or law enforcers are paying the costs incurred on the public.

If we don't take responsibility, the resulting backlog dumped on taxpayers for consequences obstructs due process and reforms. That is why people like Obama take any shortcut available while the problems remain unfixed while debating how to fix them.

This is a sign of a larger problem if procedures are bypassed, as with ACA
that didn't fully follow Constitutional procedures or standards from the beginning,
and with each ruling and change made that still fails to address the root conflicts.

The reason the drug laws, immigration laws, and now health care laws
are not being reformed is that we don't agree how to take back and track
"separate responsibility" for the separate sides we believe in.
So we all get stuck with a "collective policy" that dumps this on the taxpayer instead of separating responsibility for the consequences. We would have to be equally respectful and inclusive of the opposing views in order to sort out these issues fairly; but since we are too busy fighting for one side over the other, nothing is getting corrected or reformed.

We all suffer the escalating costs and consequences, and Obama is attempting to bypass that just using executive orders as a shortcut against the whole backlogged process.

If obozo doesn't like the law then he should ask congress to change it. But no - obozo changes it himself!

Ordered Liberty » Clemency for Drug Offenders Is More Presidential Lawlessness Disguised as Pardon Power

April 21st, 2014 - 12:52 pm

Attorney General Eric Holder announced today that dozens of lawyers will be reassigned to the Justice Department’s pardon office in anticipation of a surge of applications from drug offenders for reductions in their sentences — applications the Obama administration has signaled it would look upon favorably. This exercise is another transparent usurpation of legislative power by the president. The pardon power is just the camouflage for it.

The pardon power exists so that the president can act in individual cases to correct excesses and injustices. It is not supposed to be a vehicle by which presidents rewrite congressional statutes that they disagree with philosophically (just as “prosecutorial discretion,” another doctrine the Obama administration has abused, is not supposed to be a vehicle by which the president substitutes his policies for duly enacted federal law).

The Obama administration is philosophically opposed to mandatory minimums in the federal penal law, especially in the narcotics area. The Justice Department is filled with racialist ideologues and pro-criminal rights ideologues (they tend to be the same people) who have long contended that the drug laws are racist. This is another of those absurd arguments that finds racism based on unintended consequences rather than racist designs.

The mandatory minimums for crack (“cocaine base”) crimes are more severe than for powder cocaine (which was called “cocaine hydrochloride” back when I was a federal prosecutor). Many crack distributors are black and Hispanic, while many powder cocaine distributors are white — although there are plenty of whites in the former category and minority dealers in the latter. Thus, it is contended, the mandatory minimums are racist in effect.

 

[Synthaholic]

Honestly, as much as I dislike the Turd In Chief, I'm cool with this.

You missed the point. Maybe the laws are bad but they were enacted by congress and the penalties should stand unless congress changes them.. THINK

Hey moron - the POTUS can grant clemency to whomever he wishes.

Why do you hate the Constitution?

 

[nodoginnafight]

This is typical of so many of the "Holy Crap Look What Obama is Doing Now Threads"

Full of misinformation, lies, and hyperbole.

When you check under the hood, that becomes glaringly apparent.

You'd think this president is perfect, based on the bullshit so many folks on these boards come up to complain about. SERIOUSLY, are you that clueless about the REAL mistakes this POTUS has made that you feel the need to grind axes like these???

welcome to the boy who cried wolf zone. No one believes you. No one gives you an ounce of credibility. So now, if you complain about something legitimate - people will STILL write you off as a crackpot.

Crap like this actually HELPS Obama get away with crap.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

True. Locking up violent drug trafficers is one thing, and mandatory sentences for non-violent addicts is another, and they're stupid to boot. BushII and his predecessors pardoned thousands more. It's like the OP gets a chain email from a partisan whacko and goes whacko.

Bush II pardoned 189 people, and commuted the sentences of 11. Only a small fraction involved drugs.

In comparison, Clinton pardoned or commuted 456 people, 140 of them in the last hours of his presidency.

To date, Obama has pardoned or commuted 61 people.

Perhaps amusingly, I put up a link to the comparison's yesterday, with a swarmy sarcastic title about Obama throwing open the jail doors. I figured the outraged RW would leap on this with factual misconceptions, and they did not prove me wrong on that. LOL I'll take a wild guess that RW media was in full splendor this a.m. with disinformation.

Keep in mind that I started threads bitching about Obama not using his power to issue pardons ye3ars ago.

 

[Claudette]

Really?

You think jail "rehabilitates" drug users.

Seriously?

Seriously there S. There are loads of rehabilitation programs out there that are payed for with tax dollars.

As far as prison goes?? These folks get dried out and off drugs. Of course the minute they are free they had back down that road again.

Yes seriously. Catch a clue.

Drugs are easier to get in prison than on the street.

Oh I'm sure some drugs get in but for the most part anyone hooked on drugs going into jail is off em when they come out. Those working at the jail have to babysit these idiots and listen to them scream.

I know this because I've worked in a jail and seen drugs confiscated going in so I know some make it in but most don't.

I will say though that some of these folks are innovative as hell when trying to smuggle drugs in.

These folks will come out clean of drugs but of course hit the drugs the minute they get out and be right back in jail.

Seen it happen many, many times.

So Holders little exercise in "FAIR" drug charges is an exercise in futility. These folks will be right back in jail at taxpayer expense.

 

[ShootSpeeders]

If he is talking about folks who have just been charged with possessing or selling pot, I have absolutely no problem with this.

sigh -- You don't understand the issue. It's not the president's place to rewrite laws passed by congress and that's what a blanket clemency does. Pardons on an individual bases are ok.

Like all liberals your motto is - "To hell with the law. We're gonna do what's right".

 

[ShootSpeeders]

[

You missed the point. Maybe the laws are bad but they were enacted by congress and the penalties should stand unless congress changes them.. THINK

Hey moron - the POTUS can grant clemency to whomever he wishes.

Why do you hate the Constitution?

Hey einstein. Legal and ethical are not the same thing. THINK

 

[ShootSpeeders]

I dont get the point of the OP. Does he like long jail sentences for non violent people because he's an authortarian? Or does he want longer sentences just because Obama is on the other side of the issue?

You are correct - you don't get the point. I too think drug sentences should be reduced. But the laws mandating the stiff penalties were passed by congress and the way to reduce them is thru congress. The president is supposed to enforce the laws not rewrite them.

PS - if i had my way the only drug use crime that would get you prison time would be drunk driving since that's a drug crime of extreme violence.