White House declares war on judicial discretion

By Libby

Oh man, does this piss me off. Not only does Gonzo, supported by our clueless leader, refuse to quit in the face of his own criminiality, now in response to the challenge against the illogical sentencing guidelines on crack cocaine, Bush and his pet AG have come up with another dunderheaded plan.

The Bush administration is trying to roll back a Supreme Court decision by pushing legislation that would require prison time for nearly all criminals.

In a speech June 1 to announce the bill, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales urged Congress to reimpose mandatory minimum prison sentences against federal convicts -- and not let judges consider such penalties "merely a suggestion."

Such an overhaul, in part, "will strengthen our hand in fighting criminals who threaten the safety and security of all Americans," Gonzales said in the speech, delivered three days before the FBI announced a slight national uptick in violent crime during 2006.

What a crock. With a prison population of well over 2 million, we are already the biggest jailers in the world. We have more of our population in jail than China or Russia. We have more people in jail for non-violent drug offenses than all of Western Europe incarcerates for all crimes combined. In fact, the reason violent crime is up, is because the jails are so overcrowded with non-violent drug offenders forced to serve mandatory sentences ridiculously out of proportion to the seriousness of their "crimes," that violent criminals are being let out of prison on early releases.

This is nothing more than a sop for the prison-industrial complex, whose members just happen to be a big GOP contributors and will do next to nothing to reduce crime. Not that it will stop the Republicans from trying to make hay with it.

...Republicans are seizing the administration's crackdown, packaged in legislation to combat violent crime, as a campaign issue for 2008.

Good luck with that scam. The only criminals we need to protect ourselves against are the ones in the White House and the thieves and liars on Capitol Hill who have aided and abetted them in murdering the Constitution.