Originally posted by Phogphire@Jul 4 2003, 02:03 PM
Well I have a Libertaian/Conserative leaning, the past few months our Politco's have been holding us hostage with the sky is falling if we don't raise taxes, we just passed the first county income tax west of the Mississippi River, they have threathened to release people in jail & prison if they did'nt get a Tax increase, STEAL A CAR (You don't even go to jail , they give you a ticket and tell you show up in court, what a JOKE) 
Our State has over 50,000 state employees our fine govonor had to cut some Jobs, out of 50K state employees the only jobs he could find to cut were 300 State Troopers, & from the crime Lab. That is a Criminal act of our Govonor just to raise taxes.
I am not trying to Flame, here but our state and fedral federal prisions 30% of the violent criminals are CRIMINAL IMMIGRANTS (I AM NOT SORRY IF THIS ANGERS YOU AND YOU CAME HERE ILLEGALLY) My wife is a Naturalized US citiizen, she went through all the steps, and we paid to did it right, we are bringing her mom her legally it has has taken 8 years and cost us over $7K. I belive in immigration (Legal) like the immigrants that came here and Learned english on their own with thier own money and wer'nt a leech on the system. Not illegal Immigrants with 8-9 kids on welfare. They saw they they do the low paying jobs that most americans don't want. would you turn down a job that pays $18-20 an hour. Look at the construction industry Framing, drywallling, etc. Next there is no immunization shot for TB, (TB is starting to spread in our public schools, no health screening for Illegal's)
So when you steal a car and don't go to jail but use Pot ( I personally don't , but I have tried it before) and you go to Jail that is wrong. I know they say Pot is a gateway drug. We have a Medical Pot law here. So I think that we should reverse it an put the Car thives, and people doing the home invasions in jail and give the tickets to pot users. TThere is a differnce I don't belive in Leaglizing pot just decriminalize its use. Do'nt fill up our prisions and waste court and cops time with paperwork for pot users, save for protection of our families, our property and our way of life.
I have got to stop, I love to talk Politcs but it gets me heated up. I could rant for pages.
Proud to be an American.
just my .02c worth of rant for now.
As for illegals being a large part of our prison population - they should be incarcerated in their home countries. America taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for them. Drug users shouldn't be imprisoned at all. The drug war is one of the biggest farces in our lifetimes. It is no more effective than prohibition was and costs thousands of lives yearly because it is illegal. If you legalize marijuana and other other non hardcore drugs then you collect taxes rather than spend taxes. You take the criminal element out of it and hence the theft, murder, etc... that go along with it. The cost to our society for this one thing is astronomical and growing daily. How many lives must be lost and how many more ruined by a criminal record? For smoking pot? For using acid? For wanting to enjoy your life the way you want to enjoy it?
Yes, addicts definitely effect more than just themselves. My father and my step father were both alcoholics - believe me, I know how an addict can affect a family, coworkers and friends. They will be addicts whether the substances are legal or not. That is already more than self evident in our society. Compare crime rates and imprisonment in this country to the Netherlands. You might have your eyes opened to the true cost to society of a failed program like the war on drugs. So much more could be done to benefit society with the money we waste on that war and with the income we could generate by legalizing and controlling it.
How much would we save in dollars and human costs if we no longer were to concentrate police, courts and prisons on jailing people for getting high?
That space and that money should be used for true criminals - such as car thieves, killers, robbers and more.