Today's Voice: 3-Strikes is Inhumane and Unjust

by Voice4Change Wednesday, Jul. 17, 2002 at 11:03 AM
sgalindez@voice4change.org

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Today's Voice

Voice4Change
Changing Hearts and Minds
http://www.voice4change.org

July 16, 2002


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Sticky Business

With the stock tanking and the SEC looking into accounting practices at the company he used to run, Cheney has been noticeably absent from the debate over how to fix corporate America
Where's Vice President Dick Cheney?

By Allan Sloan and Johnnie L. Roberts
NEWSWEEK

When President Bush came to Wall Street to jawbone chief executives about corporate responsibility, Dick Cheney, the vice president and a former CEO himself, wasn’t with him. When Bush met at the White House with his new Justice Department corporate-crime “SWAT team,” Cheney was elsewhere—at a national-security meeting, his aides said.

http://www.voice4change.org/stories/showstory.asp?file=020716~democrats.asp


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3-Strikes is Inhumane and Unjust

The 3-Strikes law was originally intended to put murderers, rapists and hard-core violent criminals in prison for a long time. Unfortunately, through the "chest-thumping" of politicians, the 3-Strikes law was expanded to include many individuals who have committed only minor offenses. Instead of receiving any type of sentence that would appear "just" or "proportional" to the crime committed, many are spending 25 years or more in prison for as minor an offense as possession of drugs.
Some politicians proclaim that 3-Strikes is a great deterrent. Currently the data does not suggest this to be the case, but there is some logic to the argument that says if you increase punishments to people found guilty of some crimes that some deterrence will probably occur. For instance, if you impose the death penalty on traffic violators, many people will probably slow down their driving (and probably decrease the number of deaths on our highways). The question, however, is whether such a penalty would be "just."

http://www.voice4change.org/stories/showstory.asp?file=020716~facts.asp


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WAND Says no to National Missile Defense

In December 2001, President Bush announced his intention to withdraw the United States from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia, which forbade building and deploying a robust national missile defense shield. The administration has tried to present missile defense as a moral imperative for the country. However, we at WAND believe that the true moral imperative is not to build yet another expensive, provocative, new weapon system, but to reduce the threat of nuclear war and accidental catastrophe through arms control, disarmament, and international cooperation. U.S. leadership is needed now to stop another arms race before it begins.

http://www.voice4change.org/stories/showstory.asp?file=020716~wand.asp


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Introduction to ACORN's Living Wage Web Site

Welcome to ACORN's living wage website. What you will find here is a brief history of the national living wage movement, background materials such as ordinance summaries and comparisons, drafting tips, research summaries, talking points, and links to other living wage-related sites.

Visitors to the web site should keep in mind that there is no magic formula for a successful living wage campaign. Every campaign is different -- dependent on the campaign leaders and their constituencies, local politics and power dynamics, the campaign coalition's interests and scope, resources, experience, timelines, local and regional economies, etc.


http://www.voice4change.org/stories/showstory.asp?file=020716~acorn.asp



Warm Regards,
Voice4Change.org
http://www.voice4change.org