right wing teabaggers, prosecutorial "discretion" and prison populations...

so the right wing, at the behest of our old friend the fox news network, is desperately trying to catch up to the times with some good old fashioned organizing around something, anything. problem is, howard dean figured out that with the new and fast dissemination of information one could utilize all these local networks to come together into a political movement. obama pretty much perfected the model and we got a hybrid of bottom-up and top-down political action that put the first black man into the white house. and now the republicans, desperate to catch up, after failing with the "we've got a woman too" angle and now the "we've got a minority too" angle, they are trying their own community organizing...only without the hybrid...its all top down. and the best part...it involves teabagging. and seriously, nothing is more amusing than the mental image of a bunch of backwards rush limbaugh dittoheads gathering around a circle for some good old fashioned teabagging.

but in all seriousness...what the hell are these people actually protesting? the extra 20 bucks in their paychecks this month? the fact that their savings account still exists? that the right wing spent their future and set them up for a zero balance in their 401k? seriously, what the hell are they yelling about? makes me wonder just how many of them know anything, and I mean anything, about the boston tea party and what was actually going on. I wonder how many of them still repeat the mantra "no taxation without representation" without being able to fathom any more substantial drive behind the revolution, or even the simple act of dumping tea into the sea. if any of them even know which company brought the tea into the harbor...or can understand that the brits had given said company sole access to the tea market. (now, if they are actually protesting corporate dominance of the government, then I'll teabag a few conservatives myself...but somehow I doubt that, especially considering the whole shebang has been promoted incescently by fox).

don't get me wrong, I can't stand piss poor spending of the public wealth either. the fact that our children attend schools in disrepair without enough pencils and paper let alone actual books or quality teachers that aren't overly concerned with teaching to a pointless test that does nothing to improve schooling but costs billions of dollars a year makes me physically ill. the fact that most of my tax dollars are now going to either killing poor brown folks across the world or putting poor brown folks and their white class-mates in cages while the guy down the street is just praying that his heart problems, diabetes and lung issues (compliments of asbestos) don't kill him before medicaire kicks in because we are the only serious western "civilized" nation in the world that won't give him the medicine he needs is disgraceful. but what are these nutjobs complaining about? aren't they most likely to be the same ones that beat their chests and cheerlead us into any war? the same ones that cheer for putting the government back into our bedrooms while complaining that the feds are overstepping their bounds? the same ones that tell immigrants to get the hell out of america and then complain when it costs an extra buck for their produce?

then again...what is my problem? maybe all this nation needs to set it straight is a day of collective teabagging...

was watching good morning america or one of those useless shows this morning (left the radio in the car, so npr was not to be heard) and they were discussing how ridiculous it is to charge high school kids with sex crimes for possessing "child pornography" when they snap nude photos of their boyfriends and girlfriends. they talked to one kid who was 18 and had some nudey photos of his ex who now must register as a sex offender for a long, long time. and apparently vermont has some people that are actually realizing how fucking ludicrous this is and want to close the loophole so that we don't destroy somebody's life for something stupid half of kids are doing before they are even old enough to have a beer. and they had on some crazy lady (the inevitable "we aren't hard enough on crime and we need to protect our children" ranter type) on that claimed that there already were protections in place...protections she called "prosecutorial discretion." well...let me tell you what that actually means...

you see, in theory "prosecutorial discretion" is a wonderful thing because prosecutors are no doubt all perfect beings that are truly interested in justice and what is best for all involved, the community, the alleged victim and the accused. and so, in theory, they choose which crimes are proper to choose, keeping in mind that their job is to do justice...not vengeance. only that ain't how it works in reality. in the real world "prosecutorial discretion" is a bullshit cover for some asshole to find any and all crimes that they might be able to slap on someone, the higher the degree the better. and then try and lock them up as long as possible, because in the end, prosecutors care shit about justice and only care about winning.

that is how, recently in albuquerque, we had a kid on trial for a triple murder when the DA's office admitted it had maybe, at best, a 50/50 shot at a conviction. and then, mid-trial, it turns out the meth-head get-a-favor-from-the-state-if-you-testify witnesses were full of shit. the truck they said he was driving when he supposedly gunned these kids down...wasn't bought until a year later. the trailer park where they supposedly went immediately afterwards to party...hadn't been built yet. and this is what "prosecutorial discretion" gets you...it gets you a murder charge in a case that, if it were a civil matter, would make the headlines as frivulous and lead to calls to hang the trial lawyers from the nearest tree. well, pardon my french, and offense meant to my friends that use it, but fuck prosecutorial discretion and the high horse it rode in on.

new study released indicates that blacks in state prisons for drug offenses dropped dramatically during the last decade. sounds great doesn't it...but I have one question. something tells me it is rather likely that there has been a corresponding uptick in blacks in federal prisons for drug offenses. and if that is the case...thanks bill clinton. I didn't need you to be an asshole on the campaign trail last year to know that you were a complete shitbag posing as one of us. when you see nixon in hell, tell him you did your best.

I'm a creep...