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President Obama Grants 17 Pardons

President Obama granted 17 pardons today. The list is here. Most are low level offenders who got probation.

There are only two drug offenders in the group:

Michael John Petri – Montrose, South Dakota.
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribution of a controlled
substance (cocaine), 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a), 846.
Sentence: Five years imprisonment, three years supervised release.

Lynn Marie Stanek – Tualatin, Oregon.
Offense: Unlawful use of a communication facility to distribute cocaine, 21 U.S.C. § 843(b).
Sentence: Six months in jail, five years probation conditioned on residence in a
community treatment center for a period not to exceed one year.

On this day of sequester, why not commute the sentences of non-violent offenders serving double-digit sentences, and those under deportation orders who will be deported from prison when their time is up? At least we'd save some money -- $25-30,000 per inmate per year. Or seriously medically ill elderly inmates who cost even more to warehouse in medical prisons? If there were fewer inmates, we wouldn't need to spend so many billions on new prisons and contracts with private prisons.

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    Why? (5.00 / 2) (#1)
    by Dadler on Sat Mar 02, 2013 at 12:17:11 PM EST
    Because, in case you haven't noticed, Barack Obama may be one of the most singularly unimaginative and uncreative people to hold his current office. Carter writes poetry, Clinton could blow a little sax, hell even Bush is painting John Wayne Gacy level oils.  Obama has written two books that were both, in their own way, sad and psychologically way off IMO. No surprise that he would be unwilling to go out on a limb for anyone. That comes with far too much unnecessary risk. Imagination would be needed to go the full pardon mile, and no president, to be honest and cut O some slack, has come close yet. But Obama is a unique set of psychological dysfunctions packaged in a fairly decent and intelligent human being.

    Obama's two books were easy, (5.00 / 2) (#2)
    by NYShooter on Sat Mar 02, 2013 at 01:48:20 PM EST
    He wrote about his favorite subject.

    But, and I mean seriously now, he could do something really worthwhile. And, I don't know if it would be that huge of a political risk. I'm talking about a heaven sent CYA opening to furlough hundreds of thousands of non-violent prisoners. This is just one of those things that almost everybody knows in their heart of hearts is the right thing to do.

    I don't want to make this a long, long post so, I'll just say that, morally speaking, having the largest number of incarcerated humans in our jails and prisons is a statistic that is untenable, unnecessary, and most importantly, unworthy of a great nation. That's #1.

    #2 is financial, economical, and moral. Needless to say we'd save billions of dollars, but again, more importantly, we'd save our souls. No body that thinks of themselves as a decent, moral, and fair citizen of humanity can look at what's taking place under our noses with this privatization-industrial complex and not look away in shame.

    And, now, don't get me started with Godwin's Law, but I just learned a fact I never knew before. And, I thought I knew quite a bit about the mid 20th century in Europe.  Documents have now been discovered, and compiled, that provide the unbelievable reality of just how many concentration camps, death camps, slave labor camps, and medical experimentation camps the Nazis built..........approx. 42,000, ten times what was thought before..

    I'll just leave it at that because what that number means is that the implausible excuse many German citizens used about the camps was that they did not know. This number makes it impossible for that to be true. My point: It didn't happen in one day; it started when the public just started looking away.  And, we here have to start looking at what's taking place before we get to the point where our lives will depend on not seeing a thing.