Dear people affected and afflicted by the bad laws
of the USA and of the Single Convention on Narcotics
I hope you will not resent that I have brought this
op****tunity to your attention.
Follow-ups are set to talk.politics.drugs if you wish
to reprove me for my publication of this to your group.
We must help Mr.Bush produce a legacy of even-handed
Mercy. We have to help him because as we have so frequently
discussed he may not be able to see the im****tance of a good
move with all the problems he has created for himself on the
plate.
I failed to send this yesterday because I thought it might
be a joke when AWEB II 3.4 would not display the site. But this
evening I moved the post to the compromise and firefox showed me
the page.
*** Begin of forwarded message ***
Date: 07/12/07 3:02 PM
From: DRCNet <drcnet@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
Subject: Petition: Help Save Bush's Legacy by Persuading Him to Pardon
Thousands of Nonviolent Drug Offenders
--- Forwarded message follows ---
Dear Bobbie Sellers,
(Sorry for the double email today -- there's a lot going on!)
President Bush's controversial pardon of former
vice-presidential aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby has sparked a
growing national debate on criminal justice -- sentencing,
incarceration, clemency including commutations and pardons (and
their near-total disuse by the current administration prior to
last week) -- even drug laws. You can help to push this debate
forward -- and maybe even get some people out of prison who
don't deserve to be there -- by signing DRCNet's new online
petition: "Save Bush's Legacy by Persuading Him to Pardon
Thousands of Nonviolent Drug Offenders and Not Look Like a
Hypocrite":
http://stopthedrugwar.org/wewantpardons
Please sign our petition, forward it to your family and friends,
and check our web site frequently -- we will be linking in our
blog to the extensive discussion taking place on this topic in
the blogosphere.
Now is the time to demand action! Please visit
http://stopthedrugwar.org/wewantpardons
today!
(You can also sign the petition by replying to this email --
make sure to use "reply to sender" to select the long and
complicated ga0.org address -- and type in "pardons" as the
subject line.)
Sincerely,
David Borden, Executive Director
Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)
P.O. Box 18402
Wa****ngton, DC 20036
http://stopthedrugwar.org
Sign this petition either via email (please see directions
below) or via the web at:
http://ga0.org/campaign/pardons/wdngex413xd5ie?
Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this.
http://ga0.org/campaign/pardons/forward/wdngex413xd5ie?
We encourage you to take action by December 31, 2008
Petition to Save Bush's Legacy By Persuading Him to Pardon
Thousands of Nonviolent Drug Offenders
INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA THE WEB:
If you have access to a web browser, you can take action on this
alert by going to the following URL:
http://ga0.org/campaign/pardons/wdngex413xd5ie?
INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA EMAIL:
Just choose the "reply to sender" option on your email program.
You MUST Reply with "pardons" in the subject.
Petition:
Dear President Bush:
We, the undersigned, ask you to save your legacy by releasing
thousands of nonviolent drug offenders from federal prison
before you leave office. Short of taking such a measure, you
will be doomed to go down in history as a hypocrite.
Unlike President Clinton, you cannot point to a record of mercy
toward people caught in the criminal justice system. While the
overall Clinton record in criminal justice was not lenient, he
did commute the sentences of 63 people, most of them neither
wealthy nor powerful, including 29 nonviolent drug offenders.
You, by contrast, commuted only three prisoners' sentences prior
to helping Scooter Libby, one every two years. You have pardoned
four times as many Thanksgiving turkeys as people you've
released from prison.
Even worse, in 2003 your attorney general, John Ashcroft, issued
guidelines requiring federal prosecutors to always seek the
maximum possible amount of prison time for defendants, with only
limited exceptions permitted.
The measure we've called for will undoubtedly be controversial,
but you will have defenders from across the political spectrum.
Advocates will assist your staff in finding appropriate cases --
reopening cases you've previously rejected would give the
project a good head start. Clemency petitions will undoubtedly
start to pour in once you put the word out. You can answer
critics by saying we need to redirect our resources toward
national security instead. And it will be consistent with the
sympathy you've expressed in the past, based on your personal
experiences, for people who have struggled with substance abuse.
In the nation that is the world's leading jailer, which
incarcerates a far greater percentage of its population than any
other nation yet calls itself "land of the free," the president
who helps to reverse that pattern will ultimately be recognized
for it. Indeed, the "tough-on-crime" laws that have led us to
this situation were mainly enacted for political reasons. Please
pardon or commute the sentences of thousands of nonviolent drug
offenders; please rescind the aforementioned Ashcroft directive;
renounce your sup****t for the drug war (at least in its current
form); and call on Congress to repeal mandatory minimum
sentences and authorize downward revision of most federal
sentencing guidelines.
You have a year and a half left to prove that justice is for
everyone -- not just for your friends. Will you rise to the
occasion? History is watching.
--------------------------------------------------
If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for
DRCNet at:
http://ga0.org/drcnet/join.html?r=i11A__d19-mgE
--------------------------------------------------
snip of personal materials
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*** End of forwarded message ***
Thanks for your attention,
later
bliss -- C O C O A Powered... (at california dot com)
--
bobbie sellers - a retired nurse in San Francisco
"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the beans of cocoa that the thoughts acquire speed,
the thighs acquire girth, the girth become a warning.
It is by theobromine alone I set my mind in motion."
--from Someone else's Dune spoof ripped to my taste.
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