Fox Article On Fiscal Impact on States of Death Penalty Cases

Recently, due to most states still claiming budgetary crises even after the massive stimulus monies which were received by all the states under the Obama Administration and Congress there have been more and more articles directed at Constitutional government duties and provisions which are costing the states and state citizens apparently a bundle.

Today a Fox media article reported such a position with respect to the costs of executing a death row inmate which is straining a great many state budgets, apparently.

However, nowhere in this article, as with so many which are now appearing, has it been pointed out that most of these states would not be facing budgetary crises at all if they also simply constrained themselves to collecting taxation and distributing it first and foremost to provide funding for those legal duties with which they are charged under their state constitutions.

In other words, no matter how much money the states seem to receive from their state citizens in all the levels of taxation also that are in concert with the federal government, it never seems to be enough simply because progressively all states throughout the nation have provided freebies and gimmees also to their selected sovereign subjects at the cost of the state citizenry.

In discretionary expenditures more and more, while then screaming poverty when it comes to providing funding for the public duties and functions which they ARE actually responsible for.

Such is the case with this scenario, it appears to me, along with other more capitalist and selfish motivations.

Yes, death penalty cases are costly due to the number of appeals that are available and accorded most death row inmates.

And unfortunately, the option of the death penalty due to lobbying efforts of various victims groups have expanded even the applicability of that punishment for crimes in which there are or may have been mitigating circumstances for the actual death or death(s) involved.

Many of which clearly were not without precipitating circumstances or motivation, or were not clearly committed upon strangers or the public at large with clear premeditation ("aforethought") involved.

Expanding this ulimate penalty to include technically even many cases of second and third degree murder has resulted in more and more criminals now on death row to begin with and many of whom were convicted by juries which were not in any manner unbiased and independent due to slanted reporting and media coverages such as those that occur on programs such as Nancy Grace, who hardly can be called a journalist but is using her program more as a forum to continue her career as a prosecuting attorney using the national viewing audience as her juries and presenting spins and innuendos in many instances as fact for ratings for her bosses, the clearly commercial corporate media.

Left out is also the fact that there are other crimes now that were in the past misdemeanor offenses which have now been recategorized as felonies due also to pressure from victims groups and commercial interests.

Such as the low level DUIs throughout the country, which involve no property loss or damage, or injury but have escalated into jail sentences which have crowded then the misdemeanor local jails and facilities, and with punishments now that are so cruel and unusual and involving in many states level upon level of punishment, they in no manner reflect the common law provisions of our Constitution in having the punishment fit the crime.

There is even a move now to shift those that involve involuntary manslaughter to second degree murder charges simply due to the fact that the driver of the vehicle was "legally" intoxicated under those low level DUI provisions.

When many of those deaths that keep being brought out to manipulate the public sentiments by the insurance industry and MADD, which has become a temperance organization at its root, involve teens or new drivers where even inexperience or driver error on their part also factor in to some of those deaths, many of which occur late at night on the weekends.

Or during prom week.

As far as the self-interests of the state, it would make sense that an organization such as Fox, which promotes basically British style conservatism in global corporate profits and interests as also being part and parcel of the intent of our founders, which clearly were not hence the Boston Tea Party, would be promoting abolition of the death penalty also using cost/benefit ratios for the state kitties as their means and methods.

Since, after all, many states have also now privatized their local and state jails, and also the federal government has been making moves in this direction, in order to gain further tax revenues and also "create more jobs" in the private sector.

Most of those canteens in the local jails are also privatized at this point, and prior to arrest, of course, all monies of the detainee are seized in order to also feed those local jail canteens and their profit margins and budgets.

Many of which, not surprisingly, are owned by local sheriffs or other law enforcement personnel, in addition to local impound lots.

Which is also why more and more driving offenses are also calling for impoundment of vehicles in many states for non-moving violations even, such as failure to provide proofs of insurance or driver's licenses, even though that information can also be verified through all those newfangled computers most officers in metro cities now have in their vehicles, thanks to those stimulus monies given for the tech industries profits.

Which actually are in violation of the due process protections since no property of a citizens can be seized without a judicial order or warrant, or trial by jury especially since there are many in this country still who hold that due to the fact that even most major metropolitan areas public transportation systems are inadequate, at best, driving is a right and not a privilege at all.

In fact, with all the punishments now that are deemed also by the government attached to those driver's licenses also under the bogus implied consent laws, driving is actually becoming more and more a liability and not a privilege at all, especially due to the fact that the penalties for most minor offenses in this country are now exceeding those for criminal fraud, theft, and bodily injury.

It seems crime in America now is seen as a job and economic stimulus for both the government and those on Wall Street, since also many shares of those "services" and contractors providing both security and merchandise to those jails are listed on the global stock exchange.

The death penalty is clearly Constitutional, but the increase in costs has actually occurred, once again, due to both unlawful privatization by the states of our jails and also the corruption of our state legislatures, penal system and judiciary in not letting the punishments fit the crimes, in most instances, or statutorily ill defining or placing undue barriers on the jury or not sufficiently regulating those commercial media outlets in the name of "free speech" rather than protection of the rights of the accused to a fair and impartial trial by jury, and also affording this extreme option based on then emotion or public pressure from "foreign" sources in the national media pay cable networks.

And it is clear by the Fox spins once again, more profit can be made on those prisoners for state budgets and commercially for the now penal industrial complex, for life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Even for serial killers, murders and rapists without even the remotest possibility of rehabilitation based upon the circumstances and true factual evidence of the crimes themselves as premeditated, without any evidence of any mitigating factors or clear relationship to the victim, and in cold blood, it would appear.

And this, once again, just goes to prove that it is the almighty buck, and not justice, which has now become the focus at both the state, and federal level, and its global corporate policy maker bankers and media moguls.

The interests of justice, fundamental to this country's foundation, is nowhere in the reporting as taken from the reporter's position of state's interests, the actual position the states and this reporter are taking in the reporting itself, which is socialistic in nature, and contrary to the common law for heinous crimes such as first degree, premeditated murder as opposed to second degree (crimes of passion) or voluntary or involuntary manslaughter (auto accidents, accidental deaths).

Cut out the fat from all state's operating expenditures and budgets, and the clear Constitutional intent with respect to this punishment under the common law, and those costs would change if constrained to the intent of the founders based in the common law for such egregious criminal conduct committed by one citizen against another.

In this writer's view, It is not housing death row inmates that are breaking the state's budgets, or the cost of those appeals (which, granted, are also liberally given in some states even outside of evidence which was not heard in the original trials by those juries, or new evidence) but their unconstitutional focuses and budgetary expenditures most of all.

Which position it would appear meets or exceeds such a governmental position, based upon what is now occurring throughout the nation even after all that funny money was provided to those states in now the states increasing the tax burden on the citizens in concert with the federal government, the legal common law standard of "beyond a reasonable doubt," for any such jury determined conviction in a capital criminal matter.

Such representations by the state(s) and state representatives appear to me to be along the lines of criminal fraud or consumer fraud against the public, in and of itself, without taking the obvious in just why most states are facing these budget crises year after year into account.

Could there be underlying motivations for this article, rather than "fair and balanced" reporting?

I mean "privatizing everything" does seem to be the British Conservative/Libertarian positions, which are just as extra-Constitutional as the far left winger socialists in assuming and expanding government power and functions outside Constitutional provision, whether federal or state without the consent of the governed per the 9th.

Which positions then are an unconstitutional transfer of governmental powers, also leaving the citizenry without recourse except then to the "state actor" public/private corporate interest at higher costs overall in increasing the backlog in our courts, and their costs, and then the increased costs for some of the contractual provisions even in those public/private partnerships that the taxpayers then have no knowledge of - and many of which extend from legislative session to legislative session, rather than annually to begin with, creating a snowballing effect of greater and greater budgetary deficits or federally in the overall deficits in the process, just as those trade agreements and peace treaties now run through successive Congressional sessions and even extend from Administration to Administration at this point.

Which is why the Obama Administration and 111th Congress is now holding the bag for all those Bush Administration and Congressional errors, as Bush ended up holding the bag for all those Clinton Administration and Congressional errors.

In a representative government, just how can all these treaties and governmental contracts extend longer than one year, so that the voices of the people can then truly be heard when they become aware of some of these egregious Constitutional violations which for the most part occur after the fact due to more and more closed door sessions and bargaining between these two mainstream politicay parties, such as with this latest travesty, the health care sector stimulus?

I'll let the reader decide, based upon the "fair and balanced" reporting of not simply Fox, but the "corporate" commercially owned mainstream media in general at this point - print, cable and internet for that ad revenue and their bottom line corporate profits also most of all, along with some of the individual state legislators whose job it appears most simply do not even begin to understand.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/03/27/just-cost-death-penalty-killer-state-budgets/

California's Budgetary Morass: What A Spin!

It was reported in the mainstream media that a solution to the California budgetary crisis is expected by Sunday. Apparently, there has been some concern in the Golden State due to the fact that it has been reported that some of the banks are refusing the IOUs which have been issued in order to fund governmental contractors which have not been paid due to this crisis.

And it is clear this is no more than a P.T. Barnum spectacle in order to gain more and more leverage with the California residents in the mess that has occurred due to that states progressive liberalism over the years.

Since California most of all, due to the continuing war in the Middle East, should be in the black and not the red at all if they were utilizing those public sums primarily for the state government's true Constitutional functions, rather than also funding special interests primarily with grant monies and no-bid contracts as occurs throughout the nation now in the corruption in state and municipal governments.

After all, Silicon Valley is the largest producer of all the now high tech security devices that are being installed throughout the nation, and one of the largest holder of federal contracts for technology needs in this continuing war, and are huge mega holders of U.S. government contracts.

And I wonder if this is actually the case, why the Hollywood elite have not thought of having their own benefit for the State of California instead of the next AIDS or PETA benefit.

Most of them due to their wealth and global holdings could float the state for a number of years if they were taxed at the rate the middle class actually is, or even the lower income workers - rather than having access to their offshore accounts, and tax attorneys who work the "privileges and immunities" on capital gains so well for all of them for their shell corporations, and trust accounts. Rather than being taxed on the truth "worth" of their holdings or "property."

And California is primarily a liberal Democratic state or "blue" state, yet many of whose individuals are the direct beneficiaries of the claimed Republican favoritism for the wealthy on those capital gains benies. Go figure.

In fact, while many of the people throughout the country are now facing homelessness and joblessness in increasing numbers, I read an article this week that David Arquette is planning on holding a sit in for the global Food for the Hungry in New York shortly in order to raise a few million in order to feed those living in third world countries.

I wonder if he has visited his local Los Angeles soup kitchen lately, since the class of individuals now is including the former middle class in increasing numbers.

Or why he didn't simply write a check from his own excess wealth instead of using it for a PR stunt and in order to "socialize" the donations for a cause in which he individually supports and believes? He could donate his own wealth and it would take care of quite a number, I would suspect. Or maybe the sums he pays to his tax accountant.

It was also interesting to note that California is not a right to work state, so many of the California public employees are outraged since they now feel they are being victimized by this also "budget crisis." Since they are state employees and public servants, I wonder where in the California or U.S. Constitution it gives public employees the right to "unionize" in order to gain more taxpayer sums for themselves? The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is also playing politics with the issue (and just what other citizens in other countries does this U.S. "corporate" union claim it represents?)

Municipalities are nothing more than "state actors" for the states themselves, so this is truly confusing that state employees would be allowed to unionize to get more of the taxpayer bite to begin with.

Although the CPI and statistical data published by the U.S. Department of Labor is a joke in and of itself (artificially concocted due to the fact that most union contracts and salary increases are tied in directly to the CPI, so there is some also "creative accounting" on those figures that bear no actual relevance to the true increases in costs for many products and services), teacher's salaries have gone up at three and four times the rates of inflation, as have several other of the public service occupations.

And with California also primarily one in which there is an additional layer of government in most newer suburban areas in the form of homeowners associations collecting taxes for former municipal services such as street repairs, street lighting and such, just wonder where all that revenue that the state has collected truly has gone? Since they are collecting more revenue, but providing less each and every year and transferring those costs back onto the public in those "socialized" land ownership communities.

If they are under "balanced budgets" initiatives, just how are they also then entering into multi-year contracts then with developers and other government contractors to begin with? How is that "legally" possible?

Sounds more like the classic case of fiscal mismanagement and misappropriation of funds is the true root of California's claimed budgetary woes. And maybe a few too many of those Sacramento pow-wows and state benefits given to the likes of the Donald Trumps & Co. at the state resident's expense for the global tourism industry and U.S. Chambers agendas in turning the U.S. into nothing more than a tourist attraction and investment opportunity for foreigners.

All at the cost of their fellow countrymen and their jobs and earned and owned "property" for their global monopolies and executives and fellow "corporate" brothers and subsidiaries benefit packages in the process at the price of the small businessesmen and any and all emerging American entrepreneurs due to their strangleholds now on the market due to favoritism and their "greased palms" political connections.

The delusion goes on. And nowhere more than the home of the "OC," "Desperate Housewives," and "Californication."

That state is a world unto itself, whose delusion and fantasy extend far beyond Disneyland.