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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Krowbar who wrote (14511)	12/31/1997 12:09:00 PM
From: Father Terrence	Respond to of 108807

LIBERTARIAN PUSHES LIFETIME PAROLE FOR POLITICIANS By Don Lewd Denver News Capitol Bureau ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DENVER, CO. Confirmed senators, representatives, mayors, governors, career bureaucrats, district attorneys and other politicians could face a "life'' sentence in Colorado -- but not in a prison cell. House Majority Leader Norman Andrews, L-Lakewood, said Tuesday he will push for a referendum "requiring mandatory lifetime parole or probation'' when confirmed politicians are up for election. "I kind of compare politicians to alcoholics,'' Andrews said. "These people are always going to be addicted to power. But they have to change their patterns of behavior to live in a society of free individuals. "We can't protect individuals with the governmental structure we have now because politicians and bureaucrats exploit it. Yes, they're eventually voted out of office or retire, but not before causing a great deal of harm to individual freedoms and Constitutional rights. Besides, once they're in we really don't have any control over them,'' he said. Andrews began work on the language of the referendum last summer after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Kansas law allowing out-of-control legislators to be committed (by voters) to mental institutions indefinitely. Furious Republicans and Democrats, state parole and probation officers, corrections officials, political-rights advocates, police, DAs, various university officials, dog catchers and others are involved in researching (read: trying to stop) the Colorado proposal. "It's just too expensive to individual freedom to allow politicians free reign forever,'' Andrews pointed out. "If we have learned anything during the last 220 years it should be that this referendum is needed.'' Housing a politician in a state mental hospital would cost about $45,000 a year, nearly double that cost ($87,000) is required to safely deport them (bribes would be needed to pay South American governments to accept and keep these potentially dangerous power-seekers). The alternative of lifetime probation won't be cheap either. Andrews said a $5 million annual price tag on the measure "will probably be its biggest stumbling block." Sen. Sally Forth, L-Ft. Collins, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, co-wrote the referendum. It is scheduled for a vote in November of 1998. The idea is patterned after a law enacted in the tiny nation of Liberty. "In Liberty, a politician is given the option of either a lifetime parole if they stupidly choose to run for a second term in office," Andrews said, " or a lengthy imprisonment -- confined with individuals convicted of breaking the very laws the lawmaker himself or herself had created or advocated. "My bill would be a bit different. Parole would be mandatory, though it would not apply to student political bodies or high school and college Presidential elections," he said. Andrew's proposal also provides for a 10-year and 20-year review of lifetime parole assignments. Politicians could get off supervision with a favorable recommendation from an apolitical businessman or woman and evidence that the reformed lawmaker could run a real business profitably, like that of a corner hot dog stand. No opposition to the referendum has surfaced so far except among politicians and PACs. Mack Slippenslide of the American Civil Liberties Union in Colorado had no immediate comment. "I want to study it and get more background," he said. A number of states have recently investigated the possibility of enacting laws allowing repeat office-seekers to be permanently committed to mental hospitals. Others require politicians to register with communities and for all individuals to be publicly notified when a politician moves in. Colorado has a politician registry. But Andrews said a 'yes' vote on his referendum would strengthen individual protections and property right protections beyond what a registry can accomplish. "Let's face it, politicians often try to run again," Andrews explained. "Therefore, this kind of monitoring is needed. "They would be out of political office, able to work and earn an honest, real living, but they would be closely supervised. It would take more scrutiny and more diligence, I know. But it can help protect the individual and all of our freedoms." Father Terrence