It’s Thursday, April 30, 2009 and it seems that April has flown by. March dragged ass, but April zoomed past. It’s probably because a lot of the spring turkey season occurs in April and spring turkey hunting is what I crave.
In other news, 24 year old Jacob Polaschek was sentenced to 6 years in prison for receiving and possessing child porn. I for one don’t have a problem with this sentence. Some would call it too light, some would call it too harsh. I think it’s just right, based on what I’m reading.
What pisses me off is that the feds don’t seem to have a problem handing down appropriate sentences, but our local judges/prosecutors do seem to have a problem.
I mean this was also part of a plea agreement and the felon drew 6 years. That’s a LOT less than you’ll get from killing someone while driving drunk in Yellowstone County. See, the federal judges have mandatory sentencing that they have to impose. The mandatory sentences are there because the people got sick of all manner of criminals (not just druggies, but that’s how it started) doing a revolving door thing in the federal courts. So, we got mandatory minimum sentencing and judges, no matter how stupid they are can not hand down meaningless penalties.
But our legislature doesn’t at all seem interested in mandatory sentencing for much of anything. I’ve written to Wand Grinde (HD 48) about it Kim Gillan (SD 24) about mandatory sentencing for repeat DUIs and was basically given the bums rush. So I’m wondering if maybe, just perhaps it might be worthwhile checking into doing a ballot initiative.
It’s apparent our judges don’t give a rat’s ass. The time they don’t have to spend presiding over trials is time they get to spend doing whatever judges do in their off time.
It’s apparent our county attorney doesn’t give a rat’s ass and why should he? He’s been re-elected twice now without opposition. That’s the golden ticket to do whatever you want to. I honestly can’t remember the last time there was a trial in this district. Everything I read in the paper or see on the news or hear on the radio is sentencing handed out as part of a plea agreement. They seem pretty damned eager to plea things down so as to avoid having to go to court. They almost had to for the Sabine Bieber case in 2005, but the Attorney General stepped in and the prosecutors were state, not local. I guess they didn’t trust the local country attorney even with what looked like a slam-dunk. Whatever the reason, Dennis Paxinos and his merry band of twits don’t spend a heck of a lot of time in court.
It’s apparent our legislators don’t give a rat’s ass about it. Even Dennis Paxinos appearing personally to lobby for stronger DUI laws made resulted in zero new legislation. Maybe they’re like me and wondering why he wants tougher laws when he doesn’t go for hard penalties as it is, or maybe they just don’t give a rat’s ass about public safety.
According to the Montana Highway Patrol’s 2008 report, there were 283 crash fatalities in 2008. Of those, alcohol was present in about a third. That’s (by my calculations) 73 people that are dead.
I mean I think the cops are doing a good job catching the drunks. It’s just that the wheels come off when they get into the court system. Before you can jump down, turn around and pick a bale of cotton, the drunks are back on the roads.
Oh, and if you want to talk about the costs of locking up drunk drivers, first check in with the families of the 73 people that are dead. Then come talk to me about costs. It ain’t like we don’t got the space. There’s a brand-spankin’ new hoo-scow down Hardin way. It’s not even been stabbed in yet. My point is that sans real and certain and unpleasant consequences, people are not gonna stop driving drunk.
Shit.
So we go on to another of my pet peeves and that’s all these fscking pan handlers. Last night, I stopped off at the Holiday on 5th to get a Power Ball (which won nothing) and a large slurpy. I walk out and am immediately confronted by a drunk Indian who wants to know how much spare change I got.
Okay, I despise beggars. I am a kind, generous and a (to the degree I try to be) a Godly man. I strongly believe that charity is a fundamental pillar of living a Godly life and raised my children to believe this as well. What I can not abide is someone who is obviously under the influence of some substance confronting me to give them money.
It brings up an unparalleled hostility in me. I found myself wanting to shoot this grimy piece of shit for even approaching me. For one, I have never tried to have a persona that encourages strangers to engage me. If I don’t know someone already, the chances are excellent that I probably don’t want to. I don’t like strangers. I don’t like to be approached by strangers and I damn sure don’t like to have some smelly bastard stumble up to try to engage me.
So I tell Mister Stumbling Deer to go away and leave me alone. This with my “sergeant” voice. To his credit, it somehow dawned on him that he was in eminent danger and his best course of action was to un-ass the area with all possible haste. Just as I make it to my truck, I’m again accosted, only this time by a female Indian who likewise looks like she knows her way around a meth house. She also wants my spare change and is also told in no uncertain terms to be the hell gone from me.
She’s not as perceptive as her friend. She wants to engage me in conversation. I want to split her head open with my bat. I managed to keep her at arms length, get in my truck and make good my escape.
With summer coming on, I guess we can only look forward to more of this shit. If I can go all summer without pummeling one of these asshats, we’ll be in tall cotton.
Uh huh!
Oh and a blast from the past:
Gonna push this up now. Meatings the rest of the day.
