The Coalition of the Swilling

38 years? I blame the producers of Wargames.

Perhaps the young con named Khan could become a teacher in the public school system.

Yes we Khan!

Um, yeah, 38 years in theory. There's no way in the universe that an 18-year-old, even assuming a lengthy juvenile record (which there's no particular reason to assume here), gets the statutory maximum consecutive on every count for non-violent crimes, serious felonies though they are.

The problem is the DAs overcharge everyone now to
get a conviction on one or two counts.The insanity
of our legal system is near critical mass.
The charging of people for like 10 felonies for
one crime is insane.One crime equals one felony.
No one has the guts to change this cowardly use
of government power.The government is the greatest
enemy the average American has.They all have cush
jobs with 85% retirement,and only make everyones life miserable.Get a real job you lazy leeches..
The people at McDonalds are better than you leeches..

You know, one of the things that gobsmacked me while reading Edmund Morris' books about Theodore Roosevelt - Congress spent eight months of every year out of session. Part of that is naturally due to travel difficulties and such, but really, they only got together for four months, plus any emergency sessions. Other than that the country was free of them.

Nowadays, even if they didn't actually convene any more often, we'd still have them in the media every other day, blathering on. No turning back the clock, is there?

Thanks for the "update"... I haven't laughed that hard in a long time, and I reeally needed it today! :-)

Thanks, Greg. As a prosecutor, I appreciate being called "the enemy." If someone violates multiple criminal statutes through the commission of one or more interrelated acts, I see no reason why they shouldn't be charged with doing so.

Oh, and I forgot "lazy leech": that was nice, too. My colleagues and I work late nights and most weekends for shit pay.

Someone has to call a spade a spade. Most people
in private industry are working two jobs just to
break even.
The workers in government are pampered.The only
people left in unions are public employees.They get
sex change operations for their lovers paid for by cities.
DAs have cops lie for them on the stand and have
an 85% conviction rate,yet always say they want to
send a message out that this or that crime can't
be done.Except,if you're part of the gentry.Lock
them up for thirty years.But,don't stop them coming into our nation-that would be racist.

I'm not in an union and I'm not fucking pampered. 85-90% conviction rates aren't conviction rates at TRIAL, not by my experience anyway: they're because the defense bar generally doesn't take close cases to trial, but just wants to pocket their clients' money and then plead them out.

And yes, there are bad prosecutors and bad cops, but if you're saying ALL prosecutors suborn perjury, that's a personal attack on my integrity. Fuck you, Greg.

Greg, I think you've been playing too much Grand Theft Auto IV (I know I have been; I love it).

I think part of the reason that DAs charge a list of crimes for one action is that juries, in large part due to judges' instructions, seemingly refuse to convict obviously guilty folks for a variety of stupid-ass reasons, from the person being drunk at the time so they obviously didn't know what they were doing to eating too many Twinkies that their minds were messed up to their mommas not buying them a puppy when they were 5 so they are emotionally scarred. The DAs in essence have to use a shotgun approach to get these bastards convicted, because we, the citizens on the jury, are unwilling to do our job in convicting those who have broken the laws; we feel "sorry" for the poor widdle criminal (bummer about the victim, though). We have met the enemy and he is us.

As far as unions, there are lots and lots of non-governmental workers in unions; ever hear of longshoremen or electrical workers or autoworkers or professional athletes?

As Dave said, there are of course some corrupt DAs; they are human like the rest of us. But to blanketly state that they all have cops lie for them is crap.

I happen to personally know Dave, and in spite of his being a Red Sox fan I can say he's one of the most decent fellows you'll ever meet.

I wasn't talking about him.I wasn't referring to
him personally.I was referring to the government
in general.It's just the DAs and Federal prosecutors
are those who enforce the rules made by others.
Just as meter maids are the ones who give out parking
tickets, so the cities can have money.Yet if you
get a ticket,the meter maid is the one the driver
gets mad at.