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Posts published in “Day: July 31, 2007”

Diminishment of interest?

July 31, 2007

Question came up during conversation yesterday with a journalist from D.C. of whether Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley's likely entry into the U.S. Senate race would mean a withdrawal of some or many of the other names mentioned as prospects. Conclusion seemed to be that yes, likely it would.

That's not the explicit reason given today for the statement that Senator Alan Bates, D-Ashland, won't after all run for the Senate. After expressing some interest in the idea, he told the local Daily Tidings today that he'll stay where he is: "At this point, my family, my patients, and legislative work for universal health coverage for all Oregonians takes precedence over a bid for the U.S. Senate." (Pointer via Blue Oregon.)

Okay; but one has to suspect that the news about Merkley wasn't entirely irrelevant.

We suspect more decisions-against will be following before long.

Under whose carpet?

July 31, 2007

Over a generation our collective response to crime and other social ills has been largely this: Get rid of it, get it out of my sight, I don't want to be bothered with it. For crime, the simple solution: Lock 'em up. There's still someone out there doing something bad? Lock 'em up longer. Mandatory minimums. Three strikes and you're out. With the result that this country, and some parts of it in particular, have bulging prisons, enormous bills for corrections, and all the rest.

And a lot of those people we've locked up, out of sight and out of mind, are beginning to return to society, sentences partly or fully complete. Now what do we do?

We're jointly responsible for this mess, and over time we're all probably going to have to give a little as we work our way out of it. There's going to be a lot of conflict, and some of it will become political. Some of what's coming in many more places, emerged at a meeting this morning in Boise. The people involved there included the mayor and two former opponents for a state Senate seat, along with neighbors, attorneys and others, but in the end we're all involved.

[This is a long post, continued overleaf.] (more…)