The Broken Spectrum Of The World - Delivered

So I was at Home Depot the other night, and was able to see a verbal fight over a Christmas tree.

This couple was looking at the different trees “real trees” and had been there for a while looking at the trees. They had decided on two trees and were trying to decide which one to buy. Another group of people came in and began to look at trees as well and they liked one of the trees that these other people liked. When they tried to buy the tree, an argument ensued as the first couple threw a complete fit over the fact that these other people wanted to buy one of the trees they wanted to buy and would not let them have it, even though it was for sale. A manager was called and came to try and solve the problem and soon became a target for everyone. He ended up talking the family that had come in after the other couple into waiting until the people had decided which tree to buy.

After 15 minutes of waiting, the woman got tired of waiting and started arguing with the first couple again after they said they still hadn’t decided. When the manager went to intervene again, the second woman told him that she felt she was being harassed and said she was going to call the police. The manager calmed her down and everything seemed fine. The first couple decided that since they couldn’t decide which tree they would buy, that they would just buy both trees instead. The other group of people decided on another tree. Everyone had their trees, everyone was happy, and then they left. About 20 minutes later, the police showed up and wanted to talk to the manager that had talked to the people.

The manager explained the situation, the police felt that there was nothing wrong, so they left. I just have a few words for these people, and other people out there like them.

Its just a tree, and you ought to be ashamed of yourselves. Pretty silly if you ask me.

I came across an article earlier that I found immensely interesting and definitely worthy of being followed.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081218/ap_on_re_us/samaritan_protection

A woman in California was riding in the passenger seat of a car that slammed into a lightpole at 45 mph. A friend was following in a car behind and witnessed the accident. The friend, Lisa Torti, feared that the car was going to catch on fire and decided to pull her friend from the car before it did catch fire. While the exact details of what happened while the girl was being pulled from the car are not clear, the woman alleges that her friend pulled her from the car carelessly like a ragdoll and caused her to become a paraplegic and is now sueing her friend. The California Supreme Court has ruled that the suit can go forward due to the law only protecting people from liability when they are rendering emergency aid, which they have decided that her friend was not.

While we will have to wait for more details, I can say that this could set a precedent for people to sue others who have rendered them aid, which in turn will cause people to not stop and render aid to others. People shouldn’t have to be afraid of being sued if they help someone in a situation such as this, and with the possibility of being sued, even the best of people will ultimately decide not to help someone.

I will continue to follow this story and will write more as the story developes.

Clarence Aaron’s road has been long.

Sentenced to three concurrent life terms in prison for introducing two drug dealers in 1993, he has spent the last 15 years in high-security federal prison. He is 39 years old and he will spend the rest of his life in prison — unless the president of the United States commutes his sentence.

A junior at Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., Aaron was convicted of conspiracy to distribute 24 kilos of crack cocaine in 1993. He refused to plead guilty and to testify against his co-conspirators. His partners, career drug dealers, flipped on him and testified against him at his trial.

Mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines on crack charges were harsh, and he was sentenced to three terms of life in prison. In 1996, a court denied his appeal.

The amount of drugs involved was just too great, and the changes in the law didn’t apply to Aaron, even if the result seemed unfair.

His legal avenues are exhausted. Now his only hope of ever walking out of the federal prison in Coleman, Fla., is a grant of clemency from the president.

Aaron has had an application in with the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney since 2001. The office reviews clemency applications — for pardons and sentence commutations of federal convicts — and makes recommendations to the president.

The Justice Department does not comment on pending cases. But Aaron’s chances don’t look good.

During his time in office, President Bush has received almost 8,000 petitions for commutation from federal convicts.

He has granted eight.

One was his friend and Vice President Dick Cheney’s aide, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who was convicted of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements concerning the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson. The Pardon Attorney’s office said Libby did not apply.

Bush commuted the sentences of non-violent drug offenders John Edward Forte of North Brunswick, N.J., and James Russell Harris of Detroit in November in his first round of clemency actions since March.

The other five whose sentences were commuted were also jailed for drug-related crimes.

Bush has used his power to grant reprieves and pardons less frequently than his predecessors in the White House. Former President Bill Clinton commuted the sentences of 61 federal convicts and pardoned 396.

One of the felons on Clinton’s list was Dorothy Gaines, who, like Aaron, was convicted on drug conspiracy charges. She was released on Dec. 22, 2000, and now does public speaking engagements on mandatory minimum sentencing laws.

In addition to his eight sentence commutations, Bush has pardoned 157 convicts, including 14 last month.

Bush is expected to make additional decisions on pardons and sentence commutations before he leaves office in January. Decisions on petitions that aren’t reviewed and decided upon before the transfer of power will be made by the Obama administration.

“Clarence Aaron’s life without parole sentence is exactly the sort of abusive punishment [that] the presidential pardon was designed to redress,” said Debra Saunders, a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle who has been writing about Aaron’s case in her column for several years.

“When the feds put away drug kingpins for long terms, the system works. But when they free two kingpins and put a nonviolent low-level novice behind bars for the rest of his young life, I believe President Bush’s sense of justice and compassion will compel him to free Clarence Aaron,” she said.

Eric Sterling, former counsel for the House Committee on Judicial Affairs and president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, said that drug offenders deserve punishment, but agrees that in the case of Clarence Aaron, the president would be right to commute Aaron’s sentence.

“He’s been in 15 years. Before the mandatory minimums were enacted, the maximum you could get under the federal controlled substances act was 15 years unless you were convicted of the kingpin statute ….

“He has served enough time. Justice is done.”

Aaron wrote in a declaration to the court this year when he sought a resentencing that he regrets his decision to participate in the drug deal, and that he has accepted responsibility for his actions.

“Every day I wake up I have to deal with my reality. Those years ago, I made a horribly selfish, foolish and wrong decision that I am truly sorry for. I so regret all the hurt and damage I have caused others through my transgression,” Aaron wrote.

“One of my life goals is to be the best person I can be. I want to be the best son, uncle, friend and citizen I can be. As I sit here now and reflect on my current plight, I feel the growth, maturity and strength that my experience in prison has, in God’s loving hands, brought about in me. I just pray for a second chance to be a productive citizen.”

Story originally published by Fox News

Sometimes I am astounded by the injustices and atrocities of the world, which is rare as I am not easily surprised when something happens in our often cruel world. We should live in a better world, we have the power to do so, but collective greed prevents it. Greed exists everywhere within every person, more in some then the others. These people that indulge in excessive amounts of greed, are often the worst people, who have the power to do the worst things.

Africa has always been a horrible place. The societies of the continent constantly fought one another in tribal warfare and these tribes would sell prisoners of war into slavery. Then came colonization, which wasn’t much better for the people of Africa. The colonial powers of the world viewed Africa as ripe in resources and available to be exploited. For many years Africa’s resources were used to fund wars and pad the coffers of the countries who had grabbed their piece of the colonial pie. A primitive continent was used and abused for years, not only by colonial powers, but their very own leaders as well. In a society of people with limited education and other basic necessities, they can be easily manipulated.

Over time, with such conditions, hatred and radicalism festers. Once we arrived at the modern age, colonies started to become a thing of the past. Replacing these colonies were countries with factions, each picking up where the colonial powers left off. They continued to abuse and take advantage of the people of Africa. This all led to a gap, the poor and the powerful, and that is what we have today. Men with power, consumed by greed, that do nothing to advance their society, only to advance themselves and their own agenda.

The country of Zimbabwe is one of many examples of these conditions. Robert Mugabe has held control of the country since 1980 after the country was released from British rule. He was a strong supporter of independence from the colonial powers throughout his life, which has earned him some fame among Africans. Last June, he won another 5 year term, however not without controversy. There had to be a runoff between Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader. However before the runoff vote, Tsvangirai withdrew from the election as many of his supporters were killed and their homes set on fire by Mugabe forces. This in turn led to a landslide victory for Mugabe. Since then, a power sharing deal was reached between the two men, however currently there is deadlock over which ministers each of them will control.

Mugabe continues to run the country, unopposed. The country has fallen on severe hard times, with hundreds of thousands dieing from a Cholera outbreak as the country’s healthcare system has crumbled, millions are starving as there is no food. The country’s economic sector is nearly non-existant, as the inflation rate has skyrockted to over 14 mill percent. A loaf of bread costs 33 million Zimbabwe Dollars, which amounts to roughly 1 US Dollar. The country is in shambles, with many in the world calling for Mugabe’s resignation, he has refused. However the African Union refuses to do anything to intervene in the situation. Some AU leaders, such as the Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, have called for intervention though and support an AU or UN force going into the country to intevene. One can only hope that people such as PM Odinga, can be an agent of such change.

What should be done in this situation? It’s complicated, but a few options exist. An ideal situation would have African forces going in to help stabilize the country and bring about a new government. This would be the most beneficial solution, however at this point, the AU has rejected such actions. A UN force could be sent in, however the UN has miserably failed in its past and current peacekeeping missions in Africa, so I do not believe this would be any better. An independent group of nations could send a massive force to try and stabilize the country, however this could possibly cause a scenario similar to Iraq, which is not ideal.

I have my own solution though, and while some may not agree, I believe it will probably be the only way. The people of Africa need to unite against such leaders like Mugabe and lead a revolution to overthrow these people in order to help provide a better future for themselves. As it stands, the people of Africa face a very bleak future. They alone have the power to free themselves from such oppression and tyranny. Throwing money at this problem isn’t helping either, it just empowers these warlords and oppressors, giving them more money to put towards arming themselves even further against the poor.

Clarence Aaron was a college boy from Mobile, Ala., when he introduced two drug dealers to each other — the mistake that got him three concurrent life sentences in a high-security federal prison.

But Aaron didn’t grow up destined to be a criminal.

He told his story in a declaration to the court filed earlier this year with a motion to be resentenced:

He said his father was out of work and in poor health during his childhood in a Mobile housing project, and his mother worked as a maid and nanny to support the family.

But when he was 10, his parents sent him to live with his grandfather in a middle-class neighborhood so that he could avoid the trouble of the projects and go to better schools.

His grandfather taught him about responsiblity and getting a good education. He told Aaron that he wanted him to go to college. Aaron attended church regularly and was close to his pastor, the Rev. George McNeil, with whom he had conversations about the Bible.

When his grandfather — Aaron called him his best friend in his declaration to the court — died from prostate cancer in 1991, Aaron lost both a mentor and his financial support.

Desperate to stay in school, he made what he calls “the biggest mistake of my life,” and agreed to help Robert Hines and Marion Teano Watts buy cocaine.

“I am ashamed that I had any involvement with cocaine,” Aaron said in his declaration. “I am just grateful my grandfather was not alive to see my disgraceful behavior.”

Aaron had never been arrested before, and this was his first and only brush with the law.

How does a guy like that get life times three?

Aaron was sentenced according to guidelines Congress passed at the height of the crack epidemic in the 1980s. The laws mandate sentences based on the quantity of drugs involved in a crime and have led to an explosion in the U.S. prison population, as low-level non-violent drug offenders are given lengthy prison sentences.

According to the Drug Policy Alliance Network, 80 percent of the increased number of federal prisoners between 1985 and 1995 were convicted of drug crimes.

Aaron was involved in two drug buys. The first deal involved 9 kilos of cocaine. The second, which never actually happened because thieves stole the money, was a 15-kilo deal. Since the buyer was planning to turn that cocaine into crack, Aaron was sentenced for conspiracy to distribute 24 kilos of crack.

“By virtue of going to trial and the quantity that was involved under the sentencing guidelines, Clarence got these three life terms. It’s a paradigmatic case of the injustice of mandatory minimums,” said Eric Sterling, president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation and one-time counsel for the House Committee on the Judiciary, the group that created the mandatory minimum laws.

“It was all politics. There was a desire to go back to the public and be able to say we’re cracking down. We’re getting tough. We’re punishing dope dealers. We’re sending a message to the dope dealers that they’re going to be tracked down and sent away to prison for a long time,” Sterling said.

Advocates of the mandatory minimum sentencing laws say that they’re a response to judicial discretion gone haywire and that harsh punishments for drug dealers are needed to keep the innocent safe.

“Drug dealing is inextricably linked with violence in every direction,” said James Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police. “The way you deter people from becoming involved in that kind of activity is to make it very clear to them that there are going to be consequences for their illegal activities.”

People living in poorer neighborhoods deserve the same protection from crime and violence that those living in wealthier neighborhoods expect, he said.

“Generally speaking, people who deal in drugs are dealing in violence, both in the sense that violence is commonplace in their business — it takes violence to get the money to buy their products — and once under the influence of their products people tend to do more violence,” Pasco said.

Other factors also influenced Aaron’s sentencing.

The government decided to prosecute Aaron for a crack conspiracy, not cocaine possession, because crack was considered more dangerous than powder cocaine and carried heftier punishments during the crack epidemic

Aaron was also sentenced as a “manager or supervisor” of the crack ring and for pleading not guilty and not accepting responsibility for his actions.

How did a man whose role in the so-called conspiracy was to introduce two drug dealers and go with them to pick up drugs wind up being pegged as a ringleader?

Aaron’s supporters blame the “snitches.”

“So many times it is the race to the courthouse,” said Dennis Knizley, Aaron’s defense lawyer at his 1993 trial. “The first one there gets on board to cooperate against his sometimes lifelong friends, sometimes family members, and that’s who gets the deal — the first one to the courthouse.”

Aaron’s five co-conspirators, career drug dealers, agreed to testify in the cases against the others in exchange for reduced sentences. They will have spent an average of eight years in prison for their role in the deals.

Aaron did not testify against the others. He said he was told that if he didn’t cooperate, he couldn’t plead guilty. He pleaded not guilty, and he was convicted. Now he is 39, he’s been in prison for 15 years, and he will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Unlike the men who testified against him, like ring leader Marion Teano Watts who told the jury at Aaron’s trial that he had made over a million dollars selling crack, Aaron had no history of drug involvement before the trial.

Knizley said that if he had the case to try again, he would have to stick by his client and plead not guilty, even though cooperation might have gotten him less prison time.

“Clarence said he was not guilty, and if my client tells me he’s not guilty I’m not going to twist his arm or pressure him into saying something that’s not true,” Knizley said.

In September, a federal judge denied Aaron’s motion to have his sentence reduced based on a November 2007 change to the crack guidelines — Aaron’s unexpected last shot at freedom through the legal system. Now his only hope is a presidential pardon.

Originally Printed By Fox News