Monday morning round-up

by: ctblogger

Mon Dec 12, 2011 at 10:51:43 AM EST

• CT BOB: "Justice is served...now what?
  

  The way the death penalty statute stands in Connecticut, it's pretty much assured that should Komisarjevsky and Hayes decide to fight against their sentence, they'll likely die of natural causes (like old age) behind bars before they'll ever have to walk to the death chamber. That's because there are multiple procedures and safeguards built into the law that gives the accused a reasonable chance to appeal his conviction and sentence.

  [...]

  The fact of the matter is that sooner or later the death penalty will be abolished in Connecticut. The state legislature put a repeal bill on Gov. Jodi Rell's desk a while back, but she refused to sign it. Governor Malloy will almost certainly approve a death penalty repeal should it cross his desk...I say "almost" because I've learned through painful experience that what a candidate promises is too often the exact opposite of what an office-holder does.

  So obviously it's time to rewrite our law to make it "life without any fucking possibility of parole" (and I'm going to push for that exact wording in the law) for anyone convicted of a capital crime.

  That way the state saves tax dollars, and the families of both the victims and the defendants (often the overlooked victims of the crime) are spared countless appeals and court appearances.

  Well said Bob.



• CTNJ: "9 More Employees Referred For Disciplinary Hearings"
  

  It's now an even two dozen state employees who have been suspected of filing false information on their post-Irene food stamp applications.

  Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's office announced Monday that an additional nine state employees have been referred for disciplinary hearings for alleged fraud. That's in addition to the 15 state employees, already referred to state agency heads last week.

  Disciplinary hearings will begin as early as this week for some employees. The number of state employees under investigation will be updated on a weekly basis.

  "We have a zero tolerance policy for the misuse or abuse of government programs in this administration," Malloy said in a press release. "While the addition of nine administrative hearings is troubling, I want the residents of Connecticut to know that this is an ongoing investigation, and I am determined to leave no stone unturned. In addition to losing their jobs, anyone caught defrauding our government will be referred immediately to the proper authorities. The days of looking the other way are over."



• CT BLUE: "Apparently, the people have risen up and demanded an end to privacy"
  

  If any proof were needed that we live in an oligarchy, where sometimes the rest of us are thrown a bone, consider the "Mobile Informational Call Act of 2011", which would amend federal law to allow corporations to pester cell phone users with robocalls. I first learned about it in a fundraising email from the Democrats. This is, we at least can hope, an example of a situation where the Democrats might actually, but probably ineffectually, play their assigned role as the party that sometimes thinks people have rights, but, we'll see. Other than fundraising off it, they may do little to stop it.  

  If this were a truly representative democracy, this bill would go nowhere. How many people do you know who are clamoring to be annoyed day and night with unwanted cell phone calls? In addition, unlike with landlines, many people will have to pay to receive these calls. This basically amounts to a tax imposed by the callers, a tax that will fall heaviest on the poor, who often buy their cell phone plans by the minute. Only in a country in which corporations totally called the tune would this bill go anywhere. Even the Tea Party hasn't managed to get its puppets to demand stuff like this.