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If Jim Doyle was trying
to sabotage his 2010 re-election campaign, he couldn’t be doing a better
job. Scott Walker ought to put Doyle on Walker’s campaign payroll. Aside
from the tax orgy Caligula Doyle is having, the governor’s proposal to
release as many as 20 percent of the state’s prison inmates is certain
to be a political disaster.
Over the weekend,
three police officers in Oakland were murdered by a California parolee.
Does anyone think for a moment at least one of the thugs Doyle lets out
of jail won’t do something terrible here? Democrats have been furious
for 20 years about the Willie Horton ad used against presidential
candidate Michael Dukakis but the reason the ad worked is the public
doesn’t like it when criminals who are released prematurely go on to
commit horrid crimes.
Doyle says his “early
release” plan will include only “non-violent” offenders. But what
constitutes “non-violent” is the problem. Many of these “non-violent”
types are involved in very violent lifestyles. Most are drug offenders.
The drug trade in Wisconsin is controlled by violent street gangs. The
fact that dealers weren’t convicted of a crime with a weapon doesn’t
mean they weren’t heavily involved in violence. Other “non-violent”
offenders are repeat drunken drivers. Let Doyle explain when one of
these repeaters kills somebody while driving drunk that the original
offense wasn’t “violent.”
Other “non-violent”
offenders are home burglars and thieves. How much is Doyle willing to
wager that none of those crooks will be using a gun when returned to the
streets? Yet another category includes the white-collar financial and
mortgage swindlers being sent up the river. On Monday Doyle is demanding
these hustlers be locked up and on Tuesday he’s proposing to set them
free. Jim Jekyll meet Doyle Hyde.
It is inevitable that
something very bad will happen if Democrats in the Legislature approve
Doyle’s plan. The political fallout will be rightly intense. It all kind
of makes you wonder if Doyle really does intend to run next year.
Here’s an angle to the
story totally ignored by the sloth-like capital news media. Doyle claims
the prison release plan will save money. If so, why is the union that
represents prison guards SUPPORTING it? The largest cost in the
corrections budget is personnel. Those workers are represented by the
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Both the
state leadership and the local that represents the guards are backing
the prison release plan. Is the union supporting a plan to eliminate its
own members’ jobs? No way.
Doyle never ever
crosses the special interests that bankroll his campaign fund. AFSCME
knows there will be no prison layoffs. Doyle’s plan has nothing to do
with saving money. The state’s budget mess is simply Doyle’s pretext to
do what the broken-down Madison liberal has always wanted to do: let
criminals out of jail.
If Doyle disputes
this, have him explain how millions can be saved by releasing inmates if
millions aren’t cut from corrections personnel costs.
Besides, how many
probation and parole agents will have to be hired to monitor the crooks
Doyle lets out? How many new cops will be needed to deal with the
increase in crime? This proposal is so politically and governmentally
stupid that Doyle’s cronies in the Legislature may kill it.
Local government
officials perpetually whine about public “apathy.” The truth is they
love it when citizens ignore government and hate when the electorate
actually takes an interest in things.
In West Bend, the
library board is doing everything in its power to avoid taking action on
a complaint about the soft-core porn being peddled in the children’s
section of the library. The material is included in the youth gay books
section and includes stuff that would make Barney Frank blush. The
library board is ordering the objecting residents to file individual
complaints about each book - a tactic aimed at red-taping the objectors
to death. The board is also claiming it’s not its job to oversee the
decisions of the librarian. Then, uh, what would be its job?
In the meantime, West
Bend’s school board is trying AGAIN to raise school taxes in a
referendum April 7. They seem very unhappy that many local residents
oppose raising taxes into the teeth of a recession. Those pesky
un-apathetic citizens.
And nearby in Slinger,
the school board doesn’t want to do anything about a teacher who is
assigning students to write papers that may include plots to commit
terror. School officials tell me it’s an attempt to examine our
vulnerabilities and why the terrorists hate us. I’ll teach the class in
12 seconds: They hate us because we’re not Muslims and our
vulnerabilities start with all the terrorists Obama will let out of
Guantanamo. Far be it from Slinger’s school board to dish out such
common sense to the hack teaching his students how to think like
jihadists.
Mark Belling is the host of a daily WISN radio talk show. His column
runs Wednesdays in The Freeman.
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