A new sleazy robocall from Rudy Giuliani, whose text is as follows:
Hi, this is Rudy Giuliani and I'm calling for John McCain and the Republican National Committee, because you need to know that Barack Obama opposes mandatory prison sentences for sex offenders, drug dealers, and murderers. It's true, I read Obama's words myself. And recently, Congressional liberals introduced a bill to eliminate mandatory prison sentences for violent criminals -- trying to give liberal judges the power to decide whether criminals are sent to jail or set free. With priorities like these, we just can't trust the inexperience and judgment of Barack Obama and his liberal allies. This call was paid for by the Republican National Committee and McCain-Palin 2008.
As HuffPo notes:
It should be noted that Obama has said he would "immediately review sentences to see where we can be smarter on crime and reduce the ineffective warehousing of nonviolent drug offenders." His stance is bolstered by several studies of criminal behavior which show that "mandatory minimum sentences are less effective than discretionary sentencing and drug treatment in reducing drug-related crime."
Giuliani, as a New Yorker, knows this to be true with regard to non-violent drug offenders. New York is home to the infamous Rockefeller guidelines, which treated nonviolent drug offenders practically like murderers -- long, mandatory sentences. Rockfeller was Nelson Rockefeller, the GOP governor of New York back in the 60s and 70s who, in an effort to shed his moderate image, pressed for the get-tough approach. They've been a disaster for New York, as it costs billions to keep non-violent offenders in prison for 20 or 30 years. As the Wiki entry says:
Both the New York and Michigan statutes came under harsh criticism from both the political left and the political right (William F. Buckley, one of the most conservative public figures in America, was staunchly against it, as well as many in law enforcement), who saw inherent unfairness in placing the non-violent crime of drug trafficking on a par with murder. The laws also drew intense opposition from civil rights advocates, who claimed that they were racist, as they were applied inordinately to African-Americans, and to a lesser extent, Latinos.
But Giuliani will say anything. He forgot the part about how Obama really wants to let all urban criminals go free but wants offenders from small-town America to serve mandatory life sentences. That's a joke, folks.
