Soros Seeks to Change Calif. Law

NewsMax .com ^ | 9/15/04 | Carl Limbacher

[kattracks]

Mega-billionaire George Soros is donating $150,000 to a proposition that will change California's Three Strikes law.

Soros and two other wealthy liberal donors have donated $450,000 to weaken California's tough sentencing law. The San Diego Union Tribune reported that the money will be critical for proponents of the measure to get their message on TV.

The paper said that opponents of the proposition "say the contribution will actually help their cause by making it clear that wealthy out-of-state donors are trying to dismantle California's criminal justice laws."

Soros is also joined by Peter Lewis, founder of Progressive Insurance and a big Democratic donor, who has also contributed $150,000 to help change the Three Strikes law.

"They've launched an assault on our crime laws," Steve Rice, spokesman for the campaign against Proposition 66, told the San Diego Union Tribune.

The proposition would diminish the "third strike" -- removing petty crimes that have triggered a 25-years-to-life sentence.

The paper said the initiative also "reduces the number of crimes that count as strikes, increases penalties for child molesters and could save the state millions of dollars in prison costs, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst."

The proposition is being backed by the Drug Policy Alliance Network, a group Soros has financed.

Soros is not new to California politics. He previously supported Proposition 215, which sought to permit medicinal marijuana. In 2000, Soros backed Proposition 36, which helped put drug users in treatment centers rather than prison.

But this battle may be a tough one for Soros. Popular governor Arnold Schwarzenegger opposes Proposition 66.

[gunnygail]

CA Repubs should take to the airwaves and BEAT THIS ISSUE LIKE A DRUM! Pick out some nasty felons that have been released only to kill, rape, and rob again.

Sorea$$ needs to have as much egg on his face as does Dan Blather.

[tm61]

the elite libs like Soros dont mind if career criminals get out of prison. its not likely they will be running into them.

[Watery Tart]

"Soros is a girlie-man.
He is a newbie will not
mess with Gallivornia or the USA."

[GailA]

This man is a menance to society! I've forwarded the article on to the victims advocates groups I correspond with out in Kali.

[rightisright]

Perhaps time has blunted the impact, but let's remind people exactly why there is a California Third Strike Law. Let's remind people of the type of people George Soros wants to protect:

And the victims that Soros wants to have no voice in how three-time offenders are treated:

[No Surrender No Retreat]

Soros needs some more DNC operatives to get out the vote.

[not2worry]

Obviously, the three strikes law is cutting into Soro's illegal drug marketing business.

Shrinking market when most of his clientele in prison cells!

Hopefully, the DNC got cash in advance to pay for all the anti-Bush Bashing propaganda.

[Cultural Jihad]

This is a valid issue here in California. The original intent of the 3 Strikes law was to put away habitual and violent criminals. As I understand it, after passage, the law was expanded by the legislature to include any felony.

[happygrl]

In 2000, Soros backed Proposition 36, which helped put drug users in treatment centers rather than prison.

Let me tell you the effect of that law. It meant that persons who truly want to quit and enter treatment have a long waiting period, because the available slots are being taken by those who want a "get out of jail free card."

It also means that programs which have had decades-long records of high success are now seeing their recidivism rates increase as their statistics are skewed by all these non-serious drug-users who enter these programs.

[technochick99]

A valid issue, perhaps. The problem is that a foreigner such as Soros should not be pouring his money into efforts to change CA law.

[BC girl]

With Bill O'Reilly doing a piece on Soros tonight, I just thought I'd throw my two cents in. When George Soros isn't bashing Bush, one of his favorite things to do is bury develpoing nations currencies with his hedge fund. The asian currency crisis of 1998 was almost all his fault. Sure the free market played a part, but Kerry wouldnt want the free market to do anything. So it really doesnt matter. Soros's hedge fund made its way across SE Asia causing economic and political instability wherever it went. This jack-ass really cares about people. I'm not even really sure why he hates Bush, but he is amoral, and possibly sociopathic. I hope O'Reilly rips him a new one tonight.

[calcowgirl]

When George Soros isn't bashing Bush, one of his favorite things to do is bury develpoing nations currencies with his hedge fund.

This looks like Soros shenanigans in Zimbabwe.

Mugabe wants 50% share in mines (will seize in the name of “historically disadvantaged”)

Carry_Okie summed it up pretty well in post #34

[CWOJackson]

I guess Soros wasn't happy just shilling for the left and the pro-dope crowd, now he's adding the rest of the felon community to his charitable list.

[newzjunkey]

NO on Prop. 66

[Carry_Okie]

I didn't state that Soros was playing Zimbabwe, I was citing him as a typical predator in various "developing world" gambits. He certainly played Argentina that way with his big target industry being ranch land after helping crash the currency. A number of Russian oligarchs cashed in on the back end of the Soviet collapse the same way. Soros reportedly made out big in the collapse of Yugoslavia. I've seen so many big investors (Rockefeller, Soros, Maurice Strong) click their tongues at such dictators while abetting third world misery through the UN, abetting our dependency upon their raw materials by financing regulatory racketeering and supporting leftist candidates who "allow" such events (especially Carter) to then cash in on the resulting mess, that I'm getting more than a bit jaded and was musing rather than stating facts. I'm sorry if you took what I said to mean more than that.

The sequence I rattled off seems to take decades to complete. Things certainly seem to have worked roughly that way in Russia, Eastern Europe, Chile, and several Central American states and stand to do so in Southern Africa. Chile did the loop through Allende thence to Pinochet. I'd bet Brazil and Venezuela go through the same loop with Lula and Chavez respecively. I have little doubt (but don't know for a fact) that mechanics similar to what I described for Zimbabwe took place in the cycle from Congo to Zaire and back, and may soon be repeated there too.

[Marathoner]

This man is a menance to society!

I've wondered what the demented old b@@tard (Soros) sees as his reward for funding all the hate Bush crap. There has to be a quid pro quo; I just can't figure out what it is.