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Edited on Wed Dec-31-03 01:42 AM by realpolitik
allows murderously impared drivers back out on the road oftentimes.
The St. L. county prosecutor even said that if he wanted to get away with murder, all he had to do was to choose the right murder weapon... a car. One fellow was killed in a long cycle race across Missouri by a driver who had 14 moving violations on his record.
I do not understand a system that places more emphasis on criminals who sell drugs than criminals who drink and then murder innocents.
Indeed, it seems of no consequence that our First Lady is also in this class of driver. We seem to consider some things indescretions, and others felonies. We seem to tolerate some astounding stuff in this state.
Missouri's legal system once gave a teenager 7 years for possession of a single joint, first offense, if I remember correctly. Ashcroft should be a reasonable example to show what happens when justice and politics collide in Mo. But this is a Missouri problem that goes back to before the civil war. In this state we often admire killers and robbers. But we also adore get tough, hang em high politics.
Since the beginning of the end of the cold war, we have seemingly abandoned any idea of correction. Only incarceration is considered as a serious response these days. And it is very profitable. It also removes a lot of 'undesirable' voters from states like FL. The drug war is the moral equivalent of fighting communism and godlessness in Missouri. It is also very oddly fought.
But the writing is on the wall, I think, in Missouri. The rural and social conservative block have started to experience the same collapse of economic vitality that is plaguing the SubUrban belts east and west. Further, Bush has not delivered them from Sodom, even if he did give them Saddam.
We have seen the McDonalds and Walmarts become the two dominant businesses that do not involve young women taking off clothes.
I note a staggering increase in the number of adult bars along the I-70 and US 50 corridors. And I know a single mother who strips becuase it is the only thing that is really paying the bills. In the towns off the highways, it is something else.
Crank is a huge problem in MO, the nation's meth lab. Not surprizingly, no one wants to talk about the farmer's role in this Huckleberry Finn narco economy. Where do we think the ammonia for making speed is coming from, anyway?
Yep, from a bunch of NRA supporting, Pat Robertson donating hezbullah Baptists. In many ways, including the subversion of law enforcement, they are not unlike Afghan warlords.
No one wants to talk about trucking, and how it moves the product out to the corners of the nation via the interstate highway system. We bust the lower level operatives and one member of a family at a time.
They make the drug, without which, the drive for ever higher productivity would not be possible. This drug is not fought very hard, because it is the thing that will make the new Bush-Delay overtime policy work. Tommy Chong, however, is in prison for selling pipes.
Goddess knows how much money comes into the political process out the back door of a meth lab.
And of course, this is also where the other problematic nitrate product, enters the equation. Domestic terrorists get their bang from down on the farm too.
Small towns now experience drive by shootings, and NAFTA has brought
a serious undocumented worker wave to the state.
Meanwhile, the social conservatives are as repressive as they can stand to be, and still hang on to even the veneer of Christianity, IMO. To complete the Bush agenda, they must self-identify as imperialists, regardless of the term they use. They know they are becoming fascists, because they see it in how the world looks at our leaders. They are getting ready for the draft out there already.
It is a very sad time for the rural Missouri social conservative.
The party of God has failed them, and they know it. Even they are embarrassed about John Ashcroft and they understand that the PATRIOT act is not for national security.
They suspect it is to take away the guns, and they are in shock.
These are the anti drug libertarians, all the guns are loaded now.
They are in the wilderness, and they are increasingly aware that they voted for the serpent.
In the end, I see Missouri drifting deeper into a prison/mafia state. Like Texas, we have a large population of citizens we want to legally disenfranchise in the urban cores. Increasingly, we have a similar population in the country as well. Captal punishment is important, more prisons are important to these folks, because they are officially backed into a corner now. Their neighbors are using oxycontin to come down off the crystal, and they are still in denial about Rush.
As the job-loss recovery continues, the speed makers will become ever more important, as bootleggers did in the 30's. Gangs will operate on both sides of the prison wall, and in the statehouse. In this system, three strikes will ensure stability for large criminal organizations, the mid level labs will not be able to pay for play.
Into this, a new Tom Pendergast will emerge, to institutionalize middle class crime again. Why? Because as in 1868 as in 1931, crime against corrupt punitive systems is a Missouri tradition.
If I had to guess, I would figure they would be from somewhere like Sedalia, Kingdom City, Joplin, or Belton. How would one find this kingpin... Perhaps one might look for someplace with a lot of fancy trucks towing expensive bass boats, and that featured beer served by naked women that was not all that far from the local farm implement store, or I-70 for that matter. Look for the big Bush sticker next to their NRA and Bass Pro Shop stickers on that shiny F350 in the casino parking lot.
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