By COLLEEN SLEVIN
Associated Press Writer
April 15, 2008

DENVER — A Republican state senator wants to amend the Colorado Constitution to bar plea deals that allow illegal immigrants to avoid deportation, taking a swipe at Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter for a plea deal he made when he was Denver district attorney.

The measure from Sen. Ted Harvey of Highlands Ranch, which was released Tuesday, would ask voters to approve a constitutional ban on such deals.

It would bar courts from accepting guilty pleas to charges of trespassing on agricultural land — the count Ritter agreed to — or any other charge that would allow suspects to avoid deportation.

Courts could accept such deals if prosecutors don’t have a strong case for a more serious charge and the deal isn’t intended to help the defendant avoid deportation.
Ritter was criticized during the 2006 campaign for letting an illegal immigrant who was charged with heroin possession plead guilty to agricultural trespassing instead. The man avoided deportation and was later accused of a sex crime in California.

The information turned up in a campaign ad for Ritter’s Republican opponent, then-U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez. It made headlines again last week when Cory Voorhis, a federal immigration agent who gave Beauprez the information, was acquitted on charges getting it illegally from a federal crime database.

Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer said Republican and Democratic prosecutors alike have made such plea deals.

“Sen. Harvey should check with his Republican district attorneys who have also used that charge,” Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer said.

If those prosecutors have made such deals, Harvey said his proposed ban would apply to them too.

With Democrats in control of both houses of the Legislature, Harvey’s proposal has an uphill fight to even get on a statewide ballot.

The measure would first have get the backing of the Senate State, Veterans & Military Affairs Committee, which is usually the most partisan panel in the chamber. It would then have to win two-thirds approval in both the House and Senate.

No committee hearing date has been set yet.

Harvey said he was also taking aim at what he said is an effort by Denver to become a “sanctuary city” and protect illegal immigrants.

“This is an effort to highlight that,” he said.

A spokeswoman for Mayor John Hickenlooper did not immediately return a call but has previously denied similar charges.

Source: http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20080415/NEWS/920493193


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"Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude."
Alexis de Tocqueville

Clutch, you missed a shift, and ground some gears. You must be thinking of DEMOCRAT Robert Byrd.


Participation in the Ku Klux Klan
In 1942, 24-year-old Byrd joined the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), whose parades in Matoaka, West Virginia, he had witnessed in his childhood. He was unanimously elected Exalted Cyclops, or leader, of his local chapter.[4]

Byrd, in his autobiography, attributed the beginnings of his political career to this incident, although he lamented that they involved the Klan. According to Byrd's recollection, a KKK official Joel L. Baskin told him "You have a talent for leadership, Bob ... The country needs young men like you in the leadership of the nation." Byrd recalls that "suddenly lights flashed in my mind! Someone important had recognized my abilities! I was only 23 or 24 years old, and the thought of a political career had never really hit me. But strike me that night, it did."[4] He participated in the KKK during World War II, holding the titles Kleagle (recruiter) and Exalted Cyclops.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Byrd


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"Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude."
Alexis de Tocqueville

Quote:

By definition, Representative Bruce has declared class warfare against rural farm workers by choosing the words that he used.

In Barbara Tuchman’s classic A Distant Mirror, the "peasants" - tired of being subservient, scale the walls of their knight’s castle, capture him, kill him, roast him on a spit, and then make his wife eat his flesh.

If it is class warfare that the GOP wants, it's class warfare the GOP is going to get.

peasant
peas·ant [ pézz'nt ] (plural peas·ants)
noun

Definition:
1. agricultural laborer: an agricultural laborer or small farmer

2. rural person: somebody who lives in the country

3. offensive term: an offensive term for somebody considered to be ill-mannered or uneducated
Source: http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861724470/peasant.html

So, describing a migrant farm worker as an "agricultural laborer" or as a "rural person" , the primary and secondary definitions of the word "peasant", is class warfare?

But, since the Far-Left seems to have such severe reading comprehension problems, I guess it is to be expected.

BTW, speaking of "class warfare", consider how Barack Obama described small-town residents of Pennsylvania. You can make a much better case of his "elitist" behavior towards them.


_________________
"Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude."
Alexis de Tocqueville

And you defend Obama's comments?


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"Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude."
Alexis de Tocqueville