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Supreme Court Overturns Federal Sentencing Guidelines
Leaked GOP Memo: Privatizing Social Security Would Be "One
of the Most Significant Conservative Governing Achievements
Ever"
With Tsunami Death Toll in Indonesia Possibly Rising Over
200,000, Military Crackdown In Aceh Continues
Supreme Court Overturns Federal Sentencing Guidelines
The Supreme Court ruled that federal sentencing guidelines
put in place two decades ago were unconstitutional because
they violated a defendant's Sixth Amendment right to be tried
by a jury. The court ruled judges cannot increase sentences
beyond the maximum that the jury's findings alone would support.
The decisions -- in a pair of 5-4 rulings -- handed broader
discretion to federal judges by telling them to consider the
guidelines merely as a suggestion. Previously, the guidelines
forced judges to boost sentences based on factors that a jury
hadn't ruled on. Now judges are permitted, but not required
to do so.
A few thousand defendants who have already been convicted
but are appealing their sentences may have a chance to get
less prison time, but for tens of thousands of federal prisoners
serving time in cases that had reached final resolution, the
decision will not apply retroactively.
- Barry Scheck, President of the National Association of
Criminal Defense Lawyers. He is a professor and director
of clinical legal education at Cardozo School of Law where
he co-founded the Innocence Project. He is nationally known
for litigation work that has set standards for the forensic
use of DNA testing.
Leaked GOP Memo: Privatizing Social Security Would
Be "One of the Most Significant Conservative Governing
Achievements Ever"
Vice President Dick Cheney gives a major address calling
for radical overhaul of social security. We speak with Roger
Hickey, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future and
a leader of a coalition to protect social security. [includes
rush
transcript]
Last week, an internal White House memo titled "Some
Thoughts on Social Security," was leaked to the press.
The memo was written by Peter Wehner, an aide Karl Rove in
the Office of Strategic Initiatives. In it, Wehner writes
"If we succeed in reforming Social Security, it will
rank as one of the most significant conservative governing
achievements ever. The scope and scale of this endeavor are
hard to overestimate." The memo goes on to outline the
strategies and talking points necessary to reform Social Security.
One week after the Jan. 3rd memo, the White House has kicked
off an election-style campaign to promote President Bush's
Social Security reform plan. At a White House forum billed
as a "conversation on Social Security", Bush painted
a dire picture of the current system, warning younger workers
that Social Security "will be flat bust, bankrupt, unless
the United States Congress has got the willingness to act
right now."
In an interview with USA Today, Bush said members of Congress
who don't confront Social Security's problems may pay a price.
He said "If people shy away from working together to
solve the problem, there will be a political consequence."
Meanwhile, Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday spoke before
an audience of college students and administrators at The
Catholic University of America. He spoke about the so-called
"coming crisis" of Social Security and argued for
the privatization of parts the system. This is an excerpt
of what he had to say.
- Vice President Dick Cheney, speaking at Catholic University
- Roger Hickey, co-director of the Campaign for America's
Future and a leader of a coalition to protect social security.
With Tsunami Death Toll in Indonesia Possibly Rising
Over 200,000, Military Crackdown In Aceh Continues
The government has imposed restrictions on the movement
of aid workers and journalists. Aid workers have been told
to inform the government of their travel plans or face expulsion
and to take army escorts to most areas outside of Banda Aceh.
Indonesia has found nearly 4,000 more bodies of tsunami victims,
taking the global death toll from last month's disaster to
over 160,000. Indonesia was the hardest-hit country with at
least 110,000 people dead and many thousands more are missing.
And even that count may be an underestimate. Knight Ridder
is now reporting that an official document posted by local
officials in Aceh revises the casualty count to 210,000 people
dead or missing. The paper adds that rescue workers think
even that number may be low.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian military plans to send thousands
more soldiers into Aceh bringing the total troop deployment
there to almost 50,000.
In May 2003, the Indonesian government launched a massive
offensive against the Free Aceh Movement and banned most foreigners
from Aceh, but it was forced to scale back and re-open the
area last month to allow international aid in.
The government has since imposed restrictions on the movement
of aid workers and journalists. Aid workers have been told
to inform the government of their travel plans or face expulsion
and to take army escorts to most areas outside of Banda Aceh.
Meanwhile, Indonesia's Vice-President Jusuf Kalla called on
Wednesday for foreign troops helping with relief efforts to
leave Aceh by the end of March.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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