People could worry about giving ex-felons elaborately cross-referenced directories of names, phone numbers and addresses, and a mandate to be walking straight up to people's doors: an opportunity to look in windows, check out locks and external reinforcement, and once the door is opened, to catalog alarms, dogs, evidence of children, and valuable items within easy reach?

Believe me, if Bush sent teams of ex-felons out to canvas my neighborhood, Kerry would get my vote no matter how I feel about his politics.

I'm 55, and I grew up with the idea that prison was about rehabilitation. The known phrase " ... paid his debt to society ..."
Now it's all about mean-spirited punishment.
Very Old Testament.
My take on the Old Testament : it's been corrected.
And, there were NO Christians in the Old Testament. None. So I don't see Old Testament stuff having any applicable validity beyond foundation/prelude.
No I4I with Jesus.
We should have a name for people who follow the Old Testament but aren't Jewish. "Barbarians" probably doesn't have traction ...

Ironically enough, GWB made the following statement on Monday, 6/21/04:

I know that many a good soul makes a mistake in their life and ends up in prison. And it seems to make sense to me to spend taxpayers' money to help these prisoners realize a better tomorrow when they get out of prison, give them a second chance. And I want that second chance to be done not only in kind of the traditional way, but also through faith--based and community--based programs. I mean, I can't--frankly, can't think of a better reentry program for somebody to be there with open arms saying, I love you, no matter what you may have done in the past. I want you to succeed, and here--and we're here to help.

And so I'm asking the Congress to spend some money on a prisoner reentry initiative, as well as a mentoring program for children whose moms and dads may be in prison, see. I think we need to make sure those kids understand that they've got a bright future, as well.

No howls of outrage from the "GOP attack machine" did we hear with reference to those comments, not even on GWB's purported support for new spending of "taxpayers' money" on ex-felons -- which you would think some members of the Starve the Beast crowd would have seized upon and decried.

I am constantly appalled by the number of things ex-cons are precluded from doing here in Illinois.

The one I find the most surprising is that they can't become carnies. Good lord, what else can an illiterate, emaciated, white ex-con do for a living?

RNC Chair Ed Gillespie, shamefully but unsurprisingly, is claiming that having been convicted of a felony should disqualify Americans from handling official documents with private information. His essential contention - that the democratic process is too pure to be sullied by the involvement of those with crimminal records - should be all too familiar to those who saw it marshalled by a slew of dKos commenters to defend Arizona's disenfranchisement of felons in the name of keeping Nader off the ballot.

More power to ACT for hiring everyone who's prepared and qualified for the hard, urgent work of empowering people to make demands of our democracy. I know I've found few people as excited about that work here in Florida as those felons who've been purged from the process. Everyone (almost) claims to want to see those who've served their time productively and smoothly reintegrated into society. Except not into my neighborhood. Not into my workplace. Not into my democracy.

The juxtaposition with Bush's treatment of war criminals in his administration (Abrams, Negroponte) pretty much speaks for itself.

I'd urge everyone who feels this way to check their local ordinances about canvassing. I canvassed for 3 years for Sane/Freeze in the Bay Area, and many communities required canvassers to carry a permit. Some places just wanted to know the names of the canvassers, others did more elaborate checks. There are some pretty paranoid communities out there, and in some cases we blew off the permits and just went out because of the intrusive screening demanded.

Last point: this is just the tip of the iceberg for Bush's major effort to exterminate democracy. Every day is another step toward Putinism

Frankly convicts do not pay their debt back until they pay for their care in jail. Whay should I pay upwards of $40,000.00 per year so some bum can go to colledge, that is his parents job, not mine.
You suggest that it is Jim Crow by not allowing a rapist to vote while law abiding citizens are too busy working so thay can pay taxes.
If you're looking for Jim Crow check out the U.S. Senate on the DEMOCRAT side and meet Robert Byrd the sheet wearing leader of the LEFT! Or check out Frits Hillings the one that put the Rebel Flag up to piss off minorities.
Such great leaders, perhaps the mouthpiece of the left Al Gore who's Daddy voted agains the Civil Rights Act in 1964 is a failr leftist>

What a bunch of phonies.

It's just a new version of Jim Crow, except it extends up North as well.

And except, you know, it applies to criminals, not black people.