|
|
Post by warrior1972 on Dec 24, 2013 4:55:11 GMT -8
|
|
|
|
Post by warrior1972 on Dec 24, 2013 4:57:18 GMT -8
(CNN) -- From a distance, Russia is looking awfully good the last few days. First, we learned that members of the art group Pussy Riot would be released from prison under a new amnesty, then that the Arctic 30, a group of Greenpeace activists who spent two months in Russian jails, would be free to go. And finally, President Vladimir Putin announced he would pardon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the country's best-known and longest-serving political prisoner. Inside the country, things look a little different. A majority of the people facing the largest political trial in more than half a century, stemming from a May 6, 2012, anti-Putin protest, will remain behind bars, as will Khodorkovsky's business partner, friend and co-defendant, Platon Lebedev. Sending different messages to the international and domestic audiences is precisely the point of Putin's latest maneuverings and of many of his policies generally. In an effort to make sure that the Olympic Games in Sochi in February go off smoothly, Putin is showing a friendly face to the West, demonstrating that he has heard the criticism directed at him. To the audience at home, the message is, protest and disobedience will be punished harshly. The stability of a democratic society depends in large part on its courts being perceived as just. Dictatorships, on the other hand, need their judicial systems to inspire fear. Nothing inspires fear like the arbitrary, selective application of laws. |
|
|
|
Post by 101ABN on Dec 24, 2013 7:28:55 GMT -8
"Nothing inspires fear like the arbitrary, selective application of laws."
Roger that.
|
|
|
|
Post by Sailor on Dec 24, 2013 9:25:01 GMT -8
"Nothing inspires fear like the arbitrary, selective application of laws."
Aye.
|
|
|
|
Post by youngstown on Jan 3, 2014 14:13:46 GMT -8
The NSA...Government run by Executive Order...Government Unions that only hire democrats...Orwellian Press...Lt. Colonel "Birthers" in Leavenworth...Willful Ignorance in your face...that's not scary?
|
|
|
|
Post by Sailor on Jan 3, 2014 17:42:13 GMT -8
The NSA...Government run by Executive Order...Government Unions that only hire democrats...Orwellian Press...Lt. Colonel "Birthers" in Leavenworth...Willful Ignorance in your face...that's not scary? Actually, wouldn't you consider "the arbitrary, selective application of laws" part and parcel with what you posted? I would. |
|
|
|
Post by youngstown on Jan 3, 2014 18:09:19 GMT -8
The NSA...Government run by Executive Order...Government Unions that only hire democrats...Orwellian Press...Lt. Colonel "Birthers" in Leavenworth...Willful Ignorance in your face...that's not scary? Actually, wouldn't you consider "the arbitrary, selective application of laws" part and parcel with what you posted? I would. I thought I'd elaborate  |
|
