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April 16, 2002
Vol. 5 No. 15

In this issue:
1. Tax and Spend
2. Prosecuting Hate
3. Prosecuting Hate II
4. Quick Hits
5. Green with Ideology - and other highlights from Reason Online
6. Reason's print edition
7. News and Events

Reason Express is made possible by a grant from The DBT Group, manufacturers of affordable, high-performance mainframe systems and productivity software.

1. Tax and Spend

In recent years the Internal Revenue Service has warned the public about a cruel scam in which con men  promise to help black taxpayers get slavery reparations in exchange for a fee. Now it turns out that the IRS actually paid some $30 million in "slave tax credits" in 2000 and 2001.

At least 12 current and former IRS employees are under investigation for facilitating the fraudulent payments. Many of the payments were for $43,209, the amount that a 1993 Essence magazine story pegged as the inflation-adjusted value of the 40 acres and a mule that some freed slaves received during the Civil War.

Bizarre as it is, this embarrassing episode is dwarfed by the continuing scandal of the tax code itself, which any honest republic would have ditched long ago. But the current code fits the needs of Washington politicians quite nicely, obscuring the costs of government while routing funds to favored sectors. Measured in those terms, its success is unassailable.

The latest demonstration of the tax code's ability to deliver unprecedented riches to politicians comes from a Washington Post analysis of federal spending. The Post calculates that the four-year spending spree from 1999 through George W. Bush's 2003 budget proposals, equivalent to 11 percent of the U.S. economy, is the largest "since President Lyndon Johnson fought the Vietnam War while launching a war on poverty."

Since there is no real voice in current policy debates for lower federal spending, it's a good bet that the temporary tax cuts the Bush administration passed will be tempting targets once the red ink starts to rise. In fact, the defining issue for the 2004 presidential campaign likely will be how best to raise taxes or close "loopholes." Presumably, the slave tax credit is gone for good.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41186-2002Apr12.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48583-2002Apr14.html

http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0415/p17s01-wmpi.html

2. Prosecuting Hate

The Bush Justice Department has decided that Darrell David Rice merits the death penalty not because he brutally killed two people but because he killed two lesbians. Attorney General John Ashcroft has announced that he will use a 1994 federal sentencing guideline aimed at "hate crimes" to make Rice's prosecution a capital case.

"Just as the United States will pursue, prosecute, and punish terrorists who attack America out of hatred for what we believe, we will pursue, prosecute, and punish those who attack law-abiding Americans out of hatred for who they are," Ashcroft said. "Hatred is the enemy of justice, regardless of its source."

So Osama bin Laden would be prosecuted for hate crimes? Someone at Justice needs to check Ashcroft's text before he speaks in public.

For an administration that has thus far resisted a federal hate crimes statute for gays, the prosecution is one of those split-the-difference moves that has White House adviser Karl Rove's fingerprints all over it. The decision does grievous harm to sane jurisprudence. At the same time, it will not placate supporters of a broader federal hate crimes law. Like steel tariffs, it sacrifices a principle for no real gain.

It hardly matters whether the sexuality of Rice's victims was primary or secondary to his blood lust. The main point is that he planned to kill. It is that ruthless determination that makes him a threat to society for whom the death penalty is warranted.

It's not hard to find aggravating factors in Rice's crimes. His victims, Laura "Lollie" Winans and Julianne Marie Williams, were strangers; robbery was not a motive; the victims were bound; and their throats were slit. Rice conducted a drawn-out, methodical slaughter. These facts alone would give plenty of juries cause to impose a death sentence.

In fact, a Texas man who killed an Indian immigrant in a supposed fit of rage over the September 11 attacks was sentenced to death a couple of weeks ago. A special hate crime prosecution was not necessary to arrive at that result.

Besides, premeditated murders of strangers always involve hate--mindless and unfocused or laser-sharp and monomaniacal, it matters little. Prosecuting the hate seems beside the point.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29001-2002Apr10.html

http://www.advocate.com/new_news.asp?ID=3917&sd=04/13/02-04/15/02

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/homefront020404.html

3. Prosecuting Hate II

A California case that the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department is investigating as a hate crime further illustrates the pitfalls of punishing bigotry.

Erech Olsen was wearing a yarmulke and walking his dog when he noticed a man was following him. When he asked the man what he wanted he was asked, "Do you support Israel?" When Olsen said he did, the man said he supported Palestine and pulled out a stun gun. A struggled ensued, a second man joined the attack, and Olsen was left with bruises and a sprained elbow.

If Olsen had been wearing a Lakers cap and the altercation had concerned the upcoming NBA playoffs, he wouldn't be any less a victim and his attackers wouldn't be any less guilty of a serious, unprovoked assault. Why should this hypothetical attack merit a lesser penalty?

http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/2143467p-2524685c.html

4. Quick Hits

Quote of the Week

"Our policy of drug prohibition is harming our children." -- James Gray, a California judge and former prosecutor, at a Rice University forum on the War on Drugs

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/metropolitan/1360345

See Reason's interview with Gray here: http://www.reason.com/0201/fe.ml.battlefield.shtml

Quote of the Week, Better Late Than Never Division

"I know West Virginia, and what's one man's pork is another man's job."  -- Sen. Robert Byrd (D.-W.Va.) on pork-laden federal spending projects

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020409-90513512.htm

http://publications.cagw.org/PigBook2002/introduction.htm

Ragin' Cajuns

Cajuns are enraged that a Louisiana-born member of the Taliban was described as "the Cajun Taliban" in media reports. Simple disappointment at the stupid assumption that all natives of the state are ipso facto Cajun will suffice.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,50150,00.html

Dot Gov and Company

The Bush administration thinks it can save money by allowing private Web companies to "co-brand" government Web sites. Why anyone would want to do that is not clear.

http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0415/news-forman-04-15-02.asp

Dial-Up Exiles

Missing out on the broadband revolution because no one runs a wire to your home? You are not alone.

http://www.pcworld.com/features/article/0,aid,86925,00.asp

5. New at Reason Online

6. The Print Edition

Get your personal copy of the latest issue of Reason's print edition each month -- before it hits the newsstands and before it's posted on the Web! Subscribe Today!

7. News and Events

Cloning panel discussion
Tuesday, April 16, 3:30-5:00 pm eastern, Capitol Hill.
Reason Science Correspondent Ronald Bailey discusses cloning and stem cell research along with Weekly Standard Editor/Publisher William Kristol, Eric Cohen of the Eithics and Public Policy Center, and Shannon Brownlee of New America Foundation, which organized the event. The event will be held at 2325 Rayburn House Office Building located at Constitution and First Streets, SE in Washington, DC. Click for more info and to RSVP.

Click here for the latest on media appearances by Reason writers.

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