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September 1, 2001

The American statesman Henry Clay (1777-1852) wrote: "The devices of power and its minions are the same in all countries and in all ages. It marks its victims; denounces it; and excites the public hatred, to conceal its own abuses and encroachments."

Since the US death penalty was reinstated 25 years ago, 725 people have been put to death. To keep a balanced perspective of the class inequality that underlies America's death penalty, it should be noted that during that same twenty-five year period more than 10 million Americans died slow, agonizing deaths as a direct result of tobaccao addiction and its related diseases.

Without question, the CEO's of America's Tobacco Cartel are the world's "Drug Lords of Death". Yet, instead of these cold-blooded king pins of the world's most deadly drug cartel being shut down and brought to justice, America's top state and federal law enforcement officials simply take them to court and force these homicidal drug pushers to give them a piece of the action to stay in business. To ensure their cut of the pie, government officials help the Tobacco Cartel expand it's extremely profitable market of death by forcing third-world countries to accept the importation of American tobacco as a mandatory clause in America's so-called "free trade" agreements.

Keeping all of this in mind, if the agonizing deaths of 10 million Americans hasn't deterred children and young adults from smoking, or excited the public to demand the abolishment o Yf the Tobacco Cartel, then how many millions of America's working class poor does George W. Bush&emdash;the puppet of big business and "the world champion executioner"&emdash;want to judiciously murder in order to "deter" people from killing each other?

Clearly, when it comes to weighing the accused crimes of these desperate individuals who languish in the forlorn cages of our country's death rows against the "legalized" crimes of those corporate barons who live in the Tobacco Cartel's ivory towers of death, then it becomes evident that America's devices of power and its minions have marked factions of the working class as its victims; denounces them in the corporate media, and excites the public hatred, to conceal its own abuses and encroachments.

For comments please write:
Douglas Scott Mickey
C-73900 NS-30-S
San Quentin Prison San Quentin, CA

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