Halonen, tough on crime?
Looks like President Tarja Halonen is “tough on crime“! Although I doubt it, she’s probably just avoiding all the negative press surrounding the clemencies of convicted murderers, the woman has no principles, she only thinks about which decision will get her the most votes. And how does Finnish judicial system feel everytime the President supersedes their life-in-prison sentence?
During Tarja Halonen’s first term as the President of the Republic, prisoners serving life sentences remained incarcerated for an average of three years longer than during the preceding presidencies of Martti Ahtisaari and Mauno Koivisto.
In its Monday issue the Keskisuomalainen daily revealed that Halonen pardoned prisoners after they had served an average of 13.18 years of their sentence. [...]An amendment due to become effective in October will turn over the bulk of the pardon appeal processing from the President to the Helsinki Court of Appeal.
“the woman has no principles”
I agree (to a degree). I listened to her speeches during elections and thought that they sound familiar. After a while I remembered some social studies lessons from school and realized that her speeches were word-to-word copies of textbook chapters that described the basic functions of a welfare state! She expressed them as her own opinions about how this country should be run and got applaudes from the audience…
I had nothing against her before, as I had not followed her doings very closely, but now I have. She has no principles, she just does what anyone tells her to do if it’s said rhetorically enough.
You should really write more about her doings(or not-doings), Phil.
Comment by praeceptum — Mon, May 8th, 2006 @ 5:42 pm
“she only thinks about which decision will get her the most votes”
As if you’d know that.
Comment by Anonymous — Mon, May 8th, 2006 @ 7:11 pm
“she only thinks about which decision will get her the most votes”
What votes? This is her second and last term.
Personally, I don’t know anyone I admire more than Halonen.
Comment by Anonymous — Mon, May 8th, 2006 @ 7:12 pm
Life sentences? Holy shit, you gotta do something really bad to get life sentences here!
Comment by gopha — Mon, May 8th, 2006 @ 7:23 pm
Note that presidential pardon is a very old tradition, it’s not Halonen’s invention – and neither is her practice of pardoning prisoners for life after about 12 years; it’s been practiced for so long that it is practically a *part* of the Finnish penal system. The judicial system knows this and actually expects this. Note that life imprisonment is a mandatory sentence for the crimes that it is used for, and as such, a sentence of life inprisonment is not a statement by the court on the foulness of the crime (compared to other crimes having the same label).
You do know, I hope, that a new law is codifying this long-term practice. Because the presidential pardon is not really intended for systematic release of prisoners, parole cases for life prisoners are to be heard by the Helsinki Apellate Court as the first instance.
Comment by Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho — Mon, May 8th, 2006 @ 7:27 pm
Hrm, of course you know it, you even quoted that part of the story
I should learn to read…
Comment by Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho — Mon, May 8th, 2006 @ 7:28 pm
I read from YLE that aggravated arson gets you 10 years. How long do you think do you really have to sit in prison? Lets say, you were drunk, while you set something on fire?
1 year, 2?
Comment by Ragnarök — Mon, May 8th, 2006 @ 7:39 pm
First-timers are generally released on parole after having served half of the nominal time.
The ten years for aggravated arson is the maximum; two years is the minimum. Courts very rarely use either the minimum or the maximum, they tend to like the middle ground more.
You know, you don’t have to guess about these things, there is real information available on the web!
Comment by Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho — Mon, May 8th, 2006 @ 9:29 pm
I must correct my earlier comment: life imprisonment is the mandatory sentence only for murder and murder-as-terrorism. There are other crimes where life imprisonment is an option (such as espionage and treason).
Comment by Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho — Mon, May 8th, 2006 @ 9:34 pm
Here’s a good one for you, Phil. The family of the murdered former president of Chechnya, Aslan Mashadov, who currently reside in Baku, seek asylum in Finland. They set their hopes on President Halonen. This doesn’t appear on the English side yet. I hope you will follow this VERY closely.
http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/vasen/id33852.html
Comment by Freeridin' Franklin — Tue, May 9th, 2006 @ 12:34 am
Phil, where do you find these wonderful photos of the Bimbo of Finland? This one’s an absolute Gomer.
Comment by Finnpundit — Tue, May 9th, 2006 @ 3:32 am
the Bimbo of Finland
And this is the American who raves about anti-Americanism in Finland! Haloo, Halonen on demokraattisesti valittu valtionpäänainen, whether you like it or not. Show some respect. (Not that you would understand what I wrote) I could call Bush junior an illiterate asshole if that wasn’t too difficult a concept for him – and you – to understand. “Heck, I’ve never heard of an asshole that could literate … Mine just makes these odd sounds I can’t control. Now, let’s kill some more innocent Muslim children.” I could but I won’t. I have too much respect for the democratic tradition in the US. Luckily enough, Bush is just a mistake which will be corrcted.
Comment by Anonymous — Tue, May 9th, 2006 @ 10:09 am
It was under her administration that I finally got the right to marry my girlfriend (I’m female). Made a hell of a lot of difference to me. “Principled” democrats in the States are still avoiding the issue in order to please the Christian right. As far as politicians go, Halonen’s not too shabby on the principles front from where I stand…
Comment by veltis — Tue, May 9th, 2006 @ 10:51 am
The same goes for Halonen that goes for George W. Bush, these presidents couldn’t care less for more votes since they got all they needed last time around and aren’t eligible to run again.
Presidential pardons are a relic from long ago and I’m not really sure if it’s meaningful to have them in 21st Century Finland. But it is a long-term practice and Halonen isn’t really doing anything very dramatic in this issue of pardons.
When Finnpundit takes up the issue of anti-Americanism in Finland, he’s usually critical of Finns talking about stuff they don’t know that much about. The same would apply for anti-Finnish Americans. But since Finnpundit most probably is Finnish-American, he knows everything about both Finland and America and is immune to such arguments. When Finnpundit criticizes Halonen, or John Kerry, or anybody else Finnish or American, he is basically telling a fellow Finn or his fellow American to shove it. Knowing Finland, knowing America, knowing Finns, knowing Americans, all this makes Finnpundit immune to criticism. Only when Finnpundit tells the French (or anybody else) to shove it, according to this logic there is reason to suspect that he has no clue of what he is talking about. If I’m maliciously misrepresenting Finnpundit’s logic, please feel free to protest.
Comment by Helsinkian — Tue, May 9th, 2006 @ 10:58 am
If Finnpudit is indeed a Finn originally or otherwise, he surely can answer to this question: Montako ökyrepublikaania tarvitaan vaihtamaan Suomi Yhdysvalloiksi?
And what is it about this “pundit” thing? I was under the impression that “pundit” reffered to people who have deep knowledge about this or that, but, apparently, it nowadays refers to all kinds of right-wing nutcases.
Comment by tony bee — Tue, May 9th, 2006 @ 12:19 pm
tony bee: as a regular reader of Finnpundit’s blog I’d like to point out that Finnpundit deletes Finnish language remarks from his blog and I’d be surprised if he answered your question. Still, anyone who has been following his comments on this blog for a long time can come to the conclusion that he’s originally a Finn and he does indeed sometimes link his comments to Finnish-language websites.
I don’t think Finnpundit is a nationalist and his issue is not about making America out of Finland. Finnpundit is very critical of politics and politicians encroaching on the rights of private property and he wants globally more power to corporate interests. Finnpundit is a very articulate advocate of corporatocracy (corporate power, excuse me for not finding the right Greek word to this alternative to our kind of democracy) and he wants the market forces to have more power everywhere. If I’m interpreting him wrong, he can always correct me.
I think pundits are people who believe that they have deep knowledge. If you call yourself a pundit, that means you think you know what you’re talking about. Pundits are those who have opinions on politics and express them frequently and articulately.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pundit_%28politics%29
“Pundit” I believe is the Hindi word for sage. It’s sometimes written as “pandit” as in Pandit Nehru (the honorary title of India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru who was no right-winger). The wikipedia article for Nehru explains that his title means “scholar” or “teacher”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jawaharlal_Nehru
“Pandit” and “pundit” is the same thing, it’s just that in English you write an “u” to mark that the Hindi sound is pronounced like how Finns pronounce “a”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pundit_%28India%29
My guess is Finnpundit calls himself by that name because he wants to tell us he is the guru on all things Finnish. He is the teacher who explains Finland to an American audience, or that portion of America that shares his deeply-felt beliefs on the capitalist free markets.
In Europe the use of “pundit” as political blogger is also spreading and those who don’t like American right-wingers who call themselves pundits can try European pundits such as Europundits:
http://www.europundits.blogspot.com
Comment by Helsinkian — Tue, May 9th, 2006 @ 1:17 pm
Helsinkian, thanks for your thoughtful comments. But I’m afraid you left out the obvious: Finnpundit is clearly a moron, kin to the facists and the kind of folks you really would want to keep distance to, in real life, you know. As an intellectual exercise, well, he may be worth something. In my opinion very little, though.
Comment by tony bee — Tue, May 9th, 2006 @ 2:31 pm
“Finnpundit is clearly a moron, kin to the facists”
I wouldn’t call him that. He’s provocative. Compared to someone like Ann Coulter, he’s not that provocative.
Comment by Helsinkian — Tue, May 9th, 2006 @ 5:14 pm
Compared to someone like Ann Coulter, he’s not that provocative.
As an enthusiastic Ann Coulter reader I must protest. In Coulter’s text there seems to be something I can relate to, but this American worker-consumer hero working his way through all possible societies, well, that’s just too much for my tiny brain.
(Okey, I’ve never read a whole Coulter book. I once tried and got half-way through. The Liberal media this and that. Hohhoijaa.)
Comment by tony bee — Tue, May 9th, 2006 @ 7:42 pm
A nice analysis by Helsinkian. I wonder why Finnpundit is so anti-Finland. It’s not just the welfare state, I’ve lately got the impression from his comments that he really hates anything Finnish. Must be something personal then…
Finnpundit, like most (all?) enthusiastic advocates of one ideology, has to depend on rhetorics because ultimately politics are more complicated than that. I’m not sure that he really even believes in what he preaches all the time. The guy knows some big words and can articulate, I’ll give him that.
Comment by Pave — Tue, May 9th, 2006 @ 11:13 pm
Veltis, the President has very little say in legislation. You should look elsewhere for the people to cheer for
Comment by Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho — Wed, May 10th, 2006 @ 7:11 am