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Debate Info

5
2
Yes, they should have. No, they should not have.
Debate Score:7
Arguments:5
Total Votes:8
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 Yes, they should have. (3)
 
 No, they should not have. (2)

Debate Creator

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Should the Justice Department have dropped all charges against Ted Stevens?

Read up on the issue here.

Yes, they should have.

Side Score: 5
VS.

No, they should not have.

Side Score: 2
2 points

I think they already did. My dad told me but it may be a April Fools joke. If they haven't then they should because I want Uncle Ted to come back and get rid of Beigich.

Side: Yes, they should.
2 points

I think they already did. This was posted on CBS news website

"New Attorney General Eric Holder will drop all charges pending against former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, according to an exclusive report from National Public Radio Wednesday."

I agree though, there should be another chance for Stevens to go at it. It was really unfair, cuz when they did charge him, people all over America (not everyone, of course) criticized him, and many of us Alaskans were outraged.

Side: Yes, they should.
1 point

More complete and total bs,

and already a couple on the other side of this debate are falling right into the bogus arguements put forth by the ones in power.

And this is for both sides of the political spectrum,

it has 0 to do with dem or repub, or conservative or liberal, or any other minor party, or independant.

May 29, 2007, the Anchorage Daily News reported that the FBI and a federal grand jury were investigating an extensive remodeling project at Stevens' home in Girdwood. Stevens' Alaska home was raided by the FBI and IRS on July 30, 2007. The remodeling work doubled the size of the modest home. Public records show that the house was 2,471 square feet (230 m2) after the remodeling and that the property was valued at $271,300 in 2003, including a $5,000 increase in land value. The remodel in 2000 was organized by Bill Allen, a founder of the VECO Corporation, an oil-field service company and has been estimated to have cost VECO and the various contractors $250,000 or more. However, the residential contractor who finished the renovation for VECO, Augie Paone, "believes the [Stevens'] remodeling could have cost ― if all the work was done efficiently ― around $130,000 to $150,000, close to the figure Stevens cited last year." The Stevens paid $160,000 for the renovations "and assumed that covered everything."

In June, the Anchorage Daily News reported that a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., heard evidence in May about the expansion of Stevens' Girdwood home and other matters connecting Stevens to VECO. In mid-June, FBI agents questioned several aides who work for Stevens as part of the investigation. In July, Washingtonian magazine reported that Stevens had hired "Washington’s most powerful and expensive lawyer", Brendan Sullivan Jr., in response to the investigation. In 2006, during wiretapped conversations with Bill Allen, Stevens expressed worries over potential misunderstandings and legal complications arising from the sweeping federal investigations into Alaskan politics. On the witness stand, "Allen testified that VECO staff who had worked on his own house had charged 'way too much,' leaving him uncertain how much to invoice Stevens for when he had his staff work on the senator's house ... that he would be embarrassed to bill Stevens for overpriced labor on the house, and said he concealed some of the expense."

A person is elected into a position of authority to serve the people. There is no situation in which a person can take more advantage, and criminally so, than in this situation.

But pretend for a moment that Ted Stevens was never a senator, that he was never in a position of power, and that instead of the American people he ripped off, it was a private company.

Now everyone -- dem, republican, Bill O'Reilly, and Keith Olbermann alike would be preaching the evils of this man.

If it were to make it to (had he been a private citizen,) to the media, he would be crucified. And rightly so.

So what than is the difference if he happened to have been a public figure? And if it happened to have been the public, and no private sector, that he was taking advantage of?

If anything this should be worse.

This is a huge problem.

And that so easily the media has turned this into a lasse fair, live and let live issue,

is a sign of the poison that has infected America.

"With great power comes great responsibility."

At the greatest moments of our great nations history, this has been true.

But we have become lazy, complacent, and dumb.

And with great responsibility has come great corruption, with no accountability, no oversite, and not a care in the world.

Well, sure his home that he remodeled was a drop in the bucket.

But it is this exact attitude, that has allowed this man to walk,

that has allowed our great nation to come to such dire economic situations.

if anyone should be held liabal for such acts, it should most of all be one who has taken advantage of the American people. More than anyone, it should be one who was elected to a position of power by the people.

And anyone who does this should be held accountabe.

And in this case the very ones who tout most loudly personal responsibilty, are the very ones least willing to take on that responsibility themselves.

Ted Stevens is a criminal. He commited criminal acts no better, and infact worse, than one who robs an old lady by gun point.

He should be subject to the exact same justice.

Side: No, they should not have.
Tugman(749) Disputed
0 points

I live in Anchorage and I can say that the Anchorage Daily News' only purpose is to be burned. Even if Ted Stevens is guilty, the prosecution can't with hold evidence that could exonerate him.

P.S. Half of Obama's cabinet doesn't pay their taxes and no one is going after them.

Side: Yes, they should have.
1 point

Tug...it is not true that half of Obama's cabinet don't pay their taxes and no one is going after them. The truth is that those who paid under the amount they should, have resigned, not accepted their appointments or re-paid the debt with penalties if so decided.

Having said that, whether or not the members of the cabinet have not paid their taxes has nothing to do with the price of corn here! If Ted Stevens is guilty he should face the consequences under the law and without the prosecution withholding evidence of any kind.

Side: A new trial is in order here