Open Thread

bullet image TalkLeft has one of those way-too-common stories demonstrating painfully that the harm of prohibition is far greater than any harm from drugs: OK Woman Gets 10 Years for Selling $31 of Marijuana. It’s the kind of story that makes you angry — at the snitch, at the prosecutors, at the system, and mostly at the law.


bullet image Peter Moskos saw this:

A police “accreditation manager” (whatever that means) is revising his “social networking policy” so that potential applicants, as part of their background investigation, must sign an affidavit listing any social networking sites (Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, LinkedIn) they belong to and give their passwords to these sites so the department can snoop.

Is this becoming standard? Do we approve? I’m pretty sure I don’t approve.

I don’t either. I understand the need for police departments to investigate the background of applicants to make sure they haven’t been involved in criminal enterprises, but this smacks of screening for “unacceptable” viewpoints (such as “liking” LEAP, for example). And given the power the police seem to have (through lobbying and various questionable techniques) to influence legislation, even the appearance of the attempt to create a “standardized” political viewpoint in law enforcement is a pretty scary thing.


bullet image According to the U.S. State Department, the drug warriors are expected to seize 103% of all cocaine produced in the world this year.

Narcoleaks, a new website produced by Italian journalists and the drug trafficking researcher Sandro Donati, keeps track of cocaine seizure reports and compares them to official estimates of worldwide production. The most recent projection based on Donati’s calculations indicates that seizures, which totaled 47.1 metric tons from January 1 through yesterday, will hit 664 to 714 metric tons by the end of the year. According to the U.S. State Department’s production estimate, that means governments will succeed in confiscating all of Earth’s cocaine, plus another 19 metric tons or so (based on the middle of the projected range), possibly produced on Mars.

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43 Responses to Open Thread

  1. claygooding says:

    They are trying very hard to come up with some kind of success,even if it only proves again that they don’t have the slightest idea of their effectiveness or lack of.

    When will congress hold them to factual claims of progress,if there is such a thing?

  2. Pingback: Tweets that mention Open Thread « Drug WarRant -- Topsy.com

  3. vicky vampire says:

    Let’s see 10 years,many rapists have gotten less through the years,Oh I see she looks Hispanic,and or Native American Indian,WTF Another minority in prison.
    Someone commented that Charlie Sheen had a briefcase of Cocaine,and LADY gaga smokes pot to her hearts content well no problem with them we laugh there famous they get away with much more,no I know celebs do get arrested once in a while,but its tons of times usually before serious jail time.
    Wow I GUESS That’s only reason I’s like to be famous you can do your drugs hidden away better sometimes.

    Lets see America is broke,weak,a laughing stalk for our continuous,blatant hypocrisy on every level.
    We brag about being great leaders and lately all we seem to do is take away peoples lighbulbs,right to light up anywhere,Tell folks they must volunteer more in there community,when they do not even have jobs,and keep demonizing folks for ingesting a medical plant.
    The no tolerance policy’s are so insane that they should have been enough to wake up the populace from its complacency,its not just the weed folks soon its everything.We are all criminals now we just aren’t locked up yet may be more tea party people need to be handcuffed don’t you get it your own party leaders are buildings laws that will ensnare you for the very thing and freedom you are fighting for.

    • Randy says:

      Just a minor disagreement here in that it is quite likely that low
      income Caucasian women would have rec’d the same treatment as these two
      unforuntates under the same circumstances. The reason the two women
      were treated so harshly here is that they didn’t accept the plea
      blackmail, er, I mean plea bargaining offered by the prosecution.
      Prosecutors routinely inform defendents that if they don’t take a plea
      and instead go to trial, they will seek harsher punishments against
      them at trial. That’s case here. So much for justice. Just sickening.

    • This is not my America says:

      … been enough to wake up the populace from its complacency,its not just the weed folks soon its everything.We are all criminals now we just aren’t locked up yet…

      You bet Vicky. I been telling folks for long time now…this isnt jsut about weed…this is about everything….this reform fight steps in every area of our lives and many dont see it…many just see it as being about weed and the right to use it. Prohibition is just one leg/tenticale of a much bigger monster looking to consume us all.

  4. careynunes says:

    Let me say that the “United Forensic College” is the friendliest, most helpful and accessible college out there right now. The Criminal Justice curriculum isn’t going to overwhelm you.

  5. Servetus says:

    Regarding social networking by state and federal employees in the United States, it’s believed necessary that the state and federal government to control its own message. There’s no democracy at the top.

    Prison employees in some states, California for instance, are forbidden to talk to journalists without prior approval by a supervisor (I still have an actual memo smuggled to me by a prison employee that verifies this). If just one employee is suspected of leaking unauthorized information to the press, all prison employees get punished in some insidious manner… (sorry guys). People bear this assault upon their civil rights because they know it’s the only way to keep their jobs.

    Prison employees are threatened to not file lawsuits against their state employers in federal court instead of state court, or they can never work for the state again. This is because the state courts essentially act as their own judge and jury in lawsuits against the state, and justice is seldom served.

    Then there are the attorneys who won’t take cases against the state because it conflicts with their much more profitable work for the state. To make certain few good attorneys are available for filing complaints against the state, the state spreads its business around to as many lawyers as possible, thereby narrowing the field for litigants to find a capable attorney. It’s practically impossible to find any attorney willing to fight the status quo in small communities, as everyone knows everyone, and lawyers end up bearing fiduciary responsibilities to their respective communities.

    So this latest venture in keeping information out of the hands of an already angry public wanting more information about their government appears to involve discouraging police applicants from blogging at all by taking away the one thing that might tempt them to thwart the system through blogging: their anonymity. As Oscar Wilde noted: “Give a man a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”

    Prohibitionists shouldn’t blog in any event. They’re really no good at it.

    • DdC says:

      Deafeating YouTube Censorship
      26 February, 2009 Yahooka: Excerps of The Corbett Report

      Simple steps any internet user can take to reduce GooTube’s stranglehold on information

      … But precisely because these videos are having such a large effect on the political landscape, there is now a backlash by the corporations whose interests are threatened by a renaissance of grassroots citizen journalism. As The Corbett Report has detailed in the past, the fears of insidious corporate control over YouTube generated by Google’s takeover of the site in 2006 have been realized slowly but surely.

      First, GooTube responded to requests by Senator Joe Lieberman to take down videos that the government deems violent or hateful (including, of course, 9/11 Truth information). Then YouTube’s parent, Google, quietly announced that its staff “pick and choose” what sites appear in its search results, a move with obvious implications for political censorship. Next, GooTube nixed the highly-popular Bulletin system that helped users quickly spread important videos.

      The latest move toward the shutting down of free speech on YouTube is the introduction of algorithms that automatically compare audio and video content against databases of copyrighted material. YouTube can then either place ads on the content and give the proceeds to the copyright holder (as happened to this Corbett Report video), mute the audio (as happened here) or remove the content entirely (as happened to some previous Corbett Report videos). Of course, the algorithm fails to take into account issues of fair use (such as the transformative nature of the work or its allowable use for commentary or news-related purposes) and the “appeal process” offered by YouTube, not being arbitrated by a third party, still gives YouTube dictatorial control over any and all content on its servers….

      As Egypt goes offline US gets internet ‘kill switch’ bill ready
      January 31, 2011

      The proposed legislation, introduced into the US Senate by independent senator Joe Lieberman, who is chairman of the US Homeland Security committee, seeks to grant the President broad emergency powers over the internet in times of national emergency.

      Last year, Lieberman argued the bill was necessary to “preserve those networks and assets and our country and protect our people”.

      He said that, for all its allure, the internet could also be a “dangerous place with electronic pipelines that run directly into everything from our personal bank accounts to key infrastructure to government and industrial secrets”.

      Internet ‘Kill Switch’ Legislation Back in Play
      January 28, 2011

      Legislation granting the president internet-killing powers is to be re-introduced soon to a Senate committee, the proposal’s chief sponsor told Wired.com

      Censorship is suppression of speech or other communication which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the general body of people as determined by a government, media outlet, or other controlling body.

      Ain’t the first time,
      It won’t be the last…

      Making War On Free Speech! June 09, 2000

      Civil liberties advocates at WorldNetDaily and elsewhere can be pleased and grateful that a certain amount of lobbying and agitation seems to have gotten the “sneak and peek” search without notification provisions out of the Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act (S. 486/H.R. 2987). But the bill, which passed the Senate unanimously, still contains limitations on free speech that are breathtaking in their breadth…

      … S. 486 includes a provision that makes it a federal crime “to teach or demonstrate the manufacturing of a controlled substance, or to distribute by any means information pertaining to, in whole or in part, the manufacture or use of a controlled substance.”

  6. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    Last night’s “CSI: Miami” featured Mexican cartel style violence happening in the US. A crusading State’s Attorney holds a press conference after a sophisticated meth lab owned by the Mala Noche gang and declares that he’s sending the gang a “message” just before the gang sent him a more impressive “message” which made him shut up.

    Natalia Boa Vista, “What is this, they all of a sudden come out of hiding and then they start acting like the Mexican cartels…?”

    Walter Simmons, “Because we’ve been hitting them where it hurts.”

    So does this mean that life is imitating art in a couple of years when the Mexi-tels do decide to send messages to authorities and the media using their peculiar and most unique form of messaging while standing on US soil?

  7. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    C’mon guys, don’t be so hard on these guys. Everybody knows that cops aren’t smart enough to know how to count or how to assign value. The constant estimates of cartel weed as being worth $800 to $1000 an ounce and every pot seed growing into a kilogram of cannabis that sells for between $19,000 and $22,000 should have clued you in.

    Really, it’s remarkable that they came so close in this BWAG* estimation in the article above. The number could well be a reasonable estimate.

    Why is everyone assuming that the drug agents who made this estimate actually knows how many kilos is in a metric ton? If they think it’s 100 kilos instead of 1000 that might make the estimate reasonable. If they think it’s 1000 pounds in a metric ton it still wouldn’t be worse than wishful thinking. But doggone it, the metric system is as hard as Chinese arithmetic. Heck it was probably those people who invented it!

    Well there I go again, presuming that they’re even smart enough to know that there’s anything in a metric ton but a metric ton.

    *Bureaucratic Wild Assed Guess

  8. DdC says:

    CA Medical Marijuana Patient Advocates
    Hold First-of-Its-Kind Virtual Nationwide Conference

    Hundreds of activists in more than 20 cities
    will engage in skills-building and strategic planning.

    As the issue of medical marijuana heats up across the country, leading patient advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) will hold a two-day interactive, virtual “Boot Camp” February 19-20 to train hundreds of U.S.-based activists in skills-building and strategic planning. This first of its kind nationwide conference on medical marijuana will be conducted in more than 20 cities in 9 states, including Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Portland, Sacramento, San Diego, and Washington, D.C. continued…

    Activist Boot Camp

    A National Call to Action!

    U2b Trailer from my own Congressman Sam Farr.
    Ya just gotta know how to train em,
    they don’t come out of the box this way…

  9. strayan says:

    I’ve been going through google news archives and there are some real gems:

    “Cocaine crazed negro runs amuck”:

    http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=UUwsAAAAIBAJ&sjid=z8kEAAAAIBAJ&dq=cocaine&pg=5957%2C747051

    “Drug-Crazed Negroes Start a Reign of Terror ”

    http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10D16F63D5913738DDDA00A94D1405B838DF1D3

    “Cocaine evil among negroes”

    http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F5061FFC355414728DDDAA0894D9415B828CF1D3

    “Murder and Insanity Increasing Among Lower Class Blacks Because They Have Taken to “Sniffing”

    http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60B14F7345F13738DDDA10894DA405B848DF1D3

    So no, cocaine prohibition had nothing to do with racism.

  10. vicky vampire says:

    Of course,she would have gotten less time if taken the plea bargain,Life in USA one big plea bargain
    I get to fucking emotional about all this stuff,
    I remember visiting a Prison guards home some years ago I forget I think I bought Avon or something from them anyway,The guard and his wife looked like regular druggies yes, I can tell family members small town to many friends full blown addicts,
    I wonder do they regularly pee test Prison employees.

  11. allan420 says:

    here’s one that oughta stir some talk (good timing too since I just mentioned nonviolent civil disobedience yesterday):

    A TIMARU cancer patient facing a jail term for growing cannabis he uses to alleviate pain says he will go on a hunger strike if he gets locked up.

    Peter Davy, 51, has pleaded guilty to cultivating cannabis and to other related drug charges, but says he uses the drug only for medicinal purposes for himself and his partner, who suffers from multiple sclerosis.

    It is not the first time he has been before the courts on drug charges and the judge indicated that when Davy is sentenced on March 16 he can expect to receive a jail term.

    But Davy is refusing to go quietly.

    “I will be going on a hunger strike the moment I am given a prison sentence and I absolutely do not want to be force-fed under any circumstances. I will also be refusing all cancer medication.

    “I am 100% committed to continuing with a hunger strike until I am dead,” said Davy. “I hate confrontation and I hate publicity, but I have nothing to lose and somebody has to make a stand… or nothing ever changes.”

    Cannabis protester prepared to starve

    This is the kicker:

    “I hate confrontation and I hate publicity, but I have nothing to lose and somebody has to make a stand… or nothing ever changes.”

    • allan420 says:

      Peter Davy has a website:

      http://freepeterdavy.com/

      My name is Peter Davy and I am 51 years old.

      I am a Medical Cannabis user and have had cancer for 10 years.

      My partner has advanced Multiple Sclerosis and I am her 24-hour caregiver. She is dying and will die without me.

      • This is not my America says:

        This just sick…the more they prosecute people for trying to help themselves…the more law shoots its self in the foot. Its just to bad people have to suffer and die.

        I have had family die from variuos cancers , its horrible to watch someone slowly waste away while being pumped full of big pharms chemicals. Its what got me into this fight. Now I have been informed the grandmother of my significante othersdaughter has cancer…small cell lung cancer. We all know what that means. She could be made more comfortable during this next year using cannabis in one form or another. It wont happen. It makes me sick the pain this woman will go through, it makes me sick the pain this family will go through. What makes even more sick, even more angery…our government will stop us from trying to help.

        If I should ever get cancer, I WILL grow/buy cannabis for my own use…to try help myself. If would be caught and jailed….I to will kill myself through hunger strike.

        FUCK THIS SICKASSED GOVERNMENT !

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .
      Now that reminds me of the the new sheriff scene from Blazing Saddles when the character played by Cleavon Little found himself surrounded by a bunch of pissed off racists, put his gun to his head and took himself hostage to get away.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upvZdVK913I
      at 3:10 in the linked video if you are interested. (warning: politically incorrect)

    • Cliff says:

      “I hate confrontation and I hate publicity, but I have nothing to lose and somebody has to make a stand… or nothing ever changes.”

      That’s the story of my life as an adult. I have taken my stand which has made my life significantly more difficult and less prosperous in monetary terms, but I am living my life as a person who practices self sovereignty.

      If you think about it. We’re here such a short time and we can’t take anything with us. Peter Davy is a hero, willing to lay down what’s left of his life, all he really has left, in pain and suffering for more than just a paycheck. Sometimes I wonder if I could be as strong.

      I hope that God, the Universe, whatever, gives him and his wife the strength and grace to endure this and that people begin to wake up.

  12. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    strayan, if you reference the NY Times article where Know Nothing prohibitionists lurk it’s a good idea to remind people before they reference it that there were a lot of States which had enacted drinking alcohol prohibition years, even decades before the Volstead Act became law in 1920. Otherwise you may hear that it’s obvious that you dummied up the story because it was written in 1914, “years before prohibition started!”

    Drug reform trivia: Which State was first to enact drinking alcohol prohibition and when? Maine, in 1851.

    Which was the first State to repeal, and when? Maine, in 1856.

    “Next came the first attempt at statewide prohibition, the Maine law of 1851 which outlawed the manufacture or sale of “spiritous or intoxicating liquors.” A dozen states quickly followed suit, but for the moment the movement had abated. The Maine law and others imitating it were repealed before the end of the 1850s. Then, for a time, the turmoil of the Civil War diverted reformers.”

    http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/rnp/RNP1.html

    In the “more things change, the more they stay the same” category (same link as above):

    “Arguments…by the Reverend Charles Stelzle, a Presbyterian Social Gospeler and ardent prohibitionist, suggest some reasons why liquor reform appealed to many Progressives. Ste1zle…held that banishing alcohol was essential for the material advancement of American society. Drinking [alcohol]…lowered industrial productivity and therefore reduced wages paid to workers; it shortened life and therefore increased the cost of insurance; it took money from other bills and therefore forced storekeepers to raise their prices in compensation; and it produced half of the business for police courts, jails, hospitals, almshouses, and insane asylums and therefore increased taxes to support these institutions.”

    Perhaps rioting is in order?

    “The act was unpopular with many working class people and immigrants. Opposition to the law turned violent in Portland, Maine on June 2, 1855 during an incident known as the Maine law riot. The riot was a contributing factor to the law being repealed in 1856.[1]

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine_law

    Sometimes I wish that I lived in 1910, when everything was black and white. All the colors that exist today confuse me, I just can’t seem to get them right.

  13. vicky vampire says:

    You know the old cliche’ saying, I’m from the government and I’m here to help you,No the government is here to destroy your life and kill you in the process.
    Yes, FREE PETER DAVY!!!!

  14. claygooding says:

    The prohibition is winding down and the bureaucrats are feeling it,,,,and fighting it with any means necessary!

    Proof of it’s ending?

    Medical Marijuana Defense Bill in Texas
    http://www.opposingviews.com/i/medical-marijuana-defense-bill-in-texas

    “”While HB 1491 does not establish statewide regulations to allow qualified patients to use and possess medical cannabis — as have been enacted in other states — this bill would enact new legal protections for patients by allowing them to present evidence of their medical use at trial.””

    Hell just ordered ski suits.

  15. vicky vampire says:

    Hey Clay at least they are introducing bills in these conservative states,I’d be truly shocked when they do that in Utah its a dead zone here,I do not think Bills are ever even introduced at all. Unless I missed something, Living Free in the Dead Zone of Utah .Boo Hoo.

  16. kaptinemo says:

    OT: About drug dogs, Radley is weighing in on the same objections I’d been making for years.

    Heisenberg was right: the presence of the human affects the operation. With regards to ‘drug dogs’, it doesn’t get any plainer than that.

  17. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    Sniffer dogs used to detect colon cancer.

    http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/737130

    Gosh I always thought that stash spot was safe from dogs, but I guess not.

  18. claygooding says:

    I was stationed TDY to Blanding,UT out of Ft Sill,OK,and
    yup,,,dead zone pretty well described Blanding.

    We livened it up when we fired an inter-continental test
    missile that was supposed to have a maximum range of 600
    miles aimed at White Sands,according to all treaties and missile classifications at the time.and it traveled 800+ miles and landed 50 miles south of Juarez.

    That was in 69 and I doubt Utah has grown much more progressive.

  19. This is not my America says:

    You hear it all the time. We are very lucky, we are a free country. ok Ya well, no matter how comfortable the cage….

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .
      I’ve noticed that the number of definitions of a word is inversely proportional to the number of syllables in the word. IIRC the word “do” has the most separate and distinct definitions of any word in the English language. Conversely, the word “eleemosynary” can only refer to things charitable.

      http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/eleemosynary

      Free is a one syllable word. Think about it.

  20. DdC says:

    What is Goo Tube? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it.
    Pete

    I think Gootube might be slang for Google Video

  21. DdC says:

    Another form of Censorship… Dumbing down Americans

    Barf, gag WTF? Donald Rumsfeld on Lettermen? Smiling and joking about mules? Fucking murdering bastard, still the denialist. He killed over 4000 Americans and stole a trillion dollars in the process and now he’s selling books on TV. WTF kind of morons are we growing here? I wonder if Americans wouldn’t feel better with a dictator. What is it called when naive is the status quo and even honored? That’s just disgusting. Let’s get the Iron Chef to make a nice supper for Charlie Manson on Leno. It was Rumsfeld and Boosh giving Sadamn the WMD’s, killing thousands of Kurds suspected of having ties with the Ayatollah in Iran. Who happened to overthrow the Boosh bud Shaw. Rumsfeld Cheney covering up the MKULTRA investigation, again. Carter, Rumsfeld Cheney Boosh Rayguns giving Osama bin Laden scud missiles to fight the Russians. Rumsfeld, CEO of Searle Pharmaceuticals removing Aspartame from a hazardous substance to fast track it as an artificial sweetner. Subsidiary of Monsanto, who sold saccharin as a sugar substitute, made from coal tar. Would they lie about Ganja and perpetuate the Ganjawar? You betchya!

    Swine Flu Rumsfeld & Cannabinoids

    “The size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be believed, for the vast masses of the nation are in the depths of their hearts more easily deceived than they are consciously and intentionally bad. The primitive simplicity of their minds renders them a more easy prey to a big lie than a small one, for they themselves often tell little lies but would be ashamed to tell a big one.”
    ~ Benito Mussolini,
    contributing to the “London Sunday Express,” December 8, 1935

    Bushit Rumcheney Cocktail

    The death in 1953 of a government scientist, Frank Olson, in a fall from a New York hotel window, is one of the most notorious cases in CIA history. The documents show that two of the key officials involved in the decision to withhold that information were White House aides Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, today the nation’s vice president and secretary of Defense.

    “These documents show the lengths to which the government was trying to cover up the truth,” said the scientist’s son, Eric Olson, who gave them to the Mercury News. “For 22 years there was a coverup. And then, under the guise of revealing everything, there was a new coverup.”

    The Tribunal of US Drug War Crimes

    “The United States supports right-wing dictatorships in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East … because these are the rulers who have tied their personal political destiny to the fortunes of the American corporations in their countries… Revolutionary or nationalist leaders have radically different political constituencies and interests. For them creating “a good investment climate” for the United States and developing their own country are fundamentally conflicting goals. Therefore, the United States has a strong economic interest in keeping such men from coming to power or arranging for their removal if they do.”
    ~ Richard Barnet,
    Intervention and Revolution

    Corporate Predators…

    “We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
    ~ President John F. Kennedy

  22. DdC says:

    Just heard Obama can decide preventing gay marriage laws is unconstitutional and just not enforce them. I would surmise he could do the same with the C.S.A? It’s only been done 10 other times in US history??? cbs news

    This shouldn’t be about “Gay” anything. It’s about cohabitation regardless of gender and especially regardless of religion. Whatever tax exemptions are given for “spouses” should be granted to any two or more people sharing occupancy. Sex is irrelevant. It’s helping the community by using less energy. Less electricity, heat and buildings. Less expense on low wages. Less pollution on everyone. Marriage is outdated with DNA doing a much better job of proving bloodlines. One person shaking a rattle and smoking a doobie is Constitutionally legal as far as being a religion. Not to legally possess, but in the doctrine, whatever floats your boat. Marriage does nothing for society and yet takes from schools, roads and food, same as any two people could. Being limited to two in Judea/Christianity means a bigger carbon footprint than a group or tribe sharing common resources. Getting deductions for kids is counter productive. More taxes should be paid… to deter more kids being made. We have almost 7 billion we can’t feed, sucking up resources Koch brothers want to pollute. Large families were for high death rates and supposedly that doesn’t factor in with the modern medicine and almost elimination of deadly epidemics. When it was between cities and rural, lines were more clear on needs. The suburbs built to sell more and instant neighborhoods with chemical waste, clear cutting and traffic jams help with selling “treatments”. But we shouldn’t be aiding and abetting these criminals. So, if Obama can over rule the Fascism and keeps from getting dead or lynched by the Birchers and Birthers, who knows, doubtful but Madison seems to be charged up these last 9 days. The original patriots dumped loose tea. Lipton Koch teabaggers are corporate commercials against fair treatment of American working people. cheap labor = more profit

    Obama holds gay pride reception, vows to overturn ‘unjust laws’
    CNN June 29, 2009

    Obama Administration decision to not defend Defense of Marriage Act will trigger heated political battle February 23, 2011
    In a decision described as “shocking” and “breathtaking,” the Obama administration announced this afternoon that the Justice Department will no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

    Defense of Marriage Act decision spurs calls for congressional action; Feinstein to introduce repeal bill February 23, 2011

    Court asked to clear way for Calif gay marriages
    Feb 23, 2011

    • Pete says:

      Actually, that’s not quite true, DdC. He decided that DOMA is unconstitutional and so directed the Justice Department not to defend it in court anymore, although it will still be enforced until the courts rule.

      • DdC says:

        Not enforcing the CSA,
        I was referring to the 2009 vow to overturn ‘unjust laws’.

        unconstitutional… not to defend it in court?

        As a witness? how can a fed prosecutor, prosecute a crime without defending the law making it a crime? What crime, posing as a married couple? Fraud? Tax cheating? I really never understood the priority over sick people going to jail for Ganja. Are there still bedroom cops busting down doors catching gays? So he’s going to bust them but not prosecute or not defend the prosecution? How can that happen?

        Or now that DADT is repealed, isn’t that where they were before Klintoon enacted it in the early 90’s? The point being it saved them from forced lies denying their gayness. I remember it got the right wing so fired up he had to shift away from any talk of ending the Ganjawar. It brought the Gindrige brigade of GOPerversions. I remember hearing Fleetwood Mac one minute and more Ganja arrests than Nixon, Bush and Reagan combined the next. Who asks, and why not just say none of your fucking business? Its not like bogus pisstaste firing people or getting them discharged. They don’t tell they toke and they steal their piss anyway. So what was this only happened 10 other times for a prez to do something crap on CBS?

        still be enforced

        Ya, that’s weird if he thinks its unconstitutional he should stop persecuting people. Marriage or drugs.

        Waiting for the state courts to rule? All 50? It seems to be a Federal tax exemption, but state divorce and child support laws. In Pa they had a Common Law time limit to shackup, I think it was 7 years and then you were legally married. I presume opposite sex is all that’s legal.

        If the GOP wants to openly declare war on the guy I think he should screw them and free the damn place as much as possible. From drugs to the rest of the vices. Stop the wars and free the prisons of non-violent drug offenders.

      • Pete says:

        Who is Klintoon? Who is Gindrige?

  23. DdC says:

    Marijuana not dangerous and can aid healing Feb 23 2011
    Scientific research has proven that unlike tobacco smoke, marijuana smoke allows damaged lung cells to die and be replaced by new ones.

    Na na na na na na!

    Larry Flynt Talks Legalization Feb 23 2011
    “Look. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to realize that cannabis is less harmful than alcohol – if indeed it’s even harmful at all, ” says the Hustler publisher.

    Dana Larsen:
    Eliminate BC’s Deficit
    by Reversing Corporate Tax Cuts
    and Taxing Super-Rich

    BC NDP Leadership candidate Dana Larsen, a prominent marijuana activist and former editor of Cannabis Culture, announced a plan today to address British Columbia’s structural deficits and increasing income inequality. full story

    • DdC says:

      Ecstasy Does Not Wreck the Mind, Study Finds
      There is no evidence that ecstasy causes brain damage, according to one of the largest studies into the effects of the drug. full story

      Brain damage? Who ever said that must have been trying to get something passed. Without much effort on lazy Congressional oversight and 3 times a failure with a potential bid for prez. Whats a lying degenerate to do? At least the Post Office can relax as not being the slowest gov department. It only took from 2003 untill 2011 to pass the word that Biden is full of shit. Still hasn’t reached anyone to overturn the RAVE Ax.

      United Nations Drug Report Disappointing XTC v Meth!

      Yesterday (September 23, 2003) the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime released its report Ecstasy and Amphetamines – Global Survey 2003. The report estimates that worldwide 7.7 million people used the drug ecstasy from 2000-2001.

      According to the report, ecstasy users risk suffering the effects of early decline in mental function and memory, or Alzheimer-type symptoms.

      The report was released just weeks after scientists at Johns Hopkins University retracted their research findings that suggested that a single evening’s use of ecstasy could cause permanent brain damage and Parkinson’s disease. The scientists admitted that they utilized the wrong drug in their studies.

      The UN report makes no mention of the retracted studies.

      Ecstasy: Are ‘Scare Tactics’ Valid? March 18, 2002

      Sentencing Guidelines Toughened for Ecstasy

      Reducing Americans’ Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act
      Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) forced the controversial legislation commonly known as the “RAVE” Act through both houses of Congress as an attachment to an unrelated child abduction bill.

      Drug labelling error forces retraction…After RAVE Ax Passes
      A prestigious scientific journal is retracting a study about the effects of the drug Ecstasy on the brain because the animals used in the research were given a different drug. The researchers blamed the error on a labelling mix-up. Previous studies had reported on the brain hazards of Ecstasy, and the researchers said the problems with their study did not call into question the earlier ones.

      SECOND ECSTASY STUDY RETRACTED Mon, 15 Sep 2003
      Johns Hopkins scientists find new error involving vial mislabeled in the first experiment.

      Scientists at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have retracted a second study linking the drug Ecstasy to a certain type of brain damage because once again the wrong drug was given to lab animals. Dr. Una D. McCann, a neuroscientist involved in both experiments, said a letter of retraction was sent Thursday to a medical journal, which she declined to identify until editors there decide how to handle the matter.

      Scientists discovered the mistake after they checked lab records to see if methamphetamine from a mislabeled vial used in the first experiment had been used elsewhere. “As you might imagine, we systematically went through the books to find out which, if any, of our published studies involved the same [vial],” she said Thursday. “We did find one, and a letter of retraction was sent out to the journal today.”

      The Rave Act stops NORML benefit concert
      Due to the RAVE Act anyone caught on the premisis with marijuana would automatically subjects our generous venue to a fine of $250,000.

      RAVE Act Protests Across the Country, May 31, 2003
      Have you ever wanted to dance for a good cause? Here’s your chance. On Saturday, May 31, protest gatherings will be held in cities across the country to call for repeal of the RAVE Act.

  24. DdC says:

    Bubba and Newt

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