Obama to nominate ACLU lawyer to lead Justice Department’s civil rights division
Vanita Gupta, a longtime civil rights lawyer, deputy legal director of the ACLU and director of its Center for Justice, will be appointed acting head of the division Wednesday by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., administration officials said.
Gupta has been a critic of the drug war and has been regularly outspoken about the need to change our racist marijuana laws.
Plus…
Her first case involved leading an effort to win the release of 38 defendants in Tulia, Tex., whose drug convictions and long sentences were discredited by her legal team. All of the defendants were pardoned in 2003 by Gov. Rick Perry, and Gupta helped negotiate a $5 million settlement for the defendants.
I guess I just wish this wasn’t happening so late in the game.
I’d be happier about this if the ACLU in the person of Alison Holcomb wasn’t promoting legislation that imposed a central registry of medicinal cannabis patients and removed patients right to grow their own medicine in Washington State. No more donations from me for an organization which should rather be named the American Civil Liberties Removing Union. WHat they are promoting is an insult to any concept of personal freedom. It’s a disgrace.
Was that sanctioned by the national ACLU? Sounds draconian, and definitely against type.
I don’t know but it’s certainly terrible.
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Oh man, this is going to be beyond way cool. Shall we start a betting pool for the date and time when the first enemy of freedom dies from a conniption fit caused by becoming aware of this?
“a critic of the drug war and has been regularly outspoken about the need to change our racist marijuana laws.” The last time I heard a guy talking like that was the Choom King
how sad… Tulia was her first case. And America rolled on. Tragedy after tragedy and America rolls on. Direction? Unknown… but it sure appears to be a rather downhill direction.
It’s hard to believe Tulia was that long ago. Crikey mates, no wunner I feel old.
Nominee for DOJ Slot Said States Should Legalize
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread28313.shtml
By Christopher Ingraham
Source: Washington Post
Washington, D.C. — The Post’s Sari Horwitz reports that Obama intends to nominate Vanita Gupta, currently director of the ACLU’s Center for Justice, to lead the civil rights division of the Justice Department. Gupta also currently leads the ACLU’s National Campaign to End Mass Incarceration. Horwitz writes:
Gupta, 39, who was born in the Philadelphia area to immigrant parents, has been praised by a wide array of political activists for her civil rights work, especially on prison reform, an issue on which liberals and conservatives have found common ground.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B0DHxGLCYAE9OPs.jpg
At Den de Cannabist,
GO GIANTS!
https://www.facebook.com/Giants
when I moved to oregon, the first thing I did was by a quality wool fitted SF baseball cap.
Talk about conversation starters. Because (I suppose, maybe) I’m a corrupted pot head I’ve come to believe that it’s ok for me to speak to anyone, pretty much at anytime.
When I lived at Opal Creek…
Hiker: “A Giants’ fan eh?”
Me: “no, it stands for Save Forest.”
Selling Redwood for Conde…
Customer: “So, you’re a Giants’ fan?”
Me: “No, it means Service First.”
Meeting somebody in public…
Person: “You like the Giants?”
Me: “No, my ex-wife gave it to me and she said it meant Stupid F***er”
and of course the variations go on for quite a ways…
A motto my dad would have used, never miss a chance to be a smart ass. Pop was allegedly booted out of US Army Ranger training (just before Normandy) for being too much of a smart ass. Instead of Normandy he ended up at the Battle of the Bulge… gone nearly 20 years and I still miss him. … sigh…
I do the same thing with a Cowboys hat,,don’t watch them or give a shit if the win or lose but they are great as an argument starter.
You can say the Dallas defensive tackle’s name and someone knows you are talking about the Cowboys when they can barely remember who their teams quarterback is.
http://i61.tinypic.com/vpx3sj.jpg
I remember someone else who was a critic of the drug war and had even been a supporter of states rights for medical marijuana. Then he became president.
And was bought and paid for by the bastards.
Understand…the reason Dark Alliance was such a “success” was because they had a market with a guaranteed success rate.
Drugs – guaranteed sales.
Destabilization of upcoming threats to power – DONE
Arrest for possession of said drugs – BONUS
A court in Groningen has tolerated the production of cannabis for the first time. Two weed growers from Bierum were found guilty of cannabis cultivation, but no punishment was imposed.
Two weeks ago the Public Prosecution still demanded community service for the duo for the illicit cultivation of hemp.
The two growers have been cultivating cannabis for years on principle and have repeatedly been condemned. They believe that the tolerance policy is not right and they want to change it. They pay the high electricity bill and taxes and maintain transparent records. They also only supply the municipality approved coffee shops.
The court in Groningen found the two guilty of cannabis cultivation, but deliberately did not impose punishment because the crop is in line with the tolerance policy.
achterdeur-coffeeshop-geopend
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I’ve just this minute realized that if we maintain our current rate of accumulation it just won’t take very long before we’re up to our necks in Guptas! [drumroll] [rimshot]
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This one is from the “res ipsa loquitur” category:
True public servants, no doubt.
A Teabagger-Republican in Colorado, Bob Beauprez, former banker and multimillionaire, is running in that state’s governor’s race. Mr. Beauprez says he will reverse Colorado’s new state constitutional amendment legalizing the recreational use of marijuana if elected. He says people are abusing marijuana, and that it must stop. Why would Bob swim against the tide of public opinion in a Colorado election and risk electoral defeat? Because Bob Beauprez is a right wing Roman Catholic, and because when the Vatican farts, it farts right out of Bob’s mouth.
when I saw that a Repub was running on an un-legalize platform I damn near busted a gut. And they wonder why they’re fading into oblivion…
Independent, the fastest growing party in the 50 states! (the 51st and 52nd states, Canada and Mexico, excluded for the purposes of this broadcast)
England, Sweden and New Zealand, the 53rd, 54th, and 55th states?
I wonder if anyone that is appointed a job can withstand the lure of the money that will try to influence the people that want to change things when they gain the power to do it.
Even though it is nigh on to impossible for an Independent to win election here in Canuckistan, at least there is still a modicum of difference between our three main political parties, as compared to the USans’ Republicrats, where it is not possible to tell the two parties apart. Query: Can the Governor do that? Can he overturn a constitutional amendment which was passed by the people? If so, then your country is truly doomed.
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Don’t you know that Mr. Beauprez is just trying to lock in the moron voting block? It’s critical for his campaign because he’ll never get elected without the support of the morons.
Perhaps it might ease the stress a bit if you know how Mr. Beauprez would get A-64 repealed. First he’s got to convince 2/3 of the State Senate and House to vote to put it on the ballot. It can only happen in even numbered years. Don’t ask me why only in even numbered years because Constitutional law gives me a headache. The soonest that he could make it happen is just a tad over two full years from now.
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Here’s a trivial piece of legislative irony. Amendment 2 in Florida requires 60% supermajority for it to be approved. That was established on a ballot initiative on Election Day 2006 when Amendment 3 was approved with 57.78% voting to approve.
after the DEA moved into Vancouver is when I started calling Canuckistan the 51st state.
Between them, the republicans and democrats only represent about 40% of the eligible voters in these united States. 60% of American eligible voters don’t like either party, but because those two parties have been in full control for so long, they have legislated such obstacles for anyone of any other party to get on the ballot, they have made it nearly impossible to achieve, while they are automatically on. Now, they’ve also taken over the debates and not just in the federal races, they won’t allow any other party’s candidates to participate in those debates, and their lapdog media won’t report on those alternative candidates unless they can use one of the following words in description of the candidate or his/her campaign: fringe, unelectable, crazy. So a clear minority has managed to sew up ALL the elections across the country in such a way that only they can get elected (with rare exceptions), so that 60% of the populace is effectively disenfranchised.
My congratulations to Vanita Gupta and President Obama’s good taste in this matter.
Delaware poll: Legalize marijuana
http://tinyurl.com/ltlsdph
“… according to a new University of Delaware poll that finds 56 percent of Delawareans support legalization of marijuana use.”
Vice President Joe Biden has had another family drug incident:
If Joe Biden’s CSA and drug war are such a big successes, why do his kids get into legal trouble over Xanax and cocaine? One would think by now VP Biden could recognize prohibition’s threat to his family and any future political career. Some people never learn.
The sins of the drug warrior father have been visited on the son.
“Employers and insurance companies are legally obligated to cover the expense of medical cannabis for employees injured on the job, the New Mexico Court of Appeals has affirmed.
Writing for the court in Vialpando v. Ben’s Automotive Services, Judge James Wechsler opined that the use of marijuana for pain management for injuries suffered while on the job constituted “reasonable and necessary care.” The Judge determined that services specific to the use of medicinal cannabis are eligible for compensation even though the substance remains classified as a schedule I drug under federal law and may not be legally obtained at a licensed pharmacy.”
new-mexico-appeals-court-says-medicinal-marijuana-costs-covered