Update: President Obama articulates his plan for Mexico and the drug war! (ie, he spends 3 minutes saying absolutely nothing).
—- Original Post —-
President Obama has another challenging trip ahead of him.
U.S. role at a crossroads in Mexico’s intelligence war on the cartels
The December inauguration of President Enrique Peña Nieto brought the nationalistic Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) back to power after 13 years, and with it a whiff of resentment over the deep U.S. involvement in Mexico’s fight against narco-traffickers. […]
U.S. officials got their first inkling that the relationship might change just two weeks after Peña Nieto assumed office Dec. 1. At the U.S. ambassador’s request, the new president sent his top five security officials to an unusual meeting at the U.S. Embassy here. In a crowded conference room, the new attorney general and interior minister sat in silence, not knowing what to expect, next to the new leaders of the army, navy and Mexican intelligence agency. […]
In front of them at the Dec. 15 meeting were representatives from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the CIA, the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and other U.S. agencies tasked with helping Mexico destroy the drug cartels that had besieged the country for the past decade.
The Mexicans remained stone-faced as they learned for the first time just how entwined the two countries had become during the battle against narco-traffickers, and how, in the process, the United States had been given near-complete entree to Mexico’s territory and the secrets of its citizens, according to several U.S. officials familiar with the meeting. […]
Also unremarked upon was the mounting criticism that success against the cartels’ leadership had helped incite more violence than anyone had predicted, more than 60,000 deaths and 25,000 disappearances in the past seven years alone.
Meanwhile, the drug flow into the United States continued unabated. Mexico remains the U.S. market’s largest supplier of heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine and the transshipment point for 95 percent of its cocaine.
Mexico Is Ready to End Failed Drug-War Policies—Why Isn’t the U.S.? — Conor Friedersdorf comments on the article:
Yet the fact that it completely failed plays basically no role in the rest of the article, in large part because everyone in the United States government apparently wants to preserve the failed status quo. American officials are very upset that Mexico’s new leader has decided to go his own way.
Look at the very next sentences:
No one had come up with a quick, realistic alternative to Calderon’s novel use of the Mexican military with U.S. support. But stopping the cartel violence had become Peña Nieto’s top priority during the campaign. The U.S. administration didn’t know what that meant. Some feared a scaling back of the bilateral efforts and a willingness to trade the relentless drive against cartel leaders for calmer streets.
Does anyone else think that “a willingness to trade the relentless drive against cartel leaders for calmer streets” just might be “a quick, realistic alternative to Calderon’s novel use of the Mexican military with U.S. support”? At the very least, it surely it doesn’t make sense to presume, as the article seems to, that the obviously failed status quo is the most “realistic” way forward.
Meanwhile…
Obama urged to address drug war related human rights violations during visit to Mexico
In a letter to Obama, Human Rights Watch said the country’s public security strategy pursued by Calderon during the so-called war on drugs failed to address the corruption of police forces and “virtually zero accountability†for those who commit crimes. […]
In a letter to Obama, Human Rights Watch said the country’s public security strategy pursued by Calderon during the so-called war on drugs failed to address the corruption of police forces and “virtually zero accountability†for those who commit crimes.
“Unfortunately, while the Pena Nieto government has taken the first step of recognizing the crisis at hand and the need to change strategies, your administration has been noticeably silent,†said the letter signed by Jose Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the group’s Americas division.
Maybe the President can convince some of the Secret Service and DEA folks to get caught up in a prostitution scandal again to distract the media from paying attention to the issues.
obama has no more elections to fight so why doesnt he do the right thing and start to dismantle the prohibition industrial complex? only thing i can think of is hes angling for a big income when he leaves office in the corporate world.
he is opening a urine analysis lab,,will run it by hand
It’s his fealty to the banksters. They couldn’t survive without the dirty laundered money. And Obama wouldn’t be where he is without them; just google the following:
Clinton Obama June 6 2008 Chantilly Virginia
and you’ll see in a heartbeat why the only reform is coming from the people.
Kap, make that “Bankstas”… there’s a song not yet written just waitin’ for that word.
Bankstas
the 21st century’s gangstas
they got all the money
and they got all the gold
my brothah, let me tell ya
this shit be gettin’ old
them bankstas
the new gangstas
…
Mexico has been paying the consequences for our drug policy for far too long.
The affects of drug use these policies were designed to prevent were never going to hurt Mexico, just the USA. Mexico gains absolutely nothing from supporting us in our war against people.
I feel for the people of Mexico and support their decision to curb the violence our policies are inflicting.
*sigh* I don’t mean to be disparaging, but it simply may be the new Mexican Government telling the U.S. government that they haven’t been paying the right people (meaning, they’ve been paying the old Mexican Government).
As much as I don’t agree with PRI, they may just have enough balls amongst them to say “No More!” I’ve lived down here for 13 years now. I’ve seen the killing first hand, light-of-day. It’s not like combat. Calderon’s government changed the law about users not being criminals but he gave the states 3 years to incorporate it. Now, we’ll see what size huevos Nieto has.
If they boot the DEA and all advisers from their country it would be too late to bring back the dead but it would reduce the violence,,Mexico should then petition the UN to remove cannabis from the STC and apply for an open trade agreement with the US for a legal market,,it ain’t like the growers in Mexico are ever going to quit regardless.
but then all those urine labs would flushed down the pan
Maybe they could re-purpose those labs for other medical/investigative/police lab-work that they’ve been neglecting over the years…
Here in Texas, they could start with actually processing the ‘Rape Kits’ that they’ve been more or less “shelving”.
And they could actually do DNA testing for prisoners on death row who are trying to appeal death sentences which are increasingly found to be wrongful convictions – due to alarming rates/levels of faulty testing, OR when there was no DNA testing available (or next to none) at the time of their convictions… or when there weren’t relevant DNA samples available until much later.
There’s plenty of med-lab work & testing for technicians to do = without a steady stream of little yellow UI bottles to test for ‘naughty’ metabolites!
Or they can go thru and re-do the testing that was intentionally faked, somebody here must have the link for that fairly recent story were the Lab Tech (it was a young Asian women – if that helps to jog memory of the specific story), she’d been caught “testing” something like 1 out of 20 samples and recording them all as Positive because they came from the same case/arrest/source.
And she was just flat-out falsify numerous reagent tests = presumably at the behest of someone. Maybe, the arresting officers or prosecutors(?) although I don’t think they proved that -(at least not publicly).
IIRC, it was portrayed more like she had a quota of tests to produce as ‘positive for drugs’ = like a traffic cop with a quota for a certain umber of speeding tickets. I remember thinking that they may have thrown the Lab-Tech under the bus – and promised to make it up to her somehow = later, maybe?
Why do I feel that Obama’s visit to Mexico isn’t going to be a Nixon-goes-to-China sort of thing?
Maybe because Prison Industries-Я-U.S. has a tight grip on Wall Street and Obama’s nuts. The United States is proving itself to be an official exporter of police states: “Try our police state, you’ll like it,†or “isn’t this better than any brand of police state you’ve tried before…?†Or how about: “double the blood, double the pleasure!†Where are Wall Street’s marketing execs when Obama needs them?
Oh Mexico. Shaken since viewing a Mexican Murder Scene where a Cafe was Ambushed, leaving a bunch of Female Patrons Dead. Legs tangled in Chairs, Butts in air, Blood all over someones floor, this Stone Face Canadian is suddenly hyper aware of the Infiltration of Canadian Society by these very same Satanic Agencies.
Flaming Helicopters, Falling
Children, Crying
Mothers, Weeping
Dishes, Unwashed
Families, Torn
Drones, Fooooom
I.E.D’s, BOOOOM
More Soldier Suicides than Combat Deaths.
Oil puddles here, there, Everywhere
The new Normal. Thanks PNAC
On the Today Show today Pat Boone and family endorsed MMJ
Prayer and, at times, medical marijuana have proved essential for Lindy Boone Michaelis as she cares for her son, who was severely injured in a three-story fall through a skylight a dozen years ago.
“I’m very grateful that this is available legally for Ryan right now,†Michaelis told Matt Lauer Wednesday on TODAY, where she was joined by her father, Pat Boone, and sister Debby Boone.
While her son is “so much better than anybody had ever predicted,†he relies on medical marijuana because of an involuntary reaction he has when seeing men he does not know.
“It’s really a fight-or-flight part of the brain. He feels threatened by other men, so we were kind of limited as to where we could go,†Michaelis explained. “He’s great with our family, with the men in our family, but when I’m able to give him some little bit of brownie, a little bit of chocolate (with medical marijuana), something that calms his anxiety, we can go to church.†‘snipped’
Now we are cooking with peanut oil,,when top Christians endorse us.
“Now we are cooking with peanut oil,,when top Christians endorse us.”
Right Clay . The Boone’s gave a great endorsement.
If we swung a good percentage of Christians to our side of the legalisation argument it would be invaluable.
I would have thought Pat Boone had been deceased for years but he looks pretty good for an elderly guy.
drug Legalization is all about and always has been a ‘do unto others’ thing.
Funny though how the drug war has to get personal before many in government, or their supporters, come out of the prohibitionist closet.
endorsement for rick santorum?
I agree with you that any celebrity endorsement from the conservative right is actually good for medical marijuana, has he sold any air cars yet?
i wonder if Jesus ever grew any cannabis. that would be a good endorsement. an all-knowng god would recognize the uses of hemp, wouldn’t he.
according to all the evidence any healing oils and incense of the time period involved cannabis,even in the Catholic churches.
I always thought muir(SP) was kief.
Myrrh?
yup,,and it wasn’t showing up in sp checker however I believe the 3 wise men did deliver incense and it prolly had opium or hash in it,,so maybe Cold Case show could forensic that one out so the DEA can quit investigating it.
if you want myrrh it’s available at http://www.ameriherb.com for $8 or $9/lb.
There is some interesting reading on that topic here:
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/punbb/viewtopic.php?id=7549
Enjoy!
This fellow might help answer the question, as he’s written quite a bit on the subject. His books are footnoted out-the-whazoo with factual information.
OT, but ouch…
U.S. Judges Can End Drug War, Researchers Say; ‘Institutional Racism’ Creates Unequal Protection for Whites
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We’ve been stuck with another lunatic:
Prosecutors: Marijuana policy angered man who shot at White House
Anger over federal marijuana policy inspired an Idaho man to shoot at the White House in 2011, prosecutors say in a court document obtained by the AP. Well, that and his belief that President Obama is the Antichrist.
/snip/
if history proves him right I wonder if they’ll let him out and expunge his record?
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Nah, if he’s right he’ll just disappear without a trace.
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I’m amazed at the sense of utter anti-climax I’m feeling today as Maryland (allegedly) becomes the 19th “medical merrywanna” state.
Steve Elliott picked right up on it:
http://t.co/H9PsFBALRF
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It really doesn’t take an advanced degree and an IQ over 200 to scoff at the idea that educational institutions which pocket a pile of Federal money every year aren’t going to rush out and start dispensing medicinal cannabis. The Legislature could have mandated that they do so. They could have made it optional but offered to replace any Federal money that stopped flowing in. But by doing neither then Maryland’s law is just about as useless as Virginia’s medical merrywanna law.
I think it’s time to accept that the politicians have figured out that the voters want medicinal cannabis patient protection laws so they’re passing worthless laws so they can take credit without exposing themselves to any political risk or the ire of law enforcement and LE’s sycophants.
Next up on the parade of useless laws is New Hampshire and Illinois. Proponents of Illinois’ law are already calling it the most “stringent” medical merrywanna law in the nation. Of course to fit that description it by definition has to be useless. New Hampshire appeared to be toying with the idea of a law that gets medicine to the sick but one by one they’ve added restrictions to make it useless. A couple of days ago Governor Hassan asked the Legislature to strike home cultivation.
But if we’re not going to count Maryland then we certainly must stop counting Delaware. It’s also very arguable that DC, Connecticut & New Jersey shouldn’t be counted either. You know, the one thing all these States/DC have in common is no home cultivation allowed. I don’t think I will ever understand why there’s such animus to home cultivation. That’s not limited to medicinal cannabis but across the board. The lawmakers claim to hate organized criminal syndicates but then write laws that steer people into buying from the black market.
I have to stop writing now, the safety valve behind my ear is whistling like a tea kettle and I’m afraid my head might pop.
I asked my wife to marry me down in Puerto Vallarta (home of George Jung’s pot connect) when Fox was president . . . in 2010, we did our honeymoon in PV as well . . . we have friends from PV that take us out and took us to the ‘no gringo zone’ further towards the mountains for a Mexican wedding party (which makes American New Years Eve party in NYC look –well, quite uninteresting, and quiet). I’ll always reserve a spot in my heart for that beautiful country and very nice people. In their news papers, one can see the gore printed in the pages (emphasis on pages) . . . pictures that make going to an ICP or Manson concert look typical for protestants on Sunday Easter. Ever since the American Made War on Mexico of Dec, 2006 began, there hasn’t been a single illegal immigrant to cross into America from Mexico . . . you cannot call people fleeing for their lives, illegals –no such word exists in the English Dictionary when describing refugees. In the future, when the war is over, I’ll stand up and ask them kindly to enter legally. Sadly, Narco-Terror is the norm and not the exception around the world as seen in Africa, Central America, South America, the Middle East and a few spots in South East Asia like Burma.
It has taken Mexico 70,000 dead, and a country corrupt by violence and vigilantes to realize that the path chosen for it by the USA is not the best way to go. That took a Mexican Presidential election.
Obama is now allowing the US Justice Department to dismantle the dispensary systems where it will do the most damage using forfeiture laws. Pressure needs to come from Congress IMHO. Its not coming from this current administration.
Pressure on Congress and voting these prohibitionist bastards out of office is what its going to take, because no one is listening.
NO incumbents return to DC until they listen.
Clay,
I NEVER vote for an incumbent. I vote Calif. LOL
OT but somewhat Mexico orientated:
The Obama administration (regime?) are unlikely to allow gay couples the same immigration rights as their heterosexual counterparts, where one partner is a US citizen. The headlong rush of “evolution” on gay rights (led by Joe Biden for Christ’s sake), and no doubt based on polls, has run smack into one of the most regressive and populist areas of American public opinion, namely immigration. Of course, left out of the discussion entirely is any mention of the life-time ban on immigration by spouses of US citizens who have ever been convicted, abroad or in the US, of any drug “offence,” regardless of how minor or how long ago. As there are few opportunities to make money out of homophobic bigotry, unlike the huge industrial complex supporting prohibition, I suspect that equality for gay marriage will be a reality before equal treatment for those caught with the “wrong” intoxicant.
Whoever said to vote out the unfriendly pols was right. It is not necessary to vote them out to have an effect, however. Politics is ruled by two emotions; fear and greed. They are greedy for the job, fearful of losing it. If they fear being ousted because of their stance on some topic, they will suddenly have an epiphany and change their rhetoric and their stance will ‘evolve’. If they are not afraid, they won’t. Currently, they are just getting a little nervous, not afraid. If a couple lose their cushy jobs and the ballot box is not so lopsided in their own constituency, they will become more afraid of losing. That is when change can happen. With the religious right, the NAACP and other respected organizations shifting toward a reform mindset, these wind-sniffing pols will snap to and salute the reform movement. They just need a little more fear factor in their lives. Give it to them. Get every ‘friendly’ voter out on election day, and make sure the exit pollsters hear that the reason they voted for so-and-so was because of his stance on cannabis.
Orange County Sheriff’s boys and local pols want to charge two teenagers who were lost on an outing for the cost of their rescue (est. $160,000). Seems the rescue team found a small amount of substance alleged to be meth in the teenagers’ car. One of the rescued teens, Cendoya, faces up to three years in jail on drug possession charges alone.
The desire to punish and destroy is an absolute for prohibitionists. It is well that prohibitionists remember this when it’s their turn to be broken on the wheel.
well… maybe not the Catherine Wheel, that’s some nasty bizness. Perhaps continuous and uninterrupted playing of David Byrne’s awesome video production of the same name, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pmflqe8p58Y might discombobulate them sufficiently?
Orange county? Isn’t that Paul Chabot’s neck of the woods?
OT – I leave GDL tomorrow for a week in Paris and one in Cologne, Ger. My first ever true vacation. I know I leave the sofa in capable hands, hands that will clean out the seeds and chips. I’ll keep looking in but expect to be on the go a lot. Hear that, legs?
I know, I’m going but I’m not leaving. My separation anxiety with my Goffin of 35 years is kicking in big time. And, he’s got a young, cute gal to stay with. Be back on the 19th.
Here is Obama in Mexico making his claim to continue prohibition in case anyone missed it: http://tinyurl.com/bm6j5xx
I want to give your comment a thumbs up for informing us. I want to give it a thumbs down for Obama’s stance. So I won’t give it either, but thanks for letting us know.
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“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.”
It appears that we’re now officially at stage 3.
Does anyone else think nasty thoughts about that rat bastard Ghandi because he didn’t bother to mention that stage 1 could last for decades and decades?
I guess he thought you would remember it took him decades too.
Puh-leaze…I’m so poor I can’t even pay attention.
Nicely put, Clay.
i hope we are in the “fight you” phase. there will be a lot of thrashing around, but i hope the aristos haven’t permanently damaged the american dream by wasting our resources and the lives of our fellow citizens.
Whats significant is speaker Boehner cannot inspire even his family to adhere to the most minimalist expectations of off-spring! Prohibition of adult MMJ is un-natural and anti spiritual.
So Pete took his “group” to Mexico for some Guerilla Theater…