Another Obama dud ...

Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske.

This individual thinks that legalizing marijuana 'would [ ] see a black market that would come into play!'

Right, legalization would create a black market. What does this Obama appointee think we have now?

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source:Drug Czar Warns of “Black Market” for Marijuana by Michael Whitney, firedoglake.com

And so who should that surprise? ...

Obama’s Drug Strategy All Talk, No Walk

Obama chooses to ridicule millions of Americans ...

While apparently deliberately misquoting a question about marijuana from his 'open for questions' website, Obama makes fun of the question writer and those who voted for it. To paraphrase this erudite President: 'the answer is no.'

The query, which received more than three million votes, was: "With over 1 out of 30 Americans controlled by the penal system, why not legalize, control, and tax marijuana to change the failed war on drugs into a money making, money saving boost to the economy? Do we really need that many victimless criminals?"

Obama actually interrupted the M.C of the event -- Jared Bernstein, chief economist to the Vice President -- in order to tackle the topic. He kept his answer brief.

"There was one question that voted on that ranked fairly high and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation," he said. "And I don't know what this says about the online audience, but ... this was a popular question. We want to make sure it's answered. The answer is no, I don't think that's a good strategy to grow our economy. All right."

Responded Bernstein: "Thank you for clearing that up."

Thank you for nothing, Obama-baby.

Authoritarianism, Binge Drinking and the French ...

BBC Global News podcast

GlobalNews: 11 Mar 09 AM Africa IMF/Madoff plea/Afghanistan heroin/France binge drinking
Duration: 26mins

refers to a binge drinking problem that has developed in France, mostly among the young I gather. There are open bars in France, like all-you-can-eat specials here in the US.

Looking at this from the out side and from across the ocean and with only the BBC blurb to guide me, it appears that the French reaction to alcohol abuse is much like that of the US. The authorities see a problem (real or perceived doesn't matter), legislate making an activity or organization illegal and as a result, drive a real problem under ground and/or create a new hidden problem. Here, I thought the French understood 'life, the universe and everything' better than we did. Or at least I thought they thought they did. Oh well, at least one of us was wrong.

The BBC broadcast didn't indicate if there are any ideas why the French youngsters are indulging in binge drinking in a country with a reputation for more responsible use of alcohol than most.

I however, am interested in the causes. Binge drinking is being reported as a big problem here in the US and now as a new problem in France. Binge drinking always existed. Is it really increasing, that is increasing at a higher rate than the population and is it really a new problem among the young in France. If so and if I were an 'authority' I would look into what factors may contribute to this development. Driving another problem underground seems self destructive, not that the most expensive, self destructive approach is not humankind's usual choice.

More about the US Control, Sudden Death and Arbitrary Punishment System for the masses ...

Glenn Greenwald continues to puncture the idea (if it still exists) that the United States has a system of equal justice for all ...

• "Homeless man gets 15 years for stealing $100"
• "Under federal law, "the simple possession of just 5 grams of crack cocaine, the weight of about two sugar packets, subjects a defendant to a mandatory five-year prison term."
• Alabama, the average sentence for marijuana possession -- an offense for which most Western countries almost never imprison their citizens -- is 8.4 years."
• "The state of Florida "imposes mandatory-minimum sentences of 25 years for illegally carrying a pillbox-worth of drugs such as Oxycontin" and imposes shockingly Draconian mandatory sentences even for marijuana offenses."
• "mandatory minimum sentencing schemes [are] a way to eliminate mercy and sentencing flexibility for ordinary people who break the law"
• "Currently in the U.S., close to 7,000 people are serving sentences of 25 years to life under our merciless "three-strikes-and-out" laws ... including half for nonviolent offenses and many for petty theft."
• the United States accounts "for less than 5% of the world's population yet close to 25% of the world's prisoners are located in American prisons."
• "inhumane conditions ... characterize our highly profitable prison state."
• Two tier justice system: ""ignore-the-past-and-forget-retribution" rationale is invoked by our media elites only for a tiny, special class of people -- our political leaders -- while the exact opposite rationale ("ignore their lame excuses, lock them up and throw away the key") is applied to everyone else."

Yesterday's QUOTES ...

Unless the last eight years were a horrible dream, George W. Bush weakened restrictions on air pollution under the Clear Skies Act, turned forests over to loggers under the Healthy Forests Initiative, detained prisoners indefinitely in the name of the law, tortured people in the name of civilization, censored scientists in the name of objectivity, alienated allies in the name of security, and is occupying another country in the name of freedom.

... Just like the pardon of Nixon, the protection of Iran-contra criminals, and the commutation of Lewis Libby's sentence, this bill is yet another step in cementing a two-tiered system of justice in America where our highest political officials and connected elite can break our laws with impunity.

[...]Our Congress, with the political and media elite cheering, is about to violate every one of these principles. They are taking away from the judiciary the power to adjudicate allegations of lawbreaking. They are creating a two-tiered system of justice in which our most powerful corporations can break the law with impunity and government officials remain immune from consequences. And they are, in unity, spewing rank propaganda to the commoners -- who continue to be subjected to the harsh punishment for violations of the law -- in order to convince them that granting license to our political and corporate elites to break the law is necessary for their own Good and for their Safety.
... and just think: "Protecting government and corporate elite from flagrant lawbreaking is what our own political establishment always claimed was the hallmark of third-world, under-developed tyrannies."
... Of course, America has the meanest drug laws in the world and yet still has the highest consumption of drugs. I wonder what causes that, she said archly.

There's something horrible about all this being discussed all over the world, actually. We should be discussing the uncle's alleged behavior and he's the one who should be in the court of world opinion, not this little girl.

If Club Obama plans to let Israel keep leading us around by the foreign policy tool, we might just as well hand the keys to McCain. With Gramps behind the wheel, there's at least a chance he'll doze off before he backs out of the driveway.

... Over the last century climate warming has resulted in an average upslope movement of plant species' optimum elevation of 29 meters per decade.

Is the US becoming more and more repressive? ...

When Will We Ban Cigarettes? Reading The Tea Leaves

And corporate run slave-prisons will be the solution to the increasing number of US citizens deemed 'criminals' for the crime of getting caught breathing. Sounds like a best selling science fiction, or is that fantasy [so difficult to distinguish these days] novel.

Logical progression ...

Start a war against an unstoppable demand and what do you get? A war than can never be 'won.'

The US had the sense (or good luck) to back off prohibition. But the country we live in now gleefully elected President Cuckoo Bananas (albeit with the underhanded assistance and protection of the 'press' not to mention the anointing made by Los Supremos); doesn't have the capacity to accept that hemp is not the same thing as marijuana; and is doing everything in its power (quite successfully too) to exponentially ratchet up the violence and devastation of the War on Drugs.

... a terrifyingly common crime in Latin America has moved across the border into the United States: Criminals and their family members are being kidnapped by fellow criminals and held for six-figure ransoms.

[For Arizona-Mexico border reporting read the Border Reporter]

It's not that we in the US don't deserve to share some of the problems we have caused in other countries. It's that none of these problems had to happen at all.

Why can't we learn? Why can't we stop ourselves? Certainly the US is contributing to the evidence demonstrating that Homo sapiens are not very sapient after all ...

Corruption R Us ...

THE STORY OF A FBI-SPONSORED ORGY, THE COCAINE STING THAT WENT WRONG, AND THE ENSUING FALL-OUT

I know it just too much to expect but, I would like to read some good news for a change ... not news put out by FauxNews or BushBaby or any of the corporate media because if it comes from them we will know it's a lie. And by good news, I mean stories about situations where our elected and appointed officials as well as powerful and influential corporations did the 'right' thing, the 'integrity' thing, a real Christ-like thing, actions that respect and uphold the Constitution, our representative Democracy, justice, fairness etc, etc.

Now that I think of it we have some of those people around. If someone is being attacked by the fair-and-balance he-said/she-said media, look closer because that person just might have some integrity and even may qualify as a patriot.

Unlike the old Soviet Union, the US does not, yet, put its good and concerned people in the insane assalum. No, the US government and media, instead go into full out 24-hour attack mode in order to discredit and destroy integrity and truth.

Once upon a time most US policemen were trustworthy ...

Are there any police left who can be trusted? Another tale that shows that not only can the public NOT trust the police but police officers should not have much confidence in each other either.

... Johnston fired only once through her door and didn't hit any of the officers. That means the officers who were wounded likely were hit by their own colleagues ...

This sorry state of affairs started even before BushCo as part of the Republican poorly thought out (as are all things Republican) get-tough on crime wave that started the U.S. on its way to being a prison nation.