Republican Gods

Digby:

. . . Being the great winners of ideological struggle apparently entitles them to raise all Republican leaders to the status of gods. In fact, there is no Republican leader on earth, from Joe McCarthy to Richard Nixon, who has not been entirely misunderstood until now. They have all not only been great warriors and leaders of men, they are also, each in their way, Jesus-like in their transcendent love for their fellow man and devotion to peace. All of them. Even the paranoid drunks and crooks.

[. . .]

Bush was right, the line between good and evil is as fine as black and white. It's the difference between us and them.

Here come the Judge

A corollary to Gordon's post below:

With remarks to a civic group in Enfield recently, Superior Court Judge Howard Scheinblum engaged in what is seldom forgiven in Connecticut's public life: candor.

The judge asserted what can neither be denied nor acknowledged -- that public policy on drugs doesn't work. Speaking from his 15 years of experience on the bench, Scheinblum estimated 90 percent of criminal cases in Connecticut are connected in some way to the pursuit of illegal drugs, and he asserted that society would be far better off to let users of such drugs obtain them by prescription and to be charged for them according to their ability to pay.

That is, the judge said, drugs are not the problem, not the cause of thievery, robbery, and violence; drug prohibitions.

[. . .]

I wonder how long it will take the wingnuts to start screaming about having him removed from the bench.

[. . .]

Judge Scheinblum's analysis only seems cynical, but it has been borne out by the political action of Connecticut's prison guards union against the transfer of inmates to prisons out of state where costs of imprisonment are lower. The families of prisoners have protested as well, but the union didn't care about prisoner welfare; it cared about losing business.

The judge's analysis also has been borne out by state government's refusal to audit drug-criminalization policy. The policy's failure is obvious, but politicians are paralyzed by fear of the policy's financial beneficiaries and the fear of asking the public to challenge old but faulty assumptions.

As with many other policies in Connecticut that are never evaluated for results, the "war on drugs" is not meant to be won; it is meant to be waged. Even its racially disproportionate casualties are not enough to prompt politicians to engage in candor like Judge Scheinblum's. Indeed, Connecticut's politicians are happy to put half the state's young men of color in prison if the other half can be hired to guard them. [Link]

[. . .]

It's all about money and votes [power].

Hat tip: Cookie Jill @ Skippy's

Blast! Shit! Sue!

Fixer's the expert at blowing people off the shitter, but apparently it doesn't require outside help. From MSNBC News:

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - A man who says he was severely burned when a portable toilet exploded after he sat down and lit a cigarette is suing a general contractor and a coal company, accusing them of negligence.

"When I struck the lighter, the whole thing just detonated - the whole top blew off," said Jenkins, a methane power plant operator with North West Fuels Development Inc. "I can't tell you if it blew me out the door or if I jumped out."

I guess whether he jumped or was pushed is a moot point. Ya end up out in the parking lot with yer pants around yer ankles and a magazine in yer hand, you're gonna get kidded by yer homies! I guess if he had the shit scared out of him, he was at least in the right place.

You know, I've occasionally been called not the sharpest tool in the box, but you would think that a methane plant operator would know better than to light a match within a country mile of the plant.

Medical Marijuana and a Government That Does What It Wants

The front-page lead article with the big headline on Friday in my local paper, the Sierra Sun, was all about local response in Nevada and Placer Counties to medical marijuana dispensaries. It may require free registration to read, but do it. It's interesting, but the point for this post is a federal government that bends the rules to get what they want:

Federal vs. state law

Federal law and California law butt heads on the medical marijuana issue, and it remains unclear which statute takes precedent. A Supreme Court case, Raich v. Ashcroft, is expected to resolve this conflict.

The crux of the Supreme Court case is whether medical marijuana cultivation and distribution is considered "interstate commerce", which falls under federal jurisdiction.

The federal government argued that even if marijuana is cultivated and given away for free it still constitutes interstate commerce. The plaintiffs said that marijuana that is cultivated and consumed in a single state, and is not bought or sold, is subject only to state law. (my emphasis)

The Supreme Court finished hearing arguments on the case last year and is currently formulating a decision.

"When that decision is handed down it will eliminate much of the murkiness surrounding the enforcement of medical marijuana uses", said Sgt. Ron Ashford of the Placer County Sheriff's Department.

"In the legislation there is a lot of room to move there - a lot of leeway", Ashford said.

Meanwhile, patients and operators of the marijuana dispensaries wait for the court decision that is expected to either endorse or criminalize the distribution of medical marijuana.

"We have a ton of patients that are terrified," said Lincoln, from her job at the Colfax marijuana dispensary. "If we get taken away they will not know what to do."

I won't go into the use of marijuana here. Those of us who know, know that the biggest danger users face is twofold: 1) You might gain weight, which is actually helpful in AIDS cases, for instance. Not so helpful at Krispy Kreme maybe, but plenty fun; and 2) Getting caught with it makes you a criminal for nothing more than smoking an herb that God, yes, the same God that Republicans like, put on the planet for our use, but they'll never cop to that!

We all know that marijuana was basically legal to use until 1937, when Harry J. Anslinger, head of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD) needed padding for his statistics against truly dangerous drugs like heroin and cocaine and lumped this roadside weed in with them, against the advice of professionals who knew it to be relatively harmless.

We also know there is a racist element to the prohibition against some drugs: cocaine was made illegal to suppress Negroes, and marijuana to suppress Mexicans. Then, as now, non-existent, manufactured fear was used to justify action. This has been a tried and true government tactic for a long time, but it's used more by this administration, in all areas, than by most others.

Marijuana isn't actually illegal to possess per se, merely to possess without a tax stamp, which cannot be obtained without presenting proof of possession, such as a baggie-load, which is illegal to possess without the tax stamp, etc., etc., which is the catch-22. There are no tax stamps anyway. Pretty clever, damn their eyes.

There is also the Puritan fear that someone, somewhere, is having FUN!

Add to those the fact that medicine is the focus of great profit for the pharmaceutical industry and they haven't yet figured out how to make huge profit off of something that you can grow for free in your bathroom or closet. When they get that one right, the rest may be a moot point, but they don't want to rock the boat.

The federal government is pretty securely in Big Pharma's hip pocket, and the prison and law enforcement industries rely on marijuana and other drugs to provide employment, clientele, and -wait for it- FUNDING! Are we starting to get the picture, boys and girls?

This really is all about money and power: CEO's, employees, stockholders, pharmacists, cops, lawyers, judges, prison guards, prison-building contractors, huge government agencies and all who stand to profit or gain power from prohibition, all stand to have their livelihoods, and their multi-billion dollar industries and fifedoms diminished, if all of a sudden they are forced to reverse years of building fear of and dominion over a harmless fuckin' roadside weed by the WILL OF THE PEOPLE which they don't much give a shit about. They do fear the people's voice, however, and suppress it whenever they can, lest actual Democracy upset the applecart.

So, since the people have voted for the use of medical marijuana, the best the Fed can do is to bring up Interstate Commerce as a justification to stick its nose into a state matter because they don't like the way it's going? Pathetic.

Here's my solution, at least for California: California is the world's sixth largest economy. Marijuana is California's number one cash crop. You'll have a hard time getting our ag dept. to cop to that, but it's documented and they know it.

I propose -are you listening, Ah-nold?- that we simply refuse to pay any more federal taxes and instead, pay them to the State of California. Tell the Feds to get fucked. Since we only get back about a third of what we send the Feds, we'll have a lot more money and our budget problems will go away.

We will be in the forefront of the legalization of harmless, holistically useful plants as well. We've already voted to legalize medical marijuana. In that, the people have spoken, as they have in many other states.

If this sounds like a call to secession, hey, what we got right now ain't working very good, so let's try it. Maybe we could get other progressive states to go along.

And what of all the states in Jesusland that depend on the rich, populous states for their existence? Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! Who gives a shit? Get a job or die, motherfuckers!

Potpourri

Elsewhere in Milbank's column are some real jewels. I just wanta share.

When the nonprofit Broward Art Guild in Florida called its annual exhibit "Controversy," it didn't know the half of it. According to the Sun-Sentinel newspaper, Broward County's director of cultural affairs called the guild's director at home to register her disapproval of a painting called "Yahoo!" that showed President Bush being sodomized alongside images of a man in Muslim headdress and an oil barrel.

The guild is a private group but gets nearly a quarter of its funding from the county, and the pressure from the county official did the job: The painting was relocated to a corner and marked with a warning about its content. The newspaper reported that the county's complaint was provoked by a protest from another artist in the exhibit, Michael Friedman, who found the painting offensive; Friedman's artwork showed Pope Benedict XVI on a background of swastikas.

Don't that beat all? I've forgiven Joey Rats for his youthful experiences, but I'd like to see the one of Bush gettin' his fart pipe tamped. Sounds like a good show.

And this:

Q: "You've called Bush a loser."

A: "And a liar."

Q: "You apologized for the loser comment."

A: "But never for the liar, have I?"

-- from a Rolling Stone interview with Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev).

There's more. Go read.

Amnesty Amnesia

From Dana Milbank's column in today's WaPo:

The folks at Amnesty International are practically begging for a one-way ticket to Gitmo. After the human rights group issued a report late last month calling the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, "the gulag of our times," top officials raced to condemn Amnesty.

Funny -- these officials had a different view of Amnesty when it was criticizing other countries.

Depends on whose elephant ox is being gored, I guess.

"This administration eagerly cites Amnesty International research when we criticize Cuba and extensively quoted our criticism of the violations in Iraq under Saddam Hussein in the run-up to the war," protested William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA.

But Schulz isn't protesting too much. In the past week, traffic on Amnesty's Web site has gone up sixfold, donations have quintupled and new memberships have doubled (my emphasis).

I made a comment somewhere about the last bit: Amnesty International has been criticized for hyperbole in calling Gitmo a "Gulag", because it's not, of course. It's closer than we would like, but I don't think they use the inmates for slave labor. Yet. Not until they start "concentrating" on American citizens. But I digress. My point was that AI is dumb like a fox and figured out that by way overstating the problem (learned from Bush?) it would draw attention. It did. Good job.

Perspective

Pic courtesy of Cathie

Pit Bull

Via Granny. Rep. John Conyers is now looking for his own 'Deep Throat'. Git yer mind out the gutter, old man.

Career advancement

John is bucking for a job at The Onion.

Browbeating

There are many chapels on Camp Anaconda, Iraq, for religious services. When one wants to participate or hear religious jaw-jacking, that is where one goes.

There are also many dining facilities. When one is hungry and wants to get something to eat, this is where one goes. When religious services, Bible quoting and gospel singing are held during meal times in the DFACs [Chow Halls], this amounts to disrespect for those of other religions and those of no religion.

[. . .]

Is it really too much to ask that the preaching and pushing of Christianity be held within the chapels, where those who wish it can seek it there and those who do not wish to hear it will not be held captive and forcibly subjected to Christian ritualism?

[. . .]

Frederick Geraci
Camp Anaconda, Iraq

From Stars and Stripes via the General.

You know, the Nazis and Soviets put Political Officers within military units to 'assure compliance'. This is Team Jesus' version.

[not] Trivial Pursuit - Iraq Edition

Blondie's got some things you might not know, but would be surprised to find out.

Wingnut Anthropology

Via Relentlessly Optimistic from the ferrett, A Creationist's View of DINOSAURS and the Theory Of Evolution. [I been searching for more on this classic but have yet to find a link. The ferrett couldn't either, so we rely on Br'er Ferrett's critique.]

[. . .]

It had a big dinosaur skull on the cover, and was drawn and written quite competently. The graphic novel featured the author - a balding, white-haired, mustachioed guy in a turtleneck, if the pictures were to be believed - showing all the evidence of dinosaurs, with scanned-in photos next to huge blurbs like "CARBON DATING IS A HIGHLY FLAWED AND IMPERFECT SCIENCE!"

The thing is, he wasn't anti-dinosaur. He spent a lot of time confirming the existence of dinosaurs, then moved to quotes like "Behold the behemoth which I made with thee . . . (Job 40:15) and "He moveth his tail like a cedar . . ." (Job 40:17). This, in turn, was proof that dinosaurs existed - and furthermore, they breathed smoke and fire, just like God said they did.

Weird. But not over-the-top. He seemed normal until I got to this panel:

[. . .]

Now this is the 'classic' part. It's the classic way the wingnuts bend truth to fit their conclusions. You should be used to this by now. It's been a decade since the 'Contract for America'.

[. . .]

Yes, that's correct; he has the theory that dinosaurs, enraged by fallen angels, attacked Noah's Ark as the flood began in a no-holds battle to the finish.

And yet that was not enough. He illustrated it for a possible movie, claiming it would be far more exciting than Jurassic Park.

[. . .]

Yeah, it could happen.

[. . .]

The fossil remains of numerous dinosaurs have been found with their heads and necks arched upwards, as if in their death throes they were straining to keep their heads above water.

[. . .]

Of course! And to think I actually believed all that crap in science class.

Be afraid, be very afraid. The people who are running this country actually believe this.

In Memoriam

Today:

Pic via Skippy

Robert F. Kennedy [5 June 1968]

Tomorrow:

Pic courtesy of the D-Day Museum

D-Day [6 June 1944]

Indeed

Via Seeing the Forest

A-ha!

Jane figures out why the wingnuts are all nuts about stem-cell research. Of course it all has to do with money.

Weekly referrals

"Rambling Prose"
"OBGYN"
"Dog's Brain"
"Nuclear Options"
"Bend Over"

And the one I'm happiest about:

"John Conyers Petition"

It's working!

Arousing Gordon

[. . .]

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, facing allegations of unethical conduct, has turned to Richmond lawyer and Republican activist Richard Cullen for legal help.

DeLay, R-Texas, recently retained Cullen and the firm where he is a partner, McGuireWoods LLP, a DeLay spokesman confirmed yesterday. Cullen is a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and a former state attorney general, appointed by then-Gov. George Allen, now a U.S. senator.

Cullen will handle a wide range of matters for DeLay, including ones that may come before the House ethics committee, DeLay spokesman Dan Allen indicated in an e-mail. He declined to say why Cullen was selected. Cullen would not comment yesterday. [Link] [my emphasis]

[. . .]

I'll bet ya the old man passes out from all the blood rushing from one head to the other. Ha!

Thanks to Xan @ Corrente for the link.

The 'Trade'

It seems we leave our mark wherever we go:

[. . .]

While drug problems have been historically unknown in Iraq (out of fear of repression striking traffickers and consumers or quite simply from lack of information), OICS has worried about the new trend since its March 2004 annual report. "Drugs have started to enter the country in huge quantities, notably through the Eastern border," with Iran, revealed Iraqi Minister of the Interior Nouri Badrane then, who worried especially about the increase in narcotics consumption among young Iraqis: "Consumption of these drugs is on the rise, due to unemployment, insecurity, and the sense of uncertainty about the future, especially among young people." A few months later, his equivalent at the Health Ministry talked about "a problem that has become endemic," submitting a number of 2,029 registered addicts. [my emphasis]

[. . .]

How much you wanna bet the Ayatollahs in Iran are getting their cut from every ounce of smack that passes through on its way from U.S. controlled Afghanistan to U.S. controlled Iraq. Um, hello? Mr. Chimp? The Iranians are laughing at us as they're using us, you stupid, smirking loser.

Great thanks to Morrigan for the link.

Chutzpah

From DoD Transcripts. Rummy in Singapore:

[. . .]

Among other things, the report concludes that China's defense expenditures are much higher than Chinese officials have published. It is estimated that China's is the third largest military budget in the world, and clearly the largest in Asia.

China appears to be expanding its missile forces, allowing them to reach targets in many areas of the world, not just the Pacific region, while also expanding its missile capabilities within this region. China also is improving its ability to project power, and developing advanced systems of military technology.

[. . .]

China has important decisions to make about its goals and its future. Ultimately, China likely will need to embrace some form of a more open and representative government if it is to fully achieve the political and economic benefits to which its people aspire.

[. . .]

After all we've done to the world in the last 5 years, after all of the regression with regard to civil rights in this country, the man's got a set of stones lecturing China about anything.

Save me, Jesus!

Un-fucking-believable.