JUST ANOTHER HOLE IN THE WALL

My two loyal readers will have noticed that I was on hiatus for a couple of days. (It's not what you think Sis, I was working on a mass mailing for a friend). I've had a few adventures in the interim as well however, enough to fill our quota of blogtime, but we're too far behind on the WODSU news to indulge in yet another night of only fun. Summer is over and Congress has reconvened.

I have to tell you this one though. In three days of weird energy, the hole in the Watering Hole a/k/a The Beer Can Museum, is the oddest occurence in the hood in a long time. It happened so close to my house, I should have woke up -at least for the sirens- but I read about it in the newspaper the next afternoon.

An 18 year old kid drove his car right through the outside brick wall and half way into the bar. I went by after work to check it out. I thought he hit the corner of the building but the damage was not apparent from the front. It was way impressive when you turned the corner however. It was a big hole. Big enough to well, drive a car through. I stopped to survey the damage.

There was a guy working on bracing it up with 2x4s. I asked him if the building was okay.

"Yep", he said to me. "I do about four of these a year and I have to figure that if I'm doing four, there's some other guys in the business doing four too. Think about it". We both laughed, even knowing why it wasn't funny. I left him to his work.

I noticed Jimmy and Colleen were inside as passed the front windows again and stopped to commiserate. We watched the repairs continue as they filled me in on the details. Every time the hammer sounded a few more bricks would fall...

They were taking it well. It was a pretty bad scene for them but it could have been much worse. It happened at 3:00am, long past closing time, the place was empty. The floor was buckled up 6" high and the bricks were piled four feet deep up against the bar. The impact occurred at the narrowest and most crowded point of the floorplan. It blew all the taps forward and four kegs of beer flooded the premises. If it had happened at midnight, there would have been unspeakable carnage.

I never understand why good people should suffer such bad luck. I always really liked those two, they are really decent folks. They're honest and do a lot of good work for the community. They showed no sign of self-pity or anger. When Jimmy told me - juxtaposed against the sound of bricks still thudding to the floor- that he was just glad no one was hurt, I believed him.

By the way, the Hole really is a museum. Tourists sometimes stop there for a tour on a weekend afternoon. Gratefully, all the beer cans also survived.

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LAST FRONTIER

I think the reason drug policy is more sensible up north is the weather. When you have to fight off the cold to survive, you tend to get very pragmatic about solutions. Alaskans are really keen on personal freedom and a recent decision from a high court there overturned a neo-con sponsored initiative and restored the constitutional guarantee of personal privacy and freedom of choice within one's own home.

I'm really liking this new mood within the judiciary lately. Ashcroft really stirred up a hornet's nest with his downward departure threats. I've seen some good decisions - just today they ruled to stall Bush's FCC scheme to take over the corporate media - but none so brave as the Honorable members of the Alaskan appeals court. At the moment, personal possession of up to four ounces of marijuana is once again legal in our 49th state.

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CALIFORNIA OR BUST


Unfortunately, not all jurists have the same gravitas. Apparently either cowed or misled by the administration's thugs, Judge Jeremy Fogel of San Jose’s Federal District Court dismissed an unprecedented lawsuit filed by the city and county of Santa Cruz, and several other concerned groups to cease federal raids against California's medical marijuana clubs.

This decision comes down in direct opposition to the will of California’s electorate, who voted in favor of medical marijuana by passing the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. Nine other states have also passed similar laws, including Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.

Can this many citizens be wrong?

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WE THE PEOPLE

As usual, my pal Elmer has the definitive view on this ruling.

Dear Judge Fogel:

Federal marijuana laws do not trump California's medical marijuana law.

Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Alcohol Prohibition was an amendment to the United States Constitution, and therefore became the law of the land, superior to any contradictory state law.

But marijuana is nowhere mentioned in the United States Constitution. Therefore, regardless of any federal marijuana laws, the United States Constitution declares and protects the right of any state, or the people of any state, to enact contradictory laws about marijuana. No agencies of the federal government, acting Constitutionally, can arbitrarily claim federal statutes trump state statutes.

If the federal government wishes this ascendancy, it must seek to codify its wishes regarding marijuana within an amendment to the United States Constitution. Until such an amendment is ratified, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." Within the state of California, California's marijuana statute trumps federal marijuana laws, and federal courts charged with preserving and defending the United States Constitution are obligated to note and conform to the Tenth Amendment in such cases.

And that's the last word tonight.

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