Thanks to Talk Left for this link. I love these things and it's hard to resist the World's Smallest Political Quiz. We're both left-liberals, a minority at 19.01% of the over two million who have taken it. Libertarians held the majority but the site also offered Libertarian literature. Read into that what you will.
Nonetheless it was my kind of quiz, fast, fun and with results displayed on a cool chart.
And while I'm thinking of it, I also took this "Which New York Times columnist am I" quiz that Talk Left posted a while ago. Those of you who know me will appreciate the humor in the description.
You are Thomas L. Friedman! You're the foreign affairs expert. You're liberal on most issues, except you're a leading voice in the pro-war movement. You're probably the most popular columnist at the Times, but probably because you play both sides of the Iraq issue and relish your devotion to what you call "fanatical moderatism." You sure can write, but you could work on your sense of humor.
Activist hardly seems to cover his involvement. He has spoken out against irresponsible missionary activities that attempt to eradicate traditional culture and of the many atrocities perpetrated by the government against the Akha.
McDaniel produced "Akha Voices", a 270-page book which details disturbing allegations of abductions and extrajudicial killings by Thai army and police officers that it claims amount to "ethnic cleansing".
...He is also described as a staunch critic of the US 'war on drugs', which he says has resulted in thousands of Akha being imprisoned "at the hands of the DEA [Drug Enforcement Agency]".
He will be probably be deported which will leave his pregnant Akha wife and four other children living in the country in danger. The US Embassy looks unlikely to intervene.
Seeing a pattern here folks? The world over, the war on drugs does its greatest damage to the least culpable and in this case the innocent, indigenous people who live in poverty in the supply countries.
These are your legislators, using your tax dollars to support a foreign government's genocidal policies. I don't know this for a fact, but I feel certain the DEA maintains its own offices in Thailand. I know they do in the Philippines -- another country that executes drug consumers. It's good to remember in this presidential season -- depose the Bush regime, but also elect legislators that won't vote to fund these projects, starting from the local offices on up.
For the hundreds of thousands of tax dollars that will be spent as a result of this operation, you are safe from these folks -- who probably consume it at home on weekends.
Most are seemingly ordinary, middle-aged people. They include two lawyers, a teacher, boat captain, bartender, insurance adjuster, homebuilder, hairdresser, plumber, chef and artist. The most prominent is a college foundation board member, millionaire Charles Lamar Switzer, 54, who is awaiting trial on state charges..
In other words, productive members of society who use the drug responsibly. And never mind the cost of the investigation and prosecuting the cases, some of these people will probably lose their jobs and worse as a result of the arrest and thus you the taxpayer will bear the burden of their reduced contributions to the tax base.
Law enforcement is touting this a major bust of a "kingpin." Yet although 50 year old lead defendant Mitchell "Jackie" Seale III lists his occupation as drug dealer, by the government's own admission,
"This was more of a cocaine cooperative than a cocaine conspiracy," Couch said, noting Seale spent everything he made on more cocaine. "This was not a kingpin who was living on the fat of others."
However, US District Judge Vinton made an upward departure in sentencing, adding additional prison time because, "... you are a nice, likeable guy." The US District Attorney meanwhile refused to recommend a lesser sentence in return for Seales cooperation in the case because, "Seale's only remorse is over getting caught."
And why should he have remorse for a victimless crime? He provided a service for consenting adults, contributed to the local economy and clearly was not a dangerous criminal who was ripping people off for the money. Judge Vinson ordered Seale pay a fine of $1,000 in $20 monthly installments because he lacked the resources to pay a higher fine.
The North Metro Drug Task Force, apparently acting on a faulty tip broke into this woman's home and after searching for a non-existent meth lab found only a small quantity of drugs for personal use. There was absolutely nothing in her apartment to suggest she was cooking up meth. Nonetheless, several male officers forced her to strip in the parking lot, in full view of her neighbors and themselves, and wash herself down with water to remove non-existent residual contaminants. To add insult to injury, they also brought in a private videographer with no law enforcement function to accompany them into her home and film the events
Mark Silverstein, ACLU Legal Director, sums it up well. "This case presents one more example of how the War on Drugs has become a war on the Constitution and basic human rights."
The ACLU has filed a complaint on this victim's behalf. The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages for violations of the Plaintiff's right of privacy, right of bodily integrity, and her right to be free of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
It's times like these that I'm really proud to be part of the ACLU.
The State of California, Alameda and Butte counties, and the City of Oakland, as well as the California Medical Association and the California Nurses Association, all filed briefs supporting the injunction.
Our government contends there should be no medical exceptions to the federal anti-marijuana laws.
What a crock. Is there anyone outside of those who depend on the Prohibition for their living that believes we should be spending our tax dollars on prosecuting and imprisoning people like these?
Angel Raich has used cannabis for six years in her fight with an inoperable brain tumor, wasting syndrome, a seizure disorder and many other serious medical conditions. According to her doctor, Frank Lucido M.D., she is unable to use other medications and would risk death without cannabis.
In August 2002, federal agents raided the Oroville home of Diane Monson, who uses marijuana to relieve severe chronic back pain and muscle spasms. After a dramatic standoff with local law enforcement who attempted to stop the action, the federal agents seized and destroyed her six cannabis plants.
We're talking tens of thousands of dollars of your money spent before this case reaches its conclusion. Here's hoping the Supremes see the idiocy of continuing the Justice Department's vendetta against sick people and establishes a precedent against it once and for all by upholding the 9th Circuit decision.
The group's director, Valerie Corral, said the group had been receiving and growing marijuana in secret since the raid out of fear of being prosecuted. But with Fogel's decision, the group plans on immediately planting hundreds of plants at Corral's one-acre property.
"You better believe it we're gonna plant," said Corral, who uses marijuana to alleviate epileptic seizures.
Meanwhile a Justice Department spokesman, obviously disappointed, said the government was reviewing the decision.
I say, "What's to review?" The courts have ruled, the people's will is clear and it's time for our government to stop wasting our tax dollars tilting at windmills. Let the feds earn their keep by going out to solve some real crimes and leave the sick and dying in peace.
The hair-raising accounts of those who lived through the horror of their methods still surface to the present day as its former inmates come to terms with the indignities they suffered. The program was eventually shut down amid a storm of lawsuits and bad press over the mistreatment of the children committed to its care.
The Semplers involvement in the current war on drugs doesn't end there. According to Radley Balko:
Today, Straight's founders, Mel and Betty Sembler, have enormous influence over U.S. drug policy. They serve on the boards of most every major domestic anti-drug program. They're behind efforts to defeat medicinal marijuana initiatives all over the country. They're also proud and unrepentant about Straight, Inc.; they mention their influence upon its founding in their official bios (here and here) -- despite the horrors that have surfaced about the program's history.
Sembler is now suing Richard R. Bradbury, 38 year old survivor of Straight, who has been agitating against the harms of the program since his release as a teenager. At issue is a penile pump that Bradbury lifted from Sembler's garbage, then posted on eBay last year for $300,000. However as fellow survivor Wesley Fager, 58 puts it, "The story is not about a man's penis pump -- it's about child abuse."
The Semplers call it Bradbury's trash picking, "an invasion into the sanctity of our home and our bedroom." His lawyer Thomas McGowan, said, "I see this as a First Amendment case. . . . There is no right of privacy in garbage." And there's the real point. Law enforcement tactics against cannabis consumers and other non-violent substance imbibers routinely include trash picking by investigators. The courts have long held that there is no expectation of privacy for the defendants, the same must hold for well-connected plaintiffs.
And while I generally do not rejoice in other's discomfort it seems just, that the Semplers now suffer some small measure of public humiliation in return for the private hell they imposed on thousands of our children.
You need a scorecard to keep up with the current quagmire going on there now. The only certainty is that the US backed war on drugs has fueled this so-called narco-terrorism to the point where the indigenous peasants live in fear of violence from all the factions and with their tiny farms poisoned by misfired eradication flyovers, are dying and being otherwise displaced by the thousands.
A cruel and inhumane approach on the United States' part to be sure. As the article notes:
[T]he U.S. strategy of supporting a repressive military in league with brutal paramilitaries ignores Colombia's economic realities that have forced the impoverished farmers to turn to coca and poppy production as a means of survival.
Jamaica and Cuba have signed a Memorandum of Understanding pledging to cooperate in combating drug trafficking and other transnational crimes. Years ago the island was pretty much just exporting some really fine cannabis but unfortunately over time became a major transfer point in white powder drug smuggling because of its geographic location.
The MOU pledges cooperation in intelligence gathering and combating money laundering. Reflecting US influence in their policy, Jamaica has embraced asset forfeiture as a weapon. Using The International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) 2004, published by the U.S. State Department's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, as a guide the big island apparently intends to embrace US style tactics.
To get at international drug traffickers (including those operating in Jamaica), who rake in millions of US dollars, law enforcement agents not only have to arrest the suspects and seize their drugs, but seize also the assets they buy with the money they earn from the drugs, whether the cash is laundered or not. The drug traffickers have to distance themselves from the money, so law enforcement won't catch them with it. So the seizure of laundered money can often lead to the 'Mr. Bigs' of drug trafficking, if the investigators are diligent and skilful enough to follow complex paper trails.
Sounds pretty good doesn't it, but when is the last time you've heard of a "Mr. Big" actually being arrested for money laundering or even for dealing drugs? Forfeiture has been used as a tool to punish small dealers and often results in the confiscation of legally acquired property. Ironically, the property once seized, goes on trial and must prove itself innocent. Thus you find cases such as "United States vs. 2002 Ford truck" clogging our court systems. More often than not it costs more to litigate for the return of the property than it would to replace it. Meanwhile you have law enforcement departments at every level enriching their coffers with millions of dollars of US citizen's property. Reports abound of police detectives driving around in seized SUVs and other luxury cars and of these funds being used to construct lounges and the like in police stations.
Unfortunately Jamaican officials seem to be buying this kind of US rhetoric.
As the US President's National Drug Control Strategy for 2004 states, "The drug trade is not an unstoppable form of nature but rather a profit-making enterprise that can be stopped." Two weapons that have proven most effective in weakening the drug trade have been forfeiture of assets and stiff laws against money laundering.
Absurd logic when black market for drugs is bigger than ever. Asset forfeiture is one of the greatest temptations for graft and illegal arrests in our law enforcement community. The only way it can be employed in a neutral and fair manner is if the proceeds were turned over to the state for other uses such as education and or other social services. As it stands, with the proceeds of the act being left in the hands of those who seize the property, it constitutes one of the greatest legalized conflict of interest in the history of civil society.
One hopes that Jamaica will realize the folly of the policy before it becomes entrenched.
There's no celebrations planned here, however if you're at Niagara Falls our dauntless neighbors in Canada will be having a smoke-out at the US border in the middle of Rainbow Bridge. There will be speakers of course and one assumes the sweet smell of, as John Walters puts it, "the crack of cannabis" will be wafting over the water. Fair warning, possession is illegal in Canada again pending future decrim legislation and you can get busted for smoking. From what I hear though, it's worth taking a chance for a hit of that "White Widow" weed.
The rally starts at 4:20pm of course. We're sorry we can't be there but the May Day Million Marijuana March is right around the corner. Something to plan for.
"There are few laws in Iraq right now," writes Dave Enders, High Times's man in Baghdad, "so although drug possession was punishable by death before, you can now pass a spliff openly in front of the cops."
The expanded coverage simply paints a bigger picture .
He also writes about U.S. soldiers and the nutty do-gooders who've swarmed into Iraq and about Hamid, "a 26-year-old translator/bodyguard/heavy-metal fan." Hamid was an Iraqi soldier until he deliberately shot himself in the leg to avoid fighting the Americans and now smokes weed and writes protest lyrics set to the tune of "The Wall" by Pink Floyd: "We don't need no occupation, We don't need no CPA. . . . "
"The desire to leave," Enders concludes, "is the only thing US soldiers and Iraqis have in common."
HT has kept the luscious centerfolds but to quell the complaints of their loyal readers who miss the old format, they have also spun off a new magazine, Grow America, for those who are only interested in cannabis-related issues.
For myself, I kind of like the new format. General politics are inextricably linked to drug policy reform and our work will mean nothing if we let the politicians destroy civil society in the interim. We're wishing High Times success with this new editorial policy. Who knows, if they keep this up we might start reading the magazine regularly again.
We remind you that Kdrink, contains energy from 15 vitamins and minerals, 12 amino acids and 14 to 16 alkaloids that are found naturally in coca leaves. There is no cocaine in this drink. In their own words:
One of the big mistakes about the coca leaf is to confuse it with the cocaine. Cocaine is one of the 14 alkaloids of the leaf and need to be procesed and mixed with other 15 chemical components to arrive firstable to cocaine sulfate and afterwards to cocaine cloridrate. Between the other alkaloids we can find globuline, pectine, engonine etc. that have such a good benefits for health that we cannot find it in other natural product. In fact Andine people is using it since precolombine period under hunger, extreme work and other unhuman situations.
...There is a social problem about the coca bush that cannot be solved by eradication of plantations. Only the alternative products will have the solution and this is a reallity that only knows who knows the Ande.
The language barrier notwithstanding, their letter makes a lot of sense and they at least are coming up with constructive suggestions. The reality is not much else but coca will grow in these regions and alternative uses could stop the endless cycle of jungle cocaine production.
The peasants growing the plant are not the ones making money on the black market. It would be easy to pay them a comparable amount for their crops by developing a commerical US market for legal uses of the herb.
One wonders if it was for personal use of the crew. The Gloria, pride of the Colombian Navy was due to was to embark on a six-month trip to the United States and Europe. The trip will probably be delayed however, as Uribe has suspended the entire 75 man crew and arrested three sailors.
Toledo had come to discuss regional cooperation in combating cocaine production. He wryly noted that "drug trafficking is a problem and the events on that ship are evidence of that." Citing a need for a common strategy, Toledo suggested governments pool their resources and complained that consumer nations should be doing more to help. He also denied that the Shining Path was contributing to civil unrest in Colombian border areas despite this statement from a man claiming to be the last living leader of the group, threatening renewed violence.
Keep an eye on our neighbors to the south. While we are all distracted by Iraq and the elections, from Venezuela to Bolivia and beyond, US meddling is creating a tinder keg that could blow up at any minute.
Dwight Meredith at Wampum makes an important point on the correlation of Creekstone Farms' run-in with the USDA over mad cow disease testing and the Bush administration's protecting big business from free market competition with small companies.
I mean can anybody tell me why the same test that the USDA contends would cost $325 tax dollars per head could be delivered by Creekstone at $18.oo? Political patronage is nothing new but our government is still bound by oath to serve its citizen's needs first; not to serve them up as a sacrifice to political interests.
Last word on the subject goes to Dwight's closing remarks.
It should be the job of the USDA to ensure a safe food supply, not to make choices for consumers among safe alternatives.
The large companies just want the government, in the form of the USDA, to insulate them from free market competition. The Bush administration, in the form of the USDA, is doing so.
The program is only open to non-violent offenders but that should still help in prison overcrowding in New York State. According to the King's County AG's Office press release:
The number of offenders in New York State prisons for drug offenses has increased dramatically, from 3,000 at the onset of the crack epidemic in 1986, to more than 20,000 today. Almost one-half of all state prison inmates are drug offenders, many of whom committed non-violent crimes to support their drug habit.
The program shows great success both in rehabilitation and cost effectiveness. The numbers speak for themselves.
As of March 2004, 1950 defendants have been accepted into the program, 390 are still in treatment and 743 have completed the program and have had their charges dismissed..... Eighty-nine percent of DTAP's graduates who are able to work are employed.
....analysis of the savings realized on correction, health care, public assistance and recidivism costs combined with the tax revenues generated by the DTAP graduates reveals that diversion to DTAP has resulted in economic benefits of $28.8 million dollars per the 743 graduates.
....DTAP graduates had re-arrest rates that were 33% lower; re-conviction rates that were 45% lower; and were 87% less likely to return to prison than those of a matched comparison group.
The program actively seeks repeat offenders and provides assistance in obtaining and maintaining employment. A welcome contrast to the mindset that created the mandatory minimums and zero tolerance laws that caused the overcrowding in the prisons in the first place.
Left-Liberal Too
Paradise Lost
"Operation Sandshaker"
Friday Photoblog
They like to watch
Ashcroft's Folly
Big Win for the Little Guys
Scared Straight to Hell
No Solution for Revolution
Search & Seizure
Celebrate
High Times in Baghdad
Kdrink Company Speaks
Ship of Fools
Don't Get Mad...
Treatment over Incarceration
