FOX News Says Marijuana Activists are Just Internet Trolls

Good reply to FOX News' failure to admit defeat in the elections so they attack people with a purpose thinking they'll break them down...activists are the bleeding heart liberals that the GOP made fun of for sooooooo many years....nothing will break us after the last 8 years of hell...nothing! Boo-Yah!

Peace to those that believe everything is possible!

soul

Posted in Speakeasy Main by Scott Morgan

Really, FOX News? You are so incapable of understanding our argument that you would dismiss us as saboteurs? If the mere mention of reforming marijuana laws is such a grand affront to civil discourse, let me introduce you to a few more "trolls" out there on the internet spreading crazy ideas about not arresting people for marijuana:
There's Joe Klein at Time, David Sirota at The Nation, Kathleen Parker at the Washington Post, Paul Jacob at TownHall.com, Hendrik Hertzberg at The New Yorker, Andrew Sullivan at The Atlantic, Glenn Greenwald at Salon, Debra Saunders at the San Francisco Chronicle, Leonard Pitts at Miami Herald, John Richardson at Esquire, Margery Eagan at Boston Herald and many more. If these names sound familiar to you, it's becaue they aren't trolls at all, rather they are respected journalists who are joining the national conversation about the harms of our vicious marijuana laws.
In one of Obama's recent online forums, I saw this question: "How many donuts can I fit on my dong?" That was a troll, and it got deleted. This is a movement, and it isn't going away. Our issue is bigger than the organizations backing it. It didn't win Obama's forum because marijuana reformers know something about online organizing that other interest groups don't. It won because it is this defining question that quickly separates petty hypocrites from bold leaders, that distinguishes self-evident truths from antiquated propaganda, and that pits common sense against the mindless drug war hysteria that maintains a frigid stranglehold on our political culture, rendering impotent the promise of change that inspired so many hopeful Americans to lay their hopes and dreams at the steps of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

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Soldier suicides skyrocket

But a tepid Senate hearing on Wednesday, with no testimony from lower-ranking combat troops from Iraq or Afghanistan, does little to explain why.

By Mark Benjamin - March 19, 2009 WASHINGTON -- The Senate Armed Services Committee hearings Wednesday on the rising suicide rate among U.S. ground troops in Iraq and Afghanistan revealed some frightening new data, but did little to investigate the underlying causes of what is emerging as one of the darkest, most disturbing legacies of the wars.

Last year the Army had its highest suicide rate on record -- 140 soldiers. But new data from the Army on Wednesday showed the number jumping even higher. Forty-eight soldiers have already killed themselves so far this year. If that rate keeps up, nearly 225 Army soldiers will be dead by their own hand by the end of 2009.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., called the latest trends "alarming." Army Vice Chief of Staff Peter Chiarelli admitted, "I, and the other senior leaders of our Army, readily acknowledge that these current figures are unacceptable."

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The success of drug decriminalization in Portugal

by Glenn Greenwald - It's been seven years since that country decriminalized all drugs. What lessons are there for American drug policy debates?

The counter-productive effects of drug criminalization are at least as evident now for the U.S. as they were for pre-decriminalization Portugal. Beyond one's ideological beliefs regarding the legitimacy of criminalization, drug policy should be determined by objective, empirical assessments of what works and what does not work.
It's now been more than seven years since Portugal decriminalized all drugs, and
dispassionately examining the effects of that decision provides a unique opportunity to assess questions of drug policy in the most rational and empirical manner possible.

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Some Small, Notable Changes in U.S. Policy Towards Israel

In four weeks, the Obama administration has demonstrated a willingness to show more objectivity and balance towards Israel than Bush showed in eight years.
From Glenn Greenwald;
This is a mildly encouraging report, from Haaretz:
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has relayed messages to Israel in the past week expressing anger at obstacles Israel is placing to the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. A leading political source in Jerusalem noted that senior Clinton aides have made it clear that the matter will be central to Clinton's planned visit to Israel next Tuesday.
Ahead of Clinton's visit, special U.S. envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell is expected to issue a sharply worded protest on the same matter when he arrives here Thursday.
"Israel is not making enough effort to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza," senior U.S. officials told Israeli counterparts last week, and reiterated Washington's view by saying that "the U.S. expects Israel to meet its commitments on this matter."
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The definition of a "two-tiered justice system"

Great opinion piece about the unfairness of the US justice system. Rich people get away with everything and the poor are incarcerated for petty drug crimes! If it doesn't piss you off then you must be rich!

By Glen Greenwald - Ordinary people who commit petty, nonviolent crimes rot for decades in inhumane prisons. High political leaders who commit serious felonies receive full-scale immunity.
Aside from the intrinsic dangers and injustices of arguing for immunity for high-level government officials who commit felonies (such as illegal eavesdropping, obstruction of justice, torture and other war crimes), it's the total selectivity of the rationale underlying that case which makes it so corrupt. Defenders of Bush officials sing in unison: We shouldn't get caught up in the past. We shouldn't be driven by vengeance and retribution. We shouldn't punish people whose motives in committing crimes weren't really that bad.
There are countries in the world which actually embrace those premises for all of their citizens, and whose justice system consequently reflects a lenient approach to crime and punishment. The United States is not one of those countries. In fact, for ordinary citizens (the ones invisible and irrelevant to Ruth Marcus, Stuart Taylor, Jon Barry and David Broder), the exact opposite is true:

Homeless man gets 15 years for stealing $100
A homeless man robbed a Louisiana bank and took a $100 bill. After feeling remorseful, he surrendered to police the next day. The judge sentenced him to 15 years in prison.
Roy Brown, 54, robbed the Capital One bank in Shreveport, Louisiana in December
2007. He approached the teller with one of his hands under his jacket and told
her that it was a robbery.
The teller handed Brown three stacks of bill but he only took a single $100 bill and returned the remaining money back to her. He said that he was homeless and hungry and left the bank.
The next day he surrendered to the police voluntarily and told them that his mother didn’t raise him that way.
Brown told the police he needed the money to stay at the detox center and had no other place to stay and was hungry.
In Caddo District Court, he pleaded guilty. The judge sentenced him to 15 years in prison for first degree robbery.

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WayLay: What to do with all the dead people?

By Carol Lay - what to do with all the dead people?

WayLay Salon Comics

Technorati Tags: Salon,comics,cartoons,editorial cartoons,satire

Will charges against Blackwater guards stick?

By Alex Koppelman
The most important question may not be their guilt or innocence in the shooting of Iraqi civilians, but whether they're even subject to U.S. law.
Five Blackwater security guards have surrendered to federal authorities after they were indicted on charges relating to a 2007 incident that left 17 Iraqis dead. A sixth has already agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors.
The Associated Press reports that defense attorneys are already "filing court documents challenging the Justice Department's authority to prosecute the case." This isn't surprising. In a 2007 article, Salon's Mark Benjamin and I explored the legal limbo that was created in Iraq for private security guards like the ones charged Monday. "We've painted ourselves in a corner," Peter W. Singer, an expert on private security contractors who is a senior fellow at the center-left Brookings Institute explained at the time. Many questions remain about who -- if anyone -- has jurisdiction over these guards, and whether they can legally be prosecuted at all. This case may end up as an important test, and could have larger implications for contractors in Iraq and elsewhere.
The five guards are each charged with 14 counts of manslaughter and 20 counts of attempted manslaughter, as well as with using a machine gun to commit a crime of violence. According to the AP, that last charge carries a 30-year minimum prison sentence.


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The list of the Governments that have persecuted journalists

by Glenn Greenwald - The Washington Post hails those reporters who face grave danger from the Taliban and the Governments of Cuba, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and the U.S.
The Washington Post Editorial Page today hails the courage of six journalists who have faced down persecution and grave danger in their line of work and who, consequently, are this week receiving the International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists:

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New friendly fire coverup: Army shreds files on dead soldiers

On Oct. 14, 2008, Salon published an article about the deaths of Army Pfc. Albert Nelson and Pfc. Roger Suarez. The Army attributed their deaths in Iraq in 2006 to enemy action. That same night, after the publication of Salon's article, soldiers at Fort Carson were ordered to shred documents related to both men.



Helmet-cam footage from Ramadi, Iraq (12-min. edited version)

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