Gary Peters, MI – claim they cannot reach the congressman for a statement and do not know of his stand on the issue – How impolitic of them! :^)

Lynne Woolsey is a regular progressive clown

There are so many things that are more important than legalizing pot, why stir the pot?

Climate change is here — in spades.

Ozone and nitrogen are eating our food.

Gail Zawacki, Oldwick, NJ provides the science on her blog.

http://witsendnj.blogspot.com/2010/07/evidence-that-toxic-emissions-in.html

I’m with you. While a good idea, it is #235 on my list of things that need to be changed about this country.

Ask your question to somebody who is doing 25 to 30 for a minor violation…you’ll get an answer! A life unnecessarily wasted for draconian laws is pretty damn important!

What’s not important about having more people in jail than any other country?

The world economy is crumbling, the Gulf has been murdered and life is hemmorhaging, hunger has reached into every neighborhood, the Image of the Corporate Beast has been erected, and these fools can’t take a position on whether or not they think? How did it all get so far away from us all?

Thinking and trusting that the MOTU actually are human, and that politicians actually represent ‘the people’!

when you find a way of getting them to move through the Senate we focus on what we know will happen and that is a vote on this issue.

That’s true, but if somebody is willing to have somebody go to jail for Marijuana, it shows that they have an authoritarian attitude. Authoritarians are the problem.

Senate seems to suffes from “ADHD” Attention Deficiet Hypoactivity Disorder? Maybe a few “laced brownies,” might help the Senate “focus” on real issueS$$$$$ facing Americans rather than protecting the intetests of corporate slaveowners in this productive consumer driven economy?

Blue Texan’s regularly scheduled post is ready and waiting: In Texas Governor’s Race, More Bushies Lining Up Against Rick Perry

Thank you! (Of course, a lot of people make a lot of money from the prison-industrial complex, so there’s a lot of incentive for them to keep jailing people wholesale, especially people who can’t afford good lawyers.)

Our drug laws, in fact, serve as the modern-day equivalent of the draft: We are, in various ways, forcing certain groups of kids to choose between prison and the military.

Bingo!

… or programmed corporate bots

Its on the ballot in California. Whether you think its important or not is irrelevant.

The question is whether the California congressional delegation will support the opinions of their constituents, and do the right thing, both morally and politically.

Here’s the vote on HR-3093 back in 2007.

That’s one of the points. There are far better things for Gov to be addressing than your friendly neighborhood pothead. Another is that this is potentially a huge progressive GOTV motivator for young voters; if they don’t think anyone on the ballot represents them, they’re more likely to stay home this year and in the future.

California is dealing with the results of 40 years of Reaganomics and TEA Party-esque policies (Jarvis-Gann, anyone?). Generating some income from taxes and savings from LEO and incarceration activities, as well as taking money from the drug cartels and putting it back into the consumer economy can be achieved by this one measure. We aren’t asking the rest of the country to do anything but leave us to it.

Baron Hill has voted no on Hinchey-Rohrabacher in the past. After repeated contacts asking for follow up to a visit to his Washington office said typical drug warrior stuff “wrong message”, “marijuana isn’t medicine”, etc.

He’s not in your list. Probably won’t be in the 112th Congress.

Example of an authoritarian mindset? “The Taliban?” Absolute, Inflexible, Moralizing, Hypocritical………

For those Polticians who seek to “impose thier rendition of morality” on Americans in the form of “marijauna prohibition;” lets stamp thier foreheads with a big red capital “T,” to symbolize the mentalty of the Taliban, which we, the USA are at war with, to replace the Puritan’s Scarlet letter “A?” Or just keep the “A,” for another word, to describe the Absolute, Inflexible, Moralizing, Hypocritical positions taken by chickenshit politicians concerning a versitle natural resource which in addition to it’s “legitimate medicinal uses” throughout the world and through historuy, has many practical commercial uses. Why? My guess it has nothing to do with “Life” or “Liberty,” just money! Just a little “truth,” here! This post made me thirsty for a nice ice cold “Schlitz Beer.” You know, kick back with friends after a hellish week, to take the edge off and live the high life! Problem is I can’t. I choose not to drink. How about you?

My rep, Adam Smith (WA-09) voted against HR-3093 before he voted for it. Local liberal political blogger Goldy wrote back in 2007:

I just received an email from Derrick Crowe, Communications Director for Rep. Adam Smith:

We noticed the vote this morning and have a submitted a statement for the record to correct the error. Adam should have been a Yes on Rollcall vote 733, the Hinchey Amendment to HR 3093, the Departments of Commerce and Justice, and Science, and Related Agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2008. Adam has consistently voted Yes on the Hinchey Amendment in years past.

So in fact, Rep. Smith voted for Hinchey-Rohrabacher.

Here is a letter from Smith someone reprinted on medical marijuana in 2008. It’s noncommittal, which I expect is what he would be on this issue today.

There were always reliable blood/urine tests for every substance except for marijuana before the early 1980s. Not coincidentally, when marijuana could be tested for beginning in the early 1980s, the drug testing regimens became virtually universal, especially as a condition for emplyment. One can infer that marijuana is the only substance that scares The Man shitless.

Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D·WI)
No position.

Woah, Pete Stark publicly backs Prop 19! Way to go, Petey! I knew there was a reason I voted for him once.

It is a joke. I think of days past long duration jobs away from home. Guys stay out till 2:30 AM getting hammered and working like shit the next day because they where hung over. No problem acceptavle! Meanwhile “Paul the Puffer,” is in bed by 9:30PM, bright eyed, bushy-tailed and productive with a great attitude opposed to working with grumpy drunks feeling like shit! No brainer right… Puritianical Piss test comes along “Paul the Puffer,” gone! Great worker, geaf friend, great guy with great family fucked by corporate moralizing “POS!” Sounds more like the TALIBAN????? It is pathetic example moralizing horseshit!

The prison population in this country has quadrupled since Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaign began in 1984.

53% of those in prison are there for drug related offenses. It’s probably not a very important issue to upper middle class people who are at less risk of getting busted & going to jail, but to those who are living their lives inside a penitentiary because the Prison Industrial Complex wants to make a buck, it’s probably pretty important.

Thanks! I’ll add it to the list.

Thanks Boo, I’ll add that too.

Isn’t Woolsey supposed to be head or co-head of the progressive caucus? What’s with this tepid answer?

Nancy may have been the lead-off hitter, but Bill Clinton swung hardest with his ‘three strikes’ life-sentence legislation that cleared the bases.

On one hand, there’s medical use.

On the other, it’s about getting high, getting stoned, turning on, or whatever slang euphemism wins or loses the debate. ‘Recreational use’ is also a euphemism or circumlocution that hides nothing.

It’s a very very touchy and sensitive issue for an elected policy-maker.

The people who oppose marijuana legalization and marijuana use for the most part have deeply ingrained puritanical inhibitions. At its extreme, anything that induces pleasure, including dancing, is bad for you.

Legalization advocates have presented facts and scientific findings. Lawmakers are not required to accept facts or scientific findings about anything. I think the oath of office needs to be amended.

Sooooo….if we progressives get our way, and marijuana is legalized, and the two fake wars are ended, just what pray tell are all those people going to do for jobs? Where are they going to earn an income? Perhaps, as some have suggested, there are far more important fish to fry.

That’s one of the reasons progressives are not taken seriously. Spreading out on too many things, that really are the least on most people’s minds right now. People need jobs, to pay for food and housing. It’s at crisis level. A majority won’t care about gay laws, or marijuana, or anything like that. Oh wow, we can legally smoke weed. Now if we could just afford it instead of living in this tent.

The attitudes toward marijuana aren’t much different than that those promoted against the pomme d’amour (tomato) in the 1600s (references: “Our Passion for Tomatoes” and “I Say Tomayto, You Say Tomahto…“). The Roman Catholic Church called it “the devils fruit” and “a sinful indulgence” all over a superstition that the tomato is an aphrodisiac {gasp} (it’s definitely not an aphrodisiac in ANY human population).

Fast-forward several hundred years later and we are hearing many of the same types of arguments all over again except with a significant input from the threatened cartels. Now check out the countermeme provided by “The Flower” (from “Watch: What a Legal Pot Economy Would Look Like“). Just like the legal drugs, tobacco (typically enhanced to be even more addictive
[also see Addiction and "Tobacco Additives"]) and alcohol (debilitating in general to those who abuse it and very debilitating to specific human populations by virtue of genotoxicological targeting to humans who are slow acetylators), no one is going to force you to ingest marijuana when it, too, is decriminalized.

Turn back the clock to 1970 and imagine polling your member of Congress about the abortion laws. Ralph Nader will be president long before the Congress ends marijuana prohibition. Congress sucks, always has, always will.

I mention abortion and allude to Roe v. Wade because I’m hopeful that the marijuana prohibition at the federal level can be found to be unconstitutional, now that medical use has been made lawful in several state jurisdictions. Roe v. Wade was successfully argued in part because a pregnant woman would have to go to another jurisdiction to abort where abortion was not illegal. (But she could be prosecuted afterwards where it is illegal.)

To end marijuana prohibition It will probably require all the stars to be aligned perfectly; for a person to be perfectly aggrieved in many horrible ways; for a lawyer to be smarter than any lawyer has been thus far; and for the analogy between a woman’s pregnancy, of which time was the essential matter in Roe v. Wade, to be made with marijuana’s compassionate use, say, as an end of life comfort. Fuck, I don’t know.

God would vote ‘Yes’ on Prop 19.
Since most Americans believe that the earth was started on Tuesday morning at 11:00 AM in the year 4004 BCE and all the vegetation that there is today in the world was in the garden of Eden(remember Darwinian evolution never happened, sorry but most Americans go down that road in droves or herds), and seeing that God gave all within it to Adam and Eve to use at their pleasure, marijuana had to be there or you know Who intentionally deceived us. Of course, it is equally possible that throwing a creation was a weekly event back then and God put it by mistake into another garden. Naw, by definition God doesn’t make mistakes. So, it had to be there. To vote against marijuana for recreational use is therefore a violation of trust in God’s word and law as told in the Scriptures. And it’s ain’t real smart to cross the big Guy. So, there you have it: If God were elected to hold office in California, he would vote ‘Yes’ on Prop 19. If you still have any questions read the Book-hint does Genesis ring any bells. Now be fruitful and vote the way God would, better yet the way God did.

Thank you Jane.

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, OR PROHIBITING THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF (smoking and growing pot); or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Regarding the legalization of marijuana for recreational use, I think H.L. Mencken said it best: “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.” The average religious/conservative American can give you all the reasons in the world why their neighbor should do hard time for smoking a joint in the privacy of their home, but couldn’t think of one good reason why the United States has one of the world’s highest infant mortality rates. Again, H.L. Mencken to the rescue: “Democracy is the art of running the circus from the monkey cage.”, and “Democracy: “The worship of jackals by jackasses.” But then again, Mencken was an optimist. So AmiBlue, there are more important issues than legalization of marijuana, and if so, why is the United States spending so much time and energy and inflicting such misery on so many of its citizens in the name of a victimless crime?

Your callous disregard for prisoners who have done nothing wrong and their families is noted.

Good point Woman. Regarding the draft I mean. One of the more obscure and insidious aspects of the war on marijuana which is actually a war against the working class in general and people of color in-particular. The war on drugs proved that the government could violate the constitution and the laws of human decency and no one would object. It was the precursor to the great and vengeful war on TERROR which stripped away what remained of the Bill of Rights and finally the rule of law itself. It’s all rolled up in one big ball of dirty money for out ruling class. Yet there are people on this very page who view marijuana prohibition as an issue unworthy of reform.