As I read today about how bold and complicated his budget proposals are, it struck me how little information we have heard from the media on the choice of the new Drug Czar and the "drug war" under Obama in general. While the President has made it clear that he does not favor legalizing drugs, it has remained a very low priority issue. My guess is that the last thing he wants is to be ridiculed ealry on (which is the conservative right-wing tactic regarding any pot discussion) for bringing this logical policy change into play while there are so many serious issues involved, the economy, health care, education, the wars etc...Like a Texas Hold-em poker player with two aces he is waiting for the other players to bet and raise the "pot" and pull him into the 'war on drugs' debate, but when it is time to lay the cards out, it will be obvious to all that the drug war has to go, for the sake of the budget and the economy. His advisors will point out what Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman and conservative icon Willliam F. Buckley said - The war on drugs cannot be won and it is hugely damaging to our ECONOMY as well as to the safety and security of the citicizens of our country and other nations! Obama is a brilliant tactician/politician as well as a great communicator, because frankly, I thought he would stop the war in Iraq first, and then stop the drug war, but it looks to me like he will take on the easiest "dumb war" we are in first.
From the time of the Big Bang Freedom is the natural state of things and Freedom can only be restrained by man's greedy desires and his artificial outside intervention. While man's collective efforts to restrain individuals from hurting other individuals or groups is a hallmark of our collective soul and civilization, that is not restraint of Freedom, it is restraint of evil. Restraint of the Freedom of an individual who is not harming others to pursue life, libery and happiness is wasted energy because the impulse and instinct for Freedom will always eventually outlast any efforts at artificial restraint. The human spirit's constant movement towards freedom and away from tyranical government will continue, as will our efforts to restrain evil. The devil is in the details of what is evil and what is just inconvenient for some.
The alcohol companies may need a bailout if pot is legalized. It is a lot cheaper to throw some seeds in the ground and watch the "weed" grow than to pay huge companies for your recreational high.
Obama Supporters for Marijuana Law Reform has 383 Members.
Thanks to Barack Obama for creating this web-site where people who believe in the benefits a truly free society can get together and let their voices be head as one.
It is obvious the drug war is and has been a failure, and we can never win a war when we are on the wrong side. Freedom is the right side.
Free people are going to use marijuana whether it is legal or not. By making it illegal, the government encourages an underground marketplace that leads to violence, and makes harder drugs easier to obtain.
If marijuana were legalized - most of the drug dealers out there who also supply meth, crack and other harder drugs, would go out of business, distribution would be controlled and money would stop flowing to criminal gangs. Many americans could simply grow their own. Hundreds of people die each year in our country and Mexico - because marijuana is illegal.
The underground drug economy takes money from US citizens, and sends it out to criminals in other countries who make huge profits.
Legalized pot would allow many folks to grow their own, keeping billions of dollars in the economy, strengthening our country.
Only one drawback to legalizing pot.
Big alcohol companies would suffer losses in revenues - bad news for Senator McCain and his wife, the Budweiser heiress.
Alcohol is a harmful drug, but hell, I wouldn't say it should be illegal. Why is marijuana illegal? Maybe the 100 million dollars Cindy McCains family has left her has something to do with it.
Thanks again to Barack Obama for allowing this group.
I hope he addresses the issue when the time is right.
There will be some great guest speakers and it should get up to around 70 degrees on Saturday, so I'm heading to Kirkland for the Rally at Marina Village Park.
I hope to see lot's of fellow Obama Supporters there, and encourage everyone to come out and enjoy the great weather as Spring begins!
The Rally starts at 9 am and lasts till 1 pm, go to the "find Events" section of your MY BARACK OBAMA profile page to find the links to get more details on who the speakers are, and get directions to Marina Village Park in Kirkland.
See you there!
For all you guitar players, here's an easy - Obamafied version of a Dylan Classic.
Bob Dylan is a genius, so please pardon my borrowing from his art. I'm doing it out of love for Obama and the possibilities for our nation.
If anybody wants to add some lyrics I'd love some other Dylan fans input on more verses, and how to make it better.
Obama's Time's They Are A Changing.
G Em C G
Come gather round people where ever you are
Am C D
And admit that Republicans have gone way too far
And accept it we'll soon be disgraced by this war
Am D
If a new leader does not redeem us
D7 Gmaj7 D
Better vote for Barack or it's more of the same
G C D G
For the times they are a changing!
The Bush’s and Clinton’s have both had there turns
But the wars just continue and hatred still burns
Does it have to continue till each voter learns
Their lies are all before you
Better vote for Barack or it’s more of the same
Conservatives and Liberals throughout this land
Agree war politicians are way out of hand
No American’s born just to die in the sand
It’s too high a price for our oil!
Geraldine Ferraro attributes Senator Obama's phenomenal popularity to "luck."
How lucky do you have to be to marry the future President of the United States?
I'd say Hillary is the one who is the one who got lucky - because she would be nowhere near the presidency if she had not been lucky enough to be married to one.
Let's see Hillary come close to achieving anything as individually prestigious as being elected President of the Harvard Law Review, like Senator Obama was.
Let's see Hillary give up her millions of dollars and volunteer to re-build a neighborhood for a while.
Let's see Hillary run a campaign that is not based completely on the past achievements of her husbands administration that accomplished a lot, but also ushered in an era of Right Wing Republican Reactionism thanks to her husbands disgraceful behavior.
I feel our first woman President should earn the job like Senator Obama will, not riding a spouses coat-tails into the White-house using a 30-year old political machine like it is her own personal army.
Hillary is the one who is lucky, Geraldine, not Barack.
February 16th a college student was arrested in the theft of a briefcase containing more than $140,000 from the home of the chairman of meat processing giant Tyson Foods Inc., police said. Ryan Silvey, 19, was arrested in Olathe, Kan., by the FBI Fugitive Task Force, the Johnson Police Department said. He was taken back to Arkansas to answer a theft charge and was being held in lieu of $50,000 bond Saturday at the Washington County jail. The briefcase was stolen during a party thrown by John Tyson's daughter at the family's home in Johnson around Dec. 27 without his knowledge or consent, police said. Silvey and another friend were uninvited guests who acted suspicious while looking around the house, police said. Tyson reported the theft Jan. 2, saying he had collected the money over time and had it hidden in the house.
WHO KEEPS ONE-HUNDRED-FORTY-THOUSAND DOLLARS AROUND THE HOUSE? DRUG DEALERS, SURE, BUT ALSO SUPER-RICH CHANGE COLLECTORS OR MAYBE CLOSETED CLINTON SUPPORTERS?
IN MY EXHAUSTIVE 90-second online investigation I could not find any evidence that John Tyson has ever given money to Hillary or Bill Clinton - what I did find makes me wonder why not? He is from Arkansas - they are from Arkansas - and according to my internet sources he has given $58,000 to Republicans, $144,290, to Democrats another $194,800 to chicken loving special-interests for a total of: $397,090 in political contributions over the past few years. On top of that, his company - Tyson Foods - supplies the majority of Chicken, Pork and Beef for the largest company in the world, WAL-MART, which Hillary Clinton also happened to help manage.
To be fair to John Tyson, we all keep a jar with change in it on a dresser or a table. When we get home we throw our spare change in the jar. John just happens to use a briefcase, and he has $140,000 in there. He is chairman of one of the 100 largest corporations in the US, a corporation with the closest of ties to Wal-Mart, which is the largest corporation in the world.
Sure, John Tyson's father Don Tyson has this notation in his WIKIPEDIA Biography: "A simple search of the public records archive in Little Rock, Arkansas turns up dozens of references to cocaine distribution, drug trafficking, and allegations of murder for hire attempts. It is alleged that Don Tyson is involved in the MENA drug ring in Arkansas and is protected by local Arkansas officials."
But that doesn't mean he is in any way connected to the Clintons or illegal drugs. Sure the Clintons were local Arkansas officials back in the day, but John Tyson is not implicated in the allegations against his father. John is the victim in this story.
I sure hope he got all $140,000 of his spare change back, for parking meters and such. Parking a Lear-jet is probably very costly, unless your parking it at WAL-MART.
Why all the money in the suitcase, John??? And why no direct contributions listed to HILLARY? HMMM? She was on Wal-Marts board of directors, right? Why not help out a buddy? Isn't she Pro-Chicken enough?
Sat Feb 16, 4:10 PM ET JOHNSON, Ark. - A college student was arrested in the theft of a briefcase containing more than $140,000 from the home of the chairman of meat processing giant Tyson Foods Inc., police said. Ryan Silvey, 19, was arrested in Olathe, Kan., by the FBI Fugitive Task Force, the Johnson Police Department said. He was taken back to Arkansas to answer a theft charge and was being held in lieu of $50,000 bond Saturday at the Washington County jail. The briefcase was stolen during a party thrown by John Tyson's daughter at the family's home in Johnson around Dec. 27 without his knowledge or consent, police said. Silvey and another friend were uninvited guests who acted suspicious while looking around the house, police said. Tyson reported the theft Jan. 2, saying he had collected the money over time and had it hidden in the house.
I got to my caucus location - Monroe High School in Monroe WA - about 45 minutes prior to the one o-clock start time, and found Hillary signs on every table, but very few Obama signs.
A woman approached me, probably because I was carrying my own Obama sign, and told me that she had seen a large amount of Obama signs delivered, and she claimed someone had taken all the Obama signs and assumably disposed of them somewhere!
One of the party officials or caucus organizers even got on the PA system prior to the start of the caucus to tell us that there was a rumor going around that this had happened, and there was no truth to it.
In fact, this woman told me she saw it happen, but then she left my area of the caucus, and it looked to me like she left before it even began, and I never saw her again.
She was a petite woman, pretty, with shoulder length reddish brunette hair, as I recall.
This episode is a mystery to me, and while I was approached by some rednecks who tried to provoke me by making sarcastic comments about Obama's viability, this mystery woman with her charge of campaign dirty tricks has me curious.
Did anybody else at the Monroe Caucus see any large amount of Obama materials at the Monroe caucus dissappear and were there other episodes like this, possibly with the same woman in other caucuses?
The Washington State Caucus is Saturday February 9th.
The weeks leading up to the Caucus are a crucial time for Obama supporters in Washington to stir up excitement and raise awareness levels for potential Caucus goers.
Lets help Senator Obama set records for attendance and support in Washington just like he did in Iowa and is doing in New Hampshire.
For three Saturdays leading up to the Caucus Sno-Sky Valley for Barack Obama is sponsoring Rallys at one of the busiest intersections in Snohomish County, (HWY 2 and Kelsey) in Monroe WA.
Starting Saturday January 19th and following up on January 26th and February 2nd we are inviting all Obama supporters to come out with us for sign waving, smiles and Rally for Obama.
The Rally site provides a constant flow of slow moving cars in four directions which offers a unique opportunity to Rally on all four corners where we can wave signs and smile to thousands of people an hour. If you have never attended one of these types of events you will be amazed at the hundreds of people smiling and waving back from inside their cars, honking horns and giving "thumbs up" in support of Obama.
Come and see for yourself; bring your kids and bring your friends. Be a part of Obama's history making campaign right here in Snohomish County!
First Rally is Noon - 5 p.m. Saturday 19th January - you can register on this website, or just show up at the event. Signs and balloons will be available.
The Rally site, Fred Meyers/Blockbuster/Rite Aide/Dennys intersection in Monroe WA sees thousands of cars pass every hour on Saturday afternoons - many heading to Stevens Pass for skiing or heading home after an early ski day. This intersection provides a constant flow of traffic moving slow enough so that everyone sees whats going on, but moving fast enough that tens of thousands of people pass by in a few hours.
Lets give a friendly reminder to these thousands of folks passing by that the caucus is coming soon and Barack Obama is the man they should support.
Please join us. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity and the time is now.
Food and restroom facilities are available. Organizational meeting and coffe to follow at Dennys - adjacent to the Rally sight at 5 p.m.
President Obama in 2008 - Won't That Be Great?
DENVER MARIJUANA INITIATIVE
Final results of Citizen Proposition 100 - a law directing law enforcement officers in Denver to make marijuana the lowest law enforcement priority passed with 54% of voters in favor of the measure.
The same policy has been in effect in Seattle for over a year, without any apparent ill effects.
Elected officials and police in Denver, however. say the initiative would have little effect since state and federal law supersede local law decriminalizing the drug.
Denver passed an initiative in 2005 making possession of small amounts of marijuana legal. It's had little effect as police and prosecutors said they were enforcing state law.
Sounds like to me our "Democratic" nation has become more of a "Police State."
I hope President Obama will work to address the corrupt subsidy of the Alcohol Corporations which is the real purpose of the War On Drugs and which only serves to keep Big Alcohol company profits up and Street Gang violence rampant.
For more on the story you can Google "Denver Marijuana Proposition 100" or just click on this...
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/denver-voters-set-lowest-priority-for-cops-pot/index.html?ex=1352091600&en=33d81f70112b1e98&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
Barack Obama will inherit a lot of problems, we all know the big ones, National Security, Health Care, Education, Poverty, but what about an issue that was a huge presidential campaign issue back in the good old days of Nixon and Reagan. What ever happened to the War On Drugs?
The Associated Press reports that with the help of the Oregon National Guard and their helicopters - marijuana plant seizures have more than doubled in Oregon this year, jumping from 120,000 plants confiscated last year to 245,000 plants this year.
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20071104/NEWS03/711040043
I don't endorse marijuana use, but I always thought the National Guard was there to protect US citizens from other countries and help out in emergencies.
These seizures will not decrease the demand for pot in Oregon, and citizens will continue to buy weed, but it will be weed grown and smuggled from outside of Oregon.
The effects of Pot Prohibition now are identical to those of Alcohol Prohibition in the past. It is an unworkable policy that only creates more criminals and funnels money to organized crime, in our own cities as well as in those of our neighboring countries.
I hope Barack Obama who is quoted as saying "I inhaled, that was the point" will guide our country back in the direction of freedom and away from the counterproductive and futile policy of prohibition.
Check out the awesome Drew Carey video at Reason.com...
http://reason.tv/video/show/57.htm
Let's see if he comes out and endorses Obama, I bet he will.
I like Ron Paul and Kucinech both, but Paul is a Republican. Considering how the Democrats have treated Obama, maybe a Republican running mate would be a gesture of Unity.
Your thoughts?
I'm working on this song - the lead solo is amazingly simple, yet difficult, but has anybody heard any version of BACK IN THE USSR with the lyrics changed to Barack In the U S of A?
What a great Rock song for a Rally!
Do You want to Rally?
Our first Rally Day we had about a dozen people in Everett and Snohomish and we had a lot of fun. The Monroe location was awesome, with thousands of cars passing at just the right speed, but only three of us were there!
I am hoping to get enough interest, to set a date for another Rally, so if you want to have another Rally Day, respond to this blog, and we will start organizing it.
I am announcing two Song Lyrics contests as a challenge to all of you creative Barack Obama supporters who want to do everything possible to ensure that Barack Obama is the next President of the United States of America.
The first contest is for Best Original Lyrics for an Official Barack Obama Campaign Song. This categories song lyrics have got to have dignity, beauty and sophistication. Ideally, it will be a timeless anthem in support of a revolutionary change in politics for our nation, led by Barack Obama.
The second contest is for Best Pop Song Which Highlights Obama's Attributes Over Hillary Clinton. I know that sounds a little like negative campaigning, but lets have a little fun with the fact that Obama's biggest competition in this race right now is about as fresh a face in national politics as Barbara Bush!
Maybe that's the song I'll write. A pop tune about "Barbara Bush VS Hillary Clinton in 2008."
C'mon, lets put our thinking caps on and come up with some winning lyrics for a winning candidate. If you come up with the music and lyrics, Kudos to you! Your cash prize will be doubled.
There is no cash prize, actually, however the winner should certainly make sure they copyright their song lyrics, cuz like Bob Seger said "you just might make it on an album."
I will decide a monthly winner in both categories by whose songs get the most votes in each catogory at the end of each month, starting the end of June.
Send all your Lyrics in to guitar46phil at Sno-Sky Valley for Barack Obama ,,, or post them in this thread. If you cannot write, you can still vote and HAVE FUN!
The following transcript came directly from Rush Limbaughs website.
I support buying US products, but no longer General Motors, not until they DROP RUSH!!!!
RUSH: We've got a new sponsor. We've been working them for 16 years, and we finally nailed down General Motors last week. AUDIENCE: (Applause) RUSH: I know there are probably some people here from Ford and at DaimlerChrysler. We tried there, too. It's nothing against anybody else, but we got the deal with General Motors. I was out there meeting with some people and they showed me what's coming in the next two years in most of their lines. It's amazing. It, frankly, is amazing -- and I mean this as a compliment. Please don't misunderstand this. I'm looking at -- especially some of the Cadillacs that are coming. The exteriors are going to blow you away. But I was looking at interiors, and I said, "I can't believe this is an American car," and I don't mean that as an insult. It's a great thing. They're very excited about what they're doing. I talked to one of the guys in the design team, and I said: "Are you working on something big? Are you're working on a 12 cylinder behemoth? Are you working on something with 600 horsepower?"
He said, "We had to scrub the project." I said, "Why?""Global warming."AUDIENCE: (Groans.)RUSH: No, no, CAFE standards. There are limits on miles per gallon that cars are going to have to achieve, and I said to him, "Why don't you fight back? Why does the company just bend over and grab the ankles? This is all a hoax!"He said, "It's worse than a hoax. It's communism. It's nothing more than a religion.""Why don't you fight back?""We can't alienate the customers.""Alienate the customers, by giving them what they don't want?""No, look at the polls! Look at how many people believe we're destroying the planet with auto emissions."I said, "It's crazy. We're not. Auto emissions of total vehicles worldwide are not even five-tenths of one percent. I nothing!""I know, but we can't do anything, can't make the politicians mad. They'll come down on us."This is a perfect example: a major American corporations have to run scared because of a bunch of uninformed people. It's not their fault they're uninformed. They're being lied to every day by Drive-By Media, by people like Al Gore and that propaganda movie. I know a lot of you in this room --AUDIENCE: (Applause.)RUSH: A lot of you in this room probably, you want to be good citizens and you hear about how we're destroying the planet and global warming is happening. You want to do your part. I had to get a hotel room this afternoon and change clothes. I was in there for about half an hour and I couldn't find the light switch. It's on the freakin' lamp! I look and I can't find the lamp's light switch. I'm looking at it, and it's one of those damn fluorescent light bulbs.AUDICENE: (Laughter.)RUSH: I said, "We're just a bunch of lemmings." That's fine, if you want to buy those things. But to think you're saving the planet, I'm sorry, you're being duped. Your car is not destroying the planet. You're not killing polar bears. You're not melting glaciers because you and I combined with the world's population -- sorry to tell you -- don't have that power. We haven't the ability. AUDIENCE: (Laughter.)RUSH: I don't want to get religious here. But people ask me all the time: "How come you seem so confident about what you believe, particularly about global warming?""Because I am, and I'm documented to be almost always right, 98.6% of the time. I know." I said, "I fly a lot, and I look down out of the window of the airplane," and I'm sorry, folks, I can't intellectually get my arms around the fact that the light bulbs we're using are going to melt the damn glaciers and snow peaks I'm flying over.
RUSH LIMBAUGH IS A RACIST HATE MONGER - BOYCOTT GENERAL MOTORS AND ALL RUGH LIMBAUGH SPONSORS!
I read with dismay a blog by a Mr. Earl Hutchinson in the Huffington Post. I was amazed to find out there is an argument out there that whites only support Barack Obama because he is a "made in heaven black man who doesn't make any uncomfortble racial demands" of them. Hutchinson quotes Al Sharpton as saying Obama is not "Black enough" and states Jesse Jackson is only mildly supportive of Obama.
Hutchinson says that Rush Limbaugh is "getting it right" when he refers to Senator Obama as "the magic Negro."
Here was my reply to Mr. Hutchinson on the Huffington Post:
Limbaugh does what he does for the money.
Limbaugh is as much a journalist as Jerry Springer.
They are both rich entertainers, Limbaugh just does a straight-faced caricature of a political pundit, while Jerry Springer attempts to pass himself off as a caring human being interested in peoples personal problems.
It's too bad Rush Limbaugh does not acknowledge that what he does is an act, performed purely for money. I am sure there is a special place in Hell reserved for people who stir up hate and discontent for their own personal gain.
Finding fault with a man for being black and not angry is incomprehensible to me.
While the whole subject is shocking, I believe we should all be prepared for ridiculous comments like this.
Who wants to go with me to see Senator Obama in Seattle June 1st?
I am so excited!
