"All it took was saying, `Hey, I go to State, can you hook me up?'"

With that statement, San Diego County Prosecutor Damon Mosler tacitly admitted that the war on drugs has been a total failure.  Clearly Mr. Mosler has no concept of irony, proudly proclaiming how easy it was to find drugs on the campus of San Diego State University.

If getting drugs is so easy, what does that say about the effectiveness of America's 30-year war on drugs?  What exactly have we accomplished?

Today, in a logic-defying move, the Supreme Court of the Untied States of America made the following ruling:

If you are arrested, even illegally, the Fourth Amendment does not apply.  Sorry, I guess I'm paraphrasing.  Here's what scotusblog reports:

the Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Wednesday that police do not act unconstitutionally if they conduct a search following an arrest, even if the arrest violated a state law.

More surrealism beyond the fold-

I wrote a diary yesterday that spent much of the evening at the top of the rec list.  The diary detailed how officials at the highest level of our government planned, approved and even choreographed the torture of detainees.  It’s truly an appalling tale, made even more so by the fact that these individuals will likely escape any punishment for their actions, and will probably go on to lucrative careers as lecturers, consultants and lobbyists.

This is a diary I have meant to write for some time, but since there's an big article about me in the Philadelphia Inquirer today, today seems like the day.  Please follow me across the fold as I thoroughly "out" myself on this site, and expose myself for the convicted felon I have recently become.

I was stunned to see this story on Yahoo, and even more stunned that it has not been diaried.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush's most senior advisers approved "enhanced interrogation techniques" of top al Qaeda suspects by the Central Intelligence Agency, ABC News reported on Wednesday, citing sources it did not name.

ABC reported that the so-called "principals" discussed interrogation details in dozens of top-secret talks and meetings in the White House.

Who was involved???

This just out from Quinnipiac U:

"With two weeks to go, Sen. Barack Obama is knocking on the door of a major political upset in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary. Obama is not only building on his own constituencies, but is taking away voters in Sen. Hillary Clinton's strongest areas - whites including white women, voters in the key swing Philadelphia suburbs and those who say the economy is the most important issue in the campaign," said Clay F. Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Numbers beyond the fold-

April 7, 1933.  75 years ago today, our Congress declared that "Beer is not a drug".  This was accomplished by a simple change in the Volstead act, a mere political "sleight of hand".  The act declared that any substance containing more than 0.5% alcohol was an "intoxicating alcoholic beverage".  Congress simply changed that definition to 3.2% alcohol, and beer was legal again!

Many people celebrated by actually drinking beer.  Some drank too much and fell down.  Some got sick.  Millions were no doubt afflicted with terrible hangovers.  But civilization didn't end.  Our country wasn't overrun with drunken beer-heads intent on spawning mayhem and violence.  Well, maybe just a little.  Life went on.

A substance that was once so reviled that its prohibition was enshrined in our Constitution was suddenly legal again...

If this has been previously posted, I apologize.  CALL AGAIN!

Very much like the pompous little dictator he desires to be, George W. Bush is throwing a temper tantrum today DEMANDING that Congress grant him broad new spying powers before they are allowed to begin their summer recess.  In an unusual display of unmitigated audacity, even for him, the demented fuckwit is blasting Democrats for not granting him carte blanch to initiate even more unsupervised spying on Americans:

"So far the Democrats in Congress have not drafted a bill I can sign," Bush said at FBI headquarters, where he was meeting with counterterror and homeland security officials. "We've worked hard and in good faith with the Democrats to find a solution, but we are not going to put our national security at risk. Time is short."

The president said lawmakers cannot leave for their August recess this weekend as planned unless they "pass a bill that will give our intelligence community the tools they need to protect the United States."

This is yesterday's news and has no doubt been diaried before, but our local newspaper, the Reading Eagle ran this lovely headline today:

"Bush says Democrats Shirking Duties"

The story doesn't appear in the online version so there's no link, but the article is based on this AP story from Bush's Saturday radio address:

Bush rips Democratic lawmakers' failures

Bush's ridiculous assertions and the paper's misleading headline prompted me to submit the following letter to the editor.  Please feel free to borrow from my letter across the fold if you are so inclined:

The headline of the AP story on Yahoo News says it all:

Tax cheat escapes $100 million repayment

The story goes on to excoriate the Justice Department:

Poorly written Justice Department documents cost the federal government more than $100 million in what was supposed to have been the crowning moment of the biggest tax prosecution ever.

Is this more of the same shenanigans that cost the government billions in the tobacco case recently?  The story gets stranger as you follow along-

As a Pennsylvanian and former Republican who voted for Arlen Specter, I have felt an overwhelming need to ride his sorry ass to keep him honest and at his word.

I have written him numerous times on Habeus corpus, torture, military tribunals, U. S. Attorney appointments and a number of other subjects.  But today the statement on his web site requires the strongest and most forceful response to date.

Specter hedges again:

"I would prefer to have the interviews in public, but it is more important to get the information promptly than to have months or years of litigation. If we are dissatisfied with the information provided in the manner offered by the President, we can always issue subpoenas. Before coming to a final decision on my Committee vote, I want to study the law on the scope of executive privilege and discuss these complex issues with my Committee colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans."

If you would prefer to have the interviews in public, IT IS YOUR JOB TO INSIST UPON IT!  Do so NOW!

They're at it again!  Is the White House addicted to lying?  Every time I look at anything the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) puts out, the blatant lies and stupidity make my head spin!

This week's nonsense, distortion, confusion, and propaganda comes from what they call their "blog", which is a one-way propaganda push page (where all "comments" disappear into a black hole):

Today, John Walters, Director of National Drug Control Policy (President Bush's "Drug Czar"), commented on the release of Quest Diagnostics' Drug Testing Index (DTI). Since 1988, drug testing positivity rates have fallen by 72 percent, from 13.6 percent in 1988 to 3.8 percent in 2006, a new low for drug use among the combined U.S. workforce

Well that's good news.  I certainly don't condone people showing up for work high.  Although the ONDCP release doesn't link to the data cited in the article (Hmmmm....), I was so impressed by that success that I wanted to see the real numbers myself.

Here's what I found:

I was visiting Senator Arlen Specter's (R-PA) website this morning.  I had planned to send him an e-mail regarding Alberto Gonzales and his perjury before the Senate Judiciary Committee, of which Specter is the ranking minority member.

I was distracted, but pleasantly surprised to find this:

March 6th, 2007  
 
SPECTER OFFERS HABEAS AMENDMENT TO 9-11 BILL  
 
Washington, D.C. - Today, Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member, Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) for himself, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Ct.) called up S.A 286, to restore habeas corpus to those detained by the United States. The amendment is to modify S. 4, Improving America's Security Act of 2007.

The intent and summary of the amendment follows:

In a report released yesterday by the President's Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), our drug warriors claim that among young people, use of street drugs including cocaine and marijuana have declined.  No doubt everyone will agree that a reduction in drug use by high school students is a good thing.  But a closer analysis of the data raises further questions.  The report states:  

"...past year abuse of Oxycontin among 8th graders exactly doubled - increasing 100% over the past four years"

Doubled?  Oxycontin is a highly addictive morphine-based pain reliever.  Are we attacking marijuana use only to send our kids to the pharmaceutical companies for morphine?  Find out the whole story beyond the fold:

According to AP via Yahoo, Methodist ministers across the nation are rallying to object to the Bush Library at Southern Methodist University:

A group of Methodist ministers from across the nation launched an online petition drive Thursday urging Southern Methodist University to stop trying to land George W. Bush's presidential library.

Is this another fracture in the right wing/Christian alliance?

"Methodists have a long history of social conscience, so questions about the conduct of this president are very concerning," said one of the petition's organizers, the Rev. Andrew J. Weaver of New York, who graduated from SMU's Perkins School of Theology.

It's nice to see that the religious community is waking up to the Bush administration's nightmarish abuses of what most people consider "Christian Values".

If you are a Methodist (or not), you can support the effort through a petition drive...