Toward a National Police Force

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Wednesday July 22, 2009 · 6:44 AM PDT

2009/07/22 · 06:44

The Founding Fathers never wanted a national police force. In fact, there were adamantly opposed to the idea, having a strong distrust of centralized authoritarian structure.

They specifically left out the powers to form any kind of national structure for domestic policing, leaving that entirely up to the states, with one teeny, tiny exception -- this bit of power ceded to the federal government in the Constitution:

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

The Commerce Clause, it's often called. And for many years, that worked just fine, and was accomplished without any national force. It wasn't until 1865 that the Department of the Treasury established the Secret Service to combat counterfeiting -- a relatively easy fit for the role of "regulating commerce among the several states." In 1908, the FBI got its start (although the name was different then) with a grand total of 10 agents.

guither

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Sunday May 10, 2009 · 10:11 AM PDT

2009/05/10 · 10:11

I've heard some of Representative King's rantings on a variety of subjects and already knew he was an idiot, but I didn't realize how much until I read his extremely long speech in the House of Representatives on Thursday regarding illegal aliens that also discussed illegal drugs.

All the while in this stream of humanity comes 90 percent of the illegal drugs in America, Madam Speaker, 90 percent coming into the United States across our southern border and all the human carnage that goes with that, the damage to our families, the damage to our productivity, the loss in lives, the children that are abused, the wives and sometimes less often the husbands that are violently assaulted by their spouse, their boyfriend, their significant other, whatever arrangement it might be, the children that are abused that come because of methamphetamines and because of marijuana and because of heroin and because of crack cocaine and because of cocaine itself. Those drugs, the marijuana, which often is a gateway drug to the drugs that incite a higher level of violence, this damage to America’s society is high. It’s high in terms of dollars and lost productivity. It’s high in terms of human suffering. It’s high in terms of human life.

guither

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Thursday April 23, 2009 · 12:20 PM PDT

2009/04/23 · 12:20

Drug War Torture

Mexican soldiers fighting a war against drug cartels have arbitrarily detained suspects, beating and torturing them with electric shocks, a senior human rights official said on Wednesday. [...]

Soldiers charged with patrolling drug hotspots have detained suspects in military barracks -- sometimes for up to 12 hours -- and beaten them to solicit information before turning them over to police investigators, Ibarra said.

guither

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Wednesday March 05, 2008 · 11:47 AM PST

2008/03/05 · 11:47

There's nothing more craven than politicians looking to score drug war points.

Here's a story caught by NORML and picked up by Wonkette

When someone wrote Iowa Senator Tom Harkin and asked why medical marijuana should be illegal, this was his response:

guither

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Tuesday January 15, 2008 · 9:01 PM PST

2008/01/15 · 21:01

The difference between drunk drivers and stoned drivers:

The drunk driver will speed through the stop sign without noticing it.

The stoned driver will stop and patiently wait for it to turn green.

The invoked boogeyman of reefer-crazed drivers on the road has been one of the convenient tools of the prohibitionist. The experienced marijuana smoker knows better -- they know from experience that they avoid driving, and when they do drive, they drive more cautiously/less recklessly, more paranoid and alert even than when they're sober, due to the marijuana-induced self-awareness of their impediment. But they also know that any attempt to explain that to the propaganda-fed general public will sound like the deluded braggadocio of the drunk who claims to be OK to drive.

guither

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Tuesday January 01, 2008 · 1:10 PM PST

2008/01/01 · 13:10

As long as we're looking at things this way (see Yup, Ron Paul is still racist), we might as well be honest and remind everyone that all the mainstream Democratic candidates are racist. After all, they not only do not disavow, but they actively support the institution that is arguably the most racist since slavery.

The drug war.

guither

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Sunday August 26, 2007 · 10:32 PM PDT

2007/08/26 · 22:32

Prohibitionists have framed drug policy as a discussion about reducing the use of illicit drugs. But that is dishonest and does nothing to actually address problems related to drug use or prohibition.

guither

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Saturday February 24, 2007 · 3:09 PM PST

2007/02/24 · 15:09

Link

The assassins struck as lunchtime traffic congealed.
Running up alongside the car, they blasted through the windows of the white Mazda. Trapped in traffic, trapped in their car, the passengers never had a chance.

Only after the shooting was over did the gunmen realize their intended targets were in another white sedan stuck in the same traffic jam.

Footage from a traffic camera shows them run forward and fire through the windows of the Honda. Darting away through the stationary cars, the hit men run to a waiting motorcycle and escape.

The gunmen were members of the infamous Absolut family -- a Cali-based vodka smuggling ring. The target was the head of a rival cartel -- a shadowy figure known only as the Grey Goose. This is part of a continuing escalation of violence as the two groups fight over control of the market....

guither

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Saturday January 27, 2007 · 12:13 PM PST

2007/01/27 · 12:13

We've been subjected to some pretty extraordinary drug war moronity in recent days.

Let's start with Right Wing News' John Hawkins writing in Human Events Online: In Defense of the Drug War. At first I was interested because I thought "Hey, maybe this will be an actual thoughtful attempt to be pro-drug war that will be interesting to debunk." But no. It was full of tired old fallacies and unsupported false assumptions.

guither

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Sunday September 03, 2006 · 10:02 AM PDT

2006/09/03 · 10:02

Canada went Reefer Madness this past week:

A pair of articles in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry has resurrected the "reefer madness" argument about marijuana and its links to mental illness.
Cannabis use can trigger schizophrenia in people already vulnerable to the mental illness -- and this fact should shape marijuana policy, argue two psychiatric epidemiologists in this month's journal.

The British press has been agog with this issue for some time now, blathering on about the mental health dangers of pot.

Of course, you can't expect the press to be responsible with this kind of stuff. They don't, for the most part, know a thing about the issue they're reporting nor do they consider that worth their bother. The press will breathlessly report "New study shows eating wheat causes instant death to humans!" while blithely munching on a sandwich, blissfully oblivious to the obvious question of why they don't know anyone who died from eating wheat.

guither

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Sunday July 23, 2006 · 11:14 PM PDT

2006/07/23 · 23:14

Growing up in Chicago, I have many fond memories of the Museum of Science and Industry. I spent so many hours in that place that I have as much sense memory of parts of it as I do the house I lived in as a kid. I loved science, and the museum encouraged discovery. Sure, some of the exhibits were a little hokey, but you still had fun and learned at the same time.

It is therefore with much concern that I note that the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry will be hosting the DEA propaganda device called "Target America: Opening Eyes to the Damage Drugs Cause", opening August 11 and running until December.
Read More

Urgent Action Alert

guither

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Friday April 15, 2005 · 10:15 AM PDT

2005/04/15 · 10:15

Absolutely horrible legislation is going through Congress. Please take a moment to email your Representative and Senators. (Via TalkLeft)

Congressman James Sensenbrenner has launched his next assault on freedom. The full House Judiciary Committee is set to vote as early as next week on H.R. 1528, which creates a new group of mandatory miniumum penalties for non-violent drug offenses, including a five year penalty for passing a joint to someone who's been in drug treatment.
That's right: Passing a joint to someone who used to be in drug treatment will land you in federal prison for a minimum of five years.
The "Defending America's Most Vulnerable: Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child Protection Act of 2005" (H.R. 1528) was introduced by House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) on April 6, and it has already passed out of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.

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Toward a National Police Force

Drug War Moron - Rep. Steve King of Iowa

Prohibition isn't free, part 269

Senator Tom Harkin: Marijuana makes people sell their children

Marijuana and Driving

Yup, Democratic candidates are still racist

Asking the right questions about drug policy

Botched murders in Colombia caught on camera

Murder and Marijuana both start with the letter M

Schizophrenic about Marijuana

A Childhood Memory Stained

Urgent Action Alert