“War on ____” = war on the poor.

Even the “war on poverty” , which, btw, was extrtemely short-lived, became a neo-liberal war on the poor. (We feel your pain)The US is so convinced of individual exception, that, despite, its “place of honor” among industrialized nations, as the begatter of the greatest wealth disparity in modern history. USAns actually loathe the poor. How else to explain that, even the first Af Am elected US president, rarely (if ever, in seriousness) mentions the words “poor” or “poverty”. No, they are the “aspiring middle classes”!

Even at the G-20, the “poor” are discussed as the “starving children in Africa” scenario—NOT that they dont exist! To be sure, they do! But, it tends to make ‘Merkins focus on some “far-off” scenario, while convincing ourselves that the person who has slept in the park down the street for 8 yrs, really just “wants to be there”.

The $1.5 trillion for the IMF—well, we know the IMF’s history—its neo-liberal. They will be Trojan Horse loans (when we should be doing debt forgiveness), and will “open up markets” (whee!!)for the uS, EU, China, etc.

Globalization, big corporate basilouts, tax cuts, “free” trade, all of these have gotten us where we are today. Insanity is doing more of the same an expecting a different result. De-globalization is not shutting out the world, It is reaching out to he world with something green other than money.

“”“With the increasing state-by-state acceptance of the medical uses of marijuana, with decriminalization of possession of small amounts in various jurisdictions and with the high cost of imprisonment versus treatment, public sentiment seems disposed to favor a change.”“”

Well don’t count on that. Those people that have subverted the whole world for their profit will just figure out or have figured out that keeping it illegal will help the growing ‘private prison’ industry that is fast becoming another of america’s industrial base just as arms and munitions are.
So, wouldn’t this support the idea that a very few control what they want that profits them more than others?
And how damn hypocritical can truthdig get by allowing advertizers to use this place and have the gall to advertize for an ‘Addiction Cure Center-Malibu,CA’ at the bottom of the article on marijuana. A Center of the Addiction to Money Center’ would be a much more appropriate advertizement.

I just read the Amy Goodman article.  I heard the show with her interview with Stamper http://www.democracynow.org

My reaction to his “conversion” was, especially when he spoke of how the police might have traveled, “if” there had been an emergency, that they could have gone another way, instead of attacking the nonviolent, peaceful demonstrators who were alleged to have been blocking the police way….What do the people who were tear gassed with their children have to say about this “conversion”?  Was there a lawsuit with cash payments, paid by the city?  I remember listening to WBAI 99.5FM noncommercial radio in NYC, on the day of the attacks by the police. Amy Goodman was describing what happened, shortly after some of the events, live, on the air.  It’s easier to be “sorry” for past behavior, when you’re selling your book.

Obama has already made plenty of disingenuous, deceptive, and even flatly dishonest statements, but his response on the marijuana question was the first time I’ve seen him display a frightening callousness and outright stupidity.  A man who is willing to publicly laugh at and ridicule tens of millions of Americans, and make light of a “war on drugs” policy that has unnecessarily ruined the lives of millions more, (and most hypocritically, could have ruined his own life had he been caught and charged!) does not deserve to be president. 

Obama’s mistake was just as egregious on the purely pragmatic level.  Legalizing drugs could turn a $20 billion/year government expense into a multi-billion dollar/year revenue stream through the taxation of marijuana.  He’s willing to hand over trillions to Wall St. crooks, spend hundreds of billions more killing people around the world on behalf of US imperialism, waste billions on a corporate-based for-profit health care system, and cause hardship by cutting comparatively tiny social programs, but he laughs off this serious opportunity.  Talk about penny-wise pound-foolish!

(That $20 billion is a rough number that includes only direct costs of the war on drugs.  So far I haven’t been able to find a good comprehensive estimate of the total cost per year of the war on drugs, one that includes legal and prison costs,  the cost of removing productive workers from society, etc.)

Obama is obviously an extremely intelligent and capable guy, and I believe he knows the difference between right and wrong, but he needs seriously reconsider his decision to sell his soul.

Amy Goodman, on the other hand, is a treasure!  Democracy Now! is a great show with an unending stream of brilliant outspoken guests (like Truthdig’s Robert Scheer!) and regularly covers topics and points of view that are never aired by corporate media and only rarely by PBS and NPR aside from Bill Moyers, who happens to be a big fan of DN!.

It’s time to end the failed, destructive policy of marijuana prohibition.
Tell Obama and your elected representatives that marijuana should be legalized and taxed: http://tinyurl.com/LegalizeTaxIt

Wow. This is an amazing transformation. It’s St. Paul on the road to Damascus. I’m so happy to see that someone can come to his senses like this.

Hi Amy, just want to thank you for all you do.  You are a true patriot and a real American hero!