Eideard

The move by the governors — Christine Gregoire of Washington, a Democrat, and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, an independent who used to be a Republican — injected new political muscle into the long-running debate on the status of marijuana. Their states are among the 16 that now allow medical marijuana, but which have seen efforts to grow and distribute the drug targeted by federal prosecutors.

“The divergence in state and federal law creates a situation where there is no regulated and safe system to supply legitimate patients who may need medical cannabis,” the governors wrote Wednesday to Michele M. Leonhart, the administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Marijuana is currently classified by the federal government as a Schedule I controlled substance, the same category as heroin and L.S.D. Drugs with that classification, the government says, have a high potential for abuse and “no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.”

Which shows how out of touch with reality our federal government can be.

The governors want marijuana reclassified as a Schedule II controlled substance, which would put it in the same category as drugs like cocaine, opium and morphine. The federal government says that those drugs have a strong potential for abuse and addiction, but that they also have “some accepted medical use and may be prescribed, administered or dispensed for medical use.”

Such a classification could pave the way for pharmacies to dispense marijuana, in addition to the marijuana dispensaries that operate in a murky legal zone in many states.

“What we have out here on the ground is chaos,” Governor Gregoire said in an interview. “And in the midst of all the chaos we have patients who really either feel like they’re criminals or may be engaged in some criminal activity, and really are legitimate patients who want medicinal marijuana.

“If our people really want medicinal marijuana, then we need to do it right, we need to do it with safety, we need to do it with health in mind, and that’s best done in a process that we know works in this country — and that’s through a pharmacist…”

Ms. Gregoire noted that many doctors believe it makes no sense to place marijuana in a more restricted category than opium and morphine. “People die from overdose of opiates,” she said. “Has anybody died from marijuana?”

Pigheaded is still considered a requisite quality in determining who gets to run for political office in the United States. Along with obedience to party hacks, public allegiance to 19th Century ethics and unwillingness to learn from either science or experience.

Congress and the White House’s stubborn reliance on information and policies decades out of date is considered a moderating force for good. In reality, the result is a continual drag on opportunities for the United States to keep up with advances in knowledge and sensible practices.

Here’s hoping former House Speaker John M. Perzel is handed his head – figuratively, of course – when he is sentenced for bilking Pennsylvania taxpayers out of millions to pursue his political ambitions.

Even after pleading guilty Wednesday to eight counts of conspiracy, theft, and conflict of interest, Perzel tried to suggest that any wrongdoing on his part was merely a sin of omission, a result of his not paying sufficient attention to what others were doing.

“The truth is that as the legislative leader of my caucus, I oversaw the spending of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds, and I bear the responsibility for the improprieties that occurred in the spending of those dollars,” said Perzel.

That was an apology..?

Perzel knew exactly what was going on because he was the mastermind. He and a cabal of Republican operatives diverted up to $10 million in state funds to pay for expensive computer programs that would give their candidates an advantage in elections.

They used the software to mine vast amounts of data about voters, including their party affiliation, gender, and religion. The database was so extensive that at one point Perzel allegedly sought to sell the information to others.

The Republican scheme, which led to the indictment of 10 people, was the other bookend to a Democratic scam that had earlier resulted in multiple indictments. The Democrats used taxpayer funds to pay bonuses to legislative staffers for political work…

The currency of profit and power from steering the ship of state is what matters most of all to the clown show that is Congress and most state legislatures. The bigoted whine that is the Tea Party only attacks politicians who confront corporate wealth. Lame and halt declarations from the cowards who call themselves liberal are little more than lip service to a once-brave history.

The Congressional Progressive caucuses hold out some hope for structural reform. We actually have a couple of folks here in New Mexico who are capable of reelection in a heartbeat because they have that sort of backbone. But, in general – most folks who want honesty and modern policies – remain hitched to business-as-usual political machines governed by nepotism and country club connections.

Senior Democrat John Conyers of Michigan criticized Barack Obama Monday, hoping, Conyers said, to “make him a better president.”

Citing the troubled job market, rising energy costs, and turmoil in the Middle East, Conyers told reporters at the National Press Club: “We keep getting a longer and longer list of things he wanted to do, wished he could do more about, and is of course having a big problem.”

“The only thing that saves him, of course, is that there doesn’t seem to be anybody to run against him next year,” Conyers said.

After naming prospective challengers Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, among others, Conyers said he still supports Obama because “the alternative is unthinkable. I just want to make him a better president…”

Conyers said, “It is kind of amazing to me that there is still adopted, even in this administration, the attitude that military prowess will settle things down. And they rarely, if ever, do.”

He also responded to a question about the recent departure of a ranking State Department official who was critical of how the Pentagon is reportedly treating U.S. Army Pvt. Bradley Manning, a soldier suspected of a role in the WikiLeaks scandal. “I was not in agreement again with the president saying that he’s told Manning’s been treated — his confinement is okay, that he’s told everything is alright. I don’t think it’s all right.”

It’s almost a pleasantry to hear criticisms grounded in fact instead of the fuffarraw and agitprop we get from the KoolAid Party and corporate Republican hacks.

The American Left hasn’t been especially reluctant about criticising Obama for many of the issues he’s copped out on for one or another rationale. And, yes, Conyers certainly has it wired when he notes the alternatives are much worse.

As a 64-year-old woman with a grandchild, state Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson, D-Seattle, says she’s not the type of person you would normally associate with marijuana. And yet Dickerson has again introduced legislation that would legalize, regulate and tax marijuana in Washington state.

“I believe that it’s a smart way to raise badly needed revenue,” said Dickerson, who chairs the House Health and Human Services Appropriations and Oversight Committee. “It also would at the same time mean that we can focus our law-enforcement efforts on more important things.”

House Bill 1550, filed Tuesday, would regulate marijuana much like alcohol. It proposes that pot be sold through state liquor stores to adults age 21 and older, that the sales be taxed and that the state Liquor Control Board issue licenses to commercial growers. Most of the revenue would go to health care, and substance-abuse treatment and prevention.

The bill would also classify as felonies interstate transportation of marijuana and unauthorized transportation of marijuana within Washington above a certain amount.

Dickerson proposed a similar bill last year, but it failed in a House committee. New provisions in this year’s bill include authorizing the production of industrial hemp and allowing limited growing of marijuana at home for personal use.

Amazing. Someone in Washington state with a brain has been elected to state office.

Good thing we needn’t worry about that happening in New Mexico. Or Congress.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot at a Tucson event Saturday morning; five others have been reportedly killed.

Arizona state Sen. Linda Lopez, who is at University Medical Center in Tucson, said she spoke to Giffords’ parents and that they said she is in the emergency room undergoing surgery and is in very serious condition…

At least four people are dead, University Medical Center spokesman Darci Slaten said. They were among five to seven people who were being treated.

The NBC affilliate in Tucson reports that the FBI has taken over the investigation…

Giffords, 40, a Democrat, serves the 8th Congressional District…

Giffords was re-elected to her third term last November. She was a member of the Arizona House and Senate before coming to Washington.

She first won election to Congress amid a wave of Democratic victories in 2006. In November, she edged a tea party favorite.

There never is a shortage of violent, ignorant thugs in this land who fervently believe they can enforce their political will upon the land by force of arms, assault and murder.

UPDATE: Jared Laughner is the name of the shooter, an Arizona resident.

Senator Leahy with soon-to-be Justice Kagan
Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

At least three Democratic senators have been subjects of false reports of their deaths in the past two days, prompting the U.S. Capitol Police to open an investigation into the matter.

Several news outlets received a hoax e-mail news release, announcing the death of Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Tuesday. Leahy, 70, who participated in July 4 events, is alive and well, according to spokesman David Carle.

“It was spoofed to look as if it had come from the office,” Carle said.

A copy of the e-mail, posted on the Web site of Washington’s WTOP radio, said Leahy had died of liver cancer.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), an 86-year-old appropriator who recently announced he is free from a form of stomach cancer, was also spoofed, his office confirmed.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who serves on the Judiciary and Appropriations committees with Leahy, was subjected to a hoax of the same kind on Monday, her office confirmed. Similarly, she was said to have died of cancer at her home…

U.S. Capitol Police spokeswoman Kimberly Schneider told POLITICO that the police are looking into the hoaxes but declined to say how many there were or to provide any other details.

Sounds like wishful thinking from the sort of ignoranuses who populate the Tea Party. Or some high school Young Republican.

Scott Lee Cohen, who withdrew as a candidate for lieutenant governor after winning the primary, says he will run as an independent for Illinois governor.

The millionaire pawnbroker won the Democratic primary for the state’s No. 2 job but withdrew after domestic abuse allegations and his relationship with a prostitute were unearthed by the media.

Cohen also admitted using steroids, allegedly failed to make child-support payments and has been named in dozens of lawsuits involving back taxes.

Cohen said he decided to run because he’s tired of waste and mismanagement in government.

Har!

The majority of Americans who favor nuclear-generated electricity hit a new high this year, according to a poll that now suggests growing support for President Barack Obama’s aid to the nuclear industry.

Sixty-two percent of 1,014 U.S. adults, who were surveyed March 4-7 by Gallup, said they favored nuclear energy as one way to meet national electricity needs.

Though a majority of Americans has long supported nuclear power, Gallup said the latest rating is the highest since it began polling on the issue in 1994.

Hoping to advance climate legislation in Congress, Obama announced $8.3 billion in loan guarantees for new plant construction in February. The guarantees will help build the first new U.S. nuclear power facilities in nearly three decades.

Gallup’s latest findings show Republican support for nuclear power a new high of 74 percent this year, up from 71 percent a year ago.

Democratic support stands at a bare majority of 51 percent, down slightly from 52 percent in 2009, the poll showed.

Let me give you my cynical analysis of this breakout.

Republicans mostly add support because [a] corporate barons will profit instead of Green start-ups – and Republicans will kiss corporate butt even when they’re nothing more than water-carriers; and [b] it’s an alternative to the capital-A Alternatives favored by liberals and progressives, Green activists. Response rules rather than being a proponent.

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

A jury has convicted Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon of embezzlement for improperly using gift cards intended for the needy, the poor.

She was found guilty of a single misdemeanor count of fraudulent misappropriation by a fiduciary. She could be removed from office because it is a theft-related crime.

Dixon solicited several cards for her own use from two developers, including Patrick Turner, who testified this month that Dixon asked him to donate gift cards from retailers and have them delivered to her office. He said he spent $1,000 total — $500 for a Best Buy gift card and $500 for a Target one, according to the Baltimore Sun newspaper.

No date was set for sentencing. Cabezas said Dixon, Baltimore’s first black female mayor, faces up to five years in prison. She was indicted in January.

She is guilty of behaving like an old-fashioned American politico. Because she and her machine won an election or two, she presumed approval of anything she chose to appropriate for herself. Like most hacks – she was taking care of herself instead of taking care of the people she represents.

More than anything else, changing this part of American politics is what Obama voters wanted. Obviously Congress, the Republican Party, the Democrat Party – haven’t yet gotten the message.

Political observers across New York are asking today whether Erie County Executive Chris Collins has irreparably damaged his prospects for statewide office after he compared Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to Adolf Hitler and an Antichrist during a Saturday speech in Buffalo.

Collins has already apologized for what he called “a poor joke,” delivered during a speech at the county Republican Party’s annual fundraiser in the Adam’s Mark Hotel.

That’s when the county executive referred to French seer Nostradamus’ prediction that the world would experience three Antichrists in conjunction with the Apocalypse, whose origin is the New Testament’s Book of Revelation.

Collins then said it’s generally accepted that the first was Napoleon, the second Hitler, and that he was “pretty sure” the third is Silver, an orthodox Jew from Manhattan…

“He’s the former shining light of the Republican Party,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic consultant from Manhattan who studies ethnic and religious voting patterns.

“Never mind the anti-Semitic content,” he said. “It makes him look nuts, and it doesn’t add to the discussion…

One of those attending Saturday’s dinner called the statement “unbelievable.”

“It was staggering,” said the Republican, who asked not to be identified. “It took my breath away.”

This is why spin doctors invent words like “misspoke”.

Jerks who can’t and won’t deal with society’s bigotry always have to fall back on some silly rationale to cover their buns when they let crap like this slip out.