Even the Obama Family Not Spared Drug War Lunacy

This is just sad, especially for George Obama. I have hope President Obama takes this to heart and brings us real change by rejecting the failed prohibitionist policies of the past, crafting a way out of the drug war morass in which this country is mired, dragging so many other nations with us.

Obama's half-brother held on drugs charge

President's relative arrested in Kenya after alleged marijuana seizure

8:38 a.m. ET, Sat., Jan. 31, 2009
NAIROBI, Kenya - The half-brother of President Barack Obama has been arrested for alleged possession of marijuana, Kenyan police said Saturday.
Area police chief Joshua Omokulongolo said George Obama was picked up Saturday and was being held at the Huruma police post in the capital.
Omokulongolo said officers found one joint of marijuana on him.
Obama reportedly denied the allegations.
"I don't know why they are charging me," CNN quoted Obama as saying from jail.
George Obama and the president had the same father but are not believed to have a close relationship.

Considering the Obama administration just a week ago raided a marijuana dispensary operating legally under California law in South Lake Tahoe, I am not inspired by Obama's continued silent acquiescence to the outrageous and failed federal drug policies of the last 37+ years.

Aside from the ostensible failures of these policies, how can President Obama ignore the statistical reality that the drug war has been largely a war by proxy against minorities, especially poor African-Americans? One of Obama's own hometown newspapers tells this sad story.

Stop the madness, President Obama. Americans (and now, your brother) are suffering enough without being criminalized for marijuana or for operating a state-sanctioned above-board business dispensing marijuana. These people have the right to earn a living too and shouldn't have it snatched away by authoritarian thugs.

Show us you truly value freedom and free enterprise for all us lesser mortals, rather than wasting our national resources on the continued folly of a rogue federal law enforcement agency that arbitrarily and capriciously enforces antiquated prohibition laws.

Aside from the billions wasted on this "war" of attrition, it also comes at the life-crushing expense of otherwise peaceable, productive, law-abiding citizens.

The Obligatory Libertarian Tax Day Post

The most disturbing factoid that I learned on Tax Day was that the average American must now spend a full twenty-four hours filling out tax forms. That's three work days. Or, think of it this way: if you had to put in two hours per night after dinner to finish your taxes, that's two weeks (with Sundays off). I saw a talking head economics professor on some Philly TV channel pontificating about how Americans procrastinate. He was laughing. The IRS guy they interviewed actually said, "Tick, tick, tick." You have to wonder if Governor Ruth Ann Minner and her cohorts put in twenty-four hours pondering whether or not to give Kraft Foods $708,000 of our State taxes while demanding that school districts return $8-10 million each?

New Warfare: I started my posts with a discussion.....

.....on Unrestricted warfare . The US Air force Institute for National Security Studies have developed a reasonable systems approach to deter non-state violent actors who they label as NSVA's. It is an exceptionally important report if we want to deter violent extremism and other potential violent actors that could threaten this nation and its security. It is THE report our political officials should be listening to to shape policy so that we do not become excessive in using force against those who do not agree with policy and dispute it with reason and normal non-violent civil disobedience. This report, should be carefully read by everyone really concerned with protecting civil liberties while deterring violent terrorism and I recommend if you are a professional you send your recommendations via e-mail at the link above so that either 1.) additional safeguards to civil liberties are included, or 2.) additional viable strategies can be used. Finally, one can only hope that politici...

More of This, Please

Or perhaps I should say, "Less of this one, please." Or how about just, "None of them. Ever again. Please....For the Love of God." Sunshine State Poll: Grayson In Trouble The latest Sunshine State/VSS poll shows controversial Democratic incumbent Alan Grayson trailing former state Senator Dan Webster by seven points, 43 percent to 36 percent. A majority of respondents -- 51 percent -- disapprove of the job that Grayson is doing. Independents have an unfavorable view of him as well, by a 36/47 margin. Grayson has ignored the conventional wisdom that a freshman should be a quiet member who carefully tends to the home fires. The latest controversy involves his " Taliban Dan " advertisement, where he explicitly compares his opponent to the Taliban, and shows a clip of Webster paraphrasing Ephesians 5:22 -- "wives, submit to your husbands." An unedited version of the clip shows that Webster was actually suggesting that husba...

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