(AP) EL PASO, Texas — The eight bullets that leveled Jose Daniel Gonzalez Galeana outside his home just doors from the city’s police chief were fired at close range and left little doubt about their message.

Gonzalez, a Juarez cartel lieutenant shot on his quiet El Paso cul-de-sac this spring, was working for U.S. officials as a confidential informant, sources told The Associated Press, and experts suspect his slaying may be the first time assassins from one of Mexico’s violent drug gangs have killed a ranking cartel member on American soil.

Cartel-affiliated hit men have violently, and fatally, disciplined low-level, American-based drug dealers in the U.S. But El Paso police said Gonzalez was a lieutenant in the Juarez cartel, which traffics in marijuana, cocaine and heroin. The cartel was once among the most dangerous in Mexico, but has recently lost some standing because of arrests, deaths and infighting.

El Paso police don’t yet have an official motive in Gonzalez’s slaying, but chief Allen said detectives are working on the assumption that a cartel colleague discovered he was discussing their illegal activities with federal agents.

How many gangland-style executions will have to take place on American streets before we get serious about legalizing these murderers right out of business?  I hear a few people complain about taxing and regulating marijuana as a legal substance because then the big bad ol’ government will have its hands on it, but last I checked the IRS doesn’t send hit men out to quiet residential neighborhoods to deliver a “message” about delinquent tax payments.

Related posts

• DC to El Paso: Shut up about marijuana legalization or we’ll bankrupt you! (17)
• Stash for Fri, Jun 26, 2009 (12)
• Juarez vigilante group proclaims manifesto, issues warning (0)

Bursting with indignation, legions of legalize-marijuana advocates are urging a boycott of Kellogg Co., including all of its popular munchies, for deciding to cut ties with Olympic hero Michael Phelps after he was photographed with a pot pipe.

The leader of one of the biggest groups, the Marijuana Policy Project, called Kellogg’s action “hypocritical and disgusting,” and said he’d never seen his membership so angry, with more than 2,300 of them signing an online petition.

“Kellogg’s had no problem signing up Phelps when he had a conviction for drunk driving, an illegal act that could actually have killed someone,” said Rob Kampia, the group’s executive director. “To drop him for choosing to relax with a substance that’s safer than beer is an outrage, and it sends a dangerous message to young people.”

Also urging a boycott were the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, Students for Sensible Drug Policy and the Drug Policy Alliance. They encouraged their members to contact Kellogg to vent their views.

via Pro-pot group smokes Kellogg for axing Phelps – Olympic Sports- nbcsports.msnbc.com.

That’s exactly the message the general public needs to see – that a drunk driving conviction didn’t even merit a second thought, but a bong photo required immediate termination.  This story is on the Associated Press now and it’s beginning to feel like that moment when the little boy cries out that the Emperor is naked.  The company that makes pot smokers’ favorite munchies is dropping the world’s greatest athlete for smoking weed because the kids need the message that smoking weed will ruin your life.  It’s really a hypocrisy wrapped in an irony wrapped in serendipity, isn’t it?

The reason this story won’t die (other than I won’t let it!) is because it’s vibrating on the same resonance frequency as the public’s overall rejection of this moralistic hypocrisy in general.  We’ve suffered through a prostitution ring-busting governor of New York being caught with a prostitute, an anti-gay senator caught in a bathroom soliciting gay sex, and bankrupt CEOs throwing parties and paying bonuses off taxpayer bailout money while their companies tank and 3.6 million jobs have disappeared.  No matter where you stand, conservative, liberal, or politically independent, there is some issue where you can no longer stand the hypocrisy.  No matter where you vote, Democrat, Republican, or Other, there is someone in your own party representative of another hypocrisy.

Another thing that makes this story different than other athletes-caught-with-weed stories is that Michael Phelps, more than just about anyone in any sport you can name, is the Greatest Ever (sorry, Ali).  Santonio Holmes and Plaxico Burris may be stoners who caught the last two Super Bowl winning touchdowns, but nobody is confusing them with Jerry Rice (yet).  Ricky Williams runs good, but nobody’s forgotten Emmitt Smith or Walter Payton.  Josh Howard is pretty good on the court, but he’s no Michael Jordan (or, perhaps, LeBron James… in a few years…).  When these guys are caught, somebody can always play the “I wonder how good they might have been” card with respect to weed smoking.  What do you say to the pot smoker who follows up 6 gold, 2 bronze at age 19 with 8 gold and 7 world records at age 23?  (”Don’t get caught!”)

And to follow this story up with a macho sheriff going after eight people for the bong misdeeds and another Major League Liar admitting to steroid use?  Please, Universe, keep it comin’

Related posts

• NORML CON 2008: Pot and Politics panel (2)
• Washington Times – Pot backers hit Kellogg’s over Phelps (5)
• Wall Street Journal examines the 2010/2012 division among pot legalization advocates (12)

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Olympic great Michael Phelps has acknowledged ”regrettable” behavior and ”bad judgment” after a photo in a British newspaper showed him smoking marijuana.

In a statement released to The Associated Press, the swimmer who won a record eight gold medals at the Beijing Games conceded the authenticity of the exclusive picture published Sunday by the tabloid News of the World.

Phelps said: ”I engaged in behavior which was regrettable and demonstrated bad judgment. I’m 23 years old and despite the successes I’ve had in the pool, I acted in a youthful and inappropriate way, not in a manner people have come to expect from me. For this, I am sorry. I promise my fans and the public it will not happen again.”

via Phelps Apologizes for Marijuana Use – NYTimes.com.

Youthful and inappropriate.  Childish things, as our president might say.  ”It will not happen again.”  Not to get all Clintonian on you, Mike, but does “it” refer to “smoking marijuana” or does “it” refer to “photos surfacing in newspapers showing you smoking marijuana”?

I’ll never understand the mindset that accepts as rational the idea that these world class athletes – Michael Phelps, Ricky Williams, Ross Rebagliati, those Russian sumo, etc. - can dedicate their entire lives to eating right, working out, honing their bodies and minds to the pinnacle of their sport, but should they wish to relax and unwind, they’re forced to ingest a hard liquid drug that has noticably deleterious effects on health and athletic ability (Max McGee notwithstanding) rather than a mild herb that doesn’t seem to  have affected their abilities whatsoever.

Even more perplexing is the notion that, in the name of “sports medicine”, these athletes are accustomed to taking all manner of narcotic pain killers and other pharmaceutical cocktails that aid performance or mitigate injury, but are addicting (Brett Favre, *cough*,) and wreak havoc on the liver and kidneys, yet if we catch them smoking weed we have to mete out severe punishment (Santonio Holmes, notwithstanding).

As I look at the coverage on Huffington Post (admittedly, a liberal website) almost all comments are “it’s well past time to legalize it” and “so what” and “didn’t hurt Phelps’ performance any”.  Oh, an Obama brother pot bust and an eight-time gold medalist bong photo following ten days of growing drumbeat over President Obama’s non-response to the Tahoe Raid… somebody really did get me a swell birthday present!

Related posts

• Cannabis Civil Rights (10)
• 14-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps’ marijuana bong photo (18)
• Stash for Mon, Feb 2, 2009 (0)