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Loretta Nall with an interesting tale of President Obama’s college friend, Rep. Artur Davis of Alabama, asking people online during his gubernatorial campaign about which policies they’d like to see enacted, much like Obama’s “Open for Questions“.
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at 10:20 am | By: Radical Russ
The New York Times has a piece up about the Obama Administration’s “Open for Questions” internet initiative where they accepted questions from the general public about federal policy and government. As we know, legalization of marijuana was enormously popular and shot to the top of the list of questions every time the President asked us what federal policies we’d like to see. The Times piece interviews the chief technology officer in charge of this effort, and the Times’ reporter does his best to paint us “legalizers” as some sort of tiny but loud fringe minority not worthy of serious consideration.
The White House made its first major entree into government by the people last month when it set up an online forum to ask ordinary people for their ideas on how to carry out the president’s open-government pledge. It got an earful — on legalizing marijuana, revealing U.F.O. secrets and verifying Mr. Obama’s birth certificate to prove he was really born in the United States and thus eligible to be president.
“Please, as fellow human beings of this great planet Earth, disclose all known information on space/UFO’s because the world needs to know,” wrote sprinter5160 on the site, whitehouse.gov/open, which attracted thousands of similar comments on fringe topics.
“Even for people who want to talk about U.F.O.’s or the Kennedy assassination, we have created a forum for people to have a conversation with each other, and potentially to go off and organize and develop this further,” said Beth Simone Noveck, a New York Law School professor who is Mr. Obama’s deputy chief technology officer for open government.
The visitors advanced more than 3,900 ideas, which in turn spawned 11,000 comments that received 210,000 thumb votes.
The result? Three of the top 10 most popular ideas called for legalizing marijuana, and two featured conspiracy theories about Mr. Obama’s true place of birth.
Clay Shirky, a professor at New York University… said that government must also prevent small groups of loudmouths from hijacking the public debate.
“The first thing that happens when my mom and dad log into the system and they find it’s populated by U.F.O. people and birth-certificate people, they simply are not going to participate,” he said.
Sorry, Clay, but if you consider 22,000,000 adult pot smokers as a “small group”, then you consider Texas a “small group”, because there are more of us than Texans.
(Besides, everybody knows that aliens in UFOs landed in Dallas in 1963 to shoot Kennedy from behind the grassy knoll to create the distraction for them to hop over to Hawaii to fake Obama’s birth certificate so he could become president and legalize marijuana. Aliens can’t get enough kind earth bud; all they usually get is that brown Rigellian schwag.)
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 at 6:20 pm | By: Radical Russ
(AllGov) For all the fanfare that accompanied the project when it was first announced, it is worth noting that the Obama team released the final report with zero publicity. In fact, the report itself does not even highlight the most popular ideas with, for example, a “Top 10” list. Perhaps that’s because had they done so, the No. 1 idea listed would have been the call to legalize marijuana (buried on p. 26 of the report). At 92,970 points, the idea to decriminalize marijuana easily beat out other ideas like ending torture (sixth place) or revoking the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy (seventh place). In fact, marijuana placed twice among the top 10. At No. 3 is the demand that the federal government stop interfering with state medical marijuana laws.
Having combed through the briefing book, AllGov.com determined those ideas that really did make the top 10, based on points received:
End marijuana prohibition (92,970)
Commit to becoming the “greenest” country in the world (70,470)
Stop using federal resources to undermine states’ medicinal marijuana laws (66,170)
Replace government sponsored abstinence education with age-appropriate sex education (65,350)
Funding for bullet trains and light rail (65,100)
The permanent closure of all torture facilities (61,250)
Revoke the George W. Bush tax cuts for the top 1 % (57,080)
Get insurance companies out of health care (55,080)
Revoke the tax exempt status of the Church of Scientology (52,470)
Monday, April 13th, 2009 at 5:20 pm | By: Radical Russ
Three and a half million people participated in the event, but the “trolls” had their way: Following a coordinated campaign by marijuana advocates to vote their topic to the top of the list, questions on the future of the U.S. dollar and the rising unemployment rate were superseded by questions about legalizing pot as an economic remedy.
Once again, somehow the marijuana advocates are better able to coordinate a campaign than gun rights advocates, anti-abortion advocates, animal rights advocates, free speech advocates, victims’ rights advocates, cancer research advocates, autism advocates, etc. And we were able to do this by mental telepathy, since we didn’t mention a thing about the Open for Questions campaign until eighteen hours after it had opened and the marijuana questions were already at the tops of most categories.
The president himself had a good laugh about the volume of marijuana-related questions, saying, “I don’t know what this says about the online audience — we want to make sure that it was answered. The answer is, no, I don’t think that is a good strategy to grow our economy.”
But the die was cast. Through a perfectly legal “underground” campaign, a relatively insignificant question had risen to the top.
22 million American adults will smoke pot this year. 872,000 of them will be arrested for it. I know it’s not the tanking world economy or militant extremism in the Middle East, but when 1 in 10 American adults face a 1 in 25 chance of arrest, incarceration, job loss, asset forfeiture, revocation of student aid, loss of housing, loss of benefits, loss of child custody, and a lifetime “criminal” record for their personal use of a plant, it’s not “relatively insignificant” to them.
For the White House, the question was not so much how to answer it — but what to do about it, and how to prevent it in the future.
Unlike privately run Web sites, whose managers are free to remove nettlesome material, the White House finds itself searching for a way to combat these disruptive users without infringing on their right to free speech and inciting cries of censorship.
Have you heard of Santiago Meza Lopez? They call him “The Soupmaker.” In January he confessed to Mexican authorities that he had dissolved over 300 dead human bodies in acid. There’s a lot of money to be made in America’s black market for drugs and Mexican suppliers are willing to kill a lot of people to control those markets and capture the gains. Conservative estimates put the death toll of the war between rival Mexican gangs at over 5,000 in the last year alone. When you kill so many people it’s hard to know what to do with all of the rotting bodies. One way to handle the problem is to call in the Soupmaker. Six hundred American dollars per corpse.
Did you know that the United States of America, the Land of the Free, puts a larger portion of its population behind bars than any country on earth? Thanks in large part to the War on Drugs, Americans lock more of their own in cages than do the thuggish Russians or those “Islamofascist” Saudis. As it happens, American drug prohibition and sentencing policies hit poor black men the hardest, devastating already disadvantaged black families and communities—a tragic, mocking contrast to the achievement of Obama’s election. Militarized police departments across the nation month after month kick down the wrong doors, terrify innocent families, shoot lawful citizens, and often kill the family dog.
So why is Obama laughing? To be fair, in 2004, Obama called the War on Drugs “a complete failure.” And he’s much saner about pot than most politicians. He has in the past called for decriminalization of marijuana and his Justice Department has promised the DEA will ease up on medical marijuana dispensaries that comply with state law (though the Feds just cracked down on a cannabis coop in San Francisco). Sure, Obama’s got a lot on his hands these days. But his dismissive snicker reflects a sadly common nonchalance toward America’s disastrous experiment in prohibition. This is a “war” that has not only failed utterly to shut down the market for drugs, but has, on the way, perpetuated the shameful American legacy of racial stratification, eroded the rights and safety of American citizens, and fomented a civil war on our southern border in which knock-on markets for assassins and corpse liquidation specialists flourish. To call this “complete failure” is to put on a happy face.
“I’m one of the tens of millions of Americans who believe that cannabis should be legally regulated like alcohol.
The American public is ready and willing to engage in a serious and objective political debate regarding the merits of legalizing the use of cannabis by adults. The time for joking is over.
Please consider apologizing for your dismissive tone, and please consider treating those of us who believe that there are viable alternatives to marijuana prohibition with the respect we deserve.”
OpEd writer Kathleen Parker, regularly featured on The Washington Post, pens an opinion piece for The Daily Beast that wonders why such a flippant response to the marijuana question was given by President Obama duing his online town hall meeting.
How hard would it have been to say something like: “Cool idea, brah, but…” OK, maybe not. But why not something reasonable and presidential, such as:
“Look, I’m not ready to legalize marijuana tomorrow, but I do think it’s time to take a fresh look at the effectiveness of some of our criminal justice policies. And I support Sen. James Webb’s current efforts to do just that.
“I also don’t mean to make light of this issue because I know that a lot of kids wind up in jail who shouldn’t. And I know from personal experience that smoking marijuana is not a career-ender. But I do want to study this issue carefully before I suggest any broad changes in policy. Thank you for your question.”
Everyone would have gone home reasonably satisfied, if not quite ready to celebrate. Instead, Obama enjoyed a brief flashback and insulted his merrier minions.
As pot smokers blanket the White House with letters of protest, Obama may want to rethink his position. He not only has ticked off a portion of his grass-roots, so to speak, but, when the Chinese come to collect interest on those trillions, he may find it preferable that more, rather than fewer, Americans be mellow.
That’s what Change.org would like to know. Visit this page to ask President Obama why all other questions in his online town hall meeting were answered respectfully and with a serious tone. Perhaps the President thinks murder and kidnapping on our southern border and imprisoning millions of our own citizens over the years for marijuana possession is funny?
Friday, March 27th, 2009 at 7:48 pm | By: Radical Russ
So my question for Obama would be, in full: “President Obama, since you have promised to start basing government policy on science and not on politics, will you push to allow all women over-the-counter access to Plan B as soon as possible? And seeing as how one-fourth of the states have made medical marijuana legal, how can you justify on scientific grounds the continued listing of marijuana as a Schedule I drug and not under Schedule II? Are you committed to bring your science-based philosophy into the realm of federal drug policy, or will you allow politics to dictate such decisions, as in the recent past?”
Oh yeah! Force him to answer two questions that deserve (scientifically) the same answer. Force him to deal with the serious women’s reproductive rights issue in the same breath as the “silly” marijuana question. Brilliant!
Friday, March 27th, 2009 at 4:21 pm | By: Radical Russ
WASHINGTON (CNN) – Marijuana backers aren’t laughing about President Obama’s flippant dismissal of a pot-related question during Thursday’s online town hall meeting — and the country’s leading marijuana advocacy group, The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, has seen its donations quadruple over the last 24 hours.
Allen St. Pierre, the executive director of NORML, told CNN “our donation boxes started to flood” after Obama laughed off a Web question about whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation. St. Pierre said traffic to the group’s Web site has “increased precipitously” since Thursday.
“About half of the donation comments have a reference to Mr. Obama’s comments,” St. Pierre said. “As far as I’m concerned, he could show up every single day and rag on marijuana.”
Admittedly, the group isn’t a fundraising juggernaut: NORML averages about $900 in donations daily, a total that jumped to $3,500 in the 24 hours since Obama joked about pot at the town hall.
But St. Pierre said the anger among marijuana legalization advocates is real.
“Many of them were profoundly disappointed because many of them with great enthusiasm supported Obama from the point of his announcement to when he became president,” he said.
St. Pierre acknowledged that marijuana legalization is “by no means at the top of national concerns” like two wars and a troubled economy. However, he said the online question was a serious one, arguing that marijuana legalization would help law enforcement officials cut costs. He also said a legal marijuana industry, like tobacco and alcohol, would create billions in tax revenue for the government.
St. Pierre believes the president and his attorney general, Eric Holder, will be friendlier to marijuana advocates than the previous administration, but he said he knows the topic remains “political dynamite” for any elected official.
“Obama does not want to be dragged down and become the point of cultural jokes and cultural digs because he is giving deference to a subject matter to that this date has been thought of as less than serious,” he said of the president’s town hall answer. “However, I think what he is probably going to find out, through his handlers, is that he really, really disappointed people in a way that he maybe has never done as politician.”
RevRayGreen: I'll post a pic of me and my son....gimme a minute
Missippi Hippy: Guess what... I'm gonna be a new... ummmmm well, my pet piggie Ganja is in labor and they ain't mine in the same sense. See what your wife [...]
RevRayGreen: days they didn't talk back..or act disrespectful..
RevRayGreen: feel so lucky my son is 18 going 19 and my daughter 16 going on 17..relish the days that can't talk back
Urb Age: Congrats Spof thats awesome. My little Clara is about to hit 20 months. Im not the activist I used to be, but its made me a better man.
Urb Age: Heck I was gonna go up there, but just not feeling well this weekend..Dang it, I hate it when that happens..
RevRayGreen: wishing I was hanging at NORML cafe...
JohnH: Just a quick comment about tokin' and sperm motility....been tokin since age 14 and have 8 kids ranging in age from 30 to 9...(what can I say, I found 2 [...]
slash5city: really ..oprah 35 yr or more in the closet toker ...outed ....o my god !!
SneakerPimp: that would be huge news just imagen the headline
RevRayGreen: maybe Oprah smokes and keeps it on the DL...
SneakerPimp: and good afternoon
mr reuben: I could do without seeing Rob K. on tv. But Bruce and Eithan get a big thumbs up from me.
SneakerPimp: waitn for NSL and congrast for spofett.
mr reuben: I don't respect her opinion bluzguy.
Missippi Hippy: Something about the last year in a contract... folks become more ballsey... and Oprah has big ones.
Adam: Oprah won't actually go off air for over a year, 2011 sometime. Maybe with here leaving the network soon, she'll be more likely to speak out about MMJ.
The Bluzguy: She promotes movies, turns books into best sellers overnight, and millions respect her opinion. Please contact her!
Missippi Hippy: I totally disregarded it Spof... My wife and I had 5 youngins
Marijuana-Related Health Costs Minimal Compared To Those Of Alcohol, Tobacco; California Medical Association Says Pot Prohibition Is A "Failed Public Health Policy"; Oregon: State NORML Affiliate Opens First 'Cannabis Café'. […]
American Medical Association Calls For Scientific Review Of Marijuana's Prohibitive Status; Dutch Marijuana Use Lower Than European Average, Study Says […]
"Truth In Trials Act" Reintroduced In Congress; Maine: Voters Approve Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Measure; Colorado: Breckenridge Voters Overwhelmingly Decide To End Pot Penalties. […]
Some of the nation’s top athletes discuss why today's pros are turning to cannabis — and away from alcohol and painkillers — off the field, and question why pro sports leagues are continuing to sanction those who do. Moderator: Steve Bloom, Author, Pot Culture; editor, celebstoner.com * Toby Grear, MMA fighter * Sean Neumann, Documentary Filmm […]
Cannabis Law Reform's Missing Link: Law Enforcement Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper; LEAP and NORML Advisory Board; Author of Breaking Rank Putting the Mexican Cartels Out of Business Mexican drug cartels now employ over 100,000 soldiers and are responsible for nearly ten thousand deaths per year. Their largest source of income is marijuana. […]
Stash for Tue, Jun 30, 2009
waitn for NSL and congrast for spofett.
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; is she incognito like me 
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