Tag: Bill Clinton

Anybody who ever reflected on the evidence for as much as a minute knows that Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush all smoked pot. Obama admitted it, Bush never really denied it, and Clinton (ha ha!) “didn’t inhale.”

So if smoking pot doesn’t mess you up too much to be President, then what’s the problem with pot?

The problem is shameles and hypocritical politicians sucking up to tight-assed low-IQ no-info hoodoos in Alabama and South Dakota, who fear that their little Barbies and Kens will end up in the gutter if they sample the demon weed, although…

Since 1992, your chance of getting elected President without a whole lotta preliminary tokin’ has been zero.

But while Obama is prancing around the Oval Office and laughing at the net-roots because they made legalizing marijuana and ending the “War on Drugs” #1 and #2 on Obama’s own bullshit website Ideas for Change in America…

While Obama is prancing around the Oval Office and enforcing even the very few drug-laws that he promised not to enforce…

Meanwhile the “War on Drugs” continues to decimate black communities, as described in a excellent new book by legal scholar Michelle Alexander…

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

AMY GOODMAN: Nearly half of America’s young black men are behind bars or have been labeled felons for life? That’s an astounding figure. Also, what does it mean in terms of their rights for the rest of their lives?

MICHELLE ALEXANDER: Yes, thanks largely to the war on drugs, a war that has been waged almost exclusively in poor communities of color, even though studies have consistently shown that people of color are no more likely to use or sell illegal drugs than whites. The war on drugs waged in these ghetto communities has managed to brand as felons millions of people of color for relatively minor, nonviolent drug offenses. And once branded a felon, they’re ushered into a permanent second-class status, not unlike the one we supposedly left behind. Those labeled felons may be denied the right to vote, are automatically excluded from juries, and my be legally discriminated against in employment, housing, access to education, public benefits, much like their grandparents or great grandparents may have been discriminated against during the Jim Crow era.

In fact, in 2005, four out of five drug arrests were for possession. Only one out of five were for sales.

AMY GOODMAN: Yes, I just wanted to bring it up to President Obama, because this piece you wrote, very interesting, at tomdispatch.com called “The Age of Obama as Racial Nightmare.” Explain.

MICHELLE ALEXANDER: What is the system designed to do? The system is designed to send you right back to prison, which is, in fact, what happens to the vast majority of people who are released. About 70 percent of former prisoners are returned within three years. And the majority of those who are returned are returned within three months, because the obstacles, the legal barriers to just surviving on the outside, are so great. I’m often-you know, people often say to me, “Well, I know somebody who is a felon and who managed to get a job. You know, it’s possible to get a job,” they say.

Well, it may be possible, but what kind of job? Why is it that, you know, our young kids, young black and brown kids, are expected to be locked into low-wage jobs for life, if they’re lucky enough to get them, but kids in other communities are given the opportunity to go on to college, to compete for a full range of job opportunities? During the Jim Crow era, the problem wasn’t that black people couldn’t get jobs; it was that they were locked permanently in a lower tier of jobs. And that’s the reality.

Considering the shameless hypocrisy and downright idiocy of politics in America, maybe it isn’t surprising that after 40 years of failure, the “War on Drugs” is still fully funded and still destroying the lives of hundreds of thousands of black Americans…

But how many people who voted for “Hope and Change” with Barack Obama foresaw that they were only electing a new Enforcer-in-Chief of the new Jim Crow?

“Don’t Let the Perfect become the Enemy of the Good” — it’s common knowledge, right?

Important words of wisdom with Great Historical Significance, right?

OK, if you say so …

François-Marie Arouet, better known by his pen name Voltaire, was a French writer, deist and philosopher.

Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien.

* The better is the enemy of the good.   — La Bégueule (1772)

 Variant translations:

   The perfect is the enemy of the good.

   The best is the enemy of the good.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/V…

Voltaire

Author and Philosopher, 1694 – 1778

Francois Marie Arouet (pen name Voltaire) was born on November 21, 1694 in Paris. Voltaire’s intelligence, wit and style made him one of France’s greatest writers and philosophers.

[…]

In 1726, Voltaire insulted the powerful young nobleman, “Chevalier De Rohan,” and was given two options: imprisonment or exile. He chose exile …

Woooo, some drama … could be a notable lesson here?  

Happy Monday and welcome the Dog’s on-going (never ending?) letter writing campaign series. This series, for those new to it, is all about getting accountability to the rule of law for the apparent Bush Administration state sponsored torture program. The basic premise is the Dog writes a letter each Monday to decisions makers, urging them to take action on this issue. How you get involved is by either cutting and pasting the letter so it goes out under your own name, or using it as a jumping off point for your own missive. Then you just use the links the Dog provides to send it around. It is, admittedly, a small thing, but it by being consistent and getting as many people as possible to write weekly we keep this issue alive when other things like Health Care reform are taking up most of the news.

“Originally posted at Squarestate.net“

Okay, okay, the Dog has not been posting from Netroots Nation like he promised everyone he would. There are no excuses, the laptop is working, the wireless connection while sometimes spotty it functional for posting. The Nuns used to say “the Road to Hell is paved with good intentions”, so the Dog is just going to crank up Highway to Hell and own the fact the swirl of people and events here has kept him from posting to those playing the home game. Sorry.

“Originally posted at Squarestate.net“

HUCKABEE: There’s one thing though that Biden and President Obama have got to get under control. And that is quit blaming George Bush. George Bush inherited an economy when he became president back in 2001 that was already beginning to show real signs of the stress from the breaking of the technology bubble. George Bush didn’t go out whining and complaining every day, he stood up like the president of the United States and he worked on trying to get it fixed.

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/…

    Really? Are you sure about that Huck?

   Remember how bad it was under Clinton? Having a job you had to go to and money to pay bills with sure was a drag. I mean, considering the fact that Clinton left Bush with the longest rate of economic growth and prosperity in our nation’s history, you can see just how unfair it is for Obama to blame Bush for the economic clusterfuck he was handed on 1/20/09. Seriously. It isn’t like Bush would have done that to his predecessor?

    Oh. Wait. He did.

   “When I took office, our economy was beginning a recession.” – Bush, 8/7/02

   “The president inherited a Clinton recession and turned it into the early stages of Bush prosperity.” – Secretary of Commerce Don Evans, 9/2/04

   “In terms of the economy, look, I inherited a recession, I am ending on a recession.” – Bush, 1/12/09

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/…

    Damned history. It constantly gets in the way of pretend reality we would love to live in.

    Quit spending money so we can use it for tax cuts. That seems to be the root of every “Gov spending is evil” complaint.

    Guess why the stimulus wasn’t enough? It is because the crooked corporatists in the GOP just had to have 40% of the stimulus as tax cuts, tax cuts that return only cents for every dollar the Government invests into them, and tax cuts that mainly benefit only the rich. Nevermind that the Obama bailout itself went straight to the rich as well. And what did we get for the $300 Billion or so in tax cuts that the GOP demanded had to be in the stimulus? 3 measly votes.

    The only thing better than having your cake and eating too must be making sure no one else gets cake and then telling them when they are mad “Let Them Eat Cake.”

    I thought religious people were supposed to be empathetic?

    On the face of things, Mike Huckabee looks like a sane, rational person. Some even find that he has a certain charisma. I feel the same way about the carnival barker who sells elixir at the county fair. Sure he talks a good game, but if you buy his shtick watch out. The elixir selling carnival barker, much like Huckabee, is selling you crap, and, much like Huckabee and the rest of the GOP, if you want your money back you will never be able to find him again.

   Remind me never to take political or economic advice from someone who doesn’t believe in evolution or a woman’s right to chose.

   If it was up to Huck we would just cut taxes, halt Government spending on everything but the Military and Faith based initiatives, and pray for the Bush Depression to go away.

   Good luck with that.

   And for future reference, the next time someone  ( especially if that someone is Mike Huckabee) thinks Mike Huckabee has advice for us on the economy or anything President Obama should do regarding the Bush Administration, would someone please tell him to Shut The Huck Up!

     

Bush’s Blue Dress ©2008 Emily Duffy Photo by Sibila Savage

Cross-posted at my blog (where you can see larger images) and on Docudharma)

Dimensions: 58″x40″.

Description: Dress sewn of cut parchment replicas of the U.S. Constitution with blood stain over heart. (Started in 2008)

A hanger with American flag fabric and an eagle on it.

Materials: Like a lovely framed painting one might see in the National Gallery, the background fabric is burgundy brocade with fringe, velvet edges and gold braid nailed onto the wall. Gold metal hooks and grommets (in background fabric) hold the fabric and hanger up.