Author and Associate Professor Jeremy Mayer at Politico writes marijuana is now a "smoking hot" issue, the tide of history has turned, and legalization is a question of when, not if.

The financial benefits should be obvious:

Tax revenues, although not as high as some dreamers would wish, would certainly be substantial, and would replace the billions spent interdicting and confiscating marijuana, as well as imprisoning users and small time dealers. Legalizing marijuana would immediately remove millions of dollars in income from the international drug cartels that are making life hell in Mexico.

Mayer may be right. This is the most attention I've seen marijuana get in the national consciousness , perhaps ever. But, we're not there yet: [More...]

Al Giordano writes about why he is criticizing President Obama's online town hall answer to a "legalizing marijuana" question:

Day in, day out, I defend the President from stupid attacks, so often that it's common that they respond by calling me an apologist for him. But, excuse me, while the substance of what he said was certainly informed by what he's heard in his cross-country journey, the mocking and mean-spirited tone of it is what I take issue with.

Some think critiques like Al's are "stupid attacks." More . . .

Brad DeLong says:

“We have to ask ourselves: Do we want to revive our economy, or do we want to punish the bankers? . . . I don’t agree that we can do both.”

Punish the bankers? How? By not bailing them out and putting their universe back together again at taxpayer expense? This is sheer sophistry from DeLong. The government could in fact do nothing - not punish the bankers, and let their banks fail. Because that is what many have - failed banks.

More . . .

Denver journalist and author Dave Cullen has scored a coup with his new book on Columbine. It's getting raves all over. From Newsweek today:

The definitive account, however, will likely be Dave Cullen's "Columbine," a nonfiction book that has the pacing of an action movie and the complexity of a Shakespearean drama. "Columbine" opens four days before the shooting, at a school assembly where the principal, Frank DeAngelis, admonishes his students—ominously, it turns out—to be safe during prom weekend. Cullen has a gift, if that's the right word, for excruciating detail. At times the language is so vivid you can almost smell the gunpowder and the fear.

[More...]

The article is here. I have nothing to say about it because it says next to nothing; the Media is incapable of actually addressing issues. But there it is.

It is noteworthy I suppose that Krugman is on the cover of Newsweek. But what is more important is what Krugman is saying, right or wrong, and Newsweek chose not to write about that with any understanding. Stupid article.

Speaking for me only

Joe Nocera writes:

Will it work? Isn’t that the only thing that matters at this point?. . . I concluded, somewhat to my surprise, that it might well work. By this, I certainly don’t mean that it will, all by itself, revive the economy. But I think it could put a real floor on the price of the bad assets — critically important to stabilizing the banks — and change the market psychology so that securitized assets can begin to trade again, which is important to get credit flowing. And it will give regulators a far sounder basis to ask Congress for more money to recapitalize banks — or take them over, if it comes to that. . . .

(Emphasis supplied.) What strikes me about this analysis is that Nocera thinks that spending a trillion dollars (the Geithner Plan will cost at least hundreds of billions of dollars) to set the stage for actual policies to fix the problem is a good idea. Frankly, it is an amazing statement. More . . .

Alaska state representative Mike Doogan wrote:

My own theory about the public process is you can say what you want, as long as you are willing to stand behind it using your real name.

Alexander Hamilton and James Madison disagreed - "The Federalist Papers serve as a primary source for interpretation of the Constitution, as they outline the philosophy and motivation of the proposed system of government. . . . The articles were written by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. . . . They appeared under the pseudonym 'Publius' . . ."

Speaking for me only

Drug dogs in schools, police departments taking out classified ads for snitches, spending vast sums of money to fight the drug war in Mexico and Afghanistan,

This gun's for hire

even if we're just dancing in the dark

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

A high school in Milburn, NJ announced it will begin using drug dogs on campus.

[T]he district superintendent, Richard Brodow, wrote in an e-mail message to parents and students Friday afternoon. “I willingly risk student trust if it saves a single life."

The ACLU responds:

The New York Civil Liberties Union has called police dog searches “incompatible with nurturing environments that are supposed to be conducive to adolescent education,” and argued that school districts must create a careful balance between school safety and student rights.

This is part of a growing trend. And this opportunist is offering dogs to search private homes.

Two Spanish papers this morning are reporting that the criminal complaint (in spanish, here, pdf) against top Bush Administration lawyers involved in Guantanamo policy has been reopened for investigation. The lawyers are:

• Jay S. Bybee, United States Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit
• Douglas Feith, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute
• William J Haynes, Chief Corporate Counsel, Chevron Headquarters
• John Yoo, UC Berkeley School of Law
• Alberto R. Gonzales
• David Addington

The action parallels a criminal probe into allegations of torture involving the American CIA that was opened this week in the United Kingdom.

[More...]

Earlier this week, I wrote about Jake DeSantis, who quit AIG after the bonus brouhaha. Mr. DeSantis was upset that because AIG went belly up and was propped up by the government, folks were upset with his million dollar bonus (he stated his AFTER TAX bonus was 750k). Perhaps this story can provide Mr. DeSantis some perspective:

A bankruptcy judge on Tuesday tentatively approved Delphi Corp.'s request to stop paying for health care and life insurance benefits for its retired salaried workers . . . U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain in Manhattan ruled that the auto parts supplier has a right to change the retirees' benefits under bankruptcy law and that the cuts are justified given the company's dire finances, its troubles finding financing and the overall state of the automotive industry. "It is crystal clear to me that debtor is well within its business judgment in assuming that it will need to eliminate the projected (post-retirement benefits) liability, which is projected at $1.1 billion, in order to reorganize," Drain said in making his ruling.

[More...]

As Jeralyn discussed Thursday, an agreement between the New York legislature and Gov. David Paterson will finally reform the state's Rockefeller-era drug laws. At the time of Jeralyn's post, the relief that the legislation would provide to drug offenders currently serving sentences was unclear.

Although some language in the new law is still being negotiated, the governor announced yesterday that the legislation will enable hundreds of prisoners to seek resentencing. It appears that the resentencing options include treatment in lieu of continued incarceration.

Prosecutors -- who will lose the power they now hold to decide whether a drug offender will receive a lengthy sentence by charging crimes that have mandatory minimums -- are complaining that judges shouldn't have the option of sending repeat offenders to treatment instead of incarcerating them. [more ...]