Who says legalization and decriminalization don't work? In Europe, marijuana use has dropped sharply, while cocaine use has risen.

British figures .... show that the popularity of cannabis in the UK has plummeted, with 600,000 fewer people smoking or eating marijuana than three years ago. The Home Office statistics, released last week, also show that consumption of cocaine in Britain has risen.

The figures will help the British government and other European nations with more liberal drug laws such as Holland and Switzerland rebut claims that their approach to cannabis leads to increased use of the drug. The growing cocaine use will, however, worry European anti-narcotics police and many politicians.

(From Big Tent Democrat)

Steve Gilliard writes an interesting post that, in my view, is right in some things and wrong in others. One thing definitely wrong is this:

Ok, let's say that the Dems were ambushed in 2000 and got seriously sh*tty advice on how to fight the ballot issues. The Dems were listening to bullsh*t about continuity of government and trust in elections. So they shrunk from the fight. Stolen? Yeah, in the time honored tradition of intimidation and rules lawyering. If you look at who showed up in Florida, like John Bolton and other future White House staffers, the GOP brought their A game and Gore thought they were playing by the rules of the past. Ooops.

In a word, nonsense. Gore brought the best lawyer (in my opinion) in America, David Boies, to this gunfight, and but for a lawless U.S. Supreme Court, Gore wins.

Other things right and wrong in Gilliard's piece on the other side.

From Big Tent Democrat

Murtha:

Now, Karl Rove may call me a defeatist, but can anyone living in the real world deny that [Iraq is] heading in the wrong direction? Yet despite this bleak record of performance, the president continues to stand by his team of failed architects, preferring to prop them up instead of demanding accountability.

Democrats are fighting a war on two fronts: One is combating the spin and intimidation that defines this administration. The other is fighting to change course, to do things better, to substitute smart, disciplined strategy for dogma and denial in Iraq.

That's not defeatism. That's our duty.

Lieberman:

Does America have a good plan for doing this, a strategy for victory in Iraq? Yes we do. . . . The administration's recent use of the banner "clear, hold and build" accurately describes the strategy as I saw it being implemented last week.

. . . It's time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge that he will be the commander in chief for three more critical years and that in matters of war we undermine presidential credibility at our nation's peril," Lieberman said.

(From Big Tent Democrat)

This is hardly surprising:

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, a lifelong Democrat and student of politics, blanked when asked if America would be better off with his party regaining control of the U.S. House of Representatives. . . . "Uh, I haven't thought about that enough to give an answer," Lieberman said, as though Democrats' strong prospects for recapturing the House hadn't been the fall's top political story.

. . . On the campaign trail, Lieberman's message has changed since the primary, when he stressed his party credentials as a vice presidential nominee and presidential candidate who opposed Bush. His target then was Democratic voters antagonistic to the war and disdainful of Bush. . . . Lieberman relies on talking points more often sounded by the Bush White House than Democratic congressional candidates, invoking patriotism and America's need to be vigilant in a dangerous world.

The question is why in the world any Democrat would support this Bush enabling de facto Republican?

Kudos to the New York Times for this editorial today blasting Bush and Sen. Lindsay Graham for the military commissions bill.

One of the many problems with the new law is that it will only make it harder than it already is to separate the real terrorists from the far larger group of inmates at Guantánamo Bay who were bit players in the Taliban or innocent bystanders. Mr. Graham and other supporters of this dreadful legislation seem to have forgotten that American justice does not merely deliver swift punishment to the guilty. It also protects the innocent.

Why is this the Last Worthless Evening? Because comments on this site will finally be fixed when TalkLeft launches on Scoop (beta version) tomorrow night. The new server is up and running and loaded. I will be so glad not to have to push comments through by hand every few minutes or hours as I've been doing for the last 45 days and the site will be so much faster. Hope you all like it as much as I do.

In the meantime, enjoy this Don Henley classic....from when he looked really sexy with his long hair. I used to think he was singing just to me. (For those not into guys, the woman in the video is really hot too.)

Holy, Moly. The Colorado governor's race just went into overdrive. Congressman Bob Beauprez who is running on the Republican side has been running an attack ad on Democrat and former District Attorney Bill Ritter for plea deals made while in office that allowed some defendants to avoid deportation. (I've been a big Bill Ritter fan for years.) Ritter now says,

Beauprez is running an ad that accuses Ritter of plea bargaining to probation illegal immigrant and accused heroin dealer Carlos Estrada Medina. Medina, the ad says, was later arrested for the sexual abuse of a child. However, Medina's name does not show up on court files in either Denver or California - where Beauprez's campaign says he was charged. Beauprez's campaign contends that Medina used aliases in both cases.

Ritter said Beauprez used non-public law enforcement identification numbers to make the link between the aliases and Medina. He has asked the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to investigate the charge. (my emphasis.)

Beauprez responds he used an informant to get the information and did no wrong.

Ezra Klein and Marc Cooper discuss Air America Radio's filing for bankruptcy this week.

Marc thinks AAR will stay on the air until just after the elections. Ezra thinks it failed because it tried to copy the conservative framework.

I don't know anything about radio, and just a little about corporations that do debt restructuring in bankruptcy to stay alive. Think of all the airlines that have done so. I always thought a company that filed under Chapter 11 restructuring provisions did so because it planned to stay in business and was trying to repay its debts at its own pace as it reduced its costs rather than buckling under to a creditor who wanted money right now. Indeed, the Washington Post says,

Rick Manguson, the pro-drug war challenger in the Pitkin County Sheriff's race, is complaining that Grass Roots Television has shown a video he made a year ago showing him spanking the monkey.

Magnuson admitted the video shows him masturbating. The shot, however, is from far away and Magnuson says the piece was a legitimate mode of self-expression....The 12-minute movie shows Magnuson digging a hole in the Mojave Desert on his 40th birthday. When he strikes water, the shot switches to about 20 yards away, with Magnuson's back to the viewer as he faces the hole and masturbates into it.

The Los Angeles Times reports on a new book by former White House aide David Kuh in which he reports that while Bush aides publicly endorsed evangelical positions, privately they referred to them disparagingly.

In the book, Kuo, who quit the White House in 2003, accuses Karl Rove's political staff of cynically hijacking the faith-based initiatives idea for electoral gain. It assails Bush for failing to live up to his promises of boosting the role of religious organizations in delivering social services.

White House strategists "knew 'the nuts' were politically invaluable, but that was the extent of their usefulness," Kuo writes, according to the cable channel MSNBC, which obtained an advance copy.

(From Big Tent Democrat)

It is said that politics is show business for ugly people. Th Washington Post begs to differ:

The research is unambiguous . . . Attractive politicians have an edge over not-so-attractive ones. The phenomenon is resonating especially this year. By a combination of luck and design, Democrats seem to be fielding an uncommonly high number of uncommonly good-looking candidates.

The beauty gap between the parties, some on Capitol Hill muse, could even be a factor in who controls Congress after Election Day. Democratic operatives do not publicly say that they went out of their way this year to recruit candidates with a high hotness quotient. Privately, however, they acknowledge that, as they focused on finding the most dynamic politicians to challenge vulnerable Republicans, it did not escape their notice that some of the most attractive prospects were indeed often quite attractive.

My thought -- the Washington Post used page one space for this? The Beltway Media is just awful.