by TChris

Milton Friedman, an economist who is generally esteemed by conservatives, doesn't understand the economics underlying the war against pot.

Milton Friedman leads a list of more than 500 economists from around the U.S. who today will publicly endorse a Harvard University economist's report on the costs of marijuana prohibition and the potential revenue gains from the U.S. government instead legalizing it and taxing its sale. Ending prohibition enforcement would save $7.7 billion in combined state and federal spending, the report says, while taxation would yield up to $6.2 billion a year.

While Friedman's expertise is in economics, his arguments against using the criminal justice system to wage war on drug users go beyond the economic cost of the policy. Says Friedman:

"Our failure to successfully enforce these laws is responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in Colombia. I haven't even included the harm to young people. It's absolutely disgraceful to think of picking up a 22-year-old for smoking pot. More disgraceful is the denial of marijuana for medical purposes."

The report, authored by Dr. Jeffrey Miron, is available here.

Update: Political Class Pushes the Envelope

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The powder contained in the threatening letter sent to the Indonesian Ambassador for Australia at the Indonesian Embassy was harmless. The letter that accompanied the powder did not mention Schapelle Corby. It was mailed from Melbourne.

So does Australian Prime Minister John Howard back off his public insistence that the mailing is related to the Schapelle Corby case? You decide.

It's hard to escape the belief that there was a connection," he said. "I have no reason to alter that but you shouldn't read anything into that."

Indonesian's draconian drug laws apply to users as well. What do you think of ten years as a penalty for simple possession of less than 2 grams of hashish? Here's what's happening to Australian John Julian Pyle:

Via Raw Story, the following exchange is contained in an upcoming Rolling Stone interview with Democratic Minority Leader Harry Reid:

RS: You've called Bush a loser.

HR: And a liar.

RS: You apologized for the loser comment.

HR: But never for the liar, have I?

Sen. Reid is getting back in our good graces, although we still dislike the oligarchic nuclear compromise that gave away the store and predict it won't last.

The Wall St. Journal ( free online here) profiles John O'Connor, lawyer for Mark Felt and the author of the Vanity Fair piece. He's described as "defense lawyer." (Also see Romanesko.) Just to be clear, he is not a criminal defense lawyer. He's a civil litigator who defends corporations against individuals who sue them.

Mr. O'Connor, for his part, is known as an ambitious defense lawyer, a fierce cross-examiner and a charming raconteur. .... As a director at the law firm of Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin, Mr. O'Connor has focused on corporate-liability defense cases. He has represented not just Reynolds against cancer patients but won favorable verdicts for a brakes maker in an auto accident case, and an insurance company sued by a paraplegic.

TalkLeft would be remiss if it did not interrupt coverage of Deep Throat to inform everyone that the Runaway Bride appeared in court this morning and pleaded no contest to the felony charge of making a false statement to a law enforcement officer. She was sentenced to probation. She agreed to repay $13,000 of the search costs to the city of Duluth. The city wrote off about $30,000 in additional search-related expenses. The misdemeanor charge of false reporting of a crime was dismmissed.

Update: The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports:

As part of the plea agreement, she will have her criminal record expunged after she completes probation.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

The following allegedly were taken off of actual police car videos around the country. I culled it down to the best ten.

#10 "Relax, the handcuffs are tight because they're new. They'll stretch out after you wear them awhile."

#9 "Take your hands off the car, and I'll make your birth certificate a worthless document."

#8 "The answer to this last question will determine whether you are drunk or not. Was Mickey Mouse a cat or a dog?"

#7 "Fair? You want me to be fair? Listen, fair is a place where you go to ride on rides, eat cotton candy, and step in monkey $#!*!."

A top Washington lawyer, who is a former Clinton Adminstration Justice Department official and someone whose integrity and opinion I value highly, sent me this e-mail on the disclosure that Mark Felt is Deep Throat:

As one who lived through the Clinton wars at the Department of Justice I have a someone different take on the revelation that Deep Throat was the Deputy Director of the FBI. Throughout Louis Freeh's tenure as FBI Director we were plagued with leaks, many of them coming from high levels of the FBI, about sensitive investigations, which had the effect of politicizing them. These leaks included facts revealed during criminal investigations and the content of internal deliberations at the Department of Justice. In my view they were extremely damaging both to the Administration in a political sense and to the Justice Department institutionally.

Manson follower Susan Atkins has been denied parole for the 11th time. She is now 57 years old.

"They primarily cited the gravity of the crime, the fact the murders were carried out in an especially cruel and callous manner," Kindel said. He said Atkins "listened without reaction and then was escorted out of the room" at the California Institution for Women in Corona.

We last checked in with Ms. Atkins here, when she had filed a civil rights lawsuit against Gov. Gray Davis. Her compatriot in crime, Leslie Van Houten, has also been denied parole repeatedly.

It's always the heinousness of the crime that the parole board focuses on. What about their rehabilitation during 30 years of prison? When will that count for something?

This is pretty cool. The Reading, PA Eagle now publishes its editorials in blog format, complete with commenting ablilty. Today's entry is on the nuclear option compromise. [link via How Appealing.]

Crooks and Liars, the best liberal video blogger, is hosting a funds drive to help pay for site expenses. Go on over and help, you know you watch the videos, and they are expensive to host. He doesn't ask often, and C&L is a must-stop-by-every- day kind of site.

The Michael Jackson jury received the court's instructions today. Closing arguments are tomorrow. The trial ended with the prosecution replaying a video of the accuser detailing his allegations against Jackson. Then the defense rested without calling more witnesses, including the accuser, as originally intended. A mistake? Possibly. On the other hand, why call the accuser or his mother again for rebuttal and give them another shot with the jury.

NBC aired the two hour farewell Eagles tour filmed in Melbourne, Australia tonight. As many times as I've seen them live, including the farewell tour, I couldn't stop watching. Hotel California still is one of the all time greats.

Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes Benz
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget

....Mirrors on the ceiling, pink champagne on ice
We are all just prisoners here, of our own device...

...'Relax,' said the night man, We are programmed to receive.
You can checkout any time you like, but you can never leave!