Drug Cartels Growing Cannabis in North Texas

War on Drugs

An article in yesterday’s Forth Worth Star-Telegram highlights the ineffectiveness of the government’s failed “drug war” polices.

“Mexico’s nimble drug cartels are leapfrogging tightened border security and establishing sophisticated marijuana-growing operations in North Texas and Oklahoma, law enforcement officials say. This month alone, sheriff’s departments in Texas’ Ellis and Navarro counties found three irrigated, fertilized and manicured pot-growing operations near Ennis and Corsicana.

More than 16,000 plants have been uprooted from the sites, said Duane Steen, an assistant commander of the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Narcotic Service in Austin.

Last year, a 12,000-plant operation found in Ellis County was the first sign that Mexican drug cartels have branched out from smuggling marijuana to cultivating it in Texas, Steen said.”

As drug gang violence in Mexico and along its border with the US increases, now would be a great time to reassess our nation’s drug polices.

Legalization of drugs would put an end to drug related violence spreading across Mexico and the US. Drug violence occurs due to the very fact that it is illegal.

Alcohol is a perfect example of how prohibition can create an atmosphere of underground  markets and violence. Once alcohol was legal and regulated, criminal distribution became nearly nonexistent. Gang violence due to alcohol competition dropped to zero.

Decriminalization of drugs would also lighten the burden of our prison systems. According to the American Corrections Association, the average daily cost per state prison inmate per day in the US is $67.55. State prisons held 253,300 inmates for drug offenses in 2005. That means states spent approximately $17,110,415 per day to imprison drug offenders, or $6,245,301,475 per year. Nearly 20% of prisoners are imprisoned due to nonviolent drug related offenses.

RELATED: I suggest reading former Baltimore cops Peter Moskos and Stanford Franklin’s August 17th article in the Washington Post, It’s Time to Legalize Drugs.

Source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Democrats Not Backing Obama on Patriot Act Extension

Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) (WDCpix)

Eight years after it was passed, the USA Patriot Act remains among the most controversial pieces of counterterrorism legislation in the so-called “war on terror.” On December 31 of this year, some of its more controversial provisions will expire, forcing Congress to revisit it and decide whether to reauthorize the expiring provisions, amend them, or re-work the entire law.

The sections set to expire give the government the authority to access business records, operate roving wiretaps and conduct surveillance on “lone wolf” suspects with no known link to foreign governments or terrorist groups. A justice Department official last week told Congress that the Obama administration supports their renewal. Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote to Senator Patrick Leahy (D- Vt.) that the administration would consider stronger civil rights protections “provided that they do not undermine the effectiveness of these important (provisions).”

But at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, it was clear that Democrats don’t uniformly support the White House on that. Some Democrats on the committee were still bitter that some Republicans back in 2001 had pushed aside a bipartisan version of the bill produced by the Judiciary Committee in favor of a version substantially revised and altered by the Rules Committee, led by then-chairman David Dreier (R-Calif.).

“Then-Chairman Dreier under Lord knows whose instructions, substituted that bill for another bill, that we at judiciary had never seen. So we come here today now to consider what we do with those parts that are expiring” and that, according to committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.), created problems that the bill he’d approved would have prevented.

Read the entire article at The Washington Independent

Cap and Trade Could Lower GDP by 3.5%

A couple days ago, we posted on how the cap-and-trade bill passed by the House a few months ago will cost families $1,761 more in taxes than the Obama Administration admitted.

Now there is a report that states we may see a reduction of as much as 3.5% reduction in the gross domestic product (GDP) by 2050:

The climate change bill approved by the U.S. House of Representatives would reduce the gross domestic product of the United States by as much as 3.5 percent in 2050, the Congressional Budget Office estimates.

The Democratic-controlled House passed landmark legislation in June aimed at slashing industrial pollution that is blamed for global warming. “Reducing the risk of climate change would come at some cost to the economy,” the CBO said in a reported posted on its website on Thursday.

The report concludes that if cap and trade provisions of the bill are implemented, the measure would reduce the gross domestic product by between 1 percent and 3.5 percent below what it otherwise would have been in 2050.

The full CBO report is available from the Congressional Budget Office.

The more and more we learn about how this bill will affect our personal lives and our economy, the more it looks like this bill is dead in the water.

Source:  Reuters

Federal Reserve Plans to Control Banking Salaries

Under a new proposal set to be released soon, the Federal Reserve will give itself the authority to reject compensation on CEOs, traders, and loan officers that it feels takes on too much risk. More than 5,000 bank holding companies will be affected by this proposal, including hundreds of small, state-charted institutions. About 25 of the U.S.’s largest banks would receive even closer scrutiny.

As the Wall Street Journal describes it,

The Fed’s latest move marks another striking exertion of power by the nation’s central bank since the financial crisis struck with ferocity two years ago. It has bailed out firms such as American International Group Inc. and has flooded the financial system with money.

Ironically, this move comes at a time when an overwhelming majority want to audit and restrict the powers of the Federal Reserve.

The Federal Reserve board will consider this proposal within the coming weeks. They claim that if it is approved, they will open it up for “public comment”, however, I think what they mean is the Fed will make a comment about it in public.

Sources: The Wall Street Journal

Treasury report: Cap-and-trade to cost $1,761 per family each year

The cap-and-trade bill just got more expensive for families:

A previously unreleased analysis prepared by the U.S. Department of Treasury says the total in new taxes would be between $100 billion to $200 billion a year. At the upper end of the administration’s estimate, the cost per American household would be an extra $1,761 a year.

A second memorandum, which was prepared for Obama’s transition team after the November election, says this about climate change policies: “Economic costs will likely be on the order of 1 percent of GDP, making them equal in scale to all existing environmental regulation.”

The documents (PDF) were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the free-market Competitive Enterprise Institute and released on Tuesday.

This puts the cost of the bill per family very close to the estimation of the Heritage Foundation, which also predicts higher long term costs:

When the Heritage Foundation did its analysis of Waxman-Markey, it broadly compared the economy with and without the carbon tax. Under this more comprehensive scenario, it found Waxman-Markey would cost the economy $161 billion in 2020, which is $1,870 for a family of four. As the bill’s restrictions kick in, that number rises to $6,800 for a family of four by 2035.

Perhaps it’s not suprise that Democratic leaders in the Senate are going to put off a vote on this until next year.

Next year is an election year, so it’s very likely that this bill is dead.

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Ron Paul on “Morning Joe” MSNBC 09/15/09

Arianna Huffington and Ron Paul are guests on today’s “Morning Joe” show. They both discuss the health care bill and the bailouts. Amazingly, they both are in agreement that both solutions are not based on capitalism, but corporatism. Health insurance corporations are guaranteed more customers through mandatory coverage and Big Pharma are guaranteed $80 billion in new drug sales.

Obama to Extend Patriot Act Provisions

Big Brother is watching you

President Obama has once again let down civil rights activists during his first year as president. Not content with still enforcing national cannabis laws in states that have made them legal; not content with continuing military tribunals and keeping Gitmo; not content with expanding the war in Afghanistan and killing more civilians;  Obama has decided to extend three key provisions of the Patriot Act.

The three “anti-liberty” provisions:

1. The Lone Wolf Provision – Created to conduct surveillance on suspects with no known link to foreign governments or terrorist groups.
2. The Roving Wiretaps Provision – Designed to allow investigators to quickly monitor the communications of a suspects who change their cell phone or communication device, without investigators having to go back to court for a new court authorization.
3. The Business Records Provision -  Allows for your financial, library, travel, video rental, phone, medical, church, synagogue, and mosque records to be searched without your knowledge or consent, providing the government says it’s trying to protect against terrorism.

But it’s OK, because he’s going to change Washington! Give me a break!

Source: Yahoo! News

No American Should Have to Choose Between Health Insurance and Getting Drunk

Health Insurance or Beer?

President Obama’s prime-time health insurance speech underscored an important point: No American should have to choose between health insurance and paying rent, between health insurance and getting groceries—or getting drunk, getting designer jeans, or bodybuilding supplements.

We hear so much about hardworking Americans who need health insurance, but what about the rest of us? Millions of uninsured Americans could afford health insurance, but it would mean giving up some really cool stuff. Support President Obama’s plan to cover all Americans, because no American should have to choose between health insurance and protein powder.

Approximately 1.10 minutes. Written and produced by Ted Balaker. Director of Photography is Alex Manning.

More Reason.tv on health care, including a radical plan that will halve the number of uninsured virtually overnight.

Legalize Cannabis, Support the Texas Firearms Bill

Medicinal Cannabis

Yes, you read that title right. If you would like to legalize cannabis, it would be in your interest to support the Texas Intrastate Firearms Bill (HB 1863). Under this legislation, all federal laws regarding firearms are null and void if and only if the firearms are manufactured, sold, and currently reside in Texas.

Currently, the federal gun laws are put into place using the Interstate Commerce Clause of the US Constitution, meaning that any merchandise traveling between the states falls under federal jurisdiction. The logic behind the Texas Intrastate Firearms Bill is that if the guns are made in Texas and never leaves Texas, under the 10th amendment, the State of Texas has the legal jurisdiction over the federal government to regulate those firearms.

How does this apply to cannabis you may ask? Good question. California has passed several laws regarding the use of medicinal cannabis. Doctors are allowed to prescribe cannabis for a variety of ailments and certified businesses are allowed to sale the cannabis. Also, patients are allowed to smoke cannabis as recommended by their doctor.

However, despite the State of California laws that allow for the sale of cannabis, federal agents have raided those businesses selling medicinal cannabis and imprisoned the business owners. The federal Drug Enforcement Agency has contended that federal law supersedes state law in these matters. Fortunately, President Obama promised  an immediate end to the raids in states where legislation was passed to legalize cannabis. Unfortunately, the DEA has not stopped its raids and continues to confiscate business property and arrest business owners.

The Texas Intrastate Firearms Bill would open the door for the federal government to recognize the rights of states to enact any laws within that state without interference from the federal government, provided those laws are not in violation of the US Constitution.