Prohibition didn't work once, isn't working now

Raise your hand if you remember Chicago in the early 1930s, at the height of alcohol Prohibition.

The early ‘30s saw mafia warfare at its highest, featuring all-time highs in black market profiteering and bootlegging what so many enjoy on a nightly basis today.

Alcohol was prohibited by the 18th Amendment, but for the next 16 years, alcohol sales thrived underground while violence and murder rates skyrocketed.

Prohibition was eventually repealed in 1933 by President Franklin Roosevelt at the height of the Great Depression.

Yet today, the country faces another pandemic as a black market incites violence caused by demand of an illegal product.

Today, Americans want to smoke marijuana.

Over 100 million people, including President Obama, have admitted to smoking weed and another 25 million admit regular use over the past year, according to The Washington Post. Moreover, in 2007, 62 percent of those who admitted first-time use of the drug were under age 18.

Marijuana is by far the most commonly used illicit drug in the U.S., yet the substance itself stands alone in comparison to legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco.

In 2000, alcohol by itself, without counting drunk drivers, claimed the lives of 85,000 people. Tobacco holds a rate six times higher, killing 435,000 people, according to the Journal for the American Medical Association.

Not a single person has ever died from a marijuana overdose, yet 775,137 people were arrested for simple possession in 2007.

The momentum from the 1980s in fighting our “War on Drugs” has taken a different turn, as more and more citizens plead with lawmakers to produce legislation to decriminalize, regulate and tax marijuana.

Chairman Betty Yee of the California State Board of Equalization endorsed a bill in February to regulate the estimated $14 billion marijuana market, citing a potential income for the state of $1.3 billion. The $14 billion figure came from eliminating expenses in marijuana law enforcement and a taxation level comparable to alcohol and tobacco.

The state currently collects $14 million from marijuana dispensaries — marijuana shops legal under state law — a figure that will grow after U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced Feb. 26 the DEA would no longer raid them.

In the medical community, scientists have produced repeated studies about the benefits of marijuana, specifically for those who suffer from glaucoma, hepatitis, HIV/AIDS and certain cancers, primarily those who suffer from loss of appetite.

Marijuana legalization will not come easily. But leaders need to be more honest about the nature of marijuana and what it does to people.

The truth changes from person to person.

“The problem is that it’s difficult to tell what the effects of marijuana will be for any given person at any time, because they vary based on the person, their drug history, how much marijuana is taken, and its potency,” according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Obama recently addressed legalization in terms of stimulating the economy at an online town hall meeting in the White House.

After pointing out the weed question was the No. 1 most asked question in three different categories, including the economy, law enforcement and health care, he belittled the online audience and hypocritically dismissed legalization altogether.

If Obama was arrested for his weed use, he wouldn’t be president.

Instead of lighting up a substantive debate over decriminalization, regulation and taxation of marijuana, Obama ignored the plea of a nation dealing with border violence, overflowing prisons, crippling diseases and a stagnant economy.

Presumably he doesn’t want to be remembered as “the weed president,” but he shouldn’t worry.

We don’t remember FDR for legalizing Jell-O shots.

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America will awaken from Bush-inspired nightmare

Almost a decade ago, we stood at the crossroads of the 21st century. We were given the choice between the second-in-command to an adulterer and a man labeling himself a “compassionate conservative.”

Through the hardships associated with scandal, we chose the latter, wondering whether or not we would be satisfied.

But we were not satisfied.

We were not satisfied by the lack of eloquence, as new words like “misunderestimated,” “nucular,” and “Hispanically” forced their way into our lexicon.

We were not satisfied by the newest of these terms, “bushism,” defined as any statement uttered by a president with a less-than-exemplary command of the English language.

We were not satisfied when tax cuts to the wealthiest of Americans were delivered with the ease of hush money from the mob.

We were not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until someone holds those continuing to subvert our Constitution accountable for their actions.

With every fault, every screw-up, every assertion of righteousness, the fear of the unknown swept our collective consciousness, culminating in an attack on our homeland.

The 9/11 attacks served as a wake-up call to the realities of 21st century planet Earth.

The fact of the matter made itself heard, loud and clear.

America is not No. 1.

America is merely one of hundreds of countries worldwide.

America, however, wasn’t ready to throw down its guns and figure out pathways through the complexities of its new world. We weren’t ready to throw down our grudges and speak honestly about solutions to the new problems of our world.

We were merely ready to throw down with our world.

Combining our unrelenting rage with the administration’s unrelenting accusations about Iraq — with a pinch of journalistic ineptitude — Americans heard exactly what they needed to hear.

And by April 2003, we were a nation at war.

Consumed with the worst of ourselves, confident not in the arsenal of our virtues but in the virtue of our arsenal, we anxiously awaited the fruits of our military spending — financed with our taxes — exploding through the lenses of high definition in real time.

As the great Dr. King turned over in his grave, we ceased to “conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline,” but in the mud and the muck of our inner demons.

We had a nightmare.

It was a nightmare engrained within the fabric of our collective being, forged together by the slings and arrows of those who would deny other human beings their basic civil liberties.

It was a nightmare stretching as far as the Middle East, permanently scarring our vision for democracy, our love of freedom and the value of our fellow man.

If the nighttime is darkest before the day, the past eight years were the epicenter of a black hole.

But the dawn is coming.

The dawn of a new America will feature the birth of a new accountability, where our leaders will not be selected by the content of their last names but by the color of their imaginations and the strength of their moral fiber.

America will stress the virtues of reason, temperance and moderation, not the previously held convictions inspired by a generation of yes men.

America will reassert those basic claims of the value of mankind, however tired or vibrant, however patriotic or dissenting.

America will learn the true definition of patriotism — the marriage of equal parts praise and criticism, joining a shared sense of responsibility to our fellow brothers and sisters.

All of us, with the same hearts, lungs, kidneys and minds will embrace this new America, where being “proud to be American” falls flat in the test of honor.

We must be proud to be alive. We must be proud to be here, on this Earth we all occupy.

We must be proud to be human beings.

We have seen the disasters of our new world, from prisoner abuse to the politicization of an entire government department, from the evils of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay to the live, worldwide broadcast of an entire city’s drowning.

We have also seen our hailed free market philosophies make way for insatiable greed and unregulated self-indulgence, as the country shudders at today’s outlook had our president successfully privatized Social Security.

But the dawn is coming.

The dawn will feature a new interest in technology and science, discovery and patience, confidence and possibility.

The dawn will only come when we all wake up to it. When the nightmare fades into memory, our minds will clear the waste, leaving only the possibility to imagine what can be.

Dream at last! Dream at last! Thank whomever you want, we can dream at last!

Originally published in The Daily Reveille...

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Electing a Dream

I'm only 21 years old, and even I never thought I'd see the day.

Maybe my standards of America are severely lower than most. Maybe I've bought into the pessimism accompanying racial divisions in America. Maybe I'm just naive.

I still believe November 4th was a dream realized.

We've heard stories of 100-year-old men and women wishing beyond wish, hoping beyond sane limits of hope, that America could possibly overcome a huge source of animosity and ambivalence.

If insanity is expecting a different end from the same means, those previously considered insane were released from the asylum.

Now a different notion surrounds me. In a class of mine, a new prism of racism revealed itself. It was mentioned, and later concurred, that it is racist to take pride in Barack Obama's presidency, thinking that our election of a "black" man both transcends and ends racism.

While I agree with this thought -- especially since Obama is a mutt, like me -- I find it somewhat condescending to criticize those reveling in Obama's presidency merely due to his race and not his policies. Personally, I voted for Obama because I read his book, The Audacity of Hope, and found it to be as close a referendum of how politics were, are, and will be in the future. I believed his message of bridge-building in any situation.

It reminds me of a scene from The West Wing. President Jed Bartlet (Martin Sheen), in the middle of a particularly busy day, sat in a meeting with essentially his ideological counterpart. The pair agree that President Bartlet is "a tree-hugging, baby-killing commie liberal," while his opponent is "a gun-totin', redneck son of a bitch," but the pair agree on campaign finance reform.

The "either-or" mentality that plagues most, if not all, of our political discussions have proven detrimental to the gathering of solutions. Americans have either been "pro-life" or "pro-choice," or even "pro-death," depending on who you ask. We're either pro or anti-gay marriage, pro or anti-capital punishment, pro or anti-the war.

One thing we seem not to aspire to, however, is pro-solutions.

It's easy to give a diatribe on "coming together" with "common hopes" and "bridge the gaps" to "strive for equality."

Using buzz words and phrases has always been easy than tackling issues head on.

And that last phrase is my personal favorite. I've always wanted to tackle abortion head on.

But in Barack Obama, we find the whole of America. With an exotic upbringing combined with middle-American roots and a penchant for knowledge and understanding, Obama's election was and still is a symbol of what Americans can achieve. Remaining complacent on this sentiment, however, will leave us with the same gridlock that has plagued our politics for decades.

Gridlock, though, is the balance that prevents potential supermajorities from oppressing the minority viewpoint. Consult Alexander Hamilton if you're confused. Stagnancy is what prevents our democratic republic from becoming an aristocracy, or even a totalitarian state.

So to those fearful of the future, for those excited at the prospect -- and in January, the reality -- of an Obama presidency, for all of us, please follow these four steps:

1. Read The Audacity of Hope.
2. Look inside yourself for the issue you feel the most passionate about, and try to find someone who completely disagrees. (For traditional conservatives out there, just find me. Chances are we disagree on something.)
3. Start a debate.
4. After the issue is exhausted, given you haven't cursed out your opponent, thank the other, and invite them to continue exploring the issue further.

Politics aren't meant to be scary. They also aren't meant to be handled by "someone that really cares about that thing or whatever." Politics involve both the best and the worst of all of us. Freedom and equality provide us the opportunity to debate.

So please join me and President-Elect Obama in this, the limitless pursuit of a dream realized.

Yes, oh yes, we can. More than that, we should.

And we will.

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The YouTube Chronicles, IV

If I could write music, it might sound like this.

Mr. Luke, "A Symbol of Hope"

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The YouTube Chronicles, III

"New Rule: Referring to voters that America has left behind economically as 'bitter' isn't an insult; in fact, it's a compliment, acknowledging that they're smart enough to understand what's happening to them. The hopeful, now those are some idiots. So, let's separate the bitter, my people, from the idiots. If you think the Democrats are going to take away your Bible, you're an idiot. If you think they're going to take away your gun, you're an armed idiot. And you think they're going to take away your gun and give it to a Mexican to kill your God, you're Bill O'Reilly.

At the end of last week, when Barack Obama ignited the 'bitter-gate' scandal, you'd have thought he climbed Mount Rushmore, dick-slapped Jefferson in the face and spray painted 'God Damn America' over Lincoln. But he wasn't lying. The truth is that religion and guns and hating gays and immigrants are crutches that people lean on. So are fast food, crystal meth and child beauty pageants, but we don't have time to tackle all of America's addictions in one night.

So let's focus on the big thing.

That the people who claim to be the 'non-elitists' are the ones who constantly shift tax burdens from the people who fire you to you. John McCain voted to repeal the estate tax, voted against raising the minimum wage, has no health care plan and is fine with keeping the working class in Iraq for 100 years. But he's a real man of the people. And the President went to Harvard and Yale and inherited your country from his dad. But he's not an elitist because he can neither read nor write. What does it take to label someone 'elitist' these days anyway, they wear shoes? They don't buy their groceries at the gas station? Their dog has a name and their truck doesn't?

You know who is bitter in America? I am, because shit kickers voted twice for a retarded guy they wanted to have a beer with, and everybody else has to suffer the consequences!"


- Bill Maher, Real Time with Bill Maher, April 18, 2008

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A Political Present

You ever want to know what a bipartisan political gift looks like?

This is Sen. John McCain's most recent ad against Sen. Barack Obama, "Celeb," including pictures of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, ultimately making McCain look like a liar and an idiot for including two people who would otherwise never be compared to Obama.

I just hope Middle America's not as stupid as this ad would have us believe as far as susceptibility to commercials are concerned.

Am I alone here, or is it a bad thing to include a giant crowd chanting your opponent's name in approval?

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To Impeach or Not To Impeach

I'm torn.

On the one hand, his administration has lied to the American people 935 times, according to a January 2008 study by the Center for Public Integrity, from the September 11th attacks to the invasion of Iraq in April 2003.

On the other hand, if impeached, President George W. Bush would initiate his final standoff with the nation, a battle which might prove to be useless especially in a campaign year with voters concentrating on who will replace the failure.

For some in Congress, the time for replacement hasn't come soon enough.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-OH, spoke in front of the House Judiciary Committee, as a part of the committee's hearing on executive power and the Bush Administration. A single article of impeachment was filed against Pres. Bush, accusing the Commander-in-Chief of high crimes and misdemeanors stemming from allegations of falsified intelligence by the Pentagon in the lead up to war, the politicization of the Justice Department under Attorney Generals John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales, and the secret propaganda machine involved in selling this war to the American people, among many others.

Regardless, I'm still torn as to the necessity of impeachment for two reasons. First, this is too little, too late from the Democrats. President Bush has a little less than six months left in office, but the Democrats have had control of Congress for the last 18 months. Fight after fight with the Bush Administration leaves Congress with as little as a 9% approval rating this past month.

Second, Rep. Kucinich has the right mind, and I hardly disagree with his reasons for impeachment. Having this issue come up now seems like there won't be enough time to actually complete the process before January 20, 2009. Having this year be an election year, combined with Congress's upcoming, month-long recess -- where we will be treated to our final Crawford Ranch vacation from Dubya -- makes Rep. Kucinich's impeachment article all but useless.

Consider how Pres. Bush has acted this year. He still has the blood of over 4,000 of our troops and countless thousands of Iraqis on his hands, all because of a lie, but no one truly knows for what. That being said, Bush has eased into his role of super-senior. He knows no one, save Kucinich, will challenge his authority as the country is swept into who will sweep up after him.

The country has assumed that there's no point to pursue these sorts of charges on the president, regardless of the validity of the arguments against him, as he will be gone too soon for this process to be effective.

In that respect, I admire Rep. Kucinich's resolve to attempt to stand for democracy and morals in the country's highest public office, but I also realize the apparent pointlessness of pursuing this action, despite my complete agreement and support.

I supported this notion as early as 2002, however, before any of our troops died in the name of a lie. As much of a referendum the 2006 midterm elections were on the war and the Bush administration, Congress has done little to nothing to try to end the war or Bush's tenure as president.

The American people were savvy enough to know this before the election. In a Sept. 2, 2006 CNN Research Poll of 1,004 adults, 57% of those polled thought it would be good for the country if the Democrats in Congress conducted official investigation into the inner workings of the Bush Administration during his first six years in office. By that same token, 69% of the same polling group believed that President Bush should not impeached and removed from office, while 70% of those polled, given the scenario of a likely Democratic Congress coupled with a Republican president, accurately predicted the gridlock and stalemate emanating from Washington since the Democrats took over the Legislative body.

With Congress's current disapproval rating floating in the high 70's, coupled with a president well on his way to that mark by the time he leaves office, the irony emerges. The country has had enough of President Bush and the war in Iraq, but they'd rather not trust Congress with his removal due to their own ineptitude and backdoor dealings.

Basically, the strongest statistic to cite comes from the dissatisfaction of the people in the direction we are going. An average of recent polls finds that roughly 4 in 5 people are dissatisfied with the direction of the country. Contrast this with the same poll question from the month of September 2001, when 1 in 5 people thought we were on the wrong track.

The American people are speaking loudly and clearly, as we often do. But as always in a campaign year, the people are being shoveled coverage of the two candidates like pig feed at a Jimmy Dean farm. And we can't get enough of either Sen. John McCain's search for relevance in rural grocery stores or Sen. Barack Obama doing his best Jesus impression for His giddy followers in Europe. It's hard to focus on the current administration when we look at the relative "inexperience" of a man who convened 200,000 people together in Berlin, versus the light years of "experience" of a man who wants to continue at least a minimal American presence in Iraq for 100 years, who can't remember Czechoslovakia is no longer a country, can't tell the difference between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, and can't even get an editorial published in the New York Times.

But, as always, I digress. In case you couldn't tell who I was just talking about, Sen. Obama is "The One" who went to Berlin.

The truth in Iraq is the coming down of violence, and Bush's new time horizon for a casual withdrawal of troops seems like more of a reality to the world. Now, contrary to the belief that withdrawal is automatically failure, Republicans can actually talk about withdrawal without sarcastic smirks of the same faux elitism they accuse Democrats, specifically Sen. Obama, of emitting to make them seem out of touch with normal Americans.

Just like Rep. Kucinich's article of impeachment, President Bush's new time horizon is too little, too late on a giant mistake. Whether or not Bush will actually receive any condemnation of his actions remains to be seen. However, due to the previous inaction by Congress and the shortness of time given to carry through to this goal -- which is only five months after Congress's summer break -- when it comes to impeaching the president, just call me the current U.S. Constitution.

I'm torn.

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