Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Starr moves up from Presidential Blow-Jobs to Bong Hits for Jesus I've talked about this case before, but it's really getting bizarre. A high-powered Los Angeles law firm on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review whether Juneau Douglas School District had a right to punish a student who stood off school grounds during the passing of the Olympic torch holding a banner that read, "Bong Hits 4 Jesus." The phrase is so giggle-worthy, so odd, so catchy, that the entire lengthy legal affair is often referred to simply as the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus case." Here's what happened: The torch passed the school. Some kids had skipped out to make fast food runs. Others cheered. Frederick and some buddies stood across the street and held up their 10-foot banner. Morse crossed the street, grabbed the sign and ultimately suspended Frederick for 10 days. District officials agreed his banner violated school anti-drug policies. Well, the 9th Circuit ruled that the student had a right to free speech. Fancy that! So look at the attempt that's been collected to appeal this to the Supreme Court: Kirkland & Ellis LLP -- a 1,100-attorney law firm with offices around the country and clients around the world -- is representing the Juneau School Board and Morse. Lead counsel on the case includes Kenneth Starr, author of the infamous Starr Report to Congress on the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal that led to the impeachment of President Clinton. In this case, Starr's team argues the U.S. Supreme Court should review the Bong Hits 4 Jesus case because "the Ninth Circuit's decision, as a practical matter, renders long-standing school policies against pro-drug messages unenforceable," according to a press release the law office sent out Monday. Clearly, this is a free speech issue. And this extremely high-priced legal group, led by the blow-job prosecutor, is stepping up to make sure that Americans will not have the right to talk freely -- specifically about drugs or drug policy. Fascinating. Anybody know who is paying the bill? 10:30:16 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Another Drug Policy Reform Community on the Block StopTheDrugWar.org, long-time publisher of the Drug War Chronicle, has gotten a face-lift and a Speakeasy. Stop the Drug War Speakeasy is a new blogging platform for drug policy reform, where anyone can get an account and join the discussion. Check it out. It's nice to see the reform community continually expanding and keeping up with technology in ways that the prohibitionists could only dream. We've got established powerful communities like MAPinc, whose efforts have generated over $20 million worth of press value (and has spilled over into the amazing DrugWarRant.net letter-writing team. We've got discussion groups all over the net like Cannabis News, and our friends have instigated or responded to drug policy discussions on hundreds of general and specific-themed messageboards. With the advent of newsreaders and an army of interested reformers, there's hardly an obscure LiveJournal blogger that can spout drug war ignorance without an informed reader coming to the rescue. Student groups like SSDP have MySpace and Facebook groups, and a bunch of law enforcement officers against prohibition have a YouTube video! What do the prohibitionists have? Taxpayer-funded propaganda websites, and the extremely lame Pushing Back "blog" (which probably gets more hits from us than anyone else). 10:05:45 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Irrelevancy So the media's been all over this failure of the ONDCP to be accountable in their advertising. Say Uncle pointed out this amazing quote in USA Today: The GAO report is "irrelevant to us," says Tom Riley, spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). Oh? The report by the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, confirmed the results of a $43 million, government-funded study that found the campaign did not work. That evaluation, by Westat Inc. and the University of Pennsylvania, said parents and youths remembered the ads and their messages. But the study said exposure to the ads did not change kids' attitudes about drugs and that the reduction in drug use in recent years could be attributed more directly to a range of other factors, such as a decline in high school dropouts. But of course, to the ONDCP, facts are "irrelevant" in accounting for the failure of massive expenditures of taxpayer dollars. Tom, over at DARE Generation Diary, noticed a delightful dig by USA Today at the Drug Czar -- in the print version, they placed their article exposing the failure of the ONDCP media campaign right next to one of those expensive ads from the drug czar! (check out the scan at Tom's post) Michael points out a great editorial at the Las Vegas Review-Journal: This is your ad budget on drugs: If the ads or programming in question simply familiarize viewers with voting locations, or flood warnings, that's fine. But the reason America has a free press is that the founders realized the public would be best "served" with a vigorous public debate on issues of the day. "Public service," on the other hand, is increasingly a euphemism for "propaganda" -- only the official government line need be presented. Americans -- even America's kids -- show an admirable skepticism toward such simple-minded "orders from on high." Let's not waste any more on this folly. Let's go back to the Drug Czar's spokesman... The GAO report is "irrelevant to us," says Tom Riley, spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). Does he even know what he's saying? If one of my students said "You know, your failing grade is irrelevant to me," I'd accept that. After all, he paid for the class, and what he gets out of it is up to him. Of course, that means he isn't going to be getting a degree, but that's his choice. But if I go to my boss and say: "Your evaluation of my job is irrelevant to me, I would quickly be unemployed. It's time to make the point that if our employees (the Drug Czar and his staff) think evaluations are irrelevant then they might as well start looking for new jobs. [More fun on this at Cato: Anti-Drug Campaign Failure and Wonkette: This Is Your Brain Wanting To Get High] 8:22:11 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Busted For those of you at Illinois State University, there will be a showing of "Busted - The Citizen's Guide to Surviving Police Encounters" in 212 Stevenson Hall tomorrow (Wednesday) at 8 pm. Check it out and find out more about the new chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy. If you're not already aware, "Busted" - from FlexYourRights.org is an important 4th Amendment primer. Some very corny acting at times, but great content. Everybody needs to be aware of their rights as free citizens -- it's your patriotic duty. If you don't have the DVD or can't get to a showing, it's available on YouTube for free. 7:35:46 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []