Sunday, March 30, 2008

DEA -- a record of constant failure The Drug Enforcement Agency needs to be put out of its misery. It's a completely failed, corrupt organization with no legitimate accomplishable goals, that's being used for personal and political gain, dirty tricks, spying, drug-running, and undermining legitimate state and sovereign governments. If that wasn't enough, sometimes they're also the keystone cops. A new audit discovered over 90 weapons and 230 laptop computers missing from the DEA, despite a bad audit for those specific items in 2002 and new procedures being put in place to better account for them. And this follows a 2006 audit that took a look at the supposed $339 million the DEA had seized in 2005 and discovered they had no idea how close that number was to the truth, given the serious failures in following established procedures when dealing with cash. But at least they've got a museum, and a brand new Spike-TV show. Oh, and guns. They've got guns. (Except for the ones they lost, of course.) 11:46:55 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Clergy Speak Out Against 'The War on Drugs' - update: link fixed Here's a little Sunday morning inspiration for you. Send it to all your church-going friends and relatives. It's just over 9 minutes long and it's a must-see. "It's so important for us, as both religious leaders... as members of congregations, to resist any sort of complicity, any sort of willingness to go along with this, because I think that ultimately really compromises our life of faith and our own morality." - Father Earl Kooperkamp, St. Mary's Episcopal "I would hold the religious community responsible for that. I think it's an aspect of American puritanism/ And then we got into hysteria around that -- in a way it's a projection of anxiety onto certain people, again for puritanical purposes. And so, once we went down this path, then fueled by religious communities who supported it, it just picked up steam. And now it's one of the reasons that we, as religious leaders, need to speak out against it, because we were responsible for it." - The Very Rev. Scott Richardson, St. Paul's Episcopal, San Diego "It needs to be repealed. It can't be just reformed. The whole system has to.. the whole drug policy and those laws have to be repealed." - Sister Marion Defeis, Catholic prison chaplain, ret. Here's an expanded Part 2, which is 17 minutes. Another great job by Mike Gray. Via Transform (Also posted on the Drug War Videos page.) 2:25:51 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []