Updates: Cheye Calvo and Michael Phelps
 April Witt's outstanding feature, about the drug raid that terrorized Mayor Cheye Calvo's family and murdered his dogs, seems to be making a huge impact. It's the most viewed Washington Post article right now and has over 500 comments (only a very small handful support the actions of the Prince George's County officials).
April Witt and Cheye Calvo had a live online discussion earlier today - here is the transcript (well worth reading). Lots of excellent questions and responses. I look forward to more from April Witt in the future.
I also learned that there is a facebook group: Friends of Cheye Calvo, which the Mayor plans to use to pass on progress regarding legislation he's trying to get written and passed to change how decisions are made regarding the use of SWAT. (For those without Facebook access, I'll keep you informed, of course.)
George Obama seems to be disappearing quickly from the news. Charges have been dropped and apparently only involved him being in the same room with people who possessed cannabis anyway.
Besides, the press has the deliciously sensational Michael Phelps story to obsess about. They're having a field day, with "journalists," who couldn't cross the width of an Olympic pool while wearing water wings, clucking about the disgraceful and irresponsible Phelps, who has destroyed his career while ruining his life and all the lives of everyone else in the world who looks up to him and every other athlete who has ever or ever will exist.... merely by hitting a bong. Others, who spent their college years blazing to Dark Side of the Moon, are more charitable, noting that a 23-year-old is likely to make mistakes, and even though this is a serious one, at least he apologized, so it's possible that he might be able to be rehabilitated.
Of course, none of them (except the majority of commenters to the articles) is willing to state the truth -- that Phelps did nothing wrong and certainly nothing for which he should apologize. That the only reason for Phelps to apologize is to mollify the endorsers so he can bring in the piles of cash he deserves for all the work he did preparing for the Olympics.
There were exceptions. As Ken Tucker reports about some ignorant comments by Elisabeth Hasselbeck on The View, he noted:
In response to this, Whoopi Goldberg said, "I'm gonna make an admission, I hope you all are sitting down: I have smoked weed." She then made the point that Phelps is being paid "millions" not to "be perfect," but "to be a spokesperson for a company."
Perhaps the best thing about this segment of "Hot Topics" is that it compelled Barbara Walters to say the phrase "smoke weed" a number of times. This was the funniest part of the show.
7:21:04 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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