Saturday, March 28, 2009

Glenn Greenwald is a must-read Jim Webb's courage v. the "pragmatism" excuse for politicians Seriously. Just go over there and read the whole thing. But here's a couple of paragraphs for you anyway. What's most notable about Webb's decision to champion this cause is how honest his advocacy is. He isn't just attempting to chip away at the safe edges of America's oppressive prison state. His critique of what we're doing is fundamental, not incremental. And, most important of all, Webb is addressing head-on one of the principal causes of our insane imprisonment fixation: our aberrational insistence on criminalizing and imprisoning non-violent drug offenders (when we're not doing worse to them). That is an issue most politicians are petrified to get anywhere near, as evidenced just this week by Barack Obama's adolescent, condescending snickering when asked about marijuana legalization, in response to which Obama gave a dismissive answer that Andrew Sullivan accurately deemed "pathetic." [...] Our political class has trained so many citizens not only to tolerate, but to endorse, cowardly behavior on the part of their political leaders. When politicians take bad positions, ones that are opposed by large numbers of their supporters, it is not only the politicians, but also huge numbers of their supporters, who step forward to offer excuses and justifications: well, they have to take that position because it's too politically risky not to; they have no choice and it's the smart thing to do. [...] But the fact that cowardly actions from political leaders are inevitable is no reason to excuse or, worse, justify and even advocate that cowardice. In fact, the more citizens are willing to excuse and even urge political cowardice in the name of "realism" or "pragmatism" ("he was smart to take this bad, unjust position because Americans are too stupid or primitive for him to do otherwise and he needs to be re-elected"), the more common that behavior will be. 3:34:37 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

Charlie Lynch, Montel Williams and Stephen Baldwin on Larry King Here's the transcript of last night's show (scroll down near the bottom). Here are a couple of excerpts from Baldwin... SMILEY: What about that distinction between legalizing and decriminalizing? What about the latter? BALDWIN: I disagree with the latter as well. You're talking to a guy 20 years sober, Tavis, off of drugs and alcohol. I know the affects of marijuana firsthand. I can tell you right now, if this starts to become something that is more readily available to our youth, the ramifications and repercussions of that in the next 30 years will be beyond our comprehension. SMILEY: Do you buy the argument that marijuana leads to harder stuff? BALDWIN: That's a fact. [...] BALDWIN: Last time I was on the show with Ron Paul, you wouldn't believe the e-mails I got, people are going to kill me, shoot me, all kinds of stuff. America wants it's marijuana, man, I get it. But I am just worried -- I am more concerned for the future and the youth of America. And this drug, which is a very dangerous drug -- it's not a casual thing. It's very dangerous -- is negatively effecting our youth. In addition to being completely wrong, Baldwin has an extremely inflated opinion of his own importance. I don't know of any marijuana legalization advocates who would care enough about Stephen Baldwin to lift a finger. Fact is, we're quite delighted to have him as the face of prohibition, and would be happy for him to keep showing up on talk shows. He makes our job easier. 10:41:42 AM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []