Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Teachers for sensible drug policy...
This is what illegal campaigning looks like...
Tell Walters to resign.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
The Nation on Scooter Libby and nonviolent drug offenders
Writing to President Bush, Pollitt highlights the loss of student aid for college as a particularly devastating drug penalty:
But perhaps you are looking for one big compassionate gesture that would help a lot of people all at once and not require asking your friends and relatives embarrassing questions. With one stroke of your pen, you could pardon 200,000 young people. These are the youths who have fallen afoul of the drug provision of the 1998 Higher Education Act, which bars federal student aid to anyone convicted of a state or federal drug offense. That includes everything from government scholarships to work-study jobs. Unlike Libby, a middle-aged high-powered lawyer of considerable worldliness and wealth, these are just teenagers, who are famous for being idiots, and they violated laws that are broken every day by millions of normal, upstanding, productive citizens, including many Republicans. I don't think that can be said of lying to the FBI. Most people, even most Republicans, take that one pretty seriously. Also unlike Libby, these offenders have already paid their debt to society. Now they are dropping out of college, or not going--unless, of course, their parents can afford to pay full freight. Talk about unintended consequences--a law meant to warn kids away from drugs ends up keeping them out of college, but only if they're poor. You always say no child should be left behind. Pardon them, and people might begin to believe you actually mean it.It's true. Students who rely on financial aid to pay for school are often forced to drop out immediately after being convicted of a drug offense, while the well-to-do often 1) can afford a good lawyer to avoid a conviction in the first place or 2) know someone who can commute their sentence.
If you think it's best that students with drug convictions stay in school and on the path to success - regardless of how you feel about Messrs. Bush and Libby - you can easily send a letter to your legislators asking them to overturn the aid elimination penalty.
Partisan Republican Drug Czar must resign
In an e-mail from ONDCP White House liason Doug Simon, he commends Karl Rove for orchestrating the operation, and thanks other members of his office, including Drug Czar John Walters, "because they actually had to give up time with their families for the god awful places we sent them."
With such disdain for those districts coming from the Republican administration, is it really any wonder that Democrats swept Congress last November?
And it is not only offensive that an someone charged with crafting sensible policies to address the serious harms of drug abuse and drug prohibition would waste government resources and time on partisan politics, it is a blatant violation of the federal Hatch Act.
Hrmmm... political appointees abusing their office for partisan purposes. Sound familiar?
Please join us in calling for the Drug Czar to resign in the wake of this outrageous scandal. Just enter your e-mail address below and the rest of your info on the following page. A letter will be sent directly to the Drug Czar. And your members of Congress - who control ONDCP's budget - will be copied on the message.
Even if the Drug Czar doesn't listen to us, our lawmakers who are CC'ed on our messages will have to. Take action now!
BREAKING: Drug Czar spending YOUR money on helping friends win elections
Today, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (one of my personal favorite committees), announced that the Office of National Drug Control Policy spent taxpayer money trying to get friends of the Bush administration elected last year.
...and his friends.At the request of Sara Taylor, the former White House Director of Political Affairs, John Walters, the nation’s drug czar, and his deputies traveled to 20 events with vulnerable Republican members of Congress in the months prior to the 2006 elections. The trips were paid for by federal taxpayers and several were combined with the announcement of federal grants or actions that benefited the districts of the Republican members.
A November 20, 2006, memo from Ms. Taylor summarizes the travel Director Walters took at her request. An agency e-mail sent the following day describes how Karl Rove commended the historically nonpartisan Office of National Drug Control Policy and three cabinet departments – Commerce, Transportation, and Agriculture – for “going above and beyond the call of duty” in making “surrogate appearances” at locations the e-mail described as “the god awful places we sent them.” Other documents include an e-mail from the Interior Department to Ms. Taylor’s predecessor stating: “these folks need to be reminded who they work for and how their geographical travel can benefit this President.”
Walters is probably having a bad day. Not only is Congress likely going to cut his office's advertising and drug testing budget as they've done for the past several years, but Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman sent Walters a laundry list of demands related to the political motivations behind his travels.
Recite after me, Johnny. "I don't recall being aware of.... I don't recall being aware of..."
[Thanks, Sanho]
Harry Pothead: The Sorceror's Stoned
I'm not so embarassed about that, not even the cape part. What is embarassing is the fact that, circa 2000, I wrote a story entitled "Harry Pothead: The Sorceror's Stoned." I posted it on fanfiction.net along with my other really horrible stories about Legend of Zelda, Harry Potter, and the X-men. (No, I am not providing a link here. Go find it yourself.) If you are not familiar with fanfiction.net, that's okay; you live a relatively normal lifestyle. If you are familiar, then you are laughing heartily with me right now. Or at me. I don't mind.
It was basically reefer madness, Hogwarts style. I had forgotten what D.A.R.E. had taught me about how to ingest marijuana, so I simply made it "magical" marijuana so powerful that just being in a greenhouse with it could get you buzzed. I did, however, remember D.A.R.E.'s claims about the drug's effects. As in Reefer Madness, one mere toke got Jimmy I mean Harry hooked. Here are some excerpts:
From Chapter One, in which the plant is introduced in Herbology class and Hermione is too stoned to answer Professor Sprout's question:
"Marijuana, also known as 'pot', is a powerful, illegal drug that can be smoked or eaten. Its effects include dizzyness, violence, hallucinations, aggression, and loss of coordination. Using, holding, buying, or selling marijuana results in jail time and suspension from school," Lavender answered, sounding like she'd swallowed the D.A.R.E. workbook. [I actually did consult my old workbook for this.]
In chapter two, Harry gets hooked through a series of events involving innocent curiosity and a freak wand accident. Deus ex machina like whoa.
In chapter three, Draco Malfoy makes fun of the crazy things Harry did while high and consequently gets punched in the face by an unusually aggressive Harry.
Chapter Four and thankfully the final chapter, in which Fred and George Weasley drug everybody as a prank and the strung out Professor Trelawney saves the day thanks to her high tolerance:
"YOU DRUGGED UP DRACO MALFOY?" Hermione thundered, looking like a crazed angry rhinocerous. Then she started laughing insanely at something behind the Weasley twins.
"Yo dudes, what's shakin'? I'm feelin' some bad vibes, man," Snape said. He was wearing tie-dyed robes and his oily hair hung over his face.
"Yes we did, Hermione," George whispered. "But we didn't stop at just ONE little Slytherin first year... we had lots left, why waste it?" Everyone who heard this statement either eyed their goblets suspiciously or spat out their pumpkin juice in horror.
"Whoa, dudes!" Snape jumped in alarm as everyone sprayed him with their spat-out pumpkin juice. "Love and peace, man, love and peace."
Make of it what you will.
There was going to be a sequel, Harry Pothead and the Scent Dogs from Azkaban. That fic would probably more serve the drug policy reform side than the anti-drug propaganda side. Perhaps I shall redeem myself by writing it, or a different and more hilarious version of the original... but then I'd have to redeem myself again just for writing fanfiction, so I dunno. (Said the girl who's going to a midnight release in costume. Seriously, what do I have to lose?)
Monday, July 16, 2007
You know what's awesome?
It would probably be more effective if I were myself a police officer, but I did give a brief explanation and I did see him read the quote on the back of the postcard: "Of the hundreds of conferences I've attended in my career, this was the best." -Norm Stamper, former Seattle police cheif, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. And he did say thanks.
Seems unlikely that a little postcard will change the guy's mind about drug policy, especially since it's relatively early in his career, but I've been carrying those damn invitations around since they gave 'em to me at the SSDP National Office. So now I'm being the Johnny Appleseed of drug policy reform. Or the Jehovah's Witness, but with less doors slamming in my face.
So, what would you do with a pile of colorful, 5 1/2 x 8" invitations?
P.S. The summer '07 edition of SSDP's newsletter is out, didya read it?