Utah Saints – Something Good 08

Jack Cafferty apparently isn’t alone in thinking that the war on drugs is a waste of good money.

A Billion Dollars a Year Spent on Jailing Pot Offenders

NORML’s Paul Armentano has an op-ed in today’s Examiner pointing out that the U.S. is spending $1 billion dollars a year to incarcerate people for marijuana offenses. The figure comes from the latest report released by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics.

The new report is noteworthy because it undermines the common claim from law enforcement officers and bureaucrats, specifically White House drug czar John Walters, that few, if any, Americans are incarcerated for marijuana-related offenses. In reality, nearly 1 out of 8 U.S. drug prisoners are locked up for pot.

…not to mention the effect on the pizza industry!

In this photo released Tuesday, March 31, 2009, by the Newark (Ohio) Police Department, a motorized bar stool is shown. Police in Newark, 30 miles east of Columbus, say when they responded to a report of a crash with injuries on March 4 2009, they found a man who had wrecked a bar stool powered by a deconstructed lawn mower. Police say Kile Wygle, 28 was charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated after he told an officer at the hospital that he had consumed 15 beers. Wygle told police his motorized bar stool can go up to 38 mph. (AP Photo/Newark (Ohio) Police Department)

Estimated amount of money spent in Iraq every MINUTE.

Our friend, The government:

Immigration officials detaining, deporting American citizens

FLORENCE, Ariz. — Thomas Warziniack was born in Minnesota and grew up in Georgia, but immigration authorities pronounced him an illegal immigrant from Russia.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has held Warziniack for weeks in an Arizona detention facility with the aim of deporting him to a country he’s never seen. His jailers shrugged off Warziniack’s claims that he was an American citizen, even though they could have retrieved his Minnesota birth certificate in minutes and even though a Colorado court had concluded that he was a U.S. citizen a year before it shipped him to Arizona.

On Thursday, Warziniack finally became a free man. Immigration officials released him after his family, who learned about his predicament from McClatchy, produced a birth certificate and after a U.S. senator demanded his release.

“The immigration agents told me they never make mistakes,” Warziniack said in an earlier phone interview from jail. “All I know is that somebody dropped the ball.”

According to investigative journalist Sy Hersh, in his waning days of the vice presidency Dick Cheney tried to sabotage Obama by telling the Israelis that then president-elect Obama was “pro Palestinian” and would not support Israel. Keith Olbermann discusses with Richard Wolffe.

I was just wondering what the latest is with the Franken(winner)/Coleman(loser) race. Seems a three-judge panel in Minnesota will rule on Norm Coleman’s lawsuit to overturn the results of the state’s Senate election recount soon. But this won’t end anytime soon. Coleman can file another appeal if he doesn’t win this round, and is being encouraged by Senate republicans to take it to the U.S. supreme court if necessary. More obstructionism from the Republicans. Oh what a shock. Talk about sore losers. Geezzzz. So what if this is still going on come the next election cycle? Then what? What if another election rolls around and no one has been declared the winner of the past election? Ridiculous. Give it up Coleman. Wouldn’t you like to tatoo a big L on his forehead? I would……

MICROSOFT BRIDGE SEEN AS STIMULUS WASTE

JACK CAFFERTY: WAR ON DRUGS IS INSANE

CONFICKER DAY

TORTURE ON AMERICAN SOIL

CHICAGO SUN TIMES FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY

ISRAEL CLOSES PROBE OF GAZA INCIDENTS, DENIES THEY HAPPENED

IS CALM IN IRAQ JUST THE EYE OF THE STORM?

RECORD HOME PRICE DROP IN JANUARY

PAUL KRUGMAN: AMERICA THE TARNISHED

UNIONS PROTEST JOE THE PLUMBER IN PITTSBURG

WHERE’S THE OUTRAGE OVER WORKERS GETTING THE SHAFT?

This time it’s Merrill Lynch. Truthout has the scoop:

Merrill Lynch Bonus Payments Dwarf A.I.G.

[...] A larger and potentially far more explosive powder keg of bonus payments – this time to top executives at now defunct Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. – may be about to blow. [...]

In its last days as an independent company, Merrill gave performance-based bonuses exclusively to employees earning $300,000 a year or more and holding a rank of vice president or higher, according to their financial statements. $3.62 billion was handed out to these executives – a sum equal to 36.2 percent of the $10 billion in taxpayer funds that were allocated to Merrill as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) before the bonuses were paid.

The company had been failing as a result of misadventures in the now infamous mortgaged-backed securities market which began crumbling with the decline of home values as the bubble burst.

The performance bonuses were determined by Merrill’s compensation committee on December 8, 2008, before Merrill revealed that it lost $15 billion in the final three months of 2008, unusual timing according to court documents filed by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in an ongoing suit against Merrill’s former CEO.

Jack Cafferty makes a damn fine argument for the legalization of drugs.

No matter what we do, curtailing illegal drug use is simply impossible. But the cost of the war on drugs is too expensive. People are going to have their drugs, whether they’re illegal or not. So why not legalize and tax drugs, and empty out all those filled to the brim, expensive to operate prisons? Our court system is strained, mostly from drug-related crime. Legalizing drug use would remove that strain. And imagine the tax revenue that would be generated… It’s a win, win, win!

Commentary: War on drugs is insane

NEW YORK (CNN) — Here’s something to think about:

How many police officers and sheriff’s deputies are involved in investigating and solving crimes involving illegal drugs? [...] How many prosecutors and their staffs spend time prosecuting drug cases? [...] How many hours of courtroom time are devoted to drug trials? [...] How many prison cells are filled with drug offenders? [...] And how many ex-offenders turn right around and do it again?

So how’s this war on drugs going?

Someone described insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result each time. That’s a perfect description of the war on drugs.

The United States is the largest illegal drug market in the world. Americans want their weed, crack, cocaine, heroin, whatever. And they’re willing to pay big money to get it.

Todd Rundgren – Hello Its Me
(LIVE version only.)

The official George W. Bush Presidential Librarium is now open.

Go check it out!