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Constitutional Facade, pot ruling

Reason  (magazine)

Medical Marijuana Madness

By Nick Gillespie | Aug 1, 2005

June's U.S. Supreme Court ruling against medical marijuana was widely expected, but that makes the decision no more defensible from a legal or moral perspective.

Writing for the 6-3 majority in Gonzales v. Raich , the 85-year-old liberal Justice John Paul Stevens solemnly counseled patients suffering chronic pain and other illnesses to turn to “the democratic process” for comfort. Perhaps, he mused with the confidence and compassion of a jurist who has one foot firmly planted in the grave, “the voices of voters allied with [respondents Angel Raich and Diane Monson] may one day be heard in the halls of Congress.”

While we wait for Congress to pass a medical marijuana bill, we can listen to the howls of anguish from people such as Raich and Monson, who suffer from a brain tumor and a degenerative spinal disease, respectively. Both smoke pot to dull their pain and keep their appetites up. They live in California, which in 1996 passed a ballot initiative approving medical marijuana by a vote of 56 percent to 44 percent (how's that for a “democratic process”?). Three years ago, they sought an injunction to prevent the Drug Enforcement Administration from confiscating their marijuana or arresting them.

The Court ruled that the Constitution's Commerce Clause, which gives Congress the power to “regulate Commerce…among the several states,” authorizes the federal government to pluck medicine from the hands of patients like Raich and Monson. The majority claimed, among other things, that even small amounts of homegrown pot used solely for medical purposes could make it impossible for federal law enforcement agencies to police illegal drugs.

In a dissent joined by Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor noted that the government “has not overcome empirical doubt that the number of Californians engaged in personal cultivation, possession, and use of medical marijuana, or the amount of marijuana they produce, is enough to threaten the federal regime.” As important, cultivation and possession of marijuana for one's own medical use is not commerce as we normally understand the term or as the Framers understood it. In a separate dissent, Thomas argued more broadly that “if Congress can regulate [medical marijuana] under the Commerce Clause, then it can regulate virtually anything—and the Federal Government is no longer one of limited and enumerated powers.” It's an outrage that such viewpoints failed to carry the day.

If the legal reasoning behind the Raich decision is murky, the moral impact of the decision is crystal clear. The Court has turned sick people into criminals—even in the 10 states where voters have used the democratic process to legalize medical marijuana. As Diane Monson told the press, “I'm going to have to be prepared to be arrested.”

In “A Menace to Society” (page 56), Reason 's resident cartoonist Peter Bagge chronicles the legal plight of medical marijuana user Roger Spohn. Created before the Raich ruling, the piece is only more powerful—and disturbing—in its wake.

 

 

The growing of marijuana is not a economic activity, and thus is not subject to the commerce cause of our constitution.  The ruling is one more example of how our constitution is a façade (disregarded when inconvenient).  The clause permits only regulation of trade between states.  That distinction was lost in 1942, when local milk production was subjected to federal farm regulations.  What’s so wrong about states retaining the right to regulate local activities, a right given by our constitution?  The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals saw it that way, but not our Supreme Court who overturned their ruling.  Eleven states have passed laws permitting the medicinal use of marijuana--jk

In 2000, Americans bought about $10.5 billion worth of marijuana from drug dealers, according to an estimate by the Office of National Drug Control Policy.  Last year (03), the FBI recorded 755,286 marijuana arrest—Nov. 26, 2004 USA Today, Richard Willing.

 

There are a number of articles on recreational drugs and a seminal one the abandonment of the Bill of Rights by our Supreme Court

#211 Section on stolen elections

Dishonorable Mention

 

Chester Trent Lott Sr. (born October 9, 1941) is a United States Senator from Mississippi and a member of the Republican Party. He served as Senate Majority Leader from 1996 to June 6, 2001, interrupted only by a brief period in January 2001, during which he held the position of Senate Minority Leader. After Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont left the Republican Party to become an independent in June 2001, giving the Democrats control of the Senate, Lott served as Minority Leader until his resignation from that position in December 2002 due to controversial remarks. The remark in praise of Senator Strom Thurmond, an open racist, highlighted Lott’s own racist voting record.  From 1981 to 1989 he was also a House Minority Whip.  As Majority Leader he played a prominate role in the impeachment trial of Bill Clinton. 

 

David Bruce Vitter (born May 3, 1961) is an American Republican politician, currently serving as the junior U.S. Senator from Louisiana.  He is known for his opposition to same-sex marriage and his support of abstenance sex education.  .  Vitter won a special election to Louisiana's 1st Congressional District in 1999, succeeding Republican Congressman Bob Livingston, who resigned after an adultery scandal.  Vitter in July of 2007 was identified as a client of "D.C. Madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey's escort service in Washington, D.C.   Vitter appeared with his wife on television following this revelation.  She stated that she forgave him. 

 

New inductees into the Ethics Hall of Shame:

 

Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa

 

Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W-Va)

 

Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Ca)

Updated June of 08

 

http://www.cleanupwashington.org/hos/ is a site dedicated to the corruption and malfeasance of our congressional leaders.

Listed there with details are Tom DeLay, Randal Duke Cunningham, Bob Ney, Richard Pombo, Conrad Burns, William Jefferson, and Jack Abramoff.

 

 

 

http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/religion/spurious.htm, about various bible sources, their lack of agreement

 

http://nofreelunch.org/reqreading.htm about drug companies influencing medical decisions. 

 

 

 

 

Senator Ted Stevens (born  November 18, 1923) who has served since 1968 was convicted on 7 counts contected to handling of public funds.

From wikipedia.org: 

On July 29, 2008 Stevens was indicted by a federal grand jury on seven counts of failing to properly report gifts and found guilty at trial three months later (October 27, 2008).  The charges relate to renovations to his home and alleged gifts from VECO Corporation, claimed to be worth more than $250,000.  The indictment followed a lengthy investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for possible corruption into Alaskan politicians and was based on his relationship with Bill Allen. Allen, then an oil service company executive, had earlier pled guilty, with sentencing suspended pending his cooperation in gathering evidence and giving testimony in other trials, to bribing several Alaskan state legislators, including a disputed claim about Stevens' son, former State Senator Ben Stevens. Stevens declared, "I'm innocent," and pled not guilty to the charges in a federal district court on July 31, 2008. Stevens asserted his right to a speedy trial so that he could have the opportunity to promptly clear his name and requested that the trial be held before the 2008 election.

 

Home Remodeling and VECO

May 29, 2007, the Anchorage Daily News reported that the FBI and a federal grand jury were investigating an "extensive" remodeling project at Stevens' home in Girdwood. Stevens' Alaska home was raided by the FBI and IRS on July 30, 2007.  The remodeling work doubled the size of the modest home. Public records show that the house was 2,471 square feet (230 m2) after the remodeling and that the property was valued at $271,300 in 2003, including a $5,000 increase in land value.  The remodel in 2000 was organized by Bill Allen, a founder of the VECO Corporation, an oil-field service company and has been estimated to have cost VECO and the various contractors $250,000 or more.  However, the residential contractor who finished the renovation for VECO, Augie Paone, "believes the [Stevens'] remodeling could have cost ― if all the work was done efficiently ― around $130,000 to $150,000, close to the figure Stevens cited last year.”  In June, the Anchorage Daily News reported that a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., heard evidence in May about the expansion of Stevens' Girdwood home and other matters connecting Stevens to VECO.  In mid-June, FBI agents questioned several aides who work for Stevens as part of the investigation.[64] In July, Washingtonian magazine reported that Stevens had hired "Washington’s most powerful and expensive lawyer", Brendan Sullivan Jr., in response to the investigation.  In 2006, during wiretapped conversations with Bill Allen, Stevens expressed worries over potential misunderstandings and legal complications arising from the sweeping federal investigations into Alaskan politics.  On the witness stand, "Allen testified that VECO staff who had worked on his own house had charged 'way too much,' leaving him uncertain how much to invoice Stevens for when he had his staff work on the senator's house ... that he would be embarrassed to bill Stevens for overpriced labor on the house, and said he concealed some of the expense."

 

Bob Penney

In September, The Hill reported that Stevens had "steered millions of federal dollars to a sportfishing industry group founded by Bob Penney, a longtime friend". In 1998, Stevens invested 15,000 in a Utah land deal managed by Penney; in 2004, Stevens sold his share of the property for $150,000. 

 

Guilty verdict

On October 27, 2008, Stevens was found guilty of all seven charges against him. He is the fifth sitting senator ever to be convicted by a jury in U.S. history, and the first since Senator Harrison A William. (D-NJ) in 1981.  His sentingcing hearing is scheduled for Feb. 25.  However, FBI Agent Chad in February 2009 filed a whistleblower affidavit concerning gross government misconduct (FBI sending back to Alaska a witness who would have undercut their case and other exculpatory materials were withheld),  This  was addressed in  a hearing on Feb. 13.  At the hearing the Judge Sullivan held the prosecutors in contempt for failing to deliver documents to Steven's legal counsel.   

 

 

 

If there lips are moving they are lying (said of politician)
 
 

To understand developments in our political system (both parties) one must understand the role of neoliberalism.  Any analysis which misses this connection is grossly inadequate.  (Neocons follow neoliberalism economic policies). 

 

We have an evil, evil system. Words such as imperialism, greed, corporate greed, neoliberalism, neoconservate, globalism, bought politicians, control of media are descriptive.   There are reasons why the labor movement has collapsed.  It is the politics of neoliberalism, an out growth of corporate greed.  Given how it opposes the public weal, we have devoted a section to expose just what neoliberalism is—a thing that the five corporations which own broadcasting will not do. 

 

THE BRINK OF ECONOMIC COLLAPSE

Things have gotten worse, the hole the neocons has dug is much deeper.  The economic stats are worse than bad:  the trend is toward greater disparity of wealth and on top of that the U.S. is loaded with debt and imbalance of trade.  The debt can through fiscal austerity can be paid off (as some of it was under Clinton), but the trade imbalance will only grow due to the dismantling of are industrial base and the setting up of free trade agreements such as NAFTA.   The current foreign debt is equaled to over 70% of GDP, a ratio unmatched by far among industrialized nations.  To find out what economics is called the dismal science and the role of neoliberalism.