Opposing Legal Weed Could Cost Obama Votes, Pot Advocate Says

A man smokes a marijuana cigarette at a marijuana rally.

On Friday Reuters reported that nine former U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency heads urged Attorney General Eric Holder to oppose marijuana legalization measures that will appear on ballots in Colorado, Washington state and Oregon this November.

"To continue to remain silent conveys to the American public and the global community a tacit acceptance of these dangerous initiatives," the nine said in the letter to holder obtained by Reuters.

Mason Tvert, co-director of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, told The Huffington Post that these ex-drug warriors' position to keep the war on marijuana alive and well should come as no surprise, but that Holder should be wary of such requests.

"It is not surprising that these men, who have made a living off of marijuana prohibition, want their successors to continue profiting from the existence of the underground marijuana market," Tvert told The Huffington Post via email. "They just want to keep billions of taxpayer dollars flowing to their buddies. They know that marijuana prohibition isn't really improving public safety; just as our nation's streets weren't safer when Al Capone and his cohorts controlled the alcohol trade."

Tvert added: "For Eric Holder to act as the mouthpiece for these old school warriors of the irrational war on marijuana that is rapidly losing public support would be sending a message to tens of thousands of passionate supporters of Amendment 64 that their opinions do not matter. He will be telling them that Colorado must continue to live under a system of marijuana prohibition not because it makes sense, but because the federal government demands it."

Colorado's Amendment 64 which seeks the legalization of marijuana for adults age 21 and older appears to be popular among voters. A recent poll from Rasmussen showed that 61 percent of likely Colorado voters are in favor of legalizing marijuana if it is regulated the way that alcohol and cigarettes are currently regulated.

Politically, the measure has received support from both Democrats and Republicans in Colorado, as well as more than 100 professors from around the nation.

According to a new report by the Colorado Center on Law & Policy, the passage of Amendment 64 could be a boon for the state economy. Marijuana legalization would produce hundreds of new jobs, raise millions for the construction of Colorado public schools and raise around $60 million annually in combined savings and revenue for Colorado's budget, the report says.

And it's not just marijuana use advocates that are behind the measure. The NAACP has backed pot legalization measures in Oregon and in Colorado not because the group necessarily favors marijuana use, but because members say current marijuana laws lead to a disproportionately high number of people of color being incarcerated or otherwise negatively affected.

"Marijuana prohibition policy does more harm to our communities than good," said Rosemary Harris Lytle in a statement, president of the NAACP-Colorado-Montana-Wyoming State Conference. "That is why we have endorsed Amendment 64 which presents a more effective and socially responsible approach to how Colorado addresses the adult use of marijuana."

The NAACP provided this data in a press statement about marijuana arrests in Colorado:

African-Americans made up roughly 4% of the population in Colorado in 2010, but they accounted for about 9% of marijuana possession arrests and 22% of arrests for marijuana sales and cultivation. The numbers in Denver are particularly staggering. According to a report prepared by the Denver Police Department for the the city's Marijuana Policy Review Panel, African-Americans accounted for more than 31.5% percent of arrests for private adult marijuana possession, despite making up less than 11% of the city's population.

Tvert also spoke about the forecast that Amendment 64 will bring out young voters, who continue to overwhelmingly support President Obama in swing state Colorado. "At a time when President Obama is counting on the support of young voters in Colorado, such a message from Holder could do significant damage to his prospects," Tvert said. "Following the advice of these former DEA chiefs would not only be a bad policy decision, but also a bad political decision."

The letter sent to holder is similar to one that the same group sent to Holder in 2010 urging him to oppose Proposition 19 -- a pot legalization ballot measure in California. It was defeated with 53.5 percent of voters rejecting it, Reuters reports.

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Shocking Sign Comparing Obama To Mass Shooter Comes Down

WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 03: U.S. President Barack Obama speaks about tax legislation facing Congress at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building August 3, 2012 in Washington, DC. Earlier in the day a new employment report was released indicating that 163,000 new jobs were added to the U.S. economy and the unemployment rose slightly to 8.3 percent in the month of July. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

A controversial billboard comparing President Barack Obama with Aurora shooting suspect James Holmes has come down.

(See a photo of the billboard below.)

The electronic billboard featured a photo of Holmes with the words "Kills 12 in a movie theater with assault rifle, everyone freaks out" next to a photo of Obama with the words "Kills thousands with foreign policy, wins Nobel Peace Prize." The sign is located in Caldwell, Idaho and sponsored by The Ralph Smeed Foundation, supporters of the late activist for libertarian causes in Idaho.

Maurice Clements, president of the board of the Smeed Foundation, stood by the billboard's controversial message, saying the group was making a "justifiable comparison."

“We don’t want to offend people,” Clements said, according to the Idaho Press-Tribune. “We’re trying to gain friends for our message.”

Some local residents didn't agree, calling the sign "offensive," "abhorrent" and "pathetic."

Holmes was recently charged with 24 counts of first-degree murder and 116 counts of attempted murder after being arrested for allegedly opening fire on a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 people and injuring 58. The maximum penalty Holmes faces is death.

PHOTO:

Below, a slideshow of below-the-belt political attacks:

Loading Slideshow

Negative campaigning has become more effective since 1828, though at times no less brutal. Many attribute this growing efficiency to the legacy of Republican strategist Lee Atwater. The former RNC chairman may have been best known as a driving force behind political ads such as the iconic Willie Horton commercial against Michael Dukakis in 1988, but his past involvement in smear campaigns is much deeper. Slate reports on Atwater's earlier career:

In 1973, the 22-year-old protégé of South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond began his consulting career by publicizing the fact that Tom Turnipseed, a candidate for the state Senate, had undergone shock therapy as a young man: "They hooked him up to jumper cables" became the catchphrase that sunk Turnipseed's candidacy. Five years later, Atwater helped to defeat Max Heller, a Holocaust survivor running for U.S. Congress, by secretly enlisting a third candidate to enter the race and stir up anti-Semitic sentiment. Atwater finagled his way into a minor post in the Reagan administration, but it was as the director of George H.W. Bush's 1988 presidential campaign (and mastermind of the Willie Horton TV ads) that he found his true Machiavellian voice.

The potential perils of attack politics were on full display in 1996 when then-GOP Senate candidate Al Salvi attempted to knock down a high-profile endorsement given to his opponent, then-Rep. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), by former Ronald Reagan Press Secretary Jim Brady. Brady "used to sell" machine guns, Salvi alleged, a strong claim considering Brady's position as strong advocate for gun control and victim of a gunshot wound to the head during a failed assassination attempt on President Reagan in 1981. Salvi was wrong. "Turns out that was a different Jim Brady," a blushing Salvi was later forced to admit. "I apologize." Salvi ended up losing to Durbin.

In 2002, Saxby Chambliss, then a Georgia GOP congressman mounting a bid for U.S. Senate, released a controversial ad falsely accusing then-Sen. Max Cleland (D), a triple-amputee Vietnam War veteran, of voting against the nation's national security interest. It placed Cleland next to images of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein and suggested that the senator lacked "courage." Chambliss, who didn't serve in Vietnam because of a bad knee, drew widespread condemnation from Republican military veterans in the Senate such as Arizona Sen. John McCain and Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel. In a 2008 interview, Chambliss, who had eventually gone on to defeat Cleland six years earlier, stood by his ad as "truthful in every way."

Long before Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) uttered shrieks of joy because of false reports that the Supreme Court had ruled against Obamacare, she outraged colleagues on the House floor by suggesting that Vietnam veteran Rep. John Murtha (D-Penn.), was a "coward." In 2005, Schmidt addressed her colleagues in a House speech, relaying a message from a Marine who she said had urged her to support an extension of the Iraq War. "He asked me to send Congress a message: Stay the course," she said. "He also asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message, that cowards cut and run, Marines never do. Danny and the rest of America and the world want the assurance from this body -- that we will see this through." She later returned to the House floor to have her remarks stricken from the record and to apologize to Murtha.

In 2006, the Republican National Committee set off bickering within and between political parties when it decided to air an ad in a Senate race between then-Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.) and GOP candidate Bob Corker. The ad was chock-full of stereotypes and thinly-veiled racist undertones -- Ford is black. It drew widespread condemnation from both Democrats and Republicans, including Corker himself. Amid the flareup, RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman said he found nothing wrong with the ad, but attempted to blame the content on a third party group. Corker eventually won the election.

In the heat of the 2008 presidential election, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin lofted a now-infamous charge, drawing immediate criticism from opponents who saw it as an attempt to brand then-candidate Barack Obama as un-American. Some even alleged that it was a racially charged character attack seeking to subtly link the supposed terrorist ties to prevalent right-wing conspiracy theories about Obama's so-called Muslim roots. The Associated Press reports on her comments:

"Our opponent ... is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country," Palin told a group of donors in Englewood, Colo. A deliberate attempt to smear Obama, McCain's ticket-mate echoed the line at three separate events Saturday. "This is not a man who sees America like you and I see America," she said. "We see America as a force of good in this world. We see an America of exceptionalism."

In 2008, a floundering Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.) released an ad attempting to accuse her opponent, Democrat Kay Hagan, of having mysterious ties to a group called Godless Americans. The entire ad struck many observers as a desperate attempt to regain momentum, but the brunt of the controversy came in the last few seconds, when a faceless voice rings out, yelling "there is no God." Many saw it as an attempt to paint the quote as Hagan's. It wasn't. In fact, Hagan was a Sunday School teacher who served as an elder at her Presbyterian church.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) had a somewhat rapid ascent to her current status as darling of conservatives and the Tea Party faithful. It was accelerated in part by appearances such as this one in 2008, during which she called into question the "pro-America" views of the Obamas and various members of Congress. HuffPost's Sam Stein reported at the time:

In a television appearance that outraged Democrats are already describing as Joseph McCarthy politics, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann claimed on Friday that Barack Obama and his wife Michelle held anti-American views and couldn't be trusted in the White House. She even called for the major newspapers of the country to investigate other members of Congress to "find out if they are pro-America or anti-America." Appearing on MSNBC's Hardball, Bachmann went well off the reservation when it comes to leveling political charges against the Democratic nominee. "If we look at the collection of friends that Barack Obama has had in his life," she said, "it calls into question what Barack Obama's true beliefs and values and thoughts are. His attitudes, values, and beliefs with Jeremiah Wright on his view of the United States...is negative; Bill Ayers, his negative view of the United States. We have seen one friend after another call into question his judgment -- but also, what it is that Barack Obama really believes?"

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) embodied a newly emerging brand of hyper-partisanship in 2009 when he interrupted President Barack Obama's major speech on his health care reform package. "You lie!" Wilson yelled over Obama, who was explaining that the legislation would not mandate coverage for undocumented immigrants. Wilson's outburst drew disapproval from both sides of the aisle.

During the heat of the health care debate in 2010, Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) added to the growing partisan discord when he shouted "baby killer" at Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) while he was delivering a speech on the House floor. Stupak, an anti-abortion Democrat, had been under heavy fire from Republicans after crafting a deal with the White House in return for his and other Democrats' "yes" vote on the health care reform bill. The White House held up their end of the bargain with an executive order affirming that no taxpayer money would go to fund abortions.

North Carolina GOP congressional candidate Renne Ellmers raised some eyebrows and gave her race national attention when she released an attack ad attempting to link her Democratic challenger to the controversial Park51 Islamic center. The ad was criticized for its apparent interchangeable use of the words "terrorists" and "Muslims," as well as the fact that Ellmers' opponent, incumbent Rep. Bob Etheridge (D) hadn't even weighed in on the issue yet. Ellmers didn't appear to do herself any favors in her attempts to explain the ad during a contentious interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, but she ended up winning in November after a late surge of momentum.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) managed to give his opponent, Republican Dan Webster, a boost after he released an attack ad seeking to label Webster as "Taliban Dan." The spot featured selectively edited quotes from a 2009 Christian seminar that misrepresented Webster's words to suggest that he believed wives should submit to their husbands. Grayson had repeatedly enraged his Republican opponents with biting and at times over-the-top allegations. Comments such as his notorious charge that their health care plan was for Americans to "die quickly" had made him a top target for the GOP. He would lose his election to Webster.

Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) did himself no favors in the fall of 2011, when he returned a volley concerning his past nude modeling for Cosmopolitan magazine, a career choice that his Democratic opponent Elizabeth Warren had earlier jabbed at. HuffPost's Ryan Grim reported:

"Have you officially responded to Elizabeth Warren's comment about how she didn't take her clothes off?" the host asked Brown Wednesday. "Thank God!" Brown said, laughing. The host got a kick out it, too. "That's what I said! I said, 'Look, can you blame a good-looking guy for wanting to, you know..."

His opponents quickly hit back, claiming that the comments were sexist and "the kind of thing you would expect to hear in a frat house, not a race for U.S. Senate."

Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) couldn't have picked a bigger stage to launch a now-notoriously insensitive ad against his Democratic opponent, incumbent Sen. Debbie Stabenow. In the middle of the Super Bowl, Hoekstra's campaign rolled out the spot, which featured an Asian-American actress using stereotypically broken English to accuse Stabenow -- or "Spend-It-Now" -- of supporting U.S. government spending habits that benefitted the Chinese economy. The backlash was bipartisan and widespread.

Though only a freshman, Tea Party favorite Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) has already staked his political fame on inflammatory and controversial statements. His most well-known claim is now perhaps his contention that as many as 80 House Democrats are members of the Communist Party. His spokesperson later claimed that he was referring to members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Of course, that's just one of a catalogue of Allen West-isms. Click through the slideshow here for a larger sampling.

Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) began digging himself a hole in July when he suggested that his Democratic opponent, triple-amputee Iraq War veteran Tammy Duckworth, was not a "true hero" because she spoke too frequently about her military service. In the followup, Walsh kept digging deeper on the Duckworth line, claiming that "all she does" is "talk about her service," instead of focusing on other issues. He took a similar angle in a subsequent interview, in which he managed to utter his interviewer's name more than 90 times.

Earlier on HuffPost:

Get Alerts Subscribe to the HuffPost Hill newsletter!

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Obama Administration Makes Push For Get-Out-Of-Jail-Early Proposals

Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011, before the Senate Crime and Terrorism subcommittee.

A Department of Justice official pushed for two legislative proposals that would reduce the number of American prisoners in a country that houses more inmates than any other nation.

While speaking to the National District Attorneys Association last week, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer advocated for increasing the amount of time of time off prisoners earn for good behavior.

Currently "good time" rules allow inmates to shave 47 days from their sentence each year. Breuer called for upping that allowance to 54 days a year, a proposal highlighted by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Breuer also made a pitch to allow prisoners who complete programs proven to reduce recidivism to get up to 60 days per year of credit toward completion of their sentences.

With 2.3 million Americans incarcerated at the end of 2011, shortening prison sentences is a way for the government to save money, he said.

"We are living in an austere fiscal environment – one that demands that we do more with less," Breuer said. "That demand – at the federal level, as well as in the states and at the local level – remains pressing. And it shows no sign of lifting in the near future. Today’s fiscal austerity presents significant challenges for law enforcement."

Breuer also said that, while prisons are important for public safety, they are just one piece of the puzzle.

"They must be safe and secure, and we must maintain our capacity to imprison those who commit crimes," he said. "But, we must also recognize that a criminal justice system that spends disproportionately on prisons – at the expense of policing, prosecutions and recidivism-reducing programs – is unlikely to be maximizing public safety."

The speech comes in the wake of several states making efforts to limit the number of prisoners under their care. These steps are often taken with fiscal austerity in mind.

As a country, we have made enormous gains fighting violent crime over the past 20 years – unprecedented gains," Breuer said. "But, in an era of declining public safety budgets, we are forced to come up with new solutions to the existing crime problem. That is a challenge we will all face in the years ahead."

Also on HuffPost:

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.