Why are the Feds bothering with marijuana?

Should this really be a priority? When you look at what has happened because of corruption on Wall Street and the loss of houses, loss of jobs and shattered lives from the shady behavior by the bankers, this should be such a low priority. Like many (most) Americans I smoked pot but haven't done so in nearly twenty five years. I could absolutely care less about wasting federal money on pursuing this issue. I would support legalizing marijuana and taxing it but any other involvement by the government is a ridiculously big waste of time, money and resources. For goodness sake, leave it alone and worry about the bigger problems like jobs, the economy and the wars.

Federal prosecutors in California announced a series of actions Friday targeting what they characterized as the "large, for-profit marijuana industry" that has developed since the state legalized medical marijuana for select patients 15 years ago.

Four U.S. attorneys -- Benjamin Wanger, Andre Birotte Jr., Laura Duffy and Melinda Haag -- detailed in a joint press release and later press conference in Sacramento some steps that have been taken in conjunction with federal law enforcement and local officials in California.

They include letters of warning to landlords and lien holders of places in which marijuana is being sold illegally, "civil forfeiture lawsuits against properties involved in drug trafficking activity" and numerous criminal cases. The latter refers to arrests in recent weeks related to cases filed in federal courts in Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento and Fresno, all part of an effort that Wagner claimed has resulted in the seizure of hundreds of pounds of marijuana, tens of thousands of plants and hundreds of thousands in cash.

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Taibbi & Olbermann on Occupy Wall Street: "The movement is growing organically"

More on Occupy Wall Street (preferred hashtag #OWS, by the way), this time from Matt Taibbi and Keith Olbermann on a recent Current TV episode.

Good discussion. Everyone's chewing on the "What is it?" and "What's the endgame?" points. Good; those are the right questions.



Did you catch that Olbermann opens with a Tahrir Square reference? This feels like that, in early Tahrir days anyway — and in my opinion, it needs to feel like (and be) that to succeed.

What is success for Occupy Wall Street? Obviously, (1) an awakened citizenry, in both broad senses; and (2) ultimate, large-scale institutional change (i.e., a reversion to constitutional government).

That is indeed is a big agenda, but no bigger than the Movement Conservative agenda (so don't be scared, folks; be proud and know others have walked the path before).

Note also that success (especially constitutional success as defined above) will require the cooperation, enforced or otherwise, of those in power.

As Taibbi wrote earlier:

[D]emonstrations could be very important just in terms of educating people about the fact that there is, in fact, a well-defined conflict out there with two sides to it. ... [A] huge number of Americans ... simply don't realize that they've been victimized by Wall Street – that they've paid inflated commodity prices due to irresponsible speculation and manipulation, seen their home values depressed thanks to corruption in the mortgage markets, subsidized banker bonuses with their tax dollars and/or been forced to pay usurious interest rates....

I would imagine the end game of any movement against Wall Street corruption is going to involve some very elaborate organization. There are going to have to be consumer and investor boycotts, shareholder revolts, criminal prosecutions, new laws passed, and other moves. But a good first step is making people aware of the battle lines. It sounds like these demonstrations have that potential.

I personally don't believe these demonstrations have just an education function; like Tahrir Square, they could have a power function as well — especially if they persist. No revolution is one-shot-and-go-home. The last leftwing revolution in our history — the New Deal and its lead-up — took at least a decade, and lots of activism. Same with the last rightwing revolution.

It's a tricky game, admittedly. And co-option is always one outcome. But a "ground up" movement needs that "up" part as well. Ignore that and you lose.

Again, learn from the Tea Partiers as they navigate (and manipulate) the Republican gate-keepers like Boehner and McConnell. There is a road, and this movement is on it.

Let's stay on it.

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What #occupywallstreet really wants

The Web seems to be full of posts from liberals suggesting that #occupywallstreet is doing fine but needs to make 'concrete demands' if it is going to be successful and what they should demand is [insert blogger's pet project here].

This is of course exactly what happened with the Tea Party which began as a grassroots movement and was quickly captured by Fox News and the Jacobin faction of the GOP. Thus the Tea Party which began as a reaction to a cozy government bailout for the bankers was quickly turned into a movement that we are now told demands that no banker ever pay a penny more in tax.

According to OccupyWallSt.org the movement officially has no demands. But that is not quite true. They have in fact made one demand and it is a pretty simple one: That people listen to them.

Now wonder the GOP is scared of them. Read the rest of this post...

Mayor Bloomberg continues attacks against #OccupyWallSt

Please, tell me more about who is killing or already killed millions of jobs.

"What they're trying to do is take the jobs away from people working in this city," Bloomberg said on his weekly radio show, adding that the protests "aren't productive" and weren't good for tourism.

"If the jobs they are trying to get rid of in this city -- the people that work in finance, which is a big part of our economy -- go away, we're not going to have any money to pay our municipal employees or clean our parks or anything else."

The protests have since expanded to other U.S. cities from Tampa to Seattle, picking up support from unions eliciting the sympathy of some senior political and financial officials.

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Texas pastor: Romney "not a Christian"

Oh dear. Trouble in paradise for Romney with the wacko religious extremists, also known as the core of the Republican party.

The Texas pastor who introduced Gov. Rick Perry at Friday's Values Voters Summit in Washington told reporters that he does not believe that former Massachusetts Mitt Romney is a Christian, and called Romney's Mormon faith a "cult."

"Well, Rick Perry's a Christian. He's an evangelical Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ," Dr. Robert Jeffress told NBC News. "Mitt Romney's a good moral person but he's not a Christian. Mormonism is not Christianity. It has always been considered a cult by the mainstream of Christianity. So it's the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian."

Perry's campaign quickly distanced itself from the words of the pastor. The Texas governor, according to campaign spokesman Mark Miner, does not believe Mormonism is a cult.

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Video: Dog is seriously afraid of Julia Roberts

It's 8am on a Saturday morning, you are so not getting politics at this hour.

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US drones catch a virus

One more reason to fear the reaper: it has a virus.Wired reports that the US's fleet of Predator and Reaper drones have been infected with a virus which appears to allow keylogging. Whether it causes extra-judicial executions is not clear. Read the rest of this post...