Another shining example of "The People" NOT being smart

Last summer, I wrote about how "The People" are not smart.

Another fine example has come to the fore in Illinois:

(Former Illinois Governor Rod) Blagojevich becomes the second straight Illinois governor convicted of corruption. His predecessor, George Ryan, is now serving 6 1/2 years in federal prison.

What's really ridiculous is the current governor and state congress leaders seem to be right in the thick of some questionable activity judging from this comment:

Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady:

“I'm glad that the verdict is finally in on Rod Blagojevich. However this closes only one chapter of Democrat corruption in Illinois. Illinois Democratic politicians who now try everything they can to hide their past support of Rod Blagojevich should look themselves in the mirror and remind themselves that little has changed since the day Blagojevich was arrested.

“Our current governor (Pat Quinn) has appointed lame duck legislators to high paid positions after they changed their views and voted for late night tax hikes. The Speaker of the Illinois House (and state Democratic Party Chairman Mike Madigan) is partner in a law firm that has reaped millions in appealing tax assessments in a relationship that even Forrest Claypool (now a member of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Administration) said ‘has caused our taxes to go up and the level of faith in government to go down.’”

I ask you, just what are the Illinois voters thinking? Another excellent example of the people NOT being smart.

Over the past year I found a great quote by George Carlin reinforcing my argument regarding "The People" not being smart:

Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize that half of them are stupider than that.

Unfortunately, it's just not Illinois' "People." This is why our country is in the horrible shape it's in. Guaranteed.

One of my all-time favorite headlines: "Obama Transparency Award given in secret"

That has to be one of the more Orwellian headlines I've ever heard of. The reason it was given in secret?

If the ceremony had been open to the press, it is likely that reporters would have questioned the organizations' proffered justification for the award

The link provided will navigate you to an open letter demanding that the "Transparency Award" be rescinded. It is signed by numerous individual whistleblowers and organizations.

I'm sure quite a few of you won't go to the site, so I'll run off a few of the 13(!) reasons the letter gives for rescinding the award:

1. President Obama has not decreased but has dramatically increased governmental secrecy!
2. There were 544,360 requests for information last year under the Freedom of Information Act to the 35 biggest federal agencies -- 41,000 requests more than the year before. Yet the bureaucracy responded to 12,400 fewer requests than the prior year, according to an analysis by the Associated Press.
3. Ignoring his campaign promise to protect government whistleblowers, Obama’s presidency has amassed the worst record in US history for persecuting, prosecuting, and jailing government whistleblowers and truth-tellers.
4. President Obama has initiated a secret assassination program, has publicly announced that he has given himself the power to include Americans on the list of people to be assassinated, and has attempted to assassinate at least one, Anwar al-Aulaqi.
5. The Obama Administration is also busy going after reporters to discover their sources and convening grand juries in order to target journalists and news publishers.

If you're interested in the entire list clink on the link. This is a chance for you to add your voice to try to stem the tide of civil rights violations by our government by signing the letter.

The neverending story: The War on Drug$

There will never be an end to the United States' War on Drugs. There is just too much money and profit involved for The Powers That Be to give it up. Think of how much would be lost if drugs were decriminalized. The police would have a dramatic drop in arrests, thus smaller police forces would be needed, the courts would have tremendously fewer cases on the docket, thus leading to less court time and less cases for lawyers and, finally, the Prison Industrial Complex would suffer major drops in profits (and guards - the union would not like that at all).

I believe all drugs should be decriminalized and treated as a health problem. Glenn Greenwald wrote a white paper on Portugal's decision to decriminalize drugs almost a decade ago:

On July 1, 2001, a nationwide law in Portugal took effect that decriminalized all drugs, including cocaine and heroin. Under the new legal framework, all drugs were “decriminalized,” not “legalized.” Thus, drug possession for personal use and drug usage itself are still legally prohibited, but violations of those prohibitions are deemed to be exclusively administrative violations and are removed completely from the criminal realm.

Mr. Greenwald's closing paragraph sums it up nicely:

The Portuguese have seen the benefits of decriminalization, and therefore there is no serious political push in Portugal to return to a criminalization framework. Drug policymakers in the Portuguese government are virtually unanimous in their belief that decriminalization has enabled a far more effective approach to managing Portugal’s addiction problems and other drug-related afflictions. Since the available data demonstrate that they are right, the Portuguese model ought to be
carefully considered by policymakers around the world.

It's very interesting reading and I highly recommend it.

Of course, there are those who agree with my assertion of dumping the War on Drugs. An example is The Wire creator David Simon, who was asked by Attorney General Eric Holder to create another season of his fine series. Simon's email response was,

The Attorney-General's kind remarks are noted and appreciated. I've spoken to Ed Burns and we are prepared to go to work on season six of The Wire if the Department of Justice is equally ready to reconsider and address its continuing prosecution of our misguided, destructive and dehumanising drug prohibition.

Unfortunately, as blog writer Ray Gustini of The Atlantic Wire says,

The exchange has at least clarified one thing: the chances of another season of The Wire are now exactly the same as America having a rational dialogue about drug law reform.

Of course, I will never see what should be done to handle our country's drug problem. We'll just keep pouring money into the rabbit hole so that The Powers That Be can keep making those profits and generating revenue from the masses. Maybe the right kind of people will be able address this issue correctly in the future.

Always remember, in these kinds of issues...follow the money.