While I was at New America Foundation’s G-20 symposium, Obama had an online townhall meeting. Evidently, marijuana is on the minds of many.
… The more than 92,000 people who responded either have Cheech and Chong senses of humor or there is a deep concern in America — undetected by the media — about the decriminalization of marijuana, its possible use for medicinal purposes and its potential as a new source of tax revenue.
[...] After taking questions lower on the list, Obama addressed the pot issue head on, noting the huge number of questions about marijuana legalization and remarking with a chuckle, “I don’t know what that says about the online audience.”
“The answer is no, I don’t think that is a good strategy to grow our economy,” he said, as the audience in the room applauded and joined him in a laugh.
Andrew Sullivan takes Mr. Obama to task for his “dismissiveness,” then goes on to question whether the President understands who elected him. I’m not even going to try to dissect the meaning of that one.
Now imagine the headlines if Obama had come out for decriminalization in order to promote jobs and help the economy. I’ve gotten emails from colleagues and friends today that pretty much mimic the text: Obama Pot Plan to Pump Up the Economy Seen as Salvation. … Republicans and Democrats Join together – Obama’s Pot Plan Up in Smoke.
This leads me to something George Soros said about President Obama this morning, though it was directed at economics, but is relevant on Obama’s pot reaction today. Soros said Obama is lagging, “because he wants to be the great uniter,” which makes him behind the curve, because consensus lags. An email friend agreed with Soros, then added something even more description through my Facebook page (which logs Tweets): Very true. Visionaries leap ahead, and consensus builders get everyone to agree to move as one. You absolutely *need* both, but you can’t *be* both.
That’s Obama’s biggest problem as far as I can see it, which Soros nailed. It surfaced today. I have no doubt that he would have been creamed in the press and politically if he’d come out for legalization, which was never going to happen. The trouble with Obama’s response is his flippant attitude, encouraging the crowd’s snickering, about a subject that requires leadership. It’s not as if America’s “war on drugs” is working, now is it. Laughter and joking about marijuana is seen as the very “grown up” response, but it dismisses an issue that deserves to at the very least be talked about seriously. Not only did Obama miss that chance today, but he ducked it, instead preferring the safety of the crowd, laughing along with them. It’s not too much to ask that a 21st century American president talk about marijuana and our drug policies seriously, which begins by saying something like: “Now waiting a minute, folks, this isn’t all that funny of an issue. Look at what’s happening at our border. Is the drug war working? When you look at medicinal marijuana there is proof of effectiveness. We need to have a serious discussion… (etc. – insert political cover on not legalizing pot here)”. Any substance that is medicinal, which marijuana certainly is, deserves more attention and consideration, at least in the discussion process. When you look at our problems south of the border, which Clinton has addressed as well, anyone not taking our drug problem seriously is not doing his or her job. He blew it today.
President Obama may please the political mob, helping unite the “war on drugs” crowd, but laughing about the question is anything but inspiring. I never expected him to say he was for legalization, and anyone who thought he would needs to put down the bong. But at the very least he could have taken the opportunity to discuss it seriously. No change here.
“ugh, laughing bad” Pt. deux.
I’m at a loss for words and I haven’t smoked a thing.
Where is anninca? I would love to read her thoughts on this one.
snicker @ kris
GeoT says:
26 March 2009 at 5:45 pm
Here’s a video for you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4spOZjyAIc&eurl=
Well justlen if we hear from her we will all need to pick up a bong so we have half a chance of understanding what she’s saying.
Well we all know Palin’s attitude about drugs in Wasilla, so I think we can guess the response.
Audiegrl says:
26 March 2009 at 5:57 pm
Here’s a video for you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4spOZjyAIc&eurl=
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Here’s an article for you: (this whole thing is ridiculous unless he smoked a joint before the Blogapalooza 2009
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How Obama’s Laughter Became An “Issue” That Everyone Was Supposed To Care About
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/26/how-obamas-laughter-becam_n_179463.html
kris says:
26 March 2009 at 5:46 pm
Where is anninca? I would love to read her thoughts on this one.
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I think justlen was awfully mean to Ann yesterday, he should apologize don’t you think?
Hello? We’re not talking about the “60 Minutes” interview.
Taylor Marsh says:
26 March 2009 at 6:03 pm
Hello? We’re not talking about the “60 Minutes” interview.
What do you expect? It’s always anarchy when you leave GeoT in charge. He has absolutely no leadership skills.
Hey justlen. What did you say to AnninCA? Were you a bad boy????
Hey, GeoT led a coup, man!
Justlen didn’t say anything she didn’t deserve. I swear that woman is on something the last while.
Hell, I don’t remember. I usually don’t remember what I had for dinner yesterday.
Let me post some articles, I’ll whip this place into shape.
heh-heh… got it, kris.
You know how to reach me, justlen, just send ‘em my way.
Audiegrl says:
26 March 2009 at 5:57 pm
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Media Matters nails it again AG. And guess what? having an upbeat attitude in the face of difficult times is an enormous asset in a leader…. And his programs are working… I knew he’d get hammered for just about everything under the sun but laughing and being pleasant was not on my list.
Yikes kris, she’ll be after you now
I was really hoping that Obama would give the “war on drugs” serious attention.Talk about a waste of money and resourses and human potential.
Personally I think marijuana is a gift from God and should be treated as such. I’m sure I would have jumped off a bridge years ago without it.
Whip us into shape Justien!
oh, BTW, Joe the Plumber is in trouble again
Pipe War! Plumbers Union Rips Joe The Plumber For Campaigning Against EFCA
http://tinyurl.com/d22fyl
Let her Betsy. I’m up for it.
Audiegrl – don’t use the word whip with justlen please.
justlen says:
26 March 2009 at 6:05 pm
What do you expect? It’s always anarchy when you leave GeoT in charge. He has absolutely no leadership skills.
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so true… I always avoided management like the plague
and actually it was me hitting back at Ann not justlen, but it carried over from the day before when she said “Hillary’s career is over” because she took the SOS job… that got me going.
Oops
Audiegrl says:
26 March 2009 at 6:12 pm
Did Joe the Moran even had a plumbers license?
Geez, just bring up Palin’s remarks about the fact that she couldn’t find anyone in the McCain camp to pray with her. Duh! She couldn’t pray alone?
Taylor Marsh says:
26 March 2009 at 6:03 pm
Hello? We’re not talking about the “60 Minutes” interview
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Seems like an extension of the same notion to me. “He’s not taking things seriously” is the underlying theme.
Speaking of which, a body of a US Marshall was just found. In MEXICO:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/26/marshal.killed/index.html
I usually don’t engage with Ann because I think she just plays games but I would have liked to have been in on that one! I’m sure the rest of you handled it well:)
Lake Lady says:
26 March 2009 at 6:17 pm
I usually don’t engage with Ann because I think she just plays games but I would have liked to have been in on that one! I’m sure the rest of you handled it well:)
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I even got kudos from boohall for defending Hillary, it was quite a moment
Yes, I from now on I will refer to Hillary as the “iSoS”.
LL – she just kepting asking the same questions over and over and kept talking about Hillary disappearing. It was just flat out weird.
Opps! I didn’t know that not taking things seriously was a theme somewhere? I am really out of the loop,I have been too busy lately!
The only thing Governor WolfPoacher should be praying for right now is contributions to her legal defense fund.
Yeah I told ann that maybe she should use the interactive map and Dipnote at the dept. of state website to keep in touch with her. No response – just kept repeating herself. I finally asked her if she was on something. No response.
kris says:
26 March 2009 at 6:19 pm
LL – she just kepting asking the same questions over and over and kept talking about Hillary disappearing. It was just flat out weird.
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Her basic lament is that Obama purposely appointed Hillary SOS so he could exile her into irrelevancy… it’s part of the master plan. And by accepting Hillary has doomed her career forever… Oh and Condi Rice is the shining example of how a woman can handle that job.
If I understand Ann, I may be in trouble
Legalize it! Don’t criticize it. It was good enough for you in college.
Justlen..living in the St.Louis area I have been able to see some great blues! My dearly departed loved the blues and we went often.
Lake Lady says:
26 March 2009 at 6:21 pm
I am really out of the loop,I have been too busy lately!
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you’re better off.
Nice summation GeoT.
Lemme see if I can lure her out:
McMooseburger
Chump Change
Gov. Nowhere
Drillbaby
Sarahcuda
Governor Mooselini
half baked Alaska
Caribou Barbie
Dickless Cheney
Trophy Vice
Sarah Quaylin
SnowJob SquareGlasses
Attila from Wasilla
Earmark Queen
The Godzilla from Wasilla
Mukluk Barbie
Bible Spice
The Paliban
Darth Palin
Sarah Wolfbane
Wicked Witch of the North
Perky Pork
The Talibunny
I could do this all night.
LL, St. Louis has a pretty darned good blues scene too.
What’s up with Bachman and the legislation to prevent a world currency?
Hillary will never be irrelevant no matter what she is doing,neither will WJC.
Speaking of not becoming irrelevant, Howard dean has gone back to DFA! He is heading up the fight for UHC! I signed up to canvass,call,etc.
I have a love hate relationship with AnninCA but I like her… she’s a trooper for her own unique perspective… can’t really fault that. Although I’ve pulled a few strands of hair out in frustration trying to have a discussion with her.
GeoT says:
26 March 2009 at 6:35 pm
I think most of the time she’s just trolling to get a rise out of people.
Well she’s successful at that justlen.
Lake Lady says:
26 March 2009 at 6:34 pm
Hillary will never be irrelevant no matter what she is doing,neither will WJC.
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FYI Lake Lady from earlier today:
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AmyDugan says:
26 March 2009 at 10:24 am
FYI
I started a William J Clinton blog
http://adugan-billclintonblog.blogspot.com/
justlen says:
26 March 2009 at 6:37 pm
GeoT says:
26 March 2009 at 6:35 pm
I think most of the time she’s just trolling to get a rise out of people.
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most of the time yes, and I fall for it almost every time.
Thanks Geo…I will check it out.
I agree with Justlen…however her description of her son choosing to become Muslim was hilarious.
This is already a long thread – but we could do a lot for this country by eliminating the government subsidies for the TRUE ‘Killer Weed’ (tobacco) and helping those farmers convert to a plant that actually contributes to the soil AND the economy – namely Marijuana.
I agree pmichael but I would just love to be able to grow a little patch in my garden.
pmichael says:
26 March 2009 at 6:42 pm
I’m not holding my breath that politicians are going to get rid of such a rich source of sin taxes.
That’s the beauty of marginal taxes like that. The people affected are such a small proportion of the population they can tax the Hell out of them and there’s nothing that segment can do about it.
pmichael -
There is no real war against tobacco. They aren’t serious about it because there is too much money to be made from it. Plus it is always the first thing that gets taxed to raise revenue.
So do I Geo. She really gets to me. Now Tucker Bounds is on with David Shuster. He’s another one that really is pathetic.
….and Farm subsidies! Jeez they are all so bassackwards. It really galls me that Conrad acts like he is the rational grow up who will save the Dems with his deficiet hawkishness ….but talk about reforming farm susidies and Oh! No! That’s just not possible!
Don’t get me started on ethanol subsidies.
There are wealthy people who buy up huge tracs of farmland, like rice fields just to get the subsidy NOT to grow rice. We are being ripped off there too!
Well call me crazy – but if all those cartons in the grocery store contained grass cigarettes instead of tobacco – there would be a Hell of a lot LESS violence in this country.
pmichael…lol!
Like I said on the last thread:
I can haz no weed Mr. Prezident?
Too bad, I think that question would have been a huge opportunity to discuss Industrial Hemp, the cost of the war on drugs (jail vs. treatment….the idiotic claim of pot as a “gateway drug”) and the violence along Mexico due to the drug trade.
But the man has to pick his battles and having the justice department lighten up on medicinal MJ is a nice start.
And did anyone watch South Park last night?
Brilliant, brilliant explanation of the mortgage securities and how it effected they effected the economy. Add in a messiah taking our debts along with a headless chicken and it might be one of the top 5 episodes ever. We just laughed and laughed and I’m not even sure who they were going after…could be everyone.
Taylor knows this is one of my favorite subjects. Actually, Sarah Palin would get a kick out of my little claim to fame. I was the first college student ever busted in Alaska for marijuana (Sitka 1967). I was 17 – tried as an adult to make an “example” of me – for three little seeds (I hid the rest *L*). Felony charge – still on my record. I have never seen the inside of a voting booth.
pmicheal…good Lord!
OK, since she won’t bite, I’ll channel Ann.
“And that’s a good thing, Pmichael. Some druggie communist pinko like you shouldn’t be allowed to vote. Alaska you say? I bet it was you that setup Levi Johnston’s mother so it would look bad for Sarah Palin!”
How’d I do?
Good ol’ Sheldon Jackson College (leave it to me to pick a religious college to get busted)
good one, Justlen (*LOL*)
Too harsh justlen. Go smoke something first and try again
I gotta go start dinner, I’ll check back later. Hopefully I’ll have been flamed.
Y’all have fun.
pmichael says:
26 March 2009 at 6:57 pm
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Here’s my story, sort of antithesis to yours, with a twist. Got busted with a bag of weed when I was maybe 14 (1970). Taken to Rampart Station in Los Angeles, never booked, never printed or anything. Taken by a Detective into a interrogation room where he proceeded to tell me, quote: “If you want to get high drink, because they’ll just pour that out if they catch you” Unfortunately I followed his advice for many years. Now I’m sober.
My wife would love to smoke a little pot once in awhile , but being a teacher she doesn’t dare… it could be a career ender.
p.s. shes retiring this year… Retirement present?
later Justlen.
What does it say about us as a country and a culture when the vice torturer in chief can keep spouting his hate, be responsible for the attempted shredding of the Constitution,be co-responsible for the the totally illegal deaths/murders of upwards to ONE MILLION HUMAN BEINGS and HE gets a HUGE pension, secret service protection and is free to keep spewing his antiAmerican poison while some poor slob busted for a couple of joints has his/her lives destroyed and does time with MURDERERS!!! Pretty good run on sentence there but I was on a rant-n-roll.
But I WOULD like an answer to my lengthy question.
but being a teacher she doesn’t dare… it could be a career ender.
GeoT
But if she’s busted for DWI and being falling down drunk off her ass – she goes back to work the next day.
secularh? Answer to your question: Life isn’t fair.
Did you get the Cosmos link ?
I’ll throw this one out on my way out the door.
I was quite the stoner in high school, but went in the Navy just as they started a zero tolerance policy (they invented the urinalysis for weed) so I gave it up.
I saw some guy get run out for popping positive for opiates. Why? Because they drank Ouzo while on liberty in Europe.
pmichael says:
26 March 2009 at 7:23 pm
but being a teacher she doesn’t dare… it could be a career ender.
GeoT
But if she’s busted for DWI and being falling down drunk off her ass – she goes back to work the next day.
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oh she’s already done that a couple of times…. KIDDING sweetheart!
What’s in Ouzo? justlen.
GeoT, I was curious too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouzo
My last word on this subject (because knowing Taylor, she’s already about to post on a different subject – Taylor doesn’t smoke grass. Speed maybe ? *LOL* [kidding]).
The ‘War on Drugs’ is a farce. That “war” simply makes drug dealers rich – and poor people a lot poorer.
BTW:
watching Bill Maher smoke a joint in “Religelous” was worth the price of admission, although that Dutch guy he was with was a burnout wasn’t he?
GeoT, I still wonder if our Olympic ‘hero’ would have gotten the same backlash, if he had been in Amsterdam (totally legal) at the time.
and Autumnal is nowhere to be found:
S&P And Nasdaq Now Up Since Obama Took Office
Listening to some in the press, one gets the sense that Barack Obama, and he alone, has presided over the most precipitous drop in economic productivity of any president in recent history.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/26/defying-doomsayers-sp-and_n_179251.html
pmichael says:
26 March 2009 at 8:00 pm
GeoT, I still wonder if our Olympic ‘hero’ would have gotten the same backlash, if he had been in Amsterdam (totally legal) at the time.
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probably… it was the photo that did him in. I have a strict lens cap rule when I break out my bong
Where is everyone. Last post was at 8:02 pm. I just got back on. We moved the range into the kitchen.
Also, I didn’t know that Ouzo had opiate in it. Hubby bought some and we had a sip. I didn’t like it at all. Had one sip and couldn’t take it.
lust caught this one as I roamed the intertubes:
Albany Reaches Deal to Repeal ’70s Drug Laws
ALBANY — Gov. David A. Paterson and New York legislative leaders have reached an agreement to dismantle much of what remains of the state’s strict 1970s-era drug laws, once among the toughest in the nation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/nyregion/26rockefeller.html?_r=3&th&emc=th
Hey pmichael got the link. He’s one of my heros ya know!!
As for life not being fair, I wasn’t querying the fairness or unfairness of life.
I was wondering about the moral health of a culture that allows such hipocracy, from all appearances encourages them, while shouting to the world how morally superior OUR system is?
What does that say about US that we allow such horrific and grotesque inequities to exist at the highest levels.
Obama’s insistence on consensus is what makes him a visionary. The Weekly Standard made a similar mistake, saying that Obama’s “hope” has now been replaced with “persistence.” But it is hope that enables one to persist.
As for legalization? Obama defused a stupid question with laughter. End of story.
Very interesting development on this topic. The Feds busted another state-mandated cannibis dispensary yesterday in SF, in opposition to Obama’s stated policy that the Feds would back off from that type of action. Their rationalization was that the dispensary (probably true, btw….some of these joints are nothing more than drug-dealing fronts….pun intended….*haha) were engaged in state violations, too.
Small problem. They have no business in state business.
I await to see how this one turns out.
Kris….I trust people with cancer who say that marijuana really has helped them with chemo. Anything that helps is OK by me, since I have RL friends going through this. (We’re in our 50′s/60′s…..sigh*)
They say the effects are so bad, they have seriously considered chucking medical treatment.
So, I’m on the side of medical marijuana. I do think the distribution centers have proven ineffectual in CA. They are pothead shops.
More regulation, CA…