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The New and Improved Slavery!

arrest black babiesIt's generally agreed by historians that Prohibition was a dismal failure. It resulted in organized crime that has our country by any number of balls you never even suspected it had. And, as you might have heard, determined drinkers back then could buy all the bath-tub rot-gut they wanted, even if it killed or blinded them. Sound familiar?

Ronald Reagan's War on Drugs is, by any measure, an even worse failure. (Actually, Nixon started it, but Reagan's thugs implemented it to conservative perfection.) Rivers of money were wasted on enforcement and there has been no positve net result, unless you're one of those people who gleefully soil themselves watching the Constitution and the Bill of Rights treated like toilet paper.

The sad fact is that the W.O.D. is not actually about drugs at all. That's pretty clear when you study the incarceration data. Check out the Chart of the Day, below the fold, to see what I mean. I'll wait.

Welcome back.

Frightening chart, wasn't it? Where did all those nasty old criminals suddenly come from? It turns out that they were right under our noses all the time.

It was them damn minorities. Who knew? And how delightfully convenient for those in need of a scapegoat.

Even though studies have shown that crime rates are about the same in cities with large minority populations versus cities with largely white populations, African-Americans are imprisoned at almost five times the rate of whites.

And what do you get for a felony conviction besides lots of time in small rooms with large angry men? You lose the right to vote (DING-DING-DING-DING-DING!) plus you are no longer eligible for food stamps or federal housing allowances. So good luck finding a place to crash or a way to keep your belly full when your time has been served.

And good luck finding a decent job. Unless you were sent away for robbing billions from blind orphans you are SOL, my friend. (And it's already clear that whites receive far less severe sentences than minorities.)

Of course, that's if you even get out of jail. One of Reagan's legacies was Three Strikes and You're Out, a policy which resulted in a permanent incarcerated sub-class of petty thieves. And you, patriotic citizens that you are, pay for the privilege at $50,000 a year per head. Much of which now goes straight into the pockets of private-prison executives.

You want a formula for destroying vast swaths of otherwise stable family life? Simpy enact corrupt laws that are easy to abuse. Just remember to say that it's for the children. The same kiddies we pack off to false-flag oil wars every couple of decades or so.

It's clear that it's time to decriminalize all drugs. All of them. One major benefit is that organized crime will crumble as no one in their right mind will buy street drugs when 7-11 has Squibb's finest Peruvian nose-candy at reasonable prices. 18 and older, please.

And just as you wouldn't show up at work reeking of Mad Dog 20-20 neither should you consider arriving on the job baked on brownies. You're not fooling anyone, okay?

People will certainly abuse drugs, perhaps even kill themselves in the process (From a Darwinian standpoint... EXCELLENT!), but it's hard to imagine drugs taking a greater toll on the American population, percentage-wise, than alcohol or cigarettes already do.

Addendum 1-23-2012: Apparently Sir Richard Branson agrees with me on ending the drug wars.

It's a start. ;^)

Addendum: 1-27-2012:
Want  more? How about a an active duty cop describing the war on drugs as "A war on people."

=Lefty=

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And now our Chart of the Day: Incarceration Rates 1920-2006, or "How the War On Drugs Re-Enslaves African Americans."

growth of family income

Click here to embiggen.

=Lefty=


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Republican Job Creation Update

republican job creation1-20-2012: Congress is in recess until Monday. Have a nice weekend, everyone, and enjoy your food stamps.

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Dump Fox News

Fox News Lies!The Bush Depression resulted in 10 million unemployed people. Fox calls Mr. Obama the "The Food Stamp President " because there's so much hunger." Coming from anyone else, that'd be praise indeed.

Click here to help Drop Fox from your cable system.


end rant

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Mike's Video Vault

More on black incarceration.


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Can't make sense of the news? Try our selection of progressive nosh:
DailykosCrooks and LiarsThink ProgressTalking Points Memo
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Today's Google Chow.

Cornelius: I was driving home after a party at a friends house. I'd only had a couple of drinks so I wasn't worried when the cops pulled me over. They asked me to get out of the car and then threw me to the ground. Another cop arrived carrying a plough. Yes, a plough. As I lay there helpless they used it to slice open the skin of my back into neat rows. They then took a handful of seeds and rubbed them into my open wounds, sprinkled in a little fertilizer and then closed me up.

Cornelius: And that's why I'm here.

Judge: Mr. Cornelius, you know perfectly well that's not how police plant drugs on people.

< Smile>

Judge: Case dismissed.