Please Raise Tobacco Taxes!

Anti-Smoking Advocates Pressure Lawmakers To Increase Tobacco Tax - California Healthline: "The American Cancer Society and other anti-smoking organizations are escalating efforts to encourage California lawmakers to nearly triple the state's tobacco tax, the Sacramento Bee's 'Capitol Alert' reports."

I would rather see more money going to honest tobacco smugglers as opposed to parasites in government. Illegal tobacco dealers don't bother me. They don't steal from productive people to fund their various schemes.

Disillusioned FBI Launches Nationwide Hunt For Some Kind Of Truth | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Disillusioned FBI Launches Nationwide Hunt For Some Kind Of Truth | The Onion - America's Finest News Source: "WASHINGTON—FBI director Robert S. Mueller III announced Monday that the entire manpower of his increasingly disillusioned agency has been diverted into a massive nationwide search for some semblance of genuine, concrete truth."

We can only hope. But burning down compounds, killing children, doing home invasions, botching fingerprint comparisons, trampling on the Constitution, and ruining people's lives for victimless "crimes" is so much more fun.

The Case Against Sotomayor

The Case Against Sotomayor"But despite the praise from some of her former clerks, and warm words from some of her Second Circuit colleagues, there are also many reservations about Sotomayor. Over the past few weeks, I've been talking to a range of people who have worked with her, nearly all of them former law clerks for other judges on the Second Circuit or former federal prosecutors in New York. Most are Democrats and all of them want President Obama to appoint a judicial star of the highest intellectual caliber who has the potential to change the direction of the court. Nearly all of them acknowledged that Sotomayor is a presumptive front-runner, but nearly none of them raved about her. They expressed questions about her temperament, her judicial craftsmanship, and most of all, her ability to provide an intellectual counterweight to the conservative justices, as well as a clear liberal alternative.

The most consistent concern was that Sotomayor, although an able lawyer, was "not that smart and kind of a bully on the bench," as one former Second Circuit clerk for another judge put it. "She has an inflated opinion of herself, and is domineering during oral arguments, but her questions aren't penetrating and don't get to the heart of the issue." (During one argument, an elderly judicial colleague is said to have leaned over and said, "Will you please stop talking and let them talk?")"

I keep hearing this complaint that if she were a man no one would complain about her being a bully, they would just say that she is "tough", bull shit.
Some judges just are bullies. There are plenty of male bullies.
Lawyers know the difference between a judge who is just a bit demanding or tough, as opposed to a bully.
If she is a judicial bully then she shouldn't be rewarded with a promotion. I wish there was a serious debate about this in the Senate.

I Was Just Following Orders by Laurence M. Vance

I Was Just Following Orders by Laurence M. Vance: "No soldier in any of the world’s other 193 countries is supposed to follow an order to fire a weapon at an American soldier, sink an American ship, shoot down an American plane, drop a bomb on American territory, invade American soil, mine an American harbor, occupy an American city, torture an American, or kill an American. Those that do are considered terrorists, insurgents, and enemy combatants, all worthy of torture.

But if an American solider is ordered to launch a preemptive strike against Iraq, he should just follow orders. If an American soldier is ordered to bomb Afghanistan, he should just follow orders. If an American soldier is ordered to drop napalm in the jungles of Vietnam, he should just follow orders. If an American soldier is ordered to invade Korea, he should just follow orders. If an American solider is ordered to put down an insurrection by Filipinos, he should just follow orders. If an American soldier is ordered to firebomb a German or Japanese city, he should just follow orders. If an American soldier is ordered to help the CIA remove a foreign leader, he should just follow orders. If an American solider is ordered to intervene in some country’s civil war, he should just follow orders. If an American soldier is ordered to destroy a city and kill its inhabitants in a country that he cannot locate"

Our Military Could Use a Good Mutiny!

Soldiers fume over proposed smoking ban :: WRAL.com: "'There would be a lot of upset people, all the way from lower to the higher-ups, I'd say,' Army Spc. Daniel Simpson said. 'Soldiers, some of them, they just need that cigarette. They just need a little bit of relaxation, a little time alone.'"

Fine, don't revolt over unjust wars, torture, occupation, etc. Revolt over this. I don't care. Just refuse to serve.

Tough Talk From the Huffington Post - Dean Becker: Who Are the Drug Lords?

Dean Becker: Who Are the Drug Lords?: "Who are the drug lords? They are every politician who lives and breathes war, drugs, terror or otherwise. They are the corrupt corporate heads, malicious media barons, venomous judges and cretinous cops, who, knowing full well the truth, choose to follow their nose to riches, to embrace a lie, to feed their evil cornucopia with the lives of their fellow man."

Perhaps a bit harsh, but the guy is on to something.

The benefits of a depression, part II

Smugglers revert to alcohol and tobacco | Stuff.co.nz: "Alcohol and cigarettes, 'the traditional mainstays of Customs revenue fraud', were making a comeback because 'it's a traditional way of making some easy money', he said."

A good depression can be a good thing

Law Enforcement: California Budget Crisis Could Gut State Narcs, Drug Task Forces | Stop the Drug War (DRCNet): "The latest version of the California state budget being considered by legislators in Sacramento would reduce the number of state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement (BNE) agents to 100 and zero-out funding for 51 drug task forces funded by the agency. A decade ago, BNE fielded 400 agents. Cuts in recent years have reduced that number to 185 agents, and the latest budget proposals would slice that number nearly in half."

Should the Drug Tsar Use a Death to Make a Political Point?

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - Drug Czar: Michael Jackson death a ‘wake-up call’ « - Blogs from CNN.com: "WASHINGTON (CNN) – The Director of National Drug Control Policy Gil Kerlikowske told CNN on Thursday that Michael Jackson's death is a 'wake-up call' about prescription drug abuse in America."

Well, as I learned from an anonymous coward who posted on this blog last year, to make a public policy point about someone's death "is the worst form of political propaganda", but I suppose that only applies to "public servants".

I do think the Tsar has a point (and incidentally don't think there is anything wrong with respectful comments after a death about a public policy question) . The abuse of illegal drugs isn't very widespread, but the over use of prescription drugs is a problem. It should not be a criminal problem, but should be addressed as a moral and medical issue. Jackson wasn't a criminal (at least when it came to his drug use) and should not have been treated as one. Neither should any person who has a drug addiction.

Baltimore police arrest drug suspect who fled into school - baltimoresun.com

Baltimore police arrest drug suspect who fled into school - baltimoresun.com

I think the kids were more at risk from the SWAT team than the drug suspect.