Just goes to show you never know who’s reading

Maha talks about a lunch she and some other bloggers had with Bill Clinton today.

The purpose of the meeting (as near as I can tell) is that Mr. Clinton has been reading blogs and just wanted to do a little outreach, facilitated by Peter Daou. We had a lovely time schmoozing about, you know, political stuff.

I figure if anything I have to say is good enough to write about, then it’s good enough for anyone to read.

Does George Bush admit his administration has committed war crimes?

Anonymous Liberal cites a quote from George Bush this morning:

as long as the War Crimes Act hangs over their heads, they [interrogators] will not take the steps necessary to protect Americans

Can we parse this? Up until the recent Supreme Court ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the administration contended that the War Crimes Act (which incorporates the provisions of the Geneva Convention) did not apply to his interrogators. Now that the court has informed him otherwise, he says the interrogators cannot continue to do their jobs unless Congress lets him continue to commit war crimes.

Rally for Ed Rosenthal and Richard Watts tomorrow

Who: Axis of Love San Francisco, HempEvolution.org, California Marijuana Party, Americans for Safe Access – San Francisco, Harvey Milk Democratic Club – Cannabis Caucus, Drug Policy Alliance, California NORML,

What: Rally and Press Conference Concerning Ed Rosenthal and Richard Watts

When: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 Press and Conference Rally: 12 Noon

Where:: Phillip Burton Federal Building; 450 Golden Gate Ave.; San Francisco, CA

Please see press release for more details.

Press release on Ed Rosenthal and Richard Watts

This is a press release about the ongoing Ed Rosenthal persecution:

In an incredible waste of limited federal resources, The U.S. Attorney’s office, represented by “Mr. Marijuana for the government”, Asst. U.S. Attorney George Bevan Jr., wants to re-indict medical cannabis guru Ed Rosenthal and Richard Watts, son of noted philosopher Alan Watts, in a mockery of the justice system by persecuting sick and dying medical cannabis patients.

Federal agents raided Rosenthal’s Oakland home, his warehouse grow-op and the 6th St Harm Reduction Center in February 2002 and charged the pair with multiple cannabis felonies. Ed Rosenthal was convicted in 2003, after a travesty of a trial in which medical marijuana could not be mentioned. After the verdict was announced, nine of twelve jurors recanted their decision, saying if they’d have known it was about medical cannabis, they wouldn’t have voted guilty.

Judge Charles Breyer sentenced Ed to one day, and concluded Rosenthal had “reasonably” but erroneously believed that he was acting legally because of his support from local officials, saying that “extraordinary, unique circumstances of this case” justified an exemption from the usual five-year minimum term . Rick Watts has spent the last five years in federal probation, in legal limbo, awaiting trial for the same offenses.

In April 2006, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed Rosenthal’s convictions and remanded his case to U.S. District Court for retrial, due to possible jury misconduct. The U.S. Attorney’s Office has the power not to retry him or Rick Watts, yet they choose to squander valuable taxpayer dollars by prosecuting Rosenthal and Watts in an obvious miscarriage of justice and subversion of the will of California voters who voted for Proposition 215 in 1996.

We call on all outraged medical cannabis patients, their caregivers and supporters to phone or fax the U.S. Attorney’s office [ph.: (415)436-7200 fax: (415)436-7234] to demand they immediately cease their prosecution of both cases, as well as all those currently awaiting trial for medical cannabis related offenses and for the federal government to release all medical cannabis prisoners currently in custody.

Contacts: Clark Sullivan 415 424 0125 webmaster@hempevolution.org; Shona Gochenaur 415 240 5247 axisoflovesf@gmail.com

 

Another election trainwreck

This time in Maryland.

Briefly noted

Colorado voters are considering a ballot measure to allow adults 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of cannabis. The government is misleading people by claiming that it would decriminalize giving cannabis to minors.

Hat-tip to global warming.

This is America, not “our Homeland”

When the Germans started referring to their country as the Fatherland, it was bad.

’nuff said

Any questions?

See more.

San Francisco Considers Adult Use Marijuana Ordinance

California NORML Release – Sept 11, 2006
San Francisco Considers Adult Use Marijuana Ordinance

The San Francisco Supervisors will be considering an ordinance to make adult marijuana offenses lowest law enforcement priority.

The measure, sponsored by Sup. Tom Ammiano, is intended to save the city expenditures on arrests, prosecution and jailing of marijuana users, and to encourage law enforcement to concentrate on violent and serious crime.

The measure also calls on the state and federal government to establish a system of legally, taxed and regulated marijuana. Passage of the measure would add San Francisco to a growing list of cities that have approved adult use marijuana legislation, among them Oakland, Seattle, and West Hollywood. Similar initiatives will be on the ballot in Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara and Santa Monica this November.

The San Francisco campaign is backed by a coalition of drug reform groups including California NORML, the Cannabis Consumers Campaign, the Drug Policy Alliance, the Marijuana Policy Project, and San Franciscans for Civil Liberties.

Advocates say the measure is intended to curb wasteful spending on marijuana enforcement and free up police resources for more serious crimes. In 2004, the city recorded over 1,000 marijuana arrests, at an estimated cost of between $2.5 million and $8 million.

California currently has 1,400 offenders in state prison for marijuana-related offenses, over 14 times as many as in 1980.

African-Americans are over-represented by a factor of five among marijuana prisoners.

“The public would be better off to stop wasting money arresting, prosecuting, and imprisoning people for marijuana, and to start collecting tax money from them instead” says California NORML director Dale Gieringer.

The ordinance would direct San Francisco law enforcement officers not to cooperate with federal law enforcement efforts that violate the city’s policy.

The measure would exempt offenses involving minors, sales on public property, or DUI from the lowest enforcement priority policy. It would have no effect on the city’s current ordinance regulating medical cannabis dispensaries.

Approval of the measure would put the Supervisors in line with an initiative approved by 64% of San Francisco voters in 1978, Proposition W, which called for a halt to marijuana arrests and prosecutions.

Contacts: Dale Gieringer, Cal NORML (415) 563-5858;
Camilla Field, DPA (415) 921-4987, Bruce Mirken, MPP (415)-668-6403.
For info on other state initiatives, see http://www.taxandregulate.org.