I've been watching the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings today and am reminded of an interview I saw on c-span this week end with Garry Leech. You can read about the hearings
here Reuters article .
Garry Leech is a remarkable writer and journalist. He wrote Columbia Journal which you can read about here Colombia journal. The ineffectiveness of the US war on drugs in Columbia and it's relationship to our failed policy in this hemisphere is a tragedy. We have wasted human and financial resources, and not made the world safer.
The Drug war has been used by those of every political persuasion to promote their agenda and their pet political projects. At this time, the chaos and violence in Mexico and on our southern boarder is being used by those who would like to promote tighter gun control, those who would like to use more military force to tighten our boarders, those who would like to strengthen control of money flow across boarders.
In every way the Drug War is used to take away civil liberties and and give government more control in order to keep us safe. It is used as a reason to give federal money to local law enforcement, give government more power to scrutinize our bank accounts, funnel money to local court approved mental health agencies, and gain approval for military intervention in foreign countries. The Drug War also is the rational for more citizen surveillance, and helps gain approval of the public to militarize law enforcement both inside our boarders and abroad.
Presently the gun control lobby is intent on encouraging more control based on the flow of fire arms across the Mexican boarder. There is a saner way to take the profits and power from drug suppliers. Legalize, tax, and regulate
Beth Curtis
AIG is burning through cash. I think those sin taxes might help a little. And it's a great way to get some of those bonuses back, because you know they're going to pump that money right back into the economy.
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