Friday, April 5, 2013
PAUL: Minimizing authority of judges - Washington Times
This piece in the Washington Times by Rand Paul should be welcomed by all who believe in civil bi-partisan cooperation. Eliminating mandatory minimums is a step toward criminal justice reform. It is fiscally responsible and speaks to civil liberties.
PAUL: Minimizing authority of judges - Washington Times
PAUL: Minimizing authority of judges - Washington Times
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Hemp and the Legacy of The Last Free Man in America
This is interesting and fun to read. It gives hope and humor. Thank you Johnathan Miller. I'll be checking back.
Hemp and the Legacy of The Last Free Man in America
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Created By:
The Murder of Mary Jane
This film will explore marijuana
prohibition, the current legal battle to legalize it, and U.S. citizens
serving life sentences for marijuana-related offenses.
Why I'm Making This Film
My name is Kim Markou. I am a freelance writer and producer. Four years ago I battled breast cancer. Refusing the chemotherapy and radiation, I decided to concentrate instead on diet, nutrition and natural THC, with great results. I found that even though marijuana has PROVEN medicinal qualities (U.S. Patent # 6630507), our government, steeped in hypocrisy and driven by money, corporate greed and the back room deals of big Pharm, has continued to prosecute and imprison fellow U.S. citizens, many like myself, who desire to treat themselves with a natural plant that contains anti-inflammatory and healing properties.Tuesday, March 26, 2013
This article in the NY Times talks about the use of marijuana by senior citizens. It's a sign of the times
Shuffleboard? Oh, Maybe Let’s Get High Instead
Michael F. McElroy for The New York Times
By ALYSON KRUEGER
Friday, March 22, 2013
The Drug Warriors Cashing In on Pot Prohibition | The Fix
This is a pretty good article about the revolving door between "Government Service" and private business opportunities for government contracts. It is a good argument for smaller more fiscally responsible government.
The Drug Warriors Cashing In on Pot Prohibition | The Fix
The Drug Warriors Cashing In on Pot Prohibition | The Fix
Monday, March 18, 2013
HIGHTIMES.COM | Pardoning Pot Prisoners
A new petition asks
High Times has spotlighted the Group Petition for Pardon for five non-violent marijuana offenders who received sentences of Life without Parole for selling marijuana. In the interest to fiscal responsibility and civil liberties, President Obama should grant these pardons. It's the right thing to do.
HIGHTIMES.COM | Pardoning Pot Prisoners
Saturday, March 9, 2013
This article by Vikrant P. Reddy and Marc A Levine from Right on Crime is worth the time it takes to read
The Conservative Case Against More Prisons
Higher incarceration rates aren't making us safer—and there are better, smaller-government alternatives.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Sen. Leahy: Sequester should halt federal marijuana raids - Washington Times
Could we actually be getting somewhere? If we are fiscally conservative and care about civil liberties we should legalize marijuana. Mass incarceration should not be our nations future.
Sen. Leahy: Sequester should halt federal marijuana raids - Washington Times
Sen. Leahy: Sequester should halt federal marijuana raids - Washington Times
A 14-year Pardon Application Process?
What happens to Clemency Applications? Very little. This is the sad story of the progress of a Clemency Application as it travels around the Justice Department.
A 14-year Pardon Application Process?
A 14-year Pardon Application Process?
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Monday, March 4, 2013
This article from Mother Jones is just another story about government employee unions and their influence on mass incarceration.
It may be more comfortable for progressives to place the blame on conservatives, but the financial incentives for mass incarceration clearly belong to those who depend on paychecks for prisoners.
Big Labor's Lock 'Em Up Mentality
How otherwise progressive unions stand in the way of a more humane correctional system.
—By James Ridgeway and Jean Casella
| Fri Feb. 22, 2013 3:01 AM PST
Courtesty Tamms Year Ten
On
January 4, the Tamms Correctional Center, a supermax prison in southern
Illinois, officially closed its doors. Tamms, where some men had been
kept in solitary confinement for more than a decade, was notorious for its brutal treatment of prisoners with mental illness—and for driving sane prisoners to madness and suicide.The closure, by order of Gov. Pat Quinn, was celebrated by human rights and prison reform groups, and by the local activists who had fought for years to do away with what they saw as a torture chamber in their backyard. But it might have been accomplished sooner were it not for a competing progressive faction: Big Labor.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Justice Department can be smarter about sequester - The Hill's Congress Blog
Good article in The Hill's Congress Blog - Worth a read.
Justice Department can be smarter about sequester - The Hill's Congress Blog
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Barack the Unmerciful
It doesn't hurt to revisit this piece from Reason about Obam's Clemency. Seventeen more Pardons, still only one Commutation. Let's hope they are coming.
Barack the Unmerciful
Barack the Unmerciful
Friday, March 1, 2013
Anti-Marijuana Group Sucks at Messaging/Telling the Truth
There is probably some way to follow the money for this organization.
Anti-Marijuana Group Sucks at Messaging/Telling the Truth
Anti-Marijuana Group Sucks at Messaging/Telling the Truth
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Interesting article in the Guardian about US Prosecutors representing drug cartels.
US drugs prosecutors switch sides to defend accused Colombian traffickers
After working to take down cartels, former officials say America's 'war on drugs' is misguided and the human cost too high
-
Rory Carroll in Los Angeles
- The Guardian,
-
Today in the New York Times - Marc Mauer from the Sentencing Project talks about incarceration trends in the United States. This is a significant fiscal issue as well as an issue that speaks to civil liberties and justice.
Incarceration Rates for Blacks Have Fallen Sharply, Report Shows
By ERICA GOODE
Published: February 27, 201
Incarceration rates for black Americans dropped sharply from 2000 to
2009, especially for women, while the rate of imprisonment for whites
and Hispanics rose over the same decade, according to a report released
Wednesday by a prison research and advocacy group in Washington.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Justice Department can be smarter about sequester - The Hill's Congress Blog
This piece in The Hill by Ethan Nadelmann from Drug Policy Alliance answers Attorney General Eric Holder's report to the Appropriations Comittee about the cost of justice. Sometimes more cost equals less justice.
Justice Department can be smarter about sequester - The Hill's Congress Blog
Justice Department can be smarter about sequester - The Hill's Congress Blog
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Is Your Local Police Department Using Pictures of Pregnant Women and Children for Target Practice?
This article from Reason is shocking, but not surprising. I often wonder about gun violence and how it is related to the militarization of our own law enforcement agencies. I am offended when I see the snipers on the roof of the White House. The intense preoccupation of our Public Servants with their own security coarsens our society.
Is Your Local Police Department Using Pictures of Pregnant Women and Children for Target Practice?
Is Your Local Police Department Using Pictures of Pregnant Women and Children for Target Practice?
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Friday, February 8, 2013
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Friday, February 1, 2013
Good discussion of the next four states for marijuana legalization
It's been only two months since Washington and Colorado voters
legalized recreational marijuana, but the advocates who raised
millions to pass Amendment 64 and Initiative 502 aren't wasting
time celebrating. In addition to helping craft the rules and
regulations in the Centennial and Evergreen states, they're also
providing support to state legislators who will introduce marijuana
bills—more than 20 altogether—in 2013.
"While not all of them will pass," says Morgan Fox of the
Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), the debates around them will be
different than in years past. "What I'm hearing is that a dam
broke," says Jill Harris, managing director of strategic
initiatives for the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA). "Before Colorado
and Washington, the idea of legal marijuana existed in the realm of
fantasy. But after Colorado and Washington, we can have a more
serious conversation."
These 4 States Will Reform Their Marijuana Laws in 2013
The pot reform movement picks up speed.
Mike Riggs | January 31, 2013
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Watch List: Ryan Release, But No Pardon
From the blog Pardon Power by P.S. Ruckman
Always good information
Watch List: Ryan Release, But No Pardon
Always good information
Watch List: Ryan Release, But No Pardon
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
This is something we should remember about Regan and Amnesty for immigrants.
Conservatives may be reminded what their party was like in the 1980s. Many young Republicans may become informed. This NPR piece is something that present "social conservatives" will be surprised by.A Reagan Legacy: Amnesty For Illegal Immigrants
by NPR Staff
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
As the nation's attention turns back to the fractured debate over
immigration, it might be helpful to remember that in 1986, Ronald Reagan
signed a sweeping immigration reform bill into law. It was sold as a
crackdown: There would be tighter security at the Mexican border, and
employers would face strict penalties for hiring undocumented workers. But the bill also made any immigrant who'd entered the country before 1982 eligible for amnesty — a word not usually associated with the father of modern conservatism.
In his renewed push for an immigration overhaul this week, President Obama called for Republican support for a bill to address the growing population of illegal immigrants in the country. This time, however, Republicans know better than to tread near the politically toxic A-word.
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Friday, January 25, 2013
Reinvigorating the Federal Pardon Process: What the President Can Learn from the States | ACS
Author(s):
Margaret Colgate Love
Publication Date:
January 24, 2013 The presidential exercise of the pardon power, or lack thereof, has been the subject of national conversation in recent months. As Margaret Colgate Love describes in her Issue Brief, this much discussed, but not often used, executive power and process "has lost its vigor, its integrity, and its sense of purpose.” The latest assessments of the federal pardon process suggest a process plagued by racial and class disparities, and in at least one case, misconduct on the part of the Pardon Attorney.
Reinvigorating the Federal Pardon Process: What the President Can Learn from the States | ACS
Obama's Pot Dilemma: Is It Time to Evolve?
Obama's Pot Dilemma: Is It Time to Evolve?
by Daniel Honan
December 8, 2012, 12:00 AM
When the clock struck midnight this past Wednesday, dozens of pot smokers lit up in plain sight at Seattle's Space Needle. At that exact moment, the state of Washington's liberal marijuana law went into effect. No federal officials were in sight. No arrests were made, even though smoking marijuana in public is still subject to a fine in Washington. Law enforcement officials seem to want to stay as far away as possible from these types of celebrations, so as not to open up a legal can of worms.
Obama's Pot Dilemma: Is It Time to Evolve?
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Professor Doug Bermans blog has very good commentary about the NY Times article on gun laws and mandatory minimums. It is worth the read.
More proof mandatory sentencing laws are never really mandatory and can enhance disparities
One typical argument for mandatory sentencing provisions, whether in the form of statutory minimums or rigid guideline structures, is that they ensure all persons who commit a certain kind of crime will be sure to get a certain kind of sentence. But even if one believes such one-size-fits-all approach to sentencing can be justified normatively in some settings, real-world evidence reveals again and again and again that criminal justice actors will devise various ways (some hidden, some in the open) to avoid consistent application of these mandates. The latest proof of this reality appears in this lengthy article from yesterday's New York Times, which is headlined "Prison Isn’t as Mandatory as State’s Gun Laws Say." Here are excerpts:Go to: This link
Manifest Injustice !
PS Ruckman's fine blog Pardon Power has another great post today.
Today, Pulitzer Prize winner Barry Siegel's new book, Manifest Injustice: The True Story of a Convicted Murderer and the Lawyers Who Fought for His Freedom, is on the shelves of the Nation's bookstores (see ad here).
The book is about the case of one William Macumber whose situation was highlighted in many of our posts (click here). We have asked (and gained) permission to quote the following passages from the book: This is the link - Manifest Injustice !
Friday, January 18, 2013
The War on Fast Food: Can a D.C. Suburb Fight Fat with Zoning?
Maryland's Prince George's County has the highest obesity rates in the Washington, D.C. area. Now the county council is considering a bill that would give it zoning authority to keep new fast food eateries out of its jurisdiction.
But is tackling obesity as easy as keeping cheeseburgers and fries out of people's hands?
The author of the bill, Karen Toles, thinks so and tells Reason she's just trying to hold fast-food restaurants accountable for "preying" on her constituents. The Center for Consumer Freedom's Justin Wilson says the bill violates the rights of customers and businessmen and argues that “obesity is far more complicated than blaming...one single industry.”
The bill's worst enemy maybe Prince George's itself: The county recently loaned $300,000 to a local businessman so he could open up two new Little Caesars pizza restaurants.
The bill is scheduled for a vote later this year.
About 2.30 minutes. Produced by Joshua Swain and hosted by Kennedy.
The War on Fast Food: Can a D.C. Suburb Fight Fat with Zoning?
Thursday, January 17, 2013
by Erik Altieri, NORML Communications Director January 17, 2013
“The fact that so many people, especially young people, go to prison for a relatively minor thing, a drug offense. And then you ask, why can’t they get jobs afterward? Why do they have problems from then on?Senator Leahy also addressed the disproportionate toll marijuana prohibition takes on people of color:
I think we have spent tens of billions, hundreds of billions of dollars on the so-called War on Drugs. Well, we’ve lost.” – Sen. Leahy
http://blog.norml.org/2013/01/17/senator-leahy-after-spending-billions-on-the-war-on-drugs-well-weve-lost/
Monday, January 14, 2013
The New York Times has an article about another medical marijuana provider being prosecuted. This is such a sad and consistant story that it is increasingly confounding that Congress has not done anything about removing marijuana from the CSA.
Just another reason why citizens question the ability of these isolated individuals serving in Congress and who are given the priviledge of representing us. When even more momentum builds and it is obvious that the majority abhors this excessive use of government force being used to prosecute people for life style choices - perhaps our elected leaders will run to the front of the line and insist they are leading.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Bloomberg - Daddy Knows Best
Radley Belko writing for the Huffington Post shines the light on Mayor Bloomberg's latest ill considered decision. Bloomberg is now practicing medicine in all city hospitals in New York. We have given our government the mandate to keep us safe from all harm, Bloomberg is now acting as citizens physician.
link to article
link to article
The Nation: Re Weldon Angelos
The Nation: Re Weldon Angelos
PS Ruckman on his pardon power blog shares his thoughts about Presidential Pardon power. Sasha Abromsky has written an article for The Nation about the case of Weldon Angelos and the lack of attention paid to his case.
PS Ruckman on his pardon power blog shares his thoughts about Presidential Pardon power. Sasha Abromsky has written an article for The Nation about the case of Weldon Angelos and the lack of attention paid to his case.
Friday, January 4, 2013
GROUP PETITION FOR COMMUTATION FOR FIVE ELDERLY MARIJUANA OFFENDERS SERVING SENTENCES OF LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE FOR SELLING MARIJUANA
This is the link to a Group Petition for Commutation submitted by the law office of Michael Kennedy for five elderly non-violent, marijuana inmates serving life sentences in Federal Prison for selling marijuana. This petition was submitted in the middle of November of 2012. Please read it and let us know if you could support the concept of Group Clemency.
Wisconsin: Scott Walker, Blithering Pardon Idiot
Wisconsin: Scott Walker, Blithering Pardon Idiot
PS Ruckman's blog Pardon Power is a wealth of information about the exercise of Clemency by state governors and by Presidents. If you're interested in this powerful execuative power you can't find a better source for statistics and analysis.
PS Ruckman's blog Pardon Power is a wealth of information about the exercise of Clemency by state governors and by Presidents. If you're interested in this powerful execuative power you can't find a better source for statistics and analysis.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
A very good article on AlterNet written by Kristen Gwynne about five elderly marijuana inmates serving sentences of Life Without Parole for selling marijuana.
The Law Office of Michael Kennedy submitted a Petition for Commutation to President Obama asking him to commute the sentences of these five non-violent, marijuana offenders who are serving sentences of Life Without Parole for selling marijuana.
Friday, December 28, 2012
DOJ Inspector General Faults Pardon Attorney for Misleading the White House About Clarence Aaron's Clemency Petition
Inspector General's report of investigation of the DOJ department of the Pardon Attorney
Pardon attorney, Rogers is found deficient and evasive in his advice to the President concerning Clemency Petitions.
DOJ Inspector General Faults Pardon Attorney for Misleading the White House About Clarence Aaron's Clemency Petition
Pardon attorney, Rogers is found deficient and evasive in his advice to the President concerning Clemency Petitions.
DOJ Inspector General Faults Pardon Attorney for Misleading the White House About Clarence Aaron's Clemency Petition
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Pardon Attorney Scandal: The Experts Speak
Pardon Attorney Scandal: The Experts Speak
P S Ruckman has the most authoriative blog about Presidential Clemency - Lots of other good stuff.
P S Ruckman has the most authoriative blog about Presidential Clemency - Lots of other good stuff.
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