{news} LTE sent this morning

Sun Apr 30 10:40:46 EDT 2006

Dear Editor:

The article "Old Greens, green Dems CT college Dems and Green Party hold conventions, eat food" on April 27th misinforms the public yet again about drugs and what is said.  The statement "Thornton is as Green as they come, calling for the decriminalization of cannabis, which, he says, would free up $200 million for the state to spend on education and health care."  This statement is partially incorrect.  I call for the legalization of cannabis, not decriminalization.  I have made it perfectly clear where I stand on all illegal drugs.  The staff seems as "green as they come" when discussing the issue of illegal drugs and in the process misleading the public.  The media continually misconstrue the terms of legalization, medicalization and decriminalization. Each term would have a different affect  if applied separately. America coins phrases or words that mean different things to the rest of the world. Does reverse discrimination mean anything to you?  The rest of the world understands it to mean no discrimination at all.

Decriminalization means the law stays as is as far as the law is concerned, but one would only receive a fine for small amounts of given illegal substance.  (Look at what Mexico is doing with decriminalization and you will get it.)  I call for the outright legalization of cannabis and along with it hemp, which is in the same family and the medicalization of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and ecstasy.  And here we go, the decriminalization of all the rest of the illegal drugs for future debate and true and honest medicinal study.  

Also the statement, "Like Lamont, he's been called a single-issue candidate, and he didn't do much to dispel that notion."  How can that be when the drug war is two degrees from everything in society?  The drug war affects the economy since millions of dollars are laundered through the stock market--recall the lawsuits against Merrill Lynch and many banks for laundering illegal drug profits which guarantee politicians remain tough on crime.  This is a potential tax resource. Fifty percent of all HIV cases are spread by dirty needles from, you guessed it, illegal drug users.  I can go on but I want this to be an opening for true education about the biggest farce of the twentieth and twenty first century.  Remember alcohol prohibition and what a success that was. 

Clifford Wallace Thornton, Jr.

Efficacy
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Working to end race and class drug war injustice, Efficacy is a non profit
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  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: allan brison<mailto:apbrison at hotmail.com> 
  To: dbedellgreen at hotmail.com<mailto:dbedellgreen at hotmail.com> ; ctgp-news at ml.greens.org<mailto:ctgp-news at ml.greens.org> 
  Sent: Sunday, April 30, 2006 10:24 AM
  Subject: {news} Advocate article on our Convention

  Connecticut Green Party - Part of the GPUS
  http://www.ctgreens.org/<http://www.ctgreens.org/> - http://www.greenpartyus.org/<http://www.greenpartyus.org/>

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  Ryan Kearny wrote a pretty decent article on the Green Party convention but 
  it amuses me how he has to stick in some popular stereotype such as: 
  "middle-aged lefties" cracking "NPR jokes". I wonder just how NPR jokes the 
  middle-aged lefties cracked that day. Maybe Ryan heard a middle-aged lefty 
  offer a CRITIQUE of NPR.

  I consider NPR to be one big bad joke but I wasn't commenting, nor am I 
  middle-aged, so it couldn't have been me. Come to think of it, maybe Ryan 
  was right, on a subliminal level, if only he had included "aging hippies" 
  along with middle-aged lefties.

  To read an Advocate article on ANY subject devoid of stereotypes.... a 
  dream, perhaps unrealistic, of mine.

  Allan

  ----Original Message Follows----
  From: "David Bedell" <dbedellgreen at hotmail.com<mailto:dbedellgreen at hotmail.com>>
  To: ctgp-news at ml.greens.org<mailto:ctgp-news at ml.greens.org>
  Subject: {news} Old Greens, green Dems
  Date: Sun, 30 Apr 2006 01:38:38 +0000

  Connecticut Green Party - Part of the GPUS
  http://www.ctgreens.org/<http://www.ctgreens.org/> - http://www.greenpartyus.org/<http://www.greenpartyus.org/>

  to unsubscribe click here
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  http://newhavenadvocate.com/gbase/News/content?oid=oid:153151<http://newhavenadvocate.com/gbase/News/content?oid=oid:153151>

  Old Greens, green Dems
  CT college Dems and Green Party hold conventions, eat food

  by Advocate Staff - April 27, 2006

  Last Saturday, April 22, a cold and drizzly Earth Day, two groups of 
  idealists met separately to plot their political future. One group, the 
  College Democrats of Connecticut, convened in the modern campus center of 
  the University of New Haven. The other, the Connecticut Green Party, holed 
  up in the aged home of the Greater New Haven Labor Council.The former 
  mingled with Democratic pols. The latter made history.

  About 40 students, bleary-eyed but sharply dressed at 9 a.m., attended the 
  college Dems convention to hear some of the party's biggest names speak. 
  Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, acknowledging she was "preaching to 
  the choir," bemoaned that only one in four 18- to 24-year-olds votes in 
  Connecticut. A show of hands revealed that most of the attendees vote 
  absentee in their home states, and Comptroller Nancy Wyman beseeched them 
  "to be on the front lines for us."

  Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, meanwhile, began with a confession: He 
  has four kids, and he "can't get them interested in politics." And yet, he 
  says, "In my view, we are living through the most lawless national 
  administration in history". Even the lawlessness of the Nixon administration 
  looks good by comparison."

  The luncheon drew other notables, like Mayor John DeStefano, a gubernatorial 
  candidate, as well as U.S. senate candidate Ned Lamont. The latter blasted 
  his opponent, Joe Lieberman, for being the only Democrat in Connecticut "who 
  supported the Bush-Cheney energy bill." He also discussed his key campaign 
  issue: the Iraq war. He proposes an immediate withdrawal of troops, but says 
  the U.S.-led reconstruction should continue.

  Are you, I asked him, saying the Iraqi police force would protect American 
  contractors?

  "Yeah, I think that's exactly what I'm saying," replied Lamont, though he 
  appeared unsure. He added that maybe the United Nations and the Arab League 
  would pitch in, too. "We've got to eat a little humble pie," he said. 
  "American troops on the front lines aren't doing us any good."

  The Green Party convention in Fair Haven, meanwhile, was a much looser, 
  livelier affair, as a similar number of middle-aged lefties cracked NPR 
  jokes and noshed on Modern pizza, assorted cheeses and other snacks. They 
  also approved their first-ever slate of statewide candidates, including 
  gubernatorial hopeful Clifford Thornton, who had a different war on his 
  mind.

  "The drug war has done nothing but exacerbate the problems connected with 
  drugs," said Thornton, thought to be the first black man to run for the 
  state's top job. "I am tired of waiting for someone to have the courage to 
  make this issue public, so I have decided to do it myself."

  Thornton is as Green as they come, calling for the decriminalization of 
  cannabis, which, he says, would free up $200 million for the state to spend 
  on education and health care. Like Lamont, he's been called a single-issue 
  candidate, and he didn't do much to dispel that notion. Citing insufficient 
  knowledge, he refused to take stances on instituting a millionaire's tax, 
  repealing the estate tax, and prohibiting bosses from making over 10 times 
  more than their lowest-paid employees.

  But Thornton did have some choice words for any liberal who says Thornton 
  might "spoil" this fall's general election: "Tough shit." Several Green 
  delegates suggested, with a chuckle, that he make that his campaign slogan.

  -Ryan Kearney

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  NOTE: This is an inherently insecure forum, please do not post confidential messages and always realize that your address can be faked, and although a message may appear to be from a certain individual, it is always possible that it is fakemail. This is mail sent by a third party under an illegally assumed identity for purposes of coercion, misdirection, or general mischief.

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