{news} PRISON FOR YOU, YES, BUT NOT FOR ME

[clifford thornton]

I really don't think the Green Party realizes the opportunity we have
here.  We must get on the ballot.  The whole world is watching and
waiting for us to get on the ballot.  Especially the drug reform movement
and the all the money they will contribute to my campaign.  We have to
captolize.

Cliff  



click here for this article's associated links<mailhtml:mid://00000276/#associated_links> 
PRISON FOR YOU, YES, BUT NOT FOR ME

By John Stossel

Our  elected  officials  say  they  are  just like the rest of us. But
that's a myth.

"The king can do no wrong" is often closer to the truth.

Consider  drug  use. In 1992, when Presidential candidate Bill Clinton
was  asked  about  his,  he  said, "I have never broken the laws of my
country."  It  was  one  of  those lawyerly language tricks, which was
revealed  when  a  reporter  later  asked  him  about  laws  in  other
countries.

"I  have  never  broken a state law," he said. "When I was in England,
I  experimented  with  marijuana  a  time or two, and I didn't like it
and didn't inhale."

There  was  a smirk on his face; it was clear drug use was no big deal
to  him.  Remember  when  he  played  the  sax on TV? What got him the
biggest  laugh  that night was talking about smoking dope: "That's how
I  learned  to  inhale,  by  playing my saxophone," he said, grinning.
"You  blow  out  and  then  you  have  to inhale." Everyone applauded.

What  fun.  His  vice  president,  Al  Gore,  did  drugs, too -- "as a
student,  a  few  times  in  the  army" -- and so did other officials,
like  former  Senator  Bill  Bradley  and  Interior  Secretary  Bruce
Babbitt.  Our  current  President simply admitted to "mistakes" in his
youth,  and  his  father,  George H.W. Bush, when asked if he had ever
smoked  grass,  replied,  "No,  but  I'd  hate  to speak for my kids."

It's  something  to  chuckle  about.  After  all, more than 30 million
Americans  have  tried  cocaine,  according  to  the  latest  National
Survey  on  Drug  Use. Ninety million Americans have used marijuana at
least once. "It is not a big deal," said Bill Clinton.

But  if  it's  no big deal, why did he and his vice president push for
tougher  drug  laws  with  longer  jail time, and why are we arresting
more  people  than  ever,  more  than 1.5 million Americans a year, on
drug charges?

The  biggest  category of arrest is possession of marijuana. We arrest
more  people  for  marijuana  than  for  rape,  robbery,  murder,  and
aggravated  assault  combined.  Eight  out of 10 drug arrests are just
for  possession  --  for  exactly  what  the  politicians  admitted to
doing.  Ha  ha.  We'll  smoke  grass and joke about it, but you, we'll
lock up.

Hypocrites.

The  hypocrisy  also  comes  out  when  their  friends  and family get
caught.

Likely  2008  Presidential  candidate  John  McCain,  R-Ariz.,  has
advocated  tougher  drug  laws,  but  in  the  early  1990s, his wife,
Cindy,  stole  Percocet  and  Vicodin  from  a  charity.  She  was not
prosecuted.  Percocet  and  Vicodin are Schedule II drugs, in the same
legal  category  as  opium.  Each  pill theft carries a penalty of one
year  in  prison  and  a  monetary  fine.  But  Mrs.  McCain entered a
pretrial  diversion  program  and  escaped  without a criminal record.

The  son  of  Duke  "Death  Penalty  for  Drug  Kingpins"  Cunningham,
R-Calif.,  was  convicted  for  possession of 400 pounds of marijuana.
Mother  Jones  reported  that  in  court,  the  congressman  cried and
pleaded  for  mercy,  explaining  that  his  son "has a good heart. He
works  hard."  The congressman -- who denounced "soft-on-crime liberal
judges"  and  railed  against "reduced mandatory-minimum sentences for
drug  trafficking"  (  and  who  himself  is  now in prison for taking
bribes  )  -- won for his son the mercy he fought to deny others: half
the federal "mandatory" minimum sentence.

All  too  often,  officials protect themselves and their families from
the  punishments  they set up for the rest of us. Using drugs might be
a  crime  for  you, but it's a joke for someone named Bush or Clinton.

Our  rulers  make  laws  to control and punish you and your family for
doing the very acts they flaunted in their youth.

Smoking  pot  is not a big deal. If the politicians have enough common
sense  to  know  that  their  lives  shouldn't be ruined over a little
drug  use,  they  should  also have enough common decency to recognize
that neither should anyone else's.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Associated links<>: http://www.mapinc.org/media/761<http://www.mapinc.org/media/761>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/private/ctgp-news/attachments/20060701/9816e7e6/attachment.html>