Weekly Post Convention Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is back from the state conventions and focused on the fall as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff reminds you that your voter registration status is in the hands of a bureaucrat who might mistake you for someone else.

 BossKitty at TruthHugger knows why politicians always hire professional marketers. Americans have been conditioned to react predictably, and marketers know how to sway the voter and consumer. That's why America is Pavlov’s Dog.

The James Cargas campaign sunk to a new low over the weekend with an e-mail to precinct chairs criticizing a single mother's primary voting record. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs reminds voters of Congressional District 7 that there's a corporate Democrat and a community Democrat running for the Democratic nomination, and which one represents the party in a November should be a very easy choice, no matter where on the spectrum you fall.  

WCNews at Eye on Williamson says it's time for Democrats to change tactics and advocate for the poor, working and middle classes again. There is nothing left to lose.

Neil at Texas Liberal posted about 2012 Juneteenth observances and celebrations in Galveston, Houston and College Station. This post also has Juneteenth history links. Juneteenth 2012 is on Tuesday, June 19.

Cannabis Now Legal In 17 States

Once consigned to the political fringe, marijuana policy is appearing on legislative agendas around the country thanks to an energized base of supporters and an increasingly open-minded public. Lawmakers from Rhode Island to Colorado are mulling medical marijuana programs, pot dispensaries, decriminalization and even legalization. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia now authorize medical marijuana and 14, including neighboring Connecticut and Massachusetts, have rolled back criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of pot.  --NORML Facebook Page

Cannabis is now legal in 17 states. SEVENTEEN STATES! Did you hear that, Texas?
17 states and counting...

When will Texas make a change???

Hell, most of the people I know from both sides of the aisle (Republicans and Democrats) use it !
A LOT!
You can't blame the church either...
We have cigarettes, cigars, and alcohol in Texas;
All of which are worse for you than Cannabis... and yet, the church allows those vices.
Ever had a doctor prescribe you a Scotch on the rocks with a hand-rolled Cuban cigar,
or maybe have you smoke a pack of Marlboro Reds? I don't think so.

Those of you who look down your noses at people who use pot, you're all going to look like FOOLS when this herb is finally legal everywhere in the US.
Hypocrites and FOOLS.

I'm ready to blow smoke in your faces now.

To the hypocrites, the judges, the attorneys, the employers, and most of all the cops,

To all those who've ruined good peoples lives in the name of demonizing marijuana users and "turning a buck" in the courts while sending good people to jail,

I say,

'go get high!'  

Did you know George Washington grew 1000's of acres of marijuana and many of the Founding Fathers smoked it.

 By Associated Press, Updated: Sunday, June 10, 12:25 PM

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Catharine Leach is married and has two boys, age 2 and 8. She has a good job with a federal contractor and smokes pot most every day.

While she worries that her public support for marijuana decriminalization and legalization could cost her a job or bring the police to her door, the 30-year-old Warwick resident said she was tired of feeling like a criminal for using a drug that she said is far less harmful than the glass or wine or can of beer enjoyed by so many others after a long day’s work. Like others around the nation working to relax penalties for possession of pot, she decided to stop hiding and speak out.

“I’m done being afraid,” she said. “People in this country are finally coming around and seeing that putting someone in jail for this doesn’t make sense. It’s just a changing of the time.”

Once consigned to the political fringe, marijuana policy is appearing on legislative agendas around the country thanks to an energized base of supporters and an increasingly open-minded public. Lawmakers from Rhode Island to Colorado are mulling medical marijuana programs, pot dispensaries, decriminalization and even legalization. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia now authorize medical marijuana and 14, including neighboring Connecticut and Massachusetts, have rolled back criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of pot.
Rhode Island is poised to become the 15th state to decriminalize marijuana possession. The state’s General Assembly passed legislation last week that would eliminate the threat of big fines or even jail time for the possession of an ounce or less of pot. Instead, adults caught with small amounts of marijuana would face a $150 civil fine. Police would confiscate the marijuana, but the incident would not appear on a person’s criminal record.
Minors caught with pot would also have to complete a drug awareness program and community service.
Gov. Lincoln Chafee has said he is inclined to sign the legislation.
One of the bill’s sponsors, state Rep. John Edwards of Tiverton, has introduced similar proposals in past years but the idea always sputtered in committee. Each year, though, he got more co-sponsors, and the bill passed the House this year 50-24. The state Senate passed it 28-6.
Some supporters of decriminalization say they’d like to go even further.
“America’s 50-year war on drugs has been an abysmal failure,” said Rep. John Savage, a retired school principal from East Providence. “Marijuana in this country should be legalized. It should be sold and taxed.”
Opponents warned of dire consequences to the new policy.
“What kind of message are we sending to our youth? We are more worried about soda — for health reasons — than we are about marijuana,” said one opponent, Rhode Island state Rep. John Carnevale a Democrat from Providence.
A survey by Rasmussen last month found that 56 percent of respondents favored legalizing and regulating marijuana. A national Gallup poll last year showed support for legalizing pot had reached 50 percent, up from 46 percent in 2010 and 25 percent in the mid-’90s.

 

 Medical marijuana helped bring marijuana policy into the mainstream back in 1996, when California became the first state to authorize the use of cannabis for medicinal use. Other states followed suit. “It’s now politically viable to talk about these things,” said Robert Capecchi, legislative analyst with the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington, D.C.-based group that supports the reduction or elimination of penalties for medical and recreational pot use. “The public understands that there are substances that are far more harmful — alcohol, tobacco — that we regulate. People are realizing just how much money is being wasted on prohibition.”

Colorado and Washington state will hold fall referendums on legalizing marijuana. A ballot question on legalization failed in California in 2010.
This month, Connecticut’s governor signed legislation to allow medical marijuana there. Last week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed cutting the penalty for public possession of small amounts of pot.
Liberal state policies on marijuana have run into conflict with federal prohibition. Federal authorities have shut down more than 40 dispensaries this year in Colorado, even though they complied with state and local law. In Rhode Island, Gov. Lincoln Chafee blocked three dispensaries from opening last year after the state’s top federal prosecutor warned they could be prosecuted. Chafee and lawmakers then rewrote the dispensary law to restrict the amount of marijuana dispensaries may have on hand.
Robert DuPont, who served as the nation’s drug czar under presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, said Americans should be wary of a slippery slope to legalization. While marijuana may not cause the life-threatening problems associated with heroin, cocaine or methamphetamine, it’s far from harmless.
“It is a major drug of abuse,” he said. “People ask me what the most dangerous drug is, and I say marijuana. Other drugs have serious consequences that are easy to recognize. Marijuana saps people’s motivation, their direction. It’s a drug that makes people stupid and lazy. That’s in a way more dangerous.”

*coughs*

Sunday Funnies

Who Are We?

The Prometheus is a ship sent to make contact with a race of ancient aliens believed to be the "engineers" of humanity.  

The saga of the crew unfolds and begins to explain how the original "Alien" films came to hatch.

While exploring the distant world, the crew, and their idealistic dreams, become a horrific nightmare... Go figure.



I love prequels to good movies, especially if they're made by Ridley Scott.
I love movies that make you uncomfortable at times. I like the ones that make you think when you leave the theatre. The films that are still playing in your mind the next morning when you wake.
They leave you with so many unanswered questions, but you have to stay tuned...
Prometheus is one of those films.
This film has everything you'd expect from the Alien franchise:
The android.
The scruffy crew (in it for the money...)
Corporate greed.
An expendable crew.
Pride.
Sex.
Birth.
Death.
A resilient female who's survival instincts match that of the aliens.(Noomi Rapace is Sigourney Weaver TUFF!)
See a pattern here?
But wait!
There's also:
Ancient Aliens (Engineers).
Questions of our creation.
Questions of our doom.
Stephen Sills...
Charlize Theron. *purr*
Some badmutherfucking MONSTERS
and MORE! SO MUCH MORE!!!

Science Fiction and Horror together are a strong drink, my friends. Heavy.
A lot to SWALLOW here, that's for sure.
"Big things have small beginnings" says the resident android, David, I tend to agree with David because the next two films will be huge. This, however, was a set-up film to a much bigger universe.
I tell u what:
One shouldn't expect to understand Prometheus in one viewing, it's that good. Just my opinion.
Leave the young kids at home. It's rated R for nightmares.
I want to see it again, right now,  and the sequels, oh boy, don't even get me started...

Brave explores risk everything to get answers to mankind's biggest question, Who Are We?

Update: Notes from IMDB on the film. Good stuff.

Clinton comes out swinging for Obama in New York - Rough Cuts

"He (Mitt Romney) wants to go back to the Bush system... except on steroids..."

--Bill Clinton

Bloggers Caucus at TDP Friday June 8

The best party of the entire convention.

The Democratic Convention is in Houston this year. Although I won't be in attendance, I strongly encourage like-minded Texans to embark on the journey to H-Town, and join in the fun.
My Man, P-Diddy, is a local legend and breaks it off somethin' like dis:

As part of a longer entertainment options post -- probably coming on Thursday morning -- let's begin by saying if you aren't brave enough to be driving around H-Town, then you need to be taking the light rail. You don't want to sit around the Hilton or the GRB all day and all night, trust me. This is the nation's fourth largest city and THE most culturally diverse. It's also still just a great big old Texas town with lots of interesting things to see and do. Get out and get around it, for Pete's sake.

Never mind the previous version of this post, and don't go to W. Main like it says on this flyer; Club Curve is 410 Main Street, directly across from the Preston Street train station (southbound). Here's the map:


View Larger Map

From the Hilton Americas and the GRB, walk about six or seven blocks northwest, up Dallas Street, and then turn northeast (right) at Main and ride the train up one stop or just hoof it the remaining seven blocks. Or you can cab it. There might even be a pedi-cab if you're lucky. Parking downtown can be expensive and problematic so I would avoid that, especially if you're an out-of-towner.

Hope to see you there. I'm not a night owl any longer so don't show up at midnight expecting to meet the biggest, baddest asshole in the Texas progressive blogosphere.

Funnies

"Mitt Romney won the Texas Republican primary last night, crossing the crucial 1,144 delegate threshold. What a story! He came from never being behind to clinch the Republican nomination. They said it could be done, and against no odds he achieved the possible!"

-- Stephen Colbert

"Mitt Romney has begun vetting his vice presidential candidates. This is a tough thing because they want to appeal to the Republican base. They want a strong conservative there, but someone who will not upstage Mitt Romney. So the search is on for a strong conservative in a coma."

-- Bill Maher

The Democrats are headed to Houston, named for the Texas giant who led his ragged army on a strategic retreat eastward until finally engaging the enemy at San Jacinto and achieving glorious victory. Bereft of a statewide office holder for nearly two decades, the party still is in its Runaway Scrape phase.

The Republicans are convening in Fort Worth, these days a happy blend of traditional cowboy sensibilities and big-city culture that seems mighty comfortable to suit-and-boots-wearing politicians of the GOP persuasion. Fort Worth is thriving, and so is the party.

What Republican 'thriving' really looks like.