Three former Washington State Governors have endorsed the Death with Dignity Initiative I-1000, Republican Dan Evans and Democrats Booth Gardner and Gary Locke. A fourth, Republican John Spellman, is opposing the measure. I’d been planning to write a final post about all of the myths and lies being spread by the I-1000 opposition, but Spellman’s recent editorial in the Seattle PI contains enough of them that it serves as the perfect springboard for this post anyway.

It is not often I publicly disagree with my former gubernatorial colleagues, Booth Gardner and Daniel Evans. While I respect them both, I must firmly disagree with their support of the assisted suicide initiative, I-1000.

Both frame the issue as one of strictly personal choice. But what’s at stake is actually much broader. Derek Humphrey, co-founder of the Hemlock Society, has asserted repeatedly that euthanasia and assisted suicide will inevitably prevail in our society because they make economic sense.

Think about that for a second. What on Earth is he saying? Obviously it’s cheaper to have people with serious illnesses die sooner rather than later. But when economics enters the picture, it’s no longer a matter of strictly personal choice. Do you really think that, once implemented, assisted suicide will remain merely a “personal choice,” isolated from not-so-subtle coercions of everyday life and magically protected from health care rationing?

Yes, I do, and we can look at Oregon for the proof. Oregon’s law has been on the books for 10 years now, and there’s absolutely no evidence that it’s moving any closer to being anything other than a personal choice. No one anywhere wants coercions, and no one anywhere is talking about coercions. As in Oregon, only the terminally ill individual makes the choice under I-1000, not doctors, not health care providers, not family members, not the government. The belief that I-1000 will lead to an end where people have less choices has no basis in reality.

[Read more…]

This Eric Earling post from today reminded me of this laugher he posted up on the night of the Pennsylvania primary:

This may be hard news for the netrooters, the urban liberals, and the idealistic youth whose collective undergarments have frequently been moistened in the throws of Obama-mania. But, it is what it is. The county-by-county maps of Ohio and Pennsylvania look awfully similar: islands of urban, Obama liberalism, surrounded by a sea of working class support.

Does anyone think that trend will be reversed in Indiana, West Virginia, and Kentucky? Does anyone think Obama isn’t going to consequently have significant problems in key portions of the Rust Belt come this fall? With states like Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and even perhaps Pennsylvania on the table in November, is that really path Democrats want to go down?

I responded in comments:

In the end, they’ll vote for a pile of dogshit before they’ll vote for a rich Republican from Arizona

Earling’s foolish optimism that somehow Obama wouldn’t be palatable to working-class folks in the upper midwest shows how we ended up with a campaign desperately trying to focus its attention on the plight of a Toledo plumber who mistakenly believes his taxes will go up under Obama. The true believers in the McCain camp are still convinced that those who support Obama are simply brainwashed by the “liberal media” successfully covering up Obama’s various disqualifiers. At every turn, they’re convinced that the latest thing is the thing that turns the tide and “wakes America up” to what they think this election is really about. This is why they’ve just finished trying to coronate an unlicensed plumber who owes back taxes and doesn’t appear to be very good at economics. As Earling concludes:

It’s not over, but McCain needs help.

He’s right. It’s not over. We need to finish what we started here and make sure Obama wins this thing. But the help McCain needs is for his insane, racist supporters to stop motivating so many of us to kick every Republican out of public office on the 4th.

Eli Sanders has posts here and here.

Andrew Villeneuve has several posts from the event here.

Some classy folks at a Palin rally in Johnstown, PA:

100,000 people see Obama in St. Louis:

Last week’s contest was won by Erasmus, who first guessed the correct location of Copenhagen, and wes.in.wa, who found the link. Here’s this week’s contest. Good luck!

Nir Rosen has an amazing account in Rolling Stone of his journey into Taliban-controlled parts of Afghanistan. Rosen discovers some expected things, for instance, that it’s still a dangerous region where foreigners are not welcome and coalition forces only engage from the air. But he also finds some unexpected things, like that the ranks of the Taliban are not so much the religious fundamentalists that they once were. Their movement is once again driven primarily by nationalism, as was the mujaheddin that drove out the Soviets in the 1980s.

Both John McCain and Barack Obama have said they’d send more troops to Afghanistan, but they should also listen to Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen:

But Mike Mullen added bluntly that military means alone were no longer sufficient. “We can’t kill our way to victory,” he declared. “Afghanistan doesn’t just need more boots on the ground.” The keys to success, he explained, were “Foreign investment. Alternative crops [to replace poppy cultivation]. Sound governance. The rule of law… No armed force anywhere — no matter how good — can deliver these keys alone.”

This is why I’ve cringed when Afghanistan has come up at the debates. Obama hasn’t even dared to challenge John McCain on whether or not the surge in Iraq worked. The reduction in violence in Iraq came from reaching out to former insurgents, improved tactics on the ground, building walls throughout Baghdad, and the fleeing of millions of Iraqi’s who’ve seen their prospects for a better life dwindle. Having greater numbers of troops was certainly helpful, but it was far from being the main thing that quieted down the insurgency. And Mullen is warning us not to take such a simple-minded approach to Afghanistan, even as John McCain keeps talking about bringing “the surge” there as well. That Obama appears to be the one candidate more willing to listen to Mullen’s advice is just one of the many reason why he’s getting my vote this year.

As part of the new push in Afghanistan, NATO recently authorized coalition forces to target the drug trade more directly by going after traffickers, labs, and drug lords, but leaving the farmers alone. Afghanistan still produces a majority of the world’s heroin which, despite being illegal, accounts for over 50% of the country GDP. And it’s because Taliban forces have provided protection for the industry that they’ve become such a well-funded and well-armed fighting force threatening to topple the coalition-led leadership across the county. Now the coalition will be trying to go after the people who’ve been paying the Taliban:

The alliance is not in the business of crop eradication, [Sec. of Defense Robert] Gates said, “but if we have the opportunity to go after drug lords and … labs — to interrupt this flow of cash to the Taliban — it seems like a legitimate security endeavor.”

Up until now, the only method being used to eliminate the opium crop was to have Afghan-led eradication teams tour the countryside and plow over opium fields. This approach has been totally ineffective. The teams were easily corrupted, often being used by a local drug lord (who would often happen to also be within the government) to eliminate a rival’s crops. Considering that individuals within the Bush Administration and the C.I.A. openly accept that even Hamid Karzai’s brother is involved in the trade, it’s easy to see why trying to enforce this law has been pointless.

Hard-core drug warriors in the Bush Administration and Congress continually pushed for aerial eradication (including Joe Biden, who helped push a bill to allow dangerous toxins to be dumped on Latin American fields). Our NATO allies and the Afghan Government both opposed us. What’s happening now is clearly a different approach, but it’s every bit as pointless. What we’re trying to do is similar to what we’ve been trying to do in Mexico for years. And when you’re dealing with an industry that accounts for half of a nation’s economy, destroying a few labs and killing some of the drug lords is not going to put a dent in the profiteering.

Instead, Taliban forces will shift from guarding the opium fields to guarding both the labs and the drug lords themselves. The more effective the coalition becomes at eliminating the elements of the trade, the more money will be spent for protection. While it seems like a legitimate security endeavor to Bob Gates, it’s actually one that will completely backfire. As with every anti-drug initiative we undertake in our foreign policy, we forget that the source of the money cannot be uprooted by eliminating the supply. As long as the demand for that supply exists, the best we can ever do is move it, as we once moved it in the 1970s from Turkey to Afghanistan (which, it should be noted, was done in part by allowing Turkey to legally grow it).

The foreign policy discussions in the Presidential debates have rarely deviated from the belief that we defeat our enemies across the globe through fear and intimidation. And in Iraq, our attempts in the early stages of the occupation to use the military alone to quell the insurgency just fanned the flames until we got smart and sat down with the leadership in Al-Anbar and other dangerous areas. Human beings tend to react one way or another to overly authoritarian approaches. Some submit, others rebel. How much of each group there ends up being tends to rely on whether the authority is trusted. In Iraq, we’ve gotten to a point where the vast majority of Iraqis are never going to see us as legitimate occupiers in their nation. It’s possible to keep a rebellious population under wraps if you have the resources, but it doesn’t provide security in the way that the proponents of that policy hope for. Israel has been lost in this psychological quagmire for decades when it comes to the West Bank and Gaza.

In Afghanistan, our unwillingness to dial back our air offensives, which even Hamid Karzai has questioned, is only part of why we’re losing ground there. It’s also because we believe that the drug trade is a form of defiance in much the same way that refusing to accept the coalition’s right to be there and rebuild the country is a form of defiance. It’s not.

The case of Bashir Noorzai is a good indication of how this misunderstanding will only make matters worse there. Noorzai was a wealthy drug lord who came to New York in the hopes of working with Americans to improve the situation on the ground in Afghanistan. It was all a ruse. He was arrested and charged with drug trafficking.

Now the strategy is to go after these guys all over Afghanistan. But people like Bashir Noorzai don’t break the law because they hate us or because they support the Taliban. They break the law because it allows them to be rich and powerful. Our decision to go after a heroin trade that we will never be able to stamp out aligns those whose motivation is profit and power with those whose motivation is to get the foreigners out of their country. This will just accelerate the defeat of Karzai’s fragile regime. We are hooked on a bad policy that just gets exponentially worse as we ignore the real roots of the drug trade and blame those trying to profit from it. While I’m eager to vote for Barack Obama in two weeks, I worry that this mess could eventually be his undoing.

Check out Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann on Hardball accusing Obama and other Democrats of potentially being anti-American:

This insane asylum escapee is in a tight re-election contest against Democrat El Tinklenberg, and you can help out him out here.

[UPDATE]: And there’s one other challenger in the Midwest who I’d love to see pull out a win. Michael Montagano is within 5 percentage points of Mark Souder (IN-3), who won 69% of the vote in 2004. Souder is one of the worst members of Congress when it comes to drug policy. Montagano’s ActBlue page is here.

– Glenn Greenwald catches the Washington Post’s Steven Pearlstein unloading some grade A bullshit on Treasury Secretary Paulson’s role in the economic crisis. It’s amazing that there are still journalists who don’t comprehend out how easy it is to compare something you said a month ago to something you’re saying today and then compare both of those things to facts. Or they just don’t care.

– Latin America’s revolt against the drug war continues with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Honduran President Manuel Zelaya talking about various forms of decriminalization and legalization and Bolivian President Evo Morales blocking U.S. anti-drug flights.

– Someone snarkily emailed me this link about how pot farms are destroying national parks, apparently as evidence that marijuana is dangerous. The danger is not from marijuana, though, which can be grown safely all over the world. The danger is from marijuana prohibition, which forces this crop (the #1 cash crop in the United States) to be grown in hidden and secret locations; and also ensures that criminals who could give a fuck about the environment will be the only people overseeing it’s production. You want to fix this problem? Legalize it. Regulate it’s production and sale. And tax it. Hell, that might even raise enough public revenue to clean up the messes being made in those parks.

– Sarah Silverman wants young Jews to go on a Great Schlep to Florida to convince their grandparents to vote for Obama. After watching this Daily Show video, all I can say is, good luck with that…

– Finally, How awesome is Dino Rossi’s old Idea Bank Committee? While Mathew Manweller (known to us at Effin Unsound as the Nutty Professor) was going off on a protestor who dared challenge his middle school-level understanding of liberty and free markets today, a post at the top of their WhackyNation blog from fellow Idea Banker Lou Guzzo was advocating that tobacco be banned nationwide. I don’t know how Dino Rossi stays so serene and smiley being surrounded by such crazy people.

Last week, the Houston Texans had an epic meltdown with Quarterback Sage Rosenfels fumbling twice at the end of the 4th Quarter to allow the Colts to come back from 17 points down and win 31-27. The Texans are now 0-4. After watching the end of the game, I checked out Battle Red Blog, a Texans blog, to see if anyone was calling for coach Gary Kubiak’s job yet. I stumbled across the Open Game Day Thread, which gave a pretty good summary of the Texans fans’ emotional ride last Sunday afternoon:

Eerie Foreshadowing – 1:07PM CDT

I’ve got a feeling that…

Once again, this game is going to come down to our butter-soft end of game defense. The Colts look very beatable of course, but how will our guys respond late in the 4th?

Swagger – 2:17PM CDT

Agressive – even with a ten point lead in the fourth. LOVE it.

Counting Chickens Before They’ve Hatched – 2:27PM CDT

Hey motherfuckers

We’re going to win this game.

Hubris – 2:41PM CDT

We are gonna have to get a first down!!!! Stop playing like we are running the clock out with 20 secs left

Within a minute of that last comment being posted, Rosenfels kept the ball and tried to run for a first down. But instead of sliding, tried to leap over several defenders. Predictably, he fumbled, the Colts recovered and ran it back for a touchdown to close the lead to 3. Dumbest play I’ve seen all year (other than DeSean Jackson dropping the ball right before he scored a touchdown for the Eagles).

The thread continued:

Bewilderment – 2:41PM CDT

What the flying fuck was that shit?

The Colts then kicked off to the Texans again, where they ran the ball for one yard on first down, taking 40 seconds off the clock.

Not Learning From Earlier Mistakes – 2:45PM CDT

they have got to fucking get a first down. 2 yards a clip won’t cut it

With 2nd and 9 from Houston’s 21, the Texans call two pass plays in a row. Why!?! Run out the fucking clock, dummies. Karma delivered on 3rd and 9 as the Colts stripped the ball from Rosenfels again, giving them the ball at the Houston 20 with 2:36 still left. Manning eventually threw the game-winning touchdown to Reggie Wayne.

Rage – 2:46PM CDT

FIRE THEM ALL

Insanity – 2:50PM CDT

lxkjvlkdjsfvkajflaksdmvsfdjvmglskjv

Defeat – 2:54PM CDT

Gutted.

I think sports may finally have broken me entirely.

Dude, I’ve been there.

Last weekend’s contest was won by ‘w7ngman’ at 7:27. It was Addison, TX. This week’s is a little harder. Good luck!

Sarah Palin got loudly booed at the [Soon-to-be-named-for-whoever-buys-Wachovia] Center before the Philadelphia Flyers home opener.

Once again, A. Birch Steen or Lou Guzzo?

Last week, the state’s Department of Health finalized their rules on the 60-day limit of medical marijuana allowed for registered patients. They stuck with the initially proposed 24 ounces, but revised the plant count to 15, regardless of the plant’s stage of development. As has been the case throughout, the medical marijuana advocacy community continues to be split on whether this will really protect patients:

Alison Holcomb, the drug-policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, said the new rule “is a step in the right direction,” even though it doesn’t begin to address the practical matter of accessing medical marijuana.

“Twenty-four ounces and 15 plants is a heck of a lot clearer than ’60-day supply,’ ” she said. “It gives an average law-enforcement officer a very quick and easy way to determine if they’re in compliance, move on and leave that patient in peace.”

But Douglas Hiatt, an attorney who represents medical-marijuana patients, disagrees. He said he plans to file a lawsuit to have the limits thrown out.

“No one I know is in compliance with the number of plants. No one,” he said. “We will drown in cases if we can’t get this rule stopped and keep it out of the hands of law enforcement.”

From what I’ve seen so far, I tend to think that Hiatt is right. For a patient who requires a larger amount (people who choose to eat it rather than smoke it need more), it might be a challenge for them to grow enough with a 15-plant limit. The real question is how police and prosecutors will deal with any legitimate patients who find that the limits are too restrictive. Here in King County, Dan Satterberg has made it clear that he stands with the patients:

“Having this rule, having some amount … is helpful, but it’s not the end of the analysis,” Satterberg said. “If you’re in King County and you’re dying of cancer, we’re not going to prosecute you if you have 15 plants or 30. If somebody is legitimately ill, we’re not going to prosecute that case, period.”

Unfortunately, other prosecutors around the state are likely to take a different view, as we’ve seen especially in Kitsap County, which has been aggressively going after patients.

I still believe that the bulk of the blame for this situation should go to Attorney General Rob McKenna. He could easily lay out guidelines similar to the ones that his Republican colleague Dan Satterberg has laid out, but instead he’s done nothing to ensure that patients who intend to comply with the state law are protected. If there’s any public figure in this state who should lose their job over this, it’s him. But another Republican is taking a very different stand here, Lieutenant Governor candidate Marcia McCraw. Recently, she released this statement in support of the patients:

I’m a socially liberal republican running for lieutenant governor. I’m a respected lawyer, and, as a lawyer, I respect the law. The people have spoken – with a doctor’s recommendation, marijuana use is legal in Washington for medical purposes. We have to stop the politicians and bureaucrats who are trying to make it impossible to legally grow, possess and use medical marijuana. They are forcing chronically and terminally ill patients to purchase their medicine from illegal drug dealers, and this must stop. You need a strong advocate in Olympia, and I will be that voice.

I’m running against the longest sitting lieutenant governor in the entire nation, a man who has been on the public payroll in Olympia for over 30 years. He has diverted taxpayers’ hard earned dollars to his personal crusade against marijuana. He runs nongovernmental organizations funded with taxpayers’ dollars and lobbyists slush funds that are answerable to no one.

As president of the state senate, the lieutenant governor is the only senate member elected by ALL the people instead of by a particular district. As such, I will use that position to be a spokesman and
lobbyist for the people of Washington, including those who legally use medical marijuana.

I’m Marcia McCraw. Please register to vote now and get your friends and family to register. On November 4 (or before if you vote absentee) please remember to vote for me for lieutenant governor.
You owe it to yourself, your values and your health.

Her opponent, current Lieutenant Governor Brad Owen, has one of the worst track records on drug law reform of any statewide official, and certainly of any Democrat. He initially opposed the voter initiative to legalize medical marijuana. He campaigned against Seattle’s initiative I-75, and he has a long history of making hysterical and unsubstantiated claims about a subject he clearly knows nothing about other than how it can increase the size of government while accomplishing nothing.

I know it’s hard to vote for any Republican this year, but Marcia McCraw will definitely be getting my vote. Want bi-partisan solutions this year to shake up the status quo? Send both Brad Owen and Rob McKenna packing in November and get people into statewide office who put people over politics.