HorsesAss.Org

This is almost a week old now, but that’s the only time to call it out. I’m not sure if it gets funnier or less funny each time I ask how can you have a typo like that at the top of your blog for a week. But this gem from Bruce Ramsey has been at the top (emphasis mine) of the Ed Cetera blog since Veterans’ Day. “Nov. 11, Veterans’ Day, is the day tin 1918 the great powers ended World War I, a war America has almost forgotten.”

They should do what I do with typos and either edit them out or (more often) have other posts in the next 6+ days so it falls off the top. One of the most important pieces of web only content from the state’s most important newspaper, ladies and gents.

Tuesday’s DEA raids against medical marijuana providers in the Puget Sound area shouldn’t have been much of a surprise. Similar raids had occurred in Spokane earlier this year, and many were well aware that the U.S. Attorney for Western Washington, Jenny Durkan, was investigating the activities of local medical marijuana providers. In the spring and summer, as the partially-vetoed new law took effect, many former dispensary owners scrambled to figure out how to comply with the confusing new regulations. But the only thing that was clear about the new law was that absolutely nothing was clear about it.

According to Durkan, only medical marijuana providers who were blatantly in violation of state law were targeted. In the weeks and months ahead, we’ll get a chance to see how true that really is. Those of us who’ve been following these cases for a while have seen many a medical marijuana provider accused of various misdeeds only to have the case fall apart when it turns out the confidential informant wasn’t reliable. But many of those earlier cases had a common denominator: Roy Alloway – the one-time head honcho of the federally-funded WestNET Drug Task Force who now awaits a prison sentence for illegal gun sales and tax evasion. I’d imagine that many local progressives who were elated to see Durkan in that office would be shocked if we uncovered the same level of reckless arrogance Alloway became famous for. We’ll find out over time.

For all the outrage that this has kicked up (and at a certain level, everything that happens within the drug war is an outrage), it certainly could have been worse. What happened in Montana earlier this year was disgraceful and clearly went against the promises made by the Obama Administration at the beginning of his term not to go after those following state law. By comparison, if local providers are still being profiled in the Weekly, we’re clearly not back to full speakeasy mode and there does appear to be some attempt to only go after those who were violating state law. But that’s not to say there aren’t a lot of concerns with what happened.

For starters, I find it obnoxious when those who enforce these laws say they’re not going after patients. That’s not true. Any time you shut down a provider and confiscate their plants, you’re automatically going after patients. And with the changes to the law this year, it’s even more so. Those in this state who are authorized to get medical marijuana have no way of knowing if a member of their garden is doing something else illegal on the side. And now that we’re forced to have a collective gardens model, patients are now forced to have an economic stake in the dispensaries. It’s not clear from any of the articles I’ve read whether or not plants were seized, but that’s generally what happens during a raid. So according to the way the law is set up, any seized medicine might have been “owned” by some patient out there who isn’t capable of growing their own and probably did nothing illegal. And with all the various places that were raided yesterday, I’d be surprised if that didn’t happen to some patients.

Second, with the current environment that medical marijuana dispensary operators have had to operate in, charging them with money laundering looks a lot like entrapment. The Department of Justice has been aggressively targeting banks and other financial institutions that openly deal with the medical marijuana industry. In this environment, it would seem that this makes money laundering an unavoidable aspect of doing business. As is the automatic disclaimer with any of my posts, IANAL and I encourage our lawyer friends to share their thoughts in the comments.

But that leads me to the last – and probably the biggest – thing I’m bothered by. It’s a quote from a DEA Agent:

DEA Special Agent Matthew G. Barnes released a statement that said the raids were conducted in part because these businesses were in violation of federal laws “for cultivating, selling or distributing marijuana under the guise of state medical marijuana laws and exploiting such activities to satisfy their own personal greed.”

What strikes me about this quote is that it borrows almost exactly from the rhetoric that the DEA has always used when it comes to drugs themselves. Historically, drug use has been the supreme threat to self-control and societal stability that requires these extreme and drastic measures from the state. But as the attitudes towards drug use – especially medical marijuana use – have changed in the past two decades, the rhetoric now focuses on those who make money from providing it. In this new construct, the desire for money is now the force that’s so overpowering that it threatens to destabilize society, just as they once claimed the desire for the drugs themselves would.

But just as it’s always been with drugs, the outrage towards greed by our government’s law enforcement community is pretty bad at identifying the appropriate targets. With an economy that has suffered at the hands of Wall Street firms whose truly reckless greed has cost us significantly, it seems more than a little odd to be focused on how much money people are making providing plants to those who want them – and in many cases, need them for medical reasons. In fact, it makes one look completely crazy.

Jenny Durkan’s two predecessors as U.S. Attorney for Western Washington both support legalizing marijuana for adults. Many people speculate that Durkan herself supports it as well, but can’t say so. Saying it while serving as a federal prosecutor would require a lot of courage, a virtue that folks at all levels of government often suppress for job security or simply lack in the first place. Until that changes, the war on (some) drugs – and it’s mutant spawn, the war on (some) greed – will continue to plow a path of destruction through this country.

Riffing off of Neil’s idea here:

I don’t know how NBA contracts work. But I’m wondering if it would be possible for the players to organize themselves into teams outside the formal NBA organization and make money by playing games.

It seems to me like at least for this year, the player’s union could organize something. My ideal solution would be to find coaches or captains who were agreeable and figure out how many players are willing to play something like this:

Chose teams schoolyard style (or call it a universal draft, or something boring if you like). Everyone is eligible to go to any team and the coaches/captains pick their team. Then they play a short, short, short regular season. Just enough to fairly have seeding for a tournament. Most fans don’t really care about the regular season, but pro basketball players at the highest level playing meaningful games would attract fans and TV even without the NBA.

You can pay the players a percentage of the take based on how well they did in being selected for the team (the first player gets a higher percentage than the second, etc.) and how far their team got in the tournament.

I’m not sure how many players would join a league like this. It would mean less pay and more uncertainty about where they were for a season even than normally in professional sports. But it beats doing nothing.

I’m sympathetic to the proposal by the Washington Association of School Administrators to cut 5 days the school year. They’re responding to the reality that the state almost certainly isn’t going to raise taxes significantly. If we’re not going to figure out how to fund education at the state level, we may as well figure out how to make it work as well as possible at the shitty funding level we’re going to get. And there are worse things than fewer days.

So, yeah, it may not be as bad for state children as some of the other godawful options. It may be that better education can happen in those 175 days than in 180 days spread thinner. And cutting levy equalization will hurt the most vulnerable children.

Still, if Seattle* voters support every district levy for decades, if they support the Families and Education Levy and doubled it last time, and still see their children get a week less of school, I don’t know how much they’ll be willing to support paying for education at the state level. I think we’re still willing to pay state taxes to improve education all over, but we’re not willing to see our children lose out when Seattle hasn’t done anything wrong.

For it’s one thing for Seattle to subsidize the rest of the state. But to hurt our children for that is something entirely new. We’re willing to let the state skim off the top, but I don’t know that we’ll be willing to lose school days to subsidize other districts.

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Don’t cut Medicare without getting millionaires to pay their fair share.

– Carrying condoms shouldn’t be used as proof of prostitution.

– Completing a missing link.

– You contact the police

– Lee has already mentioned the inaccuracies in Bill O’Reilly’s book, but this is still funny.

– We need the debate audience to help Michelle bring her campaign back to life by clapping their hands to show they believe in her.

Today wasn’t a good day for me to stay on top of a big news item, so for the latest news on the federal raids that occurred today across the Puget Sound region, check out these links:

Gene Johnson – Police in W. Washington target medical pot shops
Curtis Cartier – DEA Raiding Medical-Marijuana Dispensaries in Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia
Dominic Holden – Why Today’s Pot Raids?
Jonathan Martin – Authorities raid Puget Sound medical-pot shops
Jeremy Pawloski – 17 arrested in raids on five Thurston County pot dispensaries
Russ Belville – DEA Raids Washington Dispensaries In Cities That Often Won’t Prosecute Marijuana Crimes
Stacia Glenn – 18 people arrested in three-county medical pot raids

The Cannabis Defense Coalition has information about the raids here.

UPDATE: Steve Elliott at Toke of the Town has a post up with info about today’s protest in downtown Seattle.

It’s Tuesday. Please join us for an evening of politics under the influence at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking liberally.

We meet at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00 pm; a few folks will show up earlier for dinner.

This may be remembered as “The week that Republicans went for the Newtclear Option.” Here are a few clips to commemorate:

Can’t make it to Seattle? The Tri-Cities chapter of Drinking liberally meets every Tuesday night. Drinking Liberally Tacoma meets this Thursday. And next Monday there are meetings of the Woodinville chapter the Olympia chapter, and the Shelton chapter.

With 227 chapters of Living Liberally, including twelve in Washington state and six more in Oregon, chances are excellent there’s one near you.

Glenn Greenwald is following the situation in New York, where a violent, late night raid removed OWS protestors from their encampment, and now NYPD and Mayor Bloomberg are defying a court order in an attempt to keep them out.

I know I already linked to this, but I really quite enjoy the Google Street View of bike trails. I think part of it is the little I’ve explored, people are impressed by this thing. There are people waving and pointing in what looks like giving directions. And yeah, you get that some in the street view, but not as much.

And I think this reflects the best part of riding a bike: the fact that you aren’t boxed into a car. The interactions when you’re at a stop light that you just couldn’t get with other things. The fact that you can slow down and look at something. You get an experience that’s totally different from driving.

It’s not all positive; Seattle’s rain and hills make me glad to sometimes trap myself in my car. And I hate sharing the road with shit drivers. While it’s unnerving in a car or in a bike those thousands of pounds of metal a seat belt and air bags will protect me better than my helmet. Still, I’m glad for the experience biking provides.

I’m glad chat with people about we’re going or the weather. I love exploring nooks and crannies of the city you can’t get to in a car. And I love seeing things I wouldn’t on a car.

One of the saddest things I’ve seen in Seattle was the Pier 91 Trail after nightfall. I was going into downtown after spending some time in Magnolia. It really shocked me, even as someone who lives downtown, how many homeless people there were.* It wasn’t an experience you’d get in a car even passing a homeless camp by the freeway. It’s a different perspective from a bike than from a car.
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– Repeal Seattle’s jaywalking laws.

– Google street view of Seattle Trails

– You would think that a study analyzing the consumption of fast food by poor people would take into account a massive sea change in the way fast food was consumed by poor people. But then again, I’m not a science-type person.

– How dare you call our hero self-sacrificing?

– Hanson endeavors to drag Cain up by Cain’s bootstraps, and he does so by denigrating women and black people with such ease one suspects that Hanson has never met a stereotype or bias that he didn’t call “science.”

– This Twitter language map is pretty amazing.

Last week’s contest was won very quickly by Nick Anderson (not sure how quickly because the timestamps for posts and comments aren’t in sync for some reason). It was in Youngstown, OH.

This week’s contest is related to a TV show or a movie. Good luck!

Revelation 19:17-18
I then saw an angel standing on the sun, and he shouted to all the birds flying in the sky, “Come and join in God’s great feast! You can eat the flesh of kings, rulers, leaders, horses, riders, free people, slaves, important people, and everyone else.”!

Discuss.

In a shock to no one, Bill O’Reilly’s latest book on Abraham Lincoln has a few errors:

On Friday I wrote about the decision of Ford’s Theatre not to offer Bill O’Reilly’s bestsetlling new book on the Lincoln assassination at its bookstore because an expert National Park Service reviewer found the work to be riddled with factual errors.

Now, in a review in a leading Civil War magazine, a second expert has flunked O’Reilly’s “Killing Lincoln,” calling it “somewhere between an authoritative account and strange fiction.”

The review (which is not online) appears in the November issue of North & South, the official magazine of the Civil War Society.

“The narrative contains numerous errors of people, place, and events,” writes reviewer Edward Steers Jr., author of more than five books on the Lincoln assassination. He goes on to list about 10 errors of fact in “Killing Lincoln,” which O’Reilly co-authored with Martin Dugard and which has been atop bestseller lists for weeks.

I’ve started up a hashtag on Twitter, #oreillyfactsaboutlincoln, for people to add their own creative “facts” about our 16th President…

The last Republican debate was spectacular—both comedy and tragedy. Here’s hoping tonight’s is equally entertaining.

You can stream the debate here.

Here’s your debate sandbox….

5:05: Mitt Romney SCORES…on the moderator.

5:10: The Paulistias are in force tonight!

5:28: Rick Santorum is asked, “If a Pakistani nuclear weapon goes missing, what do you do?” Rick proffers a complete non-answer. Correct answer for Santorum, “Shit my pants.”

5:30: Act I has concluded. Pretty disciplined debate so far. Lots of Obama bashing. But really, I haven’t heard much in the way of actual foreign policy proposals that differ from Obama’s.

5:37: Rick Santorum promises to surround himself only with people who think like he does. That’s fucking frightening!

5:35: And by asking Newt how he would “think outside the box,” I must assume the moderator means, “after pulling your head out of your ass.”

5:40: Rick Perry can see Mexico from his back porch!

5:41: Cain is no torturer…unless you consider his stint with Burger King and Godfather’s Pizza.

5:42: Cain is no torturer…except for stuff you can rebrand “enhanced interrogation.”

5:42: Michele BELIEVES in torture. I’m suspect that’s one of the things Marcus loves about her.

5:43: Kudos to Ron Paul for smacking down his fellow Republicans over the torture question.

5:44: And Kudos to Jon Huntsman for smacking down his fellow Republican over the torture question. Some things transcend party.

5:45: Mitt and Newt are pro-killing American citizens engaging in terrorism outside the U.S. Still…sounds like the Obama foreign policy!

5:48: Rick Perry is outrage that “cybersecurity can go on”?!?

5:50: Mitt will fix the china problem by, “Number one…acknowledge that they are currency manipulators.” There was no number two.

5:59: End of Act II. I missed the last 5 minutes of this act, so perhaps I missed something new, but I didn’t hear any real solutions (I mean, besides Michele and Herman reinstating torture).

6:02: Michele Bachmann way out-crazies my ability to liveblog about it!

6:04: Shorter Herman Cain on Middle East: “I can’t even put together a coherent sentence about the region, but Obama is doing everything wrong there.”

6:09: Rick Santorum’s understanding of the Constitution, the Geneva Conventions, and unlawful combatants is staggeringly naive!

6:11: Michele Bachmann has been chomping at the bit to get some zinger out about torture!

6:13: And…Michele Bachmann throws in her endorsement for Obama’s policies!

6:19: Wikipedia: “Two main goals of the Great Society social reforms were the elimination of poverty and racial injustice.” If I understood correctly, Michele Bachman just argued to reverse Johnson’s vision. Michele Bachmann: Pro-poverty, Pro-racial injustice?

6:24: There’s that “lost nuclear weapon” question for Rick Santorum again. “I’d shit my pants.” Just say it, Rick!

6:28: That’s it?!? Just like that? Sheesh!

Postscript: There were no big winners or losers in this debate. And it wasn’t very entertaining. The most annoying thing was the perpetuation of the myth that the debt is the biggest threat to the U.S. right now. No…that isn’t the biggest threat.

The single biggest threat is the willingness of politicians to put party ahead of the good of the country.

Thom: The Good, the Bad, and the Very, Very Ugly.

Veteran’s Day:

• Obama honors veterans at Arlington National Cemetery
• Maddow wishes DeMint a Happy Veterans Day (via OneGoodMove).
• Alyona: The MSM on Veteran’s Day
• Patty Murray calls for passage of her major veterans employment bill.
• Ann Telnaes: Veterans Day at Dover Air Force Base.
• Alyona’s Fireside Chat: The 1% that fights our wars

Prosperity for WA: What does it look like?

Thom: More Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

America Occupied:

• Young Turks: Occupy protester shot with rubber bullets.
• Alyona: Winter comes to the Occupy movement
• Garfunkel and Oates: Save the Rich:
• Alyona’s Tool Time: N.Y.Post.
• Olbermann: The ACORN conspiracy!
• Young Turks: Police attack UCB Occupy protesters
• Alyona: Police beat OccupyCal protesters.

Greenman: Ben Santer crushing the myth of global cooling.

Thom: There are no “free” markets.

Extended Daily Show interview with Bill Clinton.

The G.O.P. Primary Asylum:

• Sharpton: Enjoying the comedy show.
• Pap: The GOP’s search for a hero.
• The Debate in 100 seconds (via TalkingPointsMemo).
• Pap: GOP debate filled with STOOPID talk.
• Thom: Republican debate…more than one “oops.”
• Young Turks: Can Romney win the GOP nomination?
• Ann Telnaes: Romney aims for the GOP base.
• Lawrence O’Donnell: Mitt Romney, “I’ve got to worry more about ME than anybody else”.
• No Mitt, you didn’t care at all.
• Young Turks: Mitt Romney pretends he isn’t rich
• Hit the road, Mitt.
• Sam Seder: Herman’s secret harassment message.
• Young Turks: Herman Cain’s epic debate fail.
• Stephen on Herman’s Jimmy appearance.
• Maddow: Herman’s excuse (via The Political Carnival).
• Ed and Pap: How much did Cain cost the Koch brothers?
• Keith and Markos on Herman Cain’s statement.
• Young Turks: Rush Limbaugh smears Cain’s accusers
• Herman Cain makes some promises
• Ed: ‘serial’ sexual harasser Herman Cain on Nancy Pelosi
• Young Turks: Cain hurt in polls by sexual harassment charges.
• Sam Seder: Don’t dare ask Herman about sexual harassment at the debate.
• Actual Audio: Herman Cain sure loves the Koch Brothers.
• Jon: Oh! The Hermanity (via TalkingPointsMemo).
• The 12 best Herman Cain pick-up lines.
• Jon on Herman Cain’s growing pile of accusers
• Jon on Brain Freeze (via Political Wire).
• Rick Perry does the post-debate Walk of Shame (via TalkingPointsMemo).
• Sam Seder: Why is nobody asking the obvious question about Rick Perry?
• Young Turks: Rick Perry’s EPIC FAIL.
• Rick Perry’s top 10 excuses…
• Conan: On that Perry ad….
• SNL: Rock Perry explains last week’s problem
• Stephen on Rick Perry.
• Perry v. Perry: The ultimate reel (via TalkingPointsMemo).
• Alyona’s Tool Time: Michele Bachmann, “No work, no food.”
• An Occupy message for Michele (via Crooks and Liars).
• Lawrence O’Donnell: Here comes The Newt!
• Maddow: The scam that is Newt Gingrich

White House: West Wing Week.

Stephen on SuperPAC issue ads.

Rep. Joe “Dead-beat-dad” Walsh (R-IL-8) Comes Unhinged:

• Rep Joe Walsh yells at his constituents (man…he was much mellower with The Eagles).
• Thom: Breaking down Joe Walsh’s big fat lie.
• Sam Seder: Rep. Joe Dead-beat-Dad Walsh lies loudly at his constituents.
• Alyona’s Tool Time: Rep. Walsh yells.
• Young Turks: Rep. Joe Walsh, “Don’t blame banks!”
• Ed talks with woman screamed at by Dead-beat Joe (via OneGoodMove).

Young Turks: GOP pretend to attack the rich.

Alyona: Drone policy will come back to haunt us.

Rick Santorum nominates his way to Worst Person in the World.

Mark Fiore: SuperCommittee.

Jay Inslee for Washington:

Thom: Why is FAUX “palling around with terrorists?”

Campaign in 100 seconds: Why Obama’s numbers are on the rise. (via TalkingPointsMemo).

ONN week in review: Latest GOP debate concludes with candidates wrestling a pig and slaughtering it, and other news.

About Last Tuesday:

• Lawrence O’Donnell with DNC Chair: Democratic victories.
• Pap: Victory for women in Mississippi.
• Ann Telnaes: Personhood according to Mississippi.
• Olbermann with Markos on the big win in Ohio.
• Maddow: The booze vote
• Sam Seder: “Satan” wins in the Mississippi personhood vote!
• Pap: Corporate money loses in Ohio election
• Alyona: Voters reject Republican extremism.
• Young Turks: Wingnuts get their asses handed to them.

Bill Maher with some New Rules.

Joe Paterno is Worst Person in the World.

Maddow: A Pantheon of Pregnant Pauses:

Thom: The Good, the Bad, and the Very, Very Ugly.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.