– This story by Ryan Grim and Ryan J. Reilly on how Obama’s DOJ dealt with medical marijuana in his first term is long, but very much worth your time. It provides some details of the internal high-level discussions that we’ve only been able to speculate about before.
One thing that stands out to me is how the Obama Administration and the DOJ are engaging in some revisionist history about the Ogden memo, the DOJ statement in March 2009 affirming that they intended to keep Obama’s promise about not going after individuals who were in compliance with state law. There was absolutely an expectation that the DOJ would honor this in this good faith and that the memo was an affirmation of Obama’s campaign promise. As state-sanctioned systems grew, however, many U.S. Attorneys simply didn’t do that. And once some of them crossed that line and didn’t get smacked down from above, others began to undermine it as well. This was a clear failure in Obama’s first term, and there continues to be an expectation that Obama do better in his second term.
– Eric Mortenson at the Oregonian writes about the fledgling industries that are starting to crop up as I-502 becomes a reality. The Washington State Liquor Control Board hearing in Seattle last Thursday saw a huge turnout. If you happen have a spare 2.5 hours, you can watch the full hearing here and here.
10 years ago, the French were accused by some Americans of being cowards because they did not go into Iraq with us. Well, they did see the threat of Islamic Rebels in Mali, and last year, when Timbuktu and Gao fell to the rebels, they grew concerned. The new French President sent troops to help the Mali Government take them on. Now, French-led troops have retaken Gao, and are moving in on Timbuktu.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21227053
“Indeed the whole world is watching,” Oliver said
“We will be the first state in the world to adopt a licensed, regulated, disciplined, distribution market, I think in world history,” Inslee said.
Seattle Times jumps the shark on this one. “The whole world is watching.” used to mean something.
Now it means light up.
Office Working to Close Guantánamo Is Shuttered
Mr. Obama had threatened to veto the bill, but instead he signed it while issuing a signing statement claiming that he had the constitutional power, as commander in chief, to lawfully override such statutory restrictions on the handling of wartime prisoners. Mr. Obama’s intentions were not clear, however, even to internal administration officials.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01.....1&
Keep this in mind while considering Obama’s unwillingness to support enforcement provisions in the immigration bill currently being crafted in the Senate.
So far I’ve read two pieces from non-conservative mainstream sites suggesting that Obama keep his hands off the immigration bill, so as not to torpedo it.
On the other hand, this might actually help pass an immigration bill:
Net migration from Mexico has plummeted to zero thanks to changing demographic and economic conditions on both sides of the border, a new study says, even as political battles over illegal immigration heat up and the issue heads to the U.S. Supreme Court.
After four decades that brought 12 million Mexican immigrants—more than half of them illegally—to the U.S., the curtain has come down on the biggest immigration wave in modern times.
“The net migration flow from Mexico to the United States has stopped and may have reversed,” says the report, which is based on an analysis of U.S. and Mexican government data by the nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center.
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....34158.html
Note that the birth rate in Mexico has fallen to about the same as that in the US. (I think I’m reading that statistic correctly, but there could be other interpretations.)
I wonder if this affects projections of the Hispanic electorate in the next few decades. If only there were a social demographer around who could weigh in here.
“Net migration from Mexico has plummeted to zero thanks to changing demographic and economic conditions”
Why should they come here for nanny and gardener jobs when Great All-American corporations such as Maytag, Whirlpool, Hersheys, Square-D, Autolite, Dell and many, many more are coming to them? With $3.50 for wages and benefits down there, what’s not to love?
What’s the American worker to do? What’s the outlook? Sneaking across the border to Mexico to mow lawns?
What’s the right have to say about this, besides House Republicans submitting proposals to cut taxes on the soaring incomes of the CEO’s of Maytag, Whirlpool, Hersheys, Square-D, Autolite, Dell and many, many more and going all Orwellian on us by calling these jobs bills?
The CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce praised offshoring American jobs and advised American workers not to “whine” about it. Carly Fiorina, while CEO of HP and outsoucing American jobs, tells the American worker that, “There is no job that is America’s God-given right anymore.”
@5 they should ship all those CEO’s to China, the first one should be Carly Fiorina.
@5
What’s the right have to say about this…?
I dunno. How about, ‘It’s a start.’?
But seriously, Steve:
This may have a role, as well:
Although President Obama supports setting a path to citizenship for many illegal immigrants, his administration deported a record 1.5 million of them in his first term.
In addition, the latest data released by the government in recent days show that an unprecedented 409,849 people were deported for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.
The increase from the previous year occurred despite policy changes ordered by Obama to reduce the deportations of otherwise law-abiding illegal immigrants.
Roughly 55 percent, or more than 225,000 people, deported in the past year were convicted of crimes such as drug offenses and driving under the influence. Immigration officials note that they deported nearly twice as many convicted criminals as in the year before Obama took office. That year, in 2008, criminals made up about a third of all deportations.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsal.....ion-people
I would have to give Team Obama credit for increasing the criminal percent of those deported from about 1/3 to 55% in four years.
@ 6
I’m pretty sure Rujax has died and donated his brain to Gman.
My brother-in-law worked at EDS, which was purchased by HP a few years back. He took voluntary retirement at the end of last year (just before another round of layoffs), and now works at a company which used to be a customer of EDS/HP, doing pretty juch the same work. The customer left because HP was sending a lot of the work offshore, and my brother-in-law and a handful of others were expected to train them (in addition to their other duties). The customer didn’t like the quality of work he was getting from offshore, and my brother-in-law expressed frustration at spending three years in essence training them to take over his job, yet they still couldn’t seem to get it right.
A lot of the problem seemed to be that HP kept reducing the payments to the offshore firm, which in turn reduced the wages of it’s employees, resulting in lots of turnover and poorer quality incoming employees.
Yet Fiona kept going on for years talking about how great out-sourcing was. Execs like that like to leave just before the big shoe falls as the consequences of their short-term planning creates long-term problems.
@ 9
Execs like that like to leave just before the big shoe falls as the consequences of their short-term planning creates long-term problems.
Fiorina was forced out, she didn’t leave of her own volition.
You might have been talking about New Jersey’s former governor and friend of Barack, eh? MF Global didn’t do so well under Corzine.
BTW IMHO HP’s shit hit the fan when it acquired Compaq. I am so sorry I didn’t sell out of HP when it peaked not that long ago. If ONLY I had Roger Rabbit’s sage advice to refer to when the stock was doing well. RR’s never wrong and never loses on a trade, you know. He’ll be the first to tell you. Second and third, too.