There was one death related to marijuana use.

So help me understand this:
the legislature is considering legislation that would make hard liquor even more accessible but ignores the legalization/decriminalization of marijuana that, basically harmeless, could be taxed and save untold millions in what is presently expended in policing/control/erradication activities to keep it out of the public hands – which of course does not work at all.

Many claim that marijuana is a “gateway” drug that leads to using other drugs. I think that Alcohol is far more a “gateway” drug than anything else. Where does one begin using substances to ” relax, feel better”? Alcohol..

so where is the logic, reasoning behind expanding liquor sales – oh I know…. it is the “almighty dollar” that eventually takes higher priority than anything else.

** By calling themselves “collectors,” (not dealers or merchants)–ostensibly, of course, they jump through the gunshow loophole and forgive themselves for not providing a background check. By law, dealers must provide information to LE, who will then do a background check for lunacy, crime, or other reprehensible action and issue or deny a permit to purchase. If the BG check approves the purchaser, LE says “GO” and the person may purchase a weapon. Persons who already have a “Permit to carry,” are considered already checked out, and have no waiting period. Otherwise there is a mandatory five-day waiting period for the purchase. This so-called band of wandering gun dealers, who call themselves collectors, sell to anyone with some form of identification. Can you imagine who some of those purchasers might be?

HB 2709, the Washington State Firearms Freedom Act of 2010, which amongst other things, would legalize and deregulate both silencers and cop killer bullets.
Sec. 4. (1) A personal firearm, a firearm accessory, or ammunition that is manufactured commercially or privately in Washington and that remains within the borders of Washington is not subject to federal law or federal regulation, including registration, under the authority of congress to regulate interstate commerce.

My first thought is that they know it won’t pass in the House. They get to pander to the teabaggers, tenthers and minutemen without harming law enforcement. Hypocrites.

The Yakima City Council should censure Lover for his outlandish behavior and disrespect to city staff. This calls into question the structure of the ethics committee, who should be investigating this incident. That’s not likely to happen. The current structure is for city council members themselves to handle ethical questions. This should be set up with an independent panel of citizens to vet complaints and provide their opinion or recommendations to the city council.

You can view the Public Safety Committee video and/or the day long retreat video from the city website, and/or read this article from Chris Bristol’s blog in the Yakima Herald.

“There aren’t that many places where we can come together,” House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio said on the NBC program “Meet the Press.”
Republicans were elected to stand by their principles, and those principles are different than the “leftist proposals” offered by President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats, Boehner said.

President Obama reached out to the repubs and this is what he gets. The party of NO keeps complaining of nothing getting done while they deliberately obstruct any progress that may be made because it might be “liberal”! It’s time for the Democrats to stand up for the health care bill and make the republicans physically filibuster. Make them bring the country to a halt for their selfish and petty differences. Then we can all see their true traits and motivation: Obstructionist, demonizing, fear mongering, labeling, and NO to everything. (unless it’s a tax cut for those that don’t need it!).

White House officials told the Huffington Post they were absolutely ecstatic. MSNBC’s Luke Russert, who was on the scene in Baltimore, relayed that a Republican official and other GOP aides had confided to him that allowing the “cameras to roll like that” was a “mistake.”

And a mistake it was, for all the claims from the right that Health Care reform was “Bolshevik” to there was little to no coverage of HCR on the tv (Hello? C span carried the gavel to gavel coverage as is their mission) was not what the GOP wanted the rest of us to see.

“The Republican lawmakers in attendance sat on their hands while the president discussed policy provisions that, ostensibly, are very much in their philosophical wheelhouse. When Republicans didn’t even applaud on behalf of his tax cuts, Obama pointed to the GOP side of the chamber and expressed surprise: “I thought I’d get some applause on that one,” he said. ” so much for thinking of country first – a disgusting display of absurd partisanship. Comments???

Alleging a plot to wiretap Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office in the Hale Boggs Federal Building in downtown New Orleans, the FBI arrested four people Monday, including James O’Keefe, a conservative filmmaker whose undercover videos at ACORN field offices severely damaged the advocacy group’s credibility.

The New Orleans event was promoted with this glowing statement about O’Keefe by the Pelican Institute: “James has been a pioneer in the use of new media to drive these kinds of important stories. He will discuss the role of new media and show examples of effective investigative reporting.”

Looks like O’Keefe will be looking for a new role in prison, but not as a pimp.

The accusations against ACORN last year pall in comparison to wiretapping a US Senator, most if not all,against the community organization were unfounded. To the victor goes the spoils, but in the case of the flying monkey right, a return to G Gordon Libby, and E Howard Hunt is justified.

“Because speech is an essential mechanism of democracy — it is the means to hold officials ac-
countable to the people — political speech must prevail against laws that would suppress it by design or inadvertence,” wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy for the majority.

Which means corporations that wished for personhood not defined in Santa Clara County vs. Southern Pacific just got their wish.

Citizens United vs the Federal Elections Commission(FEC) regarding whether a politically charged film, Hillary: The Movie, could be defined as a campaign ad under the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, commonly known as the McCain-Feingold Act.

“height of recklessness” wrote the dissenting opinion.

“We are moving to an age where we won’t have the senator from Arkansas or the congressman from North Carolina, but the senator from Wal-Mart and the congressman from Bank of America,” said Melanie Sloan, director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Sen. Chuck Schumer echoed “The bottom line is this: the Supreme Court has just predetermined the winners of next November’s elections. It won’t be Republicans. It won’t be Democrats. It will be corporate America.”

Citizens United’s so-called goals are:

* “to reassert the traditional American values of limited government, freedom of enterprise, strong families, and national sovereignty and security.”
* “to restore the founding fathers’ vision of a free nation, guided by the honesty, common sense, and good will of its citizens.”

Funny, I don’t recall the founding fathers wanting corporate control of elections?

Who is Citizen’s United? Bremerton native, Floyd Brown co-founded CU in 1988 along with David Bossie and were responsible for the Willie Horton campaign ads during the 1988 presidential election. He is also an ass.

“CBS Evening News reported that Floyd Brown harassed the family of Susan Coleman, a former law student of Bush’s opponent Bill Clinton. Coleman had committed suicide, and Brown was attempting to investigate a rumor that she had had an affair with Clinton. David Bossie reportedly stalked the family of a suicide victim while working for Brown. In April, 1992, 30 news organizations received “an anonymous and untraceable letter” by fax “claiming Clinton had had an affair with a former law student who committed suicide 15 years ago.” Floyd Brown attempted to investigate any connection between Clinton and the 1977 suicide of this, “emotionally distraught young woman, seven-months pregnant,” Susan Coleman.CBS Evening News, 7/13/92

In an audiotaped phone conversation with Coleman’s sister, the following exchange took place:

Brown: Was she depressed? See, you won’t even answer if she was depressed.
Coleman’s Sister: Because I—
Brown: Was she suicidal?
Coleman’s Sister: Just leave my family alone.
Brown: You’re making it so difficult for me to leave your family out of it.’
CBS Evening News, 7/13/92.

The Bush-Quayle campaign “eventually” filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against Brown, seeking to distance itself from his tactics and calling Brown and his associates “the lowest forms of life”. After they were done with his services, of course.

The hypocrisy of Citizen’s United is further evident in their own complaint in 2005 with the FEC over the movie Fahrenheit 9/11, in which Bossie, who had not yet viewed the film, but stated that the movie violated McCain/Feingold as defined that ‘Moore was using “corporate money” and “foreign money” to pay for his film ads’

The bigger question is, where are all the tea bag party people in all this, including Scott Brown? Shouldn’t they be protesting Corporate america’s take over of elections or are they silently praising a victory while being shuttled around in buses by big pharma and insurance companies.

The majority opinion of the SCOTUS with decisions like this hearken back to Dred Scott, just prior to the Civil War.

Harry Reid promises that he will have a climate bill on the floor this year. Here are the cost estimates on the House bill, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, H.R. 2454:

Congressional Budget Office
$13 Average per Household per month
Energy Information Administration
$12 Average per Household per month
Environmental Protection Agency
$7 Average per Household per month

California is doing it right. 70% of the proceeds from their auction of emission permits will be returned to state residents – roughly $1,000/year for a family of four. Washington State would be doing the same thing today, but none of the representation in Central Washington voted the cap and trade bill out of committee. I think they are all climate deniers. If cap and trade works as well with greenhouse gases as it did with ozone, the proceeds will increase gradually year by year, reach a peak and drop quickly. Washington does not have as many major point sources as California does. I can only think of two big generating plants plus a handful of cement manufacturers and aluminum smelters.