‘Counterinsurgency’ to Fight U.S. Crime? No, Thanks

After the sickening murder of a 9-year-old boy in Washington, our friend Spencer Ackerman made an impassioned plea: U.S. Central Command chief General David Petraeus for D.C. metro police chief. The idea of America’s leading counterinsurgent taking on one of its most crime-ridden towns definitely has a certain [...]

The War on Drugs: FAIL: An Interview With Clifford Thornton Jr.

Let’s Eliminate Welfare for Terrorists

Of all the factors on the table in the current Afghan strategic review, the War on Drugs and its unintended consequences should be front and center. Our 95-year effort to create a Drug Free America by enforcing world-wide prohibition has twisted our foreign policy out of shape all over the globe and [...]

iePolitics Commentary: Sheriff Hoops, Part 2

Sheriff Rod Hoops let’s continue from my last posting.
I do not want our readers to think that misconduct such as the credentials falsification issue with Sheriff’s Captain Bart Gray is nothing but an aberration.
It is actually the opposite. In other words it happens quite frequently.
Not only are special accommodations made for [...]

Los Angeles DA Joins Ranks of Drug Cartel Bitches Against Medical Marijuana

It was a petulant fit of pique, certainly entertaining, and potentially hilarious — if safe access for so many medical marijuana patients weren’t hanging in the balance.

After things didn’t go his way at Monday’s Los Angeles City Council joint committee meeting, District Attorney Stephen Lawrence (“Steve”) Cooley pronounced Tuesday [...]

ACTION ALERT: Force DEA to Tell the Truth About Medical Marijuana

In a significant reversal, the American Medical Association on November 10 acknowledged the medical value of marijuana and called for the U.S. government to reconsider marijuana’s current classification as a Schedule I substance (drugs that the government says have “no currently accepted medical use”).
However, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) [...]

Germany opposes bank data deal with US

Germany has announced its opposition to a European Union agreement to share bank data with the United States for anti-terrorist investigations.
According to the draft, financial records stored by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) financial data system including “name, account number, address, national identification [...]

Analysts: US capitalism on verge of collapse

The declining state of the US economy has convinced a growing number of American analysts that the US capitalist financial system is doomed to disintegrate.
Citing the works of other leading economists such as Jack Bogle and Marc Faber, Market Watch commentator Paul B. Farrell gives 20 reasons, in [...]

Earth to Lou: It Could Have Been Different

It didn’t have to end this way for Lou Dobbs. He could have been a contender.
But Dobbs, a supremely self-confident man who often mentions his Harvard University education in private conversation, just wouldn’t listen. Time after time, as the “Lou Dobbs Tonight” show he has hosted on CNN (Cable [...]

From cop to politician

San Bernardino County Sheriff Rod Hoops has spent a career in law enforcement, but now he’s running for elective office and it’s a new ball game for him.
“I don’t really like that part of the job,” he told the San Bernardino County Democratic Club on Friday, Nov. 13. Even though [...]

AMA Urges Feds to Reconsider Classification of Marijuana as a Dangerous Drug

John Hoeffel reports in the Los Angeles Times:
The American Medical Association has urged the federal government to reconsider its classification of marijuana as a dangerous drug with no accepted medical use, a significant shift that puts the prestigious group behind calls for more research.
The nation’s largest physicians organization, with [...]

US bans firms, people in Cali case

The United States government says it will impose sanctions on those who have assisted the financial network of the imprisoned leaders of Cali Cartel.
The US Department of the Treasury under an executive order, froze the assets of 14 individuals and 25 companies spanning across three countries — Colombia, Spain and [...]

UN: West Africa on verge of producing drugs

West Africa is on the verge of becoming a source for drugs as well as a transit point, the United Nations drug chief warned Thursday.
Antonio Maria Costa told the United Nations Security Council that since July his office and Interpol have been investigating numerous West African sites where they found large [...]

Mexico : Drug Decrim and the 10,000-Ton Monkey

Pot smoker in Mexico City. Mexicans consume an estimated 342 tons of marijuana a year. Photo by Castillo / AP.
Legalization is the only answer…
Mexico’s massive drug problem
As poet Juan Pablo Garcia posited long ago in his 1985 Pacheco (marijuana user) Manifesto: ‘drugs don’t make us criminals but laws against [...]

Adios, Lou! Que te aprendes espanol!

The Strength of the Pack: The People, Politics and Espionage Intrigues that Shaped the DEA

Through interviews with former narcotics agents, politicians, and bureaucrats, this exposé documents previously unknown aspects of the history of federal drug law enforcement from the formation of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs and the creation of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) up until the present day. Written in [...]

Big Brother to take a seat on MARTA buses

Wave to the camera. The Mountain Area Regional Transit Authority will soon have a new set of eyes to protect the safety of drivers and passengers.
MARTA provides public transportation service around Big Bear Valley and to Running Springs, Crestline, Lake Arrowhead and San Bernardino. The agency is in the process [...]

ACLU: Justice Denied: Voices from Guantanamo

Occupiers involved in drug trade: Afghan minister

The Afghan minister of counter narcotics says foreign troops are earning money from drug production in Afghanistan.
General Khodaidad Khodaidad said the majority of drugs are stockpiled in two provinces controlled by troops from the US, the UK, and Canada, Islamic Republic News Agency reported on Saturday.
He went on to [...]

FBI Demands Tattoo Shops Rat On Customers

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, in league with the Bureau of Justice Assistance (part of the Department of Justice), has launched a program that harks back to East Germany’s Stasi.
In Philadelphia, the FBI has instructed tattoo shops to rat out their customers if they demand privacy, insist on paying [...]

Song banned, band pulls out

Reporting from Mexico City – Los Tigres del Norte, Mexico’s superstar norteño band, abruptly canceled its participation Wednesday in a major awards show after it was barred from performing a song critical of the government’s campaign against drug cartels.
The band, best known for its corridos, or Spanish ballads, [...]

Epping officer suspended, alleges harassment

A local police officer who claims he has been targeted because of his involvement with a group that wants to legalize drugs has been suspended from the force.
Officer Bradley Jardis said he was told Monday that he was being suspended with pay pending an investigation.
Police Chief Gregory Dodge would not comment [...]

Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP.org) Testifies at CA Marijuana Legalization Hearing

Drugs chief: Alcohol more dangerous than ecstasy, LSD and cannabis

The British Government’s chief drug adviser has sparked controversy by claiming ecstasy, LSD and cannabis are less dangerous than cigarettes and alcohol.
Professor David Nutt, chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, attacked the decision to make cannabis a class B drug.
He accused former home secretary Jacqui [...]

Anti-corruption Group Discusses Strategy

The new organization dedicated to rooting out political corruption in San Bernardino County held its first public meeting on October 6 in Redlands. The meeting was relocated at the last minute when the San Bernardino Public Employees Association (SBPEA) reneged on its agreement to allow the group to use its [...]

***DANGER***: Bill aims to update, grow Troops to Teachers

Just search this site for anything military, and see if you want this scum infiltrating the educational system to propagandize, indoctrinate and poison your child’s mind.  Here are some examples:

Military Accepting Neo-Nazis, White Supremacists, Probe Finds
The rise of low-IQ in the US military
The US military and its cult of cruelty
America’s Child Soldiers: [...]

10 Steps to End Democracy

how much profit is fair for prescription drugs?

How much does the average citizen pay for prescribed drugs? What % mark-up is fair for the societies who depend on prescriptions for their daily health?
Research and development costs on patented drugs must be reimbursed. But beyond that, is the sky the limit for the prices on prescription drugs?
Who do pharmaceutical [...]

The Drug War Leads to Gun Control

A fundamental principle of interventionism holds that one government intervention inevitably leads to more interventions, in order to “fix” the problems of the previous interventions. At the end of this road lies omnipotent government and the loss of freedom.
A good example of this phenomenon is being provided by a group called [...]

Latin America: Mexico Ex-President Fox Lashes Out at President Calderon Over Drug War

For years, former Mexican President Vicente Fox has suggested that drug legalization needs to be on the agenda when discussing how to resolve prohibition-related problems like the wave of violence plaguing Mexico. Now, he’s getting personal and political, as he attacks sitting President Felipe Calderon for what Fox is describing [...]

Feds issue new medical marijuana policy (to Good Ol’ Boy Hoops)

WASHINGTON – Pot-smoking patients or their sanctioned suppliers should not be targeted for federal prosecution in states that allow medical marijuana, prosecutors were told Monday in a new policy memo issued by the Justice Department.
Under the policy spelled out in a three-page legal memo, federal prosecutors are being told it is [...]

PBS NewsHour Covers Marijuana Legalization

In this embedded video from Wednesday night’s program, NewsHour interviews California city council members and activists who want to help improve the state’s budget by legalizing and taxing marijuana.

Former Colombian president blasts U.S. anti-drug strategy

Former Colombian President Cesar Gaviria on Tuesday strongly criticized the United States’ approach to fighting drugs.
“Just putting all consumers in jail, as the U.S. does, is not a solution,” he told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “You have to reduce consumption.”
In a wide ranging interview, Gaviria said the United States now has [...]

Perpetual war is here — and Americans are getting used to it

A new poll shows a substantial majority of Americans have resigned themselves to the reality of our nation’s perpetual foreign wars. They don’t like it, but they see it happening and know there is nothing they can do about it. The poll, conducted by Clarus Research Group, showed that 68 [...]

Colombia says ‘no’ to US bases

Amid reports of a deal reached for the establishment of US military bases in Colombia, the country’s foreign minister says there is no need for more American personnel.
In an effort to reassure other South American countries, Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez told the BBC that Colombia seeks only “information, technology, [...]

State Department Faces Criticism on New Merida Initiative Report

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars recently made available an unclassified U.S. State Department report on Mexico’s human rights as related to the Merida Initiative. The report comes as a response to section 1406 of the Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2008 (P.L. 110-252), and section 7045 of the [...]

Because marijuana is illegal…

Sometimes, dangerous people with guns sell marijuana to people who use it, sometimes in places where there are other people who don’t want marijuana to be sold in front of them. Then, sometimes people use those guns to flex their control when they feel threatened.
Source

Feingold: ‘Sneak-and-peek’ searches being used for regular crimes

The Justice Department made 763 requests for “sneak-and-peek” warrants in 2008, but only three of those had to with terrorism investigations, Sen. Russ Feingold told a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday.
“Sneak-and-peek” warrants allow law enforcement officials to break into homes and businesses and search the premises without [...]

Firepower and freedom

The brilliant thinkers that wrote our Constitution had it right… They had just fought a war to overthrow an oppressive government, and they had won it by having similar technologies to this oppressive Government and tactics more suitable to the type of war they were fighting. These geniuses wrote the [...]

Former CBS anchorman, Dan Rather, warns of corporate influence over news

(WMR) – On September 16, Dan Rather, the former anchor of the CBS Evening News, warned that today’s news is shaped by very powerful corporate network owners who “are in bed with powerful political interests” that are influenced by government regulatory interests.
Rather spoke at a National Press Club remembrance [...]

CREW’s Most Corrupt: Rep. Jerry Lewis

Representative Jerry Lewis (R-CA) is a sixteen-term member of Congress, representing the 41st district of California. Currently the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, his ethics issues stem primarily from the misuse of his position as chairman of the committee to steer hundreds of millions of dollars in earmarks [...]

Time to end the war on drugs

Vancouver in British Columbia, Ciudad Juárez in northern Mexico and Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan are unlikely cousins. But together these three places and their ilk have wrought a remarkable change in one of the world’s most important debates over the past two years.
For decades, the idea of legalizing narcotics was [...]

Massachusetts OKs Secret Use Of GPS On Suspects

For the first time, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled yesterday that the state constitution allows police to break into a suspect’s car to secretly install tracking devices using a global positioning system, provided that authorities have a warrant before they do so.
In a unanimous ruling written [...]

The Marijuana Ads That ABC, FOX, and CBS Refused to Show You

The Case for Legalising All Drugs Is Unanswerable

The Extreme Profits to Be Made From Narcotics – a Direct Result of Prohibition – Fuel War and Terrorism.  Legalization Is Urgent
The war on drugs is a failed policy that has injured far more people than it has protected.  Around 14,000 people have died in Mexico’s drug wars since the end [...]

Lt. Cmdr. Paul Chabot Announces Candidacy for 63rd Assembly District

[ Don't let this twit screw us all up .  Follow him at the IEPolitics Blog and learn about his position on prohibition.  We've already got enough problems with the corrupt predators of the military- and prison-industrial complexes running the government.  Chabot, at the age of 12, entered rehab for alcohol and [...]

Operation Phoenix and ACORN, sitting in a tree

Earlier this week, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) was caught on video trying to help set up a brothel for underage immigrant girls (thirteen 13-15 year olds) in San Bernardino where the profits would go to support the political career of an aspiring politician. In [...]

Return of Stout a good thing?

[ As Mike Ramos cleans the house that this man helped to build, we suspect that his expressed interest in running again is little more than an advance defense against an investigation of him.  Follow Stout at the iePolitics blog.  The military- and prison-industrial complexes of this [...]

Pittsburgh Police: Anarchists attack squad cars at police HQ

Sources indicate nails and screws were forced into the tires on at least a dozen marked and unmarked police cars as well as a number of private cars.
Pittsburgh Bureau of Police sources say at least a dozen police cars and a number of private cars were vandalized.
Sources also confirm police investigators [...]

Is war on drugs worth it? Maybe not, new FBI data suggest

Many law enforcement officers now say the drug interdiction effort is costly and unsuccessful. The bulk of drug arrests in 2008 were for simple possession, almost half for marijuana.
Atlanta – Every 18 seconds, an American is busted for drug possession, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) crime statistics [...]