Presently, the Drug Enforcement Agency is still dominated by Bush era personnel who continue to enforce the "federal policy overrides state law" policies that produce pointless federal prosecutions against citizens lawfully providing medical marijuana where to do so is legal under the law of several of our states.
The White House said it expects those kinds of raids to end once Mr. Obama nominates someone to take charge of DEA, which is still run by Bush administration holdovers.
“The president believes that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws, and as he continues to appoint senior leadership to fill out the ranks of the federal government, he expects them to review their policies with that in mind," White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said.
This marks a return to sanity and conforms with the great weight of medical evidence. President Obama will keep his campaign promise. The question remains whether new Attorney General Eric Holder file federal criminal cases against those busted in the raids which have been ongoing since Obama's inauguration?
"Change has come to Washington, and I hope Karl Rove is ready for it," declared House Judiciary Committee chair John Conyers, D-Michigan, on Monday, when he issued a new subpoena Monday to the former White House political czar. "After two years of stonewalling, it's time for him to talk."
With backing from now-former President Bush, Rove deflected demands from Conyers and the Judiciary Committee that he testify regarding dramatic abuses of office, including the firing of nine U.S. attorneys who allegedly refused to use their positions to advance the Bush-Cheney administration's political agenda.
Relying on Bush's signal, Rove claimed "executive privilege."
And almost as soon as Eric Holder was confirmed as US Attorney General, Rove [apparently on the good advice of legal counsel] suddenly decided he'd cooperate with the separate Department of Justice probe. No word yet on any respect by the Turd Blossom for the Congress. Maybe that's because he's received the word that the Justice Department won't play around, obfuscate, deflect, hem and haw, fill itself with political hacks. Is Rove apparently convinced that "CHANGE HAS COME TO WASHINGTON?" The Crapauds think so.
Here's why. Because even though the guy's already in office, taking his lumps, and surrounding himself with people who hardly scream "change", he still does things from time to time to show he's not your typical "politician".
Case in point.
"I screwed up."
Ask yourself this: when is the last time you heard a President say those words?
We've heard Presidents say "I screwed... her."
We've heard Vice Presidents say "Screw you!"
We've heard Presidents say "Screw... what's a screw?"
When Presidents say "I'm sorry", they usually mean "I'm just sorry I got caught"[1], or "F*ck you, I ain't sorry for sh*t", or "You've seen my wife's cankles! What would you do?"
But falling on the sword, manning up, admitting your mistake, explaining your original rationale for a decision that's backfired, and promising to do better? Well, that my friends is indeed change. Does it atone for some of the odd Cabinet choices he's made? No. But it does tell me that he understands he's being held accountable by the American people.
Would Mr. Obama have come out with this missive had Daschle been confirmed by the Senate? Prolly not. But by telling Daschle and Nancy Killefer to kick rocks (no way in hell either "voluntarily stepped down"), it's clear to me that Obama realizes the error of his ways. I think dude start getting high on his own supply after November 4th, and forgot who the real bosses were: the folks who voted him in. When you campaign on being high and mighty, folks expect you to follow through.
By saying a figurative "my bad", Obama tells me he's got some level of self awareness and cares about following through on his promises.
Well done.
Question: Does Obama earn any points for coming out and freely admitting his mistake? When's the last time a President issued a sincere apology?
Crapaud says: Amen to Average Bro. His take on things is most often right on the mark.
Most other recent presidential "apologies" were never "personal." Examples: Clinton's landmark apology for the horrors of the Tuskegee Experiments were "easy" because he himself was not responsible. Lil' Bush's disingenuous deflecting about the horror at Walter Reed, blamed others for that and he did not "man up" to the fact that the "buck" for that one was squarely in his chain of command.
On National Freedom to Marry Day, Thursday, February 12, 2009, at local marriage counters in cities all over the country, same-sex couples will request marriage licenses at their local County Clerk's Offices to raise awareness of the harms and impact that the inability to marry causes on their families. This national event is hosted yearly by Marriage Equality USA (MEUSA) and this year they are being joined by Join the Impact [the largest organizer of country-wide marriage equality actions] to make this the largest Marriage Counter Action yet!
"Marriage Equality USA started the Marriage Counter Action/Get Engaged for Marriage Equality in 2001. We do this annual direct action during Freedom to Marry week to make marriage discrimination visible, it forces our local clerks to have to look us in the eye, see our children, and enforce a discriminatory and unjust law at their counter – it moves everyone who witnesses this sad, but powerful event and gives us the opportunity to tell our stories and show that we live in every community and want to honor and protect our families like everyone else." - Jordan Palmer, Vice President of Development & Organizational Relationships for Marriage Equality USA.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
Please lend support to Marriage Equality USA and draw national attention to the many committed couples who are not afforded the right to marry.
Click here to a complete list of MEUSA locations (by states) and other critical information
Click +Cities">here to find JTI cities that will be hosting events where MEUSA is not
In a rare self-rebuke, the current spokesman of the Crapaud tribe in South Louisiana, We' Po' Now, Crapaud has issued a statement of shock and awe. His press release states: "On behalf of the entire Crapaud Clan, I humbly apologize. Yesterday we made certain statements, quoting our brother, Le Vieux Negre du Clos, and further we labeled Michael Steele a 'lawn jockey.' Crapaud's secret crush, Mimi, ran with the ball. But today we discover the greater truth from our sister, Pam Spaulding of Pam's House Blend. Pam published a piece in her blog today that made Crapaud in SHOCK over his narrowmindedness. But then I said 'AWE,' I should have known better! Its not a Crapaud's place to judge who gets to be head of the Republicon Klan. Its apparently the job of the remaining core Klan groups that ruined that party in the first place." In his native forked tongue, Crapaud added the following:
Je suis vraiment désolé
J’ai fait un lapsus, sans excuse!
"En bas dans un trou, les cailloux
Sont tous bien placés
J'ai mangé le soleil et asteur
Ma langue est brûlée
J'sus coupable de m'donner un coup d'pied
Droite aux mes dents
Mon, j'vas p'us parler
Après tous mes sentiments sans penser."
And herebelow is what Sister Pam reported that changed Crapaud's little mind.
"OK. Now this is seriously funny. The BFF of Tony Perkins (of the Family Research Council), former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke, is going apesh*t over the election of Michael Steele to run the RNC. He refers to the former Maryland Lt. Gov as "Obama Junior" (if only!):
The Dukester has written: To Hell with the Republican Party!
"GOP traitors appoint Obama Junior as Chairman of the Republican Party"
'I am glad these traitorous leaders of the Republican Party appointed this Black racist, affirmative action advocate to the head of the Republican party because this will lead to a huge revolt among the Republican base. As a former Republican official, I can tell you that millions of rank-and-file Republicans are mad as hell and aren't going to take it anymore! We will either take the Republican Party back over the next four years or we will say, "To Hell With the Republican Party!" And we will take 90 percent of Republicans with us into a New Party that will take its current place! I think the insanity of nominating "Mr. Amnesty" John McCain and now this Black racist - will lead to insurgency in the Republican ranks, and a lot of dissidents getting elected in Republican Party primaries around the country. This will result over the next four years a real move by millions of Republicans to take the party back to the populist issues that are not only right but can win for the Republican Party. We must end affirmative action, protect our gun rights and all our constitutional rights, have a moratorium on immigration, we must have protectionism, yes I said protect American businesses and their workers from NAFTA and GATT and the lie of free trade, and we must have America First, not foreign interventionism. Our boys should be home protecting the American borders a not being murdered on the borders of Iraq or Afghanistan. The time as come for Republican Party to stand up to Obama and defend American heritage, rights, and freedom! ...Let's make this abomination in the Republican Party, the last major party of White redoubt, as a rallying cry of resistance!'
Pam concludes: "What are the race-baiting, ignorant McCain/Palin mobs going to do now that its party is being headed up by a black man? Perhaps a better question is whether the Steele and the GOP will try to salvage this ignorant base of voters that they've depended on since the Southern Strategy of Nixon? GOP strategists are so used to using color-aroused campaign tactics that it's second nature; will the party be able to cure its addiction to racism and xenophobia?"
Final Word from M. Crapaud:
"Thank you Pam, sometimes it takes someone with good house training to give us Crapauds a better perspective."
"Take power away from those who misuse it -- at which point they become HUMAN, too." "...The barometer of where one is on human rights questions is no longer the black community, it's the gay community. Because it is the community which is most easily mistreated." CLICK ON his pic for more info
SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER
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P R I O R I T I E S
Frederick Douglass
No Struggle, No Progress
If you think you don't belong, you belong here.
So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was. (Molly Ivins 1944-2007)
I compile this 'blog as a journaling catharsis, but enjoy occasional visitors.
MY BLOG PHILOSOPHY:
La bave du crapaud n'atteint pas la blanche colombe.
Literal translation : “The spit of the toad can’t reach the white dove.”
Better: Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never harm me.
Have you visited your Mom lately? "Pray for the Dead, but fight for the Living!"
Saute Crapaud, The Musical
Marriage: THE Most Fundamental Civil Right
The right to marry whoever one wishes is an elementary human right compared to which "the right to attend an integrated school, the right to sit where one pleases on a bus, the right to go into any hotel or recreation area or place of amusement, regardless of one's skin or color or race" are minor indeed. Even political rights, like the right to vote, and nearly all other rights enumerated in the Constitution, are secondary to the inalienable human rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence; and to this category the right to home and marriage unquestionably belongs. Hannah Arendt in Dissent, Winter 1959
