American Drug War: 'Prop 5: Do Sick People Deserve Drug Treatment or Jail Time?'

 

Source:American Drug War- One of the inmates interviewed for this documentary.

"Proposition 5 will cut state costs. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst estimates those savings at $2.5 billion or more. Prop. 5 safely eases prison overcrowding by investing in drug treatment - which costs much less than prison - for youth and nonviolent offenders. Prop. 5 provides treatment with strict accountability.

Prop. 5 is supported by the League of Women Voters of California, Consumer Federation of California, California Nurses Association, California Society of Addiction Medicine, California Federation of Teachers - and many others.

Prop. 5 is opposed by the state prison guards' union, which has contributed almost $2 million for deceptive TV ads. Prison guards benefit from prison overcrowding and new prison building, but California loses.

This video has been brought to you by:American Drug War and Drug War Coalition." 

From the American Drug War

Whatever your view on drug criminalization or the broader so-called War on Drugs and you are sensible, you probably agree that the so-called War on Drugs that was started forty years ago isn't working and has even failed, all you have to do is look at the facts. 

Today in 2011 we have more drug offenders per capita if you take in consideration that are population has 100M people or more in 2011 than in 1971. Narcotics are available more today than they were in 1971, we now have 2M people in prison today, with hundreds of thousands of those inmates being in prison for drug use or drug possession. As well as a lot of these drug offenders being addicts or severe addicts and do their time in prison as addicts and if anything their condition gets worse. And they get new charges in prison for drug related offenses, even though they aren't a threat to anyone. 

Now possessing or selling drugs in prison, is obviously a serious offense that has to be appropriately dealt with. But addicts feeding their habit is not a threat to anyone other than themselves. And if they just had gotten help for their drug addiction instead of punishment, they probably wouldn't be in prison in the first place and taking up space for a dangerous offenders who needs to be there in prison for the good of society. 

Richard Nixon did a lot of bad things as President, most of them relating to his character and paranoia, like the illegal wiretapping and the Watergate coverup (to use as examples) but the worst thing he did as President as far as policy, was launching the so-called War on Drugs and treating drug addicts and drug dealers as equals throwing them both in prison and forty years later and a couple trillion dollars later, we've paid a heavy price for it, money that could've been used on a lot of other things, like getting people off of narcotics and helping them with their addiction. 

Prison has a place for drug dealers, people who sell cocaine, heroin, and meth. Law enforcement can play a big role here in getting drug dealers off the street and keeping those three narcotics out of the country in the first place. 

The good news is we have a lot of positive alternatives to the traditional so-called War on Drugs that has failed, its hard to find anyone anymore who's credible who'll say the traditional so-called War on Drugs has been a success. If you want drug addicts off of narcotics indefinitely, you do that by collapsing the narcotics market. This is where law enforcement can actually play a positive role by getting heroin, cocaine and meth dealers off the street and into prison. 

We should be working with our North American allies to keep these narcotics out of the country in the first place. Then you get drug addicts off of narcotics and help them with their addiction with drug rehab and send them to drug rehab. As well as transferring non-violent drug addicts who are just in prison for drug use and have good prison records, to drug rehab instead of prison. 

The drug addicts would pay for their drug addiction, not tax payers so this program would pay for itself. And once they've successfully complete their drug rehab, get them into halfway houses to help them back on their feet and independent. 

We have now forty years of experience to know what not to do in the so-called War on Drugs. Someone intelligent once said the definition of insanity, is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. Which is exactly why our so-called War on Drugs is insane and has failed and why need to bring sanity to this issue. And why it's time for a different approach.

Associated Press: President Obama- 'On Economy: Things Will Get Better'

Source:Associated Press- President Barack H. Obama (Democrat, Illinois) talking about the American economy.

"President Barack Obama is welcoming the latest jobs report as encouraging, saying 'things will get better.' At the same time, Obama says the economy isn't producing enough jobs and says that must be corrected. (Aug. 5)" 

From the Associated Press

170,000 jobs created in July is definitely a hell of a lot better than the 18,000 jobs created in June. And 9.1% unemployment is at least technically better than 9.2% unemployment. But for the unemployment rate to get down to a more desirable level that can be managed, where the economy looks like its clearly improving, we need to be creating hundreds of thousands of jobs per month.

We need to create 170K plus jobs every month actually get closer to 200K jobs per month or more to seriously bring down unemployment. Thats going to take economic growth and 1.5% ain't going to get that done. We need to be around 4% or better and for that to happen people need to feel confident about spending money and have the money to spend in order to create demand so business's are making enough money where they actually need additional employees to fill new jobs to meet the new demand. And this won't happen sitting around and waiting for it to happen. 

The White House and Congress need to pass legislation to help accomplish this since they just reached an agreement to start paying down our debt and deficit. They need to pass legislation to to help our hurting manufacturing industry and we start making and selling things again and the work is done by Americans. And they can start by passing the three trade deals that are currently stuck in Congress and get our products sold in Central America, Columbia, and Korea. That would be the quickest and most effective thing they can do. 

Congress should also pass an infrastructure bill like a National Infrastructure Bank which would get our infrastructure projects up and running and cut some red tape through Congress as well as the Administration. This bill already has bipartisan support in Congress with Senator Kerry and Senator Hutchison authors of this bill. Because this would be an independent agency of the Federal Government. That would raise these funds through the private sector attracting investors and then hiring the company's to do the work. 

And then energy: let's eliminate corporate welfare for big oil and gas in exchanged for allowing them and alternative energy industries have more access in the country to produce American energy in America and hire Americans to do these jobs this is something we should've been doing all along but there is not better time then now to get started. 

Today's unemployment record looks a lot better than it did in June and May obviously just because of the fact that a lot more jobs were created. And it looks more like April and March when we were in the 100K plus jobs created area. But this is just one positive jobs report and there's still a tone left to be done but we can accomplish it.

The White House: 'President Obama Delivers a Statement on Debt Compromise'

Source:The White House- President Barack H. Obama (Democrat, Illinois) talking about the debt deal that was reached with Congress.

"President Obama delivers a statement in the Rose Garden of the White House on the debt compromise passed by both houses of Congress to reduce the deficit and avert a default that would have devastated our economy. August 2, 2011." 

From The White House

Again, I think people across the political spectrum all the way on the Far-Right all the way over to the Far- Left agree this isn't a perfect deal. (Maybe the only thing they agree on.) It's exactly what a compromise looks like, both sides gave in. Republicans got their budget cuts but they also had to cut defense and weren't able to get entitlement reform. Democrats got defense cuts, an eighteen month extension in the debt ceiling and were able to prevent entitlement cuts. But they weren't able to close tax loopholes or get tax hikes on the wealthy. 

But this is just what round one of what deficit reduction looks like. What I would like to see in round two is tax hikes on the wealthy, closing tax loopholes, and overall tax reform that broadens the base and lowers rates. But none of the reforms will make a damn bit of difference if we don't get the economy growing again where we have enough economic and job growth to bring down our unemployment rate by putting people to work. 

For America to get back to strong economic growth, we need to be growing at around 4% GDP and to do that we should first not make the problem worst then it already is which is already happening. With the FAA Shutdown we need to put those people back to work and building more infrastructure at airports and other things. That represents around 100,000 well paid six figure jobs that we can't afford to lose in this economy. 

Another way to improve the economy is with free trade, there are three trade deals stuck in Congress right now that neither the House or Senate has acted on. Which is a bipartisan problem that the President is probably going to have to resolve and he can't to that by waiting too late in the fourth quarter before getting in the game. This problem is around TAA (or Trade Adjustment Assistance) which helps people who were laid off because their job was sent oversees and is not coming back. And it helps them get retrained to get a job in another field. 

The President and Congressional Democrats are in favor of TAA and Congressional Republicans are against it because they see it as Welfare or something and believe is too expensive. What the President and Congress should really be doing is rebuilding our manufacturing and construction industries, not by running them obviously but creating incentives for them to produce. And turn the phrase: "Make it in America" into an economic policy and not just a phrase. 

A National Infrastructure Bank which already has bipartisan support in the Senate and has the President behind it, would be a great first step in doing this. A National Infrastructure Bank would essentially be an independent non-profit organization that would go around the country and to see where we need infrastructure repairs and expansion. roads, bridges, airports, schools, waterways and would raise the money in the private sector to accomplish this with investors. And then hire company's to do the work and they would get the employees to do the work. 

The beauty of a National Infrastructure Bank is that it would be self-financed, just needing 10B$ in startup capital it could get from the Small Business Administration or something. And then it would also be independent of the Federal Government, they wouldn't have to run it. Liberal Democratic Senator John Kerry and and Conservative Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (the Ranking Member on the Commerce Transportation Committee) already have a bipartisan bill to accomplish this. 

The debt deal is a solid not great first step in getting our debt and deficit under control by starting to pay it down, but it's just round one. Round two should be about entitlement reform, tax reform, and finally getting the economy moving again and putting people back to work. Which would be easiest and best way to pay down our debt and deficit.

Associated Press: Jerry Bodlander- 'Congress Plans Votes on Deal to Prevent Default'

Source:Associated Press- the 2011 debt ceiling agreement, also known as the Budget Control Act.

"Both houses of the U.S. Congress were lining up votes Monday on a bitterly fought agreement with President Barack Obama to raise the limit on U.S. borrowing and forestall an unprecedented American default. (Aug. 1)" 

From the Associated Press

Well my fellow American voters and Democrats who didn't bother voting in the 2010 mid-term elections, this is what divided government looks like. This is certainly not my idea of how we should raise the debt ceiling and pay down our debt and deficit. 

I have my own plan thats on this blog site, but with this plan we'll be able to raise the debt ceiling, avoid default and start to pay down our debt and deficit and extend the debt ceiling for eighteen months so Congress can, I don't know move on to other issues. Just in case there's a snowballs chance in hell, that the debt ceiling, debt, and deficit aren't the only issues facing America and I would be able to I don't know, blog about other things, which I did the last two days. 

This blog site is called FRSFreeState not The Fiscal Times which is another real publication. And a big part of my blog is blogging about defending liberal democracy and fiscal policy is just a component of that. Economic and gob growth to use as examples, which would also help contribute to bringing down the debt and deficit should be next on the agenda. 

This deal pays down the debt and deficit without slashing Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. There are no tax hikes on the wealthy or closing tax loopholes in this deal which is something I would've liked to see, where we could've raised 100-200B$ a year alone in deficit reduction alone without hurting anyone. 

There are also no tax hikes on the middle class as well which is good. This is a cut only debt reduction and debt ceiling deal but there's also budget cuts in defense as well, something like 100B$ a year. Either right away or in the next few months with the brand new bipartisan debt commission. Another commission that apparently can do the work that Congress is supposed to be able to do on its own, which is part of their job. And the fact they haven't don't their job, is a big reason why we are here today. It's harder to find a more overpaid group of people than the 535 Members of Congress, but perhaps thats a different post. 

Round one looks like is about budget cuts including in the bloated Defense Department and getting the debt ceiling off the agenda for at least eighteen months, which is a big deal in itself. 

Round two will be about tax reform and closing tax loopholes that are way too expansive that we can't afford and ending corporate welfare. As well as entitlement reform that doesn't hurt anyone who actually needs those programs. 

This is what divided government looks like folks, if you don't like it, I suggest you bother to vote the next time you get a chance. And vote for people who don't take the attitude: "My way, or the highway!" As well as getting involved in the political process. And work for candidates that wouldn't allow a situation like this to happen in the first place. And wouldn't risk putting the country in default if they don't get everything they want. 

With a Democratic President and Democratic Senate, we have a deal that doesn't slash entitlement programs and actually includes the Defense Department in deficit reduction. And in round two will get tax reform that closes expensive tax loopholes and corporate welfare and reforms entitlement programs in a way that doesn't hurt people who actually needs them.

See Black Power: Minister Malcolm X- 'We Didn't Land On Plymouth Rock'

Source:Donnie Mossberg- Minister Malcolm X, speaking in 1964.

"MALCOLM X We Didn't Land On Plymouth Rock March 29, 1964"

From See Black Power 

Nation of Islam Minister Malcolm X arguing that African-Americans were Africans who happened to be in America, but not necessarily American. Constitutionally he was wrong about that since according to the U.S. Constitution anyone who is born in the United States or born to an American parent (father or mother) is an American citizen by birthright, regardless of race or ethnicity. But I believe his point is that African-Americans weren’t getting their constitutional and individual rights enforced equally as European-Americans or weren’t getting their rights enforced equally at all. Which is the same point that Dr. Martin L. King also argued.

Source:FRS FreeState- Nation of Islam Minister Malcolm X, I believe speaking in 1964.

Malcolm X. was clearly not a Saint, or a perfect person and America is not a country of Saints or perfect people. We have good, bad and in between all over the country. Hopefully more good than anything else.

Malcolm X, started down the road as a lot of people growing up in rough neighborhoods and becoming a criminal. He’s one of the few in this country unfortunately who’s been in jail, that’s actually come out of jail as a better person. He made himself a better man and educated himself. He also went from being a criminal to a racist, or perhaps he was both at the same time. Basically seeing all Caucasians as Devils and perhaps he only knew racist Caucasians and believed because of that, that they were all like that.

But Malcolm X, was someone who learned and taught himself and bettered himself as he got older. Which is one of the reasons his early death was so tragic. Because we’ll never know how great Dr. Martin King and Malcolm X would’ve become as men, because they were both murdered in their late 30s. But Malcolm X was a man who only got better as he got older, which why I believe he had such a strong following in the 1960s and if anything his following has gotten stronger in his death then when he was alive. With a great movie about his life with the great actor Denzel Washington playing Malcolm X in the movie. Well, Malcolm X, easy enough to follow.

Which is again is just another reason why his death was so tragic, because he was so young to die and like Dr King could’ve accomplished so much more. Not just with civil rights, but I believe would’ve gone farther in the areas of poverty and speaking about empowering low-income people to get themselves out of poverty with assistance, but they would do the work to make it happen. As well as rebuilding American cities, so people living in them especially in low-income areas, would have a good shot at a much better life and escaping poverty.

But what I respect most about Malcolm X, was his message of empowerment and freedom over dependence. Whether its dependence on public assistance, or anything else.

Low-income people, don’t have the same freedom to live their lives as middle class people, or wealthy people. They simply have very limited resources and are very limited in what they can do with their own lives, especially compared with the rest of the population. And Malcolm X message was about empowering these people to get the freedom that the rest of the population had to live their own lives. And not be dependent on public assistance, in the 1960s when the Great Society and all of these new government programs has contributed to making low-income people more dependent on public assistance for their survival.

Public housing, is a perfect example of this, where you build a bunch of high-rise housing projects in low-income areas. Where all of these low-income people live in low-income areas. With high crime and their kids are stuck going to bad schools and having the same future as their parents, or worse.

Malcolm X, wanted low-income people especially in the African-American community, to have the freedom to live their own lives and not be dependent on public assistance their whole lives. And I believe education and choice in education would’ve been a big part of his message. A lot of the message around fighting poverty in America in the past and still today unfortunately, has been government centered and giving low-income people Welfare checks. Instead of empowering low-income people to get the skills that they need and giving them their freedom so they can earn good pay checks from a good job.

But that’s changing, it started in the Clinton Administration in the 1990s with Welfare Reform in 1996 with a Republican Congress. Where they worked together to make that happen. But Malcolm X, I believe had a big role in getting this message started in the 1960s and for that a lot is owed to him. His Message of empowerment, is the biggest contribution he made to Africans-Americans and America as a whole. 

You can also see this post on WordPress. 

You can also see this post at The Daily Press, on Blogger. 

You can also see this post at The Daily Press, on WordPress.

Nancy Pelosi: 'Celebrating the 46th Anniversary of Medicare'

Source:House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi- House Democrats, holding a press conference celebrating the 46th anniversary of Medicare.

"Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats held a press conference ahead of the 46th anniversary of Medicare becoming law." 

From Nancy Pelosi

The 46th Anniversary of Medicare and it should be celebrated because of the health insurance it's guaranteed for tens of millions of senior citizens since. And it's been a great success and has achieved the original purpose of its objective, which is not something that can be said as fact for a lot of other Federal programs. Perhaps not even a lot of other Federal programs. 

And I believe a big reason for its success, that it guarantees health insurance for everyone thats eligible for it. Meaning all senior citizens has a Patients Bill of Rights built into it. Which was also part of the Affordable Care Act of 2010, meaning that Medicare can't dump its patients because they get sick and need health insurance or reach a lifetime cap on the amount of health insurance they consume in dollars. Or have a preexisting medical condition. (To use as examples) 

Another reason why Medicare has succeeded is unlike Medicaid, Medicare has a dedicated revenue source. Medicare is funded through part of the payroll tax, unlike Medicaid which has to come out of general revenue in the Federal Government as well as state government's. And the Federal Government actually has to pay more for Medicaid then it does but has never lived up to its own obligations that itself wrote into law when they created Medicaid back in 1965. 

Medicaid is something like a 40B$ program the entire U.S. Department of Education budget and is very expensive to run. Unlike the Federal Government that run Medicare on its own through the Health and Human Services Department. And again has a dedicated revenue source to fund the program and doesn't have to look to cut the Federal budget just to fund Medicare. 

But with Baby Boom Generation retiring which is a huge generation and the cost of their medical care coming down the road followed by Generation X (my generation) and others, it's time that we look to reform Medicare in a way that saves the program and makes it work even better. 

What I would like to see done with Medicare instead of turning it into a voucher system coming from the Tea Party and no longer guaranteeing health insurance for senior citizens and forcing senior citizens with a voucher to go get their own health insurance from the private sector, where private insurers wouldn't have to cover them and taking away part of their freedom of choice in health insurance, we should let seniors and every other American decide for themself where they get their health insurance, or let them have health savings accounts, if that is what they want.

Or instead of doing what the so-called Congressional Progressive Caucus and its allies want to do and convert Medicare into a single-payer health insurance program for everyone and taking away the freedom of choice for everyone to be able to decide where they get their health insurance. 

What I would like to do is give senior citizens the freedom of choice to decide for themselves where they get their own health insurance. They can stay on Medicare or with a voucher could decide to go into the private sector or even public sector as well. 

If we ever create a public option in health care reform that I would like to see. As well as reform the financing of Medicare, have the wealthy pay more into it before they are eligible to collect it and once they are on it. And raise the retirement age for people who are able to work longer and can afford to wait before they receive Medicare. We could fix the financing of medicare with the last two reforms alone. 

What could really save Medicare indefinitely where we may never have to worry about its financing again or at least not the Federal Government. Would be to get it off of the budget of the Federal Government all together, not eliminate it or turn it over to the states. But converting it into an independent non-profit health insurance service thats no longer run by the Federal Government. That would compete in the private market with other non-profit health insurers and hopefully a new public option would be part of its competition. 

Medicare could be well-regulated, meaning it would have to accept any senior citizen eligible for it. But maybe it would also accept people from all age groups as well (the public option) which would help cut its costs because it would be able to cover healthier people as well. 

And under my plan there would no longer be just one Medicare, each State would have it own Medicare system, but none of the states would run it. But there would be a Medicare service in each state: Medicare Maryland, Medicare Ohio, Medicare Florida, etc, every State. But each Medicare service would have to comply with a basic set of standards from the Federal Government. 

Under my plan Medicare would have its own Management and Board of Directors at the National and State Levels that they would select. Medicare has been a very successful Medical Insurance Program the last forty six years and we need to keep it as a very successful Health Insurer going forward. But for that to happen, we need to put some solid reforms on it and not do anything to it that could make it weaker. By eliminating the Freedom of Choice for its current patients and perhaps future patients.

Such is Life Videos: Thomas Roberts- 'Supporters Of Marriage Equality Wavering On Bill In Maryland'

Source:Such is Life Videos- Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart, talking to MSNBC's Thomas Roberts.

 "Thomas Roberts talks with Jonathan Capehart (The Washington Post) about Sam Arora's disgraceful wavering on marriage equality in Maryland. Final vote on same-sex marriage bill this week." 

From Such is Life Videos

I'm a native Marylander and have lived in the State of Maryland my whole life and love my State. It's a great State and has been probably its entire existence, with a high quality of life, education, economy employment, infrastructure, recreation, physical beauty. 6M people roughly within a few hours drive, so you are never that far away from anything. Great food, the best crab cakes around and other great seafood, great places to eat. Short winters, long hot humid summers with a lot of sun and of you are from New England or the Northwest, Maryland and the broader Mid Atlantic is probably not the best climate for you. 

We are a high taxed state though compared with the rest of the country, but we get a pretty good bang for our buck with great schools roads, parks and so-forth. So myself who who believes in low taxes, I'll accept that for now. Maryland in nicknamed the Free State, which is also what I call my blog. 

One reason because I'm a Marylander, the other because it fits my politics like a glove: I believe in the idea of Free State the ability for people to live freely in a free society. The ability for people to live their own lives as they see fit as long as they are not hurting anyone else with their freedom. I've been described as a Libertarian or a Classical Liberal. But I prefer liberal or even Liberal Democrat, because one I know what those terms mean unlike a lot of others. 

But also because I believe in Individual Liberty but thats not my point of this blog. My point is if you are actually going to have the nerve to call your state in a liberal democracy of 310M people with forty nine other states, the Free State, then you have an obligation as I see it, to live up to that nickname as much as possible and give your citizens and residents as much freedom as possible. 

The voter registration in Maryland is something like 70% Democrat and have had one Republican governor in that last forty four years. But even with all of that, gay marriage is still illegal, gambling until recently was illegal, we now have slots at our race tracks, that I voted for on a ballot as well as casinos. Marijuana of course is still illegal like in the rest of the country, but that could change in California and they came close to decriminalizing marijuana in 2010. Prostitution is still illegal like in forty eight other states, only Nevada has legal prostitution but they regulate and tax it. 

All of these personal activities are all illegal in the Free State of Maryland. All these activities that go on anyway in Maryland but in the dark. All of these activities that have consequences including negative but we can say that about a lot of other activities that are currently legal: alcohol and tobacco come to mind, but we regulate and tax them. 

If you are going to call yourself the Free State and forty nine other states could've picked that nickname and you live in a free society, you should live up to that nickname as much as possible because it's a lot to live up to. Instead of trying to prohibit how people live their lives, even though you know those activities are going to go on anyway. 

Maryland should regulate how these personal activities happen and have some control over it to make it as safe as possible. And regulate how people interact with each other and put in some rules to prevent and punish people when they abuse each other. And then you can bring down your overall tax rates, because now you've broaden your tax base. 

I'm glad Governor Martin O'Malley has finally come on board in supporting gay marriage in the Free State of Maryland. But Maryland should be freer in other ways as well and be as free as possible and live up to its great nickname.