This assertion is, of course, ridiculous on its face and smacks of a politician grasping at straws, looking for a someone to blame. He’s not the first politician to take the easy excuse rather than having the guts to admit the obvious: The War on Drugs is a miserable failure that creates more problems than it solves.

The first thing you have to come to terms with is that you will never eliminate human beings’ desire to alter their consciousness. We’ve been doing that throughout our history and we will continue to do so (see Prohibition). Then you need to look at who has won during our decades-long effort to fight drug use.

Jim Gray, a conservative judge in conservative Orange County, California, has changed his mind with regard to the War on Drugs. In 1992, he held a press conference during which he recommended that we rethink our drug laws. He is the author of Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed & What We Can Do About It: A Judicial Indictment of the War on Drugs
. In this interview, he discusses the six groups who benefit from drug prohibition. Found at YouTube from ReasonTV.

I’d be happy to argue all day with you the merits of pro sports for our state and our community but in the end it comes down to this: Building a stadium now will be less expensive. It is not a matter of if we will build a new football stadium, it’s a matter of when. We’ve seen this movie before in Cleveland; if we let the Vikings leave, we’ll see its sequel here in Minnesota. This state will inevitably build a new stadium to attract a pro football franchise back to Minnesota and the only difference will be a few years of an NFLless state and a significantly higher cost for the stadium.

We should pass this bill this year. The Strib compiled footage from the press conference:

The following is a photo of Lindsay Graham; in the subsequent video clip from Olbermann’s show, modern-day Foley appears about half-way through.

Found at YouTube from PoliticsNewsNews.

Just sayin…

Senate Tax Chair Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, talks with Capitol Report host Julie Bartkey about the framework for funding a news Minnesota Vikings Stadium. Senator Bakk’s interview was taped earlier today, and the entire Capitol Report program, including comments from officials from the Minnesota Vikings, will air Sunday, April 18th, on the Minnesota Channel and local PBS stations. Found at YouTube from UpTakeVideo.

Richard Nixon? Seriously? Find out who’s first: nerve.com. Posted via web from David Erickson’s Posterous.

Posted via web from David Erickson’s Posterous

Wonder why the Coleman campaign didn’t use this clip in an attack ad? Voice over: “Minnesotans, do you really want to suffer six years of this?“

Here’s a clip featuring Franken and his comic sidekick at the time Tom Davis. Found at YouTube from KGBRAND.