call for freedom

Juan Cole (Informed Consent) states clearly in defense of legalization of marajuana:

It turns out that if we had more personal freedoms, we'd have more state monies and could educate ourselves to develop our potential as free human beings.

In the past 40 years, the snowball has been going in the other direction-- fewer personal freedoms, a vast gulag of the incarcerated, and less and less state money for the development of the minds of the public. We've built ourselves a big ignorant prison, with a loud-mouthed fundamentalist preacher for a warden, and called it America.

We should legalize pot, and tax the resulting industry. We should repeal mandatory sentencing guidelines and develop rehabilitation strategies rather than putting the ill-behaved in expensive state hotels. And we should go back to having state-funded state universities.

Time For Change...

Noam Chomsky says to produce change we need understanding, organizing, and action.

It's time to focus or we'll get the wrong change...

Alaskans for Obama

http://www.politicalcartoons.com/cartoon/6a692238-0fa1-4dec-952b-06dc92c4a6ab.html

FiveThirtyEight.com: Electoral Projections Done Right

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/

Blackwater 2.0: 'Operator Disneyland' ??

http://www.military.com/news/article/blackwater-2-0-operator-disneyland.html

""It's a Disneyland for operators," said Blackwater founding member and current president Gary Jackson during an August 22 tour of the company's grounds. "They come here and they just can't believe it."

With an array of firing ranges, shoot houses, an aviation support fleet and a roster of trainers capable of delivering instruction on any kind of martial skill known to man, Blackwater has become a juggernaut in the world of private military companies.

Originally founded as a training and target manufacturing company, Blackwater has launched a media offensive to shake off its reputation among critics as a "shoot-first-ask-questions-later" band of bearded mercenaries. Two high-profile incidents in Iraq propelled the normally secretive company onto America's front pages, and the news wasn't good"

From BlueNC blog:

"A primer on the mercenary madness, here's a summary from Blackwater Watch.

Blackwater Worldwide, a mercenary group, has a history of killing innocent civilians. In Nisour Square, Iraq, on September 16, 2007, Blackwater “security personnel” shot and killed without provocation seventeen Iraqis civilians, including a nine year old boy.

Blackwater has taken no responsibility for any of the killings. Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater, told Congress one month after the Nisour Square Massacre that he had no knowledge of his men hurting innocent civilians.

Blackwater is not part of the military! It is a business that profits from bloodshed and killing. Its personnel are not accountable to military, civil, or criminal law. One year after the killings, no one at Blackwater has been charged for any of the killings of innocent civilians.

Blackwater used subsidiary business names to apply for its building permits in San Diego to avoid the normal permit process and avoid public scrutiny. Blackwater has done everything in their power to stop the right of the San Diego City Council, the City Attorney, and San Diego residents to say “no” to having Blackwater here, including suing the City of San Diego.

Blackwater is a company that profits from conflict. NO CONFLICT = NO PROFIT! Blackwater mercenaries along the US-Mexico border will seek to profit from border instability. Any minor difference among ethnic groups can easily be exploited by Blackwater mercenaries to intervene and make money.'