Tag Archives: promises
Attorney General Promises To Reveal Feds Response To Recreational Cannabis Laws
Erik | Mar 07, 2013 | Comments 1
One of the most prevalent talking points among state governmental officials since the legalization of cannabis for recreational dedications in Washington and Colorado is what actions, if any, will the federal government employ?
Mr. Drones For Americans
“We’re still in the process of reviewing both of the initiatives that were passed,” Attorney General Eric Holder decrees. “You will hear soon. We’re in the last stages of that review and we’re trying to make a determination as to what the policy ramifications are going to be, what our international obligations are — there are a whole variety of things that go into this determination — but the people of [Colorado] and Washington deserve an answer and you will have one soon.”
That was Eric Holder’s response to Colorado state attorney general John Suthers’ question as to when or even if the Department of Justice was planning to intervene or take some course of action in response to the new recreational usage laws.
The mindset of our nation’s policymakers is shifting slowly but surely on a positive path to bringing intelligence and insight to our country’s truly outmoded drug laws.
On Monday March 4, 2013, several House Democrats introduced numerous pieces of legislation all with distinctive purposes directly related to decriminalizing cannabis and removing it from the list of controlled substances. The shift is in progress.
The Evil Weed
Attorney General Holder has already conducted meetings with the governors of Washington and Colorado which we know revealed diddly squat in terms of clarification for those said states. And as we can easily ascertain from his latest pronouncement the Department of Justice has no intentions of revealing any strategies or tactics that they may have up their slimy sleeves.
Who could trust anything Holder has to say at this point anyway? He has been involved in more scandalous behavior as of late than I’m sure he cares anyone to mention.
If you aren’t satisfied (and I truly hope you’re not) with our country’s current drug policies, then do our community a solid and get actively involved and help bring a close to this antiquated war on tokers.
Filed Under: Exclusive Web Content • Politics • Recreational Cannabis • The Law • The United State Of Weed
Holder Promises Marijuana Verdict Coming ‘Soon’
Attorney General Eric Holder promised Washington and Colorado state attorneys general on Tuesday that the Justice Department would issue its verdict “soon” on how it plans to treat the states’ recent moves to legalize marijuana.
“We’re still in the process of reviewing both of the initiatives that were passed,” said Holder, speaking at the National Association of Attorney General annual conference in Washington, D.C.
“You will hear soon. We’re in the last stages of that review and we’re trying to make a determination as to what the policy ramifications are going to be, what our international obligations are — there are a whole variety of things that go into this determination — but the people of [Colorado] and Washington deserve an answer and you will have one soon.”
Holder was responding to Colorado state attorney general John Suthers, who asked the nation’s top law enforcement official when the DOJ would be weighing in on the state laws that have been in effect for nearly two months.
The DOJ is charged with enforcing the federal prohibition on marijuana, and the state laws run counter to the long-existing ban, creating a debate over which law should be enforced and which law is most responsive to the will of the people.
Marijuana has been a centerpiece of the federal government’s “war on drugs,” aimed at cracking down on drug use in the United States. But the growing number of people who support the decriminalization of pot — which is still legally classified nationally in the same category as heroin — has some policymakers in Washington, D.C., rethinking their approach.
On Monday, nearly a dozen House Democrats introduced several bills that would decriminalize marijuana and remove the drug from the list of controlled substances, while requiring the federal government to regulate it and impose penalties on tax-evaders.
Holder has met or talked with both governors and attorneys general from Colorado and Washington during the DOJ’s review process, posing a series of questions to the state leaders, such as how they plan to prevent marijuana produced in the state from being trafficked to other states where the drug is not legal.
Source: Hill, The (US DC)
Author: Jordy Yager
Published: February 26, 2013
Copyright: 2013 The Hill
Website: http://www.hillnews.com/
Cannabis News – Medical Marijuana, Hemp, Marijuana News, Cannabis
Broken Promises: The Obama Administration and Medical Marijuana
President Obama owes a debt of gratitude to the medical marijuana community for his election in 2008 — a debt that patients, providers, and businesses hoped would be fulfilled by the president following through on the promises he made to respect state medical marijuana laws.
As you can see in this recent op-ed in the Washington Post by MPP’s Rob Kampia, not only has the administration failed to keep its promise of respecting states’ rights on this issue, it is now the most hostile administration in U.S. history towards medical marijuana!
More than three out of four Americans support legalizing medical marijuana for serious medical conditions. With an approval rating of less than 50%, Obama needs to recognize the political ramifications of these continued attacks on the medical marijuana community. If he wants to hold on to the White House this fall, Obama needs to keep the promises he made four years ago, and end the crackdown. As his attorney general said a few days ago, all he has to do is say the word.
PROMISES, PROMISES: So Far, No New Ones From Obama
WASHINGTON (AP) — Read Barack Obama’s lips: no new promises.
Not now, at least.
It’s a long way from May to November, but so far the president’s campaign speeches have been strikingly free of new pledges.
The president’s early pitch to voters is heavy on promises kept and promises still in the works. (Never mind about those pesky promises broken.)
A typical Obama campaign speech includes a “change is…” refrain that showcases the greatest hits of his first term:
—Change is rescuing the auto industry.
—Change is health care reform.
—Change is raising fuel-efficiency standards for cars.
—Change is ending the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays in the military.
—Change is the Lilly Ledbetter law to ensure women get pay equal to men.
And so on.
What does it say that one of Obama’s biggest applause lines is still his reference to the Ledbetter law — signed on his ninth day in office?
“His issue is performance, not promises,” says Darrell West, a government scholar at the Brookings Institution. “His message is that he’s done a lot to help people, and he doesn’t want to over-promise for the second term.”
Obama’s springtime script is a big change from his campaign of four years ago. But it fits the playbook for incumbent presidents seeking re-election.
Job One, particularly in the age of attack ads, is to define your opponent. Obama is largely leaving that chore to campaign surrogates and early advertising for now.
Job Two is to remind voters of your own accomplishments, and how you’ll build on them. This is where Obama is right now.
His campaign’s new “Forward” ad showcases the end of the war in Iraq as “a promise kept by a president who understands America’s promise.”
His Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, has been quick to mock the “forward” theme, saying: “Forward, what, over the cliff?”
Obama needs to counter such GOP arguments that he hasn’t done enough — and what he’s done has hurt more than helped — before he adds any new promises to the mix.
So far, his political focus has been on fundraising, but that’s about to change. On Saturday he holds his first two official re-election rallies, in the battleground states of Ohio and Virginia.
University of Texas political scientist Bruce Buchanan, an expert on the presidency, says Obama is taking victory laps on foreign policy and national security successes such as the end of the Iraq war and the killing of Osama bin Laden because Republicans have been so successful at running down his achievements.
First lady Michelle Obama, in her campaign speeches, has been coupling her husband’s message of promises kept with a plea for patience.
“The reality is that real change is slow,” she said at a recent fundraiser. “And it never happens all at once.”
Obama, too, says that for all the progress he seeks to highlight, much more remains to be done.
Three times, he a the group at a fundraiser late last month that he won’t be satisfied until more has been done — to create jobs, to improve the country’s education system, to bring troops home from Afghanistan.
“So I’m going to work harder than I did in 2008, and if you guys are willing to join me, then we’re going to have four more years to be able to finish what we started,” he said.
It’s a different tone from Obama’s 2008 campaign, with its blizzard of ambitious promises and “yes-we-can” optimism.
Politifact.com compiled a list of more than 500 promises that Obama made during that campaign, and gives this status report: 35 percent kept, 11 percent compromised, 13 percent broken, 12 percent stalled and 27 percent in the works.
If re-elected, Obama is sure to have plenty of big carry-over items from his first term to-do list: a still-unfulfilled promise for immigration overhaul, the ongoing drawdown of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and elusive efforts to achieve greater tax fairness among them.
Plus, the health care overhaul that was the signature achievement of Obama’s first term could well be back on the agenda if it fails to survive a challenge pending before the Supreme Court.
Unsurprisingly, Obama makes precious little mention of promises broken, such as his failure to close the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay. Other failures, such as his inability to repeal the Bush tax cuts for higher-income Americans, are brought up to paint Republicans as obstructionists.
“Time after time, the Republicans have gotten together and they’ve said no,” Obama told construction workers last week.
What new promises Obama adds to his list in 2012 will depend on the arc of the campaign.
An incumbent who’s cruising to re-election doesn’t need to sweeten the pot much.
Ronald Reagan’s re-election race against Democrat Walter Mondale, says Buchanan, was easy enough that “there was no need to make promises that might be uncomfortable to keep.” Bill Clinton, in his smooth re-election race against Republican Bob Dole, dangled a string of small-bore proposals such as school uniforms and extended school days.
As for Obama, says Buchanan, “They have stuff to wheel out. They’ll do so if they need to.”
___
Follow Nancy Benac on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/nbenac
Obama’s Broken Pot Promises Are Best
Among the many broken promises of the 2008 campaign rests the widening destruction that was a key campaign promise for the eventual winner. Then-Sen. Obama promised in his campaign and eventually issued policy memorandums promising not to interfere with state-sanctioned medical marijuana.
I sincerely hope those of you who voted for him based on those promises of hope, change and transparency —- not to mention the end of civil rights violations —- have recognized the only trait the man carries that discriminates him from his predecessors is his skin color.
Congratulations, America; we finally have true equality when a black president can be just as horrible as his white predecessor. Truly, equality has arrived. For those of you still zealously supporting Comrade Zero, you haven’t done enough reading.
In the history of the U.S., few presidents have violated the Bill of Rights and Constitution as frequently as this alleged former-Constitutional Law professor. I’m not a cheerleader for Colorado State’s Political Science Department, but I learned from two professors more knowledgeable of the Constitution than he’s demonstrated. Then again, it’s likely he doesn’t care about the Constitution, which seems certain.
Regardless of his hate for checks and balances, Congressional authority and a litany of other areas in which he has unabashedly disappointed his voters, the hypocrisy is what aggravates me. Not his —- he’s an Illinois politician educated in the Ivy League, hypocrisy is his first language, but the hypocrisy of his supporters.
I continue to point to the continued failure that is the drug war as proof the American voter has less influence on federal legislation than corporate entities. In the year since I wrote about the contradictions of the federal alcohol and prescription painkiller laws compared to marijuana, the federal government not only reinvigorated their idiotic campaign against cannabis, but they’ve done so as a direct violation of executive policy. Want to guess why?
The president is running for reelection from slightly-right-of-center. He’s continued the interventionist foreign policy of the 20th century, he attempted to extend the occupation of Iraq, he’s going to support whatever version of SOPA Congress gives him as the American people slumber on and never mind the assassinations of American citizens.
Meanwhile, Ron Paul creeps along like the Constitutional Septuagenarian Ninja Turtle, not for three years, but for three decades of consistently calling for an end to the drug war, illustrating the folly of interventionist foreign policy and, with an eerily accurate understanding of economics you usually won’t hear from him.
But this year is different —- 2008 proved the “new media” of the Internet cannot be controlled by the “old media” of newspapers, TV and radio but the old media mirrored the new.
In 2012, young voters are realizing there is only one man in either party they can trust to keep his word to end draconian federal acts, and they are doing so almost entirely utilizing new media, as the old media has inexplicably failed to accurately cover the popularity of Paul’s campaign.
Admittedly, there are complicated reasons —- most of which revolve around the failure of primaries to identify the candidates most appealing to undecided, unregistered, third party and Independent voters.
In that specific area, Paul beats everyone. Add registered Democrats to the mix and he’s the only Republican candidate to consistently beat the president in non-partisan polls. But that runs counter to what the GOP actually wants.
Primaries are decided by the politically active members of each party, then the general election starts and both candidates race to the center. This establishes a pattern of candidates changing positions like frightened rabbits, while providing as much leadership as the trailing end of a lemming migration.
But not my man Ron Paul —- this weekend his and a recently withdrawn candidate’s delegates took the majority of Colorado’s delegates to the national convention. This isn’t over, and consistency of message may very well upset the apple cart of empty rhetoric.
Source: Rocky Mountain Collegian, The (Colorado State U, CO Edu)
Copyright: 2012 Rocky Mountain Collegian
Contact: http://www.collegian.com/home/lettertotheeditor/
Website: http://www.collegian.com/
Author: Seth Stern
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