Radley Balko, Reason:
It’s telling that the loudest voices opposing pot legalization are coming from the mainstream media, politicians, and law enforcement. The three have a lot in common. Indeed, the Prop. 19 split illustrates how conservative critics of the mainstream media have it all wrong. The media—or at least the editorial boards at the country’s major newspapers—don’t suffer from liberal bias; they suffer from statism. While conservatives emphasize order and property, liberals emphasize equality, and libertarians emphasize individual rights, newspaper editorial boards are biased toward power and authority, automatically turning to politicians for solutions to every perceived problem.
[…]
[…] If there’s a guiding principle you can reliably extract from the average newspaper editorial, it’s that people can’t be trusted to act in their own best interest. They need experts, politicians, and regulators to craft laws that steer them from peril and help them fulfill their potential—even if that means locking them up them until they learn.
[my emphasis]
While I take Balko’s point — and he’s largely correct here about who the press is — I think he misstates conservative criticism as a matter of semantics. To wit, while it’s true that classical liberal and conservative critics of the mainstream press do speak of its “liberal bias”, these critics don’t mistake the progressivism that has come to call itself “liberal” with true liberalism in the classical sense. That is, critics recognize that the media bias is essentially leftist — and the narrative crafted by progressive activists churned out by j-schools — and that the hoary leftism entrenched in the mainstream press is essentially statism / collectivism disguised with the liberal label.
From where I stand, statism — whether it is being pushed by progressives or putative conservatives — need always be battled. Classical liberalism demands it, in fact. And that battle for individual autonomy should be waged right down to the kernel assumptions of how language works, which — when adopted in error — structurally inform and literally reinforce collectivist ideas and impulses.
Some on the right disagree.
Which, hey, that’s cool. I guess I’m just not a team player that way.
(thanks to Carin)
“newspaper editorial boards are biased toward power and authority, automatically turning to politicians for solutions to every perceived problem.”
Unfortunately this is a spot on decription of my local rag…
“decription”? That almost sounded right… ‘description’.
this is the most motivatey thing what is getting me to the polls today… I feel a duty to vote for a couple other things but this one is the vote what best signifies my feelings about individual liberty and personal freedom
Oh, come on, statism is a good thing when it’s slanted towards something we like. I think we can all agree on that.
Example, please.
Sarcasm. It’s what’s for dinner.
Pick anything you like, Monster. I’m going with Fallout 3. I think everyone should be required to play Fallout 3 at least five hours per week, and I think the coercive power of the State should be employed to enforce this behavior.
See? It’s indisputably a good thing!
I need the state to buy me a playstation 3 first.
It’s always hard to chose the right word to describe a philosophy when philosophies and movements are always changing and reinventing themselves. But in this case, with “liberals” I was referring to the culture war liberals. That is, the hippies who were generally pretty tolerant of other lifestyles, suspicious of authority, and anti-establishment. That ideology is still around with the ACLU and with publications like The Nation and Harper’s. But ed boards in the legacy media are really more about the cult of expertise. They tend to be pretty pro-law enforcement and are anything but anti-establishment. Hell, they are the establishment now. They tend to defer to authority, whether its public health experts, cops, regulators, or politicians. As a libertarian, I think they’re really the worst of both worlds.
I think the most consequentialest ballot measure in California is this one where they’ll switch it to where you just need a majority to pass a budget as opposed to 2/3. But it would keep it to where it would take a 2/3 vote to raise taxes.
That might could be a for reals game-changer in this state.
But in this case, with “liberals” I was referring to the culture war liberals. That is, the hippies who were generally pretty tolerant of other lifestyles, suspicious of authority, and anti-establishment.
Are there many of those left?
Thanks for the follow-up, Radley.
Seems to me that were there any consistency in labeling, those old-school hippies would today be calling themselves libertarian or classical liberals — all while be labeled “extremists” by the press — and not reading The Nation, except maybe for yucks.
I am not sure if legalizing dope is a good idea or not (I can see the pros and cons), but I am curious to see it in action. As a federalist experiment. And I like the idea of keeping government out of anything and dope seems like a good test case.
And I am not thrilled that those promoting it are doing so as a way of raising taxes. But I do not particularly like liquor taxes either.
I doubt it will pass, Joe. Too many questions over the language will keep some who might otherwise grudgingly vote for it from doing so.
And that’s not necessarily a bad thing: if voters believe the language is too vague or too broad and will lead to unintended consequences, they have every right to treat such potential change with caution.
Unlike many lawmakers on the federal level, seems that many people in California believe in reading the legislation first before passing it.
This would be easier to support if it simply voted yay or nay on legalizing the doobage.
yes I agree the referendum process is flawed… mostly I just vote for the spirit of the thing
Eh, I think it’s an amalgam of the two points. Modern liberals are equalists, but only if government forces the equality, not business, which, as we well know, is socialism/communism. Liberals in power do not view business as intrinsically hostile, as they derive most of their campaign contributions from business and non-profits, so they are not classically liberal, but instead simply egomaniacs. The newspaper elite are statists because of their myopic view of the world. Rarely do journalists/pundits get the big picture, and they regularly report on government, not business. So they tend to think of Government first because that’s the way they work.
Anyone who derives living wages from the state will arguably fall into the realm of statists as well, as none will be eager to vote themselves out of a job. With the increase of entitlements from the 1940s and the transition of education from private to public, more and more people are dependent upon state funds, so there is a greater impetus to grow government and elect people who will keep that faucet running. So, most public educators are leftist by design of the system, and they have become so entrenched in the system that they are statist by choice, refusing to see any alternative as it would require a decrease in pork.
A person’s living certainly contributes to the molding of political ideology. It’s not steadfast (as I am a very conservative college professor), but it’s certainly a trend.
I doubt it will pass
Crap. Now I’ve got to cancel the California vacation I just booked.
6 relaxing days of stoner-tipping up in smoke.
The pot thing having been thoroughly chewed for the nonce —
The Press isn’t liberal. The Press isn’t statist. The Press is lazy.
If everything’s being run out of one office, they only have to send one reporter to cover the action; minimal effort required. Having to cover State Representative races in West Cornfield, Iowa takes a lot of work, and they aren’t prepared to do that much.
You see the same effect at the State Department, which often gets accused of favoring dictators. It’s not that they like to see dictators crushing the opposition; it’s that it’s pretty easy to figure out who’s who in a dictatorship. Democracies with valid opposition are complicated and it takes work to figure out which parties to go to.
Regards,
Ric
I think the press is for reals anti… anti-conservative, anti-party of tea. This is why Christine O’Donnell is the universally agreed-upon poster child of election 2010.
This is why many things really. The dirty socialist media is much more easily understood in terms of its dislikes than its likes I think.
How is a vote to legalize, regulate and commercialize weed an anti-establishment statement and a blow to statism? There will still be all sorts of drug law enforcement and prosecution dealing (heh) with other drugs and even with the maryjane sold to underage or in non-acceptable types, venues, you name it. The world has turned upside down when edgy Libertarians get that outlaw thing they wanted- teh legal weed- only for it to get sold at Kroger’s. Where’s the FU, we’re alt, man?
Also, the wording of this prop is problematic and very well may circumscribe the rights of employers.
If it passes, fine, and hopefully it won’t get overturned in the courts. Disneyland’s gonna stink, but Minnie Mouse might get in the mood.
I disagree, Ric. The press isn’t lazy. On another blog, someone suggested that Obama bought his press adulation. He didn’t buy it. He is the one THEY were waiting for.
Obama is a statist. He and his ilk know better. They need to be in charge so they can nudge us all into making the correct decisions regarding what we eat, what we drive, how we live.
They (the journalists) have tried to convince us for years – what we should be doing. How to live. It wasn’t enough. All their articles on global warming, and too many of us are still not convinced. Etc.
The world has turned upside down when edgy Libertarians get that outlaw thing they wanted- teh legal weed- only for it to get sold at Kroger’s.
Fuck the ones who are only in it to be seen as “edgy.” They’re not serious people.
Larry the law provides for people to cultivate their own… it encourages self-reliance, which, that’s very America I think.
Larry, that was the point I was attempting to make last night with my gardening comment. Freedom would mean I could grow it in my yard. It’s just a plant, after all.
No. this isn’t about freedom.
I bet there was will be limits to the amount of THC allowable in the “legal” marijuana. Then there will be street-grade shit.
There will be home-grown (illegal, non-taxed) stuff.
One can be lazy AND be a statist.
In fact, Ric, I think you’ll find the two go together like Peaches and Herb.
It’s a blow to statism because it’s one more thing the state can’t tell you you can’t do. But yes, I’d much prefer decriminalization so I can buy some of Carin’s grade-A chicken shit shit.
If I wanted to be edgy, I’d add skateboard wheels to a sybian and ride it buck naked (save for my terry cloth leg warmers) through the mall food court. This isn’t about being alt — at least, not to me. It’s about keeping the state out of my vagina.
— Oh, wait —
Provides… encourages?
Hahaha. Who’s high now?
Whatever, but I’m right ;) Where there’s $$$ to be made, the corp and the state will be good capitalists and statists. Fine. It’s just a generational and attitudinal shift to get used to: legal stoners (oxymorons) and all.
BTW, no one mentioned Dopey…
The only reason Statists want to legalize pot is so their UPTIGHT BLUE-NOSERS can ban it.
I’m learning here, had to look up “sybian.” Be easy on your vagina, Jeff, and I’ll be good to my pierced love protrusion.
All this sybian talk is making nishit moan in agony.
Statists are, by definition, lazy – are they not?
Seriously? The ACLU? The ACLU has become the primary means for forcing the majority religion out of the public eye; they’re all about state force when it warms the cockles of their hearts.
Occasionally they give a classical liberal twitch, but those are the last impulses of a dying creature, not its core mission.
T’aint no Kroger’s in California. Ralph’s and Fry’s, but nothing with Barney’s name out front.
Statists are, by definition, lazy – are they not?
That’s not fair. Just because they want to be told what to think and who to hate and what to do and where to live and how to get around and where to work and what to eat, and want to get paid for sitting their whole adult lives and voting the “correct” way every couple of years, doesn’t make ’em lazy.
Mr. aphrael, who is from elsewhere, he made a very salient point that this language in the prop what goes a long way towards mitigating quibbles about the language:
not all props have that sort of amendability, so that’s really groovy and it should help people relax and get loose
Carin, I like gardening and think it romantic and classically liberal etc. to grow flowers, weeds and certain cattle-fertilized fungus of one’s choice. It’s just the unintended consequences of a wishful thot that I see- more and legal state intrusion, employer rights limited, even more business flight from the state, gov and agri-corp profiteering, still major DEA enforcement, racial acrimony over which drugs to legalize, a legitimate issue if one is a bona fide classical lib, and the conventional suburbanization of the Stick It to the Man reeking reefer.
Maybe I’m wrong. Just one little voice on the net that doesn’t echo here on this issue.
Ralph’s is owned by Kroger’s Mr. Rob – if you look for them you can find these kooky “Big K” products there and other things what give it away
So what’s the status of nishi’s sybian collection fund?
It becomes clear to me now — Larry sees this proposition as the end of a fight, while others think of it as a starting point. Like Larry says: why bother changing anything if you can’t change everything?
It’s pretty much empty, Mike. After Teh Won was elected, the nishbot figured she didn’t need a pale mechanical imitation, so she blew the fund on designer pharmaceuticals.
“If I wanted to be edgy, I’d add skateboard wheels to a sybian and ride it buck naked (save for my terry cloth leg warmers) through the mall food court. This isn’t about being alt — at least, not to me. It’s about keeping the state out of my vagina.
– Oh, wait –”
Thanks for that, Jeff…. I think I am coming down with something, work is swamping me, and that made me almost shout with laughter.
“Carin’s grade-A chicken shit shit”
Carin, get a trademark on that STAT!
The problem with the sybian is you will be limited by the length of the cord. We need a new infusion of gov’t cash into our green jobs initiative to help us hire some European engineers to develop some super efficient and fast charging batteries that will finally be lightweight enough to power a sybian for the amount of time and distance it takes for an overworked prostate like mine to really get a good workout. I mean it’s about time for it, don’t you think? I personally cringe over the unavoidable greenhouse emissions every time I have to fire up my Hyabusa powered fleshlight.
I blame big pharma… why do you think those wrinkly old bastards have to spend all that time sitting in the bathtub?
Nope, Squid. You didn’t read me right a’tall. A really astute between-the-lines reader would’ve realized I’m allergic to smoke and think pot particularly stinky. If I lived in CA, I’d be loath to go in public and private establishments where smoking is allowed were this prop passed.
Seriously, were it worded to iron-claddy protect employers’ rights wrt to employee inebriated/ high conduct, then it’d resonate better with me. (Even better were it also to legalize it in food form only, certainly!!)
it says in the law Mr. larry that you can’t consume it in public
“Personal consumption” shall not include, and nothing in this Act shall permit cannabis:
…consumption in public or in a public place…
but there will be some places what have licenses to where you can smoke it there… I don’t expect Disney will have a license…
mostly I just vote for the spirit of the thing
That’s very Musashi of you.
Staff Writer Tom Benning reports:
Maybe this explains the Rangers’ shoddy play in the field during Game 1: A haze of marijuana coming from the stands.
The New York Post quotes Josh Hamilton as saying he could smell weed last night while playing center field at AT&T Park.
“It was crazy,” he told the tabloid. “I was looking at the cops a couple of times during the game.”
Hamilton didn’t attribute any of the Rangers’ four errors to the pot fumes — but Vlad Guerrero’s bumbling, two-error performance in right field does makes one wonder.
Hamilton, whose history of drug and alcohol abuse is well-chronicled, said last night wasn’t the first time he saw pot going up in smoke in San Francisco.
On Tuesday, he said, “My wife and I were walking down the street and there was a guy smoking a joint with a cop 50 yards away.”
————
Haze will happen, fine, gray or purple. It’s going to be interesting watching CA light up more openly. I just don’t care to breathe it, my classically liberal choice, ‘kay?
A really astute between-the-lines reader would’ve realized I’m allergic to smoke and think pot particularly stinky.
I’m afraid I don’t know you well enough to make that kind of commitment to your vague writings. Stick around a while, and I’ll surely come around.
here is the most America prop I’ve heard of this year
that would be a surpassingly awesome and beautiful thing
Squid, thanks, no, for your stick-around send-off. It was special, tho’
You two want to blow a few bong hits with me?
Well all of a sudden, I realized prop 19 is fatally flawed: the language confers protected class status on smokers of marijuana. That is too wrong. There is no way that an employer or landlord shouldn’t be able to discriminate against smoking of anything, including marijuana. Prop 19 excepts discrimination by employers who discipline employees if they can show the marijuana use “really” affects job performance. That shifts the burden from the cat-will employment relationship…an employer must now positively prove the habit affects job performance, otherwise he is illegally discriminating against this new protected class. Smoking marijuana is not like being married, or being the “wrong” race, or the wrong religion. It shouldn’t be granted any special new protections from discrimination.
You’re welcome to pull up a bean bag chair too, Sarah.
Let’s blaze!
the act is amendable by legislation though Sarah and I think that’s probably something what could be addressed legislatively.
plus there is also this…
This Act is not intended to affect the application or enforcement of the following state laws… nor any law prohibiting use of controlled substances in the workplace or by specific persons whose jobs involve public safety.
I’d love to join you, Jeff, but I have it on good authority that I’d only be helping the State to enslave us all.
You have fun, though. Just keep an eye on the Armored One.
I can actually see a good reason for California to legalize pot as far as they possibly can:
Picture it, two years later: “Dude, I hear there’s, like, an election today and shit.”
“Laaaaame. Hey Governor, fire up another torpedo.”
…with the result that California’s 50-something electoral votes all go to Sarah Palin.
Now you’re just trying to stir up trouble McGehee.
Tea-hee.
Sorry to be OT but I just took a break for lunch and wanted to leave a comment.
Talked to a state level guy and he’s frantic to get people out and lend a hand in leans Dem districts. We’re getting it done so we need to get greedy here and pick up everything on the board. That’s probably the case all across the country.
Go to RCP and see if there isn’t a district near you where you can lend a hand after work. Just get one extra vote. Let’s earn some happy surprises.
Okay, later.
Sarah Palin is a much-beloved media personality like the Glenn Beck and the Mighty Mouse.
After what Mighty Mouse did to Clarabelle? Honest to god I’ll never watch him again… blacklisting sunuvabitch.
but there will be some places what have licenses to where you can smoke it there… I don’t expect Disney will have a license…
Reminds me of a poem by one of my favorite artists:
“They got dope-sniffin’ dogs at Dollywood…
my vacation plans are ruined!”
-Deacon Lunchbox, RIP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhqaBgGiqrc
Dolly Parton is the best person in America
That argument was a fail for the Federalists during ratification of the Constitution as well as for every other legislation I can think of.
I think Oil-Can Harry isn’t bad so much as misunderstood. I mean, what kind of parents name their kid “Oil-Can”?
well maybe that’s true Mr. RTO and given your historical knowledges I suspect it probably is true…
And I am not thrilled about these “protected classes” at all at all. But this law isn’t meant to actually do anything but precipitate a fight with the failshit government of America about individual liberties and the powers reserved to the states blah blah blah… but if a protected class of potheads is created in California that doesn’t really change the price of my peabnut bubber I don’t think. I suspect though that people what care about legalizing marijuana will want to fix that for so legalizing marijuana is made palatable to other states.
Text:
Proposition 19, or The Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010 will “legalize various marijuana-related activities, allow local governments to regulate these activities, permit local governments to impose and collect marijuana-related fees and taxes, and authorize various criminal and civil penalties…
“MAY NOT PERSONALLY POSSESS, PROCESS, SHARE OR TRANSPORT MORE THAN ONE OUNCE…
“Purposes:
“8.Ensure that if a city decides it does want to tax and regulate the buying and selling of cannabis (to and from adults only), that a strictly controlled legal system is implemented to oversee and regulate cultivation, distribution, and sales, and that the city will have control over how and how much cannabis can be bought and sold, except as permitted under Health and Safety Sections 11362.5 and 11362.7 through 11362.9.
“9.Tax and regulate cannabis to generate billions of dollars for our state and local governments to fund what matters most: jobs, healthcare, schools and libraries, parks, roads, transportation, and more…
“Section 11302: Imposition and Collection of Taxes and Fees
“(a) Any ordinance, regulation or other act adopted pursuant to section 11301 may include imposition of appropriate general, special or excise, transfer or transaction taxes, benefit assessments, or fees, on any activity authorized pursuant to such enactment, in order to permit the local government to raise revenue, or to recoup any direct or indirect costs associated with the authorized activity, or the permitting or licensing scheme, including without limitation: administration; applications and issuance of licenses or permits; inspection of licensed premises and other enforcement of ordinances adopted under section 11301, including enforcement against unauthorized activities.
“(b) Any licensed premises shall be responsible for paying all federal, state and local taxes, fees, fines, penalties or other financial responsibility imposed on all or similarly situated businesses, facilities or premises, including without limitation income taxes, business taxes, license fees, and property taxes, without regard to or identification of the business or items or services sold.”
————-
I must’ve missed the text covering employer rights. Perhaps some of the more literate or lawyerly commenters here can find it.
“Provided however, that the existing right of an employer to address consumption that actually impairs job performance by an employee shall not be affected.”
There’s this,
“Provided however, that the existing right of an employer to address consumption that actually impairs job performance by an employee shall not be affected”
as others have noted before, but it’s murky, and preceded by
“Provided however, that the existing right of an employer to address consumption that actually impairs job performance by an employee shall not be affected.”
Impairs- to a dangerous degree or is silly enough?
.
[No perview and a teensy tiny comment box is downright wicked– please strike the first graf]
English, please?
I am not literate or lawyerly Mr. Wiki… but what I think is key about the law is that it’s amendable… “to further the purposes of the Act.”
Three of those purposes are stated as follows…
# Reform California’s cannabis laws in a way that will benefit our state.
# Regulate cannabis like we do alcohol: Allow adults to possess and consumes all amounts of cannabis.
# Permit California to fulfill the state’s obligations under the United States Constitution to enact laws concerning health, morals, public welfare and safety within the State.
I think among those purposes you can easily find a rationale for amending the act to get rid of this pesky protected class business. But there’s no logical reason that employers’ rights to fire potheads should be more valued as a social good than the freedom of a potsmoker person to potsmoke at home on his own time.
Especially when right now that potsmoker person can be literally deprived of his freedom and put into a room where the door doesn’t open from his side and they make you eat bologna sandwiches… even with the laws flaws the employer has vastly way more protections than potsmoker bob has now.
All this bud talk makes me wonder – are we going to see any “small placental mammals, known for having a leathery armor shell” tonight? And no, I don’t mean Charlie Crist.
*law’s* flaws I mean
Damn it. Make that preceded by
“shall not be construed to affect, limit or amend any statute that forbids impairment while engaging in dangerous activities such as driving”
Wiki’s unreliable, if I say so myself
slartibartfast, i have somehow never managed to make fun of people’s posting problems here. Where does one acquire the inclination? if only you had made me laugh—
am wondering whether someone here who has read the substantive excerpted text has formulated a non- reflexively analytical reply to the Prop as written wrt statism and growth of cash and power hungry government?
HappyFeet, you’re getting very close to “we’ll have to pass the law in order to see what’s in it” ground in your defense of Prop 19.
Happyfeet – trusting the CA legislature to make something right is like putting a platter of Ho Ho’s in front of Michael Moore and Oliver Willis, and trusting them to not eat them.
Mind if I steal that, JD?
Well, she’ll always have the ice dong.
Feel free, Spiny.
I agree Mr. JD it’s all kinds of a mess really I think but I mostly just want to precipitate the court battle to where we see where we are with this stuff
#63
Uh Clarabell was Howdy Doody’s sidekick.
alls I know is people sure do love that feisty little mouse
HappyFeet, come on.
The courts are not supposed to rewrite poorly written legislation.
Is that is the case, why bother with voting at all. Just let the Judges tell you what they want.
Well, a judicial dictatorship is pretty much what we have now, especially at the federal level as they freely dispose of any legislation with which they disagree.
Litigation not legislation.
Mr. Blake it’s not like I give a shit if some potsmoker law in California goes tragically awry.
I have this one little vote – a crude little implement with which to signal my intent – which is that I think government needs to fuck off and leave potsmoker bob alone, so what’s a little pikachu to do?
I think he votes yes on 19.
but Mr. JD I never said that it needs to go to the courts (I may have said that yesterday) … it says right in the bill that it’s cool if the legislature fiddles with it – and that’s what I expect will happen – or at least should have a shot at happening – as opposed to maintaining an unjust status quo where potsmoker bob eats the bologna sandwich in a dank room with a door what doesn’t have a handle on bob’s side and he misses all of season one of Raising Hope
Harrah’s voter intimidation-forcing their employees to vote for Dem Harry Reid- makes me wonder if Legalizing Vice is how the Crony Capital-Liberal Fascists afford their 14.Trillion in Crack for the unwashed masses?
I wonder, especially after read this comment posted by Hancock @Redstate:
“This is all about legalizing Internet Gambling in the Lame Duck Session
Hancock Tuesday, November 2nd at 4:16PM EDT (link)
Jan Jones is the senior Harrah’s VP in charge of their Internet Gambling legalization effort in Washington. Harrah’s has been pushing all year long to legalize Internet gambling nationwide, bringing a casino (legally) into every family’s living room and den. They own the extremely lucrative World Series of Poker license as well as have the best player rewards club with locations in over a dozen states. No American casino is better positioned to take advantage of legalized Internet gambling than Harrahs.
Additionally, Harrah’s is planning an IPO early next year for Harrah’s Interactive, and legalizing Internet gambling would tremendously boost the stock value and make megabucks for the company. Plus, what better job for Harry Reid to go into after involuntary retirement than to be the head federal lobbyist for Harrah’s to lobby the writing of regualtions by the feds on the bill he sneaks through in a few weeks. A couple of million for that, plus a piece of the IPO, and voila, Harry is even more set for his ‘golden’ years.
Here is how it is going to come down. In the first 6 months of this year, Harrah’s and illegal overseas Internet gambling sites spent $10 million pushing HR 2267, the Barney Frank bill to legalize Internet gambling. They got the bill out of the committee, but pressure from the Blue Dogs and others kept it from being called to the floor.
Now that they are blocked in the House, their strategy rests with Reid. Word is that Reid staff and Harrah’s worked together to write a bill during the August congressional recess, and decided to keep it under wraps while Frank’s bill took the fire. They plan on introducing it in the lame duck session.
(With respect to my libertarian friends who think Internet gambling should be legal, I appreciate your opinion but I can guarantee you that the way the legislation will be crafted will result in further job losses in the US and reward illegal overseas sites who have breaking US laws for years by giving them a get out of jail free card. It would be like the feds issuing Al Capone the first liquor license at the end of Prohibition because he has the best distribution network)
The Joint Tax Committee says that legalized Internet gambling could raise $42 billion over the next ten years. So the Reid/Harrah’s/overseas plan is to stick a rider at the very last minute into a tax or spending bill during the lame duck session as a way to ‘pay for’ some additional Democrat spending to pay off their election allies. With Reid in the catbird’s seat for the final weeks of the Congress, they figure there is no way it can be stopped, and Harrah’s and the illegal overseas sites who have been pushing legalization for years will make billions and Harry gets a cushy sendoff from his corporate friends.
This is why you are seeing managment at Harrah’s literally doing everything they can to re-elect Reid, even getting in bed with the strange bedfellows of their employee unions. It’s all about the money to be made on the Internet, and having a puppet in DC to pull the trigger on their plan during the lame duck.
I wonder if the union bosses and Harrah’s people told the working stiffs they are hounding to go vote for Reid today that the reason they are pushing for their man Harry so hard is to get some legislation that may well cost some of them their jobs. It takes thousands to run a vibrant casino, but only about half a dozen to set up an Internet gambling website in a offshore tax haven . . . .”
By the by; isn’t George Soros in a Joint venture with California’s Legalize Pot, Inc?
all I know is Soros gave a million dollars to help the legalizings
“potsmoker bob”
Shhhhhhh happyfeet,
Remember, my wife is a prosecutor! I’d hate for her to have to send me to the crossbar hotel. Especially since Catholics don’t believe in divorce; so she’d be married to a jailbird!
Very embarrassing.
Rush Limbaugh refers to the dinosaur media as the “State Press”. It has become so apparent I think even the dread Independents are finally on to them.
Opiate of the masses: vagueness and misdirection disguised as pleasure.
READ THE FINE PRINT, ALWAYS
Mmm, yeah! Bake the peaches into a tasty pie and serve ala mode, that would go well with Herb.
As for the sybian, if you can grind a rail you might be edgy, otherwise we’d have a hard time picking you out from the other kids down at Flatiron Crossing. On the other hand, dress the ‘dillo up in a sybian suit and troll him through the mall. That would be edgy.
mum’s the word I meant potsmoker joe
Larry on 11/2 @ 1:17 pm
Haze will happen, fine, gray or purple. It’s going to be interesting watching CA light up more openly. I just don’t care to breathe it, my classically liberal choice, ‘kay?
I’ve seen this in multiple sports columns recently (all for games in California). Peter King said he actually smelled it twice– in one night!
I guess “Sportolist” is against Prop 19…
Looks like CA’s trending to Boxer. No matter how shitty and statist Prop 19 is written, the peoples will need to stay stoned.
Ooooohhhhhh….here in NH, the Dem. governor, John Lynch, is neck and neck with the Rep. challenger John Stephen (49% each, Stephen trailing by just a couple hundred, far from final results). Folks, this would be a huge Dem. upset, as Lynch is a VERY popular governor here. Looks like the rest of the races are going solidly Rep. in NH as well.
….ok, so Fox is calling it for Lynch. Maybe they’re right but seems a little soon to call it done with way less than 10% counted and only a 2% lead.
And I totally posted that in the wrong thread.
All of the anti=-overnment hippies left the cities in the 70s to grow pot in Northern CA. The ones who are left have been assimilated into the leftoid borg.
You can see its transition reflected in how rock musicians used to be all about finger-in-the-air to the man, rugged individualist hard partying. Now they suck up to the PC crowd to get invited to partys. Unless they are rappers, then they can call women bitches and “keep it reasl” because of the criminal as revolutionary chic that still holds sway over arty-farty idiots.
#26: Jeff, that’s essentially what I was going to say to Ric. I’ve worked in the media and seen it from the inside. They are, in fact, lazy and intellectually incurious. There’s a chain of industry conventional wisdom that usually starts with the NYT or the AP. As long as the “story” confirms their worldview, they’ll just go with that. I can attest, and I’m sure others can, to the fact that every single time I’ve ever read an article or seen a TV package about a subject that I have personal knowledge of, they’ve gotten something important, or even the whole thing, wrong. It’s that toxic brew of leftist bias and laziness that makes them so dangerous.
And when I say “laziness,” I also mean “incompetent.”