Reason Morning Links: America's First Pot Tax, Kids Stop Getting Fatter, Obama Breaks Another Campaign Promise on Transparency

Radley Balko | July 22, 2009

• Obama to make prime-time pitch for his health plan.

• Immigration from Mexico took a sharp dive when the economy turned sour.

• Obama refusing to release names of health care executives who attended secret White House meetings to discuss reform. The L.A. Times helpfully points to Obama's campaign promise to "amend executive orders to ensure that communications about regulatory policymaking between persons outside government and all White House staff are disclosed to the public."

• Childhood obesity rates levelling off.

• Oakland voters approve the country's first tax on medical marijuana.

Comments

Randy Bottoms|7.22.09 @ 9:19AM|#

"• Obama refusing to release names of health care executives who attended secret White House meetings to discuss reform."

Wow! The bitch just pulled a Cheney. FOFI, anybody?

Randy Bottoms|7.22.09 @ 9:19AM|#

FOFI = FOIA

Guess I need to do another line or two...

|7.22.09 @ 9:22AM|#

• Obama refusing to release names of health care executives who attended secret White House meetings to discuss reform. The L.A. Times helpfully points to Obama's campaign promise to "amend executive orders to ensure that communications about regulatory policymaking between persons outside government and all White House staff are disclosed to the public."

All of the team blue members who decried Dick(head) Cheney's "secret" meetings with energy producers must be up in arms about this. I imagine the Huffington Post and Daily Kos are shouting from the rooftops in righteous outrage as I type.

I will give credit for honesty and consistence to any members of "the left" who bitch about this. Extra credit will be given if they also compare it to the Cheney/oil execs meetings.

kilroy|7.22.09 @ 9:22AM|#

talk about "how we rescued the economy from the worst recession"

So the unemployment is going down now right?

Make White House Communications Public: Obama will amend executive orders to ensure that communications about regulatory policymaking between persons outside government and all White House staff are disclosed to the public.

Suckers!

|7.22.09 @ 9:23AM|#

Hi Randy B.
Me likes the way youz thinks.

|7.22.09 @ 9:30AM|#

Oakland voters resoundingly approved a tax increase on medical marijuana Tuesday evening, the first such tax of its kind in the nation.

I have mixed feelings about this to say the least. If reefer sales start making a contribution to public coffers, the desire to reinstate the dumbshit ban on a useful medicinal treatment should wane.

OTOH, I don't like excise taxes in general and expanding the odious concept to prescribed medicine really, really sucks.

Randy Bottoms|7.22.09 @ 9:31AM|#

"talk about "how we rescued the economy from the worst recession""

That's nothing. Last night, I rescued Earth from being pulled into the sun.

You're still here aren't you?

I accept gratuities.

|7.22.09 @ 9:32AM|#

Immigration from Mexico took a sharp dive when the economy turned sour.

You mean they aren't coming here to get welfare payments? They just want a freakin' job? Who'd a thunk it?

Xeones|7.22.09 @ 9:36AM|#

No no no, J sub. The economy has nothing to do with it. LoneWacko's YouTube videos are finally having an effect!

Jack Thread|7.22.09 @ 9:37AM|#

Islamic nonprofit paid for Rep. Ellison's pilgrimage to Mecca:

WASHINGTON - Days after his return from an unannounced pilgrimage to the Islamic holy site of Mecca, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison talked about it as a transformational personal experience, saying "I didn't want to turn it into a politics thing."

Nearly eight months later, the Minneapolis DFLer faces a House Ethics Committee review of his decision to keep the trip's costs under wraps -- even though it was paid for by a local Islamic nonprofit and typically would be reported as a gift to a public official.

Asked about the trip Tuesday, Ellison said that he is "not privy to the internal workings of the organization" that covered his costs, and that he complied with all House Ethics panel disclosure requirements. "Why should I waive a right that's accorded me under the rules?" he said.

rules?" he said.

Tax records show the group that paid Ellison's expenses, the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, received nearly $900,000 in taxpayer money in 2006 and 2007 from a rental arrangement for Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TiZA), an Inver Grove Heights charter school.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/house/51361722.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUac8HEaDiaMDCinchO7DU

|7.22.09 @ 9:37AM|#

Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington

And I thought I lived in a fantasy world.

Seward|7.22.09 @ 9:38AM|#

J sub D,

I am shocked! Shocked that efforts to immigrate are based on supply and demand.

Xeones|7.22.09 @ 9:40AM|#

I am shocked! Shocked that efforts to immigrate are based on supply and demand.

The proper venue to express your shock is in a video, uploaded to YouTube.

|7.22.09 @ 9:44AM|#

Asked about the trip Tuesday, Ellison said that he is "not privy to the internal workings of the organization" that covered his costs,

So he accepts gifts worth thousands of dollars from organizations he knows nothing about.

Is any state sending bigger idiots to Washington than Minnesota?

kilroy|7.22.09 @ 9:44AM|#

The number of Border Patrol agents has ballooned to about 19,000 now from 9,800 in late 2002.

Might also be relevant. I wonder what the ROI is on a Border Patrol agent?

Jack Thread|7.22.09 @ 9:44AM|#

Tyler Heilman was fatally shot by a Le Sueur County sheriff's deputy after resisting arrest. Heilman was unarmed and wearing a swimsuit.

KASOTA, MINN. - An unmarked Dodge Durango tailed best friends Tyler Heilman and Kris Hoehn as they pulled into an apartment complex Monday afternoon after a day of swimming in the Minnesota River, the SUV having shadowed them through the streets of Kasota.

The Durango pulled up behind their car, blocking it in its parking space, and a man in a yellow polo shirt and blue jeans stepped out.

Minutes later, Heilman, 24, was bleeding on the ground, shot twice in the chest by the man who confronted him, Todd Waldron, a 10-year veteran of the Le Sueur County Sheriff's Office.

http://www.startribune.com/local/51320642.html?elr=KArksUUUycaEacyU

Jack Thread|7.22.09 @ 9:45AM|#

"Is any state sending bigger idiots to Washington than Minnesota?"

Nope.

Jack Thread|7.22.09 @ 9:47AM|#

"We didn't know who he was," said Hoehn, 24, adding that the man didn't identify himself as a law officer.

|7.22.09 @ 10:14AM|#

Minutes later, Heilman, 24, was bleeding on the ground, shot twice in the chest by the man who confronted him, Todd Waldron, a 10-year veteran of the Le Sueur County Sheriff's Office.

I smell a promotion!

|7.22.09 @ 10:19AM|#

Do they call it "road rage" when a cop does it?

|7.22.09 @ 10:21AM|#

Did they take the sheriff into custody and do a blood alcohol test?

Randy Bottoms|7.22.09 @ 10:24AM|#

So a LEO in an unmarked car (and not in uniform) fails to identify himself as a LEO and fatally shoots an unarmed man.

I'm with RC on this one. A promotion is the only out.

|7.22.09 @ 10:29AM|#

After a thorough internal investigation it has bee determined that Officer Waldron acted appropriately in accordance with both his training and departmental procedures.

|7.22.09 @ 10:30AM|#

America's First Pot Tax

Bah, they've been taxing marijuana for ages. It just happened to also be illegal at the time. The better to lock people up for tax evasion.

Kentucky Marijuana Tax Stamps

|7.22.09 @ 11:25AM|#

Do they call it "road rage" when a cop does it?

I believe its known as "protect and serve" when a cop does it.

|7.22.09 @ 11:46AM|#

Perhaps Reason could cover this killer cop?

|7.22.09 @ 12:01PM|#

IIRC, the first shot across the bow of pot prohibition was a tax on it. Hopefully, this tax will be the first shot that ends it.

|7.22.09 @ 12:25PM|#

From the Brickbats: A Haverford Township, Pennsylvania, police officer apparently put some fear into seven youngsters selling lemonade. He accused them of peddling without a license and asked the mother of four of them to put a stop to it. It turns out the law requiring a license doesn't apply to anyone under 16, so their business was perfectly legal. Deputy Chief of Police John Viola said the "officer would have no way of knowing this on the street because this officer is retarded."

mark|7.22.09 @ 12:32PM|#

Suckers!

You know, I may be in the minority, but it was little promises like this which helped me pull the lever for Obama. The Democrats have just lost me for, like, ever. Sorry it took so long to figure it out.

T|7.22.09 @ 12:36PM|#

You know, I may be in the minority, but it was little promises like this which helped me pull the lever for Obama. The Democrats have just lost me for, like, ever. Sorry it took so long to figure it out.

Better late than never, I suppose. Welcome to bitter cynics club. Drink up and tip your waitress.

JB|7.22.09 @ 12:37PM|#

Maybe reason should just have a post-script every time they mention Obama's name: 'Obama, the lying cunt, today said...'

|7.22.09 @ 12:55PM|#

You know, I may be in the minority, but it was little promises like this which helped me pull the lever for Obama. The Democrats have just lost me for, like, ever. Sorry it took so long to figure it out.

Don't feel too bad about it. I didn't vote for him, but I considered it long and hard. I too actually believed that he'd follow through with both the transparency and dialing down the War on Drugs Liberty. Other than endining the dispensary raids, he's shown me nothing on either front.

|7.22.09 @ 1:26PM|#

Radley,

Maybe I missed a post on it elsewhere at Hit and Run, but i can't believe that you missed the story that Charles Schumer vonts to zee our papers.

We have nothing to wory about.

Gunboat Diplomacy|7.22.09 @ 1:41PM|#

Senate Democrats outlined plans yesterday to overhaul the nation's immigration laws, including a requirement that all U.S. workers verify their identity through fingerprints or an eye scan.

----------------------------

NO FUCKING WAY.

|7.22.09 @ 2:34PM|#

Fuck Joe...we told him this would happen. Mark, think long and hard about why you were so naive and stupid. Next time a politician feeds you a bunch of lies you should take a look at who his advisors are, what organizations they are in, what type of policies they have been in favor of the last 20 years. This should prevent you from making the same mistakes again. Either that or you are just weak minded and highly susceptible to jedi mind tricks. In which case you should remember that and always do the opposite of what the TV is telling you.

|7.22.09 @ 2:38PM|#

come on a eye scan doens't hurt...If your not trying to hide anything it shouldn't be a big deal gunboat. Are you part of the white al-qaeda I've been hearing about?

White Al Qaeda "it is a big deal" says the CIA

Mike Laursen|7.22.09 @ 3:48PM|#

Don't feel too bad about it. I didn't vote for him, but I considered it long and hard.

I didn't believe a word Obama said, but I voted for him solely because I had just read Welch's book about McCain.

|7.22.09 @ 6:48PM|#

I too actually believed that he'd follow through with both the transparency and dialing down the War on Drugs Liberty. Other than endining the dispensary raids, he's shown me nothing on either front.

War on Drugs, maybe, but was there any reason to really think that he'd be better than McCain on transparency?

There are lots of reasons to dislike McCain (and Matt Welch gave a few), but I'm amazed at the trust people had in Obama. The trust of two-faced rhetoric over voting record. The trust of someone who seems to understand and agree with every audience. It's the same old syllogism:

1) He's smart.
2) He really understands me, and is willing to make an honest effort to.
3) I'm right.
4) Since I'm right, anyone who is smart and really understands my argument will agree with me.
5) Therefore, Obama really agrees with me, or will come to, regardless of what else he says to get elected.

The arrogance of the rational and intelligent voter.

Mike Laursen|7.22.09 @ 8:15PM|#

JT, I think your analysis is overcomplicating things. Most people voted for Obama because they thought he was kinda good-lookin', or their friends and neighbors were all voting for him, or he was from the party that was the opposite of Bush's party.