I Had to Quash the Debate in Order to Save It

A few weeks ago, I noted that Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) had introduced an amendment that would prohibit the National Criminal Justice Commission proposed by Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) from considering changes to the drug laws. The amendment (PDF) says "the Commission shall have no authority to make findings related to current Federal, State, and local criminal justice policies and practices or reform recommendations that involve, support, or otherwise discuss the decriminalization of any offense under the Controlled Substances Act or the legalization of any controlled substance." Facing criticism back home for his closed-mindedness, Grassley recently explained in a Des Moines Register op-ed piece that "I filed this amendment in an effort to start a debate on this important issue."

[via Drug WarRant]

Comments

[The Libertarian Guy]

Every single Drug Worrier should be ashamed of what they do. Republican or Democrat, they're all hellspawn of Harry Anslinger, the asshole who basically started the War on (a few) Drugs.

[Agent Provacateur]

I think Francis Burton Harrison deserves more blame than Anslinger. I still give the most credit to Wilson and both Roosevelts,especially Franklin.

[Agent Provacateur]

"credit" as in recognition of responsibility

[Adam]

Ah beat me to Harrison - see below.

[Adam]

Ah beat me to Harrison - see below.

[Adam]

New server squirrels? This hasn't happened to me in years.

[The Libertarian Guy]

I blame Anslinger more, because he's the one who took the Prohibition template and applied it to the drug war.

May not have been his idea, but he damned well played his hellspawn part.

Besides, he and his post-Prohibition goons had to have SOMETHING to do, so they whored themselves out for a new "evil".

[The Libertarian Guy]

Gotta admit, though, that Grassley knows where to steal good ideas - this is how Gore would've done it if he were still in elected office...

[Nancy Pelosi]

Drugs are bad, children.

[Spartacus]

I read his whole op-ed. I hardly know where to begin to respond. The guy is a bigger liar than Barney Frank.

[J sub D]

All who think Chuck Grassley's an idiot, say Aye!

[Paul]

And yet, I keep calling people idiots who are richer, more successful and far more powerful than I.

Who's the richer man, Mr. Grassley? You with your mansions, your model/actress wife, your sycophantic servants, your sports cars... or me, with... what I've got?

It's you, isn't it? Yep, you... richer and happier.

I should have thought about that speech a little more before I started it...

[ChickenSoupForTheNihilistSoul]

Both of you are going to be worm chow at some point during the next century, so it really doesn't matter.

[kinnath]

From Wikipedia:

Grassley married Barbara Ann Speicher in September 1954; the couple have five children: Lee, Wendy, Robin, Michele, and Jay. /i>

Chuckles is one of the dullest men on earth. There are many legitimate reasons to be unhappy with his congressional and senate voting records, but you are completely in error about his personal life.

[Paul]

kinnath, hold your sarcasm-meter button down for five or more seconds, then power up again.

If the problem persists, it may be either a memory problem or a CPU issue.

[Paul]

I Had to Quash the Debate in Order to Save It

Or,

How I Learned to Love Campaign Finance Reform

[The Libertarian Guy]

You're referring, of course, to the McCain-Feingold Incumbent Politican Preservation and First Amendment Evisceration Act.

Thanks a lot, SCOTUS. Y'all dropped the ball on this one.

[Adam]

I'd just like to note that the original op-ed was written by a member of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, and that is an outstanding organization doing kickass work. (Though certainly the libertarian purists will find plenty of fault with them.)

[Adam]

By the way, we're coming up quickly on the 95th anniversary of the Harrison Narcotics Act - December 17th.

[MNG]

Hey, where's SIV when we need him to say that GOP pols are REALLY more friendly to ending the WOD? Oh, he's here, just called Agent Provacateur!

It must be hard to run up against facts:

Dems and liberals in poll after poll, and vote after vote, have better numbers re: legalizing drugs and ending the WOD than GOPers and conservatives.

[peachy]

Christ, everything really is a partisan pissing match with you. Though I guess it does takes balls of steel to boast on a libertarian site about how good the Dems are when it comes to the WoD. (Also, even if your assertion is correct - and I note a glaring lack of documentation for such a very large claim - "better" and "good" aren't quite synonymous.)

[BakedPenguin]

Self described liberals have better views on medical marijuana, and probably other aspects of the WoD than do self described conservatives. I argued that myself with SIV.

However, he is / was entirely right in pointing out that GOP vs. DEM politicians are both utter shit on the issue. Besides that one CA state rep from San Francisco, the jackass party has nothing to be proud of in their collusion on the War on Liberty Drugs.

[robc]

Name one Democratically controlled state that has legalized pot and told the Feds to stay the fuck away or they will use the state guard to hold them at bay?

Until then, neither the Rs or Ds have an advantage on this issue.

[Rich]

Facing criticism back home for his closed-mindedness, Grassley recently explained ... that "I filed this amendment in an effort to start a debate on this important issue."

*Nice* recovery, Senator GRASSley. Looking forward to hearing you debate this.

[Episiarch]

I understand politicians' impulses, when on the spot, to yell "soft on crime!" and "think of the children!", but I cannot understand taking the time to actively attempt to block just reconsidering the WOD's methods. Grassley is a total, unreconstructed asshole, whatever that is. Probably something like Michael Bay.

[Episiarch]

That should read 'I understand politicians' impulses for craven re-election purposes, when on the spot, to yell "soft on crime!" and "think of the children!"'.

[BakedPenguin]

Episiarch - Michael Bay doesn't throw people in prison for not going to his movies. A better director comparison would be Uwe Boll, who wanted to beat the shit out of anyone who criticized the cinematic abortions that have crawled out of his sphincter.

[Episiarch]

O Rly? You do know that Michael Bay employs ex-ATF agents to frame critics of his, right? You're so fucking naive, BP. I once sneaked into Bay's trailer and shaved his head, dude. I was going to also give him a gorilla mask but then I saw the mark of the beast upon him, and ran.

YOU HAVE NO IDEA.

[wylie]

I just don't get all the Bay-Hating.

I mean, what did everyone expect from Transformers? Lengthy Shakespearean Dialogues? It's giant robots fighting, exactly what it should be.

He makes action movies. Don't like it, go read a book. Or go watch Seth MacFarlane's 1.5hours of the same joke over and over again.

I mean, even Robot Chicken disses him ("Bay-splosions, Coming to Theaters Next Week.") They got some serious balls criticizing somebody else for doing low-brow work. Pot, Kettle, glad i could introduce you.

Now, soon as Bay wants to do a remake of Midsummers Night Dream, or maybe To Kill a Mockingbird, then everybody can feel free to let the vitriol fly.

Till then, let's try to keep our elitism in check.

[Episiarch]

O Rly? Action movies aren't some homogeneous genre; there are good action movies and there are terrible action movies. Think John McTiernan; Die Hard, Predator, The Hunt For Red October. Do you really think Bay can even hold a candle to that?

It's not elitism, it's taste. Bay is a hack of very heavy duty proportions.

[wylie]

I have bad taste in action movies then. But be fair, can anything ever again capture the awesomeness that was Die Hard or Predator?

[Episiarch]

Probably not.

[wylie]

So I'm just saying, re-adjust your expectations and try some of his movies again.

Hard to enjoy something when it can NEVER meet your expectations.

[zoltan]

Check out Banlieue 13 -- I couldn't believe it myself that the French could make a good action movie.

[BakedPenguin]

He makes action movies.

So did / do Akira Kurosawa, Guy Ritchie, Jean-Pierre Melville, John Carpenter, Ridley Scott, etc. etc.

The difference is, nearly all their films don't suck.

[BakedPenguin]

Sorry for the crappy metaphor. "abortions he pulled from his sphincter works much better, and it also explains where Grassley gets his ideas.

[Mad Max]

'Now, soon as Bay wants to do a remake of Midsummers Night Dream, or maybe To Kill a Mockingbird, then everybody can feel free to let the vitriol fly.'

Bay already did Richard III.

Who can forget the famous opening:

"Now is the winter of our . . . look out!" *BOOM!* *AAAH!* "The bridge, it's . . ." BOOM! AARGH!

[Mad Max]

"Ill met by moonlight, Proud Titania, whoa, what the . . ." BANG! BOOM!

[Mad Max]

'An explosion, a very palpable explosion!'

[Art-P.O.G.]

Very nice. 😀

[Mad Max]

And, seriously, there's the siege-warfare metaphor in Hamlet, Act III Scene iv, lines 206-208:

For 'tis the sport to have the engineer
Hoist with his own petard: and 't shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines,
And blow them at the moon . . .

[Mad Max]

Wikipedia explains the petard quote: "Hamlet's actual meaning is 'cause the bomb maker to be blown up with his own bomb'"

[Mad Max]

The Explosion Scenes from Paradise Lost, Book VI, by John Milton (describing heavenly warfare between angels and devils):

Now storming fury rose,
And clamour such as heard in Heaven till now
Was never; arms on armour clashing brayed
Horrible discord, and the madding wheels
Of brazen chariots raged; dire was the noise
Of conflict; over head the dismal hiss
Of fiery darts in flaming vollies flew,
And flying vaulted either host with fire.
So under fiery cope together rushed
Both battles main, with ruinous assault
And inextinguishable rage. All Heaven
Resounded; and had Earth been then, all Earth
Had to her center shook. . . .

[Then Satan gets him a big cannon[
Immediate in a flame,
But soon obscured with smoke, all Heaven appeared,
From those deep-throated engines belched, whose roar
Embowelled with outrageous noise the air,
And all her entrails tore, disgorging foul
Their devilish glut, chained thunderbolts and hail
Of iron globes; which, on the victor host
Levelled, with such impetuous fury smote,
That, whom they hit, none on their feet might stand,
Though standing else as rocks, but down they fell
By thousands, Angel on Arch-Angel rolled . . .

[Mad Max]

For verily, it blowed up real good.

[peachy]

The classics of English literature are far more explosion-oriented than I recalled...

(Though I should have guessed that 'hoist with his own petard' was a Shakespearean coinage; and I see that he was making a fart joke in the bargain, which is entirely unsurprising. His sense of humour is perfect for H&R - imagine the lobster girl sonnets that might have been!)

[Dyslexic Star Terk Fan]

Hey, I liked Captain Petard.

[Just me]

How the hell did we go from Grassley and the WAR ON THE PEOPLE TO MOVIES? Focus people!

Stop the people like Grassley . Thats the reason we still have a war on the people of America by the governemnt. Its been giong on for what 72 years? Its because people like this wont allow any debate. I say debate is over! Stop ruing our country with lies!

[Michael Bay]

BANG! BOOM!

[OMG]

Grassley is exhibit A of why, even though the Democrats are liberty hating, statist, Nanny State loving idiots, the Republicans are only a nose behind them in the horse race of asininity

[The Libertarian Guy]

Indeed, OMG. The shortest of curly pubes separates the Dems and Reps in that regard.