tvashtarkatena

Right on cue: FOX is already cranking up its 'voter fraud' narrative in OH. Between his proposed FEMA gutting and his post auto bailout lies, Mitt may have fucked himself in the ass for the last time.

"Paging Dr. H. Doctor H, to the joke explanation ward, stat."

Back to our friend at Sensible WA: Sarich's misinformation has been focused on three main areas: 1) Minors will be arrested more often under I 502. Why would this be? I 502 has a 21 age limit, like alcohol. Pot would remain illegal for minors. Same as it is now. Sarich has talked of minors getting felony charges - a fabrication. Ironically, pot is much easier to get for minors today precisely because it is not truly regulated, as is alcohol and tobacco. I 502 would eventually make pot as difficult to get as those two other regulated substances. 2) Medical marijuana users (all users, really) will be arrested for exceeding the 5ng/ml whole blood THC limit, because THC stays in your system so long. Also bullshit, for several reasons. a) The blood test is for active THC only (the kind that gets you high). Active THC does not stay in your blood long. After smoking a 'standard' medicinal joint (which is a lot of THC!), the average person would OK to drive within about 4 hours. Inactive THC - or carboxy-THC (THC-COOH) does stay in your system for up to a month. The blood test, which must be administered by a medical professional (the arresting officer actually never sees the result - a judge does) does not test for this - it doesn't get you high. b) Many studies (see newapproachwa.org) have shown that > 5ng/ml whole blood active THC levels significantly increase the risk of accident. Sarich essentially argues that medicinal marijuana patients should be allowed to drive impaired. We, law enforcement, and most of the citizens of WA respectfully disagree. c) Police must have probable cause (observation of impaired driving or non-street legal vehicle) to pull someone over. I 502 will not change this. Drive a legal vehicle safely and you won't get pulled over. d) Finally, medical marijuana patients do not have arrest immunity currently. If a med patient's grow up is busted, they will be arrested, booked, and appear before a judge before they can present their proof - a doctor's authorization. If their condition is manufactured - chronic back pain, etc - they stand a good chance of being convicted. I 502 actually grants arrest immunity to medical marijuana patients (this is the only direct affect on our current medical marijuana law, which remains otherwise untouched by I 502). A patient will simply be able to show their authorization to the arresting officer and avoid arrest on the spot. 3) I 502's 40 g possession limit. 40 g is a lot of pot. Sarich argues for a limit that exceeds a pound. Given that both the public and feds wish to eliminate illegal pot trafficking and all the violence associated with it (which is disturbingly high - my bro is a defense attorney in Humboldt County), neither endorsers nor voters would go for the right to cart around a bale of weed. Sarich's is supported by 3 small special interest groups - 1) currently unregulated gray market growers who want to keep things the way they are - and maintain the ability to sell uninspected weed (dangerous molds and mildews are common in today's med marijuana) and unregulated edibles - unlike any other food business in WA. 2) Defense attorneys who want to maintain today's current grey area for MJ DUIs, and avoid the bright line 5ng/ml limit - despite the fact that we've had a bright line blood alcohol limit for decades, and 3) Pot smokers who just want to be high all the time, including time behind the wheel of a car. A lot of folks do not take Sarich seriously, and it isn't because they are close minded, its because he has proven his lack of accuracy and integrity over and over again. Sarich cares nothing about the civil liberties issues with MJ - high incarceration rates, 3:1 discrimination against African Americans, huge life cost of a marijuana arrest. If he did, he'd support I 502, despite his objections about the 21 and over age limit and the DUI provision.

the birther narrative is a clumsy attempt to make obama out to be less american than the rest of us. his values are foriegn. Its a standard GOP schtick - soshulists, euro surrendet monkeys, freedom fries - and , sadly, it does work when done right. the birthers are simply on the far end of a spectrum - the Right's standard procedure of grading their opponents by Americaness. FOX - the Right's mainstream media outlet, really pushed this one - emphasizing Obama's 'foreign values', which are just 'not like the rest of us', then quickly following up with ' not that there's anything wrong with that' to maintain that veneer of decency righties love to trot out any time they're called on their bullshit. You know, the party of rape babies, denying poor women basic health care funding, and no sex education in schools calling others misogynist for using the c word and the like. I call it the 'Oh my!' affectation. It's quite familiar by now to anyone on this forum. This isn't 'being partisan'. It's simply recognizing a steaming pile when you smell it.

meh. its called tongue n cheek. u dish it out often enough. kinda weird that u cant pick up on it. Sky's got a PhD n he doesnt seem to have that blind spot.

u provide what you've been told by them and ill respond. theyve been pretty much all over the map. if u need a general education on 502 including the initiative itself, www.newapproachwa.org one anecdote (there are so many) SWs website advised its '100% volunteer' signature gatherers to sign on as 1240 paid singature gatherers and also collect signatures for their initiative (which never came close to making the ballot - they have no credibility and therefor no donation funding), stating that this was sanctionedby the 1240 campaign. Hmmm, I thought, so I called the 1240 campaign coordinator. She was PISSED. by end of day every paid signature gatherer who'd been engaging in this practice had been fired without pay and their sig sheets thrown away. ie, SW lied to their volunteers, and their supporters regarding their much touted 'no paid signature gatherer, all grass roots' movement. small wonder why no one gives them any money.

i can address sensible washingtons critiques and accusations, which have been numerous, point by point. i also have had first hand dealings with their tactics, many of which have been flat out unethical. sensible washington is mainly one guy named steve sarich and a couple of his pals, BTW. they've waged an active misinformation campaign to confuse voters which can be readily debunked.

Fortunately for the northeast, certain forward looking president reconstituted the smoldering remains of a FEMA that a certain dumb-as-a-post president gutted. Compare the disaster response for Sandy and Katrina. LEADERSHIP.

I think I'll walk a few precincts right here at home to try to make sure your dumb ass side loses instead, thanks. Got about 700 infrequent voters to bug the shit out of before Tue.

Everyone 'needs' to do precisely nothing here, but a lack of repetition, a hint of originality, and a spoonful of humor is always appreciated.

Don't get me wrong, I actually like Mitt. I mean, you can just FEEL how REAL he is. He sees our biggest problems and takes 'em head on: global warming, the worst income inequity of any developed nation, wall street corruption, unsustainable agriculture, education, foreclosures, joblessness, the worst health care system of any developed nation, disaster relief, too small a Navy, a social security system that's going to go bankrupt sometime beyond my lifetime, preventing gays from marrying, denying women the right to choose their own future. PRIORITIES.

Ya lay your dick down on a butcher block often enough and it tends to get shorter.

Accelerating far faster than most scientists predicted as more feedback loops reveal themselves. In the news just this week: Permafrost deeper and melting faster than estimated. Total carbon to be released > all the carbon in the atmosphere today. Siberian larches giving way to non-deciduous evergreens = lower albedo in winter across millions of square miles. Ocean temperatures of the P-T mass extinction of 40C - 10 C HIGHER than expected, creating a dead zone over half of the earth's surface - for five million years - where only a handful of species could survive. Increased fresh water into oceans changing major ocean currents much faster than expected. Huge tiaga fires - a new phenomenon. I was up there in N Alberta for some of that fun last year. Pine beetle die offs accelerating faster than expected, turning forests from carbon sinks to emitters. But hey, it's natural...we'll just adapt. At least that's what one political party believes. Neither party can do shit about the problem until the bowl full of idiots who has opted out of the Age of Reason either a) is voted out of power across the board or b) reforms its stupidity. Neither seems imminent. LEADERSHIP.

Did you two break up or something?

My guess is that Christie is smart enough to know who's probably gonna be prez again for the next 4 years, as well as smart enough to know that the GOP is fundamentally fucked by Teabaggers for the foreseeable future. He also realizes his austerity approach only increased unemployment in NJ - this is a great opportunity to make a break from the idiocy. He's using his GOP Darling status (the guy can pretty much do whatever the fuck he wants to without retribution) to forge his own bipartisan path, given how dead end his party's current obstructionist approach is in the face of real problems. Finally, he's probably just plain tired of all the fucking douchebags on his side of the aisle. That, and he may actually realize that Obama really has been and still is a great president for these hard times. There never was any chance that the Big O would be wildly popular. Hard times mean partial, slow progress - particularly when you've got a congress who's whole schtick is to not show up for work, then blame the Prez for the inaction. American the Infantile cries when Baby doesn't get what Baby wants right away, and that would include the extremes of both Right and Left. So, Christie's a fat fuck (obviously), but he's become a much more interesting fat fuck in recent days. All of the above is probably complete and utter bullshit, of course.

Poor Blondi. Voof!

"Holy shit Martha, that's our last can of Kreamed Korn! Call the GOP Relief Hotline!" LEADERSHIP.

Cuz that's what disaster relief organizations need - more canned food! Certainly not money donations, adequate funding, or political support. SOS: Send Onion Soup! Cuz canz are the first thing to get ruint by flooding. Mmmm mmmm GOOD. I feel better just THINKING about sending some expired petfood for poor people I'd never dream of eating myself! COMMUNITY.

Nope! Too fun! When we want the FOX opinion, we'll know where to click, so feel free to STFU in general, SandyKunt!

It's always best to take a wait and see attitude with flooding. Wait till the water recedes, then say "See? What's the big deal?"

John Frieh, ladies and gentlemen. POLYMATH.

Fewer Blogs, more Talk Radio! VET IT.

A helpful reminder from a NWHiker who advocates NO SUBSIDIES OF ANY KIND: "People have been cooperating freely for all of human history. Yes, others have caused problems due to anti social behavior...wars, theft, violence, etc. But work to reduce these, and cooperation flows freely because we're social animals." NO PhD REQUIRED.

Over 2 centuries of Big Government and what have we got to show for it? A few overpriced parks, some rickety bridges, and Solyndra. THANKS A LOT. As the Depression and Katrina proved, WE CAN TAKE CARE OF OURSELVES, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. There's nothing that nature or anybody else can through at us that good ole American Exceptionalism can't handle...without a hand out. Hey New Jersey - take swim lessons! Or just use your governor for a flotation device!

And here everyone's scratching their heads on how to get housing starts going again. HELLO. Let 85 mph winds create the demand for ya! Let's blow the roof right offa this suckah! We should provide tax breaks for the biggest GHG emitters to pump up those sea surface temps. Oh wait, we already do. Well, more tax breaks, then. Wait again just a goll-darn minute, that's in Mitt's plan already! Ya can't make an omelette...