continuing the criminal Roman Catholic Church's criminal mercantilism against MJ popularized by Vatican suck up Wiliiam Randolf Hearst
http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/06/30/california-rallying-cry-vote-green-not-brown/
California Rallying Cry?: Vote Green, Not Brown
In an apparent attempt to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, California gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown yesterday expressed his opposition to the Tax Cannabis 2010 campaign to make marijuana legal in the state.
Mr. Brown, who is was in Monterrey for a conference, said legalizing the drug would open the flood gates for the ruthless and deadly Mexican drug cartels.
“Every year we get more and more marijuana and every year we find more guys with AK-47’s coming out of Mexico going into forests and growing more and more dangerous and losing control,” Mr. Brown said.
For the purpose of this short post, I will not address in full here the idiocy of decrying the involvement of drug cartels in the marijuana trade while opposing a regulated system of distribution. Suffice it to say that burying your head in your ass the sand and hoping the drug war will eliminate drug cartels from the planet hasn’t been the most effective tactic over the past few decades.
But this post is about politics, not policy. The problem for Brown is that he is potentially turning off hundreds of thousands of voters who will be showing up in November simply to vote to make marijuana legal. Many of these “green” voters don’t give a real hoot who the next governor of the state is, as long as they can purchase their recreational drug of choice safely, conveniently and legally.
That said, single-issue marijuana voters tend to lean toward the Democratic side of the spectrum, so their votes would likely benefit Brown overall. The only thing that could reverse that likelihood is Brown dissing Proposition 19, as the initiative is now known. (Brown supporters should hope that the campaign is carefully studying polling data to determine his standing among individuals who will be turning out to vote because of the Tax Cannabis initiative.)
Here is my political advice to Mr. Brown. From now on, if he is asked about Proposition 19, he should say, “I have some concerns about the initiative, which I hope could be addressed by the state legislature if it passes, but if I am elected to be the next governor of the state I certainly plan to respect the will of the people.”
If he chooses to ignore this advice, he may be hearing or seeing – or simply feeling the effects of — the following slogan in the fall: “Vote green, not Brown.”
Steve is the director of state campaigns for the Marijuana Policy Project, co-founder of Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER), and co-author of "Marijuana is Safer: So why are we driving people to drink?" (Chelsea Green, August 2009).
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About Jerry Brown:
http://www.jerrybrown.org/about
Edmund G. Brown, Jr., known as Jerry, was born in San Francisco on April 7, 1938. He attended both public and parochial schools, graduating from St. Ignatius High School in 1955. He completed his freshman year at the University of Santa Clara before entering Sacred Heart Novitiate, a Jesuit seminary in August 1956. Two years later, he took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. In 1960, he left the Society of Jesus and enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley. He received his B.A. degree in Classics the next year and then entered Yale Law School, where he graduated in 1964.
Following law school, Brown worked as a law clerk to California Supreme Court Justice Mathew Tobriner, traveled and studied in Mexico and Latin America and then took up residence in Los Angeles, working for the prestigious law firm, Tuttle & Taylor. In 1969, Brown was elected to the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees, placing first in a field of 124. In 1970, he was elected California Secretary of State. During his term, he forced legislators to comply with campaign disclosure laws, exposed President Nixon’s use of falsely notarized documents to improperly earn a large tax deduction and drafted and helped pass the California Fair Political Practices Act. Brown personally argued before the state Supreme Court and won against Gulf, Mobile and Standard Oil for election law violations (Brown vs. Superior Court).
Brown was elected Governor in 1974 and reelected in 1978, by over one million votes.
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Some comments from the above linked article, reflecting that Jerry Brown serves the whims of the existing political pyramid:
• mikesoul: If anyone thinks that Jerry Brown will offer a progressive alternative to the Republicans, they should read the article that the SF Chronicle published on March 4, 2010, after interviewing him. Brown made it clear he was running as a centrist who will not challenge the status quo on anything, and certainly not the state budget--he even supports continuing the two thirds requirement for budgets to pass. What you can expect from Brown is not bold progressive leadership and real substantive change, but rather more of the same.
• matthewsbeachmikek: I am still amazed at the politicians who don't get it, especially those like Brown who has to know dozens of people who smoke or smoked pot: the war over the legalization of cannabis is over. A politician who gets out in front of this issue will gain more votes than he or she loses. The facts are just too persuasive, ultimately. And politicians nowadays worth their salt should be able to present the issue to voters on multiple fronts.
Such is what I term the dynamics of a political system dominated by a pyramid hierarchy, one that relies upon having two controlled-contrived sides to a political debate, and keeping the people fearful of breaking out of such, as the following statement reflects.
• grolaw: Single issue voters are anathema to democracy. Meg Whitman has committed $150 Meg of her own money to gain the Governor's Office in CA. Think about the implications of that, massive investment, on the part of the former eBay executive and billionaire. No good businessperson makes an investment without expecting a profitable return on that investment. What does Meg Whitman want and how does she expect to realize the return on her investment? Pot politics pales in the light of a Whitman holding office in Sacramento.
How can ‘pot politics’ so pale when they at are the stage where California could become the first US State to break MJ from the criminal mercantilist drug war, and the supposedly ‘progressive’ Democrat, Jesuit Jerry Brown is already leading over Whitman, and would be likelier to pick up votes by favoring rather then opposing MJ legalization?
• winchelenator: According to the latest poll, Brown leads Whitman 45% to 39%, so I don't know why he feels the need to come out against weed at this point. Wasn't he talking pro-legalize some years back? If so, why the flip flop?
• woodyc: He’s always been that way, (flip flops); I guess he is just a politician
• moldy: Jeeze, those comments condemning prop 19 are surprising to say the least. It used to be political suicide to support marijuana but now people know its safe and non toxic. Using the old scare tactics don't work anymore. We've heard it ALL before. But I don’t get it. There is a majority of voters that support prop 19 and like 36% against it. We all know that prohibition is a failure and a fucking colossal one at that. Why would he shoot himself in the foot? Is this moral high ground a short cut to the Gov’s mansion? Or maybe the Prison Guard Union got a hold of him with some $$$$$? A failed initiative is exactly what Brown and his Union is betting on otherwise they may have to shut down some very profitable prisons.
Indeed, this reflects the reality of a grossly corrupt hierarchy that continually profits from the drug war criminal mercantilism, from such entities as the ‘Fraternal Order of Police’ founded in May, 1915, to such interests directly protected, including big pharm and the cigarette industry.
Jerry Brown's Religious Roots
http://spirituallysmart.blogspot.com/2008/11/jerry-brown-jesuit-agent-from-hell.html
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