Quote of the Day: "All great truths began as blasphemies." -- George Bernard Shaw, Annajanska, 1919
Subject: Mexican Civil War could spill over into U.S.
You're not hearing about it yet, but a civil war is raging in Mexico -- between drug lords and the government. The Mexican government deployed 36,000 troops to fight this war in 2006, but the problem is getting worse. Here are the disconcerting results . . .
* There have been more kidnappings in Mexico than Iraq! 1,000 have been officially reported, but human rights groups estimate the real number at 3,000.
* Despite high-profile arrests but the bloodshed has doubled from 2007 to 2008, with between 5,300 and 5,700 dead in the past year from attacks related to the drug trade.
* The city of Ciudad Juárez ended the year with 1,600 of those deaths
Now this violence is threatening to spill across our border!
Why is this happening, and how can we stop it?
The politicians have their typical answer, which is to do more of what hasn't worked. They want to spend more of your tax money trying to keep drugs out of the U.S. We've been doing this for nearly half a century, and it hasn't worked. Even people inside the government admit this.
On top of that, a government plan called the Mérida Initiative is sending $400 million to help the Mexican government fight this war. The details of this plan are still incomplete, but the total projected cost over the next 3 - 6 years is $1.4 billion. This is yet another foreign war, on top of Iraq and Afghanistan, at a time of severe economic stress.
The U.S. intelligence official quoted above by the Dallas Morning News provides the key to solving this problem when he says, ". . . you can't really do that (stop the fighting) until you weaken (the) drug traffickers . . ."
How do you weaken the drug traffickers? You take away their obscene black-market profits.
Al Capone and the mafia got rich running alcohol during Prohibition. When Prohibition ended the violence ended too. Jim Beam distributors don't do drive-by shootings on outlets that sell Jack Daniels. And neither Jim Beam nor Jack Daniels are killing politicians, policemen, journalists, and private citizens.
Black-market drug profits fund criminal enterprises that threaten your safety, not only at home and in Mexico, but around the world. Taliban warlords in Afghanistan and Pakistan fund much of their operations through the illicit drug trade.
The solution to the coming spillover of the Mexican Drug War is simple: Stop doing the same failed thing over and over again. Do something different. End drug prohibition in the United States, and thereby defuse the Mexican Civil War and defund the terrorists in Afghanistan.
TAKE ACTION using our Educate the Powerful System. Please send your Representative and Senator a message telling them to defund the Mexican drug lords by ending the war on drugs.
Use the points made in this message to personalize your letter.
And once you've done that, help us spread the word by "Digging" (Digg.com) this message, from our blog, at DownsizeDC.org.
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Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.
P.S. Jim Babka is a guest on Gary Nolan's talk show this evening. Details are available at the Downsize DC blog.
P.P.S. Not all new office holders have Internet contact pages yet. We're updating our system as the new contact pages come on line. Your message will go through to any of your representatives that remain the same, or for which we've received new information. Don't let this transition slow you down. Your message will get through to someone. It will make a difference. Take action!
However, I would bet that many people have concerns that weren't addressed in the blog post. Wouldn't everyone start taking drugs if they were legal? What about the children? Who would regulate the narcotics? Would all drugs be legal? Where would one purchase them? Wouldn't the healthcare costs for drug users tax our health system and cost us plenty of money in the long run?
If you want the average person to get on board with this, I think you'll need to preemptively answer these types of questions. As I'm sure you're aware, people are suspicious of changing the status quo unless they can be convinced that there is a significantly better alternative.
The corrupt and power hungry U.S. government makes billions from Afghanistan poppy fields and is in bed with Mexican and Colombian drug lords. Hence, the "War on Drugs" is probably the most heinous crime ever committed against the american people. It's all about money and power and nothing else.
The negative numbers that will bottom-line our legacy to the next generation can be less ginormous. The witch-hunt doctor’s Rx is for every bust to numerate a bigger tax-load over a smaller denominator of payers. Spend more on prisons than on schools. My second witch’s opinion is homegrown herbal remedy. More consumer discretionary funds will flow to the rest of the economy when they are no longer depleted by an unnatural seller’s market in psychoactive substances.
A clause about interstate commerce provides bogus constitutionality but fails reality-check. The mantra is eradicate, do not tax, the number-one cash crop in the land. Native flowers become as dear as gold. Gifted with margin to frustrate interdiction, peddlers’ bags do not carry coals to Newcastle. The founders’ purpose to authorize federal meddling in interstate commerce was not to divert tax revenue to outlaws. In 1933, America decided against prohibition, but prohibition has reincarnated. Apparently, swat teams don’t need any stinking amendment.
The demonized substances have never had their day in court. Nixon promised to supply supporting evidence later. Later, the Commission evidence didn’t support, but no matter. Civil war against Woodstock Nation had its charter. No amendments can assure due-process under an anti-science law that never had any due-process itself. Science hailed LSD as a drug with breakthrough potential, until the CSA (Controlled Substances Act of 1970) halted all research. Marijuana has no medical use, period. Open and shut cases clog kangaroo courts. Lives are flushed down expensive tubes.
The RFRA (Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993) makes an exception to the CSA for the Native American Church to eat peyote. Americans should not need a church-specific exception to obtain their birthright. Denial of entheogen sacrament to any American, for mediation of communion twixt the soul and the source of souls, is inconsistent with the First Amendment.
To speak freely, one must first think freely. To create, one must be in a receptive mood. How could a bum such as I hope to achieve a great work such as ending a war? What was I smoking? The Constitution doesn’t enumerate a governmental power to embargo diverse states of mind. How and when did government usurp this power to coerce conformity? Politicians who would limit cognitive liberty lack jurisdiction.
Common Law must hold that the people are the legal owners of their own bodies. The people should have the same liberty to move about in their spiritual abodes as they have in their material apartments. Socrates advocates knowing your self. Mortal law should not presume to thwart the intelligent design that molecular keys unlock spiritual doors. Those who appreciate their own free choice of personal path in life should not deny self-exploration to seekers. The right to the pursuit of happiness is supposed to be God-given, inalienable by government. The war on drugs makes war on the pursuit of happiness.
The books have ample law on them without the CSA. Americans are already liable for damage caused by their screw-ups. The usual caveats remain in effect. Strong medicine requires prescription. Employees can be fired for poor job performance. No harm, no foul; and no excuse, either. Please work to repeal the CSA.
There's a disconnect between the campaign on this topic, and the facts about the drug war in Mexico.
The "Campaign" recommends ending drug prohibition. Sorry, but given horrifically casual attitude in the US toward drugs illicit AND prescription, begun in the 60's and fostered by the horrendous number of ads and casual regulations in the past few years, that is one BONEHEADED IDEA!
As far as sending money to Mexico to help them with ANYTHING, we've seen in the past how that amounts to flushing it down the pipes, but frankly I don't care if the fight against drug use in THIS country winds up putting half the population in jail.
DC should be fighting the battle here, and closing the border, not financing Mexico's battle.