Word. I hate this "war"...we indeed should be funneling all that money into our own country. The levees in New Orleans should never have been in such deplorable shape to begin with, then Katrina wouldn't have been quite as devastating. So we agree, for sure. However, don't be so quick to assume that the Democrats are or were the answer. More jobs and money when slick Willy was pres? Yep. Because of the INTERNET BOOM and all the startup high-tech companies. The 90's boom years had little to do with a president or any choices he could make. When the web based economy was on fire, it trickled into every aspect of the economy and the "rising tide buoyed all boats". I do agree that the fundamentalist tendencies and outlook toward legislation is disturbing. I don't believe that the majority will allow things to go too far though, there's still A LOT of we blue staters left. But damn, drinking beer in a park here where I live would get you harassed no matter who was president! Gas prices? Blame the multi national oil companies (who our "president" just happens to be in bed with)...they don't give two shits about the fate of the U.S.A., because they're all getting richer. The ties between ANY politician, regardless of party, and special interests like big oil should be thoroughly investigated and prosecuted. War? Worried about your kids enlisting? I hear you, my cousin was blown up in that dust basin about a year ago, and for WHAT? But DO NOT forget the instances of Slick Willy lobbing around cruise missiles for political reasons, killing hundreds or thousands of innocents in the process. And the whole Bosnia/Serbia/Croatia fiasco...we bomb the hell out of Kosovo/Milosevic(sp?) because he's ethnic cleansing the Muslims there..we kill thousands in the process. How quickly the Islamic world forgets, eh? But that's beside the point....there was ugliness committed under Clinton too, just not with as many ground forces. And the one instance where more ground forces SHOULD have been dispatched (Somalia, Mogadishu) Clinton botched that severely and left our boys short handed. Then he got cold feet because of what happened, and now Mogadishu is under Taliban-like, Islamist extremist rule. Brand new breeding ground for Bin Laden's recruitment team. What we desperately need....NEED, is a legitimate 3rd party to break up the cabal of the rich that the 2 party system has become. A sensible party who sincerely have the best interests of the citizens of the U.S. as their impetus. Let's make it happen! No more "I won't waste my vote" shit from people...If everyone I heard say that actually voted for a 3rd party, they might stand a chance at winning. No more scaredy-cat, "lesser of 2 evils" voting...you vote for Kerry (who I happen to have had the misfortune of living in the state AND CITY where he's lived..what a windbag phony!) and then he's at a cocktail party that night gladhanding and toasting Bushy baby. Fuck that, let's drive a stake between these two empty suited parties!
The so-called land of the free United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, that includes impoverished, communist and fascist ruled countries. It is also only one of five countries that executes juvienal offenders. The rate of violent crimes has gone down but the rate of putting people in jail is going up. There are over 2 million people in behind bars. 18.9% of the people in federal prison are in for Marijuana/hashish violations. That is how much freedom you have in this country.
Just because I agree that law-breakers should be punished? It's not like I think we should kill them all.
You know, the Jews in Nazi Germany were lawbreakers-it was against the law to be Jewish, amomg many other things. The problem is that prisons in America are not full of rapists, robbers, and murderers, as many people suppose, but a very large percentage are there for simple drug offenses and matters involving their families that the government has no business messing with in the first place. The justice system in America has become a big profit making business. Local and state prisons are offered large subsidies by the federal governmet to house prisoners that far exceeds the cost of keeping them-many federal and state prisons are operated now by profit making companies that are traded on the stock market. Instead of trying to help people with drug problems, the government just makes more prisons to put them in and causes a lot more damage to their lives than the drugs could, in most cases.
A couple of years ago California had a ballot proposition to require drug treatment instead of prison time for possesion of personal amounts of drugs for the first three offenses. The only people out there protesting against it were people from prison guard unions. The prop. passed anyway. Here are maybe some reasons why so many are in jail. http://sneakykitchen.com/Humor/old_laws.htm http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/4613/funnylaws.htm http://www.dribbleglass.com/subpages/strange/sexlaws.htm
Are you prepared to advocate that people should also be forbidden alcohol and cigarettes then Justwow? At what point do you think the private activities of supposedly free citizens should be free from state oppression? Are you even aware of the actual reasons for the illegality of cannabis?
He's 19, so unless he's breaking the law (which a golden child like JW would never do, it's obvious), then he doesn't have any experience with buying alcohol. Hard for him to fathom losing a freedom he's not had yet. And you can't really smoke anywhere anymore either, and he's only been of age to buy tobacco for maybe a year. Come back to the table for discussions when your a wee bit older there JW, it'll all make more sense then. Sorry if that sounds harsh, I don't mean to offend, but I don't think you have enough world experience yet at your age to be debating in the manner which you are. Lickherish, I couldn't agree more...the "rights" we have are being further infringed upon every day...eroding. We must draw a line over which they must not cross. Private should stay private...goddamned hippocrite politicians.
What? Please tell me... How is anyone smoking pot, affecting, or harming you, in any way? Or 90% of drugs for that matter?!?!?
yeah the loose change vid that FedUpAmerican posted up there is definately worth seeing it, i posted a thread about it today. Oh and FedUpAmerican when you mentioned you'd like to see riots in the streets, i cant agree with you more, i may be young but i know when somethings wrong and fuck it id die to protect my rights
wow dude, omg. i dont understand why our own govt would want to do this to us but if you havent seen it already, got to: http://www.freedomtofascism.com/ right fucking now cuz this is crazy mad!
fuck our govt!fuck these corperations! and fuck all this shit! this is what it says in the chatholic bible, that first there will be 3 years of "normality" then the next year has everybody and everything turned upside down, then 3 years of complete "HELL", thetraking devices are even said to be a sign of "satan" this is toyal bull shit! it even says in the chatholic bible that there is a load metal monster that has blade like things on it and teeth, just like world war 2 war planes. so some of what it says has to be true!