Month: June 2009

Despite Recession, LA Moves to Shutter Dozens of Thriving Businesses – Pot Shops

Jon Ponder

At the same time that California has become the poster child for states with budget deficits, the Los Angeles City Council is moving to shut down one of the bright spots in the local economy — medical marijuana dispensaries.

The issue is NIMBY, not morality or a drug warrior mentality, per se.

In 2004, there were just four clinics filling pot prescriptions in the city. Today, there are over 700. The problem is that this boomlet has occured despite a moratorium imposed by the city in 2007 that would have limited the number of pot shops to 186.

Now the city council is signaling it will begin closing down the shops, despite the fact that they provide employment and generate tax revenue at a time when over 1 million Los Angeles County residents are unemployed and schools are cutting programs because of budget deficits:

The city clerk has notified 14 dispensaries that their requests for exemptions from the moratorium will be considered by the City Council on Tuesday.

Most, if not all, are likely to be denied on the grounds that they were not registered with the city by the moratorium’s deadline in 2007. A denial would allow the city’s code enforcement bureau and the city attorney to take legal steps to force them to shut down.

The issue is NIMBY, not morality or a drug warrior mentality, per se:

[…]

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

We’ll assume that most of the candidates who ran in 2008 will run again. It’s like sex — once you do it, it’s pretty hard to stop.

— Former Bush media strategist Mark McKinnon, handicapping the 2012 Republican presidential field for the Daily Beast.

Why Senators Should Not Be Allowed to Twitter

Buck Banks

Because it makes them sound even less eloquent than usual.

NBC political editor Chuck Todd offered this in his “first Read” column this morning.

[President] Obama devoted his Saturday radio address — even while he was overseas — to the topic of health care. “All across America, our families are making hard choices when it comes to health care,” he said. “Now, it’s time for Washington to make the right ones. It’s time to deliver.”

However, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R), the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee took offense to Obama’s radio address. “Pres Obama you got nerve while u sightseeing in Paris to tell us ‘time to deliver’ on health care. We still on skedul/even workinWKEND,” he said via Twitter, later adding: “Pres Obama while u sightseeing in Paris u said ‘time to delivr on healthcare’ When you are a ‘hammer’ u think evrything is NAIL I’m no NAIL.”

Call me persnickety, but somehow that just don’t sound, er, senatorial ….

Saletan: Why are Pro-Lifers Sorry?

Trish

William Saletan at Slate gets to the knife-edge of the line pro-lifers are attempting to straddle in the death of Dr. George Tiller. In a piece called, Is it Wrong to Murder an Abortionist?, Saletan says these folks don’t seem to believe their own rhetoric. If they did, they would be like Tiller’s assassin, killing every abortion doctor they could find. After all, if someone were shooting students on a college campus or old folks at a nursing home, no one would say they regret that things went too far when the gunman was killed.

Saletan: ‘If you don’t accept what Roeder did, then maybe it’s time to ask yourself what you really believe.’

Tiller’s murder is different from all previous murders of abortion providers. If you kill an ordinary abortionist, somebody else will step in. But if you kill the guy at the end of the line, some of his patients won’t be able to find an alternative. You will have directly prevented abortions.

That seems to be what Tiller’s alleged assassin, Scott Roeder, had in mind…

So is Roeder getting support from the nation’s leading pro-life groups? Not a bit. They have roundly denounced the murder. The National Right to Life Committee says it opposes “any form of violence to fight the violence of abortion,” preferring instead “to work through educational and legislative activities to ensure the right to life for unborn children, people with disabilities and older people.”

…I applaud these statements. They affirm the value of life and nonviolence, two principles that should unite us. But they don’t square with what these organizations purport to espouse…

You think you’re pro-life. You tell yourself that abortion is murder. Maybe you even say that when a pollster calls. But like most of the other people who say such things in polls, you don’t mean it literally.

…If you don’t accept what [Roeder] did, then maybe it’s time to ask yourself what you really believe. Is abortion murder? Or is it something less, a tragedy that would be better avoided? Most of us think it’s the latter.

Amen. Enough with the Hitler comparisons, the overwrought bombast, the entire “abortion is murder” meme. Murder is murder. Abortion is only a very regrettable solution when all the other options seem worse.

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

We need to be aware of the creation of a fearful population, and fearful lawmakers, being led to believe that big government is the answer, to bail out the private sector, because then government gets to get in there and control it. And mark my words, this is going to be next, I fear, bail out next debt-ridden states. Then government gets to get in there and control the people.

— Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), quoted on CNN, criticizing the Obama administration’s economic policies.

Pensito Flu Update: Seasonal Vaccine No Protection in Japan

Buck Banks

From ProMed:

As of Friday, 29 May 2009, a total of 367 confirmed cases of human infection with a novel influenza A (H1N1) virus had been reported to Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW). Preliminary outbreak investigation report from National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan has provided important data on the effectiveness of pre-seasonal vaccination on the new strain.

They investigated 43 confirmed cases reported from Kobe City. Their median age was 17 years, which ranged from 5 to 44 years. Among them, 42 reported having had pre-seasonal vaccination for 2008-09 season and the coverage was 52.4 percent. According to MHLW’s estimates, the coverage of influenza vaccine among Japanese population was 53.7 percent for those aged less than 13 years, 23.1 percent for those 13 to 64 years, and 58.8 percent for those over 64 years during the 2008-09 season. Taking account of the population age structure, 27.9 percent of Japanese people ages 5 to 44 years are estimated to have been vaccinated for seasonal influenza virus. That indicates that vaccine coverage among confirmed cases is no less than that of the population average.

It is too early to reach a conclusion about a possible negative effect, yet it is already obvious that pre-seasonal vaccine for 2008-09 season has no
protective effect on disease from the novel influenza A (H1N1) strain among the Japanese population. This finding should be valuable information for
public health policy makers preparing for coming winter season.

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

This is something we discussed several times in the Oval Office, how to manage this transition between Leno and Conan. And I think he’s up to the task. But I just want him to know that there is not going to be any bailout coming out from Washington if he screws it up.

— President Barack Obama, in an interview with NBC News, referring to Conan O’Brien’s succession this week of the former “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno

If Torture Worked, How Are We Getting By Without It?

Trish

Jeff Stein at CQ Politics asks a very good question of former Vice Pres. Dick Cheney.

Stein: What stopped terrorists from attacking for the past five years?

The CIA is said to have relinquished water boarding, roughing up, sleep deprivation and other tough interrogation techniques in 2004, according to most reports.

But between Sept. 11, 2001 and the end of 2004, Cheney claims, terrorist attacks were thwarted by physically abusing detainees in the CIA’s secret prisons.

“Every senior official who has been briefed on these classified matters knows of specific attacks that were in the planning stages and were stopped by the programs we put in place,” Cheney insisted.

But what stopped terrorists from attacking after the harsh interrogation techniques were aborted five years ago?

Hmmm. We scared the terrorists (many of whom are suicide bombers) so badly that they decided to quit? Not likely.

Besides, others say, we know the effort the Bush administration put into bolstering its positions and spinning its views with photo ops, selective leaks, coordinated backdrops of key slogans, and backdoor paid P.R. and “news.” So why on earth would they have kept secret that they were not only effectively protecting us but that they could prove it?

…another former CIA official has come forward to dismiss the former vice president’s claims, saying that if the Bush administration had evidence of “torture” stopping attacks, it would have surfaced long ago.

“I cannot imagine that the system would not have leaked such a story. It would have been leaked in a New York minute,” says Milton Bearden, who was a CIA station chief in Pakistan among other assignments during his three decades in the spy agency.

Funny New Toll-Free Number to Find Charlie Crist

Trish

For once, a genuinely witty campaign initiative — and it’s from Democrats. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) has put up a toll-free number for those hoping to locate Florida’s Gov. Charlie Crist. Crist is running for the U.S. Senate seat currently marginally occupied by Sen. Mel Martinez. Both are Republicans.

Call 1-800-403-2195 to find Charlie now

When you dial 1-800-403-2195 (and you should), the typical phone lady voice thanks you for calling Gov. Crist’s scheduling office and says she’ll try to locate the governor, who has been missing from his office for 62 weekdays. You’re then offered the options of pressing 1 to continue holding, 2 to schedule a private yacht cruise with Charlie (but he only likes big yachts, you’re reminded), or 3 to meet him at a Miami Heat game (but only seated courtside and with celebrities). Jaunty music plays when you’re on hold, until the mystified phone lady returns again, still unable to find Charlie.

We’ve seen unfunny web sites and loads of unfunny T.V. and radio spots, but this idea is well-executed and effectively gets the idea across that Charlie Crist is all about being loved and having fun (with Jimmy Fallon and Jennifer Aniston?) rather than doing the boring, grown-up, governing thing. Good job!