Attempting to prove Democrats aren't the only big spenders around, Congressional Republicans planned to push a measure through a House committee last week ponying up $9 billion for US. operations in the Balkans and "anti-drug efforts" in Colombia -- nearly double what President Clinton requested.
Does anyone imagine we're going to hand over that kind of cash to the torturers of Bogota without putting someone on the ground to supervise how the fields get burned? I've thus offered to organize an office pool to choose the date when we'll be able to recycle the Kennedy-Johnson era headline: "White House acknowledges Colombian 'advisers' authorized to carry weapons in combat zones."
Meantime, do you suppose we can get Country Joe and the Fish out of retirement to sing: "And it's 1, 2, 3, what are we fighting for? Don't ask me I'm really keen, to fire-bomb Medellin"?
# # #
Speaking of the failed and oppressive war on guns and drugs, it's the Chicago Tribune that's now negotiating the buy the failing Los Angeles Times, where management admits circulation dropped by 20 percent, and profits slipped from 22 percent to 6.5 percent, after the paper's editorial page started calling in 1993 for a national ban on private ownership of handguns and most rifles. (Thanks for pointing out that correlation to J. Neil Schulman, a former Times reader and author of "Stopping Power: Why 70 Million Americans Own Guns.")
It was the staid old Chicago Tribune that saw fit on Feb. 7 to run an excellent opinion piece by Salim Muwakkil, headlined "A record politicians aren't talking about":
"This month the nation will mark two paradoxical milestones," Mr. Muwakkil pointed out. "The economic expansion has becomes the longest in history and the prison population will reach 2 million. Because economic vitality tends to dampen criminal behavior, those disparate benchmarks seem to confound conventional wisdom. Why are the jails filling up while the economy is roaring along?"
Mr. Muwakkil finds his answer in four words, of course: The War On Drugs.
When Ronald Reagan took office, America's prison population was about 500,000. "It has quadrupled since then and a high percentage of that increase is drug-related. ... With just 5 percent of the world's population, the U.S. has a quarter of the world's prisoners."
Then-Gov. Bill Clinton specifically restored the right of his brother's convicted cocaine peddler, Dan Lassiter, to carry a gun in Arkansas (the Wall Street Journal ran a photostat of the document on its editorial page.) He even called upon "rehabilitated" brother Roger to take a bow at his Democratic nominating convention (no hard time for these rich white guys.) Both party's leading presidetial candidates now either admit to being former users of illegal drugs like marijuana and cocaine, or duck the issue with a feeble "no comment."
Voters in seven states and Washington, D.C., have now overwhelmingly voted to legalize medical use of marijuana -- though cops have ignored those votes and continued to bust sick marijuana patients like Steve Kubby and Peter McWilliams, anyway.
"This nation's enormous incarceration rate is a social catastrophe that should be a major focus of our politica discourse," Mr. Muwakkil concludes. But, "rather than burst the bubble of pretense that surrounds the idiotic drug war, national politicians prefer to push their heads even further into the sand."
# # #
And speaking of the ongoing attempts by the state of California to imprison and thus kill adrenal cancer survivor Steve Kubby (kept alive only by medical marijuana) -- Mr. Kubby, of course, was the 1996 gubernatorial candidate of the California Libertarian Party, actively campaigning for California's successful medical marijuana initiative. His home was then raided as punishment for that political activism (start ital)after(end ital) Golden State voters legalized such marijuana use.
Mr. Kubby writes, "Last week, everything was on the line for us. If the judge ruled against us, we would be forced immediately into trial, without witnesses or the right to use the medical marijuana defense we helped put into law. If we were convicted on even one count, our attorneys told us we would be handcuffed, jailed, and our children taken from us. It would takes months or years to win an appeal, long after I had died in prison from my cancer.
"We faced a terrible choice: accept a plea bargain that would only require probation and save our family -- or hold out for a favorable decision from the judge.
"As the judge stepped onto the bench, one of the prosecutors turned and looked directly at me. He was smiling, thoroughly pleased with himself, and wanted me to know it. We were only about 10 feet away so I ould clearly see his face and his intent.
"The prosecutor's smiling face struck me as incredibly rude, since Michele was next to me, crying her eyes out. ... I couldn't stop wondering why the prosecutor was smiling and ignoring my wife's obvious distress. Then it struck me what was happening -- the prosecutor saw her crying and assumed we were going to accept their plea bargain. Leering at us, the prosecutor wanted me to see how pleased he was to have finally trapped his prey.
"The judge told us we would have to make a decision on the pea bargain, (start ital)before(end ital) he gave his decision on whether or not to grant us a new trial and new attorneys. ... My answer cut through the prosecutor like a razor blade: 'No, your honor.'
"Next came Michele. It would be all too easy for her to agree to one misdemeanor and walk away from this nightmare. Though she was still crying, her answer was brave and clear, 'No your honor, I do not!'
"Then the judge read his decision and to our everlasting relief, our continuance was granted. ...
"Thanks to attorney Eric Berg's sealed motion ... our judge now understands our side. Judge Roeder even told the prosecutors, 'Don't make a mountain out of a molehill,' and 'Don't try to build your careers on this case.' "
Legendary San Francisco-based defense attorney Tony Serra has agreed to help represent the Kubbys in their trial later this spring. Help support the defense of our medical liberties and the courageous Steve and Michele Kubby with your contribution to the Kubby Defense Fund, Monarch Bay Plaza, Box 375, Dana Point, CA 92629.
The Kubby Files are at http://www.kubby.com; subscribe for updates at Kubby-Announce-on@list.kubby.com.
Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. His book, "Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998," is available at $24.95 postpaid by dialing 1-800-244-2224; or via web site http://www.thespiritof76.com/wacokillers.html.
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