Matt Simon
We Gotta Stop All This "Air Rage"
This press release should get a few reactions, no?
For Immediate Release
Matt Simon
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PrintClegg Predicts Success for Medical Marijuana in 2009
Do you support or oppose changing the law in New Hampshire to allow seriously and terminally ill patients to use and grow medical marijuana for personal use if their doctors recommend it?
If you said "yes," you are in good company. A poll conducted in April by Mason and Dixon Polling and Research, Inc., found that 71% of New Hampshire voters are now in favor of medical marijuana reform.
Even Republicans?
New Hampshire Republican voters favor medical marijuana reform by a 56% to 32% margin (12% undecided). 87% of Democrats and 72% of independents agree, and only 21% of NH voters want to continue arresting seriously and terminally ill patients for marijuana.
Will all this public support translate into legislative success for medical marijuana in 2009? One top Republican legislator and candidate for U.S. Congress says he thinks so. In a June 8 appearance on the cable show "Capitol Access," State Senator Bob Clegg (R-Hudson) was asked about HB 1623, a bill reducing penalties for minor marijuana possession which passed the House this year but was swept under a rug by the Senate. Clegg explained that he had tried to work out a compromise on the bill (which enjoyed support by a less overwhelming majority of voters, 53% to 34%, than medical marijuana reform), but that Senate Democrats had decided it was more important to protect the governor than address the issue. "I would say that next year... that would have a good opportunity, at least for medical marijuana," he added.
The short clip can be viewed here.
Libertarians Accept Apologies, Nominate Ex-Republican Barr
The last time a Republican or Democratic Presidential Nominating Convention began with serious uncertainty was 1964, when Arizona's Barry Goldwater emerged with the Republican nod, famously proclaiming that "extremism in the pursuit of liberty is no vice" and that "moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue." The excitement of a hotly contested nominating convention has since been the sole province of political parties which oppose the two-party system.
If the 652 delegates at the 2008 Libertarian Party National Convention were looking for this type of excitement Sunday in Denver, they certainly got their money's worth. After six contentious rounds of balloting, two of which resulted in ties for first place, a majority of delegates finally handed the party's presidential nomination to former Republican Congressman Bob Barr of Georgia.
By a margin of 324-276, Barr bested Dr. Mary Ruwart, a longtime party activist and author of the libertarian bestseller Healing Our World. Speaking to delegates prior to the Saturday night debate, which featured seven candidates and was broadcast live on C-SPAN, Ruwart described the nomination contest as "truly a fight for the heart and soul of the party." She said she welcomed newcomers such as Barr and former Democratic Senator Mike Gravel to the party, but criticized aspects of their platforms as insufficiently libertarian. She argued that as a friend of Congressman Ron Paul, she would be more able than Barr to capitalize on the energy and enthusiasm of the "Ron Paul Revolution."
Barr is the first to admit that his path to the Libertarian Party, which he joined in 2006, did not exactly follow a straight line. In fact, the party had targeted him for electoral defeat in 2002 as part of a strategy to attack the "worst drug warriors in Congress." A hard-hitting television advertisement criticizing his opposition to medical marijuana helped sink Barr in a Republican primary against Rep. John Linder, which pitted two incumbents whose districts had been merged.
The party's ire had been partly inspired by a piece of legislation called the Barr Amendment. This 1998 Amendment was written and passed to keep votes from being counted on a medical marijuana ballot initiative in the District of Columbia. When a counting of the ballots was ordered by a judge, it was found that the measure had succeeded by a 69% to 31% margin, but the Barr Amendment continues to prohibit the reform's implementation.
Rob Kampia, delegate from what he half-jokingly referred to as "the 'taxation without representation' non-state of DC" and executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, assured skeptics of Barr's sincere conversion in a nominating speech. Kampia explained that Barr had for two years been lobbying Congress to end federal raids in states where medical marijuana patients are protected under state law. Kampia also said Barr has lobbied Congress to repeal the Barr amendment, which truly demonstrates the sincerity of his conversion and "shows humility."
The top candidates were tied 186-186 after the third ballot and 202-202 after the fourth ballot, which eliminated Gravel. Third place Wayne Allan Root of Las Vegas then threw his support behind Barr and announced that he would be happy to fill the vice-presidential slot on a Barr ticket. The fifth ballot eliminated Root, and the sixth ballot delivered Barr the majority he needed to carry the nomination.
The delegates then chose Root for the what Barr promised would be "the strongest ticket in the history of the Libertarian Party."
When I spoke with Barr on Saturday, he praised delegates at the convention for their focus on fundamental problems and solutions. "The one striking difference between Republican conventions and this Libertarian Party convention is that every single person here that I talk with wants to talk about substance," he told me. They're not interested in the superficial aspects of politics."
In the debate, Barr apologized to delegates for his mistakes on the road to libertarianism, which included authorship of the Defense of Marriage Act (Barr promised he would work to repeal it) and his vote for the 2001 PATRIOT Act, which Barr has vigorously opposed since 2002.
Some longtime libertarians were skeptical of Barr's conversions. The conflict underlying this split between top candidates revealed a deeper schism between party members who disagree over the party's direction. Libertarians who support the party's traditional platform despite its explicit philosophical radicalism arrived at this convention hoping to undo changes to the party platform which had been adopted by reformers in 2006. For this wing of the party, it is considered more important for a candidate to clearly and consistently articulate libertarian philosophy than to earn the maximum possible number of votes or gain the maximum possible amount of exposure.
Morey Straus, a New Hampshire delegate, was among the disappointed Ruwart supporters. Straus argued that by nominating Barr and Root, "Libertarians risk furthering the misconception that we are just another wing of conservatism." This, he said, was more important than votes because "Libertarianism is not right or left."
On the other hand, many delegates observed that Barr's candidacy is well-poised to attract conservative voters away from John McCain, and many believed the media spotlight on Barr's marijuana policy conversion could have a considerable impact on conservative Republican audiences across the United States.
Regardless of the ideas at stake, the suspense of this convention was exhilarating for the candidates and delegates. It's hard to imagine, but if the Republicans and Democrats still had nominating conventions like this one, how much better would they do in the ratings?
$55 for cancer, $75 for John's Wrecker Service
This is a semi-cheerful yet cautionary tale of woe for anybody who makes the mistake of thinking that near-empty parking lots on Dixon Avenue are a safe place to park during next year's Concord Hospital Rock 'N Race for cancer. They aren't. I saw at least 70 or 80 cars worth of event participants make this mistake yesterday evening, and a few of us paid a heavy price (one which in my case could have been much heavier). Here's the story...
First the good part: the Rock 'N Race. This was a really super event, and I'll look forward to hearing how much money it brought in for the Payson Center for Cancer Care. I was very proud of my team from Quest Yoga Studio, which raised a total of $1,450. My friends are all as broke as I am, so the only donation I secured was $35 from my wonderful mother, but that plus the $20 I plunked down to be part of the event and I figured I'd put $55 bucks toward making the event a success. (I did get a t-shirt out of the deal, a Schick Quattro "Midnight" razor, and an organic chocolate bar, so I suppose I should consider the $20 money well spent.)
As we assembled in front of the state house, there were several sprinkly moments leading up to the start of the race (I was walking, not racing) and a few almost rainy moments during the first 1/8 of the course, but things cleared up as we took a right from Main St. onto Pleasant and started up the hill. I put away my umbrella, and my fellow walkers and I got about our business... which was walking. Along the course, I was pleasantly surprised to see probably 7 or 8 bands set up under canopies to entertain the runners and walkers. Other folks just stood by and cheered us on, saying things like "thank you" and "keep up the good work." That plus the sun peeking out gave most of us wet-shoed walkers the warm fuzzies, which is what you're supposed to get when you do something good for other people.
Unfortunately, the bad part: some of us got towed.
The story begins with me driving around looking for a parking space for this huge event, and a friend I ran into told me behind the Holiday Inn would be okay. Well, I should have certainly taken her advice and parked behind the Holiday Inn, because I'm pretty sure the decent, civic-minded folks who run the Holiday Inn would never be such jerks as to call a towing company for a once-a-year event where people show to raise money for fighting cancer. It's a short event, and the cars will be gone soon anyway, so what's the point unless you happen to be getting a kickback from the towing company?
So I messed up and parked in the lot _next_ to the Holiday Inn overflow lot. Hell, it was about 80% empty; also, I'd just seen two other cars park there, and people wearing Rock 'N Race t-shirts hopped out of them without the slightest look of concern on their faces, so I followed suit. When in Rome, right? Well, people in Rome get towed, too, I'm afraid...
When I got back to the lot, every lot on Dixon Avenue was at least half-full if not 75% full. They were slowly being emptied of cars as people left from the Rock 'N Race. But sure enough, there were two tow trucks in the one lot I happen to have landed in, and my crappy old Sunfire was already perched atop one of them. Fortunately, I have a lot of experience getting towed, having attended graduate school in Morgantown, WV, which is home to the shadiest towing jerk in the universe, Captain Kickback himself, Vic Solomon of Vic's Towing. (I seriously almost took a swing at Vic once just to wipe the smirk off his face after he'd "legally" robbed me yet again, but that's another story -- Vic, unlike the guy who towed me after the race, is the kind of guy who would tow cars away from a funeral and giggle all the way to the bank.)
The guy from John's Wrecker Service was clearly not in a good mood when I walked over, but I didn't immediately know why. He was about to hop in the truck and drive it back to the shop, but I politely identified myself as the owner of the vehicle and asked what it would take to get the thing down. The guy said he'd have to call the shop and ask, which he did (walked around the truck to do so), and then came back and informed me that if I had $75 cash, he could let my car down, and if not, he'd have to take it back to the shop and it would be a lot more. I asked what a lot more was, and he said $150. I agreed, that was a lot more, but I said that fortunately I had the $75. Lucky for me I had just been to the bank!
Then the guy asked me to hop in the truck so he could drive to another lot where he'd have more room to let my car down. Once I was in the car, he made it pretty clear that he felt awful to be towing cars under these circumstances, but that his company had a contract with the lot owner, and the lot owner had called them. "I feel like I'm taking candy from orphans," he lamented. I assured him that I wasn't an orphan, that I knew the risk when I parked next to a "No Parking" sign, and that he was just doing his job. I had no choice but to fork over the $75, but I did have a choice in whether or not to get riled and take my frustration out on a person who was only following a bad order to avoid losing his job.
So here is my comment to John or whoever runs John's Wrecker Service: next time you are called to tow cars from a half-empty lot during a charity event, the best response is to say "dude, those cars will be gone in an hour -- it's the Rock 'N Race!" If you absolutely have to tow cars because the lot owner insists, reduce your rates for the people you tow, and if you're not going to do that, at least donate 50% of the money you make off schmucks like me to the Concord Hospital Payson Center for Cancer Care!
Yes, I know this is supposed to be a political blog, so to appease my readers, I will politicize the conclusion. So here goes...
Did this crap happen back in the good old days? And does asking that question make me a conservative? ;)
Can Barack Help Britney Spears?
Back in the olden days before television, our ancestors had to make their own fun. Some folks liked to gaze at clouds and say things like "that one looks like an alligator," and others maybe just sat around and looked at dirty photographs, and before that, drawings. Then we got the silver screen and Ed Sullivan, and that might have been okay, but had I been alive from 1969-1971, my personal preference would probably have been "The Johnny Cash Show."
(Sheesh, can "American Idol" really be more entertaining than watching the Man in Black jam out with Eric Clapton and the great Carl Perkins?!?! For the life of me, I just don't see how -- in fact, a YouTube search for "Johnny Cash Show" reveals countless treasures.)
Anyway, we lost Johnny a few years back, but his spirit lives on through the countless performers who were touched by his music, not (quite) the least of which is an old dude by the name of Tom "Featureman" Willett, who has recently become a YouTube sensation with front yard video recordings of such new rockabilly classics as "My Ex-Ex Wife Done Double Crossed me Again," "We Want More Porn," and the ever-popular "Don't Tase Me Bro."
What some might not remember is that Cash, unlike most of today's top musicians, did not avoid politics. In fact, he became friendly with President Nixon and met with him in 1972 to advocate for prison reform. He then developed a more intimate friendship with President Carter (no relation to the Carter family of musicians into which he married).
All this begs the question, which presidential candidate would Cash most likely befriend if he were alive today? I like to think the answer would be Ron Paul, but since he's no longer a serious contender, we only have three options left to pick from. Fortunately, Tom "Featureman" Willett has recorded a song for John McCain, "We Need Another John in the White House," one for Hillary Clinton, "The Hillary Song," and one for Barack Obama, "Barack Can."
Really, it's hard to tell which of the three is corniest, but "Barack Can" gave me a bigger laugh than the others, so it's the one that gets embedded in this post: