This is important. Marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington were voter-driven referenda. Most politicians are afraid to take a stand on this for fear of being labelled as “soft on drugs” or something else equally stupid, but given the popularity of sudden vacations to Colorado, they’re rethinking their old ways.

And rightly so. Legalized marijuana can make a state a lot of money. They can tax it heavily and require sellers to pay for expensive licensing. But they also save money — less people in jail over marijuana possession, less police wasting time on marijuana cases, fewer probation officers needed, fewer court hours spent on hearings and trials.

New Hampshire is a conservative state in many ways, filled with people escaping from liberal Massachusetts and socialistic Vermont. New Hampshire is quite libertarian — they’re individuals who don’t like government telling them that they can’t smoke a joint. “Life free or die” is their credo (even though it doesn’t make any sense).

Will they be the next state to legalize? Not likely. The Governor has vowed to veto the bill. (And she’s a Democrat, too; you’d think otherwise.) So why would she be against this with all the benefits it will bring?

Who knows? Maybe she’s high.

Editorial cartoon of the day: Legacy

January 23, 2014 by Michael A. Ventrella

Government says Government is illegal

An independent government committee has determined that the NSA program targeting American citizens is (surprise!) illegal. Well, most of the committee did — the two Bush appointees dissented.

Their report concluded that the collection of bulk phone records has provided only minimal protections at a huge cost to our freedoms.

Obama’s recent speech on this topic was about as weak as it could be. He spoke of the need to have spies and intelligence gathering (which no one disagrees with) and tried to convince us all that therefore, this was not too great or unusual. Admittedly, he also said the program should be cut back, but he wouldn’t go so far as to question the need for it in the first place.

The Bush people disagreed that the program was illegal (let us not forget that the program started under Bush, with his “Patriot” act) but did agree that it should be stopped nonetheless.

But seriously, the blame falls on all of government — Congress approved the Patriot Act, after all, and for Congress to now claim that they are shocked that the NSA is doing things they gave them permission to do is ridiculous. Obama is also responsible. He voted against the Patriot Act extension as a Senator but expanded it once he became President. (Ironically, he has spoken of the need to cut it back once he’s out of office, with the pretentious idea that he can handle this but some other President couldn’t.)

Let’s hope this leads to the Supreme Court finding the Patriot Act unconstitutional.

Editorial cartoon of the day: Christie Almighty

January 22, 2014 by Michael A. Ventrella

Glenn Beck is sorry

Former Shock Jock Glenn Beck is sorry. Boy, is he sorry. What a sorry human he is.

“I remember it as an awful lot of fun and that I made an awful lot of mistakes,” he told Fox’s Megyn Kelly on Tuesday. “I think I played a role, unfortunately, in helping tear the country apart.”

You think? You think that maybe your crazy rants were believed by idiots who took it as the truth? You think maybe you might have helped convince people that anyone to the left of you was some sort of anti-American socialist out to instill Sharia Law on the country? You think that might have done something to divide us?

Beck, who never studied politics or economics and never went to college, is still someone many on the right see as qualified to discuss current affairs with knowledge. Like Rush Limbaugh, he is just a loudmouth who was given a microphone. His views are just as informed and valid as your crazy uncle everyone avoids talking to at Thanksgiving.

Sure, everyone has the right to a political opinion, but usually when you want to get insight, you ask someone who is educated or experienced, not whoever is the loudest. (And yes, to compare, Dr. Rachel Maddow is a Rhodes Scholar whose degree is from Oxford, and Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry has her Political Science doctorate from Duke.)

This statement from Beck, unfortunately, came with absolutely no change in the idiocy of his views. He also claimed that the reason his latest right-wing project was not being more widely distributed was because the Devil was working against him.

Trust me — if the Devil existed, he would be doing everything he could to help Beck tear the country apart.

Editorial cartoon of the day: Passion of the Christie

January 21, 2014 by Michael A. Ventrella

The New Christie Minstrels

Chris Christie apologists are singing the praises of this guy, even going so far as to claim (on Fox News, of course) that this is just another one of those feminist plots to bring down guys who act like assholes — because we all know that acting like an asshole is the natural state of men, and women who complain about it are just too touchy-feely and sensitive.

Apparently, this micro-manager who has his nose in everyone’s business in every other regard was supposedly completely unaware of what his closest personal staff was doing, even when he met with them while the whole Bridge blockage was happening. Yeah, no one is buying that, and polls show that people just aren’t that gullible.

Is this the most serious scandal in the world? Of course not. But I am more interested in it because it shows what kind of person he is, and that is something we all need to know if he wants to run for higher office.

Hey, remember when the Romney campaign considered having Christie as the VP but ran as far as possible once they began the vetting process? Yeah, that was funny!

Anyway, we all know that if you’re a powerful person (say, a governor) you have a staff of people you have chosen — and one thing a staff does is want to please the boss. Do we really believe that his staff would do these things if they didn’t think he would approve? Even if he didn’t directly give them the instruction to do this, clearly they were following his example and taking actions that would please him.

And if you believe otherwise, I have a bridge to sell you.

Just don’t try to cross it.

Editorial cartoon of the day: MLK present day

January 20, 2014 by Michael A. Ventrella

The best voter suppression

Republicans are doing everything they can to suppress the vote, because every study shows that if everyone voted, Republicans would pretty much lose. (Not every district, of course, but they would certainly lose their House majority, as well as many statehouses.)

But there is one idea that they haven’t grasped yet which would accomplish the same goal.

What they need are for people to become apathetic about politics — especially young people, who are overwhelmingly less religious, more liberal, and less prejudiced than their elders. What the Republicans need is a way to keep these people in a state where all they want to do is watch TV and eat doritos.

You see where I’m going with this, right? Come on, Republicans! Legalize marijuana and then those kids won’t even be motivated to get out and vote! Bam! Instant suppression without breaking any laws!

(OK, Republicans, stop reading now. The rest is for my Democratic friends.

Shh! Don’t let on. Most republicans are so clueless about both marijuana and what young people want and think that they just might fall for this!)