Those looking for a serious answer from the White House “We The People” petitions have now been joined by another disgruntled group of answered petitioners – those looking for verification of government knowledge of extra-terrestrials.
Searching for ET, But No Evidence Yet
Of course, the government denied any knowledge, and I’m not a real follower of this topic, so can’t address whether or not the government’s response was outrageously and clearly wrong like it is on marijuana.
And maybe it’s my closeness to the subject, but doesn’t it seem like the government actually gave a more serious and respectful answer to the question of ET than that of MJ?
Does the government find UFO’s less worthy of derision than pot?
Sure seems that way.
My new favorite petition at the White House:
We demand a vapid, condescending, meaningless, politically safe response to this petition.
Since these petitions are ignored apart from an occasional patronizing and inane political statement amounting to nothing more than a condescending pat on the head, we the signers would enjoy having the illusion of success. Since no other outcome to this process seems possible, we demand that the White House immediately assign a junior staffer to compose a tame and vapid response to this petition, and never attempt to take any meaningful action on this or any other issue. We would also like a cookie.
(already has 7,000 votes)
7001 now
already at 7908,,,this will probably go viral
This is the petition that finally inspired me to spend 2 minutes and register. But why’d they have to get greedy and ask for the cookie? Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
I’ll sign that one. If I get the cookie I’ll feed it to the damn pony…
Pete, on the subject of extraterrestrial contact and UFO’s I would have to refer you to my old friend Peter Davenport. Operator of the National UFO Reporting Center. He is probably the nation’s leading “Ufologist”. He lives in an abandoned missile silo outside of Davenport, WA. (yes, the town bears his name, yes, it’s an accident) He has also indicated a willingness to hold a post prohibition party and let us all into the missile firing room once we’re good and stoned.
http://www.nuforc.org/
I’m an agnostic on the topic, myself. I choose to defer an opinion until I have more information.
The topics of God and UFO’s really don’t interest me, in equal measures, for the same reasons. Now, if God arrived in a UFO, he’d have my undivided attention. But so far, no contact.
Zecharia Sitchin had written a series of books and lectured around the world on the subject of the “Gods” (all of them, worldwide) and claimed they were indeed aliens. He was an expert on translating the Sumerian tablets, and at the time he wrote those books he was the only person in the world who could read the Sumerian cuneiform (perhaps still is, but he passed away a short time ago). Those tablets told the real story about the Anunnaki and the emergence of modern humanity. It really is an intriguing theory and there appears to be a lot more evidence (both physical and historical) backing it up than there is for any other theory about our “creation”. But the Anunnaki are probably not from whence the UFOs come; if there are any left (they did have a civil war), they are likely the elites of the world (or empowering the elites behind the scenes).
If you’re interested, the first book in the series is The 12th Planet.
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Talking to yourself is OK. It’s when you start answering yourself that you just might have a bit of insanity.
Bluetooth sure has made mental patients walking down the street stop looking so insane. It used to be a given if you saw a single person walking down the street lecturing someone on just how inappropriate it is to pass judgment on a Navy man’s alcohol consumption habits that you were getting ready to cross paths with a lunatic. Not anymore. Just like it used to be a sure thing that when you saw a car being driven like the driver was drunk that he was drunk, Navy man or not. Not anymore. Cell phones have certainly changed our lives.
Duncan. I’ve told people this for years. As a psychologist you quickly learn:
It is OK to talk to yourself. It is OK to answer yourself, too. But if you have to ask yourself “I’m sorry, could you repeat that?” You may have a problem.
such overt mockery does not bode well…
Props, kudos and 3 huzzahs to that petition’s creator(s)!
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/replace-gil-kerlikowske/Lbk7p73H
You want a petition that will definitely get a condescending tepid response? Sign this one to replace Kerlikowski.
What the heck good would it do to replace Kerli? How is substituting one lying prohibitionist for another going to change anything? We’ve had Thirteen drug czars since Nixon appointed Jerome Jaffe! You’re in a hurry for number 14? WHY?
That is a monumental waste of time…sorry Bailey.
So the petition in this blog post is of such substance? Darkcycle, you clearly want that cookie.
But seriously folks, until the feds feel any blowback from their positions, they’ll have no incentive to change. So far the only effective change has been locally, but you’ll agree the most permanent change will only be achieved federally. Is this the best way to incentive them? No. But until something that works pops up (or until America hears about this guy, Gary Johnson) I’m willing to throw everything at them.
Do I wish there was something of more substance to work towards? Sure. But when someone explains that UFO wingnuts are taken more seriously than drug reformers, I think getting a prohib (any prohib) sacked would be a start. Don’t worry, you’re not the only one longing for change that’s monumental.
No, Bailey I don’t think that the petition asking for a vapid and condescending response is a proper use for my time. It is a mockery of the process. Unfortunately the process is worthy of Mocking. That petition to recall Kerli isn’t mockery (which may not be a total waste of time, since it’s fun), you seem to be serious. Point is, THEY are not.
And suppose, just suppose you succeeded in getting Kerli to step down and drug czar number fourteen appointed. What have you accomplished but change the mask that the beast speaks through?
What happens if you fire Kerli, who doesn’t make policy, and isn’t even able to say ANYTHING OUTSIDE OF A WRITTEN SCRIPT THAT THEY GAVE ON HIS FIRST DAY AS DRUG CZAR? It’s like demanding that the anchorman be fired because you don’t like the news he reads off the teleprompter. Or firing the school bus driver because you don’t like the school he drops your kid off at.
Kerli’s a talking head, if he goes they’ll just find another head to say the exact same words. That’s why. It asks not for a change in policy, but for the removal of a person you may not like. It’s just not a serious answer to anything.
The petitions are a waste of time to begin with if you want to actually change things.
…and yeah, a cookie would be nice.
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I think Gil is the best drugzar that we’ve had in a long time. At least he doesn’t foam at the mouth. Have you looked at the names on the list of likely job applicants? Paul Chabot? Kevin Sabet?? Linda Taylor???
Good lord, it would be a flipping nightmare if Ms. Taylor starting appearing in public. Who could wish that horrid fate on America? Mr. Chabot is probably a dark horse, but still. He’s a proven plagiarist too. Mr. Sabet is a lifelong, dedicated, Know Nothing prohibitionist, by preference and profession. The man makes John Walters look like an actual human being in a side by side comparison. Gil just wanted a job.
Warning: take your anti-emetic before proceeding with your reading!
Replace Gil? No, no, no, no, no!
Duncan, sometimes you just have to vigorously rub people’s faces in the insanity until their faces are red and raw before they realize that their faces are being gently but repeatedly daubed with it.
What’s needed is a DrugCzar whose antics would cause most fence-sitters on this issue to finally tip in our direction.
Being an old fart in his 50’s, I recall certain instances in the past 30 years that proved to be watersheds when it came to embarrassing idiocy in high places. Enough of that, and entire Administrations can be wrecked, their reputations tarnished.
For example, when an Administration hires on people like James Watt, Ronnie Raygun’s first head of the Dept of the Interior. A Fundie loon, who believed that we didn’t need to conserve natural resources because Armageddon was around the corner and it was all moot, anyway. He was only given the position as a sop to the Religious Right folks the Rockefeller Republicans used to help get into power.
He proved to be too wacko for most people and was forced to resign…but not after embarrassing the Hell out of Raygun’s Administration.
So, when it comes to the issue of who should be DrugCzar, the crazier, the better. Rub that crazy in people’s faces, and hard! Make them wake up and realize the crazy was always there.
oh gads Kap… not James Watt… of course Watt – as the example you rightly point him out to be – was one of those that proved a true catalyst and brought a strong reaction in the body politic (and I won’t mention we were talking global warming way back then…). Watt was the one of the best things to happen to the enviro-movement. I despise(d) the man.
Those are OUR faces that the crazy gets rubbed in, Kap’n, I’d like to see fewer casualties, not more. And John fucking Walters wasn’t crazy enough? If not him then that tactic won’t work….
he called beheading an appropriate punishment for drug crimes! The guy was frikkin’ Al Quaida!
Dark, like I said, the crazy was always there. We’re immune to it because we’re aware of it. But ask Joe Blow about the myriad hypocrisies and the incredibly destructive nature of the laws, their costs, etc. and you get a blank stare or worse…because they haven’t been made to realize that what’s been daubed on their faces all this time wasn’t rain but something that smells much worse.
I posted something a few comments back that I should have fleshed out more. Namely, the bit about how society has become warped by the DrugWar, but it happened a la the boiling frog analogy. Slowly, so slowly, over time, the fabric of society has been distorted. But what’s even harder to grasp is that an entire generation has grown up not knowing anything else.
I want to write more, but it would take too long. But just think about what has happened in this country within the span of a single generation. We went from a brief thaw and relative sanity with the decrim movements in the late 1970’s, to what I think of as a high-tech Dark Ages, replete with our own form of Spanish Inquisition where ignorance and outright falsehoods are encouraged by a new church – The Church of the Holy Drug War. Whose Holy Grail is The Purest Pee-Pee Possible. They seek to brainwash kids with their ‘catechism’ of Just Say No. And they’re not even interested in conversion-by-sword; MP5s are much more impressive and noisier, and they dispatch the heathens much more quickly, particularly since most of those ‘heathens’ are unarmed citizens.
Anyone from my era, who thinks about this at all, knows something is seriously amiss. But many of these kids today don’t know a time that didn’t have this crazy stuff happening. As I pointed out in that other comment, to them, the crazy IS normal. And that is the real tragedy as we have bequeathed to the following generation institutionalized insanity.
Well, then there has to be a way other than to ratchet up the crazy to the point where an already inured populace becomes aghast. Like a winch. As long as force is applied, the winch turns and the pawl engages. Continue to apply force and the sequence continues in only one direction until the cable frays and breaks, or the winch is destroyed. In either case the entire apparatus is rendered useless, and nothing proceeds farther. This is easy to stop, but you need to stop applying force and disengage the pawl, otherwise-bango-no device. We have a similar situation with this civilization we live in. If we break it, we’re fucked.
AW, bugger. It’s just like pushing the “door close” button in an elevator. It does no good at all, just gives you something to do while you wait, and you get to feel like you’ve done something.
“Your VOICE in Government”….how condescending is THAT? They give you a voice, but only in the sound proofed room. Nobody can hear you there and frankly, no one cares.
I need a toke- or three.
i read in the newspaper.florida govenor Rick Scott.has appealed to the federal blocking of drug testing welfare folks.He says drug testing is critical for success.And the constution doesn’t apply to you ,if you’re welching of the State. These mutchers are cost tax payers alot of money ,even more so now.but they need to be held accountable for.If your gonna steal money from the government.You should be drug tested.and the constution doesn’t apply to “freeloading drug addicts”
sorry for the grammical error.I’m high
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Wiggle dude, that just isn’t kewl. You’re supposed to be a foaming at the mouth Know Nothing prohibitionist. Please tell me that you’re high on legally prescribed, acredited pharmacy dispensed FDA approved Marinol® or FDA approved Desoxyn® or both! Maybe on you’re high on Mad Dog 20/20, sold by a state licensed vendor?
http://www.bumwine.com/md2020.html
“If your gonna steal money from the government.You should be drug tested.and the constution doesn’t apply to “freeloading drug addicts— Right you are, Wiggly-one…we should test all those getting Government money. And to prove we’re serious about that, we should start with the ones that get the BIGGEST paychecks, and work our way down from there. I’ll support testing welfare recipients only after they’ve tested everybody who gets more money first.
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Mmm, cookies.
Have they looked in the White House and on Capitol Hill? Why not give these politicians DNA tests to confirm that they’re human? But I’ve never understood how it works. If a shape shifter can assume any form he desires why can’t he make his DNA assume any shape he desires? I just make no sense to me. No sense at all. But I don’t claim to be an expert on interstellar DNA manipulation.
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I really think the time has come to use the nuclear option. The truth, reason and logic have all failed us. We know that it would work. Though the cost to us could be huge it’s time to accept it and get this thing over with. The two cannabis law reform advocates demonstrating the plan in the example video make it look so easy without a hint of the mental strain involved, and definitely no acknowledgment that it’s cumulative. They really do capture the essence of the Know Nothing prohibitionist with the performance of the antagonist. But it’s simple, with nothing to incite the incessant in-fighting so prevalent on our side of the table. Four words. How could anyone argue over four lousy words?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raNM0UvR_Bo
Oh silly me. The Cannabinoidians will find a way.
A lot of us took the bait when Obama was elected,actually thinking he would at least start to end the prohibition of marijuana.
And probably a lot of us signed up for newsletters from Obama,,hoping we would get a letter addressing the issue.
Now is the time for all of us to cancel those subscriptions,,if he loses enough supporters at one time from his web page,,he will notice,,he still counts us as supporters if we are accepting his newsletters,,,let’s show him we ain’t.
Did that a while ago Clay. I also gave MoveOn.org the heave-ho. I have given every Democratic fundraiser calling me a detailed list of the reasons I won’t be voting for Obama again, too, before hangigng up on them (they won’t stop talking and they have canned responses to liberals unhappy with Obushma)
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I like the one where they say oh, Mr. Obama is just lulling the Republicans into complacency and after re-election will promptly set our people free. Talk about fantasy land. “Thank you sir, may I have another” indeed.
I think I may have identified why I have so much confusion over (some) people’s utterly irrational/baseless and completely free of reason dismissal of anyone and anything that’s labeled Republican. The very same behavior exhibited towards potheads by the Linda Taylors and Paul Chabots on the other side of the table. It’s really pretty simple, I grew up in Virginia. While I’ve heard people say the State is more “purple” than red nowadays that’s a recent development if actually true and due more to liberal hypocrisy than anything. It certainly wasn’t true in the 1960s, when petty possession would buy you a 20 year/no parole mandatory minimum for petty possession. Neither was there the proverbial snowball’s chance that you’d find a Republican getting elected. That would be because the Republicans took away their slaves you know.
Are we there yet?
Mark them as SPAM and send a message.
diva! I’ll be around tomorrow morn at The prospect and bay woods. Somewhen about 10:30. If yer around, stop by.
Morons can be educated. Bilbray is a prime example.
To be un-politically correct obama is a Lying puppet.
This is petition is chock-full of 100% Pure “Win”!
As of Tues Nov,08 at ~5pm – its at roughly 10,050 signatures…
Oh yeah about taking yourself off email lists & what-not, I saw something cool that one/(some)of the OWS folks thought up – taking the postage paid envelopes for credit card offers from all those (mostly Delaware) banks = and sealing them up (EMPTY) and mailing them off to the banks!
Someone at those banks is going to be getting – and presumably having to open up TONS of “junk mail” – 8^)
I thought of one better, mailing return envelopes for the MPP, DPA, ASA, ACLU, (etc.) and putting those in the “please donate to my campaign” return envelopes along with a post it note with “Priorities” scribbled on it.
Or something along those lines = Basically telling them (or rather letting them realize) that I’m not sending THEM money – Because I have a number of other organizations, campaigns, movements, etc. to help out first…
With the irony being that – IF they’d supported the policies I/We had asked them to, and (for a time) honestly expected them to do. Or at least believe they would at some point, ANYTHING BUT the – “2011 Drug Strategy” Nonsense.
That crap most of us saw back when it was first released a long ago. At least a year iirc – and its 95%+ the same as the previous years “re-hashed” – so to speak… (pun coincidental).
I really don’t have cash to send to any of them anyway – but you can bet I’m not gonna be out recruiting neighbors or donating my time calling people or that sorta thing…
I will try to convey the point that the reason they’re looking at an ‘Enthusiasm Gap’, and ‘Disappointed 2008 Democrat Voters’ -is THIS Issue, it’s a helluva wedge issue for “young people”.
You know, All of those ‘young people’ (actually age 18-34 or so) – that Obama wouldn’t have won without their support/votes… yeah those folks – or rather US folks yep that’s right!
David Plouffe, or Gibbs, or who-the-frack-ever better figure this one out QUICK! And be prepared to find a bigger set of balls (if need be) and do the realistic/pragmatic/populist/plain-as-day “right thing” on the Drug Reform issue.
40 years and a trillion dollars later & Ron Paul is the only one who can see they’re not EVER gonna “Win” that ‘War on Public Enemy Number One’ crap that Nixon started… (sigh)
(Did y’all see the Illinois Straw Poll he won the other day? = Yep, It’s the political crowd/followers that would likely be perfectly comfy here on the couch – (some of them probably are & we’d likely be pretty comfy in his “camp”aign tent).
Personally I’m hoping Gary Johnson pulls a miracle out of his err… pocket & wins the Republican Nomination. Or – maybe He and Ron Paul go for a ‘third party’ Pres/V.P. bid (maybe via Americans Elect?).
Gary Johnson could probably keep Ron Paul in check on the crazy that occasionally falls out of his mouth from time to time.
Paul & Johnson have both used the “State Rights'” – argument for Drug Prohibition to not be at a Federal Level. The Problem is, that the State/Local laws could be just as ‘nonsensical’ as the Fed.Gov’s are now – and end up carrying on with “tough on drugs” Prohib. Laws… and little overall change in the Law(s).
I think Johnson would push for full Legalization of MJ nation-wide, and possible decriminalization of some others (at a later date) = after the Sky Doesn’t Fall on a USA with legal cannabis & use that to base a continually go forward with more rational, non ‘prohibition obsessed’ drug policy.
Mandatory Re-hab is a deal-breaker IMHO, offer people rehab if they want and/or appear to need it = but don’t force people into rehab – that rarely works & just lets the full-fledged addicts to develop the worst type of “social network”, If THAT is “treating it as a more of a Health Issue rather than a Criminal Issue…”, that’s just crap – a different sort of lock-up and a Privatized Rehab “Growth Industry” much like jails have been for the last 10-20+ years!
IDK? But I do know that polls are showing a sizable chunk of the “Center/Middle” – favor the OWS & the Tea Party – aka they distrust & are unhappy with the government & all sorts of gov. policies.
The Republican Field could find themselves with Ron Paul or Gary Johnson on their ticket – or Americans Elect might convince one or both of them to go for a ‘third party’ – and the numbers I’ve heard/seen today – say/show its entirely plausible = with all the people that have given a single digit % approval of Congress I wouldn’t be surprised.
People (like myself) hate the ‘Authoritarian’/’Values Voter’ Republicans, AND the ‘Nanny Stater’/’Not enough huevos to be politically incorrect’ Democrats, almost equally, so I’m ready to see what Americans Elect has to offer come next year!
” taking the postage paid envelopes for credit card offers from all those (mostly Delaware) banks = and sealing them up (EMPTY) and mailing them off to the banks!”
Actually, don’t send them back empty, fill them up with all their own inserts and the envelope in which the stuff arrived, and more junk mail that arrived without an envelope. The postage paid return envelopes will require them to pay postage on ALL that extra weight. Hubby and I began doing that last year, hoping it would decrease the number of credit offers we receive, it did — one particularly noxious bank (Chase) actually sent us a letter (this week) acknowledging that we would receive no more offers from them.
As for the rest of your comment, I agree. Tho, I do think Ron Paul really has more than a snowball’s chance in (that fictitious realm) hell of winning the GOP nomination this year and (unless some kind of illegal vote rigging occurs) win the presidency, too, in spite of the media blackout of his campaign.
Why send ’em empty? They have to deliver them, and the banks have to pay for the postage….glue them to a brick.
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I once read about a guy who would attach them to discarded automobile tires. There are EPA rules for discarding those things as well as being heavy. If you really want to be nasty, can afford to follow up, AND they disregard the EPA rules you can get them a pretty stiff fine. PITA to pursue though.
A third-party candidate might actually stand a chance this time around. In past years there has always be an acceptable republican or democrat in addition to the third-party candidate, but this time the republican candidates are a bad Monty Python sketch and Obama has totally alienated a large portion of the left. A moderate, sane candidate with no baggage like Gary Johnson might do okay…except his anti-prohibition position would probably do him in.
Washington State (and several others) run what is called a “top two” primary. It is specifically set up so no third party candidate can appear on a ballot. The only way to vote a third party here is to write-in. It’s an institutional block. There is also a high likelihood the current supreme court would find a way to block the win of a third party candidate. IIRC they have already signaled that that is exactly what they’d do.
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So how is it that the Libertarians claim to be on the ballot in all 50 States + DC? I’m confused:
http://lpwablog.blogspot.com/
Bob Barr got more votes in 2008 than Ron Paul did in 1988, and the most since Ed Clark in 1980. My very first Presidential vote. [sniffle]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_Party_%28United_States%29#Size_and_influence
They’re not on Washington’s. Period. End of the list. You get the top two in the State’s primary system,and a blank spot for the write in.
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Damn DC, do you have a ringtone on your cell phone from DWR? Is there really an app for that? I was editing until 57 seconds left in the edit period so your post was before I sent my final revision. That was the piece about Bob Barr so it likely doesn’t matter.
I suppose at this point I’ll have to take your word, seeing as you live there and I have absolutely no reason to think you’d fib about such a thing. I’m still confused though.
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Well the good news is that the 9th will hear oral arguments to overturn this outrageous ballot law. So Abe Lincoln wouldn’t have been welcome to have his name on the ballot in Washington State without jumping through a bunch of hoops were he alive now. That makes sense.
http://www.ballot-access.org/2011/10/22/ninth-circuit-hears-oral-argument-in-washington-state-top-two-case-on-november-29/
Oh BTW their is a method for candidates other than the “top two” to get on the ballot. It’s onerous, but it certainly doesn’t prevent it “period”. 2008 was the first ballot where no minor party candidates appeared on the ballot, and I’ve got to admit that in 2008 my mind was more on the imminent collapse of the US economy and being flipping scared to death about life in a fucking madhouse (USA post collapse) so I wasn’t paying much attention to who was on the ballot 2800 miles west of my home. My bad.
I must admit that I was shocked at the rise in the price of handguns and ammunition that year since I had last priced them umpteen years ago. But my wife won’t let me buy any handguns anyway and barely tolerates the ammunition that I’ve stockpiled. I do think lead/copper/gunpowder combinations will stomp gold as an investment if the worst happens. It’s really done very well just based on the underlying current of fear in the US in the last couple of years. .50 caliber is my particular favorite but .380 and 9 millimeter will probably be the better investment just because of the sheer number of guns that caliber that are floating around. Yes, I know how to keep them so they don’t get stale.
Ha!, no, no ring tone, but when you post it comes up on the comments feed first I think. I was reading posts that had come up and I was in a hurry, so I clicked the “comments” button up at the top right of the screen. They come up in chronological order, newest first in that format. You must have JUST commented when I came up.
Oh, and “top two” is only a few years old at this point, so this is the second (?) election where it’s been put into practice. And the effect has been to end the third party candidate in this State.
Good thinking, three things that will hold their value post collapse: Gold, Guns and Drugs. I’ve always said that.
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Ooops, not trying to lie with statistics. I didn’t notice Mr. Paul’s lesser vote total was a higher percentage of the total number of votes than Mr. Barr’s total.
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At least you said “probably.” There’s no realistic basis for the presumption that an anti-prohibition position would “do him in.” What’s the basis for that claim? I’m 51 and the only candidate for POTUS that came anywhere close to being anti-prohibition was Jimmy Carter in 1976, and he got elected. By 1980 that plank had disappeared from his campaign platform and he got defeated. I’m not claiming anything but correlation there, just anticipating people would point out that he got trounced in 1980 (thanking my lucky ducks).
Everybody thinks that everyone else is a foaming at the mouth prohibitionist and believe that their position in favor of ending the epic failure of public policy which we call the war on (some) drugs has no hope of prevailing.
Myself thinks that given the opportunity that people will vote against stupidity. Will we ever get a chance to see if that’s true, or do we go on presuming that people are so in love with proven failure that we just don’t bother giving it a go?
Mr. Johnson’s leaving the State of New Mexico with a billion dollar budget surplus and his absolute trashing of special interests while in office looks mighty appealing against the two Republicans (one dressed in Democrat drag) who are going to be the major party candidates. We just start a whisper campaign that Congress will never let him do it and that he just wants the pothead vote and will promptly shit on us if elected. We point out what a successful strategy that was for Mr. Obama, and just look at Barry foaming at the mouth now.
I want to see an actual vote that backs up the presumption that the American voters embrace stupidity as public policy. I could be wrong but I think you’d be shocked at what happens in the privacy of the secret ballot cubicle.
If we lose, we really haven’t lost anything. If that miracle happens and we win, we clean up. It’s the epitome of a good bet. Nothing to lose or a significant gain. Gamblers live to find bets like that.