This cracked me up.
Opponents of Massachusetts Marijuana Initiative Accidentally Advertise a Spoof of Themselves (Jacob Sullum at Hit and Run)
The official voters’ guide that was mailed to every household in Massachusetts beginning last week includes a Web address for the No on Question 3 committee, which is urging voters to reject a ballot initiative that would legalize the medical use of marijuana and authorize dispensaries where patients can obtain it.
The address, logically enough, is votenoonquestion3.org, but the committee settled on that name without bothering to register it. Whoops.
On Tuesday a savvy satirist registered the URL, where you can now find Onion-esque items with headlines such as “FACT: Marijuana Is the Gateway Drug to Twinkies,” “FACT: No Marijuana User Has Ever Been Successful” (above a collage of famous pot smokers’ photos), and “Elementary School Counselor Speaks Out Against Medical Marijuana” (quoting Mr. Mackey, the guidance counselor on South Park).
No on Question 3 spokesman (and former ONDCP official) Kevin Sabet told The Boston Globe, “It’s funny and upsetting, I guess, at the same time.” No, it’s just funny.
Yeah, Jacob’s right. It’s just funny.
According to the Boston.com article, they even first blamed medical marijuana supporters for their mistake:
The group sent out a press release saying proponents of medical marijuana were tampering with the democratic process through “underhanded efforts.†But, Sabet said, the committee made a mistake.
Go check out the spoof website. It’s a real blast!
[Note: I really didn’t plan on even mentioning Kevin’s name for awhile, but he just keeps popping up everywhere as the voice of prohibition.]
If Sabet wants to be the last prohibitionist to stick his head up as legalization and his career wind down at the same time,,,fine.
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I’m sure Mr. Sabet will find lots of work for the campaign to re-criminalize merrywanna after re-legalization. Even if that doesn’t pan out there’s always work for a professional liar, and he’s in the elite level of that profession. Believe me, it takes talent to do what he does without laughing.
Go check out the “real” no on 3 website. Typical Sabet LIES and fearmongering all over the thing.
The spoof site is not only much funnier, but it’s also much more accurate, like the picture from the site that Pete posted.
If this had happened in a state other than Massachusetts, I would be worried that some idiots would believe the stories on the site…even so, I wonder. RI, VT, ME have all had MMJ and not gone to rack and ruin, so I suspect that even the staunchest in MA will exercise the logical parts of the brain and vote yes…excepting those whose livelihoods depend on keeping the status quo
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The funny thing is that the prohibitionists are talking about the alleged “problems” in CA & CO. A perfect set up to point out the other NE States that do have a medicinal cannabis patient protection law.
“The group sent out a press release saying proponents of medical marijuana were tampering with the democratic process through “underhanded efforts.†But, Sabet said, the committee made a mistake.”
One thing I’ve noticed about fanatics is a tendency to engage in psychological projection. “Dr. Sabet’s friends have just provided a perfect example by accusing the spoof Website of doing what he and his ONDCP friends have done for years. “Legally’. Says so right in their charter.
The Onion should hire him next. It’s almost like Tourette’s Syndrome, only, unlike those poor souls, afflicted with something they can’t control, his unintentional, revelatory gaffes are quite amusing.
Just went there. Let me catch my breath, ’cause my gut hurts from laughing.
BRILLIANT!
And…I’ll bet a lot of those prohibs have never watched South Park, either. The cultural context will be like the Shuttle used to: fly so far over their heads they don’t even know it’s there. More proofs of a generational shift that left “Dr.” Sabet and his supporters behind in the cultural dust.
Makes me wonder if the mammals felt pity for the dinosaurs. Somehow, I kinda doubt it. Not having to dodge giant piles of dinosaur shite alone must have been a huge relief. We’ll probably feel the same way after we win; this prohib shite has to be almost as bad.
I finally figured out what makes Sabet and Chabot so desirable to the ranks of prohibitionists: they’re the token Generation X-ers… like those rare people of color in the GOP, geriatric prohibitionists will always push them into the front row to make it appear that they have balance and diversity.
Sabet is Gen-X? What the filly? When did that happen?
born ’79 so he could pass as generation Y; even better for tokenist purposes
Dinosaurs were still dangerous until the last one exited stage left. Mock the prohibitionists by all means but remember: “the man is wise, you are still an outlaw in his eyes”.
And like all cornered rats, prohibitionists are getting more panicked and frantic as they circle the wagons. They know they are on the wrong side (they must know, just in denial) – but they’re stuck on a track that provides good wages and benefits. What will they do when prohibition ends? WOrk at McDonalds?
OT, but a very goodf article all the same.
From AlterNet: A Jaw-Dropping Explanation of How Governments Are Complicit in the Illegal Drug Trade.
The drug war is far, far more than just simply criminals at work, says scholar Oliver Villar.
from the article:
The following interview helps us understand the drug war from a dramatically different perspective than the one the corporate media paints. Instead the traditional portrayal of the war on drugs as a fight between law enforcement and illicit drug dealers, scholar Oliver Villar explains that the illegal drug trade is a tool of empire (as) a means of “social control” as much as profit. Villar, a lecturer in politics at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst, Australia’s insight is well worth the read. (Emphasis mine – k.)
A lot of this we already knew. Couldn’t help but know, as any reformer’s catechism invariably bumps into the links between organized crime and national intelligence agencies. But it’s a good read, all the same.
1) The VNG (Federation of Dutch Municipalities) has said that it will refuse to help expand the ‘wietpas’ over the rest of the country in 2013.
http://www.powned.tv/nieuws/binnenland/2012/09/gemeenten_weg_met_wietpas.html
2) In Rotterdam (no wietpas there yet), the VVD (party responsible for the ‘wietpas) has publicly expressed it’s fears for the same problems as those highlighted by Maastricht’s Mayor, Ono Hoes (also VVD).
http://www.powned.tv/nieuws/binnenland/2012/09/rotterdam_vreest_komst_wietpas.html
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Until today I didn’t have a clue that a Supreme Court (in this case Arkansas) could decide a case without hearing oral arguments.
http://www.ajc.com/news/ap/health/ark-court-no-oral-arguments-in-marijuana-lawsuit/nR98h/
Isn’t Arkansas where you can buy uncle dad Fathers Day cards?
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Why did the US get Arkansas and Canada got Saskatchewan? The US had first choice.
Great poster Pete of ‘keep drug dealers employed’. Why not have one similar to it that says, “Keep illegal drug money up and running†with symbols of 9/11 (since an inside job akin to an Extremist Muslim attack would also use drug money the way Hezbollah and the CIA us drug money –so it’s a well known fact drug money created 9/11 and none of this ‘not thought out’ rich Saudi princes and oil money conspiracies from your uneducated loons who don’t bother to travel to 3rd world nations themselves kind of nonsense) and drug money killing and wounding U.S. troop in Iraq or Afghanistan . . . or something dealing with drug money influencing war governments and local tribes with drawn pictures of a group of naked little Pashto girls in the process of being raped by a group of old bearded Taliban members in Afghanistan (who make $100 million a year in dope as you have read from numerous sources) –or the same happening in Africa or Mexico or Central America . . . since we know the odds of child rape significantly increases when drug money influences the ones who have the power in such nations (and rape is used to get family members to kill U.S. soldiers and NATO and Coalition and ISF members etc –rape forces political and economic submissions as well) . . . controversial yes, but just as true as sincerely believing one plus one equals two. Like I always say Pete, Drug (or Marijuana) legalization has absolutely nothing to do with people using drugs legally . . . Marijuana legalization has more to do with not blowing up buildings as it does a green leaf being smoked or grown or eaten –and that is the Real World –one where American civilians are badly misinformed by lack of travel and Media.
A new book co-written by Australian Professor Oliver Villar, Cocaine, Death Squads, and the War on Terror: US Imperialism and Class Struggle in Colombia, covers much of what you’re describing:
http://tinyurl.com/924jbue
All political science regarding prohibition is now on track to destroy it. And this is happening while popularity for the drug war looks as if its taken a high dive off a steep cliff. Prohibition is doomed.
Drug prohibition has affected Latin America more than the Panama Cannal, Monroe Doctorine and Teddy Corollary . . . could it be American drug policy has affected Mexico more than the Mexican War and Mexican Cession?
It is crazy the way that we advertise and politicize…I think we need to go about it completely differently. ANyways…I got clean and sober with the help of a sober living called New Life House. Check out their site if you are looking for help. New Life House – A Structured Sober Living
sorry Eddie, I swore off mystery meat… take thee and thy Spam elsewweb. ok…?
Someone should create a spoof Vote No On Question 3 Facebook page to compete with the official one. They even screwed up on the short name for their page and VoteNoOnQuestion3 is still available. The spoof web site already has promotional materials, facts, and news all ready for you to use to create a Facebook page and link back to VoteNoOnQuestion3.org. Heck, just for grins you could create a complimentary Twitter page at @VoteNoOnQuestion3 since it doesn’t exist, either.
Somehow reading between the lines, I have a feeling that Sabet meant that the reason it was ‘upsetting’ was because it made perfect sense that some of those stereotypes were ridiculed.