I’m sure a lot of you are familiar with Camp Zoe in Missouri (owned by James Tebeau) and the travesty going on there. I’ve written about it here before. If it’s new to you, it’s a good idea to learn more about it (if you can do so without becoming consumed with rage). It’s a horrendous case of outright theft by the feds of 350 acres of property that was used for concerts.
The case is back in the news again as there has been a settlement.
It’s a pretty sweet deal (for the feds). Despite agreeing that Tebeau didn’t sell drugs or profit from their sale, they get to keep his 350 acres, and, in exchange, Tebeau gets to…. go to prison.
In my imaginary future where an outraged population finally comes to its senses and demands reparations for drug war crimes, not only does Tebeau get his property back, but he’s paid from the tainted assets of all those agents and officials involved in the seizing of his property.
Anyone understand why Tebeau took the deal? Can’t for the life of me find the answer in either article I’ve read on this.
The Feds know how to make an offer that can’t be refused.
hey duncan is your avatar rupert bears mother mrs bear? has the same surreal/sinister quality
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I “borrowed” the image from Business Week so I don’t know it’s origin. But I must say he looks like a happy bear to me. Perhaps that weird bunny rabbit turned him onto some ecstasy…I don’t know. But you’re the second person who’s commented on his apparent dark character. The other guy called him maniacal. You may color me confuzzled.
He took the deal because the Feds threatened to go after his employees and vendors. Since they seized his assets he couldn’t afford proper counsel. The state has unlimited resources, jimmy is just a nice guy who loves music and mistakingly owned the property where he held concerts. This really is a travesty.
The revolution will not be televised.
aye… and even tho’ it’s mid-June, it’s winter in america.
“The revolution will not be televised” but it will be on the Internet.
As a regular attendee of Burning Man, I always wondered why the event was held on “the Man’s” federal BLM land, despite the fact that I’ve heard that the organization that runs Burning Man has been acquiring vast swaths of property. I wonder if this is part of it – they realize that the fed’s can’t steal their own land…. it would be funny if we could seize the Black Rock Desert from the Feds due to the drug activity that occurs at Burning Man.
Yer right…kinda……The Rainbow Family holds its National 4 July gathering (20-30,000) in a Natitonal Forest…This yr 2012 is near Bristol Tenn Peace
Drug activity? at Burning Man?? Say it ain’t so!
=D
’60 Minutes’ delving into medical marijuana issue
http://www.laketahoenews.net/2012/06/60-minutes-delving-into-medical-marijuana-issue/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=60-minutes-delving-into-medical-marijuana-issue
Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett dished his views on Colorado’s medical marijuana laws to CBS’s “60 Minutes†on Monday after the television newsmagazine sent a crew to town to interview the prosecutor for an upcoming segment.
“My emphasis is always public safety,†Garnett said in an interview prior to Monday’s taping. “I don’t see the public safety benefit in prosecuting law-abiding dispensaries or making low-level marijuana cases much of a priority.†‘snipped’
Expected to air in fall,,hopefully before voting day.
ya know… we’ve had LEAP for a few years now and it just seems to be (in my vacuous mind) that their retired criminal justice professional status as drug war/Prohibition critics and foes is making it easier for others still working in the field (of criminal justus) do some critical thinking (and the subsequent soul searching) that in turn allows them to hop off of Nancy’s little red “Just Say No” wagon and agree with what it is we’ve been saying lo these far too many years.
Indeed, methinks today – in spite of all that could be found bad about it – is a very good day for a just-on-general-principles yet resounding Thud!
as far as Camp Zoe and James Tebeau… my vocabulary right now only allows me to utter words inappropriate for a family friendly forum such as the couch so I shall refrain from calling them the porcine copulators I feel them to be.
To Camp Zoe add the Ruch/Southern Oregon Barter Fair (altho’ we eventually won that battle, we lost the fair), Conde’s, Rainbow Farm(!!!), Spanish Canyon… all the underhanded seizures… and it’s simple – the feds. don’t. like. us.
Drug war crimes indeed.
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One good thing about LEAP is that we no longer have to endure the old prohibitionist platitude “if you think merrywanna isn’t _______ just ask any policeman!” That used to be a standard knee jerk response, now discarded.
Umm but he knew people used drugs there.and he allowed it.that’s illegal and he deserves prison.if you don’t snitch ur a bitch who should get hit .
What was he supposed to do? Go around the concert with a gun and threaten anybody using drugs? Oh, right, that’s what the police are for.
People use drugs everywhere.
Wiggles? You okay? You seem off your game. Where is that old enthusiasm? Your trollery is slipping. Well, hope you feel better soon.
makes me miss bigrigbutters.
I have an imaginary future similar to yours but it starts with violent revolution. There is just too much bullying and corruption to be allowed to continue, I wish there was more I could do to help.
Fed & state governments are a bunch of hypocritical crooks, and yet they call me a criminal for what I do at home. I’d say “american values” are a myth.
/rage.
The plea bargaining system came into mainstream in the Justice Department about the same time Nixon declared his War On Drugs. No more clogged court system now. Just mainline justice.
The Feds are harassing Bobby Tuna and trying to shut down the Silver Tour. They’re scared, friends, they’re scared. Leaning on an old guy. Despicable.
http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2012/06/feds_move_to_silence_platshorn_derail_the_silver_t.php
With congress arguing about how much Medicare or Social Security to cut so they can cover the $9 billion increase of the ONDCP’s budget,,the last thing they want is the AARP crowd showing up in DC and protesting,,no matter how you spin it,,arresting people in wheelchairs and using walkers never looks good.
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I’ve been of the opinion that the recent speculation about Mr. Obama flip flopping and endorsing either decriminalization of or even a taxed & regulated market for cannabis was just laughably absurd. But this sure looks like it could be a toe in the swimming pool to make sure the water isn’t too cold to dive in:
Chicago Mayor Emanuel backs marijuana decriminalization
No. It’s a cynical manipulation of a local politician who was once in the White House, but now actually has to calculate the polls. This would have come out of the White House over his dead body. Rahm is a P.O.S. of the highest order.
Law enforcement priorities toward groups tend to vary, as we all know. I drove past a Rainbow encampment a number of years ago that had a hornet’s nest of cops buzzing around it. It looked like a hostage situation. A few months later, I drove past the same place with what looked like a biker convention in attendance, and all I saw was one patrol car.
The idea that Rainbow people are considered a bigger threat than bikers is really surprising, or at least it was to me.
Maybe the authorities are afraid that all that peace and love is going to rub off on them and turn them into liberals. Then what? Liberty and justice for all?
That sordid situation may be all that’s necessary to cause authoritarians to put a gun to their heads and pull the trigger.
They already tried handing out flowers and levitating the Pentagon with some but limited results.
OT
Just caught the last few minutes of a discussion on NPR between the mayors of new Orleans and Philadelphia, wringing their hands at the murder rate of black youths between 16 and 24. Lots of mention of “gang activity” and even “cultural violence” but no mention of the drug war or prohibition. Both called for more Federal funding and action in “these neighborhoods” (i.e predominantly black areas) because this violence affects the wider community and the nation as a whole. No conception that it may be the nation affecting the neighborhoods through drug laws of course. Why is NPR not at least calling these public officials out on this kind of ignorant myopia?
http://www.npr.org/2012/06/16/155169600/mayoral-agenda-what-to-do-about-gang-violence
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Could the fact that NPR suckles from the government teat for the majority of their funding have anything to do with it?
Speaking of gangs, there was a comment under one of the recent decrim articles where one of the prohibitionists said “legalize pot? why not legalize loaded guns for gang members?” Gosh, anyone that can’t tell the difference between a loaded gun and a loaded bong has a screw loose.
In the case of the loaded bong, you have nothing to fear, unless you happen to be an Oreo.
one word:
bong water…
which reminds me (one of those things about having lived six decades is that now it seems everything reminds me of something)…
back in college (mid-late ’70s) I was friends w/ the photo/film instructors, worked as the film classes projectionist, took their classes and often visited their office. They had a load of photo mags and books and one magazine cover caught my eye (Popular Photography I think). It was a cover w/ a photo of a cute kid. Nothing special… until I saw the photo credit and the boy’s name, Ace Bongwater Johnson.
Like the new photo, Allan! You have nothing to fear, as long as you don’t reach for your coffee and accidentally take a swig from the bong. I’ve seen it happen (though thankfully, I caught myself when it almost happened to me!).
I stand corrected.
Duncan20903: “Could the fact that NPR suckles from the government teat for the majority of their funding have anything to do with it?”
4.6% is “the majority of their funding”?
Public Radio Finances
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I constantly forget that genuine questions are constantly mistaken for statements by people on the Internet. You can rest assured that had I meant to make a statement that there would be no question mark involved.
But thanks for answering my question anyway.
Toodles!
I just finished up doing a trade show for my business at Michigan Pride and spending the day with a predominantly gay and lesbian audience. I was struck by how many people were touting Obama as some sort of anti-bigot savior of gay rights. Whether this is true or not (I doubt it)nobody seemed to understand just how anti-civil rights he is on prohibition. I was reminded of nothing so much as the “Pink-washing” conducted by the Israeli government in their attempt to compare gay rights in Israel with Arab neighbors and drive a wedge between two groups of liberals. It’s the old political game of divide and conquer to isolate your enemies. Either we all have civil rights or none of us does.
The Democratic party has been courting the LGBT vote for a long time. Furthermore, many democratic party operatives are also deeply involved in the movement and have been for many years. They are in a position to manipulate the LGBT vote, witness the staged reaction over Obama’s simple re-statement of a pre-election position. His statement in favor of gay marriage is nothing more, nothing less than what he was saying before the first election, but never once acted on or spoke up for since. Yet the voices with bullhorns are proclaiming it some huge victory.
The drug war is still in favor with the democrats.
I hesitate to add that the republican party, or at least its religious wing, was represented by a lone man with a sign warning that hell awaited drunkards liars adulterers and sexual perverts. With opposition like that Obama STILL might lose.
The US Conference of Mayors has asked the federal government to stop prosecuting users and providers of medical marijuana. They are also asking for a change from schedule 1 to schedule 2.
http://tinyurl.com/75od9d7
I wonder how the mayors of New Orleans and Philadelphia voted on that issue?
In the comments section on the Platshorn/Silver Tour persecution is a comment by Rick Rosio describing the DEA raid on his WA State legal dispensary (which gives free cannabis to patients in hospice care) this past Wednesday. Absolutely sickening.
Really good from Mary McCurdy at Firedoglake, I do believe the message is getting through: http://my.firedoglake.com/marymccurnin/2012/06/16/police-women-of-television-land/
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Rats, if backpage.com turns respectable I’ll lose one of the best ad hominem arguments in my quiver for gratuitously insulting Dennis “holier than thou” Romero of the LA Weekly. On the other hand if it’s just underage hookers that are no longer allowed to advertise there will still be plenty of cannon fodder there.
http://losangeles.backpage.com/Domination/
http://losangeles.backpage.com/TranssexualEscorts/
“Though my prattle of righteousness may be built on a foundation of sexual pervasion, I shall not waiver from the path of holiness.” ~~ Dennis Romero
Thanks for sharing that Duncan, I particularly like the ad for “S.W.A.T. Fetish Party-Spanking, Worship, Feet, and more 6/28 Los Angeles – 97”
sounds tailor made for fat-boy police officers to indulge their SWAT raid fantasies
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Oh my word. I thought that you made that up, but there it is in black and white. The people on those lists have so much imagination!
But those are the people that pay the bills for Mr. Romero so he can write how horrid are the people trying to get medicine to the sick.
A new smartphone app called ‘Stop-And-Frisk Watch’ is being deployed in New York City to record police wrongdoings.
Roughly 75,000 downloads so far in anticipation of the NYC Father’s Day march against stop-and-frisk policies. The app is being offered by the NYCLU. Group gatherings everywhere could benefit from this new protection.
http://www.theroot.com/views/stop-and-frisk-app
If we’re gonna have total surveillance, let’s at least make it a two-way street 🙂
NYT feature piece on the Sinaloa Cartel:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/magazine/how-a-mexican-drug-cartel-makes-its-billions.html?_r=1
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Gosh I feel so sorry for the poor, beleaguered prohibitionist parasites! Propaganda is so much more difficult to spread when it has to compete with the truth!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/easing-of-state-marijuana-laws-can-complicate-parents-drug-talk-with-their-kids/2012/06/17/gJQAveMWjV_story_2.html
Well, the site didn’t take my comment, so I’ll drop it here:
I’m not clear on how medical marijuana laws complicate anything. I explained the differenct between “medicine” and candy when my child was a toddler. I presume every parent does. And that medicine is for illness, AND that the medicine cabinet was off limits. Not really complicated.
What’s complicated is talking to your children about “drugs” the way NIDA and the ONDCP want you to talk to your children about “drugs”. You see, On the one hand you have to explain that “drugs” are bad but that “medicines” aren’t REALLY the drugs you are talking about. Once they are confused by why “drugs” are bad but drugs (minus the quotation points) are okay, (but only for SOME stuff), you get to explain that you can abuse drugs (minus the quotation points) just like you can “drugs” (with the quotation points). Once you’ve tackled that improbable explanation, you will undoubtedly be asked “Why are “drugs” bad?” Then you can move on to the real thrust of the conversation: protecting your child’s health. Then, if you go with the ONDCP model, you explain the physical risks of “drugs”. Once you’ve gone through the baddies, like Meth and Heroin, you will get to marijuana, since it IS the most widely used “drug”. Now you find yourself throwing every word you’ve said so far into doubt…you get to explane that marijuana is not a “drug” (with the quotes) because it is BAD for you (it hasn’t been proved to have any ill effects whatsoever, and lets not confuse a popular delivery mode, smoking, with the consumption of marijuana. Smoking it is likley bad for you. The pot? Not at all). It is because the government SAYS it’s bad for you. Either that or you lie to them, and then everything you told them that could legitimately protect them will be discarded when they discover that lie.
Maybe it’s just me, but I certainly think the truth is quite a bit easier. I certainly see an argument for providing my child with accurate information.
It’s an AP story so it’s showing up on media outlets everywhere. It just happened that the WaPo was the first place I saw it.
Here’s a link to many more of the same
Here’s my effort:
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It is so important as a parent to talk to your child about marijuana. Because if you don’t have “the talk” with your child, someone else will. That’s just a fact. And that person might be someone who doesn’t have your child’s best interests at heart – like a politician or a D.A.R.E. officer. Is that something you want – your child to get his first “lesson” about marijuana from a D.A.R.E officer? There’s no question that the conversation can be a difficult one for some parents. Kids have a way of getting to the heart of a matter, and they can ask some really tricky questions like: “daddy, why are the bad men hurting people just for growing a plant?” No parent wants to look into their child’s sweet, innocent little face and have to explain things like ignorance, fear, hatred, racism, corporatism, and greed. It’s natural to want to protect your child from those things. But the reality is you can’t. Those kinds of evil are out there, and your child is going to have face them some day. It’s your job to make sure they’re ready when that day comes. Some parents find it easiest to give their child a book to read and then ask their child to come to them with any questions. I think that’s fine. There are certainly a number of great titles out there. For example, my nephews seemed to really enjoy “The Emperor Wears No Clothes” by Jack Herer. But don’t think that simply handing your kid a book is the end of your responsibility. And make sure you have an answer to what could prove to be the most difficult question: “daddy, what are you doing to stop this?”
Yeah, it gave me the option of logging in through facebook, but it wouldn’t take my comment. Even though I had the comment bar and a submit button. It didn’t show my name, either. I’m gonna try again.
Nope, wouldn’t take it.
Strapping!!!
Francis, the very high quality of yours shamed me into refurbishing an old boilerplate:
Talk to your children!
Kids can ask some tough questions but those concerning prohibition are actually fairly easy to answer. Be straightforward. Explain concisely how the unconscionable acts of parasitic prohibitionists (at all levels of our bi-partisan police-state) have raised gang warfare to a level not seen since the days of alcohol bootlegginÂg; Âhow these despicable monsters have creating a prison-forÂ-profit synergy with evil drug lords and terrorists; how they were able to remove many of our cherished and important civil liberties, putting many previously unknown and contaminateÂd drugs on our streets; how they’ve overcrowdÂing the courts and prisons, making it increasingÂly impossible to curtail the people who are really hurting and terrorizing others; and how they’ve helped to evolve local street gangs into transnatioÂnal enterpriseÂs, with intricate power structures that reach into every corner of society, and with significant social and military resources at their disposal.
Then read them the following quote from Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampfâ€
“The State must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation.â€
Finally, preparing for the worst can be difficult but helpful, and as parents, it is our duty to prevent it from happening. But our children need to know that It’s always possible to prevent a dire situation turning into an irreversibly very bleak one; explain to them what our very wise forefathers did in 1933!
The one thing that REALLY pisses me off these days is the new ONDCP/”Partnership =(For a ‘Squeaky-Clean’ box of 1950’s style “Squares”), Full of Stupid = as in Ignorant, Moralistic & Judgmental Americans)” commercials!
“My mom is addicted to denial…” = (“Because that’s always the first sign…” AND the first step in circular logic) #1. If she “lost pills” her Doc – in most states (all AFIAK) would require her to file a police report to get a replacement refill & after the 1st time they would refuse to believe her at all So this kid who “keeps taking her pills” crap would last a month, 2 tops!
The even worse one: “My mom is a Hardcore-Enabler…”
Yeah, cause you know how hard must be for ‘PP’ parents to push lies on their kids, if other parents don’t hold to the party line (or rather “no-parties” line)…
I keep thinking, yeah ‘It’s because she doesn’t care about you’ = Yep, she’d be WAY better of partying in an abandoned/(foreclosed) house, or a seedy motel room or highway underpass, etc.
Why let teenagers drink some beer & smoke a little weed at home in a safe chaperoned environment? I’m sure her mom would feel much better if she was found dead in a ditch, got raped in that seedy motel after the prom, or = well you get the idea…
Fraking pisses me off EVERYTIME they come on = which seems to be once an hour – at least!
I can’t believe they’re wasting our tax dollars on that crap! Well, I can believe it, I just can’t stand the thought of it… I want something horrible to happen to one of their kids = Does that make me Evil??
Rodney King is dead, and they’re going to (at least try to) blame merrywanna:
R.I.P. Rodney
Roberto Unger, Obama’s Former Harvard Law School Professor, Says The President ‘Must Be Defeated’
http://huff.to/LtmUYH via @HuffPostBiz
He makes a good case for not voting for a Democrat or Republican, but especially not for Obama.
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Wow, some people are really scared of the big, bad Romney. I can’t even imagine being scared of a man named Mittens.
“In my imaginary future where an outraged population finally comes to its senses and demands reparations for drug war crimes”
Pete, damn it I feel like that time more than ever could be now. I just can’t see it NOT changing either before or after the election. My bet is before.