Sometimes I wonder if Drug Czar Kerlikowske is even able to hear his own words.
Under drug and racketeering statutes and extradition agreements, 10 Mexican cartel leaders have been convicted in U.S. courts in the last two years but they’re quickly replaced by junior lieutenants willing to use violence to fight one another for control, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.
“In Mexico, there are hundreds of thousands of young men who are in organized crime and are … ready to step up when a leader at any level is captured and taken prisoner,” said Tony Payan, a political science professor at the University of Texas-El Paso and who studies border violence.
Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy R. Gil Kerlikowske agreed but says law enforcement efforts are making a difference.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt there are people who will replace those folks,” Kerlikowske said. “But it is the disruption of the cartels that is helpful and the chilling effect it causes.”
OK, maybe you can interpret him better than I can, but it appears that he just said: “Well it’s true that what we’re doing doesn’t make a difference, but at least it makes a difference.”
And apparently he has his own definition of “chilling effect,” which is something like “all that violence and death,” as in “they were chilling those guys by chopping their heads off.”
That is exactly what he is saying and he is using true ONDCP gobble de goop to say it. The killing is all they can hope to accomplish and of course.spending that 15 billion dollar budget.
A long time ago I knew a lady, a Sephardic Jew who had survived WW2 Morocco during the Vichy/Nazi occupation, who told me how the official state radio would trumpet that the Vichy/Nazis were winning, making all kinds of fanciful claims of victories that were, in fact, defeats…right up to the day the Allies invaded.
Sound familiar, Gil? It ought to. The crazier the propaganda gets, the more certain you are that the side making it is losing. And, if, anything, what Gil said is just plain crazy…
I had such high hopes for Gil….how sad he is quickly becoming.
Given his job description, what choice does he have? Admit his job is a sham and we have wasted hundreds of $billions?
We can only hope we are really in the death throes now. Still got a lot of work to do before another Republican gets voted in and ratchets reform back another 20 years….
But permanentitlt, Republicans are all for small government and states’ rights, which would involve lessening the federal governments power over the drug war, right? Right . . .
I have to agree with Gil, though: law enforcement efforts ARE making a difference. A horrible, deleterious and pernicious difference.
Sonia Sotomayor was the first hispanic Supreme Court Justice and Gil Kerlikowske is the first retard to hold the title of czar. I applaud the Obama administration for its commitment to diversity.
Every time I see the man and his “sad sack” facial expression, I always expect him to just sit down and cry. Wouldn’t hold it against him, either.
Since everyone has turned their backs on him, he can’t even think to speak any longer. Self-awareness, Gil. That’s your “chilling effect!” And it shows.
permanentilt: I had hoped that Kerli was going to be the one to finally stand up and say some thing about the jobs requirement to lie and follow the science,instead we just get more of the same bullshit. Instead of trying to fix the ONDCP and all the agencies under it,he is creating a new problem with his drugged driving scheme and keeping the old policies that have already ruined millions of peoples lives.
He is just another pawn of big industry and special interest groups that are running the war on drugs.
Alex- yeah they SHOULD be against prohibition, but their reality rarely lives up to the rhetoric, Dems are no better, but at least they allow the conversation due to the fact that a majority of Dems and an overwhelming majority of Liberals support reform.
Clay- Me too, I call it SINO, Science In Name Only. He’s still a cop though, science is only allowed if it leads to a bigger crackdown.
Definition of ‘opportunist’
op·por·tun·ist (pr-tnst, -ty-)
n.
One who takes advantage of any opportunity to achieve an end, often with no regard for principles or consequences.
In other words, what the military used to call a ‘ticket puncher’. Someone who only cares about himself, and your usefulness to him in achieving his goals…after which, you’ll be quickly discarded in favor of the next tool.
I never had any illusions about Gil. He knew from his own experience that the DrugWar is a farce. But he took the job, anyway. That immediately showed he was willing to lie to achieve what he wanted. So be it. When it’s all over, he’ll be remembered as much as the last guy in charge of alcohol Prohibition is…whoever he was…
Gil is doing nothing more than carrying Obama’s water. Wanna be angry? Then be angry with Obama and his hypocritical ways.
Why are we still giving a pass to Obama? Does anyone really think he cares about the hundreds of thousands that will be arrested for drugs this year? Obama has been a disgrace on many levels, the highest being his continuation of the drug war.
Vote your conscience in 2012 – vote Libertarian. Yeah, yeah, it’s a wasted vote. But the Libertarian nominee in 2012 will make repealing drug prohibition a signature issue. And for that reason alone should be supported.
Libertarians are not just a bunch of wingnuts anymore…
Daniel,
I just sent in my Cali Primary Ballot. The word “incumbent” never got a mark. Neither did any of the solo candidates where it said “Only pick one!” I’ll also follow that line in November. Same will hold true in 2012.
ezrydn, I’ve noticed his sad face too. It looks like he’s depressed about his job or something.
I need a chilling effect on my Coors light right about now…cold activated bottle!
“The word “incumbent†never got a mark.”
Get out the brooms, we need a clean sweep of all the bastards, maybe after a couple of iterations we’ll get thier attention.
Pretty much all of Obama’s appointees have been incompetent disasters… Kerlikowske, Bernanke, Geitner, Baker, etc.
It’s institutional, I don’t think our government will ever change without an even bigger disaster.
You would think president Barry the Messiah© would choose a better caliber of czars, commissrars and czarinas but all we get is half baked marxist hacks, Clinton retreads and Droopy drug czars.
The ‘chilling effect’ is that they are willing to let 22,000 more souls in Mexico die as a result of prohibition, that they are willing to ruin more lives here in the US due to prohibtion laws.
No wonder Czars usually wind up without their head.