US Marijuana Party

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

The human commodity

By Kristen Zambo
Naples Daily News (subscription), FL
Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Drugs long have been the most lucrative illegal cash cow for smugglers, topping the list as the No. 1 illicit trade run into this country.

But another vein has been tapped as a veritable gold mine for men and women who make their living in the underground world of trafficking.

Today, people are bought and sold like commodities. And they are funneled between countries as buyers and sellers swap cash for workers in back alleys and border towns that once were home to such exchanges over guns and drugs.

America waged virtual wars against drugs and guns in the 1980s and 1990s.

But trafficking in people is gaining an edge and earning smugglers more money than ever before, investigators say.

Of the three most prevalent types of trafficking crimes, drugs still rank in the top slot, said Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Molloy, second-in-command at the federal prosecutor's office in Fort Myers. But human trafficking now has replaced gun-running for second place, he said, kicking guns into third.

"It has surpassed trafficking in arms. It will soon surpass drugs,"

Molloy said. "About 800,000 to 1 million people are slaves now (around) the globe.

"Slavery's about money," Molloy said. "Drugs go into somebody's arms or up somebody's nose."

But people, if kept healthy enough to work hard, produce a much more unlimited supply of cash for their captors, he explained.

According to a report by Florida State University's Center for the Advancement of Human Rights, replacing a slave in the South before the Civil War cost the modern equivalent of $40,000. But today, people can be purchased for as little as $90.


Drugs, Slaves, Guns.
Our government takes full advantage of these three revenue sources.

Example: If you smoke a joint, the govenment's multi-billion dollar a year Drug War will send men with guns to force you into the slave labor camps of the prison-industrial complex.

Question: How is the government's participation in the forced labor market morally superior to that of the "smugglers" they are prosecuting?

Jury convicts Apalachicola doctor of causing 5 deaths by painkillers

Orlando Sentinel, FL
AP
01/31/06

PENSACOLA -- A federal jury convicted an Apalachicola doctor Monday of causing the deaths of five of his patients through overdoses of highly potent painkillers, including morphine and oxycodone.

Dr. Thomas G. Merrill kept his head down as the verdict was read, but family members sobbed loudly as the 70-year-old former Air Force doctor was taken into custody.

U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers set an April 21 sentencing. Merrill could be sentenced to life in prison.

Give My Plants Back

Chambersburg Public Opinion, PA
01/31/06

Also on the sentencing list today is Ryan Dover, one of two alleged drug dealers who chased down a pair of plainclothes state troopers they thought had stolen marijuana plants they had planted in Upper Strasburg.

Dover had been charged with attempted robbery, conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance, aggravated assault and carrying a firearm without a license, but the robbery and assault charges will not be prosecuted under a plea agreement reached between his attorney and the district attorney's office.


Program eradicates marijuana plants

By NATE BIRT
Columbia Missourian, MO
01/31/06

More than 10,000 cultivated marijuana plants and 4.5 million wild ones were eradicated in 2005 as part of a state program, according to a news release Monday from the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

Law enforcement agencies made 450 related arrests, the release said.

Operation Cash Crop was begun in the 1980s, said Lt. Tim Hull of the patrol’s public information and education division. Funded in part by federal grant money, the operation draws in law enforcement agencies from across the state including the Missouri National Guard and local law enforcement officials. Different organizations become involved as they are needed, depending on the location of the plants and whether officials are already conducting surveillance of an area, Hull said.

He said the passage of time has made finding wild marijuana especially important because of the high THC content built up in it. The transportation of hemp rope during one of the world wars resulted in marijuana’s proliferation along railroad tracks and ditches, Hull said.

“It’ll grow just about anywhere in Missouri,” Hull said, but an especially large quantity grows in the northwest part of the state. Forests in the state also contain marijuana plants, he said. Once the plants have been gathered, they are incinerated.

Information about plants can be reported anonymously to law enforcement by calling 800-223-9333.


Lt. Hull is clearly spouting outrageous nonsense. He might as well claim that the moon is made of cheese.

Save Steve Kubby

Our friend and comatriot in the fight for Liberty Steve Kubby is fighting for his life in the Placer County, California jail.

He is being denied medial marijuana, which is legal in California, to treat his rare adrenal cancer.

Please visit Kubby.com and help out in any way that you are able. Let's not let Steve become another Peter McWilliams.

Cannabis Competitors Roll to Victory

By Ryan Grandov
Daily Nexus, CA
January 30, 2006

Approximately 400 people gathered on the grass in Anisq’Oyo’ Park on Saturday afternoon to celebrate the skills of Isla Vista’s best blunt and joint rollers at the 2nd Annual Joint Rolling Contest, nearly tripling the event’s attendance from last year.

Hosted by the UCSB Chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) the event ran from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday and featured competitions in four rolling categories - fastest, fattest, freestyle and primo - with separate events in each category for blunts and joints.

Monday, January 30, 2006

Biodiesel

alfafarmers.org
windows media file
November 24, 2004

Alabama Farmers explain soybean biodiesel

If my hair had been tested for drugs in the '60s . . .

By Bill McClellan
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
01/30/2006

CBC high school is a private institution and has the absolute right to drug-test its students. Furthermore, high school kids should not be using illegal drugs.

Still, I get chills when I think about the school's plan for mandatory drug testing. Part of it is the libertarian in me. We are a free people - although getting less free all the time - and none of us is guilty until proven innocent.

The presumption of innocence should include high school students.

This is BEAUTIFUL!

DRUG-POLICY OFFICIAL FAILS TO SWAY SENATE

COMMITTEE SENDS MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL FORWARD

The Bush administration got involved in New Mexico's medical marijuana issue Friday, sending a top drug-policy administrator to testify against SB158.

But David W. Murray, a special assistant to national drug czar John Walters, had little or no effect on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which gave the measure a do-pass with bipartisan support.

And some senators said Murray's presentation was heavy-handed .

Murray told the committee that marijuana is an addictive substance with very serious health consequences , has no proven medical value and can lead to "serious mental illness ," depression and suicide.

He likened medical-marijuana proponents to "medicine shows, traveling charlatans and snake-oil salesmen" selling phony "tinctures, magical herbs and remedies." Murray said medical marijuana is an issue that has been brought forth not by the medical profession but by advocates of drug legalization.

"They use emotion, they use suffering patients, they use anecdote," he said. And in a statement that some committee members criticized, Murray added: "I regard much of that as cynical and manipulative."

Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen , took him to task for those words, pointing out that sponsors of crime legislation often bring victims of crimes to testify without being called "cynical and manipulative ."

"I don't know how you do it back East," Sanchez told Murray, "But this is the people's house. Everybody has a right to be here just as much as you do. When you said this to us, you showed us where you were really at. I don't think you should go to a state and say such things about their people."

Some of Murray's toughest criticism came from Republicans on the Judiciary Committee.

Noting his argument that marijuana has no medicinal value, Sen. Clint Harden, R-Clovis , said, "We are not talking about the healing power of marijuana. The purpose of this is to reduce pain."

Murray noted that the federal Food and Drug Administration has not approved marijuana for medical treatment. The FDA, not politicians, should make some determinations, he said.

Sen. Rod Adair, R-Roswell , disputed statements by Murray and some state law-enforcement representatives that medical marijuana will increase use of the drug. He compared the bill to the concealed-carry law, which lets people apply for permits to carry hidden guns. Some opponents said that law would give criminals the right to carry concealed weapons.

"But robbers are already doing that," Adair said. Likewise, those who smoke marijuana illegally are doing so without a medical-marijuana law, he said.

Sen. John Grubesic, D-Santa Fe, told Murray he had a hard time accepting the claim that medical marijuana is "the huge bogey man you want it to be."

But Sen. Bill Payne, R-Albuquerque , said the bill boils down to a state challenge of the federal Controlled Substances Act and "whether or not the government has the right to control drugs."

The bill's sponsor, Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque , responded that all it does is tell a small number of medical patients that the state will not prosecute them for using marijuana.

The measure goes on to the Senate floor, where a spokesman for the Senate said it could be heard as early as Tuesday. Last year, a similar bill that the Senate passed died in the House.

SB158 would let patients with debilitating medical conditions, including cancer and AIDS, use marijuana to treat pain and nausea caused by serious diseases and in some cases the side effects of treatment for those diseases.

The state Department of Health would administer a program under which doctors would be allowed to recommend marijuana for their patients. The marijuana used in the program would be grown in a secure facility by the state or a private agency contracting with the state.

Roanoke methadone clinic doesn't cause problems predicted

Daily Press, VA
By the Associated Press
January 29, 2006

ROANOKE, Va. -- A methadone clinic that opened one year ago to treat western Virginia drug addicts has not brought higher crime to its northwest neighborhood, as residents had feared.

Wetumpka DA Does About Face

By Marty Roney
and Mike Linn
Montgomery Advertiser

WETUMPKA -- An increasing caseload has a local prosecutor looking for ways to give some people who run afoul of the law a second chance.

District Attorney Randall Houston represents the 19th Judicial Circuit, which includes Autauga, Chilton and Elmore counties. He's seeking legislation to establish a pre-trial diversion program for first-time, nonviolent offenders.

"As the counties in the circuit grow, we are seeing more and more cases involving people who basically just made a stupid decision," said Houston, who is known for his hard-nosed approach to justice and sometimes inflammatory comments about crime and criminals. "They are in their mid-20s to late 40s, have good jobs and families and have never been in trouble before. For whatever reason, they decide to try marijuana and get caught. They deserve to face some type of consequences, but I don't think you should destroy someone's life in a situation like that."

Under the proposed program, a person would plead guilty and participate in a six- to nine-month counseling program and pay any and all restitution and court costs. If they complete the program, the charge won't go on their record. The person would be responsible for paying the $200 to $300 cost of the program.

"I don't want the taxpayers footing the bill for this. I want the person who did the crime paying the cost," Houston said. "If they don't complete the program, they go back before a judge and we start all over again. A felony follows you forever. There are ways to get your record expunged, but an FBI number doesn't go away. Under this program, a person who gets a little sideways can still go to college, keep their job, vote or even go to law school."

READ MORE

Hell, sounds like Randall Houston was in attendance at my speech last week in his town along with the mayor and it looks as though some of what I said is rubbing off on them.

I personally don't feel diversion programs are needed for people who smoke pot....but this is a small step in the right direction and much better than prison.

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Teens explore law enforcement


By Velda Hunter
Brazosport Facts (subscription), TX
January 29, 2006

LAKE JACKSON — With skill and precision, the young uniformed men and woman moved through the room searching for drugs, trying not to be distracted by the handcuffed, ranting woman laying face down on the floor.

Digging through a box of crayons, underneath cleaning bottles and cabinets for this skills test, the team of four Explorers from College Station searched every cranny for anything that appeared out of place after entering the room Saturday at Lake Jackson Intermediate School with plastic guns and flashlights in hand.

“You better watch yourself. You better watch your back,” the woman on the ground yelled.

But it didn’t distract the trained Sarah Mwarabu, a high school junior, from her task. Team members Jonathan White, Trae Williams and Travis Sullivan weren’t swayed either. The four are either pondering or pursuing law enforcement careers. Their performance during the scenario drew mostly compliments and little criticism from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent judging the category.

“This is the closest thing to the real thing,” said White, a college freshman who’s been an Explorer for more than six months. Within 30 minutes, the warrant that ushered them into the dim room with the loud television resulted in the arrest of a woman and the seizure of substances resembling cocaine and marijuana, including some found hidden underneath the top of a fish tank.

“There are so many little places where stuff can be hidden,” Williams said.

The team was one of about 30 Explorer posts that conducted drug raids, worked bomb and crime scenes, handled domestic disturbances and stopped drivers for misdemeanor and felony charges as part of a statewide competition hosted by Lake Jackson Police Explorer Post 390.

The Explorer program was developed through the Boy Scouts of America. Explorers are young men and women ages 14 to 21, who are interested in law enforcement. Taught certain aspects of law enforcement by police departments, the students participate in area competitions using the skills acquired.

Multi-agency police effort searches home, finds small amount of cannabis


LINDA N. WELLER
Alton Telegraph, IL
01/28/06

ALTON -- Twenty-one police officers and sheriff’s deputies converged on a suspected drug house in North Alton to carry out a search warrant Friday morning, taking three people into custody.
The 8:50 a.m. arrests at the house in the 700 block of Sanborne Street were without incident and took only a few minutes.

Police later released two of the people, a man and woman.

Another man was held at Alton City Jail, but he was not charged with a crime as of late Friday afternoon. The search turned up a small amount of cannabis, Alton Deputy Police Chief Jody O’Guinn said.

O’Guinn said police obtained the search warrant because undercover officers have made drug buys at the house.

"We have had issues at that house since January 2004," he said, among them a home invasion inMarch.

Police have had contact since 2001 with the man they kept in custody, he said.

Fifteen officers from the Alton Police Department’s Tactical Response Team, four from the Granite City Police Department and two from Madison County Sheriff’s Department participated in the raid.

O’Guinn said the authorities worked together "for experience," as all of the three law enforcement units are members of Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System. The system is a mutual aid consortium of 784 agencies that share manpower and emergency response equipment.

Alabama Judge Promotes Drug Court

Hooray for Judge Pete Johnson!!

I have been following his work in Alabama since I became involved in the drug policy reform battle. This guy actually QUIT the Sentencing Commission because according to him they weren't doing anything that would make an actual difference. He even suggested making pot possession a non-jailable offense.

His email is included at the end of this article. If you are an Alabamian and you agree this is better than prison please write Judge Johnson and express your thanks for his work.

He deserves it.


Drug courts an alternative to reduce prison overcrowding
Sunday, January 29, 2006
PETE JOHNSON

We have a severe prison overcrowding problem in Alabama. The Alabama Sentencing Commission reports that 2,974 defendants sentenced for drug possession and possession of marijuana were serving time in Alabama prisons as of Dec. 30, 2005.

The Sentencing Commission urges that the Legislature pass sentencing guidelines based on Virginia's sentencing guidelines. The Governor's Task Force on Prison Overcrowding is calling for alternatives to prison for nonviolent offenders. A better alternative is to set up drug courts in every county.

In Alabama, we lock up people who are sick so we do not have room to lock up people who have hurt us. Every time a judge sends someone to prison, someone else gets out. We ought to give nonviolent offenders with drug problems a chance to change their lives before we lock them up.

There is an identifiable cycle of drug use and crime. In 1995, when I had been a district judge in Jefferson County for 11 years, I became concerned because I was seeing the same defendants coming through my court over and over, often on drug-related charges. We decided we should try to break the drug use and crime cycle. The police chiefs, the sheriff and the district attorney agreed to support the creation of a drug court, so in January 1996, we started one.

I have special experience in this area, having been a judge since 1984 and a lawyer in private practice and a deputy district attorney in Birmingham for more than nine years before that. Locking up drug addicts to punish them does not change them. They just keep coming back into the justice system. When we started drug court, we didn't know if we would be successful. I remember saying, "If we can get just one person to get off drugs, go to work and stay drug free, then we will all win."

Well, we have won more than 2,000 times to date.

Drug possession cases and forged prescriptions are eligible for drug court. Drug sales and drug trafficking cases are not eligible. To be eligible for drug court, a defendant must have no prior sale, distribution or trafficking cases. The defendant must have no history of violence, must have no pending cases and must not be on probation anywhere. A defendant must have no prior firearms convictions, and there cannot be any firearms connected with the arrest in the drug court case.

Drug court offers treatment and accountability rather than jail or probation. We require the offender to plead guilty, come back for regular reviews, submit to random drug tests, pay fees and court costs, perform 100 hours of volunteer service and remain drug and alcohol free for one year.

Nine years ago, Joseph was our first drug court graduate. Joseph had been addicted for 30 years. I met with Joseph last week to see how he was doing. Joseph has been drug free for 10 years and has continued to test drug free.

Here is what Joseph said to me: "Knowing someone cared enough not to send me to prison was an encouragement. Drug court gave me hope. Drug court gave me the option to become productive. I used drugs to live and lived to use drugs before drug court. Drug court provided me with the connections I needed to get drug free and stay drug free. Drug court helped me discover who I am. It led me to deal with my feelings, teaching me to live with life on life's terms. And drug court let me know if I didn't change, they offered me jail. Now I surrender to life on life's terms every morning. Drug court is where takers become givers. Drug court to me is a blessing."

We have the authority to handle drug cases in every county in drug court. On Dec. 5 of last year, I wrote every judge in the 49 counties in Alabama without a drug court and offered to help them start their own. I hope the Legislature will require every county in Alabama to start a drug court. Those citizens who have an addiction deserve a chance. If they don't change their lives, then they will be sentenced to prison. But if we can change them and make them live drug free, we all win.

Pete Johnson is a Jefferson County district judge.

E-mail: judgejohnson-0601@brooknet.com.

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Weekly Digest

thehim has updates over at Blog Reload and his always excellent and comprehensive Drug War Roundup over at Daily Kos.

Check'em out!

I hate this BITCH!!



LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) -- Conservative commentator Ann Coulter, speaking at a traditionally black college, joked that Justice John Paul Stevens should be poisoned.

Coulter had told the Philander Smith College audience Thursday that more conservative justices were needed on the Supreme Court to change the current law on abortion.

Stevens is one of the court's most liberal members.

"We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens' creme brulee," Coulter said. "That's just a joke, for you in the media."


Now, this is the second time that I am aware of that Coulter has called for the murder of another person.

I wonder if she has had a visit from the FBI yet? I mean, someone stating that the judge in the Jonathan Magbie case ought to be shot on a message board where I am an admin got me a visit from the F.B.I. and thatjudge was not a Supreme court Justice.

If I dared to even think what Coulter spoke the cops would be at my door in seconds.

The return of Sir Talk-A-Lot

photo by Loretta Nall


By IAN GILLESPIE
London Free Press, Canada
01/28/06

It's Friday morning, and Marc Emery is eating breakfast in a downtown hotel.

At first, there's seems nothing noteworthy about this. Apart from the fact that the London native is quite possibly the world's leading marijuana activist -- a man who has been targeted for extradition by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and who has returned to his hometown to see a new play about his life -- there seems little out of the ordinary.

Only later, after following Emery around the city for five hours, does it occur to me how extra-ordinary this moment is.

Because right now, Emery is silent.

Raid ends in blaze

By MARY BETH JACKSON
Southwest Virginia Enterprise, VA
Friday, January 27, 2006

West Franklin Street residents started Friday morning with a bang when law enforcement officers stormed a bungalow they believed to have been operating as a crack house.

Edward Owens, 34, originally of Toledo, Ohio, was arrested and charged with operating a fortified drug house, possession of marijuana and maintaining a public nuisance. Owens had lived in Wytheville for three weeks.

"(We) anticipate there may be some more arrests on this," Sheriff Doug King said.
Owens, who had been sleeping, was the only person at 955 W. Franklin St.
The Wythe County Sheriff's Office, Wytheville Police Department and Virginia State Police participated in the bust, making a forced entry just before dawn.

King said it did not go according to plan. The Sheriff's Office tactical team threw a light-sound device (also known as a "flash-bang") into a front window, intended to emit a disorienting flash of light and an eruptive sound to announce their arrival, but the 1 1/2-pound device didn't break the window.

The house had been fortified with 2x4 pieces of wood, concrete block and bars, King said. The team took the front door off the hinges to gain entry and broke through a window toward the rear of the house and hurled another flash-bang indoors.

The devices usually smoke and smolder, but the second flash-bang was followed by two large "booms." King said he believes that it ignited an unknown accelerant. Flames erupted from the windows and black smoke poured from the front door. He speculated the house might have been booby-trapped.


Apparently it's now illegal to secure your home against burglars. And if the cops burn your house down that's probably your fault too.

Friday, January 27, 2006

COKE RAP ROLLER LES 'POSED AS BUILDER'

Glasgow Daily Record, UK
01/25/06

FORMER Bay City Roller Les McKeown posed as a builder when drug cops arrived at his home to arrest him, a court heard yesterday.

Asked if he lived at the house in Hackney, London, McKeown allegedly said: "No. I'm a builder helping to do up the place."

But one of the armed police team replied: "Hello, Les."

The court heard that one of the officers on the raid found white powder, which turned out to be cocaine, wrapped in a till receipt in McKeown's wallet.

But McKeown, 50, allegedly told him: "You have just put that there. I have never seen it before. You are all sad c****. I have never seen it before, fat boy."

The court heard that one of the police then told McKeown: "Les, you are obviously pi***d".


Nice try

A sniff for safe schools

DEBORAH HIRSCH
Charlotte Observer, NC
01/27/06

Forty-one school districts across the Carolinas and other states pay R.A.I.D Corps Inc., a Spartanburg-based private drug inspection company that owns Tosca, to check their buildings. Fort Mill started using R.A.I.D. in the 2004-05 school year, paying about $400 per school per search -- a total of $11,500 over the school year -- to randomly check for illegal substances in the high school and both middle schools.


Check out these goobers with their flash intro. R.A.I.D Corps Inc.

Commentary: Why Do Meth Addicts Get Treatment While Crack Addicts Get Prison Time?

Date: Thursday, January 26, 2006
By: Judge Greg Mathis, Special to BlackAmericaWeb.com

Both meth and crack are highly addictive and equally dangerous, so why the disparity? Perhaps it's because the face of methamphetamines is overwhelmingly white.

Hemp Farming Bill Passes California Assembly

SACREMENTO, Calif., Jan. 26 /U.S. Newswire/ -- California business leaders and farmers are celebrating today's passage of AB 1147, which clarifies that the cultivation of industrial hemp is legal on the condition it contains no more than three tenths of one percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). AB 1147 passed with a clear majority of 44 votes to 32 against and now goes to the Senate for consideration. Final passage of AB 1147 could revitalize commercial industrial hemp farming, which occurred in the state until shortly after World War II.

Drug raid suspects get probation

By Chad Abraham
Aspen Times, CO
January 27, 2006

Two men arrested in the Dec. 2 drug raids in downtown Aspen pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine Thursday, agreeing to deals in which distribution and conspiracy charges were dropped.

Jesus Soto-Sandoval and Julian Gonzales-Coronado each had a half-gram of cocaine when officers arrested them, Soto-Sandoval at Little Annie's Eating House and Gonzales-Coronado at Cooper Street Pier.

_________________________________

A six month investigation. A raid using 50 federal, state and local officers. All for an amount of powder weighing less than half of what a penny weighs.
_________________________________


Pitkin County Sheriff Bob Braudis said the sentences only reaffirmed his belief that the war on drugs is a disaster - "The Vietnam of the 21st century," he said.

"If we released every drug prisoner across the country, other than the violent ones, we wouldn't need to build any more prisons for a century," he said. "The criminal justice system is starting to support my philosophy. ... I don't care what you do to your body. As a friend, I'd say, 'Hey, you're killing yourself.' But it's your choice."

Market gets $3.5M in cocaine by mistake

By RICHARD COWEN
NorthJersey.com, NJ
01/27/06

The invoice for the truckload of produce delivered to the warehouse at Paterson's Farmers Market on Tuesday said there were two kinds of parsley on board: "plain" and "curly."

What the warehouse owner saw inside those cardboard crates was no load of plain parsley. And what he found was enough to put the curl in anyone's hair.

He discovered nearly 300 pounds of cocaine -- all in tightly compressed bricks and neatly wrapped in plastic -- plus just enough sprigs of parsley to camouflage the load. Wholesale, the cocaine is worth $3.5 million, police say, but its street value could have been 10 times that once the dealers cut it for distribution.

"It appears that it was a mistaken drop," said Capt. Mario Baldino, the head of the Paterson Narcotics Squad. "It didn't get to its intended destination."

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Apparently I've Started a Fire!!

The amount of overwhelmingly positive feedback I have received from across Alabama and other parts of the US and world in response to my first candidate stump speech has been incredible and I thought I would share some of it with you.

From Alabama

Superb speech Loretta. In fact I think it is the best speech I've heard from someone running for office in this state in my lifetime. Please get a copy of this speech to all the newspapers and also to Tim Lennox in Montgomery.

I wish I could have been there to listen.


You did a great job and I was glad I came. Thanks for a copy of the speech to pass on.


(From the Vice Commander of the VFW Post)
I really enjoyed your being here last night - you're quite a gal! I just love your straight-forwardness and uninhibited manner. I'd like to share some drinks with you sometime when you are in this area - bourbon IS my drink of choice.

I agree with you completely regarding your position on Drug Policy Reform, and I have nothing against anyone who 'smokes' - I've tried three or four times and I always get a rip-snortin' headache followed by an urge to eat everything around.

In fact, I agree with almost every postion that you've taken - the war in Iraq being the only one upon which I differ with you, and I like to try and present an alternative view for your consideration on that issue. I have taken the liberty of attaching a paper that I wrote addressing this subject that I have sent to the President at the White House, Dick Cheney, and Condolizza Rice.


Loretta, fantastic speech!

I hope you have a real shot at becoming governor, if not, at least hopefully you can influence the debates a bit!

How about state senator if governor doesnt work out?


I am a musician working in and around Muscle Shoals on through to Huntsville. I love your platform, and will be giving you my support. I will help in any way I can.


I'm more liberal than Libertarian, but I must say, much of what you say makes sense. I disagree on some tax policies and home schooling, as well as others. I took the liberty of copying the text of your speech into Word Perfect so I can study it further. One thing hit home, though. I live in a place in Alabama where I can pee off the back porch and not worry about the neighbors(LOL). Best wishes and here's to your future in Alabama politics. It's gonna be a fun ride:)........


HEY GIRL,
I KNOW I HAVEN'T WROTE IN A WHILE BUT, I'M STILLING KEEPING UP WITH YOU. ALL MY BOYS AND SOME OF THEIR FRIENDS WATCHED THE VIDEO AND THEY WERE VERY IMPRESSED. ALL OF MY BOYS AND THEIR FRIENDS ARE OF VOTING AGE. MY SON THAT IS 23 WORKS AT THE BIRMINGHAM RACE COURSE HE SAID WE NEED TO GET SOME FLYERS OUT THERE. WITH THE MCGREGOR AND HALE SHIT MY SON SAID IF HALE'S SIDE WINS THE CASE AGAINST MCGRGEOR THERE WILL BE A LOT OF PEOPLE OUT OF A JOB. THEY HAD JUST HIRED A SHIT LOAD OF PEOPLE. DO YOU THINK MCGREGOR WOULD BE WILLING TO SUPPORT YOU SOME HOW? JUST A SUGGESTION. LOVED THE VIDEO. MAN.......YOU WERE TALKING FAST. PEACE


From Florida (man...this is a really good one)
Occasionally I surf the net for non major party candidacies that advocate political reform, most especially electoral reform; looking at candidates the way the Center for Voting and Democracy would. I watched all of your VFW speech. Ballot access, check. Initiative and referendum, check. Reading of bills voted on, Check. Term limits, whatever.

Are you inclined to favor what a represented constituentcy could be, optional and voluntary as opposed to arbitrary and inv! olutary, except for those who relocate intentionally to live in a particular district?

The basic concept of more proportionality in representation of all voters, what Alabama voters win big here? A representative democratic republic that mimics a direct democracy through high quality political representation that is delegated representatives in one legislative house and regular trustee representation in the other. What British Columbia, now California maybe, did with the random chosen citizens assembly on electoral reform, does that have an Alabama version?

Your candidacy is an attractive one, better than the options I’m looking at in Florida. You’re wise to spend large amounts of time on what you offer christians, ethics-wise, libertarians, freedom-wise, and conservatives, states’ rights-wise. With fiscal conservatism too, you can reject the left v right dialogue as getting in Alabama’s way.

The self-humanizing bent of your campaign is an asset: The missing panties, the disheveled house, your references to inmates as largely “us”, underscores the need to convert political obliviates (non voters) into voters. Yours is a special brand of populism, an unconscious appeal to class without the redistribution communism baggage.

You might want to convert the hands-to-the-hair gestics to the neutral-but-message-conforming conventional politician hand gesticulations that further the appearance of a commanding wonkish leader, hands that steady the ship of state as demonstrated in a State of the State address. At the the end of an address, throw in a few hand-to-the-hair to conclude with, a subtle reminder of yourself, your humaness, your gender.

I hope you can get on the ballot somehow, get a lot of votes.


From Arizona

Hi Loretta,

your speech at the VFW was amesome! I think you have
a pretty good chance to win, at least I hope you do!
It's time for some positive change in your state, and
you're the one to bring about that change. I am on SSI
disability so that means I live far below the poverty
level.. so money is extremely tight for me, but I
could send $5 or so.. I'm afraid that is all I can
spare, but I do want to contribute to you, because I
believe in you, and your heart is in the right place.


From Vancouver BC

Hi Loretta,

wow, did you pull that off like a house afire... loved the ending. you took
on what at first appeared as a tough audience who seemed way more relaxed
once you got into and past the pot issue. people are sure nervous about pot.
You know your stuff. I was impressed.

just thought I should say that out loud.


From Around the Bama Bloggerhood

Alabama Elections

Anonymous said...

I wonder if Nall and mayor Russo are pot smokin buddies???
7:21:35 AM

Loretta Nall said...

Dear anonymous,

I have not smoked pot with Mayor Russo.

It is a shame that some people in this state are so short-sighted that they can't even see past the end of their own nose....much less comprehend the complexities of the drug war and what it has done to our society.

It's ok though...you'll figure it out....probably not in time to be a REAL American and do anything about it....but hey...we can't all be true patriots.

In Liberty,
Loretta Nall
7:33:26 AM

Anonymous said...

you know this russo guy is connected to roy moore thru dean young. young ran his political operations and was a go between like nick bailey was for siegelman. Moore and young used to sell crosses and trinkets on the internet and no telling what else. Rich Hobson should come clean too.
9:26:50 AM

Dan said...

To be honest, I usually only vote for a third part when I just CAN'T STAND either candidate of the two major parties. This governor's race is beginning to pan out that way. Loretta Nall seems to be the only one talking about anything that's actually important.
10:47:29 AM
Jen said...

Nall has a blog? Cool!

I'm all for less government involvement in personal liberties, but I think that a certain ammount is needed. I don't know if I'm a huge fan of the Libertarian party... I'd be interested in talking to her or her campaign office, though.
10:58:33 AM

Loretta Nall said...

I am available to answer any questions you may have about my campaign.

Email works best for me because I always have my laptop but am not always by a phone.

My email address is cnall1_AT_charter_DOT_net

Thank you for your interest.

Loretta
2:40:15 PM

Anonymous said...

hey loretta,good going,, loved ur article,, u make so much sense,,one thing u might mention on the drug war is how many cops are going to prison because of it, that might open some eyes
7:10:00 PM


AL.com

463.1. Scary
by colfax05, 1/25/06 18:29 ET
Re: Video of Loretta Nall's speech at VFW by InLiberty, 1/25/06

Roy Moore could've given this same speech.


Now that is an interesting comment and I am not sure how to take it. There are actually a lot of similarities between myself and Roy Moore. Both of us are somewhat populist and outside the main stream of politics. Moore is often referred to as a master orator...although when I watched him at the VFW I was not impressed. I was expecting some of that old tyme "hellfire and brimstone" speaking...but he was rather laid back and not particularly exciting...at least not to me.

RedNeckin'

President of the U.S. Marijuana Party, is running for Governor of Alabama and has video of her speech to the Wetumpka, Alabama VFW.

For those of you who are new to redneckin, I interviewed her last October.

Other's that have posted on Loretta Nall's candidacy

posted at 13:37:07 on 01/24/06 by chuck - Category: Alabama Elections
Comments
Redoubt wrote:
Just read her speech to the vets in Wetumka. I can't say that I agree with her every position... however, the same can easily be said regarding most of the other potential candidates.

She probably don't stand a snowball's chance in hell but I'll give her a standing ovation for her courage and honesty... and who knows, maybe a vote.
01/24/06 18:05:03


The Alabama Moderate

Also, I recently became aware (hat tip to Alabama Elections) that we have a third party (Libertarian) candidate involved in the Alabama governor's race. Loretta Nall's blog is found here. I also happen to have a link in my blogroll, although I haven't had a chance to read through it. In the meantime, let me know what you think. I plan on calling her campaign office along with the other candidates to see where she stands on the issues I'm concerned with.

By the way, I'm still putting together a list of the questions that I want to ask each candidate, so if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to let me know. I'm going to post the responses here. Hopefully, I'll have a sample list posted here before the end of the week. I'll also list the candidates whom I intend to call. Because of my limited time, I won't be able to call candidates for the legislature. There are just too many. My main concerns at this time include I&R, Constitutional Reform, Budgeting, and Tax Reform.


Cannabis Culture Forums

You'll just have to click the link on that one because the comments are too numerous to post here.

Teachers

Clayton County teacher arrested for having marijuana in home
Macon Telegraph, GA
Associated Press
01/26/06

Bowler teacher faces charges after deputies find marijuana at home
Shawano Leader, WI
01/26/06

40 lbs. of pot gets teacher arrested
Associated Press
Kansas.com, KS
01/26/06

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Call Now to Preserve Patriot Act Reform

Dear Friends,

The President’s illegal spying on innocent Americans has given many people a whole new perspective on the Patriot Act.

Today, Americans all across the country concerned about the Bush Administration’s flagrant abuse of power are speaking with one voice and calling their Members of Congress with a clear message: the Patriot Act reauthorization bill must include safeguards to protect our freedoms.

We are at a critical time in the Patriot Act debate. A temporary Patriot Act extension is scheduled to expire on February 3rd. The Bush administration has presented Americans with two all or nothing choices: keep a conference report that contains no common sense reforms to protect civil liberties, or let the Patriot Act expire. This is a false choice.

Congress can and must pass a Patriot Act reauthorization bill that contains real reforms to protect our civil liberties. Help us flood Congress with calls right now.

Call your senators and representative now! Tell them to oppose any Patriot Act reauthorization bill that does not include real reforms.

Last month, thanks in no small part to your extraordinary efforts, a bipartisan group of senators stopped the deeply flawed Patriot Act reauthorization bill dead in its tracks. This forced Congress to approve a temporary five-week extension of the Patriot Act, which expires on February 3rd.

We can’t let this crucial debate be overshadowed by other business as the temporary extension rapidly approaches. Tell your senators to stand up and resist this deeply flawed reauthorization bill, and push for real reforms. Tell your representative it is vital that the House support the original Senate conference report.

Members of Congress need to be reminded of what we stand to lose if they pass the current Patriot Act reauthorization bill.

Call your members right now and tell them to stay strong and oppose Patriot Act reauthorization that does not include real civil liberties protections or read more.

You can also call the congressional switchboard at
202-224-3121.

Sincerely,

Anthony D. Romero
Executive Director
American Civil Liberties Union

Read What Others Are Saying About Loretta Nall

Zac over at Alabama Elections was kind enough to post a link to my speech at the VFW.

There are some interesting and exciting comments being left.
Check them Out

Police Raid Lexington Home
WKYT, KY
01/25/06

Officers in full swat gear raided a home on Knightsbridge Lane, just off Fortune Drive, late Tuesday night.

Lexington Police have been tight-lipped about the investigation.

However, 27 NEWSFIRST has learned the Emergency Response Unit helped narcotics detectives serve an arrest warrant.

They busted in the front door at around 10:00 Tuesday night. The K-9 unit also responded to the scene. Minutes before 11:00, police took a woman into custody.

When the officers emerged on the block, neigbors had no idea what was happening.

"I was sitting inside and I heard a big commotion - just a loud bang. I heard a bunch of people yelling. I looked outside and saw cops swarming everywhere. I don't know if it was a drug bust or what happened. It was pretty serious," said Landon Elam, a neighbor.

Lt. Douglas Pape, a Lexington Police officer says narcotics officers were serving a warrant after an ongoing investigation.



Two face crack-cocaine trafficking charges
By Cindy Iutzi
Keokuk Gate City Daily, IA
01/24/06

A simultaneous pre-dawn multi-force narcotics raid Monday netted two arrests, each at opposite sides of Keokuk.

The Lee County Narcotics Task Force led the 20-man actions that were aimed at people believed to be involved in the trafficking of crack cocaine.

When officers entered the York apartment, they used a “flash-bang.”

Assisting the task force were officers from the Keokuk Police Department, Lee County Sheriff's Department and reserve unit, Iowa State Tactical Team, ISP K-9 Unit, Lee County EMS and the Keokuk Fire Department.

The Lee County Narcotics Task Force is funded in part by the U.S. Department of Justice and the funds administered by the Iowa Governor's Alliance on Substance Abuse.


What's that sound?

It's the sound of jack-booted thugs making war on your neighbors. Shut up and get back in your house or you will be going down with them.

You'd better stay home
And do as you're told.
Get out of the road
If you want to grow old.

Drug arrest angers building's landlord

By DAVID WHIPKEY
McKeesport Daily News, PA

Officers from McKeesport police and Allegheny County District Attorney Narcotics Enforcement Team arrested two city residents on charges of drug and paraphernalia possession, leaving one landlord angry.
Felix Houser and Amber Egenlauf were arrested Thursday evening and each charged with two counts of possession of marijuana and possession of crack cocaine and one count of possession of drug paraphernalia, police reported.

Police Chief Joseph Pero said officers arrived at an apartment located along the 1700 block of Flagler Street with a warrant to search the premises.

Pero said Egenlauf was ordered to restrain a dog inside the residence while officers continued their search.

As the officers continued through the apartment, they heard a toilet flushing, Pero said. Houser walked out of the bathroom and was detained as officers removed the toilet to check for contraband flowing down the pipes.

"We did not find any contraband in the commode," Pero said. "So we went downstairs to check the plumbing there."

Pero said officers opened up the pipes and discovered seven small plastic bags of marijuana and one small bag of crack cocaine along with various items of drug paraphernalia.

"We tried to get it out of the toilet first," Pero said. "We then had to take the contraband out of the plumbing."

Pero said those facing a drug search often attempt to flush the drugs down the toilet before officers gain entry to the home.

"It's something we don't want to do," Pero said in reference to removing the toilet and plumbing. "But it is part of the job."

Stanley Hoffman, the landlord of the building where the search took place, said he did not believe drugs were discovered during Thursday's incident.

"They came in and busted the pipes up with axes," Hoffman said. "Regardless, they should not have come in and did the damage they did."

Hoffman said damage total approximately $3,000.

Pero said the officers are not responsible for damages incurred during the raid.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Video of Loretta Nall's Speech at VFW Candidate Forums



Video of Loretta Nall Speech at VFW Candidate Forum (58:43 Windows Media Video)
01/23/06



TEXT


Good evening everyone good evening and thank you for being here with me tonight in beautiful Wetumpka, Alabama so that we might exercise our right to participate in the political process.

What good are rights after all if you don't exercise them?

I know that I for one am grateful for the right to engage and participate in the political process and to openly discuss what I think are much needed changes to our state government without having to worry that someone is going to blow us up.

It isn't everywhere in the world that you can do such a thing.

Let's hear it for our veterans that brave band of brothers, who have fought for that right and who have so graciously given their time, resources and effort so that we might gather here at the VFW Post this evening and talk a little Alabama politics.

I am a native Alabamian. I was born in historic Talladega, Alabama, home of the fastest racetrack in the world, and I later moved next-door to Ashland in Clay County, which is also the home of Governor Riley.
In my humble opinion, Ashland is one of the most beautiful places in the entire state.

I have traveled a great deal over the course of my lifetime. My husband was stationed in Germany in the early 1990's and our young son and I joined him there. While Europe is nice to visit I wouldn't want to live there again. It's just a little too far from home.

Later we were stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso, TX and while Texas is a lovely state with many people who reminded me of the good folks back home and, it is closer to Alabama than Germany is, it was still too far away. So when my husband's tour of service ended in 1996 we packed up our family and struck out for the house.

In the last few years I have traversed the US, Canada and I even spent 10 days in the war-torn jungles of Colombia, South America studying US foreign policy.
There are some beautiful places in this world but there is no place on earth more beautiful to me than Alabama.

From her rolling Appalachian foothills to her beautiful waters of the Mobile Bay she offers everything you could want in a place to raise a family.

If you like the fast pace of a city life there is Huntsville with her Space and Rocket center, Birmingham with its with world-class universities and medical institutes, the historic capitol of Montgomery, richly steeped in southern tradition and political history, and the beautiful sparkling gem of Mobile and her bustling seaports on the Gulf of Mexico.

Or, if you are like me and prefer to live in a place where you can pee off the back porch without your neighbor spotting you then Alabama offers that in abundance. She is home to the greatest small towns in America.

Towns where we still know everybody we see walking down the sidewalk or we know someone they are related to. Towns where everyone throws up their hand in greeting when they pass each other driving down the road, unless of course it's college football season and your cars are decked in opposing fan gear.

No other place I have ever traveled to offers that and it is one of the things I love most about Alabama. There is no place like my native home.

Alabama has seen her share of troubled times. From the civil war to the civil rights movement and her sacrifice and strength cannot be questioned.

She and her great citizens have always met challenges head-on, overcome them and become a better place and people for it. I am confident that this trend will continue as we address the challenges that are facing us today.

In order to effectively meet challenges we must know what they are so lets talk about some of the most important ones facing Alabama today.

The problems Alabama faces today can be summed up in three words.

Republicans and Democrats.

I call them the "twins" because there is virtually no difference between them anymore. Anyone trying to squeeze into the space that separates the twins is likely to be crushed to death.

Under Republicans and Democrats government has grown to enormous proportions. This has resulted in the increasing intrusion into the most personal details of our private lives and the creeping erosion of our constitutional rights and civil liberties.

INITIATIVE and REFERENDUM

The best way to deal with this problem is to put the power to govern back into the hands of the people and the best way to do that is by having something called Initiative and Referendum.

Throughout this election season you'll hear things like "stopping the power of special interests" and "term limits" presented as solutions to the problem of an out of control government.

However, those things aren't really the problem.

The real problem is the politicians who have created a treasure chest for the special interests to fight over.

Some of my opponents will say term limits are the answer. But I disagree with that. The reason I disagree with term limits is because I believe that VOTERS should be the only ones to decide who they send to Montgomery, Alabama.

Term limits are a way of further restricting who you can vote for and, from my very personal experience in Alabama politics that is already restricted plenty, thank you kindly.

In order to reform the legislature and put the power of government back into the hands of the people where it belongs I support something called Initiative and Referendum for Alabama.

In the simplest terms, Initiative and Referendum is a process that makes government one that is more of, by, and for, the people because it allows those who own and finance government – the voters – to legislate on their own behalf when the legislature won’t.

The I&R process would apply to both general law and constitutional amendments.

No legislation proposed under the process is subject to amendment by the legislature, nor veto by the governor, and would be placed on the ballot as a referendum by the Secretary of State for the people to vote up or down regardless of what the legislature does.

The process may be used for a new statute, to amend an existing statute, or to repeal an existing statute in whole or in part.

When we have initiative and Referendum available to us in Alabama the power to reform our state will lay solely in our hands, which is where it should have rested all along.
With Initiative and referendum, we will take away from the government the power to bestow favors or hurt people and the special interest lobbyists will disappear.

EDUCATION

Another area where Alabama is facing some major challenges is our public education system.

One of the worst decisions ever made in this country was to entrust the education of our children to the government.

Isn't your child's education too important to let politicians and bureaucrats control it?

Let me share a personal story with you about an experience I have had with the public school system.

Back in 2002 my 5-year-old daughter Bell started kindergarten. About three weeks in I get a note from her teacher stating that Bell and another 5-year-old got into a scuffle over who was going to be line leader.

The teacher requested that I come in for a parent/teacher/principal/student conference. I thought it an odd request to assemble all of us over one line leader scuffle between 5-year-olds. I mean there probably isn't a kindergarten class in all of America where this hasn't happened right?

I went to the conference. The principal never showed up. The teacher and I decided to go ahead without him. Then this teacher, who has known my daughter for all of three short weeks, proceeds to tell me that in order to control my child she wants me to lift the corporal punishment ban I have imposed on the school with regard to my children.

I told her that beating my child into submission was not an option.
Then the teacher suggested I take my baby to the doctor and have her put on prescription medication so that she would be easier to control.

I was SHOCKED !!

I told the teacher that it is funny to me that schools preach to our kids about not resorting to drugs and violence to resolve their problems, there are even cops paid to teach the DARE program, and yet drugs and violence are the very first things the school resorts to when a problem arises with a child.

No wonder our kids are so confused.

The teacher was less than happy with my refusal to cooperate with beating or drugging my child in order to force her to conform to their statist indoctrination.

About a month later this same teacher conspired in the witch-hunt to have me arrested for speaking my mind on the pages of the Birmingham News with regard to drug policy reform.

She fabricated statements allegedly made by my daughter, passed these statements along to the School Resource Officer, allowed multiple police interrogations of my 5-year-old without counsel or an unbiased third party present.

She went outside the school and told one of her personal friends that I was starving my kids to death and filed a malicious complaint with DHR to that effect. She even had a box of what she called "Bell's Special Snacks" sitting under her desk that only Bell could eat from.

As it turns out, my daughter is a very gifted child, and after an IQ test revealed this, she was placed in a gifted program. She was also given the responsibility of helping classmates who were having academic trouble. She is now in third grade and goes to a higher grade for reading.

My son Alex is also gifted and was awarded The Presidents Outstanding Academic Achievement Award in 2004 signed by President Bush.
I don't like Bush but that signature on my sons Award is something I am extremely proud of. My son was also awarded the National English Merit Award in 2005 and has received many other awards over the years. He is in the 8th grade.

It's scary to think that because of a lazy teacher and but for an involved parent my daughter could have been placed on chemical lobotomy drugs and had her developing brain forever altered.

It's even scarier to think how many of the millions of kids on psychotropic and anti-psychotic drugs today got on those drugs because of lazy teachers and uninvolved parents.

Wonder how many of those kids were gifted?

The public school system does not like it when parents are involved in the education of their children.

They want our kids to pee in cups and submit to warrantless, suspicion-less searches by some thug cop in Jackboots with a German police dog.

They want to dope our kids up with pharma-drugs in order to dumb them down to counter-balance their poor teaching skills and federally mandated hogwash programs like No Child Left Behind which seeks to make close the gap in learning ability by pushing the top students down instead of bringing the bottom students up.

They want our kids to fear them and all their power and to accept without question their claim of total authority.

When parents are involved in the education of their children it becomes much harder for the school/state to brainwash, manipulate and coerce kids into being more loyal to the state than the family.

What ever happened to teaching readin, writin and rith-ma-tic? That's all we pay them to do. Yet they are so much more concerned with teaching social doctrine that many of our kids can't even read.

Some of my opponents want to deal with the problems of public education by implementing government vouchers. While that may sound good on the surface closer inspection would reveal vouchers as just a way for the government to control private schools making them virtually identical to government schools. So vouchers are not the answer.

My other opponents want to throw more money at the public school system.
Somehow they never have picked up on the fact that money and a new government program (most often in response to a previous government program of theirs that failed) will not solve every problem. In fact, government causes almost all the problems to begin with.

We have been throwing money at our public school system for years and we are still in the bottom 5 out of the 50 states every year when it comes to education.

Money isn't working. Repeated failure is NOT justification for continued or increased funding. Do NOT give these people more money to poison our kids with their alien political beliefs and Orwellian social experimentation programs.

So, instead of Gov. Riley's proposal of giving $500,000,000 of our tax dollars back to a school system that has repeatedly and continually failed our children, I propose we give parents back that money so that they might send their kids to private school if they so choose. The teachers don't need a raise. They need to teach our kids to read. Especially one that comes from one time monies but will require another source of funding once that money is gone.

As Governor of Alabama I will support tax credits for Alabama families who send their children to a private school or teach them in a home-school setting.
For our public schools I will advocate that we opt out of the federal government mandated No Child Left Behind. The federal government only gives us 6% of our education budget and they have NO RIGHT to control what or how we teach our children.

Taxation -

Speaking of taxes and that BILLION DOLLAR surplus we suddenly have .. If I recall correctly Governor Riley tried to increase our taxes by almost exactly that much with Amendment 1.

That's funny ain't it? Very funny indeed.

You know if Riley had gotten his tax raise, the economy would have been stifled and we would likely be facing a proration budget scenario this year.

The fact that we suddenly have the amount of money the proposed tax increase would have raised tells me one thing and one thing only.
We didn't need to raise taxes to meet our budgetary demands ...we needed to make our government be responsible with the massive amount of money they already get from our labors.

Federal state and local taxes take 48% of the national income. That means if you and your spouse work, one of you is working to pay the government taxes and one of you is working to take care of your family.

Is that fair?

Shouldn't you be able to keep the money you make? Aren't you better aware of how your family could use that money than some fat cat in Montgomery, Alabama or Washington DC?

As your Governor I will fight to keep more money in your pocket.

If elected I will support the repeal of sales tax on food and the order mandating yearly reappraisals of property.

It's almost like you can never really own property. You "buy" it but then you have to pay rent on it to the state every single year.

Immigration -

Another issue of concern facing Alabama today is illegal immigration.
Libertarians are accused of wanting 'open borders'. But this is incorrect; the borders are already open. And there is nothing the democrats or republicans can do that will succeed in closing them. People who want to get in will find a way to do so. What we have to do is eliminate the incentives that attract the wrong kind of people to Alabama.

You know a free and prosperous society has no fear of anyone entering it. But a welfare state is scared to death of every poor person who tries to get in and every rich person who tries to get out.

An important reason for the heavy influx of illegal immigrants is the Welcome Wagon waiting at the border - offering free education, free welfare, free healthcare and a free lunch. They also seem to be offering up a lot of our jobs.
So lets cut that out by imposing hefty fines on businesses that employ illegal immigrants. If there are no jobs then there will be no illegal immigrants draining our social services and then we will see a dramatic drop in the influx of illegal aliens.

I want to make clear here that I am not anti-immigration. America is a proud nation of immigrants. My ancestors came over from Ireland. I welcome all people from all parts of the world to the great state of Alabama so long as they are here legally and are willing to work for a better life.

Religion and Government

Let's change gears here and get into some of the more controversial issues popping up in this election season.

First, I want to talk about religion and government.
While the other candidates in this year's election will spend their time trying to out-Jesus each other my campaign will offer no such shenanigans.

That's because I understand and respect the basic principal that religion is a private family matter and that in and of itself is one of our country's greatest strengths.

I understand that if politics and religion are mixed that pretty soon someone will come to power that that will force me to worship in a way that I find alien or force me to worship if I choose not to or prevent me from worshipping if I want to.

The other candidates in this election seem to have forgotten these principals. They are using religious and spiritual beliefs as a political football and that is a disgrace to the very sanctity of religion. I don't think Jesus would be very proud of any of them.

I call on the Christians of Alabama to vote for me this election because I am the only candidate who will take away the power of the government to inflict one person's values on another. This will not only make Christians safe from those with alien values it will also reassure others that Christians won't impose their values by force.

Gambling -

Speaking of the imposition of values by force let's talk about gambling.
I believe that restricting the way private citizens choose to spend their money based on the moral convictions of politicians is not the American way. Nor is it the Alabama way.

I can think of a great many other people who are infinitely more qualified to be moral role models than politicians. Politicians are in fact some of the very worst kinds of role models to have and they should never be trusted with the power to tell us what is moral and what is not.

Alabama is missing out on tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue because our citizens are forced to travel to other states if they wish to engage in casino gambling or buy a lottery ticket.

At the same time our politicians, in all of their infinite wisdom, take large contributions from the special gambling interests in those surrounding states in exchange for keeping lottery and casino gambling out of Alabama and thereby keeping Alabama poor.

Governor Riley and the Christian Coalition benefited by getting large contributions, which it turns out are connected to the now disgraced Jack Abramoff, and you did not benefit at all. You got asked to pay more taxes instead.

How bout them apples y'all?

Legal lottery and casino gambling does not mean that those who are opposed to such activities will suddenly be forced to engage in them. It will simply mean that they will no longer be allowed to prevent others from doing so or from profiting from doing so by pointing their morality guns at them.

Alabama must learn that sin and crime are two different things. Preventing and punishing sin is not the business of the state.

Drug policy -

Now, I know a lot of you have been wondering when I will get to what is the most controversial plank in my platform and that is drug policy reform.
You'll have likely noticed that when I am covered in the news all you ever really hear is that I am a marijuana advocate or a legalization advocate. You don't hear about any of the other things I support or changes I think Alabama should make.

But that's OK.

It's OK because it's a topic that catches people's attention and some of them will look deeper.

It's OK because it helps the media sell papers, which expands my coverage.

It's OK because it is an issue that needs attention like no other we face in this state today.

It's OK because it is the one issue that makes me stand out among my opponents. They are too afraid to touch this issue. But I am not.

I want to talk about it. I want you to talk about it. Then I want us to change it.

Drug policy is another area where sin has been confused with crime and moral imposition by force has given rise to the persecution of millions of non-violent Americans who choose to smoke a joint as opposed to drink a beer after a long days work .....of which almost half the earnings are going to support the government.

We already give them almost half our paycheck....is it too much to ask that our money not be used to wage war against us and that we be left in peace to relax in whatever manner we choose so long as no one is hurting anyone else?

Marijuana should be legal. There is simply no logical reason for it's illegality.

Alabama punishes her citizens more harshly for simply possessing some plant material for personal use than do most other states.

The second simple possession for personal use is a felony punishable by up to ten years in prison under state law.

Five-hundred people were sentenced to prison in Alabama on that charge in 2005. It costs the Alabama taxpayers 5 million dollars a year just to house these non-violent and likely otherwise productive citizens who are able bodied and would be able to provide for themselves outside the confines of prison.

This has filled our prison system to bursting with people like you and me.
People Like Douglas Lamar Gray. Mr. Gray's story goes something like the lyrics from Bruce Springsteens "Born in the USA"

Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in his hands
Sent him off to Vietnam
To go and kill the yellow man

As a young man growing up in North Alabama, Doug Gray had a few run-ins with the local law...which is not an uncommon thing. None of these run-ins were serious enough to warrant a prison sentence.

He got sent off to Vietnam where he lost a leg in service to his country.

He came home. He stayed out of trouble for a good thirteen years.

He owned a business called Gray's Roofing and Remodeling Service.

He had a home, a wife, and a two-year-old son.

Fourteen years ago Douglas Lamar Gray bought a pound of marijuana in a room at the Econo Lodge in Decatur, Alabama. He planned to keep a few ounces for himself and sell the rest to some friends. Most people in prison for trafficking in Alabama fit that description.

The man who sold him the drug was a felon just released from prison, with more than thirty convictions on his record.

He was also an informant employed by the Morgan County Drug Task Force.
The local sheriff's department, as part of a sting, had supplied the pound of marijuana.

After paying the informant $900 for the pot Douglas Lamar Gray was arrested and charged with "trafficking."

He was tried and convicted under Alabama's Habitual Offender Law, fined $25,000, sentenced to life in prison without parole, sent to the maximum-security penitentiary in Springville, Alabama - an aging, overcrowded prison filled with murderers and other violent inmates. He remains there to this day.

This man risked his life to answer the call of his country. He lost his leg. And this is how he is treated. This is how we repay a Vietnam Veteran for his service to his country. We tell him a leg is not enough sacrifice. We want your whole body and your whole family and your whole life and everything you have worked for.

I don't believe for one minute that the vets in this room tonight risked life and limb in service to their country so that their government in turn would treat them worse than a common mongrel dog.

Now let's compare what happened to Douglas Lamar Gray to what happened to two very prominent politicians kids.

In 1998 Senator Richard Shelby's son Claude was caught smuggling 13.8 grams of hash from Heathrow in London to Hartsfield in Atlanta. He was fined $500 and allowed to go free.

Senator Shelby who has throughout his political career advocated years long prison sentences for non-violent drug offenders said he felt sad for his son but supported him fully. I guess he meant other peoples kids can go to jail for life...just not his son.

If you or I had been caught smuggling 13.8 grams of hash from London to Atlanta we would have been charged with international drug smuggling and we would likely still be in jail today.

And Noelle Bush, Gov. Jeb Bush's daughter and President Bush's niece, was caught a few years ago forging prescriptions for xanax, which is a felony. She was placed in rehab where she then stole medications from the nurses cart and after she came back from 3 days in jail for that infraction a 2 gram crack rock was found in her shoe. For all of these felonies Ms. Bush spent a total of 13 days in jail.

Gov. Bush said "It's a private family matter" and I agree that it is a private family matter but that apparently only applies if your family is rich, powerful and connected.

Claude Shelby and Noelle Bush never fought in Vietnam or anywhere else in service to their country. Yet they walk free while Douglas Lamar Gray and tens of thousands of other regular American citizens are rotting away in a prison cell for the same crimes.

I am ASHAMED and OUTRAGED that we would allow our government to wage war on it's own citizens. And that is what we have today under the guise of "drug war".

When these political POW's are released from prison, the ones that are lucky enough to get released, they are barred from gainful employment, they are barred from receiving federal student financial aid for higher education, food stamps and public housing. Drug convictions are the only convictions with these extra judicially imposed obstacles.

If you bar people from eating, working, getting an education to better themselves and an affordable place to live what happens? They go back to jail and you continue to pay for it.

If I don't care if my neighbor smokes a joint in the privacy of his own home, and I find that most people don't care, then why am I forced to pay for my neighbor's imprisonment?

I SHOULDN'T BE. You SHOULDN'T BE!

If I am elected governor one of the first things I will do is fight to stop the police state from taking the private behavior of otherwise law-abiding citizens and turning it a statewide disaster.

I will do that by proposing we set up a system similar to alcohol and tobacco to regulate the sale of marijuana to adults' age 21 and older.

Marijuana is Alabama's largest cash crop and our state could benefit from this huge untapped financial resource in many ways.

The state could collect tax revenue from those sales that I could directed towards start-up funds for community corrections and drug treatment facilities for those suffering from alcohol and actual hard drug addiction. People who use marijuana responsibly do not belong in court ordered treatment taking up space that is needed to help recovering meth addicts and those addicted to other hard drugs.

DRUG WAR IN GENERAL

Let's talk about those other hard drugs and whether or not the war on them has worked any better than it did on alcohol or marijuana or coffee, or tobacco....all of which have been illegal at some point in human history.

Our elected officials call it the "War on Drugs" but that goes against the very definition of war.

You cannot have a war on drugs...they are inanimate objects.
What it is is a war on people. Poor people. Minorities. People like you and me. People like Douglas Lamar Gray. A war on people with cancer, AIDS, PTSD, depression, glaucoma, arthritis and a host of other ailments and illnesses

The Drug War is Government Mandated Massive Focused Violence against American citizens.

It's a civil war that turns children against parents and brother against brother.

It's armored SWAT teams kicking in people's doors at three in the morning and pointing guns at their heads and the heads of their children.

It's helicopter raids, just like in a war zone.

It's secret cops in our schools trying to trick our children into selling them a dime bag, it's automatic assault weapons, flash-bang grenades and battering rams. It has taken millions of Americans and turned them into Political Prisoners of War.

It's also unconstitutional. The US Constitution had to be amended to prohibit alcohol and re-amended to repeal that prohibition. There have never been any such constitutional amendments dealing with drug use.

And just like alcohol prohibition, drug prohibition does not prevent drug use. Never has. Never will.

The only thing the drug war successfully does is maximize and magnify all the possible harms associated with drug use.

It causes the very crime it claims to protect us from. When is the last time you saw violent gangs from Budweiser and Coors shooting it out over shelf space on the beer aisle at Wal-Mart?

Back in 1972 when President Richard Nixon declared the War on Drugs more people died that year from tumbles down the stairs or slips in the bathtub than from drugs.

And every year since 1972 drug use, especially among children, drug-related disease, drug-related crime, drug-related deaths, drug availability and drug purity have skyrocketed while drug prices have gone plummeted.

The drug war has also served as a backdoor, which the federal government has used to centralize its power, federalize the local police and erode our constitutional rights and civil liberties.

The drug war was the prelude to the Patriot Act and the REAL ID Act.

Americans became accustomed, by watching TV shows like COPS, to seeing other Americans being stripped of their rights and liberties so long as it had to do with "drugs" and now all Americans are being stripped of their rights and liberties so long as it has to do with "terror".

Here in Alabama the federally mandated drug war is costing us tens of millions of dollars a year in law enforcement resources, court costs and incarceration costs.

I do not believe the negative societal costs can ever be fully measured or known.

The drug war is anti-family and it goes against the very Christian values so many Alabamians are quick to claim but slow to exhibit in their actions. Jesus would not lock up the addicted.

Understandably, many people fear that ending the Drug War would result in tens of thousands of addicts, children trying drugs, massive crime, disease and death. But in reality that is what we have now.

It's time to end the war on drugs in Alabama.

It's time to stop maximizing the harms associated with drug use, to stop compounding the misery and humiliation associated with drug addiction by imprisoning moms, dads and especially kids and further destroying the chances of keeping families together.

It's time to return such a private matter to the alter of the family where it belongs.

That is what states rights are for. Let's exercise them.

PRISON REFORM -

You can't talk about drugs without eventually coming to the topic of prison so let's spend a few minutes extolling the virtues of the Alabama DOC.
It's called the department of corrections and that is a misnomer if I have ever heard one.

Aside from the huge number of pot smokers in prison we have now moved on to imprisoning alcoholics.

Back when I was a kid, and that is not very long ago, things were much different.

I grew up on a farm in rural Alabama with my mother, sister and grandmother.

Life was simple then.

At that time the drug war had not yet blighted rural Alabama. The only "drugs" I held any knowledge of were "beer & liquor" and both were held in very low regard by the matriarchs in my family.

Drankin' was a "sin" and "sin" was the last thing the young Loretta Nall wished to encounter because "sin" always led to a switching, and let me tell you, my grandmother was incredibly skilled with a keen hickory switch.

The only thing I knew about "addiction", alcoholism in this case, was the talk I would occasionally hear around the Sunday dinner table about the town drunk who, about once a month, would get up in front of the entire church and confess to getting drunk the night before and being sorry for it now. The congregation would hug him when he was done and he was always accepted back into the fold.

It was a time when neighbors helped neighbors. If your neighbors were hungry you helped feed them. If the neighbor's kids needed clothes you gave them what your kids had outgrown. And if your neighbor had a substance abuse problem you let him talk about it on Sunday morning and told him you still loved him when he was done.

But times have changed and not for the better.
Let me tell you a story about my brother and his experience being "corrected" in the Alabama DOC.

My brother Randy is a career alcoholic. He had his first drink of alcohol when he was 9 years old. Since then he has been known to drink mouthwash, after-shave and rubbing alcohol strained through loaf bread. It is the worst case of alcohol addiction I have ever seen.

He has been in and out of rehab clinics, AA, halfway houses, state run mental health programs, jail and in 1996 he entered the Alabama prison system for the first time.

His crime was alcohol related. All of his crimes are alcohol related.

Randy was allowed to enter the work release program at Kilby prison because his crime was non-violent and he was considered low risk.

One would think that work release would be designed to help a person learn a job skill for when they are released. After all, we want to do everything we can to help them not return to prison.

We want to keep them away from the things that landed them in prison, not place them directly in the line of temptation when we are supposed to be "correcting" them and punishing them.

For instance, we would reasonably expect the prison system not to place a child molester on work release at a daycare center or a bank robber in a teller window or a wife beater in a women's shelter.

But for some reason the Dept. of Corrections placed my alcohol-addicted brother in a work release program where his job was to load 18-wheelers with cases of Budweiser.
His resolve was weak and before the end of the day he had walked off work release with a case of beer under each arm. He got piss drunk and turned himself in when he ran out of beer.

No I am not kidding.

We have alcoholics, people as harmless as Otis the town drunk from Andy Griffith, housed in prison with violent murderers and rapists at the cost of $1000 a month when we could place a breath-lock on their automobiles for $30 a month or we could implement a specialized license that only allows them to drive during certain parts of the day and only to and from work.

Aside from the huge number of people like Randy and Otis housed in our prison system we also have people in prison for petty theft.

Why should we have to pay $12,000 a year to house someone in prison who stole a $50 VCR? Stealing is wrong and should be punished, but the thief is the one who should be punished not the Alabama taxpayer.

We have deadbeat parents in Alabama's prison system. They won't pay for their children.

We are being made to not only pay for the care of their children but also the cost for their care in the prison system. That punishes us. TWICE.

They weren't forced to pay $1,000 a month in child support but we are forced to pay that to house them in prison. Surely we can come up with a more creative and productive way to handle this problem.

If I am elected Governor I will fight for the release of all non-violent marijuana offenders from prison, the expungement of their records and the repeal of laws that landed them in prison and the ones that effectively bar them from successful re-entry to society.

That action alone would be enough to solve the over-crowding crisis and would go a long way from preventing its reoccurrence.

I'll also propose that the money, which would have been spent to house non-violent marijuana offenders, is instead directed back to communities so that they can start community corrections programs that deal with petty theft, drunk driving, fraudulent check writers and dead beat parents and also use as start up funds for treatment centers that keep family members suffering from hard drug and alcohol addiction close to home where they can get the love and support they need to recover.

Enough sentencing commissions and tasks forces on prison overcrowding. The solution is simple and we all know what it is, but the politicians in power are gutless cowards who we can no longer place our hope in to get this job done.

As Governor I will correct the Department of Corrections in Alabama.

Non-compliance with the Patriot and REAL ID Acts,

The Patriot and REAL ID Acts are the two most offensive documents to ever be passed into law in the United States of America.

Under these Acts Uncle Sam not only wants you: he also wants your email, your phone calls, your personal mail, your physician and pharmacy records, your library records, your bank records, the contents of your bladder and the bladders of your children.
We are told that we must trade our liberty for security in order to help "fight the war on terror."

Our elected officials say the terrorists hate us for our freedom. Apparently our elected officials have decided to remedy that situation by taking away all of our freedoms so the terrorists won't hate us anymore.

The willingness of our elected officials both here at home and in Washington, D.C. to participate in the obliteration of our constitutional rights and civil liberties is disgusting and revealing. I will not sacrifice Alabama citizens to any such system--and you can write that down.

As governor of Alabama, I will refuse to comply with the Patriot and REAL ID acts and I will veto any new legislation that infringes on the privacy of the citizens of the state of Alabama.

As our state motto says, "WE DARE DEFEND OUR RIGHTS!!"

The Iraq War and Alabama sovereignty over the State Militia

As governor of Alabama I would have no real power to influence the Iraq war policy, but I feel that you have the right to know exactly how I feel on that issue and on the concept of war in general.

As a Libertarian I'm not a pacifist. I believe that only defense is legitimate.

I like to believe that no one wants or likes war. Under the current US administration
I am having something of a hard time holding onto that belief.

Having said that, I support our troops but I do not support the Iraq war.

In the beginning and in the aftermath of 9/11 I did support it. I, like millions of other Americans, believed our president when he said there were WMD's and that Iraq was somehow tied to the terrorist attacks that befell our nation. I understood our mission there to be the removal of Saddam Hussein from power.

That mission was accomplished in three days and our brave troops did one hell of a job. They should have been applauded, commended and given the highest amount of respect for carrying out their objective. And then they should have been brought home to their families.

But, they are still there and no one seems to be able to say with any degree of certainty just exactly what they are fighting for or how long this war will last or how many more will have to die.

Alabama did not choose to send her sons and daughters off to fight this illegal war. That choice was made for us.

That choice has cost the lives of 43 Alabama soldiers. 24 of that 43 were under the age of 30 and 17 of those were 25 years old or younger.

These are just kids, our kids, only a few years out of high school. Many of them likely signed up for the GI bill because they came from impoverished families and had few options for acquiring a college degree. They had their whole life ahead of them.

Now they are dead.

I support the immediate withdrawal of all our troops from Iraq. As Governor of Alabama I will call for the immediate withdrawal of our National Guard troops and I believe Alabama should hereafter retain sovereignty over her state militia.

BIO-DIESEL

If I told you that there was a way we could Decrease Our Dependency on Foreign Oil, Boost the Agriculture Industry in Alabama, preserve our pristine hunting and fishing areas, which bring 2 BILLION tourism dollars into Alabama every year and Keep More Alabama Money in Alabama instead of sending it to the federal government would you believe me?

Bio-diesel. It's fuel from the fields. And we can do it here.

Farmers in South Alabama are already doing that very thing by producing bio-diesel from their soybean crops and using a ten percent solution to run their combines. This same soy bio-diesel can be used in automobiles at a ten percent per tank of gas without any engine modifications.

It could end the outrageousness of paying up to three dollars a gallon for gasoline and enable you to keep more of what you earn.

Bio-diesel could revitalize the impoverished Black Belt of Alabama and put hundreds if not thousands of people to work.

As Governor of Alabama I will encourage research, growth and development in this area. It is another step along the road to keeping Alabama proud, independent, self-sufficient and free.

Ballot access reform-

The last topic I want to touch on tonight is Ballot Access Reform.
Alabama has the most restrictive ballot access laws in the nation. In order to fully participate in the political process as an independent or third party candidate it basically requires a minimum of $100,000 to collect the 41,000 plus signatures needed for ballot access.

That basically means only rich people can run for office.

That doesn't make a lot of sense to me since, I know for a fact, most Alabamians are not rich people. Why do we elect people to represent us who are not like us and cannot relate to the reality of our daily lives?

Why do we allow them to decide who is a candidate and who is not? That is one of our rights as citizens....to decide who we will elect.

Alabama is in no danger of becoming immobilized by having too many political parties. Our current system trends toward two dominant parties. But unless the system makes it possible for a third party to replace one of the two old parties there is no incentive for the old parties to be responsive to what the people want.

To keep the pressure on the two dominant parties to be responsive to the will of the people we must do away with restrictive ballot access laws, do away with government subsidies to favored candidates and do away with debates that exclude the only candidates who are offering a new choice.

Anyone who truly believes in Democracy and in the ability of Alabamians to make their own choices when electing their governing body would never seek to limit the number of choices available to Alabama voters.

Iraq had 75 political parties and 111 candidates in their most recent elections. It's a pretty sad state of affairs when you have Alabama soldiers dying for the sake of ensuring fair elections in Iraq when apparently Iraqi's already have a better understanding of what fair elections are than some Alabama politicians do.

We need to repeal Alabama's restrictive ballot access laws so that new ideas and progressive change can begin to take hold in Alabama.

Closing-

It's difficult to say how much the growth of government in Alabama should be attributed to the natural tendency of government to expand, or to Alabama lawmakers simply imitating the actions of Washington DC, or to Alabama government being controlled by federally imposed mandates.

The attitude we see coming out of Washington is basically 'it's My way or the Highway" or more accurately "It's my Way or You don't get no damn Highway".

The sad thing is that it's our own money they are taking and then holding hostage in order to force us to change our laws in ways we would not have chosen for ourselves.

The twin parties have become so hopelessly corrupted by power and the perks of governing that our only hope is a third party still too young, healthy, and principled to be infected by their dishonesty and political extortion.

So my fellow Alabamians this election you have a real choice for change. Do not re-elect republicans and democrats. They are known quantities. They are yellow cowards who have repeatedly demonstrated their willingness to march in lock step with the feds in Washington DC without so much as a backward glance at those who they supposedly represent.

They've had their chance many times over to do what is right and make things better for the people of the Great State of Alabama. And they have repeatedly failed.

But I am confident that you and I will not fail as we face today's challenges because

I believe in my fellow Alabamians.

We are proud, we are strong and we are free.

And we damn sure intend to keep it that way.

So this election

"Just Say Nall to Republicans and Democrats"

"Just Say Nall to a Government Controlled Education System"

"Just Say Nall to the Drug War"

"Just Say Nall To the Patriot and Real ID Acts"

"Just Say Nall to the Iraq War"

"Just Say Nall to High Gas Prices"

"Just Say Nall To Unfair Ballot Access Laws"

Vote Nall Y'all

It's Just Common Sense