Another Bushie War, on Americans: More Senseless War on Drugs, VT Style

When the Bushie Republican Governor of Vermont didn't like that a (Democrat, I believe) lawyer and part-time judge didn't get serious prison time for possession of marijuana, he didn't just get mad. No, Jim Douglas ordered all state law enforcement officials to send marijuana (NOT heroin, NOT cocaine, NOT methamphetamine) cases to the FEDS directly, bypassing local and state courts.

Now, I'm not excusing the woman lawyer/judge who as an officer of the court certainly knows basic law. And yeah, 2.5 lbs DOES sound like a lot (except that drug cops are taught to pad the weight anyway possible and go to some truly ridiculous extremes to do so, often at the behest of higher ups and prosecutors who want to hit heavier charges as well as confiscate property).

But what the fuck is going on here? The War on Drugs has been such a miserable failure. And if you want proof, look at the Miserable Failure in the White House right now, a cokehead drunk with delusions of grandeur who actually thinks he's president when, you know, it's really Dick Cheney. I'm tired of fighting a war on Americans who as adults can make their own choices for what they consume, good or bad. If being a Bill O'Reilly isn't a federal offense (yet offensive, nonetheless), being a pothead shouldn't be either, I would think. And I say that as someone who hasn't used in God... I can't tell you how long.

No less than the Times-Argus, the Barre-Montpelier, Vermont newspaper that very few accuse of being a liberal rag, is kind of aghast at what Douglas is doing. And ALL American taxpayers should be: it's taking a local problem and, for the War on Drugs - and the war for the Bushie-style Ego, dumping it on feds that apparently need to focus on otherwise law-abiding potheads rather than on Bush corruption and Osama bin Laden and company.

Justice Department Admits At Least One U.S. Attorney/Prosecutor Forced Out

In the ongoing investigation into the Bushies' purge of U.S. Attorneys/prosecutors, most of whom have been involved in investigating corruption by mostly Republican politicians, the Justice Department admitted today that at least one, Thomas M. DiBiagio, a Maryland federal prosecutor then looking into possible financial abuses of the Republican governor, was indeed forced out.

And, though he keeps claiming he did nothing wrong, Republican Senator Pete Domenici (N.M.) has hired a big gun lawyer against charges he tried to push a federal prosecutor to bring indictments against Democrats in another probe even though the prosecutor had not yet found justification to charge anyone.

Gee, isn't it the GOPers who always say, "If (insert Democrat's name) hasn't done anything wrong, then s/he has nothing to worry about"? They're also the same people who won't allow any investigation into anything they do.

For more on the investigation into the purging of the U.S. attorneys general, see this roundup.

More On The Purging of U.S. Attorneys Replaced By Bush-Rove Friends With No Scrutiny

Slate tackles the investigation into the Patriot Act revision that allowed the Bushies to purge seasoned federal prosecutors and replace them with Bush friends and patrons who are not vetted before they are named. Notice Arlen Specter there.