Disgrace of The Americas

Tell me what country's leader do you think the title of this post refers to?
Could it be Hugo Chavez of Venezuela?
As likely a target for scorn as he deservedly is, the answer is no.
Cuba's Castro? Fidel or Raul?
Neither, change is afoot on the island that has nothing to do with the embargo we've foisted on them but rather an embrace of reality after so many decades denying it's existence.

We can go on and on here critiquing the governments of our neighbors, but really why bother.
There's absolutely no reason to look beyond Washington DC for the best example the hemisphere has to offer. That's right Barry, you win.

Given an international stage to break with the tradition of past presidents posing with their heads buried in the sands of the War on Drugs. You instead chose the dubious distinction of adding your face and voice to the pantheon of fools committed to dumping untold billions of tax dollars down a sinkhole of corruption and ineptitude. In one fell swoop you threw away your one best chance to actually establish something of a positive legacy for your presidency. Simply put; all you had to do was embrace reality.

Clearly that's a tough one. Because neither you nor any of your predecessors has been able to accomplish the feat. Rather we were forced to watch the horror of our leader espousing misguided, disproved theories to disbelieving peers. Once again. All of whom stood with heads above their asses, while they watched you assume the ostrich position. Head planted firmly within a hole.

Then to top it off, after you've wagged your finger at your peers admonishing them to stay the course of the doomed ship "USS Morality", your own Secret Service team members were availing themselves of prostitutes. Without paying them. Tell me, doesn't that constitute sexual tourism? On the passport application we all fill out they specifically call out sex tourists and drug offenders.
So Barry, how does it feel to have sex tourists travelling as part of your protection detail?
Under the cover of diplomatic immunity?
All the while you tell your cohorts that the moral war of America's choosing goes on regardless of the suffering inflicted on their people.

Disgrace indeed.

Political Cartoon Sourced from: http://politicalhumor.about.com

American Hero Richard Lee

In America we have a culture of Hero Worship.
Star quarterbacks that can hit a streaking receiver 50 yards down-field with pinpoint precision. Baseball pitchers who throw the ball 100mph past the unbelieving eyes of everyone in the stadium. Seven footers who can run and jump like gymnasts, as they arc towards the rim throwing down one monster jam after another on the basketball court. Or perhaps you're a NASCAR fan, thrilling at 220 mph straight a ways, and close contact tactical driving.

For others like myself who find little or nothing to worship in millionaire athletes and their billionaire masters; we find the subjects of our admiration to be those individuals who actually bring something of substance to mankind in the realms of business, science, and the arts.
In some rare instances we're blessed with an astute combination of the three.
Richard Lee, founder of Oaksterdam University is I believe the embodiment of that rare individual.

Following California's Prop 215 that legitimized the medicinal use of marijuana for the first time since 1937, Mr. Lee started what has become the largest most comprehensive school for the study of marijuana in the world. From seed to finished product Oaksterdam University brought sound entrepreneurial business and science practices to what was formerly the province of cartels and mom and pop backyard growers. In the process of graduating more than 4,000 students, and placing this knowledge in the hands of everyday citizens like you and I, Mr. Lee consciously struck the strongest blow ever against organized crime's monopoly of the marijuana industry.

So why the Obama sponsored raid on what is a legitimate business in the state of California?
Does Mr. Lee, who is confined to a wheelchair, really represent such a danger to society that we have to attack him with every bit of our alphabet soup of law enforcement?
Was it really necessary to strip him of his hard earned assets without benefit of trial by jury?
Force him onto the rolls of the publicly funded disabled when previously he was not only self sufficient financially, but quite generous to those less fortunate than he.
But of course you all knew, that in direct contravention of our Constitution when the IRS and the income tax were simultaneously foisted upon us we lost our rights to due process in matters involving taxation.
Apparently this also applies to those who pay their taxes, but fund political campaigns the DEA, IRS et al find inappropriate.

How can it be that a man like Mr. Lee who is paying exorbitant taxes on the, federal, state, and local levels be targeted for outright governmental theft by agencies that feed from the trough he helps to fill?
Ironic that he gets to pay out of pocket for his own persecution don't you think?

In reality the only danger Mr. Lee represents comes in the form of fighting federal injustice.
In last years state election Mr. Lee bankrolled prop 19 on the ballot in California. This proposition would have made possession of marijuana legal in our state for all adults 18 and older. After a narrow defeat of the proposition at the polls through federal misinformation and intimidation. Barry's administration cynically leapt into the fray, directing the federal prosecutor Melinda Haag (love the name don't you?) to target the law that we Californians put in place in 1996, prop 215.

Redoubling that intimidation factor the Haag, I do love that name, directed her lackeys to inform any landlord providing retail space to medicinal marijuana dispensary's that they risked forfeiture of their property without due process if they did not immediately evict their legitimate renters.
When she was heartened by the relative success of this effort; Haag then set her sights on the most prominent marijuana advocate in the nation.
Mr. Lee, a wheelchair bound paraplegic with terroristic tendencies aimed at toppling the sovereign state of America.
My Hero.

Photo Source: Google Images