Penn Jillette's Obama Rant on marijuana

[Bozita]

[Itchinjim]

1. PJ is a libertarian asshole

[Logical]

3. LOL......wow, what a brilliant analysis! I am impressed! n-t

[Ratty]

10. Yes, he is

"It's amazing to me how many people think that voting to have the government give poor people money is compassion. Helping poor and suffering people is compassion. Voting for our government to use guns to give money to help poor and suffering people is immoral self-righteous bullying laziness.

People need to be fed, medicated, educated, clothed, and sheltered, and if we're compassionate we'll help them, but you get no moral credit for forcing other people to do what you think is right. There is great joy in helping people, but no joy in doing it at gunpoint."

No social security. No medicare. The sick and elderly can either rely on the kindness of strangers or die. Asshole.

[They_Live]

6. He makes some valid points though...

and I feel that most taxpayers would be appalled at the dollar amount that is spent to imprison these offenders.

[earthside]

2. You gotta admit ...

Penn makes some pretty good points about the stupidity of marijuana laws.

And, frankly, the Obama administration is making a big mistake taking a harder line on medical marijuana clinics.

[NS2012]

9. It's not Obama's fault.

He can't protect the medical marijuana clinics from the DEA forever, nor should anyone expect him to be able to.

The problem is the DEA, and anger should be directed accordingly.

This is from a recent Rolling Stone interview:

-------------------

Let me ask you about the War on Drugs. You vowed in 2008, when you were running for election, that you would not "use Justice Department resources to try and circumvent state laws about medical marijuana." Yet we just ran a story that shows your administration is launching more raids on medical pot than the Bush administration did. What's up with that?

(Obama)
Here's what's up: What I specifically said was that we were not going to prioritize prosecutions of persons who are using medical marijuana. I never made a commitment that somehow we were going to give carte blanche to large-scale producers and operators of marijuana – and the reason is, because it's against federal law. I can't nullify congressional law. I can't ask the Justice Department to say, "Ignore completely a federal law that's on the books." What I can say is, "Use your prosecutorial discretion and properly prioritize your resources to go after things that are really doing folks damage." As a consequence, there haven't been prosecutions of users of marijuana for medical purposes.

The only tension that's come up – and this gets hyped up a lot – is a murky area where you have large-scale, commercial operations that may supply medical marijuana users, but in some cases may also be supplying recreational users. In that situation, we put the Justice Department in a very difficult place if we're telling them, "This is supposed to be against the law, but we want you to turn the other way." That's not something we're going to do. I do think it's important and useful to have a broader debate about our drug laws. One of the things we've done over the past three years was to make a sensible change when it came to the disparity in sentencing between crack cocaine and powder cocaine. We've had a discussion about how to focus on treatment, taking a public-health approach to drugs and lessening the overwhelming emphasis on criminal laws as a tool to deal with this issue. I think that's an appropriate debate that we should have.

http://m.rollingstone.com/entry/view/id/25455/pn/all/p/0/?KSID=ba7e1e026ab8cb99560a3fe5d6e7698c

[Kolesar]

12. Wow. Thanks for posting that. eom

[Chakab]

13. Uhhhh....Obama appointed the head of the DEA,

who is yet another Bush administration holdover and is the one responsible for the DEA policy of interfering with state law on this issue.

[They_Live]

14. thank you for that info

[NS2012]

21. Blame the president if you must.

But I blame the DEA. If Obama appointed someone else he would still be in the same position. Whoever else he appointed would have the same set of responsibilities.

[Iggo]

33. ...and you voted for Obama.

So it's actually your fault.

Thanks a lot, man!

[90-percent]

4. I like Penn

Pretty freaking eccentric in a lot of areas, but I like his thinking and I agree with his point. We should not be so medieval on victimless crimes. Jail is hell. Amazing how many lives we casually ruin for outright stupidity and meanness.

I am mighty pissed at his DOJ policy on medical marijuana and decriminalizing. So much needless misery. Our whole drug war is starting to be seriously questioned by those countries it directly affects. The ex-Pres of Mexico is very vocal now about how stupid the American Drug War is, and why do you have to wreck my country to satisfy the appetite for drugs in your country?

Mexico has lost 50,000 in this drug war. That's as many Americans as we lost in Viet Nam. So, gee, the American drug war is Mexico's Viet Nam?

Does that make us bad?

-90% Jimmy

[Poll_Blind]

5. Penn's an asshole, IMO- but I watched every minute of that and he was right.

Although I haven't seen whatever it was he was referring to between Obama and Fallon.

PB

[Gabriel Cash]

7. There is one very simple point that people seem to forget....

there is no way Obama can do anything resembling legalizing (or decriminalizing) marijuana as the first black (in reality mixed) President. Need I remind you of gun sales going through the roof when he got into office, the whole birther thing and countless racial jokes and comments. They would have a field day with him if he did that in his first term. Now, if he is re-elected and continues the same idiotic policies, then be my guest and call him out on all of his antiquated laws.

[Dragonfli]

15. Then we need a presiudent that is not so weak that he can not fulfill his office

He could re-schedule the drug without help.
He can direct those that he appointed to both the DOJ and the DEA, the truth is not that he can do nothing for fear of someone shooting him as your argument goes, even if that is the case, we need an administrator that is not so susceptible to fear tactics that he is under duress and unable to fulfill his duties.

For the record I think you are preferring a silly argument, the President is not a hostage as you claim, I also believe that it has nothing to do with his refusal to direct the heads of agencies that he appointed, I think he has directed them to do exactly what they are doing, I think he wanted to increase pressure on medical marijuana because so far he has done everything the pharmaceutical lobby has wanted him to.

He is doing it for the same reasons that he refused to allow our government to negotiate bulk drug pricing, he does these things for cash donations. IMHO

[Mimosa]

22. The Obama is weak ripostes are nauseating

Criminalising young people for experimenting with drugs ruins lives. That is simply immoral.

[Dragonfli]

25. Yes it is, simply immoral, the next black president likely will not get the chance

to be the next black president since it is likely under the status quo championed by the first one, that such a young man may be run through the for profit prison system over a blunt in college (much like Obama experimented with).

So many innocent black young men are corralled by the system, even worse, in order to survive in such a Dickensian environment as the for profit prison system, such a young man would likely have to learn real criminality just in an attempt to survive.

This goes for white trash like my family as well, but we all know (at least in my state NY) that black youth are targeted by an order of 1:100 as compared to the white young men such a policy and president would destroy.

There are no excuses for what is pure evil.
There is no good cause that would ruin so many young lives.

[Mimosa]

27. Past is prologue.

Black people are criminalised even more.

[ihavenobias]

23. I'd settle for not having the Feds go out of their way

to crack down on state laws.

I don't hear many progressives clamoring for outright legalization or decriminalization before the election. With that said, if the president is going to buy into the conservative talking points about cutting the deficit it sure seems like the Feds could be used more wisely - something tells me there are bigger fish to fry:

[SHRED]

8. Penn would break his arms slapping himself on his back

That being said...Obama needs to get out in front of medical marijuana issue and declare raids off limits while advocating industrial hemp for USA farms.


---

[DeSwiss]

11. Truth Is Truth And There's No Denying It

"As for medical marijuana ... I'm not familiar with all the details of the initiative that was passed, but I think the basic concept of using medical marijuana for the same purposes and with the same controls as other drugs prescribed by doctors, I think that's entirely appropriate. ... I'm not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue." ~Barack Obama, The Mail Tribune March 23, 2008

- ''The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.'' - Winston Churchhill

K&R

[Dragonfli]

16. When a President lies to us outright as he did right there in your post, what do we call it?

I know we are not allowed to call the lie a lie, but what I don't know is what is the politically correct euphemism to use while replacing the word lie to describe such an obvious attempt to deceive us before electing him?

[DeSwiss]

17. It's not called lying, it's called ''politics.''

''In politics nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.''

~Franklin D. Roosevelt

We have reached the end of the useful life of the current paradigm underwhich we live. This thing we call "civilization." There's nothing civilized about it, we only see now. We've moved on but it remains the same. Excepting maybe more ruthless than ever. And just as the present paradigm that we operate under was not readily accepted nor easily brought about, so too shall this one pass with much gnashing of teeth and threats of destruction. But as with all thing in Nature, there is a time to be born and a time to die. And what we are now seeing are the very ''death throes'' which Dick Cheney mistakenly thought would come to his adversaries (us) -- when in fact he was talking about himself and his kind (blood-sucking/useless capitalists).

And I don't begrudge what capitalism has done for humanity, even if it was only done not for our benefit, but for it's own interests. Yet it was a great advance over serfdom and slavery. However, we now realize that we simply substituted bonded servitude with its chains and stocks, for credit cards, mortgages and debt made from something called ''money'' which is worthless paper created by the banks on a whim. Human farming is what some call it.

It is the most lucrative type of business possible today because it has an almost inexhaustible supply of the resource which can be bought, sold, traded, indebted and the offspring of this livestock, as with cattle, pigs and chickens, can provide the owners a ready replacement resource. And when the supply becomes too burdensome and costly to maintain, then all the owners must do is to restrict their resources (cut SS, food stamps and medical care, etc.) and allow the old and weak to die-off. For the owners it's the best thing since the domestication of animals at the very beginning of civilization as practiced by the Acadians and Sumerians.

However, now the livestock are becoming self-aware. And are protesting, marching and demanding change in the streets of major cities all around the world. And they show no signs of stopping and the old scare tactics aren't working. Everyone knows their game now. This is why the cops in NY and Chi-town are so afraid for their Masters -- and by extension, themselves. Because they know that we outnumber them tremendously (by billions) and if their fear and scare tactics don't work as they used to, them heaven help them.

- IMHO

[Jeffreytaos]

31. Thanks!

"To sin by silence when we should protest makes cowards out of men". ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox

[Jamaal510]

18. ,

[IMG][/IMG]

[Galraedia]

19. Penn Jillette, Ron Paul, and the rest of the lunatic libertarians and their supporters....

....are the best argument AGAINST the legalization of marijuana.

[SaltyBro]

20. Yeah, that makes sense.

[Mimosa]

28. ^ Right wing BS ^

Penn Jilette is not a lunatic and you know it.

[Jeffreytaos]

32. On what basis have you determined the lunacy?

Next time, tell us exactly why you think PJ would be a lunatic in your book or assumptions. I thought he spoke well, and the short video is to the point. States rights when convenient. A President that admits drug use, but would seek to punish others. A law that is unjust, unfair, I'll founded and supported by only a minority, of which you belong, apparently.

[Warren DeMontague]

37. What?

Im sorry, that makes ZERO sense. You favor continuing to spend $60 Billion a year filling our prisons with cancer grannies and jamband fans, just because you don't like some of the people on the other side???


Pat Buchanan was against the Iraq War, and he's a racist, anti semitic fuck. Does that mean the iraq war was a good idea?

[LetTimmySmoke]

24. He's 100% right on this issue. There's no denying it.

[Broderick]

26. He is right

And the more I hear, he is absolutely correct. Under the current laws, and the justice department efforts with the war on drugs - Obama unfortunately would have NEVER had the opportunity to be president had he been caught.

Now, what I wonder after hearing this is (something I never considered) : how many wonderful leaders will never get the opportunity to run for president because of a childish felony under the current drug laws and the war on drugs in general????

[Warren DeMontague]

29. He's right.

libertarian, shmibertarian. Fact is the drug war is an outrage, and needs to end.

[RebelOne]

36. Gotta agree. He is so right. n/t

[Jeffreytaos]

30. First time viewer, and he is so right on?

The President would have had a record if he had been busted, and he likely would never have come this far. Why do we keep electing these hypocrites? Maybe the FDA should be abolished, and let free market rule. After all, they only protect us when it is in the corporate interest to do so.

[Warren DeMontague]

34. Legalize, regulate, and tax it.

Enough, already.

[dembotoz]

35. read the New Jim Crow by Michele Alexander

eye opening


and Penn is not far off on a bunch of stuff.

asshole???? perhaps
but the asshole is farting a lot of truth.
(doesn't really make sense but you know what i mean?)

[MrMickeysMom]

38. Me thinks Penn has a bud stuck way up his ass....

Jesus, Penn. You make the point of "If Obama ever was caught for smoking weed, he would never have (fill in the blank)...", but you just a WEEEEEEEEEEE bit sensitive over the "fancy ass college" rant.

You turn more people off to your main point by acting like this, and therefore, I'll call you out as an idiot for doing so.

[Warren DeMontague]

39. He is abrasive.

But he speaks the truth about the drug war.