2012 Presidential Election

Reuters – Gasoline prices jumped in January, leading overall consumer prices higher and offering a reminder of the risks energy costs pose to the economic recovery.

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Gasoline pushes inflation up in January
(Reuters)

In a new Rolling Stone   piece , Tim Dickinson rehearses Barack Obama's reversal on medical marijuana, covering much of the same ground that I did in my October cover story for Reason  (which also discusses other disappointing aspects of Obama's drug policies). It's a good summary, featuring outraged quotes from reformers and making the point that Obama, despite his talk of deferring to state law, is arguably worse on this issue than his predecessor. But I think Dickinson makes too much of an anti-marijuana document produced by the Drug Enforcement Administration: In January 2011, weeks after [Bush administration holdover Michele] Leonhart was confirmed [as head of the DEA], her agency updated a paper called “The DEA Position on Marijuana.” With subject headings like THE FALLACY OF MARIJUANA FOR MEDICINAL USE and SMOKED MARIJUANA IS NOT MEDICINE, the paper simply regurgitated the Bush administration's ideological stance, in an attempt to walk back the Ogden memo. Sounding like Glenn Beck, the DEA even blamed “George Soros” and “a few billionaires, not broad grassroots support” for sustaining the medical-marijuana movement—even though polls show that 70 percent of Americans approve of medical pot. Almost immediately, federal prosecutors went on the attack. Their first target: the city of Oakland, where local officials had moved to raise millions in taxes by licensing high-tech indoor facilities for growing medical marijuana. A month after the DEA issued its hard-line position, U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag warned the city that the feds were weighing “criminal prosecution” against the proposed pot operations. Abandoning the Ogden memo's protections for state-sanctioned “caregivers,” Haag effectively re-declared war on medical pot. “We will enforce the Controlled Substances Act vigorously against individuals and organizations that participate in unlawful manufacturing and distribution activity involving marijuana,” she wrote, “even if such activities are permitted under state law.” This juxtaposition suggests the U.S. attorneys were following the DEA's lead, which seems unlikely. In any case, the DEA's position on medical marijuana has never really changed. The July 2010 version of this document, which appeared half a year before the U.S. attorneys' crackdown, is essentially the same as the current version , which (as Dickinson suggests) is essentially the same as the  version produced during the Bush administration. Leonhart and her underlings were never on board with the forbearance promised by Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, and neither were the federal prosecutors who are going after growers and dispensaries now. Obama would have had to make an effort to change the status quo, and he clearly didn't think it was worth it. Was this failure “shocking,” as the subhead over Dickinson's story says? That depends on your perspective. When my article on Obama's drug policies came out, Jeralyn at  Talk Left had this reaction : Jacob Sullum has the October cover story at Reason on President Obama:  Bummer: Barack Obama Turns Out to Be Just Another Drug Warrior. ” As if anyone should be surprised. I'm not. I've been writing since 2007 that he would do little to temper the War on Drugs. I would have called the article “Bummer: Barack Obama Is Still A Drug Warrior.” As I note in my Reason  piece, there were indeed warning signs before Obama was elected. But many reformers were genuinely surprised that, with the exception of crack sentences, he turned out to be no better than Bush and in some ways worse. With medical marijuana especially, the political risks of a bit more tolerance seemed small, and there was even a sound conservative/constitutionalist argument for letting states make their own decisions. Obama seems to assume that supporters who care about this issue and other progressive causes he has betrayed (the anti-war movement and civil liberties, for instance) have nowhere else to go, but they could just stay home. The Drug War Chronicle notes that Delaware has suspended its medical marijuana program in response to federal threats.

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Is Obama’s Medical Marijuana Reversal ‘Shocking’?

Consolidation. Yesterday, Tina Korbe and I had an opportunity to sit down with the new Republican frontrunner in the nomination race, Rick Santorum.  He had just finished giving his well-received CPAC speech, and we started off by asking Santorum about his request to voters gathered here at the convention to vote with their honor in mind.  View the video

65% of Catholics. Some in the media have expressed puzzlement over the controversy generated by new HHS mandate imposed by the Obama administration that would force religious organizations to pay for contraception even if it goes against their religious doctrine.  The New York Times and the Washington Post took pains to point out that Catholics are in favor Read this post

Reuters – Oklahoma’s Republican governor announced a plan on Monday to dramatically cut state income tax rates and eventually do away with them altogether, and said the state would pay for the cuts by closing “loopholes.”

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Oklahoma governor plans to cut state income taxes
(Reuters)

(John Hinderaker) It seems sewage has been much in the news lately, from perhaps the most epic of the epic greenfails that Steve has documented to the appalling personal hygiene of the Occupiers. Today’s sewage story comes from Samaria, where the Israelis are trying to provide proper sewage disposal in twenty Arab villages, and the Arabs want nothing to do with it: Swirling in the strikingly green valley below the southern Samaria community of Nofim is a rambling stream amid grass and trees – filled with dangerous quantities of sewage. A subterranean sewage pipe connects to the underbellies of four of the five surrounding settlements – Nofim, Yakir, Etz Ephraim and Sha’arei Tikva – and will within a few months also connect to that of Ma’aleh Shomron, bringing all of the effluent to a treatment facility in Eliyahu. Despite Israeli offers to connect the 22 surrounding Palestinian villages to the same pipe, all but one of them refused the proposal, Environmental Protection Ministry and Shomron Regional Council officials explained during an exclusive tour of the area on Thursday. Instead, their sewage flows into the aquifer below and ends up directly in the stream, according to the officials. “That’s a testament to the fact that we are doing everything we can to prevent pollution in Judea and Samaria, but nevertheless, the Palestinians refuse to cooperate,” Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan told The Jerusalem Post during the tour. Why won’t the Palestinians allow Israel to help with their sewage? Maybe they just like things the traditional way; the only alternative explanation is political: “a third official told the Post he suspected that the local Palestinian governments were unwilling to connect their villages due to ‘political reasons’ – simply ‘because they don’t want to recognize Israel as a presence in the area.’” So they would rather swim in their own sewage than accept help from the Israelis. I found this comment interesting: Erdan expressed hope that donor countries would agree to only continue giving the villages financial support if they agree to connect to the sewage pipeline. The Palestinians “receive more foreign aid per head of population than any other group of people in the world.” So they are too proud to let the Israelis dispose of their sewage, but not too proud to subsist on the charity of the European Union and other “donor countries,” including the United States.

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Sewage Stalemate In Samaria

Britain’s economy will suffer a modest contraction this year, according to an influential academic institute that is the first to forecast outright recession

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Recession predicted to return

Donald Trump endorsed Mitt Romney today in Las Vegas just moments ago. The Nevada Republican primary is just days away. “It’s my honor and privilege to endorse Mitt Romney… Governor Romney, go out and get em.”

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Donald Trump Endorses Mitt Romney “Governor Romney Go Out & Get Em” (Video)

Plus, Cain makes the expected endorsement. Five weeks ago, this might have been a game changer.  Is this a case of too little, too late? Atlanta businessman and former presidential candidate Herman Cain endorsed Newt Gingrich Saturday night at a West Palm Beach Country Republican gathering after two months of wavering on whether he would offer his support to a fellow Read this post

Tea Party favorite Herman Cain tonight endorsed Newt Gingrich for president of the United States. MSNBC reported: Former presidential candidate Herman Cain, who last week endorsed “the American people,” announced his support on Saturday of another entity — this time a Republican hoping to win the White House. “I hereby officially and enthusiastically endorse Newt Gingrich for president of the United States,” Cain said at a GOP fundraiser. Speaking to supporters on the day he left the race last month, the former head of Godfather’s Pizza said he would be making an endorsement. But at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in South Carolina last week, he announced that his official endorsement would be of “we the people.” While Cain publicly promoted his endorsement last week, the one he made Saturday night came with little warning. The announcement was a surprise to Gingrich staff, and the traveling press who most frequently cover the former House speaker were not in attendance after boycotting the price the campaign was charging for chartered flights. “There are many reasons, but one of the biggest reasons is that I know that Speaker Gingrich is a patriot. Speaker Gingrich is not afraid of bold ideas, and I also know that Speaker Gingrich is running for president and going through this sausage grinder,” said Cain. “I know what this sausage grinder is all about. I know that he is going through this sausage grinder because he cares about the future of the United States of America.” UPDATE : Giuliani Praises Newt and knocks Mitt Romney.

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Herman Cain Enthusiastically Endorses Newt For President of the United States (Video) …Update: Giuliani Praises Newt