The big White House issues -- Money and Security

Let's generate tens of thousands of letters to the White House to Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and send along a terrific oped, below, from the Chicago Tribune, that was captured by DrugSense Weekly. The author, Brian O'Dea -- that appears to be his real name -- is a former international marijuana smuggler.

Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, a native of Chicago, and former Chicago congressman, was an anti-drug, law and order voice in the Clinton White House. In some circles he is considered a political genius because as the Chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2005-2006 he was able to lead to the Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives. I suspect that he has encouraged the tough on drugs line that is coming out of the White House these days.

As you know, President Obama just went to Mexico which is deep in the blood of innocents as the cartels fight for turf, kill informants, intimidate those who resist them or report about them, and counterattack against the military, the honest cops, and the central government.

Congress made trouble for his trip by disregarding NAFTA and dissing
Mexican truck drivers. To make nice with President Calderon, Obama made a speech about cracking down on drug use. He made a pathetically unenforceable pledge to stop the Iron River of guns from the U.S. to Mexico. This is akin to King Canute's eleventh century effort to stop the tides of the sea.

Here's what I wrote to Rahm Emanuel at the White House (I suggest you modify it with your own words and your own story).

Subject: I have a policy question

Attention Rahm Emanuel

Re: The big issues -- money and security

For good reason, the American people are afraid that the bloodshed in Mexico will spread to the 230 cities across the country in which the cartels are operating. Because we are not taxing the sales and profits of illegal drugs, we are subsidizing the illegal drug cartels and their violence.

In September our school system is cutting out another teacher at my daughter's elementary school. They have already cut teachers, nurses, and paraprofessionals. Our county is cutting out psychiatric nurses at the detention center to treat drug addicts. We are cutting the police department.

None of these cuts should be made as long as we are spending billions of dollars to stop adults from using marijuana. Put marijuana prohibition on a scale with drug treatment or teachers or police protection. The answer is obvious, marijuana prohibition is less important.

This article in your hometown paper makes the point very well.

If we really want to help Mexico, we need a real strategy to stop the cartels from buying guns. The President's pledge to President Calderon is empty.

You have only one strategy that has not been tried in the past 40 years -- regulation, taxation and control.

America will abandon marijuana prohibition because it makes sense.
How long will the Obama Administration stand in the way of history and logic?

Eric E. Sterling

A rusty burned out America

On Easter Sunday, I rode Amtrak from New York City to Washington, DC. This is route of the railroad train that connects our largest city with our nation's capital. The route is shared by commuter trains into New York, Newark (the largest city in New Jersey), Trenton (the capital of New Jersey), Philadelphia (the largest city in Pennsylvania, and one of the largest in the United States), Wilmington (the largest city in Delaware), Baltimore (the largest city in Maryland) and Washington. Tens of thousands of people ride this route every day.

What a pathetic view of our nation. It filled me with sadness. There are a few suburban locations along the route -- Metro Park, NJ, New Carrollton, MD -- with new buildings, and in Philadelphia and Wilmington, clustered for a few blocks at the downtown, there are also new buildings.

But otherwise, when not in the woods or suburbs, the scene is desolation. In Baltimore and Chester, PA, numerous burned out houses not yet demolished. Throughout Trenton and Philadelphia and Baltimore, countless warehouses and factories abandoned, with broken windows. All along the route, trash, decrepit foundations and walls, rust, broken windows, and grafitti -- the hallmark of abandonment.

In Wilmington, Delaware, the train station that has been the daily destination for 36 years of the distinguished U.S. Senator Joe Biden, now our Vice President, paint is old and peeling and the steel is rusting after years of neglect.

Every day, wealthy business and political leaders ride this route. For decades the artery of our principal Eastern cities has simply flaked away, or is allowed to burn and is ignored.

Can all these properties be worthless? Can these properties adjacent to one of our busiest passenger rail roads be worthless?

I taken some trains in Europe -- old Europe. The property adjacent to the railroad is not squalor.

Doesn't this tell us something terrible about America?