The Liberated Centrist

This is maddening! A story published by the New York Times today reveals the secretive and widely inappropriate GLOBAL actions of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). Mind you, the DEA postures itself to be a domestic police force to enforce US drug laws (although their site mentions foreign and international policing efforts). Information recently leaked through Wikileaks tells us of various schemes involving wire-tapping and cover-ups for US political allies overseas caught up in drug busts. For instance, the President of Panama requested the DEA go after his political enemies asking for help with "tapping phones." Methinks the DEA must be pretty good if their skills are sought out internationally. In Guinea, where the nation's largest narcotics kingpin is the president's son, diplomats found out that before they busted him, all of the drugs were replaced with flour. Peculiar, isn't it? After all, the DEA has used this perverted sense of power to spray fields...

A Montana district court was paralyzed last week when Deputy Missoula County Attorney Andrew Paul could not seat a jury for a marijuana possession case with a tacked-on felony for “criminal distribution of dangerous drugs.” On April 23 rd , Touray Cornell’s home was searched by police and the amount of cannabis seized at the scene was so minuscule that potential jurors did not believe the charge fit the offense. One after another, potential jurors said that they would not convict someone for 1/16 th of an ounce of marijuana. One even posited to Atty. Paul and District Judge Dusty Deschamps why the county was wasting its time and resources to pursue the case at all. At any rate, the state could not seat an unbiased jury for trial so Paul and defense attorney Martin Ellison worked out a plea agreement on Thursday for Mr. Cornell in which he would not admit guilt. A rare and befuddling experience for Atty. Paul and Judge Deschamps, this apparent “mutiny” by several Montana residents i...

On Televangelist Pat Robertson's show "The 700 Club" on the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) he and his co-host began their segment last Thursday blasting the "lock 'em up and throw away the key" approach to crime and how it has led to the world's highest incarceration rate (1% of the adult population). Later on in the video he criticizes mandatory sentences and gives his support for decriminalized possession of "a few ounces" on cannabis. Blew my mind. Pat Robertson is a beacon for the Religious Right in America--making up about 20-25% of the electorate--so this is significant. The show also highlighted a new organization called "Right On Crime"  which attempts to provide reforms to the current criminal justice system based on conservative principles. The group is a project of the Texas Public Policy Foundation and has gathered support from other high-profile conservatives including Newt Gingrich, Grover Norquist and Edwin M...

Printed in the Friday, December 12 issue of The New Hampshire "From the Right" The recent Wikileaks scandal has drawn a wide array of calls for action on the part of the American government. The Department of Justice is pondering espionage charges against Julian Assange, Wikileaks’ founder. Mike Huckabee has called for Assange to be tried on treason charges, not excluding execution as punishment. All the while, Interpol, the international police force has been chasing down Assange on Swedish sexual assault charges. It seems odd that these charges resurfaced soon after some embarrassing messages from US diplomats were released, even though the rape charges were dropped by the previous prosecutor. Assange is now in custody of British law enforcement. Wikileaks is a nonprofit that allows sources to securely leak a wide variety of information to the site so the documents can be anonymously released to the world via the web. Documents include everything from diplomatic correspon...