President Obama talks TV and the human devastation caused by the misguided war on drugs with “The Wire” creator David Simon.
He really gets it. And he and AG for Life Eric Holder have actually done something about it, though much more remains to be done.
I know some of y’all will call me a fan girl (or worse) for saying this, but damn, I’m going to miss Barack Obama when his term is up. I don’t agree with every single thing he does, but he’s an intelligent man who sees the world from the perspective of an actual human being who has lived in it, a quality that is vanishingly rare in the upper ranks of national — or hell, even local and state — government in our creeping plutocracy.
I pine for many a progressive pony that the Obama administration failed to deliver to my satisfaction. But the discussion above reminds me of why I was so enthusiastic about Obama in 2008 and why I was proud to work my ass off to help elect him twice. I will miss that.
[H/T: Booman]
elmo
Listen, I’m as big a fangrrl of PBO as they come, but you can’t give Holder props on the war on drugs insanity. You just can’t. His DOJ has been raiding MJ dispensaries in states where it’s legal, over and over again, despite repeated promises not to.
I don’t know why his DOJ has done that, but it’s madness.
Violet
Me too.
NCSteve
I fear far too many will only realize what they had after the emotional 12 year old bullies are back in charge.
EconWatcher
Best president of my life so far (i’m just shy of 50) and don’t expect to see his like again.
Betty Cracker
@elmo: Well, that sucks, but Holder has taken some positive steps to rein in the war on drugs, like scaling back civil forfeiture and reducing mandatory minimums for drug crimes. I think that deserves props.
sparrow
Whether it’s Hillary or O’Malley or some other person, I fear the contrast will be very much felt. PBO has a thoughtful, measured, adult quality that I will really really miss. Like you said, I didn’t always agree with him, but I didn’t feel that we disagreed because he was an awful human being (like most of our elected people) but because we looked at the situation and came to different conclusions.
gbear
This. He’s been the president who could say ‘My karma ran over your dogma’ with a straight face, but you know he’d be grinning anyway.
japa21
@EconWatcher: Same here, and I am quickly edging toward the 70 mark.
Big ole hound
Elizabeth Warren is the only straight talker I’ve seen in politics besides the Prez. Her early interviews with Colbert and Stewart were very revealing. I guess she runs in 2020 after we put up with Hillary for 4 years all in the hope of massive Supreme Court changes. At this point they run the country and are appointed for life.
rikyrah
Who wins and loses in Rahm’s TIF game?
Under Mayor Emanuel, most economic development funds are spent downtown while neighborhood investments lag behind.
By Ben Joravsky@joravben and Mick Dumke@mickeyd1971
Tax Increment Financing (TIF) is a huge scam to take dollars and allocate with no representation. This is how the black, Latino and working class neighborhoods have gone into serious decline. Daley and Emanuel have created a 21st Century version of Jim Crow communities. My Chicago brothers and sisters need to vote their interest and survival in this election.
Who wins and loses in Rahm’s TIF game?
Under Mayor Emanuel, most economic development funds are spent downtown while neighborhood investments lag behind.
In the first runoff debate, Mayor Rahm Emanuel conceded that Chicago struggles with economic disparity. But he argued that “it is a false choice to pit one part of the city of Chicago against another.”
Since Emanuel took office, though, the city’s primary economic development tool is doing just that—favoring gentrifying neighborhoods downtown over the rest of the city.
Nearly half of the $1.3 billion in tax increment financing funds allocated by Mayor Emanuel since 2011 have gone to the Loop and surrounding areas, according to city records.
It was much the same five years ago, when we examined the TIF program under former mayor Richard M. Daley. As a candidate for mayor in 2011, Emanuel promised to make it more fair.
But about 48 percent of what he has committed to spend in TIF funds over the last four years has gone to these same favored communities, an area stretching roughly from the Gold Coast on the north to McCormick Place on the south and from the United Center on the west to the lake.
Those neighborhoods account for about 5 percent of Chicago’s geographical area and 11 percent of its population.
In contrast, the south side received about 16 percent of the TIF haul, the northwest side 10 percent, the north side 9 percent, the west side 9 percent, the southwest side 4 percent, and the far south side—which includes some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods—just 4 percent.
Even some of the mayor’s council allies say it’s time to change the TIF program so that more resources go to struggling neighborhoods.
“Would I be much happier if I could get some of those dollars? Absolutely,” says Alderman Willie Cochran (20th). “Do the regulations have to change? I would be in favor of it.”
The TIF program was created to eradicate blight by subsidizing development in communities that would not be developed “but for” the assistance.
The irony, as Cochran points out, is that it’s governed by a formula that collects more money for rapidly gentrifying communities than anywhere else, including the city’s poorest, most blighted areas.
When the mayor and the City Council create a TIF district, they basically limit the amount of property taxes within that district that go to the schools, parks, county, and other taxing bodies. As property values rise, the increased property tax yield flows into a TIF account controlled by the mayor.
That means a community undergoing rapid gentrification—like the area around McCormick Place—will have more money flowing into its TIF coffers than poor communities like Woodlawn, which Alderman Cochran represents. Under state law, the city has little ability to move the funds from one part of town to the other.
In essence, the TIF program is like a competition for a limited amount of money. But it’s not a fair fight—it’s more like a 100-yard dash in which one guy starts at the 50 and everyone else is trying in vain to catch up.
For instance, Mayor Emanuel approved spending $87 million in the LaSalle/Central TIF district in the Loop—and nothing at all in the 126th/Torrence district on the southeast side. In fact, no money was spent in 23 of the 149 TIF districts across the city.
And more than half of the city isn’t in a TIF district, which means those excluded areas don’t receive any investment from the program either.
http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/mayor-rahm-emanuel-tif-funds-downtown-neighborhoods/Content?oid=17009841
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@elmo:
You should read some of the actual news coverage of some of the raids in California, not just the self-serving statements by some of the dispensary owners. When a dispensary owner is keeping hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in his home, that’s illegal. Search the LA Times website if you don’t believe me. Yes, some dispensary owners are acting within existing law, but some of them aren’t, and they play on the sympathies of people like you when they get caught breaking California law in addition to federal law.
the Conster
The man has a stable mind. His default state is thoughtfulness, and because he’s emotionally healthy, his thoughtfulness makes space for empathy. He’s as good a president as we’re ever going to have, and he’s been a precious bulwark against raging nutjobbery. I’ll always remember him during that September leading up to the first election – his calmness and coolness as the backdrop to McCain’s chicken with its head cut off act about suspending his campaign and running off to who the fuck knows where or why. The right man at the right time, and look how far we’ve come from those scary times. Thanks Obama!
Gin & Tonic
@Big ole hound: In 2020 Elizabeth Warren will be 71 years old. She will not run at that age.
Mr. Longform
One thing that I would bet my vast savings of $21.50 on – in about 7 or 8 years, Republicans will be saying about the newest front-running Democrat that “He/she is no Obama – at least he was someone who was OK on xxxx thing….” Kind of like they were with Bill Clinton comparing him to Obama. They will have lost their Kenyan-Usurping-PalsArounding memories. And our great history-minded media experts will nod and agree about the good old days.
Patrick
@EconWatcher:
Amen! He was dealt a terrible, terrible hand and has still managed. There will never be another like him in my life time.
askew
He’s been the best president of my lifetime by far. I can’t wait to see what he does post-presidency. I expect his post-presidency to be much more like Carter’s (getting important work done and not caring about the spotlight) and less like Clinton’s.
Obama never does anything without a reason so I am curious as to why this interview took place. I wonder if he is planning to issue more pardons for low-level drug charges or something. I do have to say that Obama’s 2nd term has really been impressive so far.
OT – Watched Jon Stewart’s segment on U.S./Iran last night and I am starting to think Stewart isn’t very smart. It was incredibly bone-headed. He really doesn’t get nuance at all. No wonder he is a liberatarian.
kindness
I’d be a happier liberal if Obama would change the Schedule 1 rating of cannabis products to the same as alcohol & tobacco. Yea, that would mean he would have to fire the current head of the DEA as for what ever reason, the DEA is the one who has final say in what should be Scheduled where. In any sane universe that would be the Surgeon General’s job. The current DEA head might as well be Hoover. He has stated he feels pot is the same as heroin as far as he is concerned. So yo Barack….kick his sorry ass out and get someone who will agree to eliminate this travesty on our justice system.
Speaking as a lifelong pothead of course.
Patrick
@Mr. Longform:
I will never forget that press conference when an American President had to actually show his birth certificate to prove to the media idiots and the GOP that he was actually one of us. Shame on the pathetic media and the GOP.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
The most important take away from this interview is that Omar is the President’s favorite character from “The Wire”. I knew there was a reason I voted for him.
Best 3 minutes in television:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3T_2RTDcVo
cahuenga
If you want to know why we are, where we are, it’s the fawning “we could have done worse” supporting neoliberal, pro-corporate DLC types who in turn enable more-corporate batshit insane conservatives. Republicans do what they always do, and the Obama/Clinton wing have only aided their cause.
askew
@Mr. Longform:
Never going to happen. Obama will be treated like Carter in the media and with the GOP as a running punch line and a joke. Clinton is revered in both because he enacted a shitload of GOP policies and frequently agrees with them on foreign policy. Obama is much more like Carter in they care more about doing the right thing than in getting the Village’s approval, which makes them unpopular with GOP and media.
askew
@kindness:
If he fires the head of the DEA, he won’t get another approved in the Senate before he goes and the acting head of a department usually doesn’t have the same authority as head of department. Can the acting head make that change?
Betty Cracker
@Gin & Tonic: Agreed. I love Warren, but I don’t think she wants to be president. She’s a very effective senator, and I hope she remains one for many years to come.
elmo
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
But California isn’t the only place where this is happening. There have been raids in just about every state where medical MJ was legalized. Look at the Kettle Falls case, where five individual patients were put through a full trial by the Holder DOJ. They were just acquitted.
Also, I suspect you were using “hundreds of thousands in cash is illegal” as shorthand for “hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash is proof they were engaged in a massive distribution effort,” but could you confirm that? Because I’m not aware of any law that forbids the hoarding of cash per se.
kindness
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
Why is that illegal? You know it’s the DOJ that won’t let the banks allow Medical Marijuana businesses to open bank accounts don’t you? Well, without a bank account what are they going to do? What do you suggest?
Bobby B.
@kindness: Balloon Juice always comes into the War On Drugs a day late and a dollar short, perhaps trying to emulate Obama. I can’t believe Police State crimes haven’t always been front and center for any prog site worth its salt.
cmorenc
@Betty Cracker:
This exactly!
And it makes me angry with the heat of a thousand suns that a potential golden age of bipartisan accomplishment – where Obama was willing to synthesize progressive goals with some conservative ideas and approaches (e.g the ACA originally came from the GOP via the Heritage Foundation and Romney’s Massachusetts) was deliberately sabotaged by an opposition party led by insane snarling psychopaths willing to use any means to sell vicious lies and distortions and character assassination. in pursuit of a selfish vision of America where the lion’s share of the economic pie is owned by the very few. And while we’re at it, I’d like to give Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson a few whacks in the nuts with a baseball bat for being such traitorous assholes to their own party and President.
TriassicSands
@Violet:
That doesn’t justify what the president has done in the War on Drugs. If nothing else Obama could and should have reclassified marijuana. There is no justification for marijuana to be classified with heroin as a Schedule I drug. Only a fool or a liar would claim that it has no legitimate medical use, yet that is what Schedule I means. A few years ago Christine Gregoire (one time AG and then governor of Washington State) petitioned Obama to reclassify marijuana and he wouldn’t do it.
It’s the best things about Obama that make some of his failings so inexplicable. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely Clinton would have been any better and every Republican would have been and will be much, much worse.
Mike J
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
Lets also not forget how many people here are rightly furious when some right wing shithole says they’re free to ignore federal law just because they don’t like it.
srv
We will look back at these years as being an era of cordiality and bipartisanship if that woman gets elected.
SenyorDave
@Patrick: I will never forget that press conference when an American President had to actually show his birth certificate to prove to the media idiots and the GOP that he was actually one of us. Shame on the pathetic media and the GOP.
I agree, it was disgraceful that he was forced into that. The only saving grace was that he made Trump look even more pathetic (if that is actually possible).
Patrick
@SenyorDave:
Any time Trump’s name is mentioned with running for President, I just want to scream at the reporter. Why didn’t you (the reporter) ask Trump about his statement that his investigators, that he himself had sent to Hawaii, had uncovered unbelievable evidence regarding Obama’s birth certificate?
Tractarian
@srv:
“That woman”
LOL
SenyorDave
@Mr. Longform: One thing that I would bet my vast savings of $21.50 on – in about 7 or 8 years, Republicans will be saying about the newest front-running Democrat that “He/she is no Obama – at least he was someone who was OK on xxxx thing….” Kind of like they were with Bill Clinton comparing him to Obama. They will have lost their Kenyan-Usurping-PalsArounding memories. And our great history-minded media experts will nod and agree about the good old days.
I can’t see that happening. I think there is something about Obama that would prevent that from ever occurring. I can’t quite put my finger on it, something peculiar to Obama. Seriously, I always thought the way the Republicans talk about Michelle Obama was the tell. It’s bad enough how much they disrespect the President, but the lengths they go to denigrate Michelle Obama are pretty disgusting.
Betty Cracker
@askew: I suspect PBO will focus on making a real difference in some important cause when he leaves office. And if the media continue to come to him as the spokesman for black America every time there’s an appalling incident that illustrates racial inequality, I hope he speaks up. I bet he’d have a lot more to say, freed from the obligations of his current office.
shortstop
@rikyrah: Joravsky’s been a real bulldog on this while the Tribune and Sun-Times have essentially ignored the problem. Quigley was the only CC commissioner interested in this, and he was fantastic pushing back against Daley on TIF abuse. Once Quigley went to Congress there was no one else interested.
This issue incenses me at least as much as any other. Emanuel promised to reform the crooked TIF system and if anything he’s worse than Daley on it. When TIFs began, they were designed solely for “blighted” areas, and now they’re present in 100 percent of the city’s wards. In areas that don’t need improvement or rapid expansion of the tax base, they’re a flat-out gimme to crony developers at the cost of everyone paying property taxes. I really don’t mind paying property taxes, but I mind very much enriching Emanuel’s buddies for building condos on the Gold Coast. And there’s very little we can do about it, because the TIF board is solely appointed by the mayor.
God, I get furious just thinking about it.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@kindness:
Please provide the text of the state or federal regulation saying that, unlike other businesses, medical marijuana dispensaries are not allowed to open bank accounts.
Meanwhile, over 100 dispensaries were closed in the LA area last year not because Obama and Holder are big meanies who hate pot, but because they were breaking local regulations:
http://articles.latimes.com/2014/mar/10/local/la-me-pot-landlords-20140311
Patricia Kayden
@Violet: Me three.
I loved Bill Clinton too but am really proud that President Obama has zero scandals in his legacy. He appears to be very self disciplined (despite being a smoker, which I hope he eventually gives up) and very intelligent. I hope he and his wife take a long vacation after he leaves the White House. They are pretty strong people to handle all of the ugly racism directed at them and their daughters — not only from the general public but from Repub politicians.
askew
@Betty Cracker:
I am sure he’ll have more to say post-presidency but he’ll never be the firebrand that Al Sharpton is and that so many on the left expect Obama to be. I think he’ll probably work on voting issues in the U.S. I am really curious as to what he’ll do internationally post-presidency. He is much more popular abroad and I think he could be really influential in foreign policy. I don’t ever see him chasing billionaires or foreign governments for donations to his charity the way Bill Clinton does, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be influential.
shortstop
@Patricia Kayden:
How can you turn a blind eye to Shirtsleeves in the Oval Officegate, Mispronounced Corpsgate and Michelle Doesn’t Love French Flower Arrangementsgate? Would you let a Republican slide on this stuff? I think not.
Bystander
I’m with the Best POTUS of My Lifetime crowd. And I also doubt that repubs will ever speak respectfully of PBO. He will join the ranks of Carter and FDR, which tells me I’m exactly right. Bad always hates Good. You can’t be as evil as the repubs are and ever work on a bipartisan basis. Anything which might dilute their evil should be avoided the way the Wicked Witch avoided water.
shortstop
@askew:
I have been hopeful that he’ll make access to the franchise one of the centerpieces of his post-presidency work.
boatboy_srq
@Betty Cracker: DoJ, like any cabinet-level department, comes with a lot of baggage. DoJ also has the unique situation of a bunch of Shrubbery to get pruned out: recall that 10 years ago we had the entire AG scandal in full flower, where solid AGs were getting axed because they weren’t sufficiently partisan. It’s not an excuse exactly, but it does bear mentioning that the AG position more than most had a lot of the previous [mal]administration’s missteps to undo, and that takes effort and time.
catclub
@askew: I agree with your points, but disagree on your conclusion. Carter was failed because
of the Iran hostage crisis and the economy being incredibly shitty. In 1980 the economy contracted by 5%. Nobody wins re-election under that condition. He was very unlucky. Obama has been very lucky ( so far) by comparison. The economy looks like it will end up growing (although slowly) for 7.5 years under Obama. So Obama will end up being much more respected, as Clinton is.
Jeremy
@askew: Well Bill Clinton was not a neocon. He was aggressive in some areas like President Obama but he wasn’t willing to go into drawn out ground confrontations especially after Black Hawk Down in Somalia. He also refused to take out Saddam Hussein when numerous conservative foreign policy “experts” were calling for it. So that’s one area where I disagree.
But I do believe that over time they will act like they had no issues with President Obama especially since he was the first black president. The same people who hated MLK now praise the man.
Betty Cracker
@askew: The fact that Obama is no Sharpton is exactly why I hope he does become the media’s go-to “black people explainer.”
Larv
@TriassicSands:
I don’t know, I think that would pose a serious risk of politicizing the issue and whipping up Republican opposition. As it stands, full legalization is almost inevitable. It’s not a political hot-button, it’s working well in the states which have legalized, and it has widespread support across the political spectrum. Obama is a long-game kind of guy. He sees where things are heading and likely doesn’t want to screw that up by making it about him or his administration. Rescheduling by executive fiat would risk that. Fox News would be ranting non-stop about the evils of the devil weed, and their audience would lap it up.
Give it a few years to make clear how harmless it is in CO and other states, and rescheduling will be much less controversial. And I say this as someone who would dearly love to be able to buy it legally, as I’m now old enough not to know any illegal sources.
Also, I’m not sure how much support Obama could count on from other Dems. The Dems have been using the drug war to push back on their soft on crime reputation for decades now, which is a large part of how we’ve got to this point. A lot of them are still very reluctant to get on board with legalization, like Hickenlooper initially was in CO.
catclub
@shortstop: You forgot the salute with a cup of tea. Presidency crushing.
Patricia Kayden
Do you have to support marijuana legalization to be a good Progressive/Liberal? Because I don’t. But it’s not an issue that I focus on or which is important to me so I won’t shrivel up and die if it is legalized everywhere. It’s certainly not an issue that I would ding any President on.
catclub
@Jeremy:
Not quite. They say that MLK would agree with them. They claim him as a shield.
mai naem mobile
I would love Obama to go out there for 3-4 years, make his money, write his book, take care of the library and then get appointed to the USSC. Obviously I would like him replacing Scalia but even him replacing RBG and imaginging him slapping down Scalia, Scalito and Thomas during some discussion just makes me laugh.
WaterGirl
@askew:
I think it is absolutely correct to wonder about this. I don’t know exactly what he’ll do, but I’m pretty sure he has has a plan, and this interview is part of it.
Jeremy
@SenyorDave: I agree. I don’t think conservatives will say they love Obama in the future. But I do believe they will tone down their rhetoric about how they hate him. We are starting to see republicans reverse their love for Clinton now that it looks like Hillary is running for president.
shortstop
@catclub: My god, yes. Spitting in the faces of the troops and not even man enough to drink coffee while he’s doing it.
MomSense
@Betty Cracker:
My guess is climate change and My Brother’s Keeper will be two big causes when he leaves office.
Jeremy
@Larv: Great point. President Obama is letting this play out because he knows that if he goes too far it will be politicized.
Belafon
@Mnemosyne (tablet): I don’t have time to look this up, but right now, it’s illegal to put any money from drug sales into a bank account that has some form of federal backing, which is, by definition, all banks.
Brachiator
@cahuenga:
I’ve been hearing stuff like this for years, and I am very grateful that this did not add to apathy and prevent Obama from being elected president.
The plain hard fact is that people who talk this talk have failed to get candidates elected to office who represent their views. And there is no consensus about what any supposed alternative would look like or how it would work. It is not sufficient simply to complain about pro-corporate DLC types. This is not even adequately preaching to the choir, and it certainly doesn’t do anything for anyone outside of this inner circle of perpetual unhappiness.
Jeremy
@mai naem mobile: Wonderful idea but it’s not going to happen. The Obama’s will be done with Washington come Jan 2017. We will not see Michelle running for a senate seat and Barack will not accept a Supreme Court appointment. It’s obvious that the Obama’s are looking forward to post presidential life.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@elmo:
It’s not illegal in and of itself to hoard one’s own personal cash, but most district attorneys take it as evidence that you’re trying to illegally dodge paying income tax on your personal and/or business income.
I have come around to marijuana legalization and I would be okay with it being subject to the same laws as alcohol and tobacco, but I think a lot of people don’t realize how many laws there are that regulate alcohol and tobacco — that’s the ATF’s entire mission (along with firearms).
Here in California, I can buy alcohol at the grocery store. In other states, you can only buy alcohol at the state liquor store. Are MJ advocates going to be okay with state-run pot stores?
Or, to draw another parallel, it’s perfectly legal for me to make home-brewed beer and give it away to my friends, but if I start selling it to people, I have to get licensed and regulated. Are people okay with home growers getting busted for selling without a license the way a homebrewer would be?
Belafon
@Jeremy:
Clinton and Obama have been willing to use force just like every other Democratic president. With the exception of Johnson’s Vietnam fiasco (which I learned was worsened in part by Nixon’s interference with the peace talks), Democrats just tend to be far less about proving a point and more about doing a job.
kindness
@Mnemosyne (tablet): Google Melinda Haag. She is the Federal Prosecutor here in Northern California.
For someone who frequently sounds educated you aren’t doing that impression any favors playing dumb on this issue.
WereBear
@Patricia Kayden: It’s important to me because it is used as a club to fill the for-profit prisons and keep people disenfranchised and ready to work for peon wages.
It’s not about one thing. It’s a facet of a lot of big things.
Keith G
Speaking of The Wire, when they were shooting the series, the mayor of Baltimore threatened to withdraw support for the shooting of the film because he did not like the way the city was being shown.
The mayor was Martin O’Malley.
Jeremy
@Brachiator: The Far left is like the Far right where they complain about people not being liberal enough or conservative enough. I do believe that it’s important to hold politicians accountable but it’s ridiculous to believe that everyone will agree with you 100 % of the time. FDR is considered a saint by the same people but if you looks closer at his record and beliefs according to their standards he would be a corporate DLC sellout. It’s ridiculous !
Brachiator
@TriassicSands:
I don’t know if Obama could do this or even if it is necessary for him to do this. The repeal of Alcohol Prohibition was aided by states ending their anti-booze efforts. We have a few states that have outright legalized some marijuana use. If this trend continues, it might make federal anti-marijuana efforts look foolish and pointless. This in turn might lead to a reclassification of the drug.
Lee
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
Here is NYT article about the problem.
WaterGirl
OT, but askew, are you still here?
I was just catching up on last night’s thread and I saw your post about the Amazon toy. Use the HELP link on Amazon’s front page and initiate the phone call – if you have them call you they call back within seconds.
If there has been a big screwup, they will ship something overnight at no cost to make it right. They even have Saturday and Sunday delivery. So I think they can make this right for you in time for the birthday.
gogol's wife
@EconWatcher:
He’s definitely the best president of my lifetime. I’m going to be extremely depressed when he’s gone. I do hope the next president is a Democrat, whoever that is, but I don’t expect them to match his achievements.
Tom F
@Belafon:
Looks like things are changing:
From the February 14 WaPo:
The Obama administration on Friday gave the banking industry the green light to finance and do business with legal marijuana sellers, a move that could further legitimize the burgeoning industry.
Betty Cracker
@WereBear: Well said.
Tripod
Clearly Obama and you Obamabots are a bunch of sellouts, operating on bad faith against the vast array of Democrats who are with ME and whatever ax I’m grinding.
hoodie
Probably the most level-headed and effective (in the positive sense) president since Roosevelt, but I’m not sure what legacy he leaves for the Democratic Party. Carter was a fundamentally decent guy, but didn’t have the focus that Obama has. Clinton was brilliant at times, but erratic.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@elmo: He told ’em to. He can babble all he wants about the damage of the drug war, but his actions tell the real story.
Davis X. Machina
@Brachiator: Well done, that man. Thank you. Several times.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Lee:
Thank you, that was helpful. I would have been interested to have them interview some people in California since we’ve had medical MJ since 1996. Have operators in California been operating as cash-only for 20 years? A lot of the “money laundering” restrictions on cash deposits were put in place after 9/11 — were the California dispensaries grandfathered in, or did they have to start taking new measures?
I agree that it’s silly that a legal business is forced to operate on a cash-only basis. I understand the concerns about money being laundered through previously illegal businesses, though, so there will probably have to be careful regulations written.
Berto
Asking that Obama not push through terrible trade deals, like TPP, is exactly the same as wishing for a unicorn.
Betty Cracker
@Berto: No, it’s not.
slag
The best part of that conversation was when he talked about schools and kids beings left so far behind they look for other ways to gain a feeling of empowerment. I’ve seen this many many times. Getting beat down everyday in school? Well, you can be a great hustler.
Of course, I see the hyperfocus on standardized testing to be a contributing factor to this problem, whereas Obama apparently sees it as part of the solution. Don’t know how you can bridge that gap.
kindness
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Why should legal cannabis outlets have different regulations than any other store or business?
Really dude. Seems like you aren’t a fan. That in and of itself is OK but legal cannabis retail really shouldn’t be treated any different than they treat a BevMo.
gogol's wife
@shortstop:
Oh, wow, I’m late, but I went to college with Ben Joravsky! I’ll have to catch up on what he’s doing. He’s such a great guy.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@kindness:
There are currently regulations on depositing more than $10,000 in cash at one time. Either banks will need to get assurance from the Feds that it’s okay to allow legal MJ businesses to open accounts so their customers can use credit cards, or the regulations about how much cash you’re allowed to deposit will need to be adjusted. Not sure what your issue is.
As I said, I’ve come around to thinking that MJ should be legal and regulated like alcohol and tobacco, but I think a lot of MJ advocates don’t realize what that will mean. Anti-smoking laws will apply to both MJ and tobacco. Distributors will be scrutinized to make sure they’re not selling on the black market as happens on the East Coast with cigarettes. Shops will not be allowed to be near schools or churches and will have to be licensed, just like liquor stores. Etc. I’m willing to let MJ be regulated the same way as tobacco and alcohol, but not to have less regulation.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@kindness:
Or here’s another example: have you ever received a shipment of wine in the mail? Notice that there’s a special sticker they put on it saying that if the recipient appears to be drunk, the carrier has to refuse to deliver the package. And that’s if you’re in a state like California where commercially shipping alcohol is permitted at all.
I do think that the people saying that they want MJ to be regulated like tobacco and alcohol don’t really understand how heavily regulated those industries are, and we’re going to have to hear years of howls about how UNFAIR it is that a city can regulate where a shop can be located, because we’re already hearing that. We’re going to hear how unfair it is that you can’t sell to your friends, but that’s already the case with alcohol and tobacco, so nut up.
Ruckus
@kindness:
legal cannabis retail really shouldn’t be treated any different than they treat a BevMo.
A good point, it shouldn’t be. Neither should MJ be treated differently than alcohol or cigs but it is. Right now you can’t deposit more than $10,000 in cash without the bank filling out forms and sending them in. And most banks will not take much cash at all if you don’t have an account. The drug laws figure that illegal drugs are a cash crop and so any large amounts are from drugs. That’s what all the confiscation laws are about. That many police departments have abused the law doesn’t change the law.
I used to have to carry large amounts of cash back to the home office after public sporting events because local banks would not accept it, even if we wanted to fill out the forms and provide proof where the money came from. They don’t want the headaches. Which come from drug laws and terrorism laws. There is a notice in banks about the law that they require certain forms of ID, which they check out before they open an account, to supposedly prevent people from money laundering from drugs or providing funds for terrorism. Last account I opened they did this in front of me, accessing files on a computer about my name, my DL#, SSN.
Ruckus
@kindness:
Another point. Alcohol is treated differently in many places as Mems pointed out here in CA we can buy alcohol in grocery stores(between the hours of 6am to 2am). But in many states it is not so easy. I’ve lived or worked in dry cities, states that alcohol is only sold in state stores and only M-F from 9-5. You work then? Tough shit. States that allow grocery stores to sell beer and wine but no “hard” liquor. Like the alcohol in beer and wine is somehow different.
What should be and what is will always be different
Turgidson
@Larv:
I agree with this. Obama said in a recent interview…maybe with Vice…that it’s important to get Congressional buy-in for reclassifying mj so that it wouldn’t look like Obummer tyranny if he unilaterally does it. I think he’s taking the same sort of long term view he did with DADT, which the firebagger types wanted him to repeal by executive order the moment he took the oath and were furious at him for not doing. It took longer, but he got it repealed via legislation.
Maybe he’s just passing the buck on mj by going this route, but it’s hard to argue with the view that the move will have more permanency and legitimacy if there’s a consensus behind it. Problem, of course, is that much of the braindead GOP caucus, who we’re likely stuck with for a while yet, would sooner light themselves on fire than publicly back reclassification.
Larv
@kindness:
Well, mostly because cannabis is still illegal under federal law. That may be unfortunate and ill-advised, but it is true. It also has very little to do with Obama or Holder and everything to do with Congress.
Turgidson
I have wondered if the Obama DOJ’s harshness towards dispensaries was a misguided attempt to create political momentum towards reform. He did the same thing with border security. More deportations, more agents in the field, more everything. He did it to convince the GOP to make a deal with him on immigration reform.
All he got for his effort was anger from immigrant groups and GOPers getting in front of cameras and shamelessly lying about how secure the border was and still using it as an excuse to oppose reform.
I’ve long thought he was trying the same thing with drug laws – show the GOP and the Village idiots that he was serious about law and order concerns in order to create breathing room for some sort of sensible reforms, which he’s since realized is a waste of time. I’ve taken the DOJ’s tacit acceptance of CO and WA’s legalization as some evidence of this. And it seems anecdotally like Fed raids on California dispensaries are not as frequent as they were early in his term (not sure if that’s accurate, but I have friends who are or were connected to the industry and they’re not in the same constant state of fury as they were).
And just like with immigration, it hasn’t worked. Democrats being “soft on crime/law and order” is one of those things that is so baked into the Village’s, and many voters’, preconceptions (sort of like Democrats being tax-and-spenders vs. fiscally responsible GOPers, which the last 20 years have repeatedly shown that no amount of evidence can ever overcome) that he got no credit for actually being the opposite.
askew
@WaterGirl:
Wow, thanks for the response. I’m going to call them right now. Thanks again!
Larv
@Turgidson:
Yeah, I was also going to note the parallel between Obama’s actions on MJ and immigration. I agree that what he’s trying to do is create the political space for reform by demonstrating that he’s not reluctant to enforce the law. It’s largely an attempt to preemptively immunize his administration from the “soft on crime” attacks so that he doesn’t end up spending all his time playing defense on that front, and also to demonstrate to Congress that he respects their legislative primacy. I agree that it hasn’t been terribly successful with immigration. But I’m not sure it’s been entirely a failure regarding marijuana. I think the legalization movement has taken a huge step forward during his presidency. I don’t think he deserves all or even most of the credit for that, but I do think he’s been able to create space to allow some states to take more initiative than they were previously able to. I can certainly imagine the situation being worse under a different president, one who was either innately more antagonistic to legalization or who felt the pressure to be so. Does anyone really think that George Bush would have allowed legalization to proceed in CO (particularly under a Dem governor) without making more of an issue of it?
pluege
If the Democrat wins in 2016 I don’t see obama being missed too much – his tenor will be checkered. But he certainly does look stunning in the context of the sinister imbecile he replaced and all of the insidious republican clowns he’s surrounded by.
pluege
@pluege: tenor should be tenure
shortstop
@gogol’s wife: He’s one of the very best journalists in Chicago.
Larv
@pluege:
Care to explain? As several people on this thread have explicitly said they’ll miss him, it seems a strange prediction to make. Maybe you meant to say you won’t miss him?
WaterGirl
@pluege:
Read the comments on that thread and then come back and tell me if you still think that’s true. (Hint: many, many people have a deep and abiding affection for President Obama, the best president of our lifetimes.)
Of course he will be missed. Greatly!
Edit: and I see Larv got there first. :-)
gogol's wife
@shortstop:
That’s great to hear.
David Koch
@Betty Cracker:
what pony were you lookin for that you didn’t get?
He ended Bush’s tax cuts for the rich. He ended Bush’s war on Iraq. He found bin Laden and wagered his entire presidency on neutralizing him. He overturned DADT and DOMA and endorsed gay marriage. He’s name more women and gays to the federal bench than any of his predecessors. He’s kept us out war in Ukraine, Syria, and Iran, despite all the pressure from the media, the right, and the centrists who cater to AIPAC. He brought healthcare to 32,500,000 people. He normalized relations with Cuba after 52 years and is on the verge of a landmark deal with Iran. He rescued the auto industry, when the right was demanding he let it go bankrupt. He prevented a 2nd Great Depression. Throw in sentencing fairness act, Dodd-Frank financial reform, student loan reform, deferring to Colorado’s and Washington’s pot laws instead of using federal preemption, and expanding SCHIP and Pell Grants.
Fuck, what else digya want?
Citizen Alan
@catclub:
Not to speak ill of the dead (which, I know, is what people ALWAYS say right before they speak ill of the dead) but I STILL think Carter could have won in ’80 if Teddy Kennedy, lost in a haze of monumental hubris and arrogance, hadn’t kept his primary challenge running until literally the last day of the Democratic Convention. To my knowledge, no incumbent President who had to fight off a serious primary challenge has ever won reelection, but for the primary opponent to refuse to concede until the day before the incumbent’s acceptance speech was deadly to the reelection campaign.
David Koch
@David Koch: also too, he regulated Co2, cutting emission by 30%, raised the car fuel standard to 54.5 mpg, he’s gonna nix the Keystone pipeline, negotiated a carbon deal with China, and provided the bridge funding for Telsa’s electric car.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
But these issues are being worked out now as the states which have legalized marijuana experiment with various laws and regulations.
And there may be some new twists as well. Is anyone attempting to ban or restrict pot use, citing laws about second hand smoke?
mclaren
True.
Barack Obama talks like a humane reasonable sensible progressive who lives in the real world.
Trouble is, Barack Obama governs like a partially crazy person who lives in a la-la-land where ordering the murder of American citizens without a trial or blowing up Pakistani wedding parties with drone-fired missiles and then apologizing or approving crazy panopticon surveillance far beyond the wildest dreams even the most intrusive Stalinist commissar is a reasonable course of action in a representative democracy operating according to the rule of law.
As for the claim “he [Obama] and AG for Life Eric Holder have actually done something about it [the War on Drugs], though much more remains to be done,” that’s just delusional.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/obamas-war-on-pot-20120216#ixzz3VibDxauh
grrljock
Well said, Betty! I, like you, have a fondness for Obama, despite my disagreements with some of his policies and actions (I think his education policy is one of his worst decisions). As you pointed out, a lot of it has to do with the fact that he actually lived a regular life pre-politics and knows and listens to regular people. And to me, the work that his mother did in my country will always endear him to me.