What the media hasn't told you about the stimulus and GOP opposition

Introduction
At just the end of January, 150 workers at the Cintas uniform plant, formerly known as Bath Manufacturing, were laid off. Many of these people had been at BM since its opening around 20 years ago. Some of them had come from Carhartt's plant which was also closed a few years ago, due to outsourcing and automation. A good number of these people had only worked this job, and didn't have training in any other field. These people all have families to care for, children to feed and clothe, and bills to pay. Luckily, Cintas gave its employees a great severance package; this included an unemployment check for the next two years and free tuition toward vocational training at the Rowan MCTC campus for an associate's degree in a number of fields.

I'm currently working on an in-depth report for radio on these displaced workers, and have spoken with Sen. RJ Palmer and Bath County's Judge-Executive along with some of the workers at a recent MCTC open house. I plan to speak with Rep. Sannie Overly and Governor Beshear in the early part of the week and get their take on these workers and the state of Kentucky's economy as a whole. When I asked a woman who had been laid off what her question to her elected officials would be, this is what she said-

"I don't blame Cintas. They did right with me. They took care of us. I blame the government for letting the economy get this bad. I blame them for not doing enough."

We all know by now, if any of you watch the mainstream media, that jobs are on the decline to say the least, and that this recession is getting worse. And if you've been paying attention to the news in Kentucky(or to my feed in the left column), you'd know we're in the midst of a $450+ million dollar deficit and our government has cut programs across the board. Our president has the difficult task of finding a way to create around 3 million more jobs in one of the worst economic spells in our nation's history. After being president for about two weeks and change, he's brought forth an extensive bill that aims to put money into infrastructure, education, renewable American energy, and new ways of taxation. The full text of the bill can be found here. Or, if you don't want to slog through 300 pages, you can find summaries here, here, and here.

This bill also proposes detailed solutions for fixing healthcare, adapting our economy to the needs of the 21st century, helping displaced workers like those I spoke with last week, and saving jobs and services in the public sector. More crucially, this stimulus plan has allotted money to potentially help states in severe economic trouble, like Kentucky, create jobs of their own and help save vital programs like affordable public education. If you'll read the criticisms of this bill, they harangue Obama for sneaking in unnecessary earmarks for things like National Mall lawn restoration and new cars for federal government use. Social conservatives have a problem with the allocation of funds to give sex education that isn't focused on abstinence. Fiscal conservatives are at loggerheads with the president on the proposed funding of arts education in schools and with money set to go toward anti-smoking efforts. Big Oil and its political minions are against the potential $1 billion toward Amtrak and more funding toward renewable energy. While a few of these criticisms hold water, and while I by no means readily agree with every provision of this proposal, this stimulus is needed far too much to stall progress based simply on disagreements with minor, inconsequential components of the package.

Outrageously, House Republicans all voted a unanimous "NO" to the stimulus recently, and now the bill is being hashed out in the senate. Republican leaders have been mouthing off to the press about their drooling over a juicy opportunity to block the stimulus package's progress, ending it before it reaches Pres. Obama's desk.

After being trounced in November, the GOP has been gaining momentum after selecting a black RNC chairman, and now they have an opportunity for more political gain should they block the stimulus bill. Should this happen, Republican legislative leaders and potential challengers for the 2010 midterm elections will capitalize doubly from stopping progress and the potential creation of jobs and economic and environmental reform. Not only will they have struck a blow against the president, the liberals and the democrats, but they will energize their ideological base, and future efforts to stall the democrat's endeavors will gradually gain more grassroots support.

Essentially, House and Senate Republicans are presently more interested in political gain than they are in creating new jobs.

I've read plenty of conservative criticism to the president's plan, especially on the funding of contraception and safe sex education, but I have yet to hear any leaders from the GOP and conservative base propose innovative solutions of their own on how to fix the credit situation, the housing crisis, the job market, climate change, efficient use of energy, or education. In this post, I'll be defending some of the most important parts of the stimulus bill that don't see as much of the press coverage.

Energy Independence and Sustainability
The president has allotted a total of $54 billion to reduce our dependence on foreign oil sources and to develop ways to use energy wisely and sustainably; $32 billion for an energy grid that supplies power from green sources (wind, solar, biofuel, hydro, geothermal), $16 billion to retrofit homes to the new energy grid, and another $6 billion to help mid to low-income families weatherize their homes.

We cannot afford to invest in radical, oppressive Sunni regimes like Saudi Arabia and the UAE for oil- moreover, we cannot afford to ceaselessly burn fossil fuels and needlessly harm the environment with our methods of extraction and use. This money would be used to make sure we have steady footing in the green energy market, meaning we could potentially be in the vanguard of the green movement; a world leader in green technology and a shining example to rapidly industrializing countries like China and India. This could provide some obvious economic advantage over those countries as well, as we would start to produce our own clean energy sustainably and renewably for relatively little cost in the long-term.

Reforming our Economy for the 21st Century
In an earlier blog entry, I announced and explained my support of The Venus Project, a rough outline for a resource-based economy, rather than a money-based system. While Obama's plan differs a bit from Fresco's, they both agree we have the science and technology available to make significant economic progress. Obama has proposed $16 billion be used for nationwide wireless broadband internet access ($6 billion) and for more scientific research grants, facilities, and equipment ($10 billion). Should this plan go through, not only will we potentially unearth efficient new ways to do business, but American businesses will have unprecedented new advances in communication; this new system would better orchestrate delivery, inventory, manufacturing, and consumer demand. The possibilities would be veritably limitless.

Transforming Public Education to Meet Tomorrow's Needs
One of the more popular talking points for Reagan-ites and proponents of small government is that public education is a state responsibility, rather than a federal one. However, this is a dead idea- in today's global economy and fast-paced online society, our government can no longer ignore states that languish in key areas. Take Kentucky and education, for instance.

Obama has allotted a whopping $141.6 billion for public school reform- this includes $41 billion for school modernization and repair initiatives, the Education Technology program, Title I, and IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). Proposals also include $79 billion for state relief so programs like KEES and others don't get cut. That money would also fund an incentive program aimed at rewarding states that bolster education, along with various other public services. Finally, this provision allots $15.6 billion for pell grants, helping college students like me and you get job training without sending us into tens of thousands of dollars into debt; another $6 billion would go toward modernizing public universities.

This is maybe the most important provision for states like Kentucky- we're damned if we do and damned if we don't when it comes to education. The more debt we run into, the more we cut education and other key programs. And the more we cut these programs, the less opportunity we have to get the education needed for quality jobs, leading to more people leaving the state for education and careers. On this path we're in now, Kentucky has virtually nothing to offer to potential employers looking to relocate; without an educated workforce or places to educate a potential workforce, we're in progressively worse shape each year. In the long term, this stimulus plan could potentially mean lots of help for Kentucky. Kentuckians, of all people, should be behind this endeavor.

A Computerized Healthcare System
In my most recent entry, two primary healthcare measures were observed- one was a government-offered plan to the uninsured, and one was a modernization of current healthcare records. The infrastructure has been proposed to cost $24.1 billion; $20 billion would be used to help prevent casual mistakes in the recording of information, organize records efficiently, and overall provide more effecive healthcare without all the bureaucratic mess we have now. $4.1 billion would be allotted for preventative healthcare measures (wouldn't anti-smoking programs sort of fall under this category, too?) and research for more effective methods of healthcare.

While I'd like to see an overhaul of publicly-owned pharmaceutical companies and the healthcare market be consolidated into a solely government-owned operation, this is a step in the right direction. Ideally, this would mean that walking into a doctor's office would only require you to give your name and an ID, and your plan, claim, and payment could be processed almost instantly. This means doctors can actually spend their time being doctors instead of insurance couriers.

More Help for Displaced Workers
Like the folks at Cintas, a high cost of living and the outsourcing of jobs has led to displacement for millions. $102 billion has been included in the stimulus package to increase unemployment benefits and provide more training for those needing 21st century job skills ($43 billion). This $102 billion includes $39 billion for the keeping of employer-provided health insurance, and more short-term medicaid options. Also included is $20 billion for food stamp benefits. Conservatives like to call that "pork barrel spending," and equate food stamp recipients with the cultural stereotype of the wifebeater-clad lottery ticket/big screen TV purchaser. In reality, food costs have risen while wages have remained stagnant. This is aimed at simply easing the burden for those who struggle with buying enough groceries to feed their families.

Much-Needed Relief for States
Presently, taxes would need to be raised even more on the middle class for states to continue hiring necessary public sector jobs like firefighters, police officers, teachers, garbage collectors, and the like. With a proposed $91 billion, $87 billion would fund a temporary increase in the matching rate for state medicaid programs, and $4 billion more would fund state and local law enforcement.

So, there you have it. I was, too, at first assaulted by right-wing commentators' protests on the cable news networks, complaining about the stimulus using misleading facts and associations of dectuple-figure (12-digit) numbers with controversial legislation regarding abortion, contraception, and things of that nature. Indeed, the more controversial parts of the stimulus package are inconsequential in comparison to the funds being spent on the programs that matter- the programs that would create jobs and reform our economy and energy system for the better.

I admire Barack Obama for sticking to his guns and being the agent of change that he built himself up to be in his campaign. And God willing, this necessary change we need won't be stopped by petty partisan politicking from the right. There's simply no place for it in such dire times.

A Case for the Legalization of Cannabis

Foreword
Note: "Cannabis" refers to the plant Cannabis Sativa, also known as hemp, pot, marijuana, weed, etc. This term is a way to say all of those at once. On a side note, broccoli and cauliflower are also members of the cannabis family. I'm not arguing for these plants to be made legal, because they already are.

In August of 2008, one man, at the age of 23, was being praised as one of the greatest Olympic athletes in American history. Possibly Olympic history. By the end of the year, Michael Phelps had tacked on 8 more Olympic gold medals for a grand total of 14, and still holds seven world records in swimming. By his achievements alone, Phelps is an exceptional human being. Just recently, Phelps had his picture taken while taking bong rips at a party. The news media and blogging community jumped all over this, throwing around slurs like "stoner," "pothead," "dope fiend," and the like. People at the party said he was smoking like a seasoned pro, and knew exactly how to hit it. Phelps has referred to the incident as "regrettable."

Basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was arrested in 1998 on charges of possession, and had to pay a $500 fine for having six grams of marijuana on his person. Abdul-Jabbar said he had been using cannabis for years to help treat severe migraine headaches.

Abdul-Jabbar and Phelps are not the only prominent and successful people who have admitted to using cannabis. Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, Louis Armstrong, Willie Nelson, along with literally hundreds of others of some of the more famous names in American history have all admitted to smoking cannabis. The forced image of the slacking, unmotivated underachieveing stoner doesn't stand- indeed, 16 million Americans admitted to drug use in a 2001 survey, 76% of those were cannabis users. These aren't 16 million unmotivated slackers, but rather average Joes like you and me. These are people with jobs, education, homes, families, and busy lives of their own. And since 2001, cannabis use has risen dramatically, especially among high school students. If anything, this number is closer to 20 or 25 million people today. The only difference between these people and the rest of America is that these people choose to smoke cannabis.

In just one average year, more than 70,000 are arrested for cannabis charges, and over 5,000,000 were arrested for the same reasons in the past decade. These arrests were not for sale or trafficking, but simply for possession or use. Shouldn't law enforcement and taxpayer dollars be used for serious and violent crime, or at least for serious drug abuse? And in this economy, isn't it wasteful to throw money away at locking people away for inhaling smoke from a plant?

The war on drugs, specifically on cannabis, has not decreased the proliferation of drugs, nor has it curbed people from buying or taking drugs. In fact, both numbers of users have risen exponentially along with the purity of substances available today. The war on drugs has done nothing but create a very profitable black market that simultaneously creates profit for drug lords and eats away at tax dollars to incarcerate those who have done no harm to anyone else. Like other wars, the war on drugs is one of the biggest wastes of resources and ruiners of lives and careers.

By the end of this article, I hope to have changed your mind about this country's policy and attitude toward cannabis and those who use it. If not, I hope, at the very least, I made you think. As always, your thoughts, criticisms, and feedback are welcomed and appreciated.

A Waste of Money and Resources
According to the Drug Policy Center, the War on Drugs costs us around $40,000,000,000 per year and climbing. Additionally, it costs $20,000-$30,000 per year to keep a marijuana offender behind bars. In one year, the total cost for the incarceration of those for cannabis possession and use is $1,200,000,000. This is money that competes with education, being that prisons and universities are controlled on a state level, rather than federal. This means that money normally used for research grants, faculty pay and benefits, scholarships, and educational programs and curriculum is instead spent to punish people for doing something inconsequential to their own bodies. As the drug war has grown exponentially since its inception in the Nixon administration, it steadily consumes more precious taxpayer dollars that could be used for more constructive means.

Imagine what we could do with an extra $41,000,000,000 per year- we could put that money into public education, science and technology, infrastructure, healthcare, social security; the list goes on and on. The prohibition of cannabis is one of the biggest failures of our free market-driven government to capitalize on something since, well, the prohibition of alcohol. Like drug prohibition, alcohol prohibition also fostered an underground culture and black market, which led to gangland violence and senseless killings. Prohibition was rightfully repealed via Constitutional amendment. It's high time cannabis be given the same treatment.

And can you imagine what legalization would do for Mississippi? The money we would make from taxing it as a legal substance, like we do with liquor (a completely state-owned enterprise in MS) already? All the budget cuts we wouldn't have to make? We could actually fund government the way it needs to be funded, and we could even lower the tax burden on the middle class. What a concept!

Alcohol/Cannabis Prohibition and the Problems it Created
"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
-George Santayana

Now, before I get into a history lesson, I need to give you a few facts when we compare the prohibition of alcohol and the current prohibition of cannabis. Alcohol is the third leading cause of death, killing 75,000 a year, just in America. This is behind smoking (kills 440,000 Americans per year**) and obesity (kills 300,000 Americans per year). And no, cannabis isn't in the top 5. Not even in the top 100. In fact, cannabis has never actually been attributed to be the cause of death for any human being, ever. It is actually impossible to overdose on cannabis. However, cigarette smoking and poor eating/exercise habits were never made illegal. If anything, cannabis should be made legal, and alcohol deemed illegal, as it is harmful and toxic to the body. In spite of that, it is perfectly within the law to drink alcohol, as long as you're of an appropriate age and don't harm anyone else in the process. As it should be with cannabis.

Also, I should mention that cannabis is considered by many(republicans) to be a "gateway drug." This statement is disingenuous; indeed, tobacco and alcohol are also drugs in and of themselves. One could feasibly argue that cigarettes and alcohol will eventually lead to harder drug use; however, these two drugs are very common, and both legal, so they obviously are the first step for those very few who are interested in trying harder substances. Indeed, cannabis's very nature, being illegal, will be lumped into the pile with the other Class 1 substances. However, it is by far the most common drug, seeing as it is a plant that grows virtually anywhere. The main difference between cannabis and opiates are that popular opiates like cocaine and heroin are synthetically manufactured, while the cannabis plant is a perfectly natural substance. But as previously stated with cigarettes and alcohol, just because something is common doesn't necessarily mean it is a first step down the line of harder and harder substances. This study shows that there are actually very few cannabis users who move on to harder drugs.

Around this time of the year (Jan. 29) 90 years ago, alcohol was prohibited through the ratification of the 18th amendment. In the 1920's and 1930's, bootlegging(alcohol smuggling) rose in the United States as an extremely profitable industry for organized crime syndicates. One of the more notorious bootleggers was Al Capone, in Chicago. When Johnny Torrio handed over his business to Capone in 1925 after an assassination attempt, his bootlegging industry in Chicago alone pulled in around $10,000,000 per year. Adjusted for inflation, this would be about $117,385,000 by today's standards. Indeed, this doesn't even come close to the money made on the marijuana market today, or even to the $40,000,000,000 we spend each year in the war on drugs.

In fact, the use and sale of cannabis was legal until 1937. That's right; for 18 years, alcohol wasn't legal, but pot was. you could buy it at a grocery store, or even in cigarette form from newsstands. However, while alcohol is legitimately toxic to the system, the banning of cannabis had nothing to do with its toxicity or addictive capabilities, but rather due to misleading and demonstrably false propaganda spread by those who made products that competed with products made with cannabis. The government took this to a new extreme when Harry Anslinger was the brains behind an injection of racist propaganda by coining the term "marihuana," which is a Mexican form of opium, in an effort to associate cannabis with a sudden influx of Mexican immigrants.

Around 1935, the DuPont chemical was gearing up to release its patent of synthetic fibers, which would produce paper from wood pulp rather than from hemp, which had been used up to that point. However, DuPont was worried about the inferiority of his product to its natural predecessor- one acre of hemp can produce just as much paper as 4-10 acres of wood.* It should also be mentioned that hemp paper is much more durable throughout the years than wood paper. In fact, the Constitution was written on hemp paper, and is still very much intact today. DuPont was also fearful of hemp hurting their profits, as it is capable of making nylon and plastic.

DuPont, one of the leading chemical companies at the time, was headed by Lamont DuPont, who was heavily invested in by William Randolph Hearst, a newspaper tycoon. With the aid of Harry J. Anslinger, who was looking for a way to get into the national spotlight after his alcohol law enforcement career, Hearst and DuPont spread malicious propaganda about hemp and cannabis through the newspapers. Anslinger used this propaganda as justification for the prohibition of cannabis. Once cannabis was taxed with a hefty $100 per pound, whether used for rope or clothes, people stopped making hemp because it was too expensive for use. Additionally, factories were more equipped to manufacture with fibers like cotton and wool, while its hemp manufacturing equipment was substandard. Thus, hemp was an easy target for the government. With hemp out of the way through the successful facilitation of yellow journalism and false propaganda, DuPont got his money and secured a veritable monopoly after eliminating his strongest competitor. However, this came at a great cost, as the cannabis plant is one of the most versatile plants on the planet.

The Benefits of Cannabis
Presently, we've been looking for ways to produce alternative energy as the petrochemical industry is starting to live out its last days of being useful as the environment and economy both wane. We're also struggling with food shortages and crop problems due to erratic weather patterns from global warming, making grocery prices rise. Healthcare costs are rising, and we're slaves to the privately owned pharmaceutical companies, who are out for the most profit rather than helping the sick get better. We're also in debt to other countries up to ears, which could be cut down if we manufactured and exported products of our own. All of these problems could be solved if Cannabis Sativa was made legal. Studies have shown hemp to be a completely viable source of paper, fabric, textiles, biodegradable plastics, healthy food, medicine, and fuel. Cannabis would be a much cheaper and more efficient way to manufacture all of these things, considering the plant can grow basically anywhere in the world.

There are currently 14 states that allow cannabis to be used for medicinal purposes; cannabis has been proven to help patients gain their appetite back, and to relieve pain. Readers should be aware that the federal law system equates cannabis with cocaine and heroin as a class 1 substance, and openly states that smoked marijuana serves no medicinal purpose.

Contrary to what the Department of Justice says, the Federal Drug Administration actually gives government joints to seven US citizens with chronic pain. One of them is Irvin Rosenfeld, a stockbroker who suffers from a tumor condition that could potentially kill him if untreated. He smokes at least 5 or 6 joints a day just to be able to live through the pain his condition causes. Sort of a hypocritical thing for the federal government to do, especially when it's made a habit of demonizing cannabis for more than 70 years. Even moreso when one department of the federal government states that smoking marijuana has no medicinal function.

Cannabis laws are outdated, and based only on shaky foundations of racism and fearmongering. It's time for us to stop ignoring the facts and to start listening to the truth. If we want to strengthen our economy, our workforce, our budget, and our own lives, cannabis needs to be brought to the fore, and petty 1930's politics and greed need to step aside.