who point out that the War on Drugs is a big bucks bonanza for local government and as a law enforcement jobs program.

As an example, I would offer my overweight, out-of-shape cop cousin. He had already had a heart attack from smoking and overeating, but he never would have been able to go out on a 75% tax-free yearly police salary disability payment, or to collect SSI disability payments for all 5 of his children if he had not been in pursuit of a mythical drug dealer when he had to reach underneath a car for a mythical gun he thought he saw the supposed drug dealer throw away. There was no gun, it was just a bag; but had it not been for reaching under the supposed car for the supposed gun while chasing the mythical drug dealer, my cousin never would have caused himself some sort of shoulder injury which prevented him from being a cop anymore. You see, if you injure your shoulder, you can't pull a gun anymore, so you can't be a cop, so you have to become disabled and collect money.

Or some such garbled crap - we never have been able to figure out exactly how dear cuz the cop was able to pull down well over $120,000 a year in various disability payments so he could afford that million dollar home in Florida at age 52.

But it definitely involved a supposed drug dealer who got away. Curse those drug dealers!

Exactly. A friend of mine with an MPH had been out of the job market for a few years raising her kids and she wanted to reenter. The local state university received a large amount of money a few years after 9/11 to fund courses in homeland security. My friend said "Hey, that sounds good. I have studied epidemiology and since bioterrorism is an aspect of homeland security, perhaps I can get a good job working for the government."

She looked into the classes and guess who made up the bulk of student enrollment? Middle-aged white guys from the Sheriff's Department, the Fire Marshal's Office, the Corrections Department, court officers, dispatch operators. Middle-aged white guy law enforcement personnel whose tuition was being paid by the county. They get to advance their taxpayer-funded positions with the county and state and grab some of that taxpayer-supported federal government money while being tutored on how to do so on the taxpayer's dime. It's a total racket.

My middle-class female friend could immediately see she wasn't going to get a job meted out to her by any of these white male working class heroes who were about to take over all the local "homeland security" jobs. These "working class" guys, BTW, still consider themselves downtrodden even though they make well above a middle class salary and have benefits others can only dream of, paid for by the very government they think is oppressing them in some way.

Terror and drugs are big bucks in local and national politics. As long as there are jobs that can be given away in return for votes, the local, state and federal government will be deep into their wars on drugs and terror.

Corporate tax breaks are welfare for rich white guys and the war on drugs and the war on terror are welfare for working class white guys.

In snowy Minnesota, Madnutterwoman and her archrival, the mild-mannered Elwyn Tinklenberg square off. I can definitely see Boris and Natasha on Madnutterwoman's side, with Mr. Peabody supporting Elwyn while Dudley DoRight looks on from above the border.

The only change I can see Jay Ward making is Elwyn's name. I believe he would have called him Tinkelinburger.

Madnutterwoman and her conservative pals like Sarah Palin know damn well there's the television set. They also know the people whose votes they are counting on are the ones who get all their news from Fox-owned TV and the Clear Channel broadcasting network. She knows they don't watch Matthews or youtube. They watch Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly and Steve Doucey and they listen to Rush and Michael Weiner (aka Savage).

She knows the hounds of the right will take up the call to portray her as a victim of the lying, scheming, "elite" media. They won't play embarrassing sound bites or film clips. They will play Chris Matthews "trying to put words in her mouth" by asking her if liberals are anti-American.

None so blind or deaf as those who....etc, etc.

There are plenty of "legal" drugs on the market now that cause addiction, have severe side effects, and are regularly prescribed to the sometimes unsuspecting public by unscrupulous physicians

Are you suggesting that doctors prescribe narcotics to people in order to get them addicted? Because that makes no sense, unless the physician owns a rehab center.

I had to go to 3 different doctors to get one prescription for a controlled substance pain medication. The anti-inflammatories weren't cutting it. I was in severe pain and it wasn't until weeks later, after I was referred to a specialist and had to undergo xrays and imaging tests and await the results of those tests that I was finally diagnosed with spinal stenosis.

And I have yet to come across a dentist who will give me a prescription for a controlled substance. "Take Motrin,' they say. "But I am not supposed to take Motrin because I am on anti-inflammatories for my arthritis."

"Then take extra-strength Tylenol."

Give me the name of some of these unscrupulous physicians so I can go to them when I need pain medication.

He was mocked mercilessly for saying that Democrats needed to get boots on the ground in all 50 states. Pundits and upper-eschelon Democrats like Schumer and Emmanuel thought it was a waste of DNC money to put local Democratic Pary headquarters in red areas.

I never hear anyone giving Dean his due.