I know all about the torture case. There are lots of examples, like "threatening" Japan over military bases. It is all the same policy position, intervention.

In the past week, officials from the DPJ have announced that Japan would withdraw from an eight-year-old mission in the Indian Ocean to refuel warships supporting U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan. They have also pledged to reopen negotiations over a $26 billion military package that involves relocating a U.S. Marine Corps helicopter base in Japan and moving 8,000 U.S. Marines from Japan to Guam. After more than a decade of talks, the United States and Japan agreed on the deal in 2006.

The atmospherics of the relationship have also morphed, with Japanese politicians now publicly contradicting U.S. officials.

U.S. discomfort was on display Wednesday in Tokyo as Gates pressured the government, after meetings with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, to keep its commitment to the military agreement.

"It is time to move on," Gates said, warning that if Japan pulls apart the troop "realignment road map," it would be "immensely complicated and counterproductive."

But just to be clear, are you agreeing that the policy of prohibition is insane?

Yes when it comes down to it is a policy issue, and the policy is ultra-intervention insanity, just like the rest of our federal level policies. You can't even get high on Hemp, which has many industrial uses, and it is illegal, what is up with that?

I recently watched a documentary called The Union (link in sig to full movie). It was pretty good. It goes through the policy history, the propaganda, Nixon starting the war on drugs, etd. All the policy reports suggest it shouldn't be illegal. The documentary claimed that the US threatened a full trade embargo on our Canadians friends to the North if they legalized Marijuana. Isn't that insane?

You do know that people smoke marijuana because they don't feel they are able to properly control their dosage with pills, right?

If you don't want to inhale the smoke use a vaporizer. No smoke.

you better have a "designated non-smoker" as a driver if you do take a few hits.

-- JaaZee

Congratulations, you've submitted the stupidest letter in the history of Salon. You should take some fearmongering lessons from the Israel-firsters and the neoconservatives. They can help you with your fearmongering.

What ever happened to that one? Remember when Mr. Greenwald would blog about Foreign Policy or Torture apologizing and was told that it was providing bargaining power for Obama's Agenda, specifically Healcare?

What happened? Where are all the political gamesters with their updated strategies?

It puts the Pak in Af-Pak.

Peace Laureate hasn't forgotten. Peace Laureate is still doing peaceful things. Peace Laureate seems to think the war is necessary, he said so himself. It appears as if Peace Laureate is himself a prioritizer like his voters that voted for both escalation and the public option. All Obama has done is prioritize one over the other, like his voters were "hoping" he would.

US Drone Attacks Bajaur, Killing 27

Uncharacteristic Attack Outside of the Waziristan Area May Portend Escalation

by Jason Ditz, October 24, 2009

In a rare American attack outside of Pakistan’s North and South Waziristan Agencies, US drones attacked what officials are calling a suspected militant hideout in the tiny Bajaur Agency, killing at least 27 people.

People seem to forget that we are fighting a war, and would rather beg the Government for unnecessary luxuries like health insurance instead of doing patriotic things like rationing. And instead of drones we should send progressives. They can explain why deaths are unfortunate but necessary pawns to be sacrificed for women's rights or the public option or whatever their priority.

Except it doesn't. There is zero proof and anecdotes don't count.

So is still consider snark if a peasant makes the same argument or is it serious now?

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if the Feds weren't up everyone's ass about pot for so long. Americans get bored out in the sticks so they find things do to, like drugs. Farmers do this all over the world. Just imagine some of the wonderful strains that some of the would have come up with had they been allowed to spend the last 50 years or so working on them.

Since they couldn't do that they found an alternative instead, methamphetamine. That is their legacy. Thanks War on Drugs.

Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2001 and Mexico did it a few months ago. Latin America is taking a strong interest. It's been 8 years since Portugal did it and the numbers are all there they don't lie there are no scary stories.

We should do that in the United States as well as legalizing marijuana because marijuana is harmless. There are numerous squashed reports going all the way back to at least Nixon that prove my assertion. As well as ridiculous attempts by the "mythology" to say otherwise, like suffocating monkeys with marijuana smoke and then claiming marijuana causes brain damage. According to their methodology dog collars can cause brain damage.

And it should be more than just "Medical" marijuana because Cannabusiness is trying to make a mint shaping policies that only allow dispensaries to grow and sell marijuana to "patients". Jack Herer recently spoke about it and got full legalization on the ballet in protest of recent Medical Marijuana initiatives in others states.