Mark K: Some people might remember the film “Being There” starring Peter Sellers. In it he portrayed a mentally-challenged middle-aged man who lived a sheltered life in which a garden and television set comprised his entire world, until he was forced out onto the street after the death of his warder. He managed to find a new warder in a politically-connected billionaire, and everyone who met him thought his minimalistic gardening tips were nuggets of wisdom and genius. At the end, there was even talk among party elders to set him up as a candidate for president. There is a person today who also thinks in minimalistic terms, but without any suggestion of forethought, and yet who some would also regard as a serious presidential candidate. The difference, of course, is that Chance the gardener thought in terms of nurturing that which was under his care, while Sarah Palin only seems to care about nothing save nurturing her own ego and bank account—which makes it seem that the people who are the more pathetic are the ones who allow themselves to be fooled by what they wish to see in her. What makes it all the more immoral is that this media creation has in the last year reportedly made $12 million from a book of which her only labor was a jumble of half-baked expectorations that a ghost writer put into legible form, and from repeating ad nauseam the same obtuse lines over and over again that paranoid bigots drink-up like booze-besotted drunks.

A week or two ago, New York police charged four young men with a hate crime after they followed a man of Mexican extraction and beat him with baseball bats, two-by-fours and a chain. New York, it seems, has lower standards for what constitutes a hate crime than places like Texas, where in a Houston suburb called Spring, a Latino teenager can be kicked unconscious, burned with cigarettes, have a racial epithet scrawled on his chest with a knife, had a patio umbrella pole thrust into his rectum—causing massive internal injuries—and had bleach poured over and inside him to “cover-up” the evidence, all perpetrated by two skinheads, one who sported Nazi tattoos, all of which Texas prosecutors claimed did not qualify as a hate crime (nor of course, does dragging a black man tied to a pick-up truck until he is decapitated). The Seattle Times published a brief paragraph on that story, the few details it left in made it seem that the special-ed student was somehow at fault; when I contacted an editor why they paper omitted the gruesome details, he responded by saying the editors didn’t want to “revolt” readers, to which I responded isn’t that the point? It seems that it is OK to hate, but it’s not “OK” to learn the consequences of that hate.

Anyways, I had indicated a few weeks ago that I wanted to offer my view concerning Thom’s talk with Charles Bowden’s and his book “Murder City,” which according to reviews I’ve read tells stories in a novelistic tone revolving around the lives of certain people engaging in or effected by the drug violence in Cuidad Juarez, rather than illuminating the nature or context of the problem. The failure that is the “War on Drugs” is patently obvious by the fact that despite how the U.S. aided in the destruction of the Colombia cartels by extra-legal means, the “inadvertent” side-effect of “winning” this battle was transferring the violence from Colombia to Mexico; there apparently is not the stomach or the will to employ the same tactics that took down the Medellin Cartel, because it is much closer to home, and Americans don’t have the stomach for viewing their foreign doings close-up (the out of sight, out of mind syndrome). But the source of the cocaine traffic remains Colombia, and the eventual destination for most of it remains the United States. Mexico and its people are caught in the middle. As long as there is large market, and as long as “recreational” drugs are illegal, there will be no stopping those willing to employ violence to continue the trade. It is also a bit hypocritical to pretend that this country doesn’t have its own home-grown variety of violence from illicit trade, or that it has a conflicted attitude about drug use; cable television shows like “Weeds” and “Breaking Bad” are suggestive of this phenomenon.

The U.S. is so preoccupied with controlling drugs that heavy-handed methods seems to have the opposite effect intended—with even higher rates of use and addiction. Similarly to sexual Puritanism leading to a greater incidence of sexual deviancy in this country, preoccupation with controlling drug use only makes that problem worse. If a vice is left to the imagination, then imagination creates an alternate reality receptive to vice. Drug and alcohol use by teens is reportedly on the rise again, and for adults, pain-killers and prescription drugs is rapidly becoming the drug addiction of choice (just ask Rush Limbaugh). All this drug use seems beyond the capabilities of law enforcement to control, no matter how many people they lock-up. The fact is that if the trade in illegal drugs were brought out into the open market, it would be easier to control and regulate. But few in authority want to face reality.

The drug violence in Mexico should be seen as the logical result of failed policies and their unintended results. Passing judgment on Mexico or Mexicans denies the culpability of America’s drug use and dealers. Americans have no moral leverage, because they cannot even control themselves.

Lincoln Takes Populist Turn On Wall Street Reform

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/lincoln-takes-populist-turn-on-wall-street-reform.php

AFSCME Ad Blasts Blanche Lincoln As 'Part Of The Problem' In Washington (VIDEO)

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/afscme-ad-blasts-blanche-lincoln-as-part-of-the-problem-in-washington-video.php

@Mark K RE: “Sarah Palin only seems to care about nothing save nurturing her own ego and bank account”

Isn’t the American dream since President ‘Ron-dog’ Reagan?

@rladlof, I think Palin's sheep dream of a world where they can buy a box Ammunition, 2 Lottery Tickets, a cheap Porn mag, a dozen donuts and a bottle of Jack all for less than $10. Yeeeeha bubba!

@ MAXBOT: Road trip to WalMart!!!! YOOHOOO!!!

Any one here listen to Thom on LA's KTLK... if so I'm wondering if anyone else find's canidate for Gov Meg Whitman's campaign against Steve Poisner as hilarious as I do. Everything that she's pointing out about him in these ad's only bolster's his case for progressives. I can only assume her campaign has no idea that she's bought ad time on a progressive talk radio station.

I'm not going to vote for either, of course. I just think there's just so many flaw's in this campaign embodied by such a glaring oversight, it makes you wonder just how out of touch this politician is.

Thom,

You're forgetting that, just as ancient armies used the SALT, today's military uses the preponderance of the OIL!

It amazes me that we use Petrochemical fertilizers to grow corn, which we then convert into gasohol.

SOLAR THERMAL - its nuclear without the mining. SAC Utility to build 400MW, we already have army with a 400MW in the mojave....pretty sure.

Yuuca Mountian out in the middle of nowhere? Jesus! There are entire indian tribes living there. Why doesnt anyone talk about SOLAR THERMAL -

@harry 'scuse me, am I using too many punctuation marks. I'm not certain that I pay much attention to the number of apostrophes I use. I don't think it matters all that much really, ain't hurtin' no one. Can't really be 'fending you can it?

Maxrot,

LOL! Which came first --- the war or the commodity?

@quark, I don't know which came first, but I live in Southern California, so I'm going start bunkering down and arming up. 'dey ain't takin' my sunlight without fight gul' dang'it!

@quark, It'd give Cheney another heart attack knowing that his beloved Haliburton would be going bankrupt (again).

(I wonder if Cheney would even notice if he had a heart attack at this point, he's had so many already. Obviously he's proven that, like the decifit, heart's don't matter.)

Maxrot,

I've admired your southern California sun all my life --- since I was 5 years old, watching Roy and Dale ride their horses in your lovely weather year round! : D

We should just refer to Cheney as the original "Tin Man" --- hollow!

Aaahhh, I just tuned in and caught the last of Jim Hightower! I love Jim!

Guess I'll have to grab the Thomcast! =)

Thom, please have Jim on more often.

BEIC LOBBIED Parliament . . . Their Royal and Gentle STOCKHOLDERS . . . You can’t drop that part out.

I do so enjoy storytime on Thom's show.

@Robert S. I'm sure you're correct. Still hiliarious to me none-the-less.

re:The original Tea Party. Here's what today's tea partiers don't get about the original tea party. The original tea party members acted in secret to avoid being identified by authorities, today's tea partiers run after every camera they can get in possibly get in front of. In other words, they're not rocking any boat, they're fighting over who gets to man the oars.

Robert S.,

Thanks so much for that URL. That's exactly the info. I wanted! : )

Wendy, you can listen to Hightower any time at his website. :{)

@Foodfascist, I think the challenge is to get them onto mainstream media.

@Maxrot, no offense, I just thought it was funny, like seeing a roadside vegetable stand with a sign that says: "beet's and tomato's for sale."