Does Newt Gingrich want you executed for smoking pot?
By louisehartmann
Republican Presidential front-runner Newt Gingrich doesn’t just want to throw you in jail for smoking pot – he wants to execute you! As Speaker of the House back in 1996 – Gingrich introduced the “Drug Importer Death Penalty Act of 1996” – a bill calling for the execution of anyone convicted more than once of carrying two ounces of marijuana across the border.
Defending the bill – Gingrich said, “I have made the decision that I love our children enough that we will kill you if you do this.”
Currently – more than half of all Americans support the legalization of marijuana – yet Gingrich is calling for the execution of those who carry it. How out of touch can you be?
Comments
#2
Arianna Huffington: Between his economic speech in Kansas and his 60 Minutes interview, when it came to rhetoric, it was a good week for President Obama. On 60 Minutes, in answer to a question about whether he over-promised during the campaign, he said: "I didn't overpromise. And I didn't underestimate how tough this was gonna be. I always believed that... it was gonna take more than a year. It was gonna take more than two years. It was gonna take more than one term. Probably takes more than one president." More than one president? During the campaign, Obama was fond of quoting Martin Luther King Jr.'s "the fierce urgency of now." But now we're supposed to wait for the fierce urgency of two or three more presidents? The question is, can you be a major leader without a sense of urgency?
#3
The need to get something done quickly--urgency--and the ability to get it done quickly are not the same thing. And when they are not, the ability is helped most by getting started as soon as possible, and not quitting in the middle just because it's not going as fast as you want.
#4
Re: Taxes
It seems to me that the progressives need to stop saying "raise our taxes" and join the republicans by just saying, put it on the credit card! There's no need to worry about social security, or medicare, or anything; just put it on the CC! When the republicans respond by saying you can't do that, remind them no one seems concerned about putting the cost of the military on the Credit Card.
It makes me wonder; are taxes really neccesary, other than a means of transfering wealth to the banks in the form of interest?
#5
RE: Newt Ginrich
Well line up the House and Senete all the people who do drugs while in office and shoot them first....People in glass houses should not throw stones!!!! I would say clean up your dirty drug deals first Newt !
#6
Mr. Gingrich's view is extremely paranoid. I wonder if he has the munchies, too.
#7
Poor eye of newt! Given the nature of his reputation I think it would be a hoot to have some newspaper publish a special edition...uh...like say the "WSJ" and have the whole issue be...headlined as...uh...hmm. Oh i got it..."all the stupid shit these 2 have said and actually mean!" and have pictures of eye of newt and flipper side by side. below each the sub..."your new american failing if you vote for either!lololol Regardless of newts so called redemtion he has a look in his eyes thats a bit scarier then the guy who was in the shadows of the last president. A look that says...don't trust me heck i don't even trust myself. And as far as flipper? I bet a speech pathologist would agree when ever that guy opens his mouth its more half a lie then any truth. crazy!
#8
Be patient. What we need most is patience and continued support for all the progressive actions that are happening. Help keep Occupy movement visible. Support it. Put a bumper sticker on your car and a T-shirt on your chest that says you are one of the 99%. Movements like these always take time to coalesce into something more concrete, into ideas and legislation that are progressive.
Don't give up. Don't sit back and wait. Do what you can and then be patient. This is not ever going to be a speedy movement. We are so used to things happening instantly. Not gonna happen here.
Keep the faith. Don't despair. Don't give up. And don't push too hard.
#9
Just put poison in all pot except that obtained by prescription & that will do the job for Newt & make the society & roads safer at the same time.
#10
Newt Gingrich is the face of the conservative ideological experiment gone bad ..... bad for America, bad for the world and bad for the soul.
#11
As the executive director of the Seattle Hempfest, the largest annual cannabis reform rally (and largest free speech event) in the Unites States, I feel that Americans should have the right to use cannabis with impunity. If there was ever a policy that is a perfect example of the corporate dominion of American society the cannabis policy in America is it.
Cannabis/hemp offers so much to humanity, it may be the single most important natural fiber/food/medicine/energy producing plant on Earth. Cannabis has been used for thousands and thousands of years with not a single death by overdose or toxic reaction.
Safe, non-toxic, relatively therapeutic, the Cannabis plant is a gift from God.
The laws preventing Cannabis use are immoral, unscientific, unjust and inherently un-American.
Please visit our website at www.hempfest.org (we are 100% volunteer, and working on our 21st annual event). Also, I just had a book published: Protestival: A Twenty Year Retrospective of Seattle Hempfest by Vivian McPeak.
Many blessings and prayers for goodness!
#12
Marijuana smokers should not be punished any more than tobacco smokers. I do not smoke either marijuana or tobacco. If marijuana were legal I still would not use it, however, I cannot think of one reason to limit the consumption of tobacco or marijuana to adults at least 18 years old. I am 64 years old, I grew up in a time when nearly everyone I knew smoked dope, the weed, MJ, mary, whatever . . . I was never tempted or interested. I have know many people who have suffered because of use of alcohol or tobacco. I do not know anyone who has been harmed because he use marijuana.
If marijuana is made legal then the profits for the criminals goes away. We would have a safer less violent nation if marijuana were legal as it is in the Netherlands. Catergorizing marijuana as a dangerous drug is just stupid. I believe there is a conspiracy that keeps marijuana illegal. I believe the conspirators include the tobacco industry. Marijuana can be cultivated in one's one backyard without having to involve a big tobacco company. Big tobacco would have a hard time staying in business if they had to compete with marijuana as a legal product. I am not one for conspiracies but I have thought about this a lot over the last forty five years. I follow the money. Who has the most to lose if marijuana becomes legal . . . the answer is the tobacco industry. Big Tobacco has a powerful lobby influence.
#13
This once again shows the American public how "Facist" This guy is along with the majority of members of his party.
#14
A person with marijuana should be assigned stenographers from a newly-created We the People agency called "The National Think Tank" for the purpose of recording and archiving all of the amazingly fantastic and original world-changing ideas that would have otherwise been immediately forgotten and lost to mankind forever. Resulting super-cool ideas will become property of the commons stored in the "National Idea Bank" and licensed to non pot smokers for development and implementation for a 50/50 cut. Revenue from ideas generated by "stoner patriots" will be invested in the well-being of the citizenry and in the care and nurturning of the commons.
JP
#15
Excellent response, Mr. Henderson. You stated the argument perfectly. The one additional influence on the criminalization of marijuana possession, has been the alcohol industry and their desire to perpetuate the use of their product by villifying the use of any other mood altering substances. Greed begets power and profit and is overwhelming our courts and prisons.
#16
In my opinion any adult with a fondness for weed should be allowed to grow whatever amount meets his or her own needs. I don't smoke anything......have enough fun distance running. Although I have to admit I've been to a few concerts where "second hand" most likely enhanced the experience! I know this all sounds pretty lame but my idea of partying is about 3 Dutch beers or Vermont ciders with some rock-a-billy music and friends. Now that's a fine night. I'm not into feeling sick on a day off...too much to do!
Many of my friends smoked over 30 years ago and many still smoke now...no problem.
Hey Newt, what in hell are you smokin?
#17
And while were at it David Cantrell, should we also poison the last beer in every six pack ? You know, to make the roads safer. I hope you were just joking about putting poison in pot, because if you weren't then you are amazingly ignorant of the facts. Have a sip of Paraquat, Dave. Or do you even remember that failed strategy.
#18
Newt had better start with high up CIA and congressional leaders then go after the banksters and corporate leaders who have laundered the drug money...I had read many years ago that if they ever made drugs legal..taking the profit out of them...our economic system would collapse...indicating just how reliant our corrupt system has been on drug smuggling. And, I'd bet, that if you looked more deeply into Newt's history you might find some connections as well.
Vietnam
"Air America allegedly transported opium and heroin on behalf of Hmong leader Vang Pao. This allegation has been supported by former Laos CIA paramilitary Anthony Poshepny (aka Tony Poe), former Air America pilots, and other people involved in the war."
I've even read that at one time they, the CIA, was smuggling drugs into the US from Vietnam and Laos in body bags....and even inside bodies.
Afghanistan during Soviet Occupation
".. [t]he CIA did not handle heroin, but it did provide its drug-lord allies with transport, arms, and political protection. In sum, the CIA's role in the Southeast Asian heroin trade involved indirect complicity rather than direct culpability."
Mexico
"The Guadalajara Cartel, Mexico's most powerful drug-trafficking network in the early 1980s, prospered largely because it enjoyed the protection of the DFS, under its chief Miguel Nassar (or Nazar) Haro, a CIA asset."
Iran Contra Affair
"Released on April 13, 1989, the Kerry Committee report concluded that members of the U.S. State Department "who provided support for the Contras were involved in drug trafficking... and elements of the Contras themselves knowingly received financial and material assistance from drug traffickers."
"In 1996 Gary Webb wrote a series of articles published in the San Jose Mercury News, which investigated Nicaraguans linked to the CIA-backed Contras who had smuggled cocaine into the U.S. which was then distributed as crack cocaine into Los Angeles and funneled profits to the Contras. The CIA was aware of the cocaine transactions and the large shipments of drugs into the U.S. by the Contra personnel and directly aided drug dealers to raise money for the Contras."
Most of the main stream media ostracized The Mercury News, Gary Webb's employer, for having written the series of exposes.
Gary Webb wound up dead in what is claimed to be a suicide...yeah, right!
Venezuela
"The CIA - in spite of objections from the Drug Enforcement Administration, allowed at least one ton of nearly pure cocaine to be shipped into Miami International Airport. The CIA claimed to have done this as a way of gathering information about Colombian drug cartels. But the cocaine ended up being sold on the street."
"In November 1996 a Miami jury indicted former Venezuelan anti-narcotics chief and longtime CIA asset, General Ramon Guillen Davila, who was smuggling many tons of cocaine into the United States from a Venezuelan warehouse owned by the CIA. In his trial defense, Guillen claimed that all of his drug smuggling operations were approved by the CIA."
Haiti
"...in the mid 1980s, the CIA created a unit in Haiti, whose purported purpose was anti-drug activity, but was in reality "used as an instrument of political terror", and was heavily involved in drug trafficking. The members of the unit were known to torture supporters of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and threatened to kill the local head of the DEA. According to one U.S. official, the unit was trafficking drugs and never produced any useful drug intelligence."
Panama
"...the U.S.—which, in exchange [for Noriega giving military assistance to Contra Groups in Nicaragua], allowed him [Noriega] to continue his drug-trafficking activities—which they had known about since the 1960s.[13][14] When the DEA tried to indict Noriega in 1971, the CIA prevented them from doing so.[13] The CIA, which was then directed by future president George H. W. Bush, provided Noriega with hundreds of thousands of dollars per year as payment for his work in Latin America."
Quotes from Wikipedia
And this is all "ancient history"...I wonder what we will find out about what we have been doing over in US occupied Afghanistan and Iraq....maybe Julian Assange knows!
#19
"US military admits to guarding, assisting lucrative opium trade in Afghanistan"
"According to the United Nations Drug Control Program (UNDCP), opium cultivation increased by 657 percent in 2002 after the US military invaded the country under the direction of then-President George W. Bush."
"CIA responsible for reinstating opium industry in Afghanistan after 9/11"
"So while tens of thousands of Americans continue to be harmed or killed every year by overdoses from drugs originating from this illicit opium trade, and while cultivation of innocuous crops like marijuana and hemp remains illegal in the US, the American military is actively guarding the very poppy fields in Afghanistan that fuel the global drug trade. Something is terribly wrong with this picture."
http://elitemultimedia.mobi/2011/12/us-military-admits-to-guarding-assis...
#20
Boss Unrepentant Newt Hypocrite Gangrene has always been one who could top any diabolical thought any other right winger could come with give him a few days he will do a lot worse.
#21
Any penalties more restrictive than those for alcohol makes no sense at all.
Matter of fact it is much more dangerous to operate a moving vehicle using a cell phone than as stoned as I ever got in the 35 years I smoked.
#22
Hi Tom love your show gig rich like his name imply s is totally for the rich @ what ever crumbs they throw his way.I think he smokes @ god know what else up in his ivory tower probably has women up there too.He is a total loose cannon whose main philosophy is DO HAS I SAY NOT HAS I DO. Smoking pot will make you FAT gig rich will not make the cover of gentleman's quarterly.
#23
Not just Big Tobacco, but Big Pharma, as well. Marijuana has enough proven medicinal benefits to put Big Pharma out of business, and they know it.
#24
I can hardly stand to listen to these people anymore and the stupid remarks they make. Where has all the common sense in politics gone. I guess they have to continually campaign all the time and they do not have enough time or sense to think about running this county and helping people. It is enough to make me light up and get high and bang on the drum all day!
#25
Marijuana certainly has side effects, as many other kinds of medication: I knew quite some guys who were chaotic, forgetful, unreliable and their way organizing musical projects really scared me off. But nobody of them was "crazy"/ "insane". They were actually reasonable, nice people I liked to talk to. Once I played in a blues band were I was the only one who didn't smoke that stuff. I liked those guys, but I couldn't take that kinda chaos very long.
There are greater dramas in the world than people smoking pot. Smoking cigarettes is crazy anyway -- dangerous as SMS-ing while driving your car. Before we shoot pot smokers, those drivers should rather face a firing squad, for they risk other people's lives (I say "rather" -- I'm against death penalty!).
Drug abuse is the normal headache pill as well. One shouldn't be so squeamish and take pills because the head's spitting on a harmless regular basis. Smoking pot is nothing else than THIS kinda drug abuse: misuse of medication. Both isn't good for health.
Rightwingers like Gingrich hate marijuana, because it's something that belonged to left culture for decades. They hate "communism", "homosexuality", "marijuana", ect./ ect. .... I'd like to know what kinda drugs he has been using, cuz he's so screwy himself.... mentally disorganized....
I'm not on a mission, or crusade against pot. But if anybody would ask me for advice, I'd answer, he/she shouldn't smoke it. Not smoke anything at all.... and if I may add this too: eat no meat, because it's cannibalizing the neighbor.
Cancer patients most certainly need marijuana. The side effects of chemotherapy are much more severe, as anybody knows.
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