Hammering Holder: Pruning the Branches of Corruption

Topher Morrison

PurpleSerf.com

Attorney General Eric Holder, testifying before the House Committee on the Judiciary, Thursday suffered a grilling at the hands of Representatives Daryll Issa (R-CA), Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and Lamar Smith (R-TX).

Before the hearing it was more than obvious that Holder, if not Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein, knew about the controversial gun-walking operation known as “Fast and Furious” prior to its involvement in the murder of U.S. Border Agent Brian A. Terry on Dec. 14^th 2010.  If it wasn’t, it was made blatantly clear after Rep. Issa stacked document after document referring to the operation, all provided by law enforcement whistleblowers and dated months prior to Terry’s death.

In a less than impressive display of lawyerly maneuvering Holder claimed the document’s “emails using the words ‘Fast and Furious’ don’t refer to Operation Fast and Furious.”  This has been merely the latest in a long line of stonewalling and misdirection on the part of Holder.

Part of a broader series of programs known as “Project Gunrunner” ran by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) between 2006 and 2011, spanning two administrations, Operation Fast and Furious was the largest of other known analogs like “Wide Receiver” and “White Gun.”  ATF in a brazen example of state-sanctioned law breaking knowingly allowed and “encouraged” the sale of over 2000 firearms to arms traffickers working through middlemen known as “straw purchasers” on behalf of Mexican drug cartels.

Since 2006 the Mexican drug war can be described as nothing short of narco genocide claiming more than 60,000 lives leaving a trail of tears filled with endless stories of torture, bizarre gladiator kamikazes and beheadings.  The tactics used by the ATF have been claimed to be an effort to stem the violence by tracking these weapons up the chain resulting in the apprehension of kingpins and ultimately the dismantling of the cartels - the mantra of all law enforcement agencies since the War on Drugs began decades ago.

There are, as you would expect, a few problems with this line of reasoning.  One, the ATF has yet to be produce a mechanism by which these weapons are tracked outside of retaining the serial number and hoping they show up.   Two, once a cartel is apprehended (lets say every last one of them) another cartel will simply take its place, history has shown that much is a certain.  Three, and this is the kicker, why do agents of the government feel they can break the law in the service of it?

Pruning Will Only Cause it to Grow

The Fast and Furious scandal is merely an extension of the ongoing War on Drugs and just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to big government shadow war.  From the CIA to the ATF every sort of deep and dubious tactic imaginable (black rendition sites, entrapments, compromised informants, etc.)  is utilized to bring “evildoers” to justice regardless of the rule of law.

While some, however, have speculated it was Eric Holder and the Department of Justice’s primary intent to sabotage the 2^nd Amendment, this line of reasoning doesn’t quite satisfy the rebuttal.  Project Gunrunner, after all, began under George W. Bush, hardly a liberal (well, depending on who you ask).  Now, this isn’t to deny those of a liberal bent and the DOJ wouldn’t high five each other if the 2^nd Amendment were undermined in the process.  What is constant from 2006 to 2011, however, is our DOJ’s disrespect for law.  That much we can prove.   But as I mentioned its systemic, it does not begin nor does it end with Eric Holder.

While it is necessary to rout the unscrupulous where and when they rear their ugly heads it is obvious to those of an objective inclination that conservatives are salivating over the opportunity to burn Holder as well.  Holder’s allegations are most likely correct, that the passion of these hearings is most definitely politically motivated, but who cares?  The real issue at hand is the slight of hand.

Buried are the stories of the FBI allowing drugs to cross the border.  The press surrounding Holder and gunrunning saps the attention, which could be used to expose the DEA’s purported get-out-of-jail-free card offered to Vicente Zambada-Niebla, son of Sinaloa Cartel leader Ismail “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia.  At the very least the government admitted his lawyer was a confidential informant.

While some may write this off as the necessary evils of the drug war, are we to then accept our government’s “moral ambiguity” as a fact of life?  From Insight Crime:

"[T]hey hint at a deeper truth in the U.S.'s handling of the Mexican drug panorama. The border zone is filled with double agents, and often U.S. officials have to take part in morally ambiguous operations. This includes relying on informants who may continue to traffic drugs and kill people, but will still expect protection in return for their information.”

This is a cycle without end and corrupts both governments.  Rather than readdressing and reforming drug laws throughout the Americas as many south of the U.S. border have offered to do, the United States government feeds the perpetual mission creep inherent within an ill-conceived tapestry of law enforcement agencies.  Hammering Eric Holder is merely pruning the branches of corruption.

Hell on Earth: Mexican Drug War Yields 49 Headless Bodies

Topher Morrison

www.PurpleSerf.com

In what is widely believed to be the latest clash between two of Mexico’s main crime syndicates, the Zetas gang and the Sinaloa Cartel, officials struggle to identify 49 bodies.   The Associated Press (AP) reports that although the bodies were found without gunshot wounds some were heavily decomposed, decapitated and totally dismembered.

Victims of the latest carnage, the “Cadereyta 49” as they are coming to be referred, highlights the alarming notion that Mexico is teetering on the brink of narco-genocide, a type of national bloodletting of a wholly different order than previous eras. Rather than a government carrying out a policy of ethnic cleansing or oppression the devastation being experienced in Mexico is due almost entirely to a black market in the violent throws of realignment after the 2008 financial crisis blew a hole in the U.S. economy.

“Drug violence has killed more than 47,500 people since President Felipe
Calderon launched a stepped-up offensive when he took office in
December 2006. The campaign has seen the two cartels emerge as
 Mexico’s two most powerful. At least one of the two cartels
is present in nearly all of Mexico’s 32 states.”
 – Associated Press

Astonishingly, it was been reported the people of northern Mexico sometimes have no one protecting them as some municipalities, including Cadereyta, have been without law enforcement for years allowing cartels to move in to fill the void.  When police are there, however, they are often corrupt to the point were an entire police force was fired and disbanned.  According to BorderLandBeat.com:

Though hard to imagine the cruelty of cartels to gather large groups of innocents for shock and attention thereby highlighting messages or a perception of power, another perspective is it is far easier, and efficient in their viewpoint.

By targeting a bus load of migrants, or giving corrupt police the task to collect innocent victims off the streets.  Compliant and respectful of authorities, they are easy prey, no bullets, no fighting, no bloodshed sustained on the part of the criminals.

Effectively, like lambs to the slaughter.

The recent slayings are only the last of four massacres in the last month.  The most horrific detail is these victims are not believed to be rival gangsters or meddling journalists, but innocent bystanders.  According to the AP:

Some victims in earlier body dumps have turned out to be bakers, brick layers, even students – anyone who could be snatched off the streets in mass killings that one captured gang member said were designed to ‘cause terror.’

The mass murder of 35 last year in Boca del Rio, Veracruz is a testament to this gruesome tactic.  The very same city whose police officers were purportedly rounding up children for the massacre.

The Cadereyta municipality has seen homicides of this nature increase 10-fold over the past three years.  Another example of why Mexico’s border region was the most violent place on the planet last year, more so than even war torn Afghanistan.  More from the AP story:

"[In Cadereyta] there have been 74 killings in the first four months of this year in, compared to 27 over the same period in 2011 and seven in 2010, according to figures from Nuevo Leon state prosecutors.

The massacre follows the discovery of 14 men left in a van in downtown Nuevo Laredo on April 17 and 23 people found hanged or decapitated in the same border city May 4.

Eighteen dismembered bodies were left near Mexico’s second-largest city, Guadalajara, last week. Among the nine people identified in that attack were bricklayers, waiters and at least one student. None had criminal records."

This is all part of a sadistic strategy of “heating up the plaza” a way of luring local law enforcement, state police and Mexican military to crack down on a rival cartel’s activities.  A black market false flag so to speak.

The cartels are of course known for their barborous gambits.  Last year it was reported that Mexican drug lords are forcing innocent civilians into gladiatorial death matches.  Once a victor emerges they are “rewarded” by being forced to run a veritable kamakazi mission into a rival cartel’s territory.  According to Paul Thompson of the Daily Mail:

"Almost 200 bodies were found near the Mexican city of San Fernando with most having died from blunt force trauma.

Many are thought to be victims of the blood sport where cartel chiefs re-enact the gladiator contests."

In a country were citizens are defenseless, where the black market makes up a sizable portion of the economy, according to Havoscope $126.08 billion, and the state controls much of the rest it is hard to see a way forward.  There have been serious talks of legalizing illicit drugs throughout Central and South America, but without the major consumer, the United States, following suit all these efforts accomplish is open season for Cartels.

Some wonder why we don’t use our growing arsenal of drones to expidite justice.  The only question would be: when do the cartels get their own?  After all, they already have planes, trains, tanks and submarines.

Ron Paul's Liberal Honey

Topher Morrison

PurpleSerf.com

cross posted at

GreeneWave.com

   Now that everyone’s feet have hit the ground and Romney has reasserted his “front runner status” (as the mainstream media enjoys to browbeat) some like Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard are musing about another Santorum surge; praying, hoping for Bush 2.0.  There is only one problem.  Although the GOP is potentially dethroning one of the most radical presidencies since FDR or LBJ, as Kristol laments, their Florida primary turnout was actually down 12% from 2008. 

How can Barak Hussein Obama, the Premier of Polarization, not light a fire under the GOP?  They better figure it out.  In Florida, Mitt Romney may have been able to outspend Newt Gingrich by a 4 to 1 margin; that will not be the case against Barack’s billion-dollar war chest.  Romney will need a lot more than millions in milquetoast rhetoric to revitalize this evidently anemic party. 

To be fair, this may have merely been the Florida GOP, Iowa’s turnout after all was record breaking, but was that because of Romney or something else?  Maybe it was the ugliness of the campaign that kept Floridians at home, but that most assuredly will not change as the Democrats plan to make this election more about character than content.  Perhaps it was the nature of the caucus. 

While the Florida Slugfest was grabbing national attention Ron Paul as usual was quiet, but diligent.  He was the first to release ads in Minnesota and Nevada and able to stay clear of the mud he was left alone to continue his long-term caucus strategy, which is proving fruitful regardless of the what the Media Masters tell you.

Ron Paul claims he is 3^rd in delegate count and supported: here and here even though the MSM has him in 4^th: here, here and here.  Why the discrepancy?  Free information sites like Wikipedia and The Green Papers offer a little more insight into the fog that often surrounds the U.S. electoral system. 

There are, for example, differences in “soft” versus “hard” delegates and “pledged” or “bound” delegates versus “unpledged” or “not bound” delegates. It essentially boils down to reporting projected versus formally pledged delegates.  The MSM prefers the latter.  In the end it’s more than just the ballot box, as Politico’s James Hohmann points out:

The primary and caucus “…states don’t award delegates on the day they hold votes, instead apportioning delegates at local party meetings, where Paul’s camp believes its superior organization can help it capture a majority that their candidate may not have won outright on election day.”

Spontaneous organization and zeal as I have mentioned is the bread and butter of Ron Paul’s Guerilla Grassroots.

            As the Christian Science Monitor points out Ron Paul with this odd strategy may in fact win more delegates this coming month than Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich combined!  The reason?  It is what Romney, Gingrich and Santorum all lack and what Ron Paul is in large supply – liberal honey.    

As evidenced in Iowa, Ron Paul pulls from the top of the political spectrum.  This may seem odd to hear, however, many now understand there is a false dichotomy afoot when someone tries to paint another as either left or right.  It is why we see Americans leaving the GOP and Democratic parties in droves.  Fundamentally the real dichotomy is authority versus liberty, everything else is retail politics.

Ron Paul is above the fray in this respect pulling and converting ostensibly progressive and conservative independents into his libertarian coalition of sustainable governance.  The most attractive characteristic of Paul’s liberal honey is it’s cheap enough for a conservative, but sweet enough for a liberal. 

Take ending the War on Drugs for instance.  It promotes personal responsibility with respect to treatment and education while simultaneously emancipating billions of taxpayer dollars dedicated to massive incarceration, property seizures and interdiction from the grip of big government.  Legalizing and regulating drugs like alcohol and tobacco as they once were would serve the single biggest blow to drug cartels and inner city gangs sustained by the black market’s inflated prices.  Moreover, the Drug War disproportionally affects minorities whom notoriously side with Democrats.  Ron Paul’s plan fundamentally undermines this entitlement.

            Liberal honey most importantly allows a left leaning voter to swallow some of Ron Paul’s economic medicine some view as austere.  His stance on the Federal Reserve for example is as bipartisan as it gets, over 75% of voters want a full audit of the Fed.  The idea there is a coalition of private banks dictating how much money to print for themselves, leading to trickle down inflation, is appalling to most Americans.  Ron Paul retains nearly exclusive rights to this idea – End The Fed.

            Local governance looms large in our political future too.   The famous liberal idiom “think globally, act locally” is about to be fulfilled and added to the libertarian lexicon – “think globally, govern locally.”  For far too long central planning has concentrated the power of government in Washington D.C. at the expense of our states, counties and townships.  Ron Paul’s efforts to allow the states to decide on abortion, gay marriage and education allowing everyone to more easily vote with their feet by rekindling our 50 democratic laboratories.

            While the anti-war movement was eviscerated after the election of our Peace President Barack Obama, Ron Paul’s plans to close our foreign bases and return our troops home resonates with independents, paleo-conservatives and progressives alike.  Its police state ancillary, the technological and industrial blowback from our militant adventurism, is on Ron Paul’s chopping block too.  Ending the TSA, the Department of Homeland Security, fusion centers, and curtailing Top Secret America appeals to social libertarians and liberals alike.

          When it comes to a head to head between Barack Obama and Ron Paul it would be a gas to see a 74 year old man run a hard right on economics all the while luring Obama’s base away from under him with all natural liberal honey.

Paul's Guerilla Grassroots Could Win Nevada & Latinos

You can buy this shirt at Atomic Flip for $29

The Guerilla Grassroots

It is no doubt to anyone that Ron Paul is running an unconventional campaign and it isn’t just his patented guerilla grassroots replete with money bombs and a legion of fervent Paulistas that raises eyebrows.  Paul has a unique and long-term caucus strategy focusing on proportional delegates, picking his fights carefully. 

His campaign is famous for relying on relatively decentralized even “rouge” and local efforts who distance themselves from even official Ron Paul campaign organs, as evidenced in South Carolina.  The Washington Examiner reported: “Charleston for Ron Paul prefers the official Paul campaign to stay unaffiliated.”

Many lauded the technical acumen of the Obama campaign for its utilization of social media and get out the vote efforts, but it pales in comparison to the self-starting nature of Ron Paul’s campaign.  For example, RonPaulCountry.com has a “Grassroots War Room” founded by volunteers out of New Jersey and it literally makes you feel as if you’re in a real time political bunker. 

Inundated with timetables for the next primary and information directing potential Paulites to where they are needed most.  It offers an impressive platform all the while reminding its members: “…Because saving the country should be fun”, yet another example of the privatization, technical prowess and devolution inherent to Paul’s unique brand of electoral politics.

While some in the mainstream media saw the Paul campaign backing off in South Carolina it could have also been as easily characterized as de facto delegation of campaign responsibility.  If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.  In the end Charleston for Ron Paul efforts were entirely volunteer, self-funded and self-directed – frugal. 

These examples of spontaneous organization couldn’t be more fitting for a man who has spent over 30 years educating the American public on the benefits of the invisible hand in the free market, a hand which evidently has its fingers all over Ron Paul’s campaign.

Looking Past South Carolina

            While South Carolina wasn’t a win for Ron Paul, the Gingrich win will sap strength from Romney and guarantee a longer primary season, moreover it will reduce the prospects of Rick Santorum climbing any higher than his Iowa zenith.  While Paul has sustained a significant blow in South Carolina, his campaign will undoubtedly continue to slog through this back loaded GOP marathon. 

As I have argued before Ron Paul’s plans to Win the West, a region more in line with his libertarian social platform is key to his success at forcing the GOP to assimilate much of his platform.  Even if Paul doesn’t win the nomination if he can accumulate enough delegates he might be able to impose a libertarian platform upon the eventual nominee.

            After South Carolina, while the nation has already started to become distracted by the Florida throw down and its boatload (no pun intended) of delegates, Ron Paul was the first to buy ad time in Nevada and Minnesota (site for his 2008 shadow convention).  Nevada political guru Jon Ralston confirmed my sentiments about the libertarian leaning Silver State, which may deliver Ron Paul a needed victory.  According to Ralston: “Nevada is to some extent still a very libertarian state…That goes across party lines and Paul is officially a libertarian running in the Republican party.  There’s a lot of resonance there.”

The Hispanic Vote

            Time’s blog Swampland mentioned that much of Ron Paul’s appeal to Hispanics which makes up 26% of Nevada’s population, nearly 34% in California, 27% in Arizona will theoretically play into Paul’s favor.  While Ron Paul supports English as the official language of the Federal Government, building a boarder fence, minutemen volunteerism, ending or better put clarifying the 14^th Amendment’s controversial birthright citizenship provision, and rejecting amnesty he is overall pro immigration free from federal subsidy through food stamps, social security, hospital mandates and free education.

            The disparate affects on Latinos on both sides of the borders who are caught in the middle of the War on Drugs should prove to play in the West as well.  Recently, it was found the US-Mexico border region was deadlier than war torn Afghanistan, the vast majority were cartel-sponsored murders.  There were even bizarre stories of gladiator games, which would select the strongest captor for suicide bombings in towns controlled by rival cartels. 

Stateside, Latinos are four times likely to be incarcerated than whites according to the Department of Justice, talk about "resonance".  Both Romney and Gingrich scoff at the prospect of reevaluating drug laws, they would rather demagogue the issue than solve it.  Hispanics evidently agree with some of this as 51% view Paul in a favorable light compared to 25% for Romney.

The fact the West Coast as well as upcoming Minnesota leans left bodes well for Dr. Paul as he is often credited for pulling left of center issue voters into his coalition of civil libertarians.  West Coast independents whom gravitate toward these same social values will find Paul’s brand much more appealing than those of Gingrich and Romney whom are attempting to desperately evince social conservative metal.

How Drug War Dinosaurs & Traffic Jams Kill Our Economy II

Topher Morrison

PurpleSerf.com

Read PART I of this series here.

PART II

Image Source: Documentary Film: American Drug War

The Drug War Dinosaur

            The argument that the Drug War is a colossal failure was won long ago albeit Washington and many of our local politicians have paid little notice.  To them it is a handy campaign slogan “Keeping Our Kids Safe” and “Our Streets Clean” but the levels of drug use in America has grown relatively unabated since 1960. 

The War on Drugs is a waste of national and local resources, it has created the largest most unproductive and corruptive black market the world has ever known, militarized our local police, slowly eroded respect for civil liberties, and has led to incalculable innocent deaths.

            From the coca farmer in Colombia to the Drug Czar in Washington D.C. this has to be one of the biggest examples of market distortion available.   There are nearly 11,000 DEA agents, 4500 ATF agents and almost 650,000 police and sheriff patrol officers obliged to enforce national drug laws to the tune of $15 billion annually. 

Likewise inner city gang members and suburban drug peddlers instead of creating value, merely loiter, cause trouble and distribute in their local communities. Similar to the relationship between a jailer and inmate, both of these groups do nothing for the economy.

            Because of the illicit drug market and its false scarcity the black market has invaded the inner cities and provided those willing to take a little risk the opportunity to make money merely by providing a substance that would otherwise be available at your local drug store or smoke shop.  It is often a part time job, but many times is a full time occupation and with it comes violent gangs because it is not protected as legitimate property by authorities.  Simple economics.

            If we legalized the current spectrum of illicit drugs as they many of them were prior to 1930 while drug abuse would still remain a public health concern, the international black market, wholly dependent on American drug consumption, would grind to a halt as responsibilities for production, distribution and regulation would be absorbed by local and national pharmacies.  The boogey man would simply disappear and much like cigarette and alcohol addiction our local substance abuse infrastructure would step in as it does now.

The Military Industrial Entitlement Program

If you have yet to read my article on why I feel the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) is in fact one of our largest entitlement programs I’d suggest you do, but I’ll give you brief outline.  In 2012 it has become a $1.2 trillion program the largest of its kind in the world.

Similar to welfare, which breeds dependency and prevents many recipients from reentering the workforce our MIC prevents countries from seeking their own defense.  South Korea, Germany and Japan really have no reason to build up their own military apparatus even though they are wealthy and peaceful because we already do it for them and have for over 50 years.  We also currently offer our military training services and foreign aid to 75 smaller countries throughout the world.  Our MIC is their entitlement.  This is a massive distortion which enables our competitors to better compete against us.

The profligate spending we condone also subsidizes the industries here at home that would otherwise be producing innovations of peace rather than warfare and competing rather than waiting for a generous government contract.  When our government directs funds to Homeland Security and the Pentagon or to build a massive Cyber Security Center in Utah these are limited resources that could have been used to deepen our economy.

Nation of Bureaucrats and Managers not Creators

When you step back and take in the full breadth of our economy it’s easy to understand much of it isn’t accomplishing anything.  The sectors we have just covered are what we call living breathing distortions in the marketplace.  Imagine what these people could be creating or servicing if they weren’t telling us what to do, causing violence, creating boogey men or sitting in traffic?  Granted tax accountants hold our hand through the labyrinth that is the US tax code, but if it was simple we wouldn’t need this legion of tax coyotes.

Think about the reported unemployment rate, add the real unemployment rate, which includes underemployment (a growing problem created by diploma mills) and those who have given up looking for a job after 90 days.  Introduce everything we’ve just talked about and one begins to catch a glimpse of our anemic condition.  Most of our country isn’t creating or innovating anything, by virtue of their unemployment or the distortions created by government

How Drug War Dinosaurs & Traffic Jams Kill Our Economy

Topher Morrison

PurpleSerf.com

How Drug War Dinosaurs & Traffic Jams Kill Our Economy

PART I

Otomotive.net

            Everyone takes it for granted that the federal government is laden with redundancy and inefficiency.  It doesn’t surprise anyone it requires a mountain of paperwork to buy a paperclip, but rarely do many appreciate the other market distortions our lawmakers create in the private sector. A market distortion is simply something someone is doing that they would otherwise not being doing if it government weren't in the picture.  Ironically, even in the Great Recession, because of market distortions, there is a lot of fat to cut outside of the beltway.

The Tax Men and their Elves

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) there are over 1.6 million bookkeepers, accountants and auditors, one of the largest employment groups in the nation.  Now the personal business or corporate accountant is crucial to understanding the intricacies of a firm’s operations, sales, marketing, payroll, etc., but there are a quarter million people dedicated to tax examining, collecting and preparing alone! 

According to the Tax Foundation the IRS estimates Americans spend an aggregate 6.6 billion hours just preparing their taxes essentially taking us away from life – planning, creating, and spending.  This time is lost forever and every year it is a massive drag on the economy and our ability to compete and progress as a nation.  

We understand taxes are built into the everyday activities of large and small business and have a net effect on every decision made.  We also understand that once we buy a product or service those taxes contribute to the price we pay, but the questions now are what other products and services would be available and how much sooner might a new innovation be made if we could gain that lost time back?  It is no wonder Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan got so much attention.  It’s too bad his ladies did too.

The Jailbirds and the Bird Watchers

            The United States, home of the free, is ironically home of the highest incarcerated population on Earth.  Widely known fact, little attention.  According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (USBJS) in 2010 there were nearly 2.3 million incarcerated and the BLS reported over ½ million correctional officers and supervisory personnel, the USBJS puts them at nearly 800,000.  In either case we literally have 3 million people staring at each other.

            If that were it things would be bad enough, but we also have – brace yourself – nearly 5 million people on probation or parole and nearly 90 thousand probation and “correctional treatment specialists” making sure they’re playing by the rules.  With 1 in 2 returning to jail or prison it is hard to see the effectiveness of this system.  

            How many years are lost on minimum sentencing, three strike and drug laws for both the prisoner and the watchman are next to incalculable.  The financials are a different story with America spending a little more than $74 billion per year on corrections as of 2007, however, the most alarming trend is the federalization of correctional financing.  Year after year local and state governments are spending less keeping people in jail, while Uncle Sam picks up the tab.

Driven Apart – Bumper by Bumper

    Transportation policy is probably the last thing on Americans’ minds, but it is the first thing on every mind at 5pm.  In 2000 the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) estimated that the 75 largest metropolitan areas experienced 3.6 billion vehicle-hours of delay resulting in 5.7 billion gallons in wasted fuel and 67.5 billion dollars is lost productivity or about 0.7% of the nation’s GDP. 

It has since not improved according to a recent Reason.com poll which reports a majority of Americans believe traffic has become worse over the last 5 years and most believe it will continue to get worse over the next five years.  Moreover, most Americans feel their local infrastructure is in need of repair or in poor condition. 

The country’s infrastructure system has remained nearly unchanged since the Eisenhower era, which along with the 1960s saw the largest expansion in American roadways and along with it economic growth.  We have since been surpassed by China in miles of road.

Recently the TTI reported that since 1982 the amount of delay has worsened by 70% and that the average commuter must endure 34 hours of bumper love per year.  The TTI estimates the cost of congestion to be nearly $100 billion, rush hour is actually become 6 hours of not rushing anywhere and rush hours have found there way into other parts of the day including mid-day and overnight!

Unlike most of our economy our transportation system, with some justification is a public utility, but like other public works infrastructure suffers from the typical bureaucracy, glacial response to the needs of its citizens and political logjams.  According to the Rockefeller Foundation transportation is the 2^nd highest expenditure for the average American, why isn’t this receiving more attention?

       Unfortunately as I mentioned earlier this is the last thing on Americans’ minds and therefore the very last thing on our politician’s agendas.  Regrettably the connection between this and our economy is underappreciated and as the previous topics have shown this is just another barnacle on the hull of our stagnant economy.  A market driven transportation system paid for by the elimination of certain gasoline taxes could do wonders in decentralizing and modernizing this ailing sector.

 NEXT: How the Drug War Dinosaurs and The Military Industrial Entitlement Program drag down our economy.

Number One? 20 Not So Good Categories That The United States Leads The World In

The Economic Collapse
July 5, 2011

Image Source: DeviantART by Lee Roberts

(artwork not part of original article)

If you do not believe that America is in bad shape, just read the list below.  The following are 20 not so good categories that the United States leads the world in....

#1 The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world and the largest total prison population on the entire globe.

#2 According to NationMaster.com, the United States has the highest percentage of obese people in the world.

#3 The United States has the highest divorce rate on the globe by a wide margin.

#4 The United States is tied with the U.K. for the most hours of television watch per person each week.

#5 The United States has the highest rate of illegal drug use on the entire planet.

#6 There are more car thefts in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world by far.

#7 There are more reported rapes in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world.

#8 There are more reported murders in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world.

#9 There are more total crimes in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world.

#10 The United States also has more police officers than anywhere else in the world.

#11 The United States spends much more on health care as a percentage of GDP than any other nation on the face of the earth.

#12 The United States has more people on pharmaceutical drugs than any other country on the planet.

#13 The percentage of women taking antidepressants in America is higher than in any other country in the world.

#14 Americans have more student loan debt than anyone else in the world.

#15 More pornography is created in the United States than anywhere else on the entire globe. 89 percent is made in the U.S.A. and only 11 percent is made in the rest of the world.

#16 The United States has the largest trade deficit in the world every single year.  Between December 2000 and December 2010, the United States ran a total trade deficit of 6.1 trillion dollars with the rest of the world, and the U.S. has had a negative trade balance every single year since 1976.

#17 The United States spends 7 times more on the military than any other nation on the planet does.  In fact, U.S. military spending is greater than the military spending of China, Russia, Japan, India, and the rest of NATO combined.

#18 The United States has far more foreign military bases than any other country does.

#19 The United States has the most complicated tax system in the entire world.

#20 The U.S. has accumulated the biggest national debt that the world has ever seen and it is rapidly getting worse.  Right now, U.S. government debt is expanding at a rate of $40,000 per second.

For the rest of this commentary visit The Economic Collapse.

Medical Marijuana, Big Pharma Style

Daily Kos
Gr33ner Pastures
June 6th, 2011

The federal government does support the marijuana industry, just not the one you think.

The East Bay Express reported last week that the DEA has been quietly giving out licenses for large-scale marijuana growing operations to a number of unnamed companies. But these actions have nothing to do with the real medical marijuana industry, which is still a favorite target for DEA persecution; instead they are designed to enable a total coup by the pharmaceutical industry. Until now, the belief was that there was only one DEA licensed and operated marijuana farm which existed mainly to provide research material. However, in a letter to the East Bay Express, the DEA revealed that:

“there are 64 active DEA registrations (reflecting 55 companies) for manufacturers that have listed drug code 7370 (THC, Delta-8 THC, Delta-9 THC, dronabinol and others) and drug code 7371 (TETRAHYDROCANNABINOL, ORGANIC) on their DEA record.”

In other words, 55 companies have active licenses for producing organic THC; which means growing marijuana.

Whether these companies have already began growing marijuana or not is irrelevant; the mere fact that the DEA can hand out growing licenses while continuing to raid state-approved growers and dispensaries is a testament to the government’s unlimited capacity for hypocrisy. It is also a sign of how the pharmaceutical industry has co-opted the DEA and the FDA, turning government agencies into its lackeys. Even as the Department of Justice intensifies its attacks on legitimate medical marijuana, the pharmaceutical industry demands to be given a way to profit from cannabis. Now that the patent for the (reportedly mediocre) THC pill Marinol has expired and GW Pharmaceuticals’ Sativex, a cannabis-based oral spray, is on track for U.S. approval, pharmaceutical companies are getting ready to cash in, and they are using the government to keep the competition at bay.

With the rapidly growing list of medical conditions treatable with marijuana making the plant’s medicinal properties almost impossible to deny (unless you are the DEA of course) the pharmaceutical industry figured it needed to get in on the action. This presented a conundrum: to make halfway decent pills, organic cannabinoids are needed, and for that marijuana would have to be federally rescheduled. However, if that happened, how could the drug companies maintain a ruthless monopoly on this plant? The result is a plan so devoid of logic or consistency it would get laughed out of Wonderland: to expand the less restrictive Schedule III category of drugs so that that it can include what the DEA calls “naturally derived or synthetically produced dronabinol.” Dronabinol is Marinol, which is synthetic THC.

Thus under this system a marijuana plant is illegal, but commercial organic THC is officially just a dronabinol analogue. Never mind that both are the same thing, and that such “dronabinol analogues” can be gathered from the still illegal marijuana plant; the alchemy of Big Pharma turns the illegal into business gold. Ironically enough, actual synthetic marijuana that the industry doesn’t have much of a use for, such as the JWH-018 or JWH-073 used in herbal blends like Spice or K2, has been aggressively pursued and banned by the DEA. There really is no overstating the depth of lunacy required for this to make sense to anyone; luckily for the pharmaceutical industry, our government can always be counted on to toss sanity out the window for the right price.

The Pharmaceutical lobby is the biggest lobby in America, spending over 240 million dollars in 2010 alone. With that kind of money going towards supporting politicians on both sides of the aisle, the industry has reached the point where it can get government agencies to carry water for it in even the most outrageous of situations. Only last year, GlaxoSmithKline used the FDA to keep a diabetes drug, Avandia, on the market despite a Senate committee report showing that not only was it dangerous, but that GSX knew this and had colluded with the FDA to hide it. Even the revelation that a member of the FDA advisory panel making the decision was a paid speaker for GSX failed to have any effect.

The government has also been proactive in its service to the pharmaceutical industry, most recently laying the groundwork for a federal center for drug research: The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. The center will be operated under the National Institutes of Health, an agency with a history of conflict of interest issues, whose head recently resigned to join the board of directors at a pharmaceutical company. Drugs developed by this institution will be turned over to private drug companies, effectively turning it into a taxpayer funded R&D arm for the pharmaceutical Industry.

Given this very special relationship, is it any wonder that the government is willing to bend over backwards to take medical marijuana away from patients and hand it over to the drug companies wholesale? The key to winning this battle is the growth of the legitimate medical marijuana industry made up of dispensaries, doctors, growers, etc. As more states, businesses and patients put their weight and wealth on the side of real medical marijuana, they are building a wall to keep out the big drug companies. Economic and political power can stall the government and give the issue more time to mature into a powerful civil rights movement that will ultimately win the day in court.