Playboy, Pot and Power Play: Spring Fever Strikes Potomac
While the presidential campaign rages on, here's what Congress is up to: Reps. Barney Frank and Ron Paul are trying to legalize pot smoking; another congressman has proposed legislation to ban lad mags at military bases; and the Senate has shut down until its most famous adversaries can return from the battle field.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has shuttered the chamber's doors until this evening, when Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) can return from their never-ending battle for the Democratic presidential nomination. Reid isn't suspending the chamber's business out of the kindness of his heart for the two weary campaigners but, rather, because, well, he needs their votes. (And he has the power to shut down the entire chamber until he can get them, which has irritated Republicans to no end.)
As for Frank (D-Mass.), a legendary irascible lefty, and Paul (R-Tex.), a quirky libertarian who was still on the ballot in Pennsylvania's GOP presidential primary Tuesday, they've joined forces in the name of... smoking it up.
Their bill would decriminalize the personal use of marijuana. (Frank separately introduced another bill to federally legalize medical marijuana use in states that want to allow it.)
"To those who say that the government should not be encouraging the smoking of marijuana, my response is that I completely agree," Frank said in a statement. "But it is a great mistake to divide all human activity into two categories: those that are criminally prohibited, and those that are encouraged. In a free society, there must be a very considerable zone of activity between those two poles in which people are allowed to make their own choices as long as they are not impinging on the rights, freedom, or property of others."
Speaking of freedom, or not, Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) is deeply troubled that a loophole in the federal ban on sales of pornography on military bases is going to corrupt the traditional nuclear family beyond repair. So he has introduced the Military Honor and Decency Act to preserve family values and save the morality of U.S. troops, amen.
"Allowing sale of pornography on military bases has harmed military men and women by escalating the number of violent, sexual crimes, feeding a base addiction, eroding the family as the primary building block of society, and denigrating the moral standing of our troops both here and abroad," Broun said.
Meanwhile, in the Senate, by shuttering the chamber, Reid has delayed action on a veterans bill in order to schedule a procedural cloture vote to cut off debate on an employment discrimination bill named for cause celebre Lilly Ledbetter.
This, after accusing Republicans of trying to block the bill to help disabled veterans.
Republicans: irate.
Forecast: today will be the quiet before the storm, which is expected to hit as soon as the Senate opens its doors this evening.
By Mary Ann Akers |
April 23, 2008; 9:55 AM ET
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Posted by: Larry | April 23, 2008 10:59 AM
they should decriminalize weed, but criminalize smoking
smoking causes global warming!!!!!!
Posted by: Anonymous | April 23, 2008 11:31 AM
In honor of my boys Barney and Ron, I'm about to light a spleef about 8" long and 3" thick. Thank you, boys. You rule.
Posted by: danwatson | April 23, 2008 2:00 PM
What is a "spleef"?
Posted by: Iconoblaster | April 23, 2008 5:11 PM
What is the difference between a "regime" and a government, state, administration etc.? I teach high school social studies and can find nothing definitive on-line or in the dictionary. Are there specific points of animus between the US and other nations that put them in the "regime" group or is there a definition you can give me?
Posted by: Delabian L. Rice-Thurston | April 26, 2008 12:06 AM
What is the difference between a "regime" and a government, state, administration etc.? I teach high school social studies and can find nothing definitive on-line or in the dictionary. Are there specific points of animus between the US and other nations that put them in the "regime" group or is there a definition you can give me?
Posted by: Delabian L. Rice-Thurston | April 26, 2008 12:06 AM
What is the difference between a "regime" and a government, state, administration etc.? I teach high school social studies and can find nothing definitive on-line or in the dictionary. Are there specific points of animus between the US and other nations that put them in the "regime" group or is there a definition you can give me?
Posted by: Delabian L. Rice-Thurston | April 26, 2008 12:06 AM
The comments above are why teachers unions should be abolished.
Posted by: Anonymous | April 29, 2008 5:28 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
Frank/Paul '08!