Mr. Weiner's continual spouting of disreputable 'facts' is a perfect example of the seeming truth of this condition afflicting those 'in charge'. If anything, it only bolsters the impression that it is imperative to vote out these dinosaurs at the earliest opportunity...

PROGRESSIVE REVIEW THE AUTISTIC CONFEDERACY by Sam Smith http://prorev.com/autistic.htm

From the article:

Key to the Asperger style of politics and media is the constant repetition of thought patterns and the imperviousness of the practitioners' thinking to outside fact or argument. The technical name for this is perseveration which has been defined as "the persistent repetition of a response after cessation of the causative stimuli; for example, the repetition of a correct answer to one question as the answer to succeeding questions," an almost perfect description of what regularly occurs on your average Sunday talk show. A less technical but even more generally apt definition is "continuation of something usually to an exceptional degree or beyond a desired point."

I truly believe that antis are suffering from some sort of functional mental illness; they actually do believe that any person with a functioning cerebral cortex is going to swallow their bilge with nary a cocked eyebrow at its' improbability. And they do seem to believe that constant repetition of their increasingly threadbare mythos of cannabis as a 'dangerous drug' will somehow reduce it's accellerating unravelling.

I've said it before; and I'll say it again: These people would be pitiful if they weren't so dangerous.

Weiner, miserably, kept harping that drug use had been reduced by half over the last some odd years, implicitly using this claim as reason to promote a powerful and continuing drug war. Maher disputed this point, even calling it stupid. But I was disappointed. I would liked to have seen someone ask Weiner what differences in policy he would support were it his contention that drug use had doubled instead. The point should have been made that no matter what the results of the drug war, they are used as reason for maintaining and intensifying the drug war.

Maher made a few good points, challenging Weiner's statistics and stale fallacies, but he disappointed me by supporting forced drug testing of children - because they are children. Kids are far too repressed in school already. There seemed unanimous agreement that kids who are not taking part in lots of extra-curricular activities don't have enough to do and are the ones likely to be "on drugs." This is an abusive attitude and absolutely uncalled for.

When I was high school age, I could not wait to get out of the building and away from the abusive and ignorant teachers, their fascist system of corporal punishment and their insipid, worthless books. I used my spare time, in part, to teach myself mathematics and to read literature to way beyond any level ever reached by the teachers.

This is nothing special - in a better system it would be the norm - and millions of kids are just the same and cannot wait each day to get out of the schools and make some constructive use of their time. And there are better things for kids to do than butt heads on a field, blow horns or give canned national honor society speeches to their classmates about their own virtues. I participated in very few school activities; Bill Maher is childless.

ANd what about the 7% of children who, as we read a week or so ago, are simply incapable of producing a urine sample while under duress? Are they to be bullied and insulted and ignorantly forced to drink endless pitchers of water during three and four hour sessions of attempted urination? And what about the trauma that's inflicted on kids just by their having to dread and anticipate each day these surprise demands for urine. There's way too much pressure on kids already these days; they should be respected and not punished simply for being kids. If your kids are stupid, unruly and incorrigible then you probably made them that way. Shame on you. And of course the discussion would have been carried way out in left field somewhere without the presence of a comedian to remind us that the drug war is really just a little joke.

MikeEEEEE it was good wasn't it?

Bob Weiner didn't have a clue. He said we have to draw the line somewhere but where should the line be drawn?

Bill forgot when he said to drug test children that what will you do to a child who tests hot then? Jail? That will surely make them live in away that isn't productive for themselves or society because what option would they have but get into drugs deeper? Just to survive!

Someone please post a trascript or a live to a video fedd of it. I really want to see or read what happened.

"If heroin were legal tomorrow, would you go out and start shooting up?"

Typical Answer: "No, of course not."

My reply: "So you just assume that the rest of us are just to stupid to make the same choice?"

Nullify The Jury... undo unjust laws...

If you're up late tonight (or know how to program a VCR) you can see me on Politically Incorrect. I'll be debating Bob Weiner (former Drug Czar McCaffrey's spokesperson), actress Rachael Leigh Cook (who did the ONDCP ad swinging they frying pan a few years ago), and comedian Steve Marmel. The entire show is devoted to the drug war. Check your local listings for times or go to

http://abc.abcnews.go.com/primetime/politicallyincorrect/index.html for more info.

A transcript should be posted there later this week. Cheers, Sanho

PS--If you live in Washington, DC, you won't be able to see it because the local affiliate dropped the show after Bill Maher said something politically incorrect after 9/11, but you can call WJLA at 202-364-7777 to register your disgust with their cowardly censorship. You might be able to pick up the shown the Baltimore affiliate WMAR which broadcasts on Channel 2 at 12:05am.

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Sanho Tree 202/234-9382 ext. 266 (voice) Fellow, Drug Policy Project 202/387-7915 (fax) Institute for Policy Studies 202/494-8004 (mobile) 733 15th St., NW, #1020 email: stree@igc.org Washington, DC 20005 http://www.ips-dc.org **************************************************************

Organization: November Coalition http://www.november.org/

November Members -

If you've never seen Sanho Tree in action, you should stay up late tonight - Wednesday - to watch him on ABC's "Politically Incorrect", hosted by Bill Maher. Sanho is a valuable and trusted advisor to The November Coalition. His expertise is anti-drug policy, especially the international aspects, especially South America.

He is based at at the Institute of Policy Studies -- http://www.ips.org -- the organization that recognized Nora in late 2000 with their annual Letelier-Moffitt award for 'domestic' social activism. She is at http://www.ips-dc.org/lm-awards/2000/lm2000.htm.

IPS is at http://www.ips-dc.org/index.htm and Sanho's page at IPS is http://www.ips-dc.org/projects/drugpolicy.htm

JohnChase Regional Volunteer Tampa Bay