petermarcus: (Default)
petermarcus ([personal profile] petermarcus) wrote2005-06-08 11:17 am

News Stuff

The Medical Marijuana thing...from a purely political viewpoint, this is an amazingly interesting case. Rehnquist and Thomas -- two of the core conservative justices -- dissented. The Reagan-appointed O'Connor dissented as well, though she rides the fence a lot. Scalia, a very conservative justice, went with the majority...but wrote his own opinion basically saying that there was legal precedent involved in this sort of thing. One may argue of medical compassion or the use of drugs, but the ideological issue here that trumps everything else is federal power vs state/local rights. Which is why this isn't going to kill medical marijuana -- it's just going to be federally regulated and, most likely, taxed. I'd say things would probably stay unchanged for a while, as conservatives tend to be lax on the federal involvement, but we have neocons in the White House and Justice. Neocons are almost liberal in that they never met a situation that couldn't be improved with massive federal oversight.

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Dean is a nut. He's not going to last a year. If he does, he's not going to last the next landslide election in 2006.

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I almost don't care about the Michael Jackson verdict. I think he's guilty, so I'm hoping for a conviction. But even if he gets off (so to speak...), he's going to flee to Europe. So either way, he's out of our hair anyway and the average weirdness quotient of California will lower just a tiny, tiny fraction.

[identity profile] macaholic.livejournal.com 2005-06-08 03:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Must say we agree on the medical marijuana issue. Hadn't thought about it until you said something, but it makes sense.

As for Jackson...he may not get the opportunity to flee once the verdict is in, if he is in court at that time.

As for Dean....do you mean John "Dizzy" Dean? He has become so insulting that I would not be surprised to see an upsurge in radical republicanism as a result.

[identity profile] lvglenn.livejournal.com 2005-06-08 04:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Though I haven't had the chance to read the opinions yet, I did note that Rhenquist and Thomas were part of the dissent and hoped that it meant that that part of the Court was speaking up for some limits on the federal government.

[identity profile] cisforcorrie.livejournal.com 2005-06-08 04:25 pm (UTC)(link)
I had a dream last night that MJ was found guilty and got 15 years, strange since I don't really care either.

[identity profile] teaser.livejournal.com 2005-06-08 07:11 pm (UTC)(link)
I also don't care either way the verdict goes with MJ. I just hope if he does flee somewhere it's not here. It's rumoured he's bought himself a very expensive Cape Town property (along with many other celebrities).

[identity profile] bookstar.livejournal.com 2005-06-08 09:20 pm (UTC)(link)
MJ won't flee to europe. he's too well-recognized, and the CIA would totally hunt him down & bring him back. if he's found guilty (which he will be), he'll suicide.