PARANOIA OR REALITY?

Am I being paranoid or is it really true?

Could drug dealers be giving huge amounts of secret cash to the Republican Party in order to keep prohibition, so that the drug dealers can continue to make huge illegal profits?

Even if it is not true, it could be true, as there is no law making them tell us who gave them the huge amount of money they are spending.

I am a Democrat because I believe in equal rights for everyone, not just for those that Christians approve.

I am a Democrat because I believe in equal rights for women, including the right to control one's own body.

I am a Democrat because I believe that our great nation can afford to take care of the sick, the old, the disabled and the poor.

I am a Democrat because I believe that some of the rich can be greedy, selfish, and willing to con the rest of us.

If you agree with me, but do not vote, you are actually voting for the other side.

CORPORATE CON ARTISTS

The corporations who do not want any financial regulations are pouring BILLIONS of dollars into next week's elections. These corporations do not have to disclose who they are. These corporations want to be able to continue to do "business as usual" like the Bush Administration let them do.

Of course, business as usual was extremely detrimental to the middle class. Remember Madoff, who never even bothered to purchase stock for his stock market mutual fund, but just ran a giant Ponzi scam? Remember that several people asked the SEC to investigate Madoff? Remember that that Bush's SEC did not even bother to check into Madoff?

It is not enough to make thousands or millions on paper. That money has to be real, and available for your retirement.

The only way I know of to stop these corporate con artists* is to make and enforce regulations against such financial frauds. The only politicians willing to do this are the Democrats.

So again, we are all going to have to send a little bit of money to the Democratic candidates so that they are not overwhelmed by the last minute ads from the corporate con artists.

*If you want to prove you are not a corporate con artist, you can disclose to whom you gave political donations, just like ordinary people have to do. By hiding, you make us think you are doing something you are ashamed of. People who are proud of what they do, put their name on what they did.

YOUR ATTORNEY GENERAL

Your ATTORNEY GENERAL is the lawyer for your state. The attorney general is an important job. In California, the attorney general interprets the law for all of the state agencies.

This means that the ATTORNEY GENERAL is very important if we are going to stop prohibition. An attorney general who opposes legalizing and taxing marijuana will make stopping prohibition much more difficult.

We need a Democrat to be California Attorney General.

A Republican attorney general will almost certainly be against any new medical marijuana laws, and against ending prohibition.

Usually, the Republican candidates say they should be elected because they will be tough on the death penalty.

I have three problems with the death penalty. One, no one has shown, in a scientific study, that a death penalty prevents any murders. Two, I have nightmares about my government killing an innocent person. Three, the death penalty is extremely expensive. It is much less expensive to have someone serve multiple life sentences than to have experienced (expensive) attorneys litigating a death penalty case.

You would think that all of the appeals in a death penalty case insures that no innocent person is executed. You have not seen the blind adherence to uphold convictions that I have seen. A defense attorney and his small team of helpers has almost no chance against the entire police department, the entire prosecutors office, and the entire attorney general's office.

THE GOOD OLD DAYS

It is fun to go to Renfaire (slang for Renaissance Faire) where we pretend to be in the time of Queen Elizabeth the First.

It seems to us like a simpler time, where we did not have complex problems like terrorists and health care.

Everyone used horses to get places. Horses are fun to ride and beautiful to look at. However, they do produce the normal waste product that all mammals produce. Did you know that an animal's feces is directly proportional to the animal's size?

Now horse are BIG animals. They produce a lot of feces (the correct word for shit).

There was no garbage pickup, so people just threw their garbage into the street. So the streets were full of horse shit and garbage.

There were no washing machines. All wash was done by hand, usually by the women.

Almost no one had a water pump in the house. Toilets were out back, with chamber pots used in the night. Chamber pots were usually emptied by the women.

Women did not have the right to vote, to own property, or to control their own money.

America was founded during the time of Elizabeth. During the American Revolution there was still no garbage pick up or running water. Women could not vote, own property or control their own money. All wash was done by hand. All sewing was done by hand.

BTW, not everyone could vote, even after the Revolution. For some time, only white, male, property owners had the right to vote.

The TEA PARTY loves the ROMANCE of the Revolution, not the REALITY.

When I was a child, I often carried a bucket of drinking water from the well to the house. We had a cistern for running water, but you should not drink cistern water. Carrying water is not fun. Unless of course, you practice swinging the pail in a circle to learn about centrifugal force, which spills a lot of the water and gets you in trouble when you get the water to the house.

The Revolutionary War Period is a great place to visit, but NONE OF US would like to live there.

BTW, the founders of our country were extremely radical for their time. Some of their ideas are still considered radical today. May I recommend the Federalist Papers, and Common Sense for reading homework?

WHAT IS AN AMENDMENT?

Last week I tried to explain the word amendment to a person who spoke limited English. Amendment is not a word I have thought much about. All attorneys know the words, "as amended" are often part of a legal citation of a statute. (A statute is the correct legal term for a part of the law. A citation is the correct legal term for correctly describing the statute. The citation has the big section of the law first, then the number of the paragraph being referenced.)

After a law or a constitution gets adopted (becomes legally a part of the laws), it can be changed. If the law is no longer a law at all, it is called "repealed". If the law is changed, the change is called an "amendment".

An amended law is a combination of the original law and the amendment. The only time it makes a difference when an amendment is passed* is if the act that someone did was not addressed in the original law and the act was done before the amendment is passed. (There are no ex post facto laws in the US, due to the Bill of Rights, which is what we call the the first 10 amendments to the US constitution.)**

THIS IS REALLY BASIC STUFF. Sort of 6 x 6 = 36 stuff. It is FRIGHTENING that a candidate for the US Senate does not know that an amendment to a constitution is a integral part of the constitution.

* "Passing" a law is not the same as enacting a law. Passing means that, in one legislative group, the necessary number of legislators voted for the law. "Enacting" a law means that all the groups and people who have to approve the law have approved the law. "Adopting" is generally used for constitutions, when all of the groups and people who have to approve the constitution, have approved the constitution.

** An ex post facto law is a law that makes an act that has already been done, which was legal when done, into an act that is now against the law. For instance, in 1990 a woman dumps blue dye into the river. In 1992, a law is passed stating that dumping blue dye into the river is illegal. The woman can not be arrested as she dumped the blue dye BEFORE the law was passed. A law passed in 1992, making dumping blue dye in 1990 illegal, is unconstitutional as an ex post facto law.

BRAVE VETERAN AFRAID OF PROHIBITION BLACKLISTS

This weekend I met an extremely brave veteran who was a truck driver in Afghanistan. A roadside bomb put her in a wheelchair.

She knows that using cannabis would make her life better. She could use less pain medication, and would be able to enjoy life more. But she does not want to sign up for medical cannabis.

I can understand. Possession of cannabis is still against Federal law.

The disabled veteran knows that her fellow soldiers were disciplined for having small amounts of opiates is their systems after burning fields of opium.

Even in California, medical marijuana patients are still being arrested for possession.

All it takes is one drug conviction and a disabled person loses almost all of the help available from the government. The drug blacklists during the Bush Administration included no federal housing help and no school financial aid.

The Obama Administration stopped the Feds from raiding cannabis clinics, but a change back to the Republicans would almost certainly cause drug raids, draconian blacklists, and more people in prison.

We need to change the Federal law. THERE IS NO REASON THAT CANNABIS IS MORE ILLEGAL THAN ANY OTHER DRUG.

To do this soon, we must keep the Democratic control of the US Congress. It would help if you could send some monies to the Democrats.

I intend to start a campaign to change the federal law if I have a Congress that will listen to reason. Because the Republicans have NEVER listened to reason regarding cannabis, I do not expect that they will listen to reason in the future.

ADDICTION

Addition is horrible for the addict and the friends and family of the addict. I can understand why people want to do something to stop addiction.

Addiction to alcohol is called alcoholism. During prohibition of alcohol, we learned that one can not cure addicts by making their drug illegal. (As you all know, an adult addict has to truly want to be helped before it is possible to help the addict.)

All prohibition does is compound the problem.

By making the drug used by the addict illegal:

people still become addicted to the drug,

the amount of drugs available does not change,

we reward bad people with huge drug profits,

bad people tempt good people with huge bribes,

bad people use guns to protect their profits, and

our prisons become full of low level drug dealers and users.

IT IS TIME TO STOP PROHIBITION.

THANK YOU STAPLES COPY CENTER

Staples Copy Center in Campbell gave me curbside service yesterday.

For many reasons, this week has become too full of tasks requiring physical movement.

Thanks to Staples I am not so tired that I can not do my work.

IT'S A SMALL, SMALL WORLD

Last night I missed one of my favorite TV shows because I was caught up in the drama of the rescue of the Chilean miners. The miners are brave and resourceful men, and I am very glad many of them are now safe. (As I write this, some are still in the mine.)

In the 21st century, when there is a large disaster, we are all watching. We cheer when the people are safe, and mourn when the people are killed.

It is a small world after all. (Yes, I go on the ride every time I am there. What can I say?)

RANDOM THOUGHTS

Gas prices are AGAIN going up just before the election. "I am shocked, shocked, I tell you." (This is a quote from the movie Casablanca, which you need to see if you have not already seen it.)

I feel INSULTED that US astronautics are hitching rides on old Soviet rockets. Republicans want to fund fighter airplanes that the military does not want. Can't we have a space shuttle instead? BTW, did you know China was planning a trip to the moon?

Do you think that the Delaware Republican candidate for US Senate is doing performance art instead of a real election? Christine O'Donnell seems to be acting as weird as Joaquin Phoenix did when he was doing performance art for a movie.

Brace yourselves, the Giants in a World Series could be earthshaking.

Whenever you see the words "GANG WAR", it really means "DRUG GANGS' WAR". Innocents are dying in both the US and Mexico. PROHIBITION did not work on alcohol, and it is not working on drugs. It is time to fact the truth.

The head of a local drug task force raided a medical marijuana clinic last week here in Silicon Valley. No police force was willing to take credit for this stupid move. Advice to the clinic owner: DO NOT PLEAD GUILTY. You have money. Get a hot shot Oakland attorney with experience in these things.

If you want political power, you need to VOTE at every election. If your group wants political power, your group needs to VOTE at every elections. The polls are based on likely voters. The polls affect the laws the are passed. So to affect the laws that are passed, you need to VOTE in EVERY election.

FICTION AND FACT

Fiction is SO MUCH MORE FUN than fact.

In fiction, the hero gets to drive like a madman to save the day. In fact, people who drive like that get arrested.

In TV fiction, the bad guy is usually caught within a hour. In reality, the bad guy is sometimes never caught.

In fiction, there is almost always a happy ending. In life, there is no ending, just a journey with an ending for each one of us, but not for all of us.

This is why some people would rather believe in fiction than in fact. Life is so much easier if you can believe that you should not have to pay taxes. Life is so much easier if you believe you will never get sick.

Besides, to understand facts, you often have to be able to understand math. No one but nerds likes math.

The problem with believing in fiction is that fictional solutions can not solve real world problems. All real world problems are fairly complex, and not easy to solve. Problems are only easy to solve in fiction.

BEWARE of those who tell you that a problem is easy to solve. Generally, those people have a solution that sounds good, but will only benefit the people proposing the easy solution.

Generally, if an idea is based on a fiction book, it is not an idea that can work in the real world.

I LOVE FICTION. I really want to be the hero of a John Grisham novel. However, my clients expect me to solve THEIR PROBLEMS, not a fun, fictional problem. So I play a fictional character at SciFi conventions and at Renaissance Faires. Halloween is also a good time to be a fictional character.

UNFORTUNATELY, WE ALL HAVE TO FACE REALITY.

We can solve our problems. But FIRST, we have to recognize that all problems are complex, that there are no easy solutions.

UNEMPLOYMENT -- WHAT IS GOING ON?

When the economic collapse happened in 2008, George Bush was still President. President Bush and Congress OK'd the bank bailouts.

When President Obama was elected, he asked Congress to OK an economic stimulus so that the rest of us, who are NOT bankers, could get back to our normal lives. This was passed.

When President Obama asked Congress to continue stimulus funds to complete the recovery, the Republicans in Congress said NO WAY!

Economists agree that the stimulus needs to be continued until people are back to work. (This is the US investing in PEOPLE rather than the US investing in banks.)

The Republicans have opposed continuing the stimulus. Their excuse is that it will add to the deficit. Their real reason is that they WANT lots of unemployed people so that they can win the election.

How do I know this?

Because if the Republicans were actually worried about the deficit, they would not be trying to give more tax cuts to rich people.

CELEBRATING BEING FINISHED

I have practiced law for 37 years. (It is called 'practicing law' to remind you that you are always learning.)

For 37 years I have hated to write the legal paperwork for court. It requires thinking, precision, good writing, and proof reading. I am somewhat dyslexic, so precision and proofing are very difficult for me.

Anyway, as part of the 'filing in court' ceremony, I always mail the papers to the opposing party. Sometimes I personally file the papers, especially in a matter I care a lot about. I do not celebrate until I see the "FILED" stamp on my copy.

Now I have sent something to Federal Court under their VERY COOL electronic filing system. NO COPIES had to be made, no mailing to the opposing party. Just have permission to file (easy to get), upload your file, and the court sends electronic copies to the judge(s) and opposing parties. IT IS THE WAY TO GO!

But my old fashioned mind refuses to celebrate. Somehow, pushing a button does not give me the same feeling as seeing a stamped copy.

I have made up for this by telling people that I have finished.

All this seems very silly, but it is important to stop and celebrate the small victories. Life does not give people very many big victories.

Give yourself a present from Goodwill or Salvation Army if you can not afford the Renaissance Faire. Give yourself lunch at a taco stand if you cannot afford a sit down dinner. But celebrate, pat yourself on the back, and go back to work.