• Previous year of federal spending comes to $55,000 per household.
• Pentagon prepares new military command for cyberspace, "to conduct both offensive and defensive computer warfare."
• European countries growing cold to taking in released Gitmo detainees, citing American politicians' refusal to take any into the U.S.
• Oklahoma state troopers pull over ambulance as it was taking a patient to the hospital. Officer is then caught on tape choking an EMT in the ensuing altercation.
• San Diego City official tells couple they must apply for permit to host Bible study sessions in their home.
• Off-duty NYPD officer chasing man he thought was breaking into his car is then shot and killed by other plainclothes cops.
• Government, accounting board give banks the okay to fudge numbers in quarterly reports to make themselves look stronger than they actually are.
• Headline: “Black Hawk chopper to scare shit out of suburban grade schoolers.” It’s the drug war, of course.
• Mixed news on Obama and transparency.

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As usual, Radley Balko has the best titles.

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• Mancow subjects himself to waterboarding to show it isn’t torture. Like Christopher Hitchens, the experience changed his mind. Wasn’t Sean Hannity supposed to do something like this?
• It seems that an equity firm that includes the pension funds of Los Angeles police officers owns a stake in the San Diego Union-Tribune. So the police union is demanding the paper’s editorial staff be fired, because they don’t like the positions the paper has taken over the years. They’re not even pretending not to be bullies, are they?
• Another call for drug legalization from an unlikely source, this time former Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo.
• Man calls state highway department to report a road defect that gave him a flat tire. Bureaucratic hell ensues, culminating with the state of Ohio threatening to seize the man’s home.
• British Muslims say government agents told them to either become spies or they would be considered possible terrorists.

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The first question was; would Obama finally fulfill the US administrations promise to end prohibition, a promise that was made by President Jimmy Carter over 30 years ago. It was a legitimate question, since this is exactly what Obama promised when he made the following statement:

"The war on drugs has been an utter failure, and I think we need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws."

Unfortunately, however, on 26 March 2009, during an Interactive Town Hall Meeting, Obama stated that:

"There was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high (sic, it was actually the number 1 question) and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation, and I don’t know what this says about the online audience,’ Mr. Obama said, drawing a laugh. He said he wanted to make sure the question got answered. ‘The answer is no, I don’t think that was a good strategy."

... I personally don’t understand how US citizens can laugh while prohibition laws are destroying their children’s lives, for what is essentially plant crime. Don’t they know that “the U.S. correctional population -- those in jail, prison, on probation or on parole -- totaled 7.3 million, or 1 in every 31 adults”?

For the entire article.
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CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Over the past two years, drug violence in Mexico has become a fixture of the daily news. Some of this violence pits drug cartels against one another; some involves confrontations between law enforcement and traffickers.

Recent estimates suggest thousands have lost their lives in this "war on drugs."

The U.S. and Mexican responses to this violence have been predictable: more troops and police, greater border controls and expanded enforcement of every kind. Escalation is the wrong response, however; drug prohibition is the cause of the violence.

Prohibition creates violence because it drives the drug market underground. This means buyers and sellers cannot resolve their disputes with lawsuits, arbitration or advertising, so they resort to violence instead.

Violence was common in the alcohol industry when it was banned during Prohibition, but not before or after.

Violence is the norm in illicit gambling markets but not in legal ones. Violence is routine when prostitution is banned but not when it's permitted. Violence results from policies that create black markets, not from the characteristics of the good or activity in question.

The only way to reduce violence, therefore, is to legalize drugs. Fortuitously, legalization is the right policy for a slew of other reasons.

Prohibition of drugs corrupts politicians and law enforcement by putting police, prosecutors, judges and politicians in the position to threaten the profits of an illicit trade. This is why bribery, threats and kidnapping are common for prohibited industries but rare otherwise. Mexico's recent history illustrates this dramatically.

Prohibition erodes protections against unreasonable search and seizure because neither party to a drug transaction has an incentive to report the activity to the police. Thus, enforcement requires intrusive tactics such as warrantless searches or undercover buys. The victimless nature of this so-called crime also encourages police to engage in racial profiling.

Prohibition has disastrous implications for national security. By eradicating coca plants in Colombia or poppy fields in Afghanistan, prohibition breeds resentment of the United States. By enriching those who produce and supply drugs, prohibition supports terrorists who sell protection services to drug traffickers.

Prohibition harms the public health. Patients suffering from cancer, glaucoma and other conditions cannot use marijuana under the laws of most states or the federal government despite abundant evidence of its efficacy. Terminally ill patients cannot always get adequate pain medication because doctors may fear prosecution by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

An article at CNN by Jeffrey A. Miron, senior lecturer in economics at Harvard University.
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