Three Up; Three Down

THREE UP

Elected officials in New York for years have battled the traditionally apoplectic reaction of Republicans to the prospect of easing drug laws. Gov. DAVID PATERSON, however, finally has broken through, brokering a deal that will allow judges to send low-level drug offenders to treatment and counseling while stiffening penalties for top-level dealers. Good. The move will save the state $250 million a year. The drug war has cost the country billions — putting junkies behind bars while netting few of the real bad guys, the drug lords. High costs for negligible gain is supposed to be a thing conservatives oppose.
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As the Obama spending train rolls on, uproar is building, evidenced by TEA PARTIES by the hundreds being planned for Tax Day, April 15. SWAC Girl blogger Lynn Mitchell is corralling locals for a trip to Richmond. This is freedom of speech in action. This also signifies that a growing number of people recognize the dangers of the new president’s economic elixir: rampant spending and lost freedoms — the two always correspond.
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And you thought the Jimmy Jones cult was weird. How about the rise of the SNUGGIE CULT? Derek Hunter, of Americans for Tax Reform, started the thing by donning the Snuggie, the goofy blanket with sleeves pedaled in TV ads. He wore the thing to work and had his pic snapped. Now conservatives — some 100 of them, Hunter says, including popular TV pundit Tucker Carlson — are joining the joke. Now that ought to stoke consumer spending.

THREE DOWN

Put on notice the terrorists lurking in Afghanistan, Iraq, under rocks and other low places where they can be found. America is at overseas contingency with them. President BARACK OBAMA speaking in cadence and carrying a limp wrist has determined that the term war, as in “Global War on Terror,” is no longer tolerable. Instead, American soldiers — according to administration guidelines — are participating in an “Overseas Contingency Operation.” Oh. Well, that explains all the guns, bombs and blood. Thanks, Mr. Panderer-in-Chief. That will boost morale in the ranks. Of the enemy.
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Other shoes are dropping on the MCCAIN-FEINGOLD law, the pile of legislative refuse co-authored by Republican presidential loser John McCain. During arguments this week in the Supreme Court over a 90-minute political film targeting Hillary Clinton, Deputy Solicitor Malcolm Stewart stumbled into the assertion that McCain-Feingold could allow the government to ban books by blocking corporate or union money to publish political tomes in advance of an election. Stewart is correct; the law allows this. It also pillages the First Amendment. It should be ruled what it is: unconstitutional.
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We’re no fans of the Gang of Five Augusta County supervisors who refused to roll back the reassessment. But a PETITION DRIVE to remove Wendell Coleman, Gerald Garber, David Beyeler, Larry Howdyshell and Nancy Sorrells goes a tad far. Steve Bright, of Churchville, plans to take the petitions to Circuit Court. If it can be proved those five violated the law, then by all means toss them now. But if the problem is simply with their refusal to roll back the reassessment — absent any ethical wrongdoing on their part — then the proper venue to boot them is the next election, in 2011.