Enough!

For many years, the American Left has and continues to shamelessly abuse the American people; slandering, beating up and bullying them into submission by using the easily proven false narrative that America is a racist nation. In other words, the Left recklessly and unfairly plays the race card.

Why?

The Left has great disdain for traditional American values and desires to transform America into it’s dreamed socialist/progressive utopia. Calling an opponent to the Left’s agenda “racist” typically frightens and shuts them down.

On behalf of my decent and hard-working fellow Americans, I demand an apology from the NAACP, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Democratic Party, Hollywood and the mainstream media. All of these self-proclaimed paragons of fairness and compassion are nothing more than liars; peddlers of hate and division. Each entity that I named is a cheering section and advocacy group, assisting the Left in the furtherance of its socialist/progressive agenda.

Somewhere in America’s recovery from the sin of slavery, the Left hijacked our well-intentioned Christian desire to achieve racial equality. The Left redefined “racial equality” to mean that minorities are never to be held responsible for their actions; minorities are entitled to endless government hand-outs via government confiscation and redistribution; opposing a minority on any issue is regarded racist and hateful.

O.J. Simpson’s attorneys successfully played the race card, changing the subject from Simpson murdering his wife. Baby murderer Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s attorneys said his trial was about racism against a black doctor trying to help the poor. The Left is claiming that America’s outrage over Obama’s three scandals (IRS, Benghazi and AP) is rooted in racism against a black president. Whenever behavior by a black is indefensible, the Left plays the race card, expecting it to trump facts, truth, justice and logic. Innocent whites typically run to the tall grass fearful of being devoured by the all-powerful and all-consuming race card.

The Left plays the race card with impunity, intentionally attacking opponent’s First Amendment right to free speech. Victims of the Left’s unmerited use of the race card include conservatives, Republicans and low-info voters – deceived to hate non-existent enemies; their brains infected with propaganda and misinformation.

Hollywood: Hollywood is notorious for promoting leftist agenda lies to low-info voters. For example: in a movie I was watching, actor Ice Cube delivered this line, “Tell the NRA to stop killing black people.” I stopped the DVD and threw the stupid piece of crap propaganda movie into my trash-can. The NRA does not target or kill black people. The irresponsible producers of this film spread their hateful lie to millions falsely accusing and slandering the NRA which simply defends our Second Amendment right to bear arms. Informed black leaders praise the NRA. 

The NRA deserves an apology.

NAACP: Serial liars! Chairman Emeritus Julian Bond said the Tea Party is “admittedly racist.” Mr Bond, show us the communication that proves your claim. President Ben Jealous said he saw signs, “Lynch Barack Hussein Obama” and “Lynch Eric Holder.” A year or more later, America is still waiting for Mr. Jealous to show us the two signs. The Tea Party deserves an apology.

Congressional Black Caucus: Rep Andre Carson said the Tea Party movement would “love” to see black Americans “hanging on a tree”.  How outrageously inflammatory and hate-inspiring is that? But most of all, it is a despicable lie. As a black conservative having attended over 400 Tea Party rallies on numerous national tours, I have only encountered being loved to death. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver said a Tea Party protester spit on him. A Tea Party group offered a $15,000 reward for proof of the spitting. No one has claimed the reward. 

CBC members claimed being called the “n-word” 15 times outside of the U.S. Capitol by Tea Party participants. Breitbart offered a $100,000 reward for proof of the incident. The reward has not been claimed. 

These are only a few of many lies the CBC has told about the Tea Party. The Congressional Black Caucus owes the Tea Party an apology.

The Democratic Party: Former President Jimmy Carter said opposition to Obamacare is motivated by racism against a black president. Democrats have declared that disagreeing or opposing Obama on any issue is racist. Remarkably, the Democrats expect us to ignore Obama’s unprecedented usurping of power over the private sector and his routine unlawful trashing of the Constitution. Think about that folks. For the first time in U.S. history, non-submission to a president’s will could destroy you. Constitutional patriots deserve an apology.

The Mainstream Media: ABC’s former White House correspondent Sam Donaldson said many on the right oppose Obama solely because he is African-American. Donaldson named Rush Limbaugh in his allegation. MSNBC’s Chris Matthews says “white supremacy” plays a big role in opposition to Obama.

Such allegations from liberal mainstream media hacks are absurd and bogus. Let’s get real. Obama is the first affirmative action president; exempted from the traditional vetting process for one seeking the highest office in the land. Millions of white Americans could hardly wait to pull the level for America’s first black president; 40% now attend Tea Parties. Poor things. They naively thought electing Obama would relieve them of ever being called racist again.

Blacks are only 12% of the U.S. population. So it took a whole lot of white votes to put Obama in the White House two times. White America deserves an apology.

I am only one voice crying in the wilderness. Still, I feel compelled to shine the light of truth on how the American Left continues to abuse the American people via the unfair playing of the race card; solely to manipulate Americans into embracing an agenda contrary to that of our Founding Fathers.

John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.” Such is who we are as Americans. Ironically, the Left uses America’s morality against her by playing the race card; with great success. Despicable.

My fellow Americans, you are a great people; non-deserving of the abuse you have suffered from the Left. You deserve much better. Don’t hold your breath, but the American Left does own you an apology.

Lloyd Marcus blogs at http://www.lloydmarcus.com/.

I’ve shared here how some historians articulate three historical stages of European antisemitism, covering the past 1700 years from the time christianity became antagonistic and then lethal to Jews; that is, from the point when Rome adopted christianity.

In brief:

Stage One I called religious antisemitism. Jews were told: you may not live here as Jews; you must convert in order to live here.

Stage Two I called political antisemitism. Jews were told: get out; you may not live here. (By “political” I am referencing political, national boundary maps.)

Stage Three I called racial antisemitism. It assumes that Jews are a blood infection, a blight on the body of humanity. Jews are told: you may not live.

When the Inquisition’s Alhambra Decree expelled Jews from Spain, for example, in the year Columbus sailed, stage three was still half a millennium off. Spain’s expulsion of Jews was an example of State two antisemitism: Jews were told that conversion no longer would make us tolerable; we had to leave.

Six months back, reports Raphael Minder in the New York Times, the Spanish government promised to ease the naturalization process for Jews of Sephardic (Spanish) ancestry. Six months later, no real movement has taken place: only 20 Jewish descendants of those expelled asking for Spanish citizenship have had their requests granted. Just under 3,000 requests remain under consideration. The (Spanish) Federation of Jewish Communities which has been given the responsibility to certify the Spanish lineage of applicants says it has a thousand new applicants awaiting government action.

One issue that has arisen is that the Spanish government now says applicants must renounce their other citizenships. This wasn’t at all clear six months back.

Stage-Two antisemitism appears intact in Spain.

Jonathan Wolfman blogs at http://open.salon.com/blog/jlw1.

It comes as no surprise that, during a CBS interview in February, President Obama supported having the Boy Scouts of America open its membership to gays and, presumably, those who lead scout troops as well. “My attitude, the president said, “is that gays and lesbians should have access and opportunity the same way everybody else does, in every institution and walk of life.” Spoken like a good communist hiding the true intent of debasing the cultural and moral life of America. Read more at http://watchdogwire.com/florida/2013/05/20/the-morally-straight-boy-scouts-of-america/.

Local resolutions have helped advance many issues, including war opposition, when they’ve been passed in large numbers.  When we passed a resolution in Charlottesville, Va., last year opposing any attack on Iran, I heard from numerous cities that wanted to do the same.  As far as I know, none did.  I heard back from some that they’d been told it was anti-Semitic to oppose a U.S. attack on Iran.  I didn’t have an answer to that — not a printable one anyway.

When Charlottesville passed a resolution against drones in February of this year, I heard from people all over the country again.  Since that time, to my knowledge, one little town in Minnesota called St. Bonifacius has passed something, while dozens and dozens have tried and failed.  The problem seems to be that drones can have good uses as well as bad.  Of course, that’s grounds for halting the lawless and reckless spread of drones until we can figure out any ways in which their good use can be compatible with our Constitutional rights.  But that would make too much sense.  When there’s money to be made, technology to be played with, and terrorists to destroy our freedoms if we don’t hurry up and destroy them first, the American way is full steam ahead.  But I actually think I might have at least a partial answer this time.

There are two separable issues to be addresses in anti-drone resolutions and ordinances and laws and treaties.  One is weaponization.  The other is surveillance.  I’m not aware of anyone yet having any difficulty getting their local officials to oppose weaponized drones.  Most are unaware that some U.S. localities already have drones armed with rubber bullets and tear gas.  Most consider it a crazy idea — as they should.  But it is an idea that should be addressed, because it is not science fiction; it is a dystopia that is already upon us.  Getting localities in the United States to oppose the use of weaponized drones in their skies should be easy.  Having thus established that our towns can address the problem of drones, we could come back and deal with the complex matter of surveillance.

The best solution on surveillance may be the one produced by the Rutherford Institute and embodied in the Charlottesville resolution.  There is nothing in that resolution that prevents a drone from delivering your coffee or checking out a forest fire.  I wish there were, but there actually isn’t.  While I’d like stronger resolutions, I think at this point the movement would benefit from passing any resolutions at all.  And I think the way to make it simpler, clearer, and extremely easy would be to ask our local representatives to simply oppose weaponizeddrones.

Ideally, of course, I’d like to see cities and counties join the movement to ban weaponized drones from the world.  Such a resolution might read:

Weaponized drones (or unmanned aerial vehicles) — including those carrying lethal weapons such as hellfire missiles, and those carrying non-lethal weapons such as tear gas or rubber bullets — are no more acceptable than chemical weapons or land mines.  Whether these drones are controlled by pilots or act autonomously, whether they are publicly or privately owned, they can have no place in a civilized world and should be banned.  The City of ________ urges the State of _________, the U.S. Congress, and the U.S. State Department to pursue state, national, and international prohibitions on the development, ownership, or use of weaponized drones.

The trouble with this, of course, is that most of your city council members approve of murdering foreigners with drones.  Thus it becomes a harder measure to pass.  What we want, therefore, is something that does not conflict with the resolution above but addresses itself to local, state, or U.S. skies.  To ease passage most swiftly, we want local resolutions that don’t commit localities to anything, but simply make recommendations to states and the federal government.  However, I suspect that — as in Charlottesville — a statement of local policy will not be a deal breaker.  Here’s a version of the Charlottesville resolution stripped down to the weaponized drone issue alone (just delete the last 14 words to commit your city to nothing):

NOW, THEREFORE, LET IT BE RESOLVED, that the City Council of ________ calls on the United States Congress and the State of ________ to adopt legislation precluding the domestic use of drones equipped with anti-personnel devices, meaning any projectile, chemical, electrical, directed-energy (visible or invisible), or other device designed to harm, incapacitate, or otherwise negatively impact a human being; and pledges to abstain from similar uses with city-owned, leased, or borrowed drones.

Opponents of this resolution will be, and should be denounced for being, supporters of putting weaponized drones in our skies.  Supporters can remain technology lovers.  They can continue to believe every move we make should be videotaped by Big Brother.  They can plow right ahead with their brilliant idea for replacing the pizza guy with a drone.  But they will be taking a stand on a popular issue that has no opposition.  There is no organized popular movement in your town in support of putting weaponized drones in the sky.  There’s not even a concerted effort by police, or even by the drone profiteers.  They can make big bucks off surveillance.  They can fill the skies with drones first.  The weapons can largely come later.  They are not prepared for us to build a movement against weaponized drones and then turn our focus toward the lesser offense of spying.  And by us I mean essentially everyone.  Libertarians and leftists are in agreement on this, and so is everybody else.

So, you can build public pressure.  It’s not hard.  In Charlottesville, we brought a crowd of people to two consecutive city council meetings and dominated the public speaking period.  You should watch the videos of the January 22^nd and February 4^th meetings here.  We published a column in the newspaper making the case, including the case that it is proper for cities to speak up on national issues.  We organized an event in front of City Hall on the day before the vote.  We displayed a giant model drone produced by New York anti-drone activistNick Mottern.  Our little stunt produced coverage on the two television channelsand in the newspaper.  I asked people to commit to attending the meeting on a FaceBook page.  And when I spoke in the packed meeting, I asked those in agreement to stand.  Most of the room stood.

We presented a weak resolution at the first meeting, which put the issue on the agenda.  We then proposed a stronger one, which one of the best city council members put into the official agenda for the second meeting.  At the second meeting, the council members negotiated a compromise.  You might want to try that approach, which we stumbled into unplanned.

You can also lay the groundwork.  We invited Ann Wright and Medea Benjamin and Nick Mottern and Kathy Kelly and other great speakers to Charlottesville in the months leading up to this resolution effort.  This was not part of a plan, but we knew that it never hurts to educate people about their government’s crimes.  If you sign the international petition to ban weaponized drones from the world, you’ll see a list of organizations at the bottom.  Those are the places to go for resources, speakers, props, reports, flyers, and books that can help you in this effort.  You can also print out a mammoth list of signatures on the petition to impress your elected officials.  Or you can gather signatures locally and add them.

It’s time we made things nice and simple.  Are we in favor of killer flying robots over our homes and schools, or are we not?

Once we’ve given the obvious answer, maybe we’ll start asking each other whether we really think Pakistanis disagree.

David Swanson’s books include War Is A Lie. He blogs at http://davidswanson.org and http://warisacrime.org and works forhttp://rootsaction.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio. Follow him on Twitter:@davidcnswanson and Facebook.

t’s not enough to point out that our political system is completely corrupted by money, including money from coal and oil and nukes and gas.  Of course it is.  And if we had direct democracy, polls suggest we would be investing in green energy.  But saying the right thing to a pollster on a phone or in a focus group is hardly the extent of what one ought sensibly to do when the fate of the world is at stake.

Nor do we get a complete explanation by recognizing that our communications system is in bed with our political system, cooperatively pushing lies about our climate and our budget (defunding wars and billionaires is not an option, so there’s just no money for new ideas, sorry).  Of course.  But when the planet’s climate is being destroyed for all future generations, most of which will therefore not exist, the only sensible course of action is to drop everything and nonviolently overthrow any system of corruption that is carrying out the destruction.

Why don’t we?

Misinformation is a surface-level explanation.  Why do people choose to accept obvious misinformation?

Here’s one reason: They’ve already chosen to accept other obvious misinformation to which they are deeply and passionately attached and which requires this additional self-deception.  The beliefs involved correlate with poor education, so government choices to fund fossil fuels and highways and prisons and Hamid Karzai rather than schools certainly contribute.  But perhaps we should confront the misinformation directly, even while pursuing the creation of an education system worthy of a civilized country.

According to a Newsweek poll, 40 percent of people in the United States believe the world will end with a battle between Jesus Christ and the Antichrist.  And overwhelmingly those who believe that, also believe that natural disaster and violence are signs of the approach of the glorious battle — so much so that 22 percent in the U.S. believe the world will end in their lifetime.  This would logically mean that concern for the world of their great great grandchildren makes no sense at all and should be dismissed from their minds.  In fact, a recent study found that belief in the “second coming” reduces support for strong governmental action on climate change by 20 percent.

Apart from the corruption of money, whenever you have 40 percent of Americans believing something stupid, the forces of gerrymandering in the House, disproportionate representation of small states in the Senate, the Senate filibuster, the winner-take-all two-party system that shuts many voices out of the media and debates and ballots while allowing Democrats to get elected purely on the qualification of not being Republicans, and a communications system that mainstreams Republican beliefs almost guarantees that the 40-percent view will control the government.

Congressman John Shimkus, a Republican from a gerrymandered monstrosity in southeastern Illinois says the planet is in fine shape and guaranteed to stay that way because God promised that to Noah.

Senator James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma (a state whose citizens get 10 times the representation in the Senate that Californians do — if one can accuse Diane Feinstein of representing anyone), says that only God could possibly change the climate, and we should stop being so arrogant — as if taking $1.4 million in campaign “contributions” from fossil-fuel profiteers and imagining that your positions are purely determined by your access to an all-powerful being who runs the universe on behalf of the 30 percent of the world raised on the same fairy tales as you isn’t anarrogant belief.

Another senator who claims to be a theist but not of the Inhofe-Shimkus variety, publicly denounced an unnamed colleague this week for pushing the don’t-worry-God-is-on-the-job line in a recent meeting.

When a large portion of the population believes that catastrophe is a good thing, rather than a bad thing, and wars are celebrated and crises bring excitement and solidarity to our lives, the influence is toxic.  Of the 40 percent who believe Jesus is on his way, some no doubt believe it more than others, allow it to shape more of their other beliefs and actions.  Of the other 60 percent, some are no doubt influenced to varying degrees by the armageddonists.

Belief in theism itself reaches as much as 80 percent in the United States and includes strong activists for sustainable policies, including some who passionately proselytize using the argument that only theism can save us from our apathy in the face of global warming.  And there is no question that our most dedicated peace and justice activists include some strong religious believers.  But theism is essentially the belief that some more powerful being is running the show.  Perhaps the armageddonists haven’t really found a solution to the problem of evil (“If there is a God, he’ll have to beg forgiveness from me,” said a prisoner in a Nazi camp), but the non-armageddonist theists have never found a logical solution to the problem of free will, either.  Theists can go either way and all make as little sense as each other.  But they must all of necessity promote the notion that a more powerful being is in charge.

And where does that belief show up to damaging effect?  In our politics it shows up primarily as an attitude toward presidents.  While President Obama has spent five years working diligently to destroy our natural environment for all time to come, the largest block of those concerned about global warming have spent their time telling each other to trust in Him, that he works in mysterious ways, that he is up against the Evil One and must be allowed time to succeed in his battle.  You see, the problem with theism is not that some of its spin-off beliefs succeed in an undemocratic system.  The problem is that theism is anti-democratic at its core.  It moves us away from relying on ourselves.  It teaches us to rely on someone supposedly better than we.  And the same 80 percent or so also believe in something called heaven, which renders real life far less significant even for those generations that get to experience it.

This, in turn, fuels a belief in optimism.  We are all told to be optimists regardless of the facts, as if it were a personal lifestyle choice.  Combine that with a belief that everything is part of a secret master plan, and you’ve got a recipe for submissive acceptance.  I’ve had great activists tell me that everything will work out for the best, either because that keeps them going, or because they’ve learned that saying anything else earns them fewer speaking invitations.  Hardcore optimism is compatible with active engagement.  But the net effect is almost certainly a contribution to apathy.

I wish it were needless to say that I am not advocating the equally dumb position of willful pessimism.  I’m proposing the unpopular position of taking the facts as they come, acting accordingly, and acting cautiously when it comes to the fate of generations as yet unborn — even if that caution requires huge sacrifices.

There are other powerful forces weighing against action as well.  There is our love of technology, including our fantasies about inventing our way out of catastrophe, colonizing other planets, re-creating species.  Maybe our senator friend is onto something after all when he points to arrogance.  There is also greed, including our fear that living sustainably would involve living with less of the materialistic crap that currently clutters our lives and fuels our obesity.  There is also the con job continuously played on us by our government that persuades so many of us that we are powerless to effect change.  It’s not enough to believe that the world is being destroyed and that we humans are on our own with the plants and the other animals, if we’ve fallen for the biggest scam governments pull on their people, the lie that says they pay no attention to us.  History teaches the opposite.  People’s influence on their governments is much more powerful than we usually imagine.  It’s weakened primarily by people’s failure to do anything.  Impotence is a self-fulfilling loop.  Those longing for the end of the world are far from alone in imagining that we don’t have the power to make the world over ourselves.  Nonetheless, among the things we should be doing right now is explaining to our neighbors that Jesus isn’t coming back.

David Swanson’s books include War Is A Lie. He blogs athttp://davidswanson.org and http://warisacrime.org and works forhttp://rootsaction.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio. Follow him on Twitter:@davidcnswanson and Facebook.

The numbers of near-opportunities to have ended the 10-year rape-in-chains, suffering-in-squalor of Amanda Berry (who now has a six-year-old daughter born imprisoned) Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight…the numbers of missed chances, the emerging neighborhood stories alleging calls to police from a range of people, from the simply curious to the outright alarmed…and the fact that Cleveland still, now, has numbers of missing women and girls…lead me to wonder:

Had the missing been men would we now be as astonished as we are or would we, many years ago, have celebrated their rescue?

It’s a fair question. So is this one:

Would women or men snatched up in Shaker Heights, Hunting Valley or from Beachwood  have likely been found and freed far earlier?

Jonathan Wolfman blogs at http://open.salon.com/blog/jlw1.

Adding to the dilemma are the really hard problems – the ones that even the most creative diplomacy cannot solve. Every president of either party going back decades has failed on the issue of North Korea. Meanwhile, each administration gets blamed anew for the failure.

It may be — barring some military attack on the United States or on a treaty ally that plainly justifies a commensurate military response — that successful administrations will go unloved during their tenures, even while they are granted grudging respect in the years and decades that follow. This has often been the case in American history. But owing to the nature of the media and the nature of the world overseas, it might become increasingly the norm. Remember that President George W. Bush enjoyed high public approval ratings from the very beginning of his presidency, through 9/11 and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. But it was the very military actions that he took, popular in the media at the time, that led in his second term to becoming a tragically failed president.

For American Foreign Policy, No Good Options is republished with permission of Stratfor.

Read more: For American Foreign Policy, No Good Options | Stratfor

Most of the world’s governments no longer use the death penalty.  Among wealthy nations there is one exception remaining.  The United States is among the top five killers in the world.  Also in the top five: the recently “liberated” Iraq.

But most of the United States’ 50 states no longer use the death penalty.  There are 18 states that have abolished it, including 6 in this new millennium, including Maryland this week.  Thirty-one states haven’t used the death penalty in the past 5 years, 26 in the past 10 years, 17 in the past 40 years or more.  A handful of Southern states — with Texas in the lead — do most of the killing.

The progress is slow and painful.  Mississippi is right now having trouble deciding whether to spare a man just because he might be innocent.  Maryland has perversely left five people waiting to be killed while banning the death penalty for any future cases.  Next-door in Virginia we hold second place behind Texas and continue to kill.

Virginia electrocuted a man named Robert Gleason in January.  Since then, Texas has killed four men, Ohio two, and Florida, Oklahoma, and Georgia one each — all by lethal injection.  Since 1973, there have been 141 exonerations from death row nationwide, including an innocent Virginian who came within days of being killed.

If you’re convicted of killing a white person in Virginia, you’re over three times as likely to receive the death penalty as you would be if the victim had been black.  The injustice and backwardness is staggering, but so is the lack of democracy.  Only a third of Virginians tell pollsters they favor the death penalty.

The evil of the death penalty is not limited to the instances in which it is used — or to the corrosive influence it has on our culture.  The death penalty primarily serves as a valuable chip in plea bargaining.  Want someone to plead guilty, whether or not they actually are guilty?  Threaten them with the death penalty.  Who needs trials by jury (now used in under 2% of cases) when you have that kind of tool?  And who has time for them when you’ve overloaded the system by treating drug use as a crime?

Remarkably, a former commonwealth’s attorney here in Charlottesville, Va., named Steve Deaton is campaigning for his old job with a commitment to never use or threaten to use the death penalty.

“I believe the death penalty is barbaric and has no place in modern Charlottesville courts,” Deaton says, reversing the electoral wisdom of many decades, which firmly holds that candidates must pretend to believe the death penalty is just and righteous and a deterrent to crime, even if the public thinks that’s nonsense.

“I am calling for a moratorium on death penalty prosecutions,” says Deaton.  “During the past 20 years — that is, the term of the incumbent Commonwealth’s Attorney — a number of capital murder charges have been brought against some people, almost all of them poor.  Then the charge is often used as a bargaining chip to get the defendant to plead guilty to murder and accept a life sentence.  This practice of using the threat of death to plea bargain is legal, and under current ethical standards, considered ethical.  However, I find such a practice appalling. By engaging in this practice the prosecutor is tempting fate: what if their threat doesn’t work and the case goes to a jury?”

Many in Charlottesville oppose the death penalty.  Deaton explains the very real possibility that it will nonetheless be employed here: “The notion that no Charlottesville jury will return a death sentence is misleading.  In a capital murder case the jury has to be ‘death qualified,’ meaning that the jurors must believe in the death penalty.  Such a jury is not representative of the community!  Studies have shown that a ‘death qualified jury’ is also much more likely to convict.”

Deaton points out that prosecutors have a great deal of discretion: “A prosecutor does not have to bring a capital murder charge.  They have the option of bringing a regular murder charge instead.”

If elected, Deaton intends to use the enormous discretion given to prosecutors to try to make punishments more reasonably fit crimes, including so-called drug crimes.  While Charlottesville City Council failed by a vote of 3-2 in February to end jail time for possession of marijuana, Deaton intends to charge those possessing marijuana with a different charge: disorderly conduct.  It’s technically a higher level charge — a Class 1 misdemeanor — but it does not carry the draconian punishments of loss of driver’s license, subjection to drug testing, ruined college acceptance and student loan prospects, immigration status, etc.  “If a person makes a mistake, they should be punished.  They shouldn’t have their lives ruined,” Deaton says.

Deaton aims to counter mass-incarceration, not add to it.  “The state has built a new $100 million prison in Grayson County and there is talk of expanding our local jail,” he says.  “All of this in spite of declining crime rates.  It is time to stop feeding the prison-industrial complex. I believe the goal of the justice system should be to empty out spaces in the jails and prisons — not to fill every available space!”

Of course, the system of mass incarceration creates a caste system by stamping the scarlet F of “Felon” on those released, no matter how many years of their lives are wasted in cages.  Deaton favors restoring rights, including voting rights, for people convicted of nonviolent felonies.

Charlottesville has a chance to give the death penalty in Virginia a big push toward the door, which would help the United States and the world along that path.  As Charlottesville only elects Democrats (and packs the full range of great to awful candidates into that one party) the election for Deaton is effectively the June 11^th primary.  Anyone in Charlottesville can vote in that primary, without swearing any loyalty to any party.  And anyone else can help to spread the word or donate to the campaign.

David Swanson’s books include War Is A Lie. He blogs at http://davidswanson.org and http://warisacrime.org and works forhttp://rootsaction.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio. Follow him on Twitter:@davidcnswanson and Facebook.

In the politically correct world of sports today, it is no surprise that the media went crazy in praising Jason Collins, the first gay professional athlete to go public. Collins is a 7 foot free agent center who is a 34 year old journeyman in the NBA. He only averages a few points a game and is used sparingly, but, today, he is a household name.

After his announcement, Collins was greeted with overwhelming support. He received a phone call from both President Obama and former President Clinton. Among the thousands of supportive tweets he received were positive messages from the First Lady and his college classmate Chelsea Clinton. Collins was besieged by requests for media interviews and had to admit that he was humbled by the strong show of encouragement.

Collins does not have to worry about any type of discrimination. As an openly gay professional athlete, Collins will be given more opportunities in the NBA and will likely receive lucrative endorsement deals. His career as a personality will go into overdrive, even while his playing career winds down. His agent knows full well that Collins is a hot commodity. He has been shopping a book deal for Collins with major publishing houses. We should expect to see the autobiography of Jason Collins hitting bookshelves in the near future along with a major publicity tour.

Collins is also veering into the world of politics. This week, it was announced that he will join Mrs. Obama in headlining the Democratic National Committee’s annual Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Leadership Council Gala event. Collins has now become so popular that he will be a big fundraising draw for a political party who will try to use him as much as possible. Tickets for the event will cost as much as $32,400, a pretty steep price to pose for pictures with a seldom used back-up.

In the meantime, evangelical Christian athlete Tim Tebow was released by the New York Jets. Although he was signed with much fanfare, Tebow was never given a chance by the Jets, even though he could have contributed to a team that struggled last year. After being released by the Jets, Tebow declined an opportunity to criticize the team, instead he tweeted a quote from the Bible. This was another indication of Tebow’s character and class, qualities rarely seen in the world of professional sports.

In the aftermath of Tebow’s release, plenty of so-called sports experts were quick to criticize the quarterback. They said he had limited talent, could not throw the ball accurately and had a style that did not mesh with the NFL. Such comments are ridiculous for Tebow clearly has plenty of ability. At the Florida Gators, he won the Heisman Trophy and led the team to two national championships. He set numerous SEC records by accounting for 145 overall touchdowns, 57 rushing touchdowns, 12,232 yards of total offense and a passing efficiency of 170.8.

After his stellar college career, Tebow was a 1st round draft pick by the Denver Broncos. In his second year, Tebow took over the starting job when the team was 1-4. Tebow led the team to the playoffs and engineered a victory against the Pittsburgh Steelers. When the Broncos signed future Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning, Tebow was traded to the New York Jets and the rest is history.

Throughout his brief NFL career, Tebow has been the subject of unfair criticism. It seems his Christian beliefs were a lightning rod for the sports media. Tebow has been maligned and ridiculed from the moment he was drafted in the NFL. He has been criticized for being a strong Christian and wearing his faith on his sleeve.

It seems Tebow is controversial for no other reason than he is a strong Christian. He does not cause problems with other teammates or get into trouble with the law. He sets a great example for youngsters and has the type of values that should be welcomed in every locker room.

Hopefully, at least one NFL team will have the courage to sign an athlete with tremendous heart, unquestionable talent and a track record of success. Hopefully, at least one NFL team will not be intimidated by the politically correct environment that discriminates against people of faith.

If only NFL executives were in tune with the American people. According to a recent Nielsen survey, Tebow, who boasts 2.2 million followers on Facebook, has been named by Americans as the pro athlete who holds the most influence with the public. He was rated as “influential” by 29 percent of those surveyed, topping the list. Ironically, this “influential” athlete has no NFL team to call his own.

If Tebow is still without a team by the start of the next football season, there will be no doubt that discrimination exists today in the world of professional sports; however, it is not directed against gay athletes, instead it is directed against devout Christians like Tim Tebow.

Jeff Crouere hosts Ringside Politics, an award-winning weekly half hour television program and daily two-hour radio show on WLAE TV and WGSO AM, both in Louisiana.