On the back of the seat in front of me on the bus this morning had three things recently written on it in black marker. From left to right:

• Envoy of Chaos
• smoke weed every day
• 1-20-2009 ☮
  YES WE DID!!

“Envoy of Chaos” on Google lead to MySpace and Deviant Art profiles of someone from Sicklerville, NJ.

“smoke weed every day” Well assuming it was all written by the same person it seems that perhaps they need to look into Barack Obama’s policy on marijuana. The word doesn’t even come up in a search of the Whitehouse website. Marijuana relegalization was the number one question asked in a recent “Top 10″ questions list submitted to the new POTUS and he simply said he does not support marijuana decrim.

And no… you didn’t. A peace sign? Barack Obama? I think you missed the whole thing about him wanting to expand the “war” in Afghanistan. And the murdering of children in Pakistan. The continued occupation of both Afghanistan and Iraq. His threatening stance toward Iran and support for further trade restrictions. His continued support for the war on drugs… which is nothing more than a war on users and their families. His support for increased police state activity, the general war on terror, the military industrial complex, the economic terrorism the Congress and people like Paul Krugman advocate, and on and on.

The real peace candidates were Ron Paul, Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich. It appears you rejected them.

This comes from this weeks USNews in a Q&A with George McGovern:

Why do you consider Obama another Lincoln?

I think he is a healing figure and yet hasn’t surrendered his convictions. I think he is very careful not to come across as a radical. He tries to appeal to common sense, and he is willing to make compromises. I also think that both Lincoln and Barack have a deep and abiding faith in our founding ideals.

It’s clear in your book that you admire Lincoln not just for his speeches but for his ability to play political hardball. Do you see that in Obama?
Yes, I do. I think he had the best organized, most brilliantly conceived presidential campaign we may ever have had. If I do say it, mine was in that same category. I don’t think we made a mistake in the year and a half leading up to winning that nomination. After that, we ran into all kinds of difficulty.

What do you make of Obama’s “team of rivals”‘ approach to creating his cabinet?
I think it’s wise. Franklin Roosevelt did that, too. His secretary of war and his secretary of the Navy in World War II were both Republicans. George Washington kept both Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson in his cabinet. Lincoln didn’t invent the team of rivals, but he probably did it as well as any president we’ve had.

Antiwar liberals haven’t had much success running for president since you lost in 1972. Does the election of Obama, who opposed the Iraq war, feel like vindication?
Yes, people who opposed these unnecessary wars do feel somewhat vindicated. Of course, I opposed the Iraq war, too. I was on television two or three times warning against it. I’ve seen one poll as high as 80 percent of Americans think we made a mistake going into Iraq. I suppose we’d get similar poll results on whether Vietnam was a sound policy.

Do you believe Obama will keep his campaign promise to pull American troops out of Iraq ?
Bush thinks it’s a big concession that we’ll have them out by 2012. I don’t think any president can keep those troops in there until 2012. Obama has said we’ve got to get out of Iraq, but the real problem is Afghanistan. Well, you go from Iraq into Afghanistan, you’re moving from the frying pan into the fire.

Does he really believe Obama is antiwar? Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel were the only antiwar candidates. Obama has shown no desire to stop the MIC, end the occupation of Iraq and Afganistatian or bring home troops stationed in the over 130 countries around the world. And then to compare him Lincoln? Lincoln was in charge of the war which killed what would now be over 6 million. The largest percentage of any war the US has engadged in. That’s hardly peaceful or antiwar.

At least McGovern isn’t so starry eyed to act as if Obama’s supposed “team of rivals” is unique. As if any two individuals in Obama’s cabinet are as ideologically different as Hamilton and Jefferson were.

Unfortunately he previously attacked speculators and deregulation as the cause of this issue. I think him and Congressman Paul need to have a discussion on economics.

Animated as ever. It’s interesting that the grievances are more or less the same as the Ron Paul Republicans and libertarians. The causes for the problems and the solutions are different however. These statists seem to ignore the primary fact that it is government intervention which is the common thread which ties all those grievances together. Their monopoly of force is a honey pot for those seeking advantages and a breeding ground for corruption. By ignoring economic law and advocating larger government they are also asking for more wealth destruction, more corruption, more of the same failing policy we’ve had for the last 100+ years. You can’t “get the right people.” They don’t exist. The system is flawed.

http://www.ballot-access.org/…

On June 30, the chair of the Maine Democratic Party filed a lawsuit in state court, to remove the only independent candidate for U.S. Senate from the November ballot. The case is Knutson v Department of the Secretary of State, Kennebec County. The Secretary of State had determined that the candidate, Herb Hoffman, has 4,000 valid signatures. The lawsuit argues that the Secretary of State is mistaken. The specific dispute includes whether a signature is valid if the signer gives a Post Office Box address, and whether certain signatures were properly witnessed.

Hoffman is a former Democrat who supported Dennis Kucinich for president. Hoffman became disillusioned with the Democratic Party, partly because of how Kucinich was treated, and partly he disagrees with the stances of the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate on foreign policy. If Hoffman is removed from the ballot, there will only be two choices remaining on the Maine ballot in November for U.S. Senate.

Can’t give people a choice. They may not choose correctly. Maine residents, it’s for your own good, really.