This is the type of crap that gives Republicans and conservatives a bad rep. We are supposedly ina life and death struggle with global terrorism, college students wander on to airplanes with box cutters, illegal immigrants and terrorists come across the border by the thousands, and this is what the government and AG no less have time and money to pursue. Ridiculous.
Isnt it Ironic...that no one has ever overdosed on Marijuana yet alcohol has killed countless of people from overdose and drunk driving.... Laws agaisnt Marijuana are absurd....to think we spend millions to fight this War ( only marijuana ) when we should be taxing its production......STUPID....
Understatement of the year. I have no idea what could possibly motivate Neocons to go after Chong. Power/ego perhaps? The Bible Belt social conservatives were going to vote for them anyways, and in the minds of Libertarian leaning voters like myself, this makes conservatives almost as repulsive as the far left. I want fiscal Conservatism & social Liberalism. The Bush administration are fiscal Liberals and social Conservatives. Yuck.
It's cases like these, the inequities of the Bush tax cuts (when the public becomes fully informed of them), and the inability to get Iraq under control that seriously threaten Republican control in 2004.
I think the appeal of this sort of thing to the religious right is overstated. They are concerned about real social issues like abortion, failing schools and the homosexual agenda. While they tend to be law and order supporters, I think they again are concerned about real crimes, not made up crap like this. Bottom line is Ashcroft has been a disappointment as AG. He allowed left wing Senators to intimidate him during his confirmation, and has done little to root out Clinton termites in the Department. At the same time, he has pursued questionable policies like this case and some of the civil liberties infringements justified under Homeland Security. I think there is a certain type of person who is often attracted to law enforcement work, including being a prosecutor. They typically have the sort of rigid , rule oriented mentalities often found in career military types, plus a lot of self-righteous anger born of low self-esteem. This type of prosecution just smacks of that mentality, eg use of an obscure Pennsylvania distrcit to prosecute a California case, repeated attempts to trick them into selling the items to a state that they didn't ship to, the focus on Choong because of his notoriety, etc.
Did anyone read the article....in its entirety?????? HE PLEAD GUILTY!!!!!......nobody pleads guilty in America...even OJ who had the Gloves, the motive and the cuts and then tried to escape....pleaded innocent...the snipers in md....pleaded NOT guilty.....the SENTENCE calls for HARSHER penalties.....when you plead guilty you are basically agreeing to give up your negotiating power....what a dumb ass...this is America and he's a rich celebrity....you NEVER plead guilty LOL .
Very good point. And I have to wonder what his motivation for this plea was. Tommy Chong may be a lot of things, but I don't believe he is stupid. Maybe crazy, but not that crazy. And certainly wealthy. So I have to believe that the only possible reason he could have for pleading guilty is that he wishes to take on a law he feels is unjust. If this is his plan, a guilty plea would make sense. He could argue that he is guilty of doing something that the government says is unlawful, yet the law is itself unlawful (unconstitutional in this case since it is federal). And since this is a federal charge, and he is a high profile figure with plenty of money, he stands in a rather strong position to bring this through the appeals process all the way (if necessary, but that is hard for me to imagine). While the DEA and law enforcement and political zealots can argue their case 'til they are blue in the face, it seems rather obvious that criminalizing paraphernalia is just not possible. In college, kids used to use empty toilet paper rolls to make hash pipes. Cardboard tubes from clothes hangars. Etc. Also, when I was in college, there was a state law against paraphernalia that included rolling papers. (Hard to imagine with all the rednecks that rolled their own cigarettes in Florida). So it became a common practice to use Tampon wrapper paper. Now Tampons at that time also had a cardboard tube inside; also well adapted to use as a pipe. So you could have a whole paraphernalia kit by "scoring" Tampons. Good thing the Women's Liberation Movement was in full swing at the time. Perhaps since there is a possibility that a toilet paper roll would be used to help ingest illegal substances, than the solution would be to criminalize the sale of toiler paper. And of course Tampons. The whole concept of "paraphernalia" is so absurd that it probably should be addressed once and for all. And who better than Tommy Chong to be at the forefront? Peace, RS
Under a federal law banning paraphernalia sales, the 65-year-old comedian could have faced up to three years in the pen and a $250,000 fine. But the lighter sentence is hardly any consolation to Chong and his supporters. "They used [my character] against me in court. They said it showed my attitude," Chong said. "They're absolutely right. And I've told this to my son and my lawyer: I can take responsibility for breaking the law, but the one thing I won't give up are my convictions" -- including his belief that the government's policies regarding marijuana are draconian. Chong is appealing his sentence. ============================================= let me get this strait....he says Im guilty , i was wrong and pleads guilty.....he SHOULD have gotten 3 years as stated by the law but only got 9 months.....and now he is going to appeal??? who is his lawyer????.....what are you appealing? the law calls for 36 months, you got 9????? LMAO......you ever get the feeling that his lawyer told him he would get a suspended sentance???
I totally agree. Probably his lawyer told him they had him dead and if he didn't plead, he would get the full three years. But it only takes one middle aged guy who laughed his ass off at them in college to hang the jury.
Politicians find crisis', then they use it to take away your rights. It's not going to stop any time soon. Both sides of the isle do it, poverty, drugs, crime, anti-terror, etc.