Hey, let's use our flaming hypocrisy on pot as a campaign ad

[Gonad the Barbarian]

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2...o-draws-charges-of-hypocrisy-on-marijuana.php

President Obama recorded a video with the actors who portrayed stoner duo Harold and Kumar to promote the Democratic convention to young voters. But critics of the White House’s drug policy are not laughing.

“The fact Obama uses these characters to joke about this issue while on the other hand continuing to arrest people he’s appealing to is really disingenuous,” Morgan Fox, communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project, told TPM Tuesday. “As president he conducts more raids on medical marijuana facilities than Bush.”

The “Harold and Kumar” movies are inextricably tied to pot, which is featured or mentioned more or less continuously in each of their three films. At one point, the two characters smoke marijuana with an actor portraying President Bush, who they accuse of hypocrisy for arresting drug offenders.

The campaign film, too, derives its humor from the “Harold and Kumar” franchise’s drug gags. Without naming the characters, it features the two actors looking spaced out, laughing at cartoons and munching on junk food in a dirty apartment similar to the one in their own movies. Press materials promoting the video refer to “Kal Penn and John Cho (of Harold and Kumar) fame.”

Obama press secretary Ben LaBolt said Tuesday that the film was meant to appeal to the youth vote by focusing on Penn, a former White House staffer and longtime campaign surrogate. But he declined to directly address the hypocrisy charge.

“Kal’s been a longtime supporter of the president,” he said. “He’s done more work organizing in states, getting college kids mobilized, than anybody else and we’re proud to have him lead our youth efforts”

Drug laws have been a recurring issue when Obama tries to connect to younger voters. A recent interview with users on online message board Reddit generated hundreds of questions about his marijuana policy, although Obama did not address the issue. After receiving a flood of similar questions online in 2009 for an interactive town hall, Obama joked, “I don’t know what this says about the online audience” before restating his administration’s stance against drugs.

Video at link. The hypocrisy really stuck out at me when I saw the ad. I have no doubt Obama is the lesser of two evils on this issue, but he's still too far on the wrong side of it to pull this off. Joking about what you arrest them and their peers for is sure to win over the youth vote.

 

[Throckmorton]

Obama used marijuana himself. Shouldn't you be complaining that he doesn't have himself arrested? WTF do you expect Obama to do about marijuana laws? Give me a break. Shut up about your dumbassed pet issue. There are real things to worry about, and losing an election for some god damn recreational drug is the most asinine thing imaginable. SHUT UP ABOUT FUCKING MARIJUANA ALREADY. WE GET IT. YOU ARE OBSESSED WITH BURNING A PLANT TO MAKE YOU TEMPORARILY/PERMANENTLY STUPID.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

I'm trying to see that this matters a much as a wart on a tadpole, but I got nothing.

Nice rant though.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

I don't smoke it. And the misery our drug policy spreads is a very real issue.

 

[Throckmorton]

I don't smoke it. And the misery our drug policy spreads is a very real issue.

How about the misery spread by the dumbasses in this country using drugs they know are grown and imported by organized crime? No of course it's not consumers' fault. Nothing is consumers' fault. Apple is to blame for Chinese sweatshops, not the people who buy their products. Nike is to blame for child labor, not the idiots who pay $200 for a pair of their shoes. All hail the mighty American consumer!

 

[Genx87]

How about the misery spread by the dumbasses in this country using drugs they know are grown and imported by organized crime? No of course it's not consumers' fault. Nothing is consumers' fault. Apple is to blame for Chinese sweatshops, not the people who buy their products. Nike is to blame for child labor, not the idiots who pay $200 for a pair of their shoes. All hail the mighty American consumer!

Where else are they to get their drugs? Not like our govt allows for competition in the market place.

 

[Throckmorton]

Where else are they to get their drugs? Not like our govt allows for competition in the market place.

How about not using marijuana until it's legalized? Wtf is so hard about going without getting high?

 

[Genx87]

How about not using marijuana until it's legalized? Wtf is so hard about going without getting high?

Oh why didnt anybody think of that? Did you really just type that out? So until you figure out how to accomplish keeping people from using drugs while they are illegal. Lets rejoin the real world and address the issues created by our govts disaster called the drug war.

And Obama not adhering to his campaign promise to leave california medicinal drug dispensaries is a legitimate topic to discuss. A lot of estimates place it as a 70 billion dollar\year swing if we drop the drug war. Or something the admin likes to do when showing their pathetic cost "savings". That is 700 billion saved over the next decade.

 

[nehalem256]

Oh why didnt anybody think of that? Did you really just type that out? So until you figure out how to accomplish keeping people from using drugs while they are illegal. Lets rejoin the real world and address the issues created by our govts disaster called the drug war.

Singapore seems to have been able to do it.

 

[cybrsage]

Oh why didnt anybody think of that? Did you really just type that out? So until you figure out how to accomplish keeping people from using drugs while they are illegal. Lets rejoin the real world and address the issues created by our govts disaster called the drug war.

...So until you figure out how to accomplish keeping people from murder while it is illegal...

 

[BoberFett]

How about not using marijuana until it's legalized? Wtf is so hard about going without getting high?

Hey Rosa, we know you want to sit wherever you want on the bus, buy why not just sit where you're told until it's legal to sit elsewhere. Thank you for your cooperation.

 

[Genx87]

...So until you figure out how to accomplish keeping people from murder while it is illegal...

Apples and oranges.

 

[cybrsage]

Had she been arrested for it, she would have had only herself to blame for breaking the law.

 

[cybrsage]

Apples and oranges.

It is the reduction to absurdity, being successfully used on the "the laws do not stop people so we should get rid of the laws" argument.

 

[Genx87]

It is the reduction to absurdity, being successfully used on the "the laws do not stop people so we should get rid of the laws" argument.

Absolutely not. Murdering somebody deprives them of their basic human rights. People consuming a plant does no such thing. You really should know better. And you clearly didnt read what I wrote. In my response I was pointing out until he can figure out how to get people to adhere to the law. The debate about the law is in play. Simply stating "why is it so hard to adhere to the law" is simply ludicrious.

 

[nobodyknows]

For Christ's sake, legalize pot at least for cancer patients. Seems like a good place to start to me.

 

[Moonbeam]

All I know is that the second amendment should have also allowed people who want the freedom to eat smoke or drink whatever they want be permitted to shoot anybody who tries to stop them. Naturally, they will be expected to violate nobody else's rights while eating smoking or drinking whatever they like. Might be best, though, for nobody else to be able to make a profit off them by enticing them to harm their bodies long term for a temporary fix. This would mean making your own alcohol, growing your own smokes, and whatever else sane people wouldn't be able to get at the store to eat.

 

[xj0hnx]

How about the misery spread by the dumbasses in this country using drugs they know are grown and imported by organized crime? No of course it's not consumers' fault. Nothing is consumers' fault. Apple is to blame for Chinese sweatshops, not the people who buy their products. Nike is to blame for child labor, not the idiots who pay $200 for a pair of their shoes. All hail the mighty American consumer!

How about not using marijuana until it's legalized? Wtf is so hard about going without getting high?

Ignorance. Our drug policy is a VERY real issue. Legalizing would add BILLIONS to our economy, as well as lessening the burden of our justice/prison system.

Singapore seems to have been able to do it.

Um, no they didn't. You don't really think that people weren't getting high while they waited to legalize drugs do you?

 

[Vic Vega]

Obama admitted to smoking a lot of pot and using blow... yet he puts people in prison for this.

The facts are if Obama were caught and punished under the laws he enforces for HIS OWN use of pot and blow and then went to prison, he WOULD NOT be the president right now.

The guy is a hypocrite, plain and simple.

 

[Smoblikat]

How about not using marijuana until it's legalized? Wtf is so hard about going without getting high?

Nothing is so hard about it, but life is much better while high.

 

[Rainsford]

Obama admitted to smoking a lot of pot and using blow... yet he puts people in prison for this.

The facts are if Obama were caught and punished under the laws he enforces for HIS OWN use of pot and blow and then went to prison, he WOULD NOT be the president right now.

The guy is a hypocrite, plain and simple.

I don't think people get sent to prison for smoking pot...

Which isn't to say that the drug war isn't incredibly retarded and not a little bit hypocritical, at least when you're talking about drugs like weed.

 

[Agent11]

Congress passes laws. Not Obama.

He can tell them to make it a low priority, but that doesn't mean they have to.

 

[Vic Vega]

I don't think people get sent to prison for smoking pot...

Which isn't to say that the drug war isn't incredibly retarded and not a little bit hypocritical, at least when you're talking about drugs like weed.

Uhh, sure they do and blow will most certainly get you there, as well as buying and possessing it, not even using it.