EMPTY WORDS BUT NO SMOKE

Temecula, CA – On Thursday, 1/27/11, YouTube did an “Ask Obama” forum regarding the debate on drug legalization in America. You may recall that the first one was reported here. In that public filmed forum, Obama ducked the question before finally laughing up his sleeve at all the pot smokers, both recreational and medical, who had voted for him. Of course, anyone who had heard his lame-ass answer to the medical pot question posed to him when he was Obama the candidate knew he was ‘dickless’. As ‘dickless’ as the bureaucrat antagonist in Ghost Busters. If you didn’t know about the drug forum then punch your ticket to tourist class. Here’s how it went.

Despite being the most popular question and gaining four times the support of any other non-drug war question, the YouTube moderator didn’t ask the question until #15. This is the same type of pussyfooting Obama did on the first forum. Listen, Big Daddy, fancy footwork may be great on the B-ball court when you’re playing for chump change, but all that rap don’t mean shit in the real world. What is happening in Egypt is going to either require action or lose face big time. If the retort from the forum is any indication, the ‘what me worry?’ Man is about to be seen as the ‘I’m the new boss, same as the old boss’ man, and that stay the course action is not going to cut it anymore. That’s what Egypt and the rest of the propped up governments in unrest are saying to the world.

The President’s response contained a lot of platitudes about treatment, reducing demand, and reallocating resources, despite the Obama administration’s budget that puts twice the resources toward law enforcement than to treatment.

At its core, however, it retains the premise that responsible adult marijuana consumers must be persuaded by our government, through drug tests, drug courts, forced rehab, and incarceration, into not consuming cannabis. Obama and no one in his Administration is EVER going to support research or legalization of cannabis and hemp utilization, EVER. Read that sentence once again so you know where you stand.

The man people elected for change is not going to deliver any change from the present government direction. The government is not going to get smaller, but get larger. Spending is not going to get less, but is going to grow. More money is going to be printed and financed because the US is too big to fail. For all the hold-outs for Obama to change his mind, here are his answers and remember, this is from a from Harvard man who said the reason for the joint was to inhale.

While President Obama's YouTube remarks may be predictable, the mainstream media's focus on the popularity of marijuana law reform has been nothing short of extraordinary -- as noted by the growing number of mainstream outlets (CBS, Fox, USA Today, etc.) that have devoted ink to the story. Via today's YouTube forum, the public has made their case to the mainstream media and that ultimately is just as important, if not more important, than making their case to the President. You think? Ask Mubarak.

Regardless of whether or not President Obama addresses the question of marijuana law reform in today’s live YouTube ‘Ask Obama’ Q&A, the American public has made their case to the mainstream media. Two nights ago, Universal Press Syndicate ran with the headline, Top Obama YouTube questions: Legalize pot. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

The top questions Americans want to ask U.S. President Barack Obama on YouTube Thursday deal with legalizing marijuana, a review of the questions indicated. … The YouTube questions Obama will answer will be based on the number of votes each question receives, YouTube said.

More than 193,000 people submitted nearly 140,000 questions and cast almost 1.4 million votes by midnight Wednesday, the submission deadline, a United Press International review indicated. This is 10 times last year’s 14,000 questions, the first year YouTube hosted an Obama interview.

The top 10 questions all involved ending or changing the government’s war on drugs, legalizing or decriminalizing marijuana and embracing industrial hemp as a “green” initiative to help farmers, the UPI review found. As NORML’s Russ Belville blogged yesterday, marijuana’s popularity is not just limited the top 10 questions. In fact, the top 100 most popular questions (See them here.) posed to the President are about marijuana and drug law reform.

In the minds of the mainstream media, that is a statement just too big to ignore:

USA Today: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/01/obamas-questions-from-youtube-deal-mostly-with-legalizing-pot/1

The Politico: http://www.politico.com/politico44/perm/0111/burning_questions_65e28491-1251-47a4-9edd-5dc6421b7556.html

Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/27/obama-youtube-pot-questions_n_814811.html

CBS News: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20029808-503544.html

Fox News: http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2011/01/27/mr-president-america-wants-know-aboutmarijuana

Washington Post: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2011/01/join-the-live-chatvisit-whiteh.html

Regardless of how President Obama responds,

The media has their story: The American public is ready to engage in a serious and objective political debate regarding the merits of legalizing the use of cannabis by adults. Is the President?  He tried to do a fluff interview once again but the world is a serious place Barack. You can only fluff us once. Maybe Bill can talk some sense into Obama. This story is dedicated to all my readers who still believe, still.