Kentucky's State Flower Should Be...
About Jack Conway:Jack Conway went to Duke University, and became a Trial Lawyer. Then he became a politician. One can't be Attorney General until they've been lawyering for at least 8 years.
Jack Conway is a trial lawyer
politician Duke University graduate.
Jack Conway has some troubling
positions on many major issues. In this report, I find out that Jack
Conway is:
Pro-Perpetual Empire
Anti-Capping Emissions
Pro-Iraq War
Pro-Patriot Act
Pro-Mountaintop Removal
Pro-Bush Tax Cuts
Pro-Cuts to Social Security, or raising
the retirement age
Anti-Free Speech
Pro-Death Penalty; signed death warrant
for Ralph Baze, who killed in self-defense; Kentucky's spent $100
million on death penalty system
Anti-Democracy
Anti Civil Liberties
Pro-Gay Marriage (after 10 Years of
Prosecuting Gay Marriage)
Pro-Abortion, but won't include the
procedure in health insurances offered
Anti-Single Payer Healthcare
Anti-Marijuana
Anti-Medical Marijuana
Anti-Hemp
Pro-racist Nixon and Reagan's War on
Drugs; $19 Million spent by KY yearly on marijuana possession only; 6
times more Blacks are arrested in Kentucky for possession of
marijuana than whites; In Kentucky, Blacks represent 8.2% of the
total population, but disproportionately, Black folks represent 35.6%
of the marijuana possession arrests. That's a difference of 27.3%.
Kenton County, Kentucky is arresting 10 Black folks to 1 White for
marijuana possession arrests.
Anti-Immigration; wants more border
patrols to stop the 3% Hispanic population in Kentucky from getting
any bigger
The Dream Act?
Jack Conway was blindly in favor of the
authorization to declare war on Iraq. Jack Conway is to the right of
Rand Paul on this issue.
On the Iraq War, Jack Conway
said, very confidently, “I trust the President on Iraq. I trust our
commander in chief on foreign affairs... I would have been among the
40% of the Democrats who voted for the resolution on Iraq.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-13-7Aj2ks
Jack Conway said that he was “glad” about the “process” for
the decision to go to war with Iraq. Conway promoted Bush’s
foreign policy without hesitation in 2002. In 2010, Conway would
eventually admit that he was wrong on Iraq, 7 years later. He
followed his Savior George W. Bush blindly. Without question. Not a
shred of independent thought, or doubt in his mind. In 2008, Jack
Conway blindly supported Barack Obama’s imperial foreign policy in
2008 without hesitation. Jack Conway is in favor of perpetual
warfare and Empire.
As a response to the death penalty,
Geoff Young says: “When Dick Cheney and George W. Bush invaded Iraq
in 2003, they committed the crime of international aggression. They
destroyed Iraq as a country, and it looks like it will never recover.
Approximately a million Iraqi civilians were killed as a result
between 2003 and today. If the American people are unwilling to
execute Cheney and Bush for committing the worst crime it is possible
to commit—and I know for certain we're not — then no one else
should ever be executed by the government either. Bush, Cheney,
Condoleezza Rice, and Donald Rumsfeld should have been sent to The
Hague for war crimes trials.”
Jack Conway is wrong on mountaintop
removal. From an October 2010 article, we learn that “there
have been 20,000 violations of the federal Clean Water Act in three
mines in just two years. Those [are] the accusations of environmental
activists in eastern Kentucky. The groups, lead by Robert F. Kennedy
Jr., say the violations are by companies who practice mountain top
removal mining. They come at the same time that the E.P.A. blocked 11
Kentucky mining permits because of water pollution issues. The
E.P.A’s sanctions could also cause mining permits to become a
federal government issue instead of a local one.”
http://beforeitsnews.com/opinion-conservative/2010/10/jack-conway-supports-mountaintop-removal-in-kentucky-210596.html
Here's a youtube video of Jack Conway
in support of mountaintop removal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47_4jsEq2Ec
Jack Conway doesn't care for property
rights. If Mountaintop Removal leaves our creeks, and streams
polluted, they can't do that. Yes you have a right to do what you
want to do in your yard, but you can't pollute my yard while you're
doing it. And there's folks in hollers who drink out of the streams
and creeks. You aren't only destroying the land, but you're also
poisoning the water supply.
Jack Conway has been caught
flip-flopping on mountaintop removal, and the Bush tax cuts.
Kentucky! Jack Conway seems to say whatever it is he thinks you want
him to say.
Jack
Conway was pro-Bush Tax
Cuts for nearly a decade. In 2002, while running for the U.S.
House of Representatives, Conway outright supported the Bush tax
cuts. During the 2010 primary for the U.S. Senate seat in Kentucky,
Conway told the editorial board of The Courier-Journal that most of
the Bush tax cuts should be allowed to expire, indicating one flip
flop. THEN, Conway goes on in early August 2010, Conway told CN|2
Politics, “I don't think that a recession is any time to raise
taxes. So I think the Bush tax cuts ought to be extended for some
period of time, especially the individual taxes, the estate tax
provisions, keeping the capital gains tax at 15 percent. I think they
ought to be extended”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Conway_(politician)#Jobs_and_the_economy
Jack Conway flip-flopped on the Bush
Tax Cuts, Mountaintop Removal, and on Social Security.
Conway's ideas on Social Security
seem to parallel Rand Paul's and Mitch McConnell's. On Social
Security, in his 2002 run for Congress, Conway stated that he
believed that raising the retirement age of Seniors looking to get
benefits should be lowered, and that we may have to cut benefit
levels in order “to save Social Security” to be considered, but
later on, Conway retracted these comments by November 2002.
With all the flip-flopping Conway does,
can we even trust this man? How can we tell what Conway stands for,
when he's for one thing one day, and something else the next day?
Jack Conway was for the Bush tax
cuts! The Bush Tax Cuts! We gave the wealthy a check while our
nation was squandering the American People's treasure in Iraq, the
Iraq War, of which, Jack was also in favor of. Nowadays, Warren
Buffet is virtually begging the American people to raise his taxes,
so that the country doesn't collapse, like the Roman Empire. Being
for the Bush Tax cuts, we see that Jack Conway favors the rich! Jack
Conway is in bed with the 1%! Conway vows that he'll be independent
of Obama, and of course he will be: it's because he's a Republican!
Conway is pro-Patriot Act, pro-Iraq War, pro-Prohibition, and
pro-Bush Tax cuts. That's not a Democrat! That's a Republican. Jack
Conway is a Republican at most, and Republican-lite corporatist at
least. Jack Conway will blindly do all of George W. Bush's bidding,
without hesitation, or question. Jack Conway is the biggest, most
corrupt lawyer in the bluegrass police state. A Kingfish. Conway is a
corporate empty shell of a man.
Jack Conway's views on Kentucky's Civil
Liberties isn't anything to be proud of either. The NSA spying on us
makes me want to secede out of this Union.
Jack Conway was Pro-Patriot Act,
though later, Conway would fine tune his initial position, as we've
seen several times already, and say that he was glad they eased the
restrictions on tapping our phones and emails. Not that the Patriot
Act was repealed, but only that it was scaled back in scope. Rand
Paul says the NSA has been watching, listening, reading to everything
we say, type, and view. Jack Conway fine-tuned his position in
regards to the Patriot Act, because Conway is still in favor with the
Patriot Act. Warrantless wiretaps. In America?
Contrast Jack Conway with Rand Paul on
the Patriot Act. On the Senate floor, Rand Paul filibustered the
Patriot Act for 7+ hours.
http://realignment.csnbbs.com/thread-498193.html
Jack Conway would have never have done that. He doesn't have the
know-how, nor the fortitude to oppose Executive branches like this.
On the Patriot Act, Jack Conway is to
the right of Rand Paul.
This isn't a defense of Rand Paul. Rand Paul has his own issues. He didn't even know about Bloody Harlan, and the coal mining strikes in Kentucky. Rand Paul isn't a Union guy. Harlan County had 2 periods of Bloody Harlan, in 1932, where the United Mine Workers fought a war with the gunthugs, and in the 1970s, with that Barbarba Kopple film documents.
Jack Conway's attacks on Topix.com, the
scourge of small towns everywhere, shows that he's not in favor of
Freedom of Speech. Conway attacks on Topix.com shows how Jack Conway
doesn't believe in the sacred American tradition of the Freedom of
Speech. By denying speech we do not like, we are saying that we do
not value Freedom of Speech at all, as a society, as a culture. By
depriving one to speak does harm to that individual, and for the
rest, because a good idea is a good idea no matter whose mouth it
comes out of.
Freedom of Speech is one of our
first rights as Americans. It's the second American right listed in
the first Amendment. While 90% of Topix.com is gossip, and absurd,
mean, vindictive commentary, there's lots of good to Topix.com too.
Topix.com shows the outer threshold we have as a society for free
speech, in the same way South Park, Hip-hop, and Bill Maher do, and
we as Americans should be allowed to freely express ourselves.
The Reggio-Emilia approach to teaching
says that all people are intoned with 100 different languages, and
therefore, Topix.com is just one of those vehicles for expression.
Topix.com is a platform, based out of
California, that allows anybody to write in anybody's name they want
to write in, and to write virtually whatever they want to write.
Sometimes, the posts are so outrageous that Topix.com takes them down
on their own, but most of the insanity stays up, for all time, for
all of the people to read, all over the world... unless one of the
victims pays to have it removed. Threats on people's lives is
criminal, and false accusations against others are despicable. I
can't stand direct orders, especially fascist orders that are backed
with an implied threat of violence, or name-calling. Name-calling is
an ad-hominem fallacy. It only seeks to destroy the individual's
character, instead of attacking the argument. None of these
restrictions should be tolerated, but given the choice of freedom or
censorship, as a starry-eyed idealist, I'm in the favor of
freedom-fighters, and freedom speech means we accept all speech, most
especially speech we do not like, or hate.
A differing opinion doesn't negate your
opinion unless your opinion had no reasons behind it. In a democracy,
we tolerate other people's viewpoints, we talk about the issues,
about politics, we say what we believe, and then we back up what we
believe with reasons and evidence. In a democracy, the minority get
their say, and the majority get their way. Does Conway, the
Republican-lite corporatist, understand this basic democratic
principle?
Topix.com is good for several reasons.
Topix.com allows regular folks access to a public forum they don't
have. Topix.com allows folks to anonymously post anything, including,
sometimes, the truth. For whistleblowers on corrupt government,
banks, politicians, police, Topix.com gives them an outlet to speak
the truth, and to conceal their identity. That's a good use. Kentucky
is the most corrupt state in the US, with high legal and ilegal
corruption. The corrupt rich and powerful hate Topix.com mostly, not
because of the filth and gossip, but because they hate you, the
people, the rabble, the plebians, the plebes, the serfs, the
peasants, the wage slaves, and they don't want you lowlifes to ever
question their authority, or to know the truth. To be threatened by
just an opinion shows how the whole system is really just a house of
cards, and the vitriol that some folks express, such as Jack Conway,
to eliminate that vent, that outlet, only shows how frail and
desperate he is.
There was a hit and run in Ghent,
Kentucky, in 2011, or so, a few years back, and the brother of the
deceased victim started calling out to the world to find the man who
murdered his brother on Topix.com. He typed, “They ran over my
brother. They killed him. And they didn't even stop.” There were
many emotional posts, and calls for the electric chair for the
perpetrator. Eventually, the people of Ghent, Kentucky caught the man
who murdered the brother, and he was thrown in jail, handling
judiciously. That was one good use of Topix.com.
Jack Conway is in favor of our current
big brother surveillance state. I wonder how he feels about
Bradley/Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden. Since he's in favor of
the Patriot Act, and seems comfortable with it, he's probably also in
favor of NDAA, and the NSA's 4th Amendment-destroying-and
spying-wiretaps. Ben Franklin said that those who give up freedom in
the name of security deserve neither.
Jack Conway's record on Civil Liberties
is despicable. Conway is wrong on the Patriot Act, on the Freedom of
Speech, and on Gay Marriage
On Gay Marriage
It took Jack Conway 10 years before he
got it right on Gay Marriage. In an interview, Jack Conway refused to
say how he voted on the 2004 state constitutional amendment banning
gay marriage in Kentucky. Why would he refuse to answer that
question? Did Conway vote for discrimination? 2004... this was when
Jack Conway was proudly in favor of George Bush's Iraq War, Patriot
Act, and the Bush Tax cuts... could he have also loved Karl Rove's
Kentucky's 2004 Anti-Gay Amendment?
Side note: Did Alison vote for McCain?
In a 2007 debate on Kentucky
Educational Television during his campaign for attorney general,
Conway said he agreed with the ruling by then-Attorney General Greg
Stumbo that state universities offering same-sex partner benefits
were violating the Kentucky Constitution. “The way the universities
were offering the benefits was in violation of the 2004 marriage
amendment,” Jack Conway said. Jack Conway said during a debate that
he believes marriage is ONLY between a man and a woman. It was just
March 2014, less than a year ago, after what seems like the
inevitable acceptance that gay marriage has won, and is well on it's
way to finally be decided by the Supreme Court, after several states
has legalized it... then, and only then, that's when Jack Conway
steps away from his opposition to gay marriage. Finally Conway gets
it right... after 10 years.
Jack Conway didn't have the moral
clarity we need in a Chief Executive for George Bush's Iraq War,
Patriot Act, the Bush Tax cuts, and on Gay Marriage.
On Abortion:
Jack Conway says he's in favor of
abortion, but he opposed government payments to groups that perform
abortions, even if those funds don't pay for the procedure itself.
http://archive.courier-journal.com/article/20100710/NEWS0106/7110333/Democratic-U-S-Senate-candidate-Jack-Conway-leans-left-not-all-issues
That's a weird caveat. Abortion should be rare, safe, and legal, but
the government isn't going to allow health insurance to cover them.
Is that really pro-choice?
Jack Conway is against single-payer
healthcare. Conway said he liked Obamacare best with insurance
exchanges, and not single-payer, not the public option, in an
interview with the Courier-Journal.
On Immigration:
Jack Conway is stereotypically racist
on this front. Nixon's Southern Strategy doesn't seem to hurt
politicians in Kentucky. Conway is in favor of racial profiling,
tougher immigration laws, for more border patrols. If Mitch is for
amnesty, then Jack Conway is already to the right of Mitch McConnell
on this issue. Hispanics represent 3% of Kentucky's population.
Mexicans are being scapegoated and all they are doing is working for
pennies for some poor tobacco farmers needing folks willing to do
hard farm labor that many whites won't do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr1q2GcXvDw
I wonder if Jack Conway is in favor of
the Dream Act?
Jack Conway hasn't been a true
Progressive on gay marriage, and just flat out gets it wrong on the
death penalty, on single-payer healthcare, and abortion. Conway
doesn't have the moral clarity that it takes to be Governor. He got
it wrong on mountaintop removal, on the Patriot Act, on the Iraq War,
and on Gay Marriage. One needs moral clarity to be Chief Executive.
On Democracy:
Turnout
rate in Kentucky has been abysmal for decades. Politicians who
inspire hope and change can turn that around.
Conway has avoided
a debate with Geoffrey M. Young for a month, so far, and his campaign
seems to be intent on pretending like there is no opposition in this
race for the entire duration. Big surprise, an immoral, unethical,
destructive, despicable politician playing politics. That's
McConnelling. Addison Mitchell made his entire 30 year livelihood on
attack politics. That's the tone Conway has set for this campaign. If
you aren't a part of their little conservative, borderline Republican
clique, then you aren't a “Democrat”? Please. Americans need to
become Americans again, and Democrats need to learn to become
Democrats again.
Neither Alison, nor Mitch debated their
primary competition, because they too, have a disdain for democracy.
Alison had 2 primary opponents, and Mitch had 4 primary opponents.
Kentuckians never got to meet these candidates, and the media helped
the frontrunners. When Mitch said him being recorded was Nixonian,
Curtis Morrison, a regular citizen, was lambasted by Kentucky's
media.
Kentucky's media lambasted Gatewood
every year he ran for higher office. Kentucky has perennial problems,
and Kentucky's corporate media rags are one of them. Many television
news stations and newspapers in Kentucky reported that Jack Conway
was in favor of Cap n' Trade when he was adamantly opposed to it.
We've seen Rand Paul and Trey Grayson shut John Stephenson and Gurley
Martin out of the Republican Debates, and Guy Martin was the only one
of the Republican candidates who released his birth certificate.
http://www.c-span.org/video/?293425-7/kentucky-republican-senate-race
Gatewood Galbraith was constantly
hounded by the media, and taken for a joke, even though his speeches
roused the most enthusiasm, and achieved the loudest applause.
Gatewood was lambasted in the media, and would go on to win single
digits in the election. Now there's a Gatewood Galbraigth Medical
Marijuana Bill in Frankfort, and there's articles being written about
Gatewood and how his ideas were genius.
http://modernfarmer.com/2015/01/man-brought-hemp-kentucky/
But now it's too late. Gatewood's dead, and he's never coming back.
When we censor others, we aren't just offending the speaker, but also
the listeners, from hearing a good idea.
“I have a novel solution for many of
Kentucky's problems. Instead of bringing dogs into our schools to
sniff our children, instead of having helicopters hover over our
fields and gardens like we are an occupied territory, instead of the
Land of the Brave and Home of the Free, instead of trying to regulate
everybody's lives from the cradle to the grave, let's try the
Solution of More Freedom to the People!” ~Gatewood Galbraith, pg.
198, The Last Free Man in America (2004)
Jack Conway is Pro-Iraq War,
Pro-Patriot Act, Pro-Bush Tax Cuts, and Pro-Death Penalty.
On the Death Penalty:
In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court struck
down the death penalty nationwide, ruling it unconstitutional, and
adding it was applied in ways that were arbitrary, discriminatory,
and capricious. Kentucky’s ban on capital punishment didn’t last
long, however, as then-Gov. Julian Carroll signed the law that
re-enacted the state’s death penalty in December 1976.
Since then the state has executed three
people. The cost? No one knows for sure, but in 2009, Kentucky Public
Advocate Ed Monahan estimated that since 1976 the state has spent at
least $100 million on its death penalty system. To shed more
light on the issue, Kentucky legislators have introduced concurrent
resolutions that would create a task force to examine the exact costs
of the state’s death penalty system. The resolutions — SCR 11 and
HCR 30 — were filed by Sen. Gerald Neal, D-Louisville, and Rep.
David Floyd, R-Bardstown.
http://insiderlouisville.com/metro/two-kentucky-legislators-want-price-states-death-penalty-system/
Jack Conway signed a death warrant for
Ralph Baze, and two others in 2009. Speaking from the Castle on the
Cumberland at Eddyville, Kentucky, Ralph Baze says he's through
apologizing for gunning down Powell County Sheriff Steve Bennett and
Deputy Arthur Briscoe on January 30, 1992 because Ralph Baze did so
in self-defense. A telling dissent was written by Judge Guy Cole of
the 6th Circuit:
http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/04a0173p-06.pdf
Here's two paragraphs from Guy Cole's
dissent:
“No matter how many defense witnesses
were able to utter the words “family feud,” the most relevant and
dramatic details—those involving the Highleys bringing the police
into the fray to put [Ralph] Baze in danger of physical harm—were
nowhere to be found. The jury was prevented from hearing
evidence—including the testimony of a police officer—that on a
prior occasion, the Highleys falsely told the police that [Ralph]
Baze was driving drunk, had nearly run someone off the road, was
armed and dangerous, and was a fugitive with out-of-state warrants.
According to the excluded testimony, this false information from the
Highleys led police officers to stop Baze’s car, aim their guns at
him, and threaten to shoot him if he moved. Further, both Baze and
the police officer would have expressed their beliefs that it was the
Highleys’ allegations that instigated the stop.”
“Baze’s prior experience with the
police was relevant not only to show the general link in his mind
between the Highleys harassment and police action, but also because
one of the prior fabrications by the Highleys involved out-of-state
warrants—the initial basis for Baze’s arrest on the day of the
shootings. During the previous Highley-instigated traffic stop, the
officers had checked for out-of-state warrants and had told Baze that
the law-enforcement computer disclosed no outstanding charges.
This information would certainly have made Baze more likely to
believe that his impending arrest on outstanding charges was a
lawless act of familial score-settling rather than a legitimate
exercise of police authority, and thereby contributed to the
inflammation of his passions upon Briscoe’s arrival. To the
contrary, Baze was allowed to testify only to his general belief that
there were no out-of-state warrants against him. Again, evidence that
this information came from the same police department now seeking to
arrest him would have bolstered the believability of Baze’s
perception and the reasonableness of the resulting distress.”
Jack Conway has been Attorney General
for 7 years. It's a very powerful position. He's the top cop and the
top lawyer in Kentucky. Conway is the Sheriff, and Beshear is the
County-Judge. Conway can arrest Beshear, and should do so, for his
discrimination against gay folks. Conway should also look into the
dealings of the KKK HQ in Beshear's hometown of Dawson Springs.
Jack Conway became Attorney General in
January 2008. Jack Conway has been in government, as Attorney
General, the highest lawyer in Kentucky, for 7 years now. Conway is
friends with Governor Steve Beshear... Conway could have got whatever
legislation he wanted passed, with just the tiniest bit of effort
with lobbying the legislature, and with the Executive Branch, which
he's a part of.
Kentucky's Governor's chair has
incredible amounts of power, from controlling the domestic armed
forces, to being able to use the bully pulpit of being the Chief of
Kentucky, the Man, to being the face for Kentucky, to being able to
hire folks to lucractive jobs and the many departments in the State
Government through the power of appointment. Kentucky's Governor is a
“strong Governor”, meaning Kentucky citizens really must trust
their Governor, because virtually every time, absolute power corrupt
absolutely.
Jack Conway is in favor of Nixon and
Reagan's racist War on Drugs. Jack Conway was with Baby Bush on
the authorization to declare war with Iraq, the Patriot Act, the Bush
Tax Cuts, and now, Conway has been consistently been in favor of the
Republican failed War on Drugs. It's one of the few convictions Jack
Conway has. He's against hemp, and medical marijuana too.
In fact, Jack Conway is to the right of
Rand Paul's position on Nixon and Reagan's racist War on Drugs. Jack
Conway hit Rand Paul on the marijuana issue during his US Senate
campaign with his Aqua Buddha television ad.
Jack
Conway is 100% against Marijuana, Kentucky's #1 cash crop. Conway
even wanted to keep Hemp illegal so as to help the police's attack on
Marijuana. When asked if he was in favor of hemp farming for
Kentucky, Conway replied:
“It's
a law enforcement issue. The problem with hemp is, when you're trying
to eradicate marijuana, which is a major law enforcement issue in
Kentucky, I know how difficult it can be for law enforcement to make
the distinction, and so I think we need to leave that issue to those
in law enforcement who are advising us on it. If there's a difficulty
in distinguishing between hemp and marijuana then we shouldn't have
hemp farming in Kentucky, because it's more of a law enforcement
issue about making certain we don't let a gateway drug get into the
marketplace.”
The side effects
of Marijuana are hungry, happy, sleepy. That's it. Even the side
effects of Marijuana have medicinal properties. Alcohol is a much
worse drug. Plus, as free people, we're supposed to have a right to
our own bodies. When did we lose the right to our own bodies? Why
don't we own our own bodies?
Jack Conway started his war on
drugs as soon as he got into office. Conway has been attacking the
drug problem in Kentucky with Operation UNITE, an anti-drug
initiative in Kentucky that receives the majority of its funding at
the federal level. For Rand Paul, the “federal solution” to the
war on drugs wasn't working.
Conway indicated in a 2002 Project Vote
Smart survey that he does not support decriminalizing the use of
marijuana for medical purposes. Conway has been on the wrong side of
history when it comes to the War on Drugs since at least 2002.
In Economics,
there is only supply and demand. Conway has attacked the supply side,
and he hasn't solved the problem. For nearly 8 years, Conway has
attacked drugs, and still, Kentucky has a drug problem. It doesn't
matter if it's pills, meth, crack, heroin, or alcohol. Kentuckians
want their drugs. Kentuckians have an insatiable demand for drugs.
There's many ways
to attack the war on drugs from the demand side. We can educate the
population on what the effects of drugs are. I appreciated DARE at
CMZ in Grand County, Kentucky, when I was in elementary school, and
learned much from it. Many Kentucky folks are reaching out for drugs
because their lives are miserable, so we need to help them fix their
lives. Nobody can force anybody to do anything, but we can bring
about a set of conditions that can help the person lift themselves
up. With a robust economy, with an economy with plenty of jobs, we
will help the drug problem in Kentucky.
For Marijuana, and
perhaps for all drugs, Legalization is the only rightful solution.
Kentucky's drug problem isn't a criminal issue; it's a public health
issue. We need to handle these cases with love and compassion, not
hatred and violence.
Jack Conway is in
favor of mandatory sentences for drug dealers, aka pharmaceutical
redistributers. We have pharmacies all over the place. They're called
drug stores, and there's one on every corner in America. Alcohol is
sold in abundance. A drug dealer is just a small business man,
regular working class folks, usually raising a family, with wife and
kids, and their occupation was the same as the pharmacy, or a retail
store that sells alcohol. They're businessmen. They're businesswomen.
They're establishing small corporate start-ups. Drug dealers are
slinging drugs because they can profit lots off of it, and they can
profit handsomely since it's illegal. Making anything illegal
increases the prices of that good without doing anything to the
demand.
You can't get rid of the most evolved
plant in the world, a wild plant that comes out of God's green Earth.
The Prohibition on Marijuana has been conducted for over 100 years...
have we gotten rid of Marijuana? Then why do we still do it?
Any State or nation that tries an
alternative to the war on drugs has seen ample amounts of success,
and everywhere the war on drugs has been a disastrous failure. So
when the current policy is a failure, and all other alternatives make
things better, we should try any one of those alternatives, to turn
Kentucky around, and set Kentucky right side up.
Marijuana possession accounted for
76.5% of all Marijuana related arrests in Kentucky. 8,546 were
arrested on marijuana related charges, and 6,540 were arrested
specifically for possession. There were 20,560 total arrests for
drugs in general in Kentucky 2010, and out of all drug charges, 6,540
of them were for marijuana possession. Marijuana possession
represents 32% of all drug charges in Kentucky. Nearly 1 in 3.
Kentucky spends $6 - $33 Million on the failed War on Drugs.
The war on drugs is also inherently
racist.
In Kentucky, in 2010, 687 Blacks were
arrested for every 117 white folks for the possession of marijuana
out of 100,000 folks. Blacks are 5.95 more times to arrested than
whites for the possession of marijuana, in Kentucky, and whites are
more likely to have the drugs.
https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/assets/1114413-mj-report-rfs-rel1.pdf
Clearly, Blacks are being arrested at a higher rate than whites for
marijuana possession, a victimless crime... a victimless crime means
it's a non-crime.
In Kentucky, Blacks represent 8.2% of
the total population, but disproportionately, Black folks represent
35.6% of the marijuana possession arrests. That's a difference of
27.3%.
36% is 4 times the rate of the total
population of Black folks in the State of Kentucky. Out of 25
Kentucky folks, only 2 of them will be Black, but if we look at the
arrests, out of every 25 arrests, Black folks make up 9.
If they only represent 2 out of 25,
then how come 9 out of 25 are being arrested?
Black folks are 6 more times liked to
be arrested for the simple act of possessing marijuana than white
folks in Kentucky. That's disproportionate, and on the surface,
that's racist. Kentucky, with Jack Conway being the top cop, the top
lawman, the Attorney General, at the least has institutional racism,
and at the most, de jure racism in Kentucky's criminal justice
system, and in marijuana arrests. Both de jure and de facto racism
needs to be wiped out and eradicated.
In 2001, Kentucky's Black to White
arrest ratio was that Blacks were 2.4 times more liked to be arrested
than whites. In 2010, that rate increased to being 6 times more
likely of being arrested, just based only on the color of one's skin.
That's a 146% increase, on an already biased and disproportionate
disparity, nearly 10 years ago. 146% increase! Not even our GDP is
growing that fast.
In 2010, Kentucky arrested a total of
6,540 folks for marijuana possession. 4,195 of those arrests were
white folks, and 2,327 were Black folks.
Kenton County, Kentucky is arresting 10
Black folks to 1 White for marijuana possession arrests.
The total cost for the arrests on
Marijuana possession in Kentucky for 2010 was $19 million dollars.
$19 million dollars, gone, down the drain, never to be seen again.
Every year, Kentucky flushes $19 million dollars down the toilet, for
their own debasement and criminality.
Out of that $19 million dollars, the
police received $7.6 Million, the Judge, Courts, and Lawyers received
$9.5 Million, and the jails received $2.4 Million.
It's not just immoral and unethical to
ruin people's lives over drugs. It's downright criminal. It makes no
sense. The solution to people ruining their own lives, is to further
ruin their lives? How does that help anybody? If there's no victim,
then there's no crime. The point of the law is to prevent one person
from injuring another person, and if there's no victim, then there's
no crime. It's more ridiculous than the seat belt law.
How
many innocents have been thrown in jail over this ridiculously
unAmerican war? How many are in jail for victimless crimes? Conway
has criminally assaulted many folks in the Commonwealth of Kentucky,
and penned them up like pigs in a old barn stall, throwing charges on
them, jailing and harassing them, bullying them, ruining their names,
making it difficult for them to get jobs, and fining them. Throwing
victimless “criminals” into jail should be criminal. Assault,
suspending habeas corpus, is Jack Conway's mantra.
Conway
is hopelessly addicted to his racist personal vendetta on the war on
drugs. All of the other candidates for Kentucky Governor, including
Drew Curtis and James Comer, have said absolutely nothing about
supporting the legalization of marijuana. Hal Heiner. Drew Curtis.
Will T. Scott. Matt Bevin. James Comer. All of these candidates will
keep the Marijuana Prohibition alive and well. While Jack Conway,
once again, agrees with the Republicans on a major policy issue, it
turns out that all of the candidates for Kentucky Governor, except
for Geoffrey M. Young, are to the right of Kim Jung-Un, when it comes
to North Korea's liberal policy of decriminalizing marijuana. Conway
has been against marijuana for quite some time. It seems to be his
lifelong passion.
CONCLUSION:
James Comer, the Republican agriculture
commissioner, and GOP candidate for Governor, has repeatedly said he
is focused on helping Republicans retake the state House after almost
a century of Democratic control. We don't just need a candidate who
shakes our hands, and tries to appear “human” by smoozing with
the voters. We actually need a true blue leader for the Democratic
Party. We need to be focused on bringing in new Democrats into the
party, as well as strengthening our current Democratic parties
throughout the State. Geoff will do that, but Jack will not.
Conway is running to the right,
already. Right now. I wonder, how long before it takes Conway before
he starts running racist anti-immigration advertisements, and being
in favor of the Keystone Pipeline, and fracking. He's already thrown
Obama under the bus. Sure he voted for him, but guess what
Kentucky!?! He's already suing him!
Jack has admitted in the past that he's
made mistakes, and he's corrected those mistakes. Perhaps he can
correct this racist Republican War on Drugs mistake. Doubtful, but
anything's possible.
For this campaign, all Jack Conway
would have to do, to take Geoffrey M. Young's votes, would be to
adopt the most popular planks into his platform. This will make
Conway progressive on many issues he needs to be more progressive on,
and by keeping Conway progressive, he'll have a better chance at
winning the Gubernatorial election. If Conway stands up, and runs on
progressive values, instead of playing political games, by being fake
and “inauthentic”, and pretending to be a Republican-lite
corporatist, which it already seems very well that he is, then he will win. With Conway
standing up for Progressive values, and taking his licks for his
Progressive stances, he will appeal to the average Kentucky voter, by
being real, by being authentic, and Conway will beat the Republicans.
Democrats need to learn to be themselves. You're more liberal than
conservative. Good! We need that. We need some balance. In Kentucky,
there's only conservatives, and Geoff Young is the last Progressive left
standing.
If Conway tries to out Republican the
Republicans, and starts running to the right, as he's doing right
now, then he'll lose the election to the Republicans, just like
Alison and Hillary both lost their respective races in Kentucky before him.
Geoff Young lost to Elizabeth Jensen in
a congressional race by a few points. He had $600 on hand. If Geoff
had double the money, then he'd have double the votes. Instead of
40%, he would have won with 80%, if Geoff had $1200. [$600 is what Joe Gerth reported... Geoff actually spent $26,000 of his own money on his Congressional campaign] The entire world
is watching Kentucky's Gubernatorial Election. Obama beat Hillary
because he was more Progressive than her. Obama beat Hillary by
attacking her from the left. Alison did the exact opposite. Alison
went running to the right of Mitch McConnell, and she lost. Jensen
lost for the same reason. The traditional beltway wisdom of politics
is changing, quickly. Instead of watching Jack Conway sell Democrats
down the river during this campaign, we have a true blue Progressive
Democrat. One who believes in Kentucky's middle, working, and poor
class. Kentucky's 99%. It would seem bad politics to ignore the 99%.
How we can know for sure, if Jack
Conway is progressive if he doesn't tell us his thoughts regarding
these important policies which honest Democrats care about. We know
that Conway is a well-connected political insider. We know that
Conway denies being liberal or progressive. Conway snubbed Joe Biden
when he came to Kentucky. Conway says that he will always distance
himself from the Obama administration. Conway is for perpetual
Empire, and:
Anti-Capping Emissions
Pro-Iraq War
Pro-Patriot Act
Pro-Mountaintop Removal
Pro-Bush
Tax Cuts
Pro-Cuts
to Social Security, or raising the retirement age
Anti-Free
Speech
Pro-Death Penalty; signed death warrant
for Ralph Baze, who killed in self-defense; Kentucky's spent $100
million on death penalty system
Anti-Democracy
Anti
Civil Liberties
Pro-Gay
Marriage, after 10 Years of Prosecuting Gay Marriage
Pro-Abortion,
but won't include the procedure in health insurances offered
Anti-Single Payer Healthcare
Anti-Marijuana
Anti-Medical Marijuana
Anti-Hemp
Pro-racist Nixon and Reagan's War on
Drugs; $19 Million spent yearly; 6 times more Blacks are arrested in
Kentucky for possession of marijuana than whites; In Kentucky, Blacks
represent 8.2% of the total population, but disproportionately, Black
folks represent 35.6% of the marijuana possession arrests. That's a
difference of 27.3%. Kenton County, Kentucky is arresting 10 Black
folks to 1 White for marijuana possession arrests.
Anti-Immigration; wants more border
patrols to stop the 3% Hispanic population in Kentucky from getting
any bigger; Conway's views on immigration are to the right of Mitch
McConnell.
Jack Conway will blow it, just like
most Democrats do. Democrats are namby-pamby wimps. They are
spineless immoral corporate Republican-lite automatons. They do not
stand for anything, which is why they fall for anything. They haven't
got any moral convictions. They don't have a moral compass. They are
wicked in the inside, and they are fake. They are plastic. They are
empty suits, empty hollowed-out zombie husks.
Take for example, the Employee Free
Choice Act. For right now, Jack Conway is in favor of it. But if
Conway runs to the right during this whole race, it's only a matter
of time before he starts compromising EFCA. We can't be sure what he
actually believes. In past races, he's ran as a conservative, while
winking at everybody whose liberal, as if we're supposed to be in on
his little game. Don't blame games. Be honest with me. Be upfront
with me. I want to know what you think about important policy issues.
Talk to me, like a person, like you care if I believe what you
believe, and consider what I say.
The Republican Class War will not be
stopped by Jack Conway. The 4 Republicans will discuss every idea
under the Sun. The Republican primary will be exciting, especially if
they can maintain cordiality. And Republicans are good at endorsing
the primary choice for Governor. They rally and unify after the
heated primaries. If they can get their shit together.
The Democrats can lead by example, with
Lincoln-Douglass debates all throughout Kentucky.
But Jack Conway won't do that. He'll be
unseasoned, and undefined, just as the Democratic pundits want him to
be.
Kentucky
has a ton of corruption, and Jack Conway is at the heart of
Kentucky's dysfunction. Jack Conway is the heart of the
establishment, and the establishment has already declared him the
victor of the Democratic primary. Frankfort can be the
solution, but it's not; it's the problem, and there's nobody more Frankfort than Jack Conway. Jack Conway is as Frankfort as
Frankfort can get.
Geoff Young is the Fred Tuttle of
Kentucky. He's an average Kentuckian. A regular ole Geoff. And that's
his best quality. A true statesman. A quiet distinguished humble
intelligent radical, who cares.
We keep electing these two-faced
politicians, who speak out of both sides of their mouth, who is slimy
and untrustworthy, who take millions in donations from the wealthy,
and expect their politics not to be compromised?
Guys... (exhale)
A good honest regular citizen should
lead Kentucky. Of course that's true. We need to start electing
ourselves, the middle, working, poor classes of Kentucky, and start
occupying government seats.
The best thing about being Geoff
Young's running mate in his run for Governor is that I get to watch
as Geoff Young crafts the Democratic Platform for Kentucky Democrats
for decades to come.
At the very least, Geoff Young sets the
agenda for the Democrats for years to come. At the very most,
Kentucky becomes rich and green under a Young Administration.
Kentucky. It's time to go rich, and to
go green. Democrats vote Geoff Young 4 Governor, May 19, 2015.
Thank you
Jack is not a Progressive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ItzShWYc4k
Rachel Maddow on Jack Conway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj0YS9RS3Lk
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