On Monday night, Judge Mary Scriven issued a scathing and fiery decision against Florida Governor Rick Scott’s Pee Test law, which required that state’s applicants for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families submit to drug testing at their own expense. The contract for said drug testing, it should be noted, is held by said Governor’s wife’s company.

Rick Scott’s Pee Test Fails a Court Test | Mother Jones.

I don’t understand the “if you’re not guilty, you have nothing to worry about” mentality. It’s so un-American, and goes against the idea that one is considered innocent until proven beyond a reasonable doubt enshrined in our Constitution. It goes against the Fourth Amemdment’s prohibition on unreasonable search and seizure. It goes against the idea of human dignity; the idea that all people have an inherent worth, and are deserving of respect.

Thanks, Tea Party Republicans, for wasting our time and money once again in one of your racist, “morality” crusades.

If you’ve been following the proceedings of Perry v Schwarzenegger, the trial of the constitutionality of Proposition 8, then you know that the past 12 court days have been full of high emotional content and scientific fact.  From the opening day, when the plaintiffs took the stand and explained how not being able to marry their same-sex partner has damaged them, through to the expert witnesses who explained about the history of marriage, the history of gay and lesbian discrimination, and more, then you’ve seen the plaintiffs, led by the amazing attorneys David Boies and Ted Olson, building in a very systematic way how and why Proposition 8 is unconstitutional and harms gay and lesbian people.

Equally, you’ve seen the defense attorneys completely unable to impeach either the credibility of the plaintiff’s expert witnesses or their factual testimony.  What’s more, the defense so-called expert witnesses were so utterly unprepared and lacking in expertise that when David Boies cross-examined them, I almost felt sorry for them.  He truly humiliated Professor Kenneth Miller, who’s supposed expertise in the ballot initiative process (and especially as it related to gay and lesbian people) was exposed for the completely empty and shallow body that it is.  Miller must have felt about three inches tall when Boies was finished crushing him like an aluminum can.

But it was the sparring with David Blankenhorn that really nailed the defense’s coffin shut.  Challenged on every facet of his expertise, Blankenhorn not only agreed with the plaintiffs that same-sex marriage would benefit not just the people who want to marry, the children of such couplings, and society’s furtherance of tolerance and equality, he also denied that he was even an expert, but was merely “repeating things that they say,” that “these are not my own conclusions,” and “I’m a transmitter here of findings of these eminent scholars.”  His cartoonish puffery and sanctimonious buffoonery on the witness stand shredded all possible credibility with the judge.

So for now, the trial is over.  February 26th is the deadline for the submission of more documents to the judge, as well as the date which we hope the judge will set the date for closing arguments.

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder signaled a change on medical marijuana policy Wednesday, saying federal agents will target marijuana distributors only when they violate both federal and state law.

That would be a departure from the policy of the Bush administration, which targeted medical marijuana dispensaries in California even if they complied with that state’s law.

“The policy is to go after those people who violate both federal and state law,” Holder said in a question-and-answer session with reporters at the Justice Department.

Medical marijuana advocates in California welcomed the news, but said they still worried about the pending cases of those already in court on drug charges.

California law permits the sale of marijuana for medical purposes, though it still is against federal law.

This move is welcome and far overdue.  In a similar vein, Tom Ammiano’s bill in the California Legistlature, the Marijuana Control, Regulation, and Education Act, would make California the first state in the nation to have both a progressive and libertarian public policy toward California’s largest cash crop.  If passed as introduced, an estimated $1 Billion in new taxes could come to the state’s coffers, as well as more money for drug abuse prevention, education, and treatment.  Marijuana would be treated in a fashion similar to alcoholic beverages.

It’s about time the governments woke up to the fact that the War on Drugs has been an utter and absolute disaster for the world.  Violent crime surrounds the illegal drug trade, as well as the prosecution of otherwise law-abiding citizens, and by bringing this underground economy to the light of day, crime would be dramatically reduced.  When’s the last time you heard about a shooting between rival distillers or distributors?  I’d say sometime around 1920 to 1933 when the Eighteenth Amendment was in force.

This is a welcome bit of news from the New York Times:

The legislation replaces lethal injection with a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“Faced with the reality that our system for imposing the death penalty can never be perfect, my conscience compels me to replace the death penalty with a solution that keeps society safe,” Mr. Richardson said at a news conference in the Capitol.

via Death Penalty Is Repealed in New Mexico – NYTimes.com.

Thank you, New Mexico, for joining the civilized world in repealing the barbaric and completely fallible death penalty.