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February 9, 2009
Hoping someone in a town hall might ask Prez Obama about government spending for the drug war in prison nation
This new entry at the White House blog reports that President Obama "is on his way to Elkhart, Indiana, for a town hall about the economic recovery plan. He'll talk for a bit, then take questions from the audience of about 1,700 people."
Though I seriously doubt any crime and justice issues will arise in this event or other such town halls, I am hoping someone in Indiana or elsewhere might have the courage to ask about the costs of the drug war and mass incarceration. Specifically, I want President Obama pressed on whether his team, in its development of an "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan," has given any attention at all to the apparent harms and ineffectiveness of investing so much federal and state taxpayer money in the never-ending war on drugs and in the still-growing US prison population.
Some recent related posts:
- Will we invest in classrooms or cells in these tough times?
- Terrific commentary and assessment of the war on drugs
- The state of cost problems in the states of prison nation
- "America's Forgotten War"
- Will any Prez candidate promise to get us out of a failed war ... on drugs?
February 9, 2009 at 11:29 AM | Permalink
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Comments
Is depression here or not? not very clear. But if you look at the past history recessions and depressinos come and go. Economies go through cycles and recession is part of the cycle. I read the history of cycles at http://www.recessioninfocenter.com
Posted by: jeff | Feb 9, 2009 12:40:07 PM
Doug, Obama has a trillion dollars in goodies to hand out to various Dem constituencies. Do you really think that he's going to worry about a bunch of criminals?
Posted by: federalist | Feb 9, 2009 1:06:41 PM
I find it refreshing to see people such as Doug always challenging the failed drug war. We can start by de-criminalizing marijuana.
Posted by: Tarheel | Feb 9, 2009 5:35:34 PM
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090210/D968DTQG1.html
Can we finally jettison the "politics of hope" B.S. since it was clearly all a ruse?
Posted by: Ben D | Feb 9, 2009 9:57:07 PM
