The Lobbying Epidemic

From The Charlotte Observer:

The drug epidemic of the 1980s and ’90s was horrific.

…snip…

That period is no longer considered the worst drug epidemic in the nation’s history. The ongoing opioid crisis has, unfortunately, taken that title – because no one was lobbying Congress on behalf of crack cocaine dealers the way they have for large drug companies. That’s the devastating finding from a joint investigation by “60 Minutes” and The Washington Post released last weekend. Between 2014 and 2016, the drug industry spent $106 million lobbying Congress for a law that makes it virtually impossible for the DEA to freeze suspicious narcotic shipments from the companies.

Original book cover 

Sheet Music

From Mother Jones:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has fallen out of favor with President Donald Trump, but that hasn’t stopped him from moving quickly to reshape the federal government’s approach to law enforcement. He has implemented new policies that will turn more offenses into federal crimes, confiscate suspects’ property, and crack down on sanctuary jurisdictions. The policies fit Sessions’ tough-on-crime attitude toward criminal justice—but he isn’t taking credit for them.

In announcing recent reforms, Sessions has said he is carrying out the recommendations of the Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety. […] But what exactly is this task force? It’s hard to say. The Justice Department has declined to disclose the task force’s membership, its meeting agendas, or its recommendations to the attorney general. The task force was slated to deliver a report to Sessions last week, but it has not been made public. Instead, the group supposedly behind some of the Trump administration’s most consequential policy moves remains an almost complete mystery.

Oooooh, I think I might know what the task force might look like! Please, I have my hand up. Pick me! Pick me!

Original sheet music cover     (emphasis on sheet)

Law & Disorder

From The Arizona Republic:

Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl are continuing to press Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on the decision to limit Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s immigration-enforcement authority.

Amid controversy over Arpaio’s ongoing crime-suppression sweeps, Immigration and Customs Enforcement dropped the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office from the 287(g) “task force model” that allowed deputies to enforce federal immigration laws on the streets. (The Sheriff’s Office still can enforce immigration laws in the jails.) Homeland Security officials have said Arpaio’s wide-reaching operations don’t align with ICE priorities of targeting only “serious criminal aliens.”

Original DVD cover

Don’t worry, Cindy Lou, you get pain meds after a nose job!

From The Christian Science Monitor:

Gilding the lily is nothing new to politics. From the 1840s when William Henry Harrison claimed to have been born in a log cabin (it was actually a Virginia plantation) to Ronald Reagan’s reminiscing about flying over Germany in World War II (he did, but only in a movie), politicians have taken perfectly good stories and embellished them.

This campaign is no exception.

…snip…

The latest embellishments come from the McCain camp. Cindy McCain has repeatedly referred to herself as an “only child.” This week came news that she actually has two half sisters, although apparently she had very little contact with them.

The McCain campaign had also put out the story that Mother Teresa “convinced” Cindy to bring home two orphans from Bangladesh in 1991.

Mrs. McCain, it turns out, never met Mother Teresa on that trip. (Once contacted by the Monitor, the campaign revised the story on its website.)

Original DVD cover.