policy: September 2006 Archives

Let's really throw open doors to higher education

American colleges and universities have long been incubators of great ideas, birthplaces of great inventions and testing grounds of great individuals. And - as never before - they are the key to the American Dream.

But while the American Dream has grown increasingly dependent upon college, for many, college has grown increasingly out of reach.

The Free Press -- Independent News Media - Election Issues

Ohio election protection activists have won a landmark court battle to preserve the ballots from 2004's disputed presidential election, and researchers studying those ballots continue to find new evidence that the election was, indeed, stolen. Among other things, large numbers of consecutive votes in different precincts for George W. Bush make it appear ever more likely that the real winner in 2004 should have been
John Kerry. Meanwhile, indictments and prison terms are mounting among key players in that tainted contest.

Designing an 'exit strategy' for the war on drugs

The uncomfortable truth is that despite decades of aggressive government crackdowns, U.S. drug use and drug-related crime are as high as ever. Made profitable by prohibition, violent criminal enterprises that purvey drugs are flourishing. Harsh criminal sanctions, even for minor drug possession, have packed jails and prisons. Public coffers have been drained of funds for critical preventive social services. Internationally, we’re discovering that the U.S.’ heavy-handed campaign of illegal drug eradication in countries such as Colombia is about as successful as we’ve found our parallel military adventure into Iraq.

Despite the stunning $4.7 billion we’ve spent since 2000 on planes fumigating Colombia’s coca crop, farmers there are producing just as much cocaine as before our aerial assault.

Back home, “street” prices for cocaine have dropped and purity remains high. Prohibition has failed equally to stamp out markets and quality, or increase street prices for heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana. The drug war kicked off by President Nixon in the 1970s, and copied by state and local governments nationally, costs $40 billion or more a year. It is a massive, embarrassing, destructive failure.