Saturday, February 5, 2011

Operation UNITE headed for 0-2?

Operation UNITE is a ridiculous drug warrior organization in southeastern Kentucky. This federally funded group's pet cause lately is a pair of bills that are breezing through the Kentucky legislature that would require a prescription for Sudafed and force people to take a drug test if they collect government benefits like Social Security.

It appeared almost a given that at least one of these teabagger bills would become law, but now both may face the governor's veto.

Notice I said 'may', not 'will'. If both of these bills fail to become law, that would be almost too good to be true. If that happens, it's time to par-tay! (I'll party cheaply though. I don't get bailout money, since I'm not a big bank.) I take it very seriously when civil liberties are mortgaged in the name of a War on Drugs that was long ago discredited, and if both bills are rejected, that would be the biggest pushback against this failed war in a long, long time.

After Gov. Steve Beshear announced opposition to the drug testing bill, he's now unsure if he'll even sign the pseudoephedrine bill. Beshear is a very conservative Democrat by this blog's standards, though he may just come through for us on this pair of bills.

But I'd be surprised if he vetoed the Sudafed measure, because that bill seems too sober-sided. You can tell a lot of work went into making it a bad bill whose awfulness flies below the radar. Legislators have smoothed it, pampered it, and repackaged it over and over. Conversely, the drug-testing bill looks like the same knee-jerk document that just gets unthinkingly blurted out at the start of each session - in case the legislature finally becomes right-wing enough to approve it.

Truth is, it's inexcusable that either one of these bills was even introduced without being laughed right out of the Capitol. When I was your age, this was a free country, and we didn't have laws like this. Are we going to defeat these bills, or are we just going to let Operation UNITE and the Tea Parties write all our laws for us?

(Source: http://www.wfpl.org/2011/02/04/beshear-unsure-on-pseudoephedrine-bill)

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