The money from illegal drugs has been providing a large and dependable financial pipeline to violent criminal organizations including American gangs and international drug cartels. In the last several years, the drug cartels in Mexico have killed over 28,000 people. By legalizing marijuana, it would deprive these criminal enterprises of a huge source of their funding.

Uninspiring, to say the least.

Despite distrusting Mike Allen’s version of events at all times, there’s no question that the Administration resurrected a deficit panel that the Senate killed, and the President staffed it with a number of people who would be open to Social Security benefit cuts. And that set of decisions is bearing fruit on the panel, according to the Wall Street Journal. This one deserves a close reading.

It sure sounds like Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy — the lone swing vote on the bench prior to Elena Kagan’s swearing in — is fed up with efforts on the part of both the Bush and Obama Administrations to usurp the powers of the courts by way of military commissions for Guantanamo detainees.

On Thursday evening’s Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert had a fascinating interview with Professor Michael Blum of Tulane University. Blum opens by pointing out that although most of the oil is now out of sight, it is not gone. He then goes on to discuss the toxicity of the material that remains in the Gulf. Here [...]

Two FCC Commissioners and one US Senator slammed the Google-Verizon joint policy agreement and strongly endorsed the principle of net neutrality last night at a hearing before hundreds of citizens in Minneapolis, giving the Chairman of the federal agency Julius Genachowski all of the support he would need to regulate broadband Internet, if he so chose.

The “top two primary” system now used in Washington and to be used in California starting in 2012 is not like a traditional primary, where people vote to select a nominee for each party. Since the top two primary system is much more like a general election than a traditional primary, the question is can the vote in these “top two primary” states serve as a good predictor for what will happen nationwide in November.

We’ll be paying for these wars for a generation.

Sarah Palin joins Glenn Becks’ “I’m having a Nightmare” Rally. How fitting and timely.

Reckless Kelly — 1952 Vincent Black Lightning.