Hey, Blenders, I’m back from my long, strange trip to wherever it is baristas go when they haven’t posted in eons.  Hi, Pam, hi, Autumn, everybody… In case we haven’t been introduced, I’m “Radical” Russ.  I’m a straight white married atheist pot legalizer from the Pacific Northwest, so you can

Ryan Grim at Huffington Post reports on the notion going round political circles that California’s Prop 19 (and, to a lesser extent, medical marijuana initiatives in Arizona and South Dakota, and dispensaries for medical marijuana in Oregon) will be for the Democrats what anti-Gay Marriage Equality amendments were for Republicans

Netroots Nation was a blast!  I got to have a great hour with Pam, eating chicken salads and catching up since our last F2F in Denver in 2008.  I briefly got to see Autumn as well before she headed off to another activity in her busy weekend. It reminded me

As I write this, Senator Al Franken from Minnesota is sitting across from me at my table in the huge Rio Hotel ballroom.  We’re watching House candidate Tarryl Clark, who will take on Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota.  He came out from backstage to watch and since my table is

I woke up this morning to the news that Rep. Mark Souder, 8-term Indiana Republican, was resigning amidst a sexual scandal.  It seems the married Mark was having an affair with his married aide, Tracy. As a guy who blogs for a leading drug reform organization (NORML) and for a

I work this issue every day and am well aware of the racist nature of the War on (Certain American Citizens Using Non-Pharmaceutical, Non-Alcoholic, Tobacco-Free) Drugs.  But even I wasn’t aware of the outrageous statistics comparing the Drug War to Jim Crow era.  Michelle Alexander lays it all out in

Howdy, Blenders!  Busy busy busy and haven’t posted in a while and I miss you all!  I’ve been called from a higher power to return for a quick post, called by that guanoloco siren song from my favorite Virginal Warrior For Christ, Princess Barbie Talibania. Barbie’s upset this time because

Medical marijuana activists like to claim that cannabis has never killed anyone.  While it is true that cannabis is remarkably non-toxic (“the safest therapeutically-active substance known to man,” according to a DEA judge), medical marijuana use has actually killed many people in the United States. For in the now fourteen

One of my colleagues from the NORML Board of Directors wrote this compelling piece on Counterpunch.org: The suicide this past weekend of Los Angeles Times sportswriter Mike Penner, who for the last few years wrote under the byline of Christine Daniels, leaves me today with a desire to rant and

As I wind up my evening in the West Coast Portland, I log in to the WCHS6 website on the East Coast Portland to follow the election results in Maine.  For me it is a repeat of the mixed emotions I felt on Election Night 2008, where I was elated