Drug Warriors Holder and Rambo: Fighting the Wrong War At the Wrong Time

Obama's top pick for Attorney General, Eric Holder, has been going through the wringer for the Marc Rich pardon and the Elian Gonzalez debacle during his Clinton daze. But, the only major media publication that has been grilling him on his failed drug policies are those pesky libertarians at Reason. How far did he go with national drug policy? He coerced the city of Washington D.C. to "get tough" on that great scourge of our society, marijuana. From a 1996 Washington Post article (h/t Eric):

In addition, U.S. Attorney Eric H. Holder Jr. said in an interview that he is considering not only prosecuting more marijuana cases but also asking the D.C. Council to enact stiffer penalties for the sale and use of marijuana.

"We have too long taken the view that what we would term to be minor crimes are not important," Holder said, referring to current attitudes toward marijuana use and other offenses such as panhandling.

Ever since Richard Nixon declared the War on Drugs, we have seen the explosion of meth and crack, continuous erosion of our civil liberties, and a string of lousy federally-funded PSAs of McGruff jamming out to 80s music. Our War on Drugs goal has even hampered the fight against terrorism as President Bush actually gave the Taliban federal aid to halt heroin traffic prior to 9/11. Don't expect Obama's pick for Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, to distinguish between the high-priority War on Terror as opposed to the War on Pink Floyd as evidenced to a press release he issued back in 2006:

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Representative Rahm Emanuel released the following statement in response to reports that Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez’ called the war on terror a real war, not like the war on drugs.

“Thanks for the white flag. From the United States’ most senior law enforcement official, the man who should be leading the war on drugs, this white flag of surrender will not be reassuring to the millions of parents trying to protect their kids.”

To help out Obama's Chief of Staff, here's a couple of photos to emphasize the priorities based on the current threats to our democratic society.

Islamic Terrorists, seeks to wipe out Western civilization, a high-priority

Marijuana Users, seek to eat a whole bag of Doritos while watching Scooby-Doo, a low-priority