"As an industry, marijuana in Washington state is roughly estimated at $1 billion in wholesale value, more than wheat and potatoes combined. In British Columbia, economists put pot at $6.5 billion (U.S.) a year, second only to oil."

Wow.

Al Gore III drives a Prius? Sweet!

Transformers was terrible.

FOLLOW UP QUESTIONS:

a. DO WE HAVE A DEMOCRACY?
b. DO US CITIZENS HAVE A RIGHT TO VOTE FOR SENATE?

ANSWERS:

a. No, we have minority rule.
There are 100 senators because we have two senators per state regardless of population. This means senators representing about 20% of the population (WY ND SD UT etc.) can muster 51% of the votes in the Senate. You need the Senate to make laws. Therefore, we do not have a democracy at all, we have minority rule. This worsened by the cloture rules which basically require a 60% majority to get anything done and other rules which require some important votes to be a 2/3 vote.

b. NO AGAIN. There is no inherent right to vote for a Senator just because you are a US citizen. So not only do large-state voters have less proportional representation in the Senate, some US citizens HAVE NO REPRESENTATION. See answer no 1 (we are not a democracy).

Explanation: DC people have no representation. Most are African Americans. This is a huge voting rights/civil rights/human rights violation/perhaps racial discrimination (depending on your definition) that is rarely mentioned. Many DC folks had ancestors who were slaves, who suffererd Jim Crow, or who marched with MLK Jr., and they STILL CAN'T VOTE FOR A SENATOR OR A CONGRESSMAN (their nonvoting Rep. doesn't count).

It's about 500,000 people we're tALking about. And this is a loss to all progressives as we would have two more very strong votes in the Senate -- probably someone like a Ron Dellums or a Charley Rangell.

We should continue to work on fairere elections everywhere and other civil rights issues but this is so important. Why aren't representation and equal representation fundamental rights of US citizenship? We have no equality under the law and no democracy as things now stand.

We in the pot business are laughing at all the other businesses and taxpayers in this State! Just think: we use the roads, the banking system, the law protects us when we buy and sell real estate, and we are part of society and our kids are in your schools -- but we don't pay sales tax!

So you fools are picking up the $80,000,000 we would be paying if you just taxed us. ("As an industry, marijuana in Washington state is roughly estimated at $1 billion in wholesale value, more than wheat and potatoes combined."
Thanks for the subsidy & add it to the cost of the War Against Drugs.
phhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh---
Wow.

Actually Bud you do pay sales tax on all your purchases even ones that would be tax free if you had a recognized business - the $80M are ones your customers don't pay and you don't collect for the state and local governments. Now of course you are not paying federal income tax or social security or medicare - wasn't that how they got Capone?

"Why aren't representation and equal representation fundamental rights of US citizenship?'

Ever heard of slavery?

With the population explosion that has been happening in the U.S., coupled with its predicted accelerated curve in coming years, the class wars and racial strife might come to an ugly head in people's fight for resources. I don't like to be cynical about the glimmer of utopian egalitarianism that most of us hope for, but taking an oath of citizenship at Disney is not only telling of the fantasy, it's pathetic.

@4: We don't have minority rule, we have minority protection (as far as votes in the congress). If we gave votes based on population alone for both houses, then the small states interest would always be trampled. The house is where there is more of a representation per population. We have those 2 houses for a reason. The way to ensure a more effective Republic, is to have more than 2 viable parties.

PS: We don't have a Democracy, and have never had one. Anyone who has gone through civics knows that. There also hasn't been one since Greek times. Not sure if that makes you feel better, LOL.

@9,

Thank you.

I'd like to add that, if we didn't have that minority protection embodied in the Senate, this country would be completely fucked. Over the past several years, the Senate has been a major obstacle to the reactionary right-wing Congress. God bless the Framers for recognizing that The People are frequently a bunch of dumbasses with no concern for minority rights.

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