Nearly 7 Ot Of 10 In U.S. Support Marijuana Legalization

 The support for the legalization of marijuana in the United States continues to climb. Now nearly 7 out of 10 Americans support legalization (68%). That's the highest percentage ever recorded.

And it showed in this election, as voters in four more states approved legalization for recreational use -- Arizona, Montana, New Jersey, and South Dakota. That makes 15 states that have now approved the legal recreational use of marijuana.

The charts above are from a recent Gallup Poll -- done between September 30th and October 15th of a national sample of 1,035 adults, with a 4 point margin of error.

Dems Should Be Buoyed By Georgia / S. Carolina Results

I'm sure there are many Democrats disappointed by the results in the 6th Congressional District of Georgia. They had hoped to pull off a miraculous victory, and the political polls had them thinking it could be done. But the Democratic candidate fell short, and that district returned a Republican to Congress.

But this is not a time for Republicans to celebrate, and it's not a time for Democrats to feel down and give up. Let's recap what has happened in the four House special elections this year. Yes, the Democrats lost all four of them -- but they came much closer in all of them than anyone had expected.

In Kansas, the Democrats cut a 31.1 point margin for the Republicans in 2016 down to only 6.8 points.

In Montana, the Democrats cut a 15.8 point margin for Republicans in 2016 down to only 6.1 points.

In South Carolina, the Democrats cut a 20.5 point margin for Republicans in 2016 down to only 3.2 points.

In Georgia, the Democrats cut a 23.4 point margin for Republicans in 2016 down to only 5.2 points.

And remember, these were supposed to be "safe" districts for Republicans -- districts in which they traditionally won with large double-digit margins. Those large double-digit margins disappeared, and those "safe" seats all turned out to be competitive.

This should scare the hell out of Republicans, and it should energize Democrats across the nation. There are dozens of Republicans currently occupying purple seats -- seats they won by a much smaller margin in 2016. If the Democrats do as well in those purple districts as they did in these four bright red districts, then they could win a whole lot of them in 2018 -- and possibly even take over the majority in the House of Representatives.

Take heart Democrats -- the tide of public opinion is turning your way.

Clinton Wins N. Jersey, N. Mexico, And S. Dakota

Five states held a primary Tuesday night, and one held a caucus. These were the last states to vote in this primary/caucus season. Only the District of Columbia is still to vote, and they will do that next week. Here are the results of the first five states to vote -- New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Montana. California polls closed very late, and I will address those results in another post.

NEW JERSEY PRIMARY
Clinton...............63%
Sanders...............37%

NEW MEXICO PRIMARY
Clinton...............52%
Sanders...............49%

SOUTH DAKOTA PRIMARY
Clinton...............51%
Sanders...............49%

NORTH DAKOTA CAUCUS
Clinton...............26%
Sanders...............64%

MONTANA PRIMARY
Clinton...............46%
Sanders...............49%

This was a very good night for Clinton. She won New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota, while Sanders won the only caucus. As I write this, Montana is too close to call with Sanders having a small lead. This outcome gives Clinton more than a hundred delegates over the 2383 needed for the nomination -- and that's before the California results come in (where she is assured of another 200 delegates, at least).

A Couple More Small Steps Toward Equality In The U.S.

Two more states have joined the ranks of those where it is legal for same-sex couples to marry. The first was South Carolina, where a federal judge ruled on November 12th the state's ban on same-sex marriages was unconstitutional. That decision was stayed until November 20th to give the state time to ask for a stay from higher courts. The state went to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals (but they had already ruled that state bans were unconstitutional) and refused to issue a stay.

South Carolina then asked the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay. But this week the state got news that the Supreme Court had denied their application for a stay (just as they did last week for Kansas).

The second state was Montana. On Wednesday, a federal judge ruled Montana's ban on same-sex marriage (a part of their state constitution) violated the United States Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause. And this judge refused to issue a stay of his decision, quoting the fact that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had already ruled those bans were unconstitutional.

The Attorney General of Montana (a Republican) has said he will appeal the decision, but with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals already having ruled on the issue, his only hope is with the U.S. Supreme Court. And that hope seems to be growing dimmer each day, considering the refusal to stay the decisions in Kansas and South Carolina. These refusals tend to show the Supreme Court is tending to favor the marriage rights of same-sex couples.

What all this means is that same-sex marriage is now legal in Montana and South Carolina -- and is likely to stay that way. And within the next year, it could be legal in all 50 states.

Will "The Dude" Run For The U.S. Senate ?

(This photo of Jeff Bridges at the Berlin Film Festival is by Thore Siebrands.)

The Democrats have lost their candidate for U.S. Senate in Montana. The original candidate, incumbent John Walsh, has withdrawn from the race. He says he wants to focus on serving his Montana constituents, and withdrawing from the campaign will allow him to do that. The truth is that recent revelations that he plagiarized much of his dissertation to earn his Master's Degree at the Army War College have caused his numbers to plummet -- and it has become clear that he could not win in November.

That leaves Montana Democrats without a candidate, and they have until August 21st to choose someone to replace Walsh. That is the date that the ballot must be finalized, and if they don't choose a candidate before then, their candidate will not appear on the November ballot.

A former Livingston (Montana) resident, Lizabeth Pratt, has come up with an interesting idea. She has started a campaign to draft Academy Award winning actor Jeff Bridges as the Democratic candidate for senator. Pratt's petition is on Change.org, and as of Tuesday had garnered nearly 1200 signatures. It reads:

Encourage Jeff Bridges, Park County Resident, to run for the Montana U.S. Senate.

Jeff is a great person.  He has loved Montana and all it represents since he first set up residence in Park County four decades ago.  He has great name recognition!  Charisma!  Brains!  He's internationally reknowned, but he is also highly accessible.  We need The Dude to be Montana's next U.S. Senator!

Bridges has heard about the petition, and joked about it when appearing on the Howard Stern Show this week. But interestingly enough, he did not say it was out of the question. I doubt he will run though. This sounds like the same kind of pie-in-the-sky dream that some Texans had a couple of years ago when Tommie Lee Jones was encouraged to run for the Senate.

But personally, I wish Bridges would run. I think he could win, and would make a very good senator. He's smart, ethical, and cares about this country and its citizens. And he might even be able to reach across the aisle and talk common sense with some of the Republicans.

NOTE -- For those few of you who might not be familiar with my reference to Bridges as "The Dude", he played a character referred to that way in the popular movie "The Big Lebowski". The movie has a large cult following, and even spawned a faux religion called "Dudeism".

The Supreme Court Reaffirms Its Terrible "Citizens United" Decision

(The drawing above is from the website Social Keith.)

A couple of years ago, the United States Supreme Court made a decision that has had a very negative effect on the electoral system in this country. It was Citizens United vs. Federal Elections Commission, and it said the government could not limit the amount of money that individuals, corporations, or other entities can independently spend in an election. Sine then, rich individuals and corporations have poured many millions into super-PACs designed to support individual candidate campaigns.

These super-PACs were not supposed to be able to strategize with the candidate or his campaign organization, but that all went out the window this last weekend when Willard Mitt Romney invited big donors, including some who were heading up super-PACs (like Karl Rove), to a retreat to plan election strategy. Now it seems like there are no rules, and it looks like the rich will be able to pump much more money into this year's election than ordinary citizens (giving them a larger voice in the electoral process).

Many people hoped that at least one Supreme Court justice would realize what a big mistake they had made and change his position on the matter (since it was only a 5-4 decision). The decision could have been corrected in another case about campaign money and election spending. And it looked like a perfect case was going to the Supreme Court -- American Tradition Partnership vs. Montana. The state of Montana had passed a law that prevented corporations from spending any money to support or oppose a political candidate, and the law was appealed to the Supreme Court.

The Montana Supreme Court upheld the law, saying it does not violate the First Amendment (which guarantees the right of free speech). But sadly, The U.S. Supreme Court, instead of coming to their senses, doubled down on their Citizens United decision -- and they overturned the Montana Supreme Court decision. They reaffirmed that they believe corporations are people and money is speech -- and limiting the amount of money a corporation can spend is a denial of free speech.

It is now clear that there are only two ways to overturn this awful Supreme Court decision -- either replace one or more of the conservative justices with someone who believes in democracy and free elections, or pass a constitutional amendment. The easiest way would be to re-elect the president this November, and give him enough Senate Democrats to get some progressive justices appointed and approved. But if we need to go the amendment route, then so be it. But somehow this must be changed.

Here is the Supreme Court decision.

Are Sarah And Todd Palin Splitting Up ?

A few weeks ago, Sarah Palin announced that she was resigning as governor of Alaska. Her speech at that time, detailing why she was doing it, was almost incoherent. It simply didn't make any sense, and many people thought there was another shoe yet to drop.

If what we're hearing now is true, then it may be starting to make some sense. Alaska Report, The Immoral Minority and Dammit Janet are all reporting that Sarah and Todd Palin are splitting up and will probably divorce. They tell us the marriage has been going downhill since the National Enquirer article detailing their previous affairs was published. For right now, they don't want to make the break-up official for financial reasons.

It seems that Sarah has not been wearing her wedding ring (which she was never seen without during the campaign) for about three weeks now. She supposedly threw it into an Alaskan lake. On the day she officially resigned, she and the kids left after her speech on June 26th (where she officially resigned) without her husband Todd. It is rumored that she has bought some land in Montana and wants to move down there with the kids.

Also lending credence to the story is the fact that Todd told Fox News last week thats he's going back to his job in the Alaskan oilfields. Why would he go back to a job like that after his wife just got an $11 million dollar book deal?

It also looks like Palin was misuseing her position as governor right up until the end. The District Attorney has been delaying the trial of Levi's mother, Sherry Johnston. That's because he wanted to negotiate a plea with her attorney, but Palin was putting pressure on for Ms. Johnston to get the maximum punishment (just one more in a long list of ethics violations). Now the court date has been moved back to August 19 to give the attorneys time to negotiate.

A story is also fixing to break about Todd pulling a gun on Levi Johnston in the summer of 2008. I'm starting to think the Palin family makes Peyton Place look like children's theater.