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District of Columbia voters passed the most restrictive marijuana reform law in the country, allowing possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use only. Four states have passed marijuana legalization laws.
The city was motivated by two independent studies revealing shameful racial disparities in marijuana possession arrests. Ninety percent of arrests are of African Americans, although Blacks and White use marijuana at the same rate in a city that is 50/50 Black and White.
Snow is keeping federal workers at home today, and Congress will keep up to a million at home with the sequester cuts in today's continuing resolution. No emergency like snow or even the deficit will be responsible. The responsibility lies with the House majority, which has abdicated its responsibility to govern. The continuing resolution on the floor today embeds cuts that might be tolerable if spread intelligently and selectively over time.
The great majority of Americans now want to move our country from the outskirts of civilization into the civilized world of nations that protect their children from assault weapons, limit the number of bullets that magazines can hold, perform background checks for every gun purchase, and routinely cover mental health in insurance plans. After our sadness and disgust, after our depression and despondency at the assassination of 26 kids and teachers, we are all culpable if we do not act this time. We did not act after 13 died in the mass shooting in Columbine in 1999.
The press reporters a serious Republican split with only a 50/50 chance that Republicans can get their members to agree on a payroll tax deal. Line that 50/50 Republican split up against their near-unanimous opposition to having wealthy and corporate taxpayers contribute one dime to deficit reduction.
I'll leave it to the Republican leadership to reconcile these issues – and their caucus. Meanwhile, the clock ticks louder each day. Republicans have 20 days to make up their minds on whether every worker who draws a paycheck deserves a tax cut.
At a time when D.C. residents want to be focused on voting rights and statehood, home rule, won in 1973 after more than 170 years of autocratic rule by Congress, is on the line.