DHard asks:
Mandantory minimum sentences for non- violent drug offenses, and demands for increasingly severe penalties of same for starters.

Gem

__________________
There is no political solution to our troubled evolution.

"Reality, the left-wing liberal conspiracy. "
Credited to Angry American.

Gee can you prove only conservatives want these laws? No.
So to avoid being incarcerated for drug laws all one needs to do is obey them until you can get them removed. I do not fear drug laws because I do not use or condone the use of illegal drugs. When I come into contact with people that use illegal drugs, I terminate my contact with them.

I point out that the leftist again progressives have a history of incarcerating people simply for having a ancestry of Japanese, German, or Italian. These people violated no law.

yes and its all bushes fault

if you break the law, you go through they system..you may get probation, or get sent to jail..if the law is the problem then fix the law..oh and the huge majority of these laws are written by the state gov's..so Bush has zero to do with it.......

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No individual can plan his own existence in their view.

So the state planners must arrogate to themselves the right to manipulate any sector of the economic system if the good of “society” or the “general welfare” is paramount.

Ipso- if the rights of the individual get in the way, the rights of the individual must be sublimated.

The Road to Serfdom
FA Hayek (interpretation)

Here's some "logic" for you, DHard.

I ask you, what segment of society demanded the tough drug laws and mandantory sentencing guidelines? The "Leftist, aka Progressive Liberals" or the likes of the hard-core Conservative Christian Right ?

I await your reply.

Gem

__________________
There is no political solution to our troubled evolution.

"Reality, the left-wing liberal conspiracy. "
Credited to Angry American.

FWIW, people who advocate these things may describe themselves as "conservative", but I don't think that the description is a good one. Personally, I think that opponents of these sorts of policies are libertarians or "classic" liberals, and if these groups had to pick a party in the US (at least based on what the party claims it represents), they would choose the GOP. Although, with Bush behaving like a democrat that happens to be "socially conservative" on wedge issues, the waters have been very much muddied in our current political sea.

Sometimes it seems to me that Republicans and Democrats are basically the same thing, with the exception of the superfluous and marginally important issue whether or not gays can marry.

__________________
"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

Absolutely accurate... Drug Prohibition creates crime and criminals with no evidence whatsoever of a positive impact on society. In fact, since the inception of drug prohibition, drug use among the American populace has steadily increased.

__________________
"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

One more quick point:

To be fair, drug prohibition is the sort of bullshit feelgood legislation that both congressional Dems and Republicans like to trumpet. That is, anyone who wants to add "tough on crime" to their campaign commercial, Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, will support this kind of idiocy. The way the issue is framed in our national consciousness, standing up for sensible drug regulation is political suicide. If you suggest that drug possession penalties are too extreme, your opponent will crucify you on the campaign trail with adds saying "So-and-so thinks that we should allow people to sell crack to your children."

__________________
"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

Again leftist aka progressive are you claiming only conservative pass laws?
Again leftist aka progressive I have no problem with drug laws. I do not use drugs for a recreational purpose. And I take very few if any over the counter drugs.

Can you give us any names of these so called drug laws and just which party voted them in?

I was watching a program on one of the many history channels my service has about ole FDR. He allowed the FBI to wire tap people of Japanese, German, and Italian ancestry simply because of their ancestry. What were the leftist aka progressives crying about President Bush doing? The leftist aka progressives have a long history of violating the rights of Americans.

Hate to have to say it, DHard, but trying to follow your convoluted logic is like trying to follow a trout with whirling disease!

Gem

__________________
There is no political solution to our troubled evolution.

"Reality, the left-wing liberal conspiracy. "
Credited to Angry American.

DHard says:

DHard, alcohol nearly destroyed my life- and would have if I hadn't quit 25 years ago. But if someone came to my door promoting prohibition I would have to tell them to take a hike, since I've come to the realization that the problem wasn't what was in the bottle- the problem was what was to be found within me. Also, I do not use "over-the counter" drugs either, unless absolutely necessary.

You ask:
Although I cannot name, off the top of my head, the names of any drug laws I can give you the name of an organization that promoted and pushed for stiffer drug laws and mandantory sentencing laws- D.A.R.E.

I remember, back in the early 90's I believe, a radio program that was sponsored by D.A.R.E. They made the comment that anyone who is USING drugs is ABUSING drugs. As far as I'm concerned that is like saying that anyone that drinks alcohol is an alcoholic. I have precious little use for anyone or any organization that is so out of touch with reality that they don't know the difference between use and abuse. They are two different words in the dictionary, you know, and have two totally different meanings.

You may also wish to note that the Commision on Marijuana and Drug Abuse, created by Richard Nixon in the early 70's and who had hand-picked the members of that commission picking notably conservatives to head that commission reported back to Richard Nixon that marijuana should be legalized and that a failure to do so would inevitably lead to the creation of criminal organizations just as Prohibition had done in solidifying and empowerering the "Mob" in the 1920's.

What had been Richard Nixons reply? He "didn't want to believe it".
With hindsight being the 20/20 vision that most rational thinking people know it to be, who had made the correct assessment? The conservative Nixon, or the hand-picked Commission that had recommended its legalization?

Gem

__________________
There is no political solution to our troubled evolution.

"Reality, the left-wing liberal conspiracy. "
Credited to Angry American.

D.A.R.E. was a program that was in full swing when I was a kid (80's) with their "Just Say No!" motto. Now, I obviously see no issue with teaching kids that drug abuse is bad and to be avoided, but my main problem with the program was that its proponents felt a Machiavellian sentiment that telling children bald-faced lies was appropriate because "the ends justify the means."

As a child I "learned" that smoking a joint would cause me to be addicted to drugs for the rest of my life and that everyone who used drugs wound up dead or living in a gutter. The problem with these lies is that kids are not stupid, and they quickly discover that they have been lied to. As soon as I realized that, D.A.R.E.'s entire message went right out the window becuase I thought "well, this group is clearly full of shit" (this resulted from me observing kids who smoked pot with minimal negative effects on their lives).

A more reasonable approach would have been honesty. "Yeah, marijuana ain't gonna kill you, but it will make you lazy and less inclined to be successful. Stay away from crack and heroin, though - that stuff will kill you. And, booze is probably the worst of all." A message like that would have resonated much more with me once I reached an age where I was seeing the truth (or lack thereof) firsthand.

Organizations like D.A.R.E. and the DEA wouldn't need to create absurd propoaganda filled with lies if their motivations and goals were really all that great.

__________________
"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

Speaking strictly about marijuana, which wasn't made illegal until the 1930's I believe, the view back then was that marijuana was almost exclusively used by " Mexicans, Negroes and Jazz musicians". So it's pretty apparent that the laws against it were created by predominately conservative Whites and was obviously predjudicial and racist in nature- anothe fine illustration of how the conservatives of America have created laws that ultimately led to America having more people in prison per capita than any other nation in the world.

Gem

__________________
There is no political solution to our troubled evolution.

"Reality, the left-wing liberal conspiracy. "
Credited to Angry American.

Why is it that people that want to legalize an illegal activity think insulting people that disagree with them is proper.

I can compare people such as you defender of using illegal drugs that wants to legalize illegal drugs to people that want to legalize sex with children.

Cease picking activities that are illegal.

Hey are defender of using illegal drugs did you miss the simple question about what laws did the conservatives pass? Don’t just spew the mandatory sentencing laws lie.
Give us the name of the law.

Your nose must be stuck to the sap of one of the trees, DHard. Try pulling yourself away from the minutae and take a good look at whole the forest for a change. I apologze for not having the time to dig through google and other sources for the precise names of the laws- I do have a life and commitments to keep, you know. Maybe somebody else will help out in that endeavor. I'll be back on later tonite and I'll see what I can up with then for you.

Gem

__________________
There is no political solution to our troubled evolution.

"Reality, the left-wing liberal conspiracy. "
Credited to Angry American.

All you want to do like all leftist aka progressives is bad mouth conservatives. No facts just lies.
The other leftist aka progressives spewing the secret prison lie are doing the very same thing as you are. And yes they cannot provide names of these so called secret prison. Or the name of Americans being held in them.