So here is the interview I originally shot on Feb 12th at Stanek’s office. I’ve broken it down chronologically in a play by play below.

Preamble: I called his office at the end of January seeking an interview. I talked to one secretary who set up a time for me to come in. When I did I ran into another secretary who wanted a full list of questions and offered to reschedule. The reason she gave for wanting the questions was in case I asked anything regarding stats or figures. I was fine with that. She also mentioned the office’s willingness to talk to local media and mentioned the recent flap involving the Target Corporation’s distinction between “real media” and “bloggers”. She then assured me that she had read my blog and could see from my writings that I was obviously not “crazy”. We’re still trying to verify that one. I came back about a week later and was escorted to the conference room. The same secretary then made further comments about my blog and noted that she enjoyed my “Hillary bashing”. This made me think she didn’t really read the blog, since my criticism of HRC is from a progressive perspective and I don’t take issue with the myriad of non-issues that neoconservative pundits usually do (i.e. her phony marriage, her husband’s infidelity, whitewater, etc..).

She was, however, very adamant that I ask no question regarding speculation as to whether or not Stanek would run for Congressman Ramstad’s seat in the fall. Supposedly some reporter from one of the local affiliates snuck that one in on him in a previous interview. I did, however, have a list that included several questions which I did NOT submit to her prior to the interview, as I felt they would likely cancel. After a period of giving her professional advice on CMS platforms for web design she left and came back with Sheriff Stanek.

0:30 So I start out with Meth as I think it is bar none the most destructive drug in the US today. I can honestly look at meth and the people using it and say, “This is not a victimless crime.” The user is knowingly doing major damage to their mind and body, as well as their relationships. I understand that many libertarians believe you should be able to do whatever you like, so long as no one else is harmed, but try explaining that to someone who believes that the other is the self.

1:20 Actually I looked at the mag afterward and it did in fact say that the meth labs were just getting smaller and less detectable. It also featured a nice commentary entitled “Don’t Tase Them Bro” where the writer encouraged his fellow officers to put away their “non-lethal” forms of deterance in favor of the automatic rifle he was pointing at the camera in the picture that accompanied it. Nice!

2:45 Yeah, this really happened, and don’t tell me you haven’t seen people walking around in their pajamas with the skin falling off their faces, blathering on about Science knows what. If the sheriff were truly interested in going after drugs that were truly a blight on the community, he might do better to start there.

3:20 Here we go. The most harmful drugs take a back seat to the ones more readily available to publicize and politicize.

5:30 You have to wonder how serious some of the leadership in law enforcement would be about combating weed if there were no property to seize in these cases. What would they do if after these investigations, they couldn’t stand in front of some local tv news cameras with a pile of money and guns on one table and a fat stack of weed on the other?

6:25 Y’know, I’m kind of glad they’re destroying the homes. In fact, I think it’s an unintended act of justice for the subprime mortgage crisis. Let the banks take a loss on the property. It’s not as if they won’t get a corporate bailout from the federal reserve. From an environmental standpoint, I doubt any of these homes are LEED certified anyway. And It’s not like there aren’t 50 more houses on the block that look exactly like that one. Maybe the next house will look different…

6:55 Oh you got me! Or rather I got myself. I do appreciate his candor though. When so many people are using it you almost wonder why they don’t just call it a day on the whole policy. That said, I don’t see how some guy growing a couple plants for his own personal use in any way causes more violent crime in any given community.

7:50 Here I begin to find it interesting that he does have an opinion as to the worthiness of marijuana as a substance, as well how that substance should be controlled. Lots of Cancer and AIDS patients are allergic to opiates or just don’t want to take the Hillbilly Heroin that Big Pharma is giving out. Why not relieve people’s pain and nausea without completely immobilizing them in the process?

As far as the violence in these cases I can definitely testify to that. Last summer I came home to a fucking crime lab van, 4 squad cars, and a paramedic out on my street cuz the guy on the corner of 28th and Grand got shot up in his apartment. Of course there were drugs involved, but the real question is, “Why was Al Capone in favor of alcohol prohibition?” For the same reason Pablo Escobar was in favor of all the other prohibitive drug laws. Organized crime thrives off these laws. If every Tom Dick & Jane were just growing a few plants in their back yard, I fail to see where the violent element would present itself.

8:45 We have arrived. The week previous I heard his secretary throw out the phrase “marijuana addicts”. I wanted to be sure that his office truly did believe that there are people out there in Minnesota totally strung out on pot. They’ll do anything for it. Rob an old lady, kill their parents, etc…..

Of course the THC content is up. The growers have been cross breeding strains and exchanging seeds for the last 20 years that pot has become such an industrial powerhouse in our economy. And I really have to take issue with the violence assertion again. As a child of an alcoholic father I often wonder what my childhood would have been like if my dad wasn’t constantly inundating himself with a legal depressant all the time. Can anyone come up with a pot smoking parent who beat the hell out of them when they toked up?

10:00 No actually I don’t think I would ever know an addict if I saw one. In fact, I don’t know if I’ve ever met a marijuana addict in my life. I know a lot of people who use it as a crutch or to be creative when they could obviously be just as creative without it, but I never met someone who was just crazy to get their hands on it. I have a current friend who smokes it every day, yet manages to hold down a six figure job while keeping his family of five fat and happy. Likely much better than the alcoholic down the street. The only way his life is getting fucked up is if he gets caught, which he won’t since he appears to be smart about it.

And I really have to take issue with the assertion that you will somehow find marijuana as a gateway to greater crimes beyond simple possession.

11:00 Again you should note that he has an opinion on the matter relating directly to policy.

12:00 This is how far down the mainstream ideology of modern conservatism has fallen. What exactly do “state’s rights” even mean if you’re constantly picking and choosing which rights the states shall have, especially when the issue falls totally outside the realm of the US Constitution?

“If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.”

-Thomas Jeferson

These questions merely demonstrate a shirking of responsibility on his behalf to do any critical thinking on the subject whatsoever. Where he can easily produce an opinion for a policy issue like medicinal marijuana, here it become necessary to excuse himself from answering questions on the grounds that he is not a legislator.

12:50 Looking back I should have done away with the preface to this question and merely asked if he thought the federal government was doing enough internationally to combat drug importation. He saw where it was going though. At 13:20 his phone supposedly vibrates and he takes the call. I boosted the audio on his mic feed after the fact to pick up any noise from the phone as it vibrated or when he is supposedly conversing with his deputy. Nothing. But what the hey. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. He immediately excuses himself from the conversation and that’s that. His secretary came back in and said he couldn’t finish because of the lady who killed her little nephew the night before.

But that is the ultimate question that exposes the true absurdity of the War on Non-Pharmaceutical chemicals. The US government under the Clinton Administration had Operation Casablanca killed when they found out that the Mexican Secretary of Defense was involved in the laundering of drug money to the tune of $1 Billion. Our federal government continues to align itself with Columbia and Mexico despite the fact that their governments are propped up by the trade of illegal narcotics.

The Mexican ruling party then uses that money to stay in power and continue the same failed economic policies that drive millions of Mexicans across our borders driving down the cost of labor in America significantly; fitting in nicely with the economic desires of the republican party and to a certain extent, that of the old guard democrats. I’m not against illegal immigration for any xenophobic reasons, but I do recognize that it ammounts to social dumping. It’s bad for all workers involved.

I do challenge Rich Stanek to answer this question: Why should local law enforcement officers continue to risk their lives while the federal government continues to align itself with Central and South America’s leading Narco States? I doubt I’ll be getting a response to that one anytime soon.

I don’t want anyone to misconstrue this report as being anti-law enforcement in any way. My uncle was elected County Sheriff in Sanilac County Michigan where I grew up. If anything I think the prohibition of narcotics is the most anti-police policy we could have. While Stanek is busy making his career off these horrible policies, it’s his rank and file officers whose lives are being risked every day for these ridiculous policies. I’ll take this time to say that I support Hennepin County Deputies as well as MPD and state troopers in their daily service, whether I agree with the laws or not. Since I’m not a user, I have nothing to fear regardless. That said, I do work in a creative industry. I go to a lot of professional interactive marketing and graphic design get togethers around the cities, and the idea that these talented individuals, who are largely responsible for driving MN’s economy, being arrested and jailed for something as stupid as pot makes no sense. You’re taking someone who is a peaceful individual producing wealth and turning them into a ward of the state that I then have to pay for.

Is it any wonder then that the other group lobbying for tougher penalties on drugs is the Prison Industrial Complex? We have close to 1% of our national population in jail and someone is going to tell me with a straight face that they can justify putting more non-violent offenders in prison?

Thankfully Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) is becoming much more active and popular amongst the very officers who were charged with fighting this supposed “War on Drugs”:

In the course of this, I read a lot of info about drug use in MN. I watched a lot of YouTube videos as well. I threw a few more of them in below. Again, I don’t want this to be viewed as some “gotcha” bullshit like the Democratic Debate the other night. There was really no way I could do it without refuting Stanek’s opinions and general mindset on the topic and I apologize to if he feels in any way wronged.

If you feel the need to learn more on the topic of drugs there are lots of web sites to find info on. And if you think these laws are outdated, you might consider making a donation to the Marijuana Policy Project this Sunday.

Here are some additional videos on the issue. One even has Rick Steves hosting a dialog on marijuana laws! Enjoy.

I hate parking downtown for anything. The question for the council is, “What are some policies we can put in place to encourage people to get microcars and drive them downtown instead?” Granted that the Tango, pictured above, isn’t exactly being mass produced right now, but even the Smart Car dramatically reduces the amount of surface area taken up by daily commuters downtown. So should council move forward and act to implement new parking mandates for city parking lots setting aside several spaces for microcars?

This video doesn’t cover new feedstocks for biodeisel like Algae and Jatropha, or wild grasses and CO2 to make ethanol. I’m frustrated that people are this misinformed. How about making a more nuanced argument differentiating between the two? No? Easier to be unreasonably pessimistic about the entire future of the industry? Fine.

They’re dead on in the second half of the production.

Watching Obama go after Hillary on NAFTA started out entertainingly enough. The total disconnect between HRC’s Ohio base and their distaste for NAFTA is well documented here:

But looking at Obama’s record on the issue isn’t very comforting either. The other day he made the statement that getting rid of NAFTA would be even more harmful to American workers. Got anything to back that assertion up?

This is the reason I despised the Clintons and it will likely be the reason why I end up disliking Obama, assuming he doesn’t have a more progressive agenda tucked away for post election times. If history is any indication, the dem will move to the right after the election.

I decided early on that a rejection of Clintonian economics and election tactics would be a suitable outcome for the democratic primary, just as Ron Paul’s campaign represented a rejection of neoconservatism; I only wish my fellow bloggers would have recognized that it isn’t just about the dems, but about the ideological beliefs of those sitting across the aisle that will determine the outcomes to our political imperatives.

But whatever, we have to look after our own. It’s just unfortunate that Americans get this “our team” “your team” attitude.

Other reasons I’m losing trust in Obama include his lack of coming up with a plan to open up our elections to a proportional system. I can’t stomach the assertion that America is somehow a promoter of competition, when our political system is designed to create a homogenous body politic. He’s also not very inspiring on foreign policy, despite his claim that he was against the war from the beginning. Why is it that a republican like Paul can make the argument in a debate on Fox news that he wants to close every foreign base, saving us trillions of dollars, and no democrat can come forth with the same argument. Why are they trying to appear hawkish?

There is a very strange psychological paradigm with which the democratic party perceives itself in the face of its neoconservative counterparts.

This is probably the best video that brings out the worst Buckley had to offer. Chomsky’s arguements demonstrate why it’s often neccesary to send in a radical to take on the wingnut as a means of breaking down their positions to their core and exposing them for what they are.

I think that the National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank sounds good, but I’m interested to hear more about what kinds of projects it will actually fund. Here’s what he said about it yesterday.

“It’s a Washington where decades of trade deals like NAFTA and China have been signed with plenty of protections for corporations and their profits, but none for our environment or our workers who’ve seen factories shut their doors and millions of jobs disappear; workers whose right to organize and unionize has been under assault for the last eight years…So today, I’m laying out a comprehensive agenda to reclaim our dream and restore our prosperity. It’s an agenda that focuses on three broad economic challenges that the next President must address - the current housing crisis; the cost crisis facing the middle-class and those struggling to join it; and the need to create millions of good jobs right here in America- jobs that can’t be outsourced and won’t disappear.

For our economy, our safety, and our workers, we have to rebuild America. I’m proposing a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank that will invest $60 billion over ten years. This investment will multiply into almost half a trillion dollars of additional infrastructure spending and generate nearly two million new jobs - many of them in the construction industry that’s been hard hit by this housing crisis. The repairs will be determined not by politics, but by what will maximize our safety and homeland security; what will keep our environment clean and our economy strong. And we’ll fund this bank by ending this war in Iraq. It’s time to stop spending billions of dollars a week trying to put Iraq back together and start spending the money on putting America back together instead…

It’s also time to look to the future and figure out how to make trade work for American workers. I won’t stand here and tell you that we can - or should - stop free trade. We can’t stop every job from going overseas. But I also won’t stand here and accept an America where we do nothing to help American workers who have lost jobs and opportunities because of these trade agreements. And that’s a position of mine that doesn’t change based on who I’m talking to or the election I’m running in.

You know, in the years after her husband signed NAFTA, Senator Clinton would go around talking about how great it was and how many benefits it would bring. Now that she’s running for President, she says we need a time-out on trade. No one knows when this time-out will end. Maybe after the election.

I don’t know about a time-out, but I do know this - when I am President, I will not sign another trade agreement unless it has protections for our environment and protections for American workers. And I’ll pass the Patriot Employer Act that I’ve been fighting for ever since I ran for the Senate - we will end the tax breaks for companies who ship our jobs overseas, and we will give those breaks to companies who create good jobs with decent wages right here in America.”

Notice the blue pantsuit? That’s the textbook Clinton election movie. How so? She and her lame ass husband always start out the election appealing to the base and move to the imaginary “center” throughout the race. It is no coincidence that she wants to be percieved as Margaret Thatcher, same as Michele Obama went out of her way to look like Jackie O. Thatcher was likely Clinton’s icon anyway; a thoughtless, ideologically driven shill.

Here’s a piece that pretty much sums it up.

So I sent a message to Clinton’s campaign asking them just what I’d have to do to get my picture with Hillary. I’m actually not getting down on her about this cuz I know every campaign does this crap. I just think it’s lame.

Hi Bretton,

My name is Tori Roth, and I am working on the Hillary Clinton Campaign. I read your inquiry about the cost to get a photo with Hillary. I understand that you are in Minneapolis, but the closest event we are holding is a breakfast reception with Hillary in Milwaukee, WI.

The reception will be at 8:30am on Sunday, February 17th at the Pfister Hotel. Tickets are $2300 per person for the photo with Hillary, $1000 for the Sponsor’s Reception, or $250 for the General Reception.

I have attached the invitation (the time on the invitation says TBD, but it will be at 8:30am). If you are interested in attending, feel free to e-mail me or call me at 513-673-5210.

We really hope you and your family can join us!

Sincerely,
Tori Roth
Hillary Clinton for President

You’re one in a million. You might be prone not to trust her, but every word she says here is true.

Yeah this is sweeter than honey on shit. The old guard can’t even do what they supposedly do best. It’ll be interesting to see just how much money they flushed down the toilet. We know of $5 million, but how much else could there be? Time will tell. It’s gonna be a long month for Billary. There was some good specuation on DKos about whether Clintons will go after Dean or muddle with FL and MI.

I’m hoping she’ll drop out before it comes to that, but these parasites only care about power.

Update: Even if this was a stunt, I don’t think it was a very good move to try and give her the underdog status. What is it with people and how they relate to underdogs? So irrational.