By Jeffrey Sewell

As I sat in the Matthew Perry Federal Court House earlier this month watching my friend, Thomas Ravenel, receive his sentence on federal drug charges, I was reminded of a scene from the Academy Award-winning film, Traffic.

One of the most unflinching, unapologetic and controversial motion pictures ever made, Traffic explores America’s “War on Drugs” from multiple vantage points, including that of fictitious American Drug Czar Robert Wakefield.

“If there is a war on drugs,” Wakefield says during the movie’s climactic scene, “Then many of our family members are the enemy. And I don’t know how you wage war on your own family.”

Sitting calmly behind the defendant’s table in that same courtroom was a man I have come to know as family.

He was – and is – a good man, a successful man, a man whose goodness and success has created opportunity and prosperity for thousands of South Carolinians. And a man whose passionate advocacy of our nation’s founding fiscal conservative principles was poised to create additional opportunity and prosperity for thousands – perhaps millions – of us living in a state saddled with high unemployment, low income levels and a diminished competitive position in an increasingly competitive world.

But my friend – who also happens to be our former State Treasurer – had a secret habit.

His recreational use of cocaine not only violated our laws, it also violated the public trust we placed in him.

Perhaps better than anyone else, Thomas Ravenel knows this. That’s why he cooperated fully and truthfully with the authorities who came to know of his secret. It’s why he took immediate and decisive steps to receive the treatment he needed to cure him of his admitted addiction. It’s why he willingly accepted a sentence that many – including me – felt was too harsh and too motivated by the media’s definition of “equality,” a definition at odds with mitigating circumstances acknowledged not only by his attorneys, but by the men prosecuting him. And it’s why he’s asked to begin serving his sentence now, rather than delay it in the hopes of receiving leniency.

Through every step of his public ordeal, Thomas Ravenel has proven that his words “I not only want to apologize, I want to make amends,” have been accompanied by a genuine commitment to rehabilitate himself and restore the public confidence he has lost.

But no matter what you think of Thomas Ravenel or the sentence he received, consider these facts from a recent non-partisan Pew Center study:

• State and federal authorities currently spend $55 billion a year to incarcerate approximately 2.3 million Americans – the highest percentage in the world.

• Government spending on incarceration – adjusted for inflation – has increased by 127% over the past two decades. By comparison, higher education costs have only increased by 21%.

• Non-violent offenders – who represent about half of all incarcerated American adults – would be just as likely to avoid repeat offenses if given less-expensive punishments like mandatory drug counseling, electronic monitoring or house arrest.

Simply put, for all the talk of “justice” and “equality” that accompanied news of Ravenel’s sentencing, the truth is that as a society we are avoiding the underlying issue here – the increasing costs and proven ineffectiveness of locking up first time, non-violent offenders.

Even assuming Ravenel hadn’t admitted his responsibility, cooperated fully with authorities or voluntarily sought treatment for his drug use, he likely would still have been eligible for Pre-Trial Intervention (PTI) and avoided jail time had he faced state charges. Why wasn’t he? In fact, Judge Joseph F. Anderson acknowledged in Ravenel’s sentencing hearing that it was “rare to have powder cocaine cases in the federal court system.”

“Ravenel is a good example of a defendant likely to mend his ways and become a contributing member of society again – even without a jail sentence,” a recent editorial by the Rock Hill Herald stated. “Taxpayers will spend about $15,000 a year to house and feed Ravenel in a federal prison. We question whether that is money well spent.”

It’s easy to be tough on crime, to “lock ‘em up and throw away the key.” It’s also easy to allow the media to dictate the parameters of justice as they see fit. What’s more difficult is to acknowledge that while popular and politically-expedient, such remedies do not always serve the individual to be “rehabilitated” or the society to be “protected.”

Our goal as a nation should be not only truth – but justice – in sentencing. In the case of Thomas Ravenel, justice clearly was not served.

Mr. Sewell is the principal consultant of Sewell Consultancy, a political consulting firm in Lexington County. He is also the former campaign manager to Ravenel for Treasurer and co-owner of www.SChotline.com.

By Louis Neiger
I recently read a book by David Barton called Setting the record straight: American History in Black & White published 2004. It is a well-documented book of endnotes and references from personal writings and government documents.

Most history books either skim over or they do not include history of Black Americans and their rich American heritage. This book would be a great reference book for your library.  I had never heard of Oliver Cromwell or Prince Whipple both black Americans, who served with General Washington.  Their faces can be seen in the painting in the boat crossing the Delaware, Christmas Eve before the attack on Trenton, New Jersey.  They also served other generals during the revolutionary war.  Neither had I ever read about Peter Salem a black legendary Minuteman hero of 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill, Saratoga and Stony Point who fought right along with other Americans.

We usually do not read, in the average history book, of Muslims attacking villages in Africa and putting these people in chains and selling men, woman and children into bondage to Dutch traders who introduced slavery to the expanding world and the Americas.  We will read, in the average history book, about the Dutch traders coming up the James River in Virginia the year 1619 and starting the slave trade. What we probably have not heard about is that at this same time in history a ship arrived in the Puritan Christian Colony of Massachusetts with slaves.  The officers of the ship were arrested and imprisoned and the kidnapped slaves returned to Africa at the colony’s expense.

After the ratification of the Constitution 1789 Congress expanded its fight against slavery and passed the Northwest Ordnance. It established territories that would become states and forbade any federal territories to practice slavery.  Six states eventually came in as free states.

In 1808 ‘Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States (Washington DC: Gales and Seaton, p. 1266, 9th Congress, 2nd session,” An act to prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States,” March 2, 1807 which abolished the slave trade was enacted into law.  Free Blacks during this time in the north and south were extended full rights of a citizen and regularly voted both in the North and the South.

One great American Frederick Douglas was born into slavery in Maryland in 1818.  His mother was black and his father an unknown white.   His life was an example to us all that even under the worst of circumstances we can better ourselves.  Frederick Douglas learned to read and write prior to escaping slavery and going north 1838.  He than joined an anti slavery organization and eventually went out on his own and received presidential appointments and was an adviser to many presidents including Lincoln and after the civil war Grant, Hayes and Garfield.  The Democratic president Glover Cleveland had him removed from office but Republican President Benjamin Harrison reappointed him when he was elected after Cleveland. Frederick Douglas spoke and wrote against slavery and was one of the main pioneers to push for civil rights for all.

Douglas wrote and debated in his later years one of the main questions of today, why was the African American community only given a three-fifths representation in the Constitution. Many today state the Constitution was a slavery bill.  Frederick Douglas came to a conclusion and dared people to debate after reading the founding fathers documents and the US Constitution that the clause in the Constitution was and is actually an ANTI slavery document.    In short the slavery representatives wanted to have representation for their property, one full vote for every 30,000 slaves but not allow their property (slaves) to vote for the representatives or have any rights.  The anti slavery representatives saw that if the slavery states had a full vote for the slaves, it would allow almost half of the south’s population that was in slavery NO REAL representation in Washington and to allow expansion of slavery.

With most of the founding fathers dead in 1820 the Democratic Party, which became the majority party in Congress; recalled the law of 1789 prohibiting slavery in federal territories. The Democratic Congress passed the Missouri Compromise and reversed the earlier policy and allowed slavery in almost half of the federal territories.

Some of the early presidents John Quincy Adams who served as ambassador to Russia as a young adult in his teens and his father John Adams the 2nd president of the United States both had fought against slavery. John Quincy Adams fought until his death prior to the civil war and in congress stating:   “The first step of the slaveholder to justify by argument of the peculiar institutions (slaveholder) is to deny the self evident truths of the Declaration of Independence.  He (slaveholder) denies that all men are created equal.  He (slaveholder) denies that they (slaves) have inalienable rights”. John Quincy Adams as president and as a representative in the US Congress until his death submitted bills against slavery.

The Democrats in Congress passed a proslavery 1850 Fugitive State Law, that required Northerners to return escaped slaves back into slavery or else pay heavy fines.  This in many cases allowed slave-hunters to kidnap even Free Blacks in the North and carry them back South just by accusing a black of being a slave even though he was free.

An anti slavery Representative Charles Sumner started the Republican Party and they first ran a Republican Presidential candidate 1856 by running John C. Fremont against Democrat James Buchanan.  Fremont lost.

Than came the famous Dred Scott decision in 1857, where the Democratic Controlled Supreme Court declared that blacks were not persons or citizens but instead were property and therefore had no rights.  Three years later the Republicans ran their 2nd presidential candidate, Abraham Lincoln, who won as the first Republican President.

Republican president Dwight D. Eisenhower was against racial segregation and determined to eliminate racial discrimination in all areas under his authority. . One of his 1st orders, an executive order, halted segregation in the District of Columbia and federal agencies.  He was the 1st president to appoint a black American Frederic Morrow to an executive on the White House staff.  In 1957 Eisenhower proposed a bold civil rights bill to increase black voting rights and protections that was blocked by democratic senator James Eastman, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In 1959 again Eisenhower presented a second civil rights bill to Congress and was met again with unyielding opposition in the Democratic House.  It eventually passed the house but the democrats in the Senate killed the bill.
John F. Kennedy was less willing to utilize executive orders to promote civil rights for over a year.   Kennedy, 1962 Issued Executive Order #11063 banning racial discrimination in housing. The violent discord in Birmingham in 1963 where Democratic Governor George Wallace prevented blacks from entering school, did force Kennedy to send a major civil rights bill to Congress.  A current democratic Senator from Virginia, Senator Robert Byrd, back than was one of the senators that gave a stiff opposition to the bill.  Kennedy was killed and famous Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King along with many other Americans organized people and pushed through the Civil rights Act of 1964 followed by the Voting rights act of 1965.
The little known fact is that out of the 315 Democrats in congress only 198 voted for these bills, alone would not of passed, but with 83% of the Republicans voting overwhelmingly for these bills sending them to President Lyndon Johnson’s desk where he signed them into law. ‘Congressional Quarterly (Washington, D C: Congressional Quarterly Service, 1965), Vol. 20, pp, 606, 696, 88th Congress, 2nd Session, vote on the Civil Rights Bill of 1964, February 10, 1964’.

Another great Constitutional Amendment occurred in 1964 abolishing the poll tax. Ninety one percent of the Republicans supported this Amendment.  Of the sixteen senators that wanted to keep the poll tax alive, fifteen of the senators where democrats that voted to keep the poll tax alive. ‘Congressional Quarterly (Washington, D C: Congressional Quarterly Service, 1962), Vol. 18,pp. 630, 654, 87th Congress, 2nd session, Senate and House votes on approving the Constitutional Amendment banning the poll tax, March 27 and August 27th 1962.’  If the Republicans did not support these bills they would of NEVER passed at that time.

Our Current Secretary of State of the United States, Doctor Condoleezza Rice could of quit as a child in Birmingham, Alabama when her best girlfriend was killed in a church fire during the turbulent 1960s. Here is a woman that has succeeded in education and government politics going into countries including Muslim countries that see women only as property and handles herself at the highest standard representing America.  I do not see her as an African American but a great American.

In this short time that I have been on this earth, I have been blessed in the 1960s to attend integrated schools, go to war in Vietnam and have many friends over the years of all races.  We did not see ourselves as black, white or yellow but human beings created by God, with inalienable rights given us by our creator blessed to be born as Americans.  As our Declaration of Independence states all men are created equal.

On September 11, 2001 when we were attacked by extremist Muslims we all came together as over 3,000 of our fellow American’s lives were snuffed out in a senseless attack on our country.  We cried together as we watched on TV and listened to the radio.  We determined together as Americans to work and to rebuild and to bring to justice those responsible for the deaths of our fellow citizens.

Former slave and consultant to several presidents, Frederick Douglas taught us all that you can succeed even in the face of daunting circumstances. This is what America is about.  Let us not look out for handouts from government, but look to give ahand to help some one succeed.  It should be our hearts to help people not depend on government to do it. That is what makes America great!
Till next time…..

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Lou Neiger has been a regular contributor to The Dutch Fork Chronicle since 2005 and published in several papers as a guest columnist in South Carolina.  Lou has worked in the Insurance Planning field since 1981 and earned his CLU designation from the American College in Bryn Mawr, Pa.   He and his family live in Newberry

by Jeffrey Sewell

Who is to blame for the current state of the SCGOP?

The long established S.C. political consulting machine is the problem: no new ideas, bad data, cookie-cutter operations, and bad candidates. The same-old, same-old produces the same unacceptable results, which frankly does not benefit the folks of South Carolina or further the Republican agenda of change for the better.

The time is now for new consulting firms to step up and step out. With young minds like Boling, Donahue, Folks, Piper, Ragley and others, there is certainly not a lack of young talent in this state. It is time for them to make their mark. They understand how to recruit on principle, not on dollars in the candidate’s pocket. With the talent pool in SC for both young consultants and conservative candidates, there is no reason to rely on the traditional establishment any longer. It just makes sense that if you have a good conservative candidate, you can raise the cash necessary to win.

The Huckabee campaign is the perfect example of performing at the top on a shoestring budget, bravo Chip, Drake & Adam. ‘Doing more with less’ is as much a business approach and state of mind as it is a way to govern a State.

On the issues, Conservatives must recognize that we must first cut the waste in our state government.

It is entirely possible to improve services while cutting both waste and taxes. Don’t get me wrong, this will not have the Democrats dancing in the street; it will be quite the opposite. This is the only common sense approach to improving the political landscape of South Carolina in a way that will encourage new business development, create new jobs and improve the quality of life for all South Carolinians.

Jeffrey Sewell is a principal of SCHotline.com and a the principal consultant of Sewell Consultancy, he and his wife Vee reside in West Columbia, South Carolina [BIO]

by Dr. Frederick Meekins

Throughout his time in the public limelight, Republican Mike Huckabee has made obesity awareness one of his pet issues having lost over 100 pounds himself.  However, as is typical of most fanatics having come to a realization or a cause a little later in the game than most, it is not enough for them to keep what they have learned to themselves but now they are out to impose their new way of life to such an extent that they are willing to appeal to the mechanisms of the state in order to enforce their vision of reality.

As part of an initiative to combat childhood obesity, as Governor of Arkansas, Huckabee implemented directives where each public school student in that state would have their weight cataloged by operatives of the educational system.  From this assessment, a document similar to a report card would be generated and sent out at about the same time as the more traditional scholastic evaluation.

Those  with their perceptions mired in what to them seemed more carefree times might respond, “What’s the big deal?”  Perhaps they should stop and reflect for a moment.

As in the case of grades and such, once the state tabulates an individual’s weight,, it will become part of their permanent file and be used to track them for the rest of their lives.  And don’t go around thinking the number will simply remain just another harmless statistic tossed into a file folder with no additional reference made to it.

In a FoxNews.com story posted 6/13/04 titled “Students To Be Graded On Weight”, the health coordinator is quoted as saying, “We’re going to know how many are overweight, how many are underweight, how many are normal weight.”  It’s bad enough for the government to have such information in its possession, but it gets even worse when it serves as the basis for the implementation of concrete policies.

According to an article titled “Arkansas’ Battle Against Childhood Obesity Enters Its Second Year” posted on the website of the University Of Arkansas For Medical Sciences, at schools with a disproportionate number of obese students, “The incentives offered to students in some areas have changed from pizza or ice cream to yogurt parties or other more healthy food choices.”

Now what kid in their right mind is going to bust their hump for yogurt and carrot sticks?  If that is all they have to look forward to, they might as well drag their feet and remain mired in mediocrity.

However, if readers still think this will be the only impact, they are still not waking up to the complete picture.  For often with these kinds of government programs, using a carrot (an appropriate snack choice under the regimen of the food fascists) and stick approach, once the carrot has been dangled for a while, the stick is eventually brought out to whack those with a more independent streak.  The director of the Arkansas Center For Health Improvement said, “We need schools, parents, and communities across the state to get onboard and become active in this effort that will make a profound difference in our children’s lives.”

These health officials might have say in how schools respond and even communities if once sees such social conglomerations as essentially under government control rather than as the organic dynamic relationships that develop uncoerced from the interaction of free people, but what if parents decide not to cooperate?  One need only look at the last three words of the director’s statement to get a glimpse of where things are headed.

Unless he is referring to his own offspring when he says “our children’s lives” that statement is very revealing as to what this higher mid-level functionary is thinking.  The state, ladies and gentlemen, according to this worldview, holds ultimate title to your progeny and you are merely a hired hand granted the privilege of overseeing them for a few years — the number continuing to decrease as proponents of universal preschool and the like continue to make headway — but who must ultimately raise them in accord with the will of the lord of the manor.

To those thinking they are so sophisticated in their moderation, don’t go dismissing with the flick of a wrist and the crinkling of a nose what I have to say.  In this day and age, especially in certain Republican circles, you can pretty much get what you want by dressing it up in the name of national security or the war on terrorism.

That is exactly what Mike Huckabee has done.  In comments before the Southern Governor’s association regarding what he perceives as an obesity epidemic, Huckabee said, “You’ve got a serious situation with a generation of kids coming up so unhealthy they won’t be able to pass the military physical.  We keep talking about the war on terror — who’s going to fight it if we don’t have enough people who are healthy enough to show up and pick up a backpack.”

Thus, it has finally been revealed why many government officials are feigning concern about the expanding waistlines of many Americans.  They might initially start off claiming their efforts are for the purpose of increasing the expectancy and quality of life, but ultimately it is about nothing more than getting you healthy enough to die or toil for the glory of the Fatherland (or maybe rather “Homeland” as the aspiring totalitarians among us prefer to call it nowadays so much so that even Smallville producers are so frightened that they won’t speak the word preferring to call the agency “the Department of Domestic Security”).

Huckabee’s comments also reveal the kind of double standard being propagated by the ruling elites.  According to Huckabee, the primary reason Americans must be compelled towards physical fitness is so that we might be able to fulfill our obligation of national service.  However, it is quite obvious he exempts his own family from these expectations.

Normally, a person’s weight is the last thing I criticize as at about the age of 9 or 10 on a visit to the doctor’s office for an unrelated matter I was handed a diet plan with a rear-end of a hippopotamus splashed across it and even in Christian schools the vilest of taunts were often reserved for the overweight students.  However, a man with a son the size of one of the Huckabee offspring (and the other two children don’t look like they have skipped many meals either) ought to be among the last to insinuate you are an unfit parent if your progeny happens to be bigger than Nicole Richie.

On the Drudge Report around 12/19/07 was featured a portrait of the Huckabee household.  Standing behind his parents was a young man, it would not be an exaggeration to say, who was nearly as wide as his two parents put together.

Now, in this land of the free and the home of the brave, if the Huckabee spawn wants to be that big, that is his prerogative and most of the time, most of us should keep our mouths shut about it.  However, I am not the presidential contender assailing the patriotism of those whose waistlines exceed the guidelines established by those implementing the New World Order.

But you see, it is not an obligation of those in the governing class such as the Huckabees to be ready at a moments notice to answer the call of the nation.  Rather, that responsibility falls to you, ladies and gentleman, to hand over the lives of your children to sacrifice in wars the elites never intend to send their own children off into.

The Huckabee son is allowed to expand until his heart’s content or it bursts.  Never will he have to face the embarrassment of being weighed in front of his classmates or his parents receive in the mail threatening letters on how this information was forwarded to government authorities   Never will he face the embarrassment of having to be weighed in front of his classmates or his parents receive an intimidating letter in the mail from government authorities.

During the Christmas season, the media about had a coronary attempting to determine whether the intersecting boards of a bookshelf where a subliminal attempt to interject the cross into the campaign.  Too bad they have not been as concerned about a plan that could potentially curtail basic liberties and bring yet another level of surveillance into the lives of the American people if applied at a national level.

Open Blog for tonights Debate, please tell SCHotline.com how well or not your candidate is Rumbling!

SKIING on the beach tomorrow?”

“Late-night ski lift looking for a snow bunny.”

“Where are the cool Brooklyn ski bums? I’ve got tons to share.”

“Take a ride on the snow train.”

The come-ons in the Casual Encounters section of Craigslist last week — or any week — are as plentiful as they are obvious (and cheesy). Using a variety of euphemisms that have been around since Jay McInerney wrote about Bolivian Marching Powder, posters invite others to join them for a line or a lost weekend fueled by cocaine.

The cheeky openness of these ads is hardly anomalous. While cocaine and drug abuse seem to have faded from the headlines, with coverage limited to the not-so-veiled references surrounding the exploits of waifish celebrities, it is still very much a part of the social scene, especially in New York.

Evidence of that is popping up in music, television and even theater. Indeed, for a generation that has not had its John Belushi to drive home the dangers of drug abuse, references and even use are open, casual, even blatant.

“You do see it,” said Noel Ashman, an owner of the Plumm, a hotspot near the meatpacking district. “We’re pretty tight at the club with drug use, whenever we see it we kick it right out. But it has popped up more than it did five years ago.”

And like the red flash of a Louboutin pump, it is easy to spot.

“It’s definitely prevalent in clubs, bars, parties — everywhere, basically,” said Cristiano Andrade, 26, a Brooklynite who manages a wine shop and goes out in the city once or twice a week.

Drug-abuse experts say the blasé attitude toward cocaine use is a result of “generational amnesia.”

“There seems to be less of a stigma about” cocaine, said Dr. Herbert Kleber, director of the division of substance abuse at the New York State Psychiatric Institute in Manhattan. As part of his oversight of research into cocaine addiction and treatment, and in his private clinical practice, Dr. Kleber hears stories about the drug’s use. “People don’t feel nearly as much the need to hide it,” he said. “They feel that they can use it in a more open fashion.”

The visibility of cultural markers — and the absence of cautionary tales — leads to the assumption that coke is not as harmful, say, as heroin (which was associated with the high-profile overdoses of River Phoenix and Kurt Cobain in the 90s), or methamphetamine, whose recent popularity in the gay community has led to a targeted campaign against it, said Perry N. Halkitis, a professor of applied psychology at New York University who studies behavior, the AIDS epidemic and drug abuse.

“If you’re a 19-year-old and you go out and party and you’re offered meth, you say no because you’ve heard these bad things,” he said. “But you’re offered coke, you say yes because you assume it’s safe.” And, he added, as the authorities crack down on meth, “people are going to tend to go to cocaine, which has similar, if not identical properties” as a stimulant.

NOT to mention that the supply and the price of cocaine, about $25 to $30 on the street for a half-gram bag, have remained stable for several years, said John Galea, director of the street studies unit of the New York State Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services. (In rare cases, a large bust can affect prices. Chief James P. O’Neill, the commanding officer of the New York Police Department Narcotics Division, said the authorities seized a record 20 tons of cocaine off the coast of Panama in March, and wholesale prices rose in the last few weeks.)

A prevalence among young people is not entirely borne out by national statistics. According to an annual survey by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, lifetime cocaine use remained stable between 2002 and 2005 among 18- to 25-year-olds. (Data before 2002 are noncomparable.) But the study — which estimates national rates based on a poll of 67,500 people — recorded a 20 percent increase in past-month use among that age group in 2005 from 2004, the last period for which data were available, said Joe Gfroerer, the group’s director of the division of population surveys. (There was no change in usage rates among people over 26.)

The Police Department has not recorded an increase in drug-related arrests at clubs recently, Chief O’Neill said. But, he added, “It doesn’t mean if you’re doing drugs in a club you won’t get caught.”

But in interviews over the last five months with people in the night-life, entertainment, media and finance industries, all said that cocaine is a prominent part of a night out. Teron Beal, 34, a songwriter and aspiring actor, said he encountered cocaine regularly and does it occasionally — and not only in clubs and bars. “When you’re in meetings and you’re in the studio, it’s offered like coffee,” he said. “If you say yeah, they’re cool with it and if you say no, they’re like O.K., and they just go and do it in front of you.”

“Coke is the new weed,” he continued. “Everybody says that.”

Tom Sykes, a former night-life reporter for The New York Post who chronicled his alcohol- and drug-fueled life in the memoir “What Did I Do Last Night?” said that cocaine is more socially acceptable than smoking. “You could go into a swanky party in New York and do a line and nobody would notice,” said Mr. Sykes, who is now sober. “Pull out a cigarette and people would think you’d pulled out a gun.”

And cocaine is not only popular in New York. “When I go to travel somewhere else, people think I do it and they’re so eager to shove it up my nose,” said Roxy Summers, a party promoter and D.J. who goes by the name Oxy Cottontail.

Mr. Beal, who is old enough to remember the drug wars of the 80s, said the perception of the drug has changed. “When I was growing up, it was like a VH-1 ‘Behind the Music’ moment whenever anyone talked about their cocaine habit,” he said. “It was like rock bottom, coke is crazy.” Now, he said, it is merely flashy fun.

Dominic Streatfeild, the author of “Cocaine: An Unauthorized Biography,” who is based in London, where according to recent government studies, use among young people has tripled since the late 90s, had another theory. “In a culture obsessed with celebrity,” he said, “the fact that cocaine makes you feel rich and beautiful — it’s the perfect drug for our times.”

With Wall Street surging and a 24-hour global economy, young professionals have the money and the incentive to stay constantly wired.

“I do it every day,” said Kristoff, a European transplant to New York who works in finance and would not give his last name. He said he pays $150 for two grams of cocaine. “If I have to work at 6 in the morning and I have to be on top of the game, I’ll do it. I’ll take a gram of coke and make half a million dollars.”

That cavalier attitude carries over to pop culture, where references to cocaine are as prevalent as the 80s fashions that accompanied its previous heyday. Cocaine rap is a recognized genre in hip-hop, as Sasha Frere-Jones noted in a December 2006 article in the New Yorker; the platinum-selling rapper Young Jeezy made his name rhyming about his days as a dealer and adopted a menacing-looking snowman as his logo. In the last few years, the drug has been the subject of multiple anthologies, some of them flattering.

Recently the comic Todd Barry, a staple of the downtown comedy circuit, used a conversation he heard at a bar — when one man called a friend to remedy his “nose problem” — as the basis for a new joke in his act. And on a recent episode of NBC’s “30 Rock” when two go-getter writers attribute their success to cocaine, it was a laugh line, not a rebuke.

Even Broadway is not exempt: In “Talk Radio” and “Jack Goes Boating” (starring Liev Schreiber and Philip Seymour Hoffman, respectively), the characters do lines and carry on.

When Gridskipper, a travel blog, ran a post in March about the top bars in which to find cocaine in New York, the response was so overwhelming — the list of places named was like a taxonomy of “it” joints on the Lower East Side, the meatpacking district and Williamsburg — and the comment section so lively that the editors pursued the subject for several more days.

“Drug use tends to be cyclic,” Dr. Kleber said. “If you have a really dangerous drug, the generational remembering will come back quickly. If it takes time for the casualties to add up, the epidemic will last longer.” Referring to the drug’s last heyday, he added, “As some of my colleagues said, John Belushi had to die before people believed that these drugs were really dangerous.”

Besides its addictive potential, cocaine can cause elevated blood pressure, seizures, stroke, cardiac arrest or other heart problems, particularly in people with a pre-disposition. Combining it with alcohol, as many do, increases its toxicity, particularly in the liver, said Dr. Thomas Kosten, a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience and the director of the division of addictions at Baylor College of Medicine.

But these negative effects are overshadowed by the drug’s glamorous image, which is perhaps best personified by Kate Moss. After a brief furor when photographs of Ms. Moss apparently snorting cocaine appeared on the cover of a British tabloid in 2005, she entered rehab for a short time and emerged more successful than ever, with bigger advertising contracts and her own line of clothing at Topshop, the British retailer.

“You never hear about the addiction, you just hear about exclusive photos of wild parties with cocaine, ” Mr. Streatfeild said. “The dangers of cocaine are without a doubt very real, but it’s never dispelled that Champagne image.”

IT took the death last February of the skateboard star and downtown bon vivant Harold Hunter, who died at 31 of a heart attack and whose wake was attended by friends like Rosario Dawson, for Ms. Summers, the D.J. and promoter, to rethink her own behavior.

“Harold’s death really affected me; I know the ways in which he treated night life,” she said, adding that she “never touched” cocaine again. Likewise, she said, people in her community of downtown skateboarders, musicians, artists, and D.J.s went into hiding with their drug habits. “But,” she added, “that only lasted six months, if that.”

ND Wilson Romney 12-14
By Nathan DiBagno

Staff Writer

POWDERSVILLE ¾ Powdersville Councilman and former Sons of the Confederate Veterans National Cmdr. Ron Wilson said he was unhappy with comments Mitt Romney made about the Confederate flag, calling the Republican presidential candidate a “typical Yankee from Massachusetts.”

“I’m a big believer in Southern history, and I was appalled the last few days when one of the presidential candidates decided to make an attack against the Confederate flag,” Wilson said. “Mitt Romney made some of the most bizarre statements anyone has ever made concerning the Confederate flag. He’s a typical Yankee from Massachusetts who comes down here and wants us to vote for him, and then he wants to trash us when he’s asked about our heritage.”

Wilson then called on Palmetto State voters to not support the former Massachusetts governor during January’s primary elections.

“I sincerely hope that South Carolinians, when we get a chance to vote in the primaries in January, we’ll let him know what we think about his comments.”

During a CNN/Youtube debate, Romney said the Confederate flag was not one that he would recognize or hold up in his room.

“The people of our country have decided not to fly that flag. I think that’s the right thing,” Romney said. He also called the flag “divisive,” and said he didn’t believe it should be shown.  

The Sons of the Confederate Veterans has publicly criticized both Romney and Fred Thompson, another Republican presidential hopeful who said that Americans shouldn’t publicly display the flag at state capitols.

“I know that everybody who hangs the flag up in their room like that is not racist. I also know that for a great many Americans it’s a symbol of racism,” Thompson said. “He’s free to do whatever he wants to in his home. As far as a public place is concerned, I am glad that people have made the decision not to display it as a prominent flag, symbolic of something, at a state capitol.”

Although Wilson said he doesn’t like the statement Thompson made either, he doesn’t believe any candidate has been as offensive as Romney.

“He made the most outrageous comments of any candidate so far,” he said. “Mitt Romney ought to apologize to this state.”

Wilson said he instead supports U.S. Congressman Ron Paul, citing the Texas Republican’s opposition to the IRS, the income tax and the war in Iraq as some of the main reasons.

Wilson said that while Paul believes the United States should support the troops, he believes they should bring them back instead of wasting millions of dollars overseas.

“I believe I should vote for who I believe is the best candidate,” Wilson said. “The result is in the hands of the Lord.”

###

From: ndibagno@theeasleyprogress.com [mailto:ndibagno@theeasleyprogress.com]
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2007 09:31
To: wilsonr@atlanticbullionandcoin.com
Subject: powdersville post article

Posted in today’s Globe and Mail (2007-11-27)

________________________

‘It’s called reality’

DAVID H. WILKINS

November 27, 2007

U.S. Ambassador to Canada — “Paranoia anyone?” Lawrence Martin asks regarding U.S. and Canada security measures (Paranoia Anyone? Seeking An End To The Security Excess - Nov. 22).

Mr. Martin cites as “paranoia” our diligent security at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa - measures designed to protect both the U.S. and Canadian employees who work inside and outside of the building.

Certainly Mr. Martin recalls the 1998 attacks on the U.S. embassies of the East African cities of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. Those attacks (linked to al-Qaeda and before the administration of George W. Bush) killed hundreds and injured thousands of other innocent people. Perhaps Mr. Martin will recall the 1993 World Trade Center bombing or the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia?

Does this summer’s terror arrest that thwarted a major bombing of JFK International Airport in New York remind Mr. Martin this is an enemy who does not rest? Sept. 11 was just six years ago; 3,000 innocent civilians (including 24 Canadians) murdered in cold blood.

Paranoia? No. It’s called reality. And developing and implementing security measures to thwart the enemy who promises to strike again and often is called common sense.