Cannabis speeds up, passes gay marriage

Kirsten Gillibrand, Rand Paul, and Cory Booker will introduce a Senate bill to legalize medical marijuana under federal law (today), various outlets are reporting. This bill would mark an unprecedented push to legalize medical use drug on a federal level. We've seen a handful of states (and the nation's capital) legalize recreational marijuana over the last two years, and about half the states have a medical marijuana program, but the proposal — called the "Compassionate Access, Research Expansion and Respect States (CARERS) Act" — would be the widest attempt at legalization yet.

You know what's been happening in Texas and other states, but obviously federal law -- which ceased being enforced at the end of last year -- would trump efforts to slam on the brakes.  As with Obamacare and gay marriage, regressive conservatives would have to shift their focus from prohibition to repeal.  From the WaPo, linked above:

The proposal will be unveiled at a 12:30 p.m. (Eastern) press conference on Tuesday, which will be streamed live here. Patients, their families and advocates will join the senators at the press conference.

We'll see how fast the bill moves, but I never thought I'd see the day.  Without the organized Christianist objection movement that marriage equality has spawned, I would expect to see passage and then few if any court challenges after the fact.  To be resolved in the (perhaps hastening) future would be decriminalizing possession by those without medical conditions, and at some point, something that comes close to unfettered legalization.

That would be real progress, but today counts as a big step in the right direction.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is all about springing forward as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff sadly reminds a fifth-generation Republican who doesn't want to lose her Obamacare insurance subsidies that Greg Abbott doesn't care about her at all.

Libby Shaw, writing for Texas Kaos and contributing to Daily Kos, heard the president give one of the most memorable and moving speeches of our lifetimes.

From WCNews at Eye on Williamson: Dan Patrick wants to bust the spending cap without having to pay politically for busting the spending cap, in GOP Wants To Change The Rules In The Middle Of The Game.

"What the BLEEP happened to hip-hop?" asked PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

Texas ranks 43rd in the US as a place to live for children. That's what happens when Republicans run the place. CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme says pro-life is just another way to say 'I've got mine, who gives a rat's behind about you!"

Texpatriate shared some thoughts on the Israeli-Iranian question following Netanyahu's speech to Congress.

Egberto Willies quoted T-Dubb-O asking you to see the world through his eyes.

Bluedaze and Dos Centavos have the Texas legislative alerts posted for this week: HB 540 on March 11, and SB 185 this morning.

Texas Vox features the citizen lobbyists who went to the Lege to advocate for local control.

Texas Leftist observes that while the state's coffers are flush, Texas cities are having to go into debt to provide necessary public resources.

 Uber is just payday lending on wheels, according to John Coby at Bay Area Houston.

And Neil at All People Have Value -- who has spent a lot of time looking up at the sky lately -- catches a picture of a plane flying between overhead utility wires.  APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Grits for Breakfast applauds Ted Cruz's flop-flop on marijuana, and Trail Blazers wonders if Greg Abbott could be the Texas version of former CA Gov. Pete Wilson.

The Rivard Report documents the crowded ballot that awaits San Antonio voters in May, while Randy Bear does the same for the charter amendments, and worries about trying to make changes in a low-turnout context.

Texas Clean Air Matters echoes the US military's call to diversify our energy options and shift more toward a clean energy economy.

Socratic Gadfly translated Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson's take on future oil prices.

To commemorate March as Women's History Month (and yesterday as International Women's Day), Free Press Houston asks Houston to make a few things happen.  And in that vein, nonsequiteuse asks Free Press Houston to cancel the Summer Fest appearance of R Kelly.

The Lunch Tray would be happy to have celebrities market vegetables to kids.

Paradise In Hell declares that the real threat to marriage in Texas is serial heterosexuals.

BOR highlights the 2014 Texas League of Conservation Voters National Environmental Scorecard.

Better Texas Blog puts Texas' Medicaid spending in context.

Fascist Dyke Motors published her enemies list.

Hair Balls points to Texas Monthly, which says all the things we've been thinking about those terrible Chron.com slideshows.

And Chris Hooks at the Texas Observer would like to remind you that Open Carry Texas -- Tarrant County or otherwise -- are not your father's gun nuts.

Sunday Funnies

Fifty years after

That's Cong. John Lewis, in the right foreground above, getting beaten. And below, in 2010.

The Edmund Pettus Bridge -- which the protestors crossed and where they were greeted by the Alabama state police with billy clubs and tear gas -- was named after a Confederate general and a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.  He was also a United States Senator, serving two terms at the turn of the last century.  He was a Democrat, of course, before all the racists and bigots moved over to the GOP, a trend which took root in the 1954 Supreme Court decision known as Brown v. Board of Education, and began in earnest after LBJ signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965.  The Southern Strategy was employed by Barry Goldwater in 1964, but weaponized by Richard Nixon and George Wallace in 1968, and accelerated further during Ronald Reagan's terms, helped along by his political strategist, Lee Atwater.

And now you at least understand why there will be no Republican leaders -- well, one current leader, it seems, and a few other members of Congress, and W and Laura Bush --  in Selma today.

There will likely be hundreds, perhaps thousands, who will commemorate and recreate the march across the bridge -- but not the televised police assault at the bottom of it, which shocked a nation into action.  And just an hour to the north of Selma, in Shelby County, they aren't really celebrating.  There isn't much to celebrate in Ferguson, Missouri either -- yet -- nor in Madison, Wisconsin, where another unarmed black teenager was shot and killed by police.  On #BlackOutDay.

How long?  How long must we sing this song?

TransGriot with more.