Posted December 26th, 2010 by hiwayhowie
COPs on the Hill
Big Apple for an evening: Eric Sterling of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation (www.cjpf.org) and newest COPs member of the Board put a seminar together in New York City at the NYC Bar Association on the 16th. Luckily the drive is not too long and I was able to stay with my son-in-law to keep expenses down. Experts from North America and Europe shared their vision of where to go from here. We still have a long ways to go, even as we feel the wind at our back.
Prep* work done, time to saddle up* and get back to work: The spread sheets have eliminated the 100 who either lost their vote or retired. The new Members have been put in the spreadsheets(all they need now is a room #). The Sunday cowboy hat has been brushed, the Sunday belt buckle polished and the boots look like new. Monday the 222nd COPs will again be in the halls, talking to staffers.
On a personal note, let me say it also took me a month to recover both mentally and phsyically from the California effort. Too many birthdays for sure.
Where did eveyone go?: Monday was chaotic in the halls of the three House buildings. Nearly 100 Members who lost their election or retired had to be out of their offices by Wednesday. Boxes, tables, chairs and desks cluttered the hallways. Sullen* faces of staffers indicated who did not have a job. I was able to make five presentations on Monday but only one on Tuesday. Hope your Turkey Day was a good one.
Prep = preparation
- Saddle up = wieder was im Gang setzen
- Sullen = traurig
COPs 2nd year stats to date:
TV appearances: 12 (ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX, cable)
Newspaper stories: 6 dailes, 3 weeklies
Radio appearances: 6
Published LTE:
20 presentations to Congressional staffers (six this week)
Consider being a member of COPs at $30.00 or more per year. Add your voice to those who agree that Modern Prohibition/War on Drugs is the most destructive, dysfunctional and immoral policy since slavery & Jim Crow. Go to: www.CitizensOpposingProhibition.org and click on Donate/Join – by credit card or check.
Howard
Posted December 24th, 2010 by hiwayhowie
COPs on the Hill
Stories from the weeks of November 5 and 12 , 2010
Restore Sanity Rally: The crowd was estimated at about 200,000 on a perfect fall day for COPs to show the colors. Karen did all the work on the signs. Scott my nephew and his fiance Daniel drove from Wisconsin to be part of the day. Bob Ramsey who took the picture flew in from Dallas. Somewhere close to 400 people took our picture. It was another good day.
First cattle call* of the presidential race of 2010: Grover Norquist’s brunch featured Gary Johnson (former two term R governor of New Mexico and possible candidate for President in 2012) who spoke for several minutes. A surprise guest was Ralph Nader on the intrusiveness of the airport screeners.* Before this last election, I saw and heard from well over 200 R candidates, many of whom will be Congressmen in January.
Forget coffee. I now like Tea: Arriving early to Grover’s Brunch, I was able to have long chat with the editor of a national publication for the Tea Party movement (www.TeaPartyReview.com ) The E-zine is just getting started, so we will have to wait to see if it develops as promised. Either way, the editor and I had much in common on several issues.
- Cattle call = abwertend Ausdruck –wenn viele Leute will was haben und sie ein nach dem anderen beweisen ihre gute Eigenschafte
- Airport screeners = Flughafensicherheitsarbeiter
COPs 2nd year stats to date:
TV appearances: 12 (ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX, cable)
Newspaper stories: 6 dailes, 3 weeklies
Radio appearances: 6
14 presentations to Congressional staffers (start of new statistical year)
Consider being a member of COPs at $30.00 or more per year. Add your voice to those who agree that Modern Prohibition/War on Drugs is the most destructive, dysfunctional and immoral policy since slavery & Jim Crow. Go to: www.CitizensOpposingProhibition.org and click on Donate/Join – by credit card or check.
Howard
Posted August 22nd, 2010 by hiwayhowie
COPs on the Hill
Stories from the week of August 13, 2010
Just smile and not complain: While on vacation the IRS sent their letter approving COPs as a 501 c 3 non profit organization. Your donations are now officially tax deductible. Major donors will receive a copy of the IRS letter via the mail. If you also need a copy, just ask. The process per IRS guidelines should have taken three months. Our process took just over eight months. Still just smile and be happy.
Just keep knocking on the door: I am down to the last 74 offices in the House not done. These are the ones where the legislative aide never answers my email request and deletes the phone message requesting a 10 minute meeting. Therefore, I am reduced to going door to door & ask for a few minutes of their time (think door to door vacuum cleaner salesman). One day this week I struck out in 34 of 34 offices in the Rayburn building. Ouch. The next day I was able to see 7 of those 34, including 2 that I had not seen since 2006!! Ups and downs of the job, though my cowboy boots need to new leather bottoms.
Building relationships: This week I made a presentation to an Illinois office to the newly assigned legislative aide. It went well. Checking my records for that Congessman, the person I spoke to in 2006 is now the chief of staff and the person I spoke to last year is now the legislative director. I know that is one office that will ‘lobby’ their boss for the marijuana prohibition repeal bill which will be introduced in January. Big smile as I left the office.
14 presentations to Congressional staffers (start of new statistical year)
Consider being a member of COPs at $30.00 or more per year. Add your voice to those who agree that Modern Prohibition/War on Drugs is the most destructive, dysfunctional and immoral policy since slavery & Jim Crow. Go to: www.CitizensOpposingProhibition.org and click on Donate/Join – by credit card or check.
Howard
Your support for COPs meant–
Final COP First Year Stats 2009-2010:
443 presentations to Congressional Staffers
535 Congressional offices contacted
7 presentations to VIPs (elected officials)
37 published Letters to the Editor
Numerous conferences, hearings & briefings attended. C-Span broadcast my question at a Senate briefing.
12 radio shows
8 TV interviews (Colombian TV, Fox and Univision, NBC, cable)
Posted August 1st, 2010 by hiwayhowie
The wine is sweeter today: This week the House passed by voice vote (no one heard a nay*) the Webb Criminal Justice Commission bill. The commission will study drug prohibition and make recommendations to the Congress on whether to keep all of it, some of it, none of it, etc. The Senate is expected (but don’t hold your breath) to pass it in September. Medium sized step..
As a bonus the House passed and it now goes for Obama’s signature a bill to reduce the disparity between crack and powder cocaine from 100:1 to 18:1. This an 82% improvement not based in science (in which case it would be 1:1). Still this will allow thousands to dealers to go free and act as a model for the states to adopt the federal standard. Some states have already gone 1:1.
As my LEAP colleague Tom Angell pointed out, it was very significant that the Republicans did not demand a roll call vote on either bill. “Soft on drugs/soft on crime” has been used by the Rs for decades to hurt the Dems. On this day, they allowed good legislation to go forward without a recorded vote.
Karen and I start a week long vacation today, so no letter next week.
Nay = nein
www.mapinc.org considered this the best published LTE a few weeks ago. It was in my hometown paper.
LETTER OF THE WEEK
LOST WAR ON DRUGS AND ITS CASUALTIES
When you lie down with dogs, often you will get up with fleas. Yet another in my profession (Megan Mattingly) has been tainted* by the enforcement of drug prohibition. Add her to the many, many thousands who have been corrupted or killed, or who have committed suicide after being corrupted. And for what? We in law enforcement know that every drug dealer arrested is replaced within days. The nine suspects released (or even if they had gone to prison) are meaningless.
A trillion tax dollars spent and 40 years of serious effort have resulted in a Maryland free of drugs? No. Quite the contrary. Drugs are cheaper, stronger and readily available to our teens.
Please tell this reader again why you support this Bridge to Nowhere policy.
Howard Wooldridge, retired detective/officer
Buckeystown
Source: Frederick News Post (MD)
Pubdate: Mon, 21 Jun 2010
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n000/a017.html
Tainted = Makel – Spur
COP stats since August 2009:
443 presentations to Congressional Staffers
7 presentations to VIPs (elected officials)
38 published Letters to the Editor ( one more this week)
Numerous conferences, hearings & briefings attended. C-Span broadcast my question at a Senate briefing.
12 radio shows
8 TV interviews (Colombian TV, Fox and Univision, NBC, cable)
Consider being a member of COPs at $30.00 or more per year. Add your voice to those who agree that Modern Prohibition/War on Drugs is the most destructive, dysfunctional and immoral policy since slavery & Jim Crow. Go to: www.CitizensOpposingProhibition.org and click on Donate/Join – by credit card or check.
Howard
Detective/Officer Howard Wooldridge (retired)
Drug Policy Specialist, COP – www.CitizensOpposingProhibition.org
Washington, DC
817-975-1110 Cell
howard@citizensopposingprohibition.org
Citizens Opposing Prohibition – Become a Member
PO Box 772
Buckeystown, MD 21717-0772
Modern Prohibition/The War on Drugs is the most destructive, dysfunctional & immoral domestic policy since slavery & Jim Crow.
Posted July 29th, 2010 by hiwayhowie
COPs on the Hill
Stories from the week of July 23, 2010
I am a spy: Searching for allies on our issue is a 24/7 vigilance* in Washington. As you know, drug prohibition touches upon many other issues from foreign policy to terrorism to immigration. Thus I attended a meeting at the OSI (Open Society Institute) this week, where the panel urged a policy based on open borders, amnesty, citizenship, etc. The seminar was well-attended and a Congressional staffer happened to sit next to me.
During Question and Answer I brought up the point that since the first priority of federal borders agents is drugs, the goal of a ‘secure border’ remains an elusive* goal. NOTE: both liberal and conservative Members speak publicly of the need for no illegal entry i.e. a secure border. Two hours later we discovered we were both from Texas. She said she had been sent by her Texas Member to spy on the seminar to learn what the liberals were thinking. We had a short chat on my issue and parted company.
I am humbled and honored: The COP fiscal year ends on July 31. The stats below will record our first year’s efforts. So many of you have become members of COPs and given generously. Each time I found a check in the post office box or received a notice from PayPal, I was grateful and energized by the support. Your support kept a police voice/perspective in Washington, DC and to carry the message of anti-prohibition to all the Member offices . Thank you. Thank you so much.
*Vigilance = Wachsamkeit
COP stats since August 2009:
443 presentations to Congressional Staffers (6 more this week)
7 presentations to VIPs (elected officials)
37 published Letters to the Editor (that we know of- one more this week)
Numerous conferences, hearings & briefings attended. C-Span broadcast my question at a Senate briefing. (one hearing this week)
12 radio shows
8 TV interviews (Colombian TV, Fox and Univision, NBC, cable)
Consider being a member of COPs at $30.00 or more per year. Add your voice to those who agree that Modern Prohibition/War on Drugs is the most destructive, dysfunctional and immoral policy since slavery & Jim Crow. Go to: www.CitizensOpposingProhibition.org and click on Donate/Join – by credit card or check.
Howard
