>Then that should be motivation for somebody somewhere in government to make legalization easier! You would think that somebody somewhere in politics isn't up to their ears in work that they could formulate, propose, and champion some sort of new plan.

I'd like to see that. But I'm not holding my breath - they seem to like it as it is. I mostly count the current half-hearted legislative effort as means of distraction, as the magician waving his left hand so nobody looks at the right one doing tricks.

Or else some real issues may come to table, like

- how come socialized health care is good for Iraq but bad for USA?
- how come the Iraqi constitution establishes a right of veto to mulahs on any legislation and the USA approved that?
- what was the real reason for going to Iraq in the first place (WMD - proven not to be true, President Hussein being behind 9/11 - same, ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda - same)
- what is the status of Downing Street minutes? True in UK, while false or negligible here?
- how's FEMA doing these days?
- how's Plamegate going?
- how's the separation of Church and State?
- who's in power in rest of Afghanistan?
- how do we know global warming isn't fuelling the hurricanes?
- if US attack Iran, will the Chinese keep financing the debt?
- how can anyone explain that India's nuclear program is OK, but Iran's isn't?
- how long until the next scandal (Abramoff, Cunningham, DeLay, Ohio coins, and the most recent - a high official of DHS arrested for soliciting sex with a minor in a chat room, except the minor was a cop)
- is there any guarantee the ballots would be counted honestly, and that Diebold won't be included?
- (enough - I open-source this, anyone can add their own. GPL applies)

Nah... let's turn to illegal immigrants. They're much easier to turn against, there's no powerful entity lobbying for them.