Actor and comic Tommy Chong says he is linked to FBI raids Wednesday in Newport and Clermont County's Union Township. Chong tells Local 12 federal agents were after thousands of DVD copies of a documentary he recently made. Tommy Chong, 30 years ago, appeared in the movie that made him famous, "Up In Smoke."
But today, Tommy Chong is 69-years-old and selling a different movie, called "The United States of America Vs. Tommy Chong." The documentary details Chong's 2003 federal prosecution and guilty plea for distributing drug paraphernalia. He was selling pot pipes online. Chong served nine months in prison.
Wednesday night, Chong told Local 12 he's the focus of an FBI raid of two, local offices. "They apparently confiscated 10,000 copies of the movie, "a/k/a Tommy Chong," said Chong.
Only Local 12 cameras were on Mt. Carmel Tobasco Road Wednesday evening, watching federal agents raid the offices of 513 Ventures Agents also took evidence from the Spectrum Labs offices in Newport. The companies market "detoxification products," meant to help someone pass a drug test.
But Chong says agents seized 10,000 DVDs of his documentary. Federal prosecutors may be targeting Chong for trying to profit off his prosecution. "I'm not profiting off the story of my first amendment violation at all," said Chong.
The FBI isn't confirming any of this. In fact, agents simply aren't saying a thing about why they conducted the raids or what they were after.
Local 12 contacted one of the local people connected to Spectrum Labs and its affiliates, a Delhi man named Chris Swain. Mr. Swain said he would not have any comment.
#1
I have to agree with Chong on this issue. His right to tell his story - as sordid as it may be - is paramount, as is my right to hear it from both him and from the federal prosecutors.
#2
This smack of jack-booted thuggery, police state tactics.
There is a right to free speech, and he should be able to tell his story.
The war on drugs has simply gone too far - between lunacy like this, and the nearly weekly shootings of innocent civilians in no-knock military style raids, intrusive laws and rights-trashing cops and judges, we are in severe danger of losing the freedoms many of us fought for.
I believe the typical illicit drugs are harmful, but I believe that the harm from law enforcement's turn to assualting citizens (instead of protecting nad serving htem) is becoming far greater than the harm the drugs do in society.
I don't know the Tommy Chong case particulars but I fear we DO have some of the elements of a Police State [corupted by power] that has in a few well documented instances destroying Citizen's Lives, families and Homes.
These cases TEST our system to the Max, for when the Police trample our rights we have solely our Judges and Juries then to protect us!
#5
What could you possible say about yourself in a documentary that would give the FBI reason to raid your businesses?
I'd like to see them forced to hand every bit of that stuff back to him by a jury. A good bit of damages, and maybe even some charges for violating due-process for the feds might encourage cooler heads to prevail in the future. Thankfully, our forefathers put something into the constitution to override bullshit like this.
#8
The FBI isn't confirming any of this. In fact, agents simply aren't saying a thing about why they conducted the raids or what they were after.
They need more training. Like the training that enables them to determine in about thirty seconds that the Muslim they just busted with a carload of explosives is "not terrorism related".
#9
I heard an interview with Chong a few years ago about the bust. When they came in they didn't find what the warrant was for (the bongs he sells online) and actually needed his help to find something illegal in his house. The Radio DJ and him had a fun time with that. You're busting Chong and you need help?
I'm not sure if it's time to end the war on drugs or not (i lean towards end it) but clearly we need someone sane in command. This is a waste of resources and an embarrassment all around. Perhaps we should put Chong in charge of the War on Drugs, he at least was able to find the illegal stuff in his own home.
Sorry, next president. Al Gore is not available to be your interior secretary, or secretary of state, or whatever.
"I won't accept a cabinet post regardless of which of the three candidates wins the presidency," Gore said yesterday. "It's beneath my dignity. I would not lower myself to such depths! I spit upon your cabinet post!"
"Uh, Mister Gore, sir. May I ask you something?"
"What is it?"
"Did anyone, you know, like, offer you a cabinet post?"
"No."
"Oh, . . . Just askin' is all."
He is one of the superdelegates Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are courting to try to secure the Democratic nomination. "My endorsement cannot be bought (for such a pittance)."
Posted by: Mike ||
05/09/2008 15:31 ||
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#1
I guess that leaves just me to be SecDef. I'll do it only if they can come up with $1/month salary.
A decade before Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton admitted fudging the truth during the presidential campaign, federal prosecutors quietly assembled hundreds of pages of evidence suggesting she concealed information and misled a federal grand jury about her work for a failing Arkansas savings and loan at the heart of the Whitewater probe, according to once-secret documents that detail the internal debates over whether she should have faced criminal charges.
Ordinarily, such files containing grand jury evidence and prosecutors' deliberations are never made public. But the estate of Sam Dash, a lifelong Democrat who served as the ethics adviser to Whitewater Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr, donated his documents from the infamous 1990s investigation to the Library of Congress after his 2004 death, unwittingly injecting into the public domain much of the testimony and evidence gathered against Mrs. Clinton from former law partners, White House aides and other witnesses.
The documents, reviewed by The Washington Times, identify numerous instances in which prosecutors questioned Mrs. Clinton's honesty, an issue that continues to dog her on the campaign trail after she was forced to acknowledge earlier this year exaggerating a story about coming under sniper fire as first lady during a visit to Bosnia in 1996.
Continued on Page 49
#4
The lawyer said the decision rested on two major points: whether there was sufficient evidence to contradict her sworn testimony and, more importantly, whether prosecutors could win the case in court.
More importantly whether they could win in court?
I thought it worked a little different than that, actually I thought it worked totally opposite of that. I guess it probably does for us little people, but not for shrillary.
As if the divisions between race and gender in the Democratic Party hadn’t been further exposed through Tuesday night’s exit polls — and by a very heated exchange on CNN between Donna Brazile and Paul Begala — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s interview with USA Today on Wednesday is further mining those tense depths.
“I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on,” she said in the interview, citing an article by The Associated Press.
It “found how Senator Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.”
“There’s a pattern emerging here,” she said.
While she said her remarks weren’t meant to be divisive, they’re already whipping around the Internet. “These are the people you have to win if you’re a Democrat in sufficient numbers to actually win the election. Everybody knows that,” she said in the interview. (Hint, hint, message to the superdelegates still undeclared.)
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Billary's people have been complaining that she is being photographed from the worst angles. Frankly, I don't think she looks good from any angle. She might get more votes if she campaigned with a bag over her fool head.
#2
"...how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.”
“There’s a pattern emerging here,” she said.
There she said it, non college whites are stupid. Next she'll call for these same stupid people to join the military, taking a play right out of John Fkn Kerry's playbook.
#3
"The blacks are coming...The blacks are coming!! Hide your little girls...guns to ready!!! Don't fire till you see the whites of their ires!!!"__ General Israel Putnam, 1775 Hillary 2008!!
smn: last warning. You're trolling. We don't allow trolls on Rantburg. If you have a contribution to make, make it, otherwise be gone. If you can't manage that, I'll not only show you the door, I'll put you through it. AoS at 11:45 CDT.
#5
If Candidate Obama can't win the classic Democrats -- the blue collar workers, most of whom are white simply because most Americans are white -- he will not win the general election even if he does win the Democratic primary. This country is big enough and diverse enough that owning one minority isn't enough to cross the finish line.
Empathizing with that single minority is not a good substitute for clear thinking and general non-assery, smn. Besides, it tends to get one banned.
#6
McZoid, for a second there, I read "bag of food over her head".
Then I realized that works, too.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
05/09/2008 7:01 Comments ||
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#7
smn, I think you need to go to the beauty parlor and work on that paranoid little cultural Marxism problem.
Or move to EUroland, where cM is the order of the day.
Need not apply with authentic Americans, who shun that philosophy.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
05/09/2008 7:05 Comments ||
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#8
“These are the people you have to win if you’re a Democrat in sufficient numbers to actually win the election. Everybody knows that.”
smn,
In a sense, I feel your pain. I mean it does seem kinda odd when Senator Clinton actually makes a truthful statement doesn’t it? I can only imagine how the people that have been spoon-fed on liberal identity-politics must feel. Hell, I remember that Geraldine Ferraro comment regarding Obamas’ skin color actually being an advantage? Boy howdy did her fellow liberals yell bigot on that one. Funny thing… Senator Obama did something no other single candidate has even come close to. He has gotten over 90% of the Black vote in the Democratic primary. But I agree there is something unsettling when you come to the realization that Democrats view the electorate simply as separate demographic groups to be manipulated in their own way. It’s almost counterintuitive to that “Big Tent” persona the Dem. party likes to portray isn’t it?
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan on Thursday successfully test-fired an air-launched cruise missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads, the military said. The launch of the Ra'ad missile, which has a range of 350 kilometres, was carried out at an undisclosed location, the military said, and came a day after India said it successfully test-launched its longest-range nuclear-capable missile.
The Ra'ad, developed exclusively for launch from aerial platforms, has enabled Pakistan to achieve a greater strategic standoff capability on land and at sea, a Pakistan military statement said. Ra'ad, which is Arabic for thunder, is a low-altitude, terrain-following missile with high maneuverability, the military said.
The missile test is part of a continuing process of validating the design parameters of the weapons system, the Army said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/09/2008 00:00 ||
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CNN > BLITZER interview wid BARACK OBAMA > Obama stated that he is in favor of PHASED, BUT MEASURED, FORCES WITHDRAWAL FROM IRAQ, and to concentrate US mil efforts in AFGHANISTAN-PAKI WHERE AL QAEDA + TALIBAN [Osama Bin Laden?]ARE "RECONSTITUTING THEMSELVES".
#2
CNN > BLITZER interview wid BARACK OBAMA > Obama stated that he is in favor of PHASED, BUT MEASURED, FORCES WITHDRAWAL FROM IRAQ, and to concentrate US mil efforts in AFGHANISTAN-PAKI WHERE AL QAEDA + TALIBAN [Osama Bin Laden?]ARE "RECONSTITUTING THEMSELVES".
#8
ION CHINESE MIL FORUM > MAOIST INSURGENCY THREATENS INDIA'S RUNAWAY GROWTH = IN INDIA, DEATH TO GLOBAL BIG BUSINESS. Maoists now participate in 30% [and growing] of India's national-global economic activities, up from 9.0%.
MIL FORUM POSTER > argues that in INDIA, as CHIN proxy or partner?, CHINA has a new multi-million man army to fight US-Western imperialism in Asia???
The United Nations will break ground today on a three-story, purposefully ugly building that will serve as temporary space for the international body while its East River headquarters gets refurbished, according to an article today in Canada's Financial Post.
To make sure the temporary building on North Lawn doesn't become a permanent part of the U.N.'s landscape, the United Nations included its demolition in the project's $1.9 billion budget and, in a rather unorthodox move, intentionally designed it as an eyesore, according to Michael Adlerstein, the project's head architect. "It's going to be in the same style as a Costco or Wal-Mart," Mr. Adlerstein said.
The ugly, pre-fab building will be used for U.N. meetings, and will house the Assembly, Security Council and staff from the Secretary-General's Executive Office. Other UN staff will be located in office space throughout the city. The long-delayed overhaul is expected to be completed in 2013.
#2
I'm sure they're temporary, like the temporary buildings constructed during the Second World War that still populate many of our military bases today.
#12
Isn't there some open space in Brussels, or Darfur, or Pyongyang...
There's an impressive high-rise in Pyongyang that needs just a wee bit of work to finish. I think it would be perfect for the UN as a permanent new home.
Ehud Olmert, Israel's prime minister, has admitted he accepted campaign donations from an American businessman, but denied that the contributions constituted bribes. In a televised statement on Thursday night from his residence in Jerusalem, Olmert said he would resign only if he were indicted by Israel's attorney general. Olmert said he believed the crisis over a police investigation into allegations he accepted money from Morris Talansky, a US financier, would soon end.
The fuse is lit in the Middle East and Israel's got a corrupt and ineffectual dishpit as PM.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2008 00:00 ||
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Reminds me of a police chief I knew who 'never took a bribe he didn't earn.'
Israel's prime minister Ehud Olmert has admitted taking cash from an American businessman, but says he will resign if he's indicted. Olmert made a statement late Thursday at his official residence after a gag order was lifted from the case.
According to police suspicions, Olmert accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal contributions from a US citizen, Moshe Talansky, AP reported.
The Zionist regime premier said in a statement that a lawyer handled his finances, and everything was legal. "I never took bribes, I never took a penny for myself," he said. He said he would not fight to stay in office if he is charged. "If I am indicted, I will resign my post," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2008 00:00 ||
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Olmert toast....."Bibi" (Benjamin) Netanyahu in.....Iran crapping its "7-Day Shi##ers" (military-types w/ M/E experience knows what THESE are!.....
The UN says it is "disappointed" with Myanmar over its failure to allow foreign relief workers and supplies into the country quickly after being hit by one of the worst cyclone's in living memory.
Not that the UN is gonna do anything about it, mind you. The generals have been ruling since 1962, and they haven't become more competent over the years. By this point, hard as it is on the poor Burmese, any aid is a waste.
The UN's secretary-general has called on the country's military rulers to postpone a referendum due on Saturday on the country's constitution. Despite more than a million people being left homeless after Cyclone Nargis swept through the country on Saturday leaving an estimated 100,000 people dead, the government plans to press ahead with the vote. International attempts to get relief supplies and aid workers into the isolationist country were still encountering problems on Thursday, six days after the cyclone hit, with many residents remaining without food and shelter. Corpses rotting in the flood waters are adding to the health hazard. John Holmes, the UN humanitarian chief, told reporters on Thursday: "I am disappointed that we have not had more results."
I'm disappointed that Annette Haven's not in her prime anymore. Can't do anything about that, either.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2008 00:00 ||
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I'm sure Mrs. Fred isn't disappointed about that last item.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
05/09/2008 0:11 Comments ||
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#2
The US just doesn't 'get it'. The Junta could care less about the number of people dead. Their rule is just as iron fisted had it been only 100 people left. "W" is going to airlift aid through drop sites against their wishes! He's going to make them love us!!!
#3
Perhaps at some point the Burmese will have had enough, join the dictatorship in not caring whether they live or die, and simply swarm over their rulers.
#5
Seriously though, unless you hand the food directly to the needy it WILL be stolen and sold or fed to troops. I think we must know that if we are holding back the supplies until we have permission to deliver them personally.
#6
Maybe smn is right on this one - think anyone would mind if the first aid began being airdropped in 500lb guided packages start with those who believe they need aid most, that is key government and police stations. Then the Marines could unload individual care packages.
#7
The libs talk the good talk, but when faced by a Mugabe or Myanmar junta they just look like the clowns they are flailing their arms and making noise to appear important. Meanwhile the 'people' they so talk about and anguish over, just die off. In the end, it's their own self image, the need to 'appear' morally superior, that trumps any real action, because action can be oh so messy. Time and time again, they play this game. They are nothing more than accessories to the act.
#8
the french have also tossed around the idea of dropping aid without permission. Problem (which the brits have raised) is that the army might seize the dropped aid.
No good answers here. Lots of innocent folks are gonna die, and we cant stop it, lib or consies or anyone else. Silver lining, is the rubbing in peoples faces of the real consequences of "absolute soveriegnty" for dictatorships. Dictarship kills, and not only when they shoot dissidents. Message that has to be hammered home again and again, left right and center, and esp in those parts of the 3rd world that usually have little sympathy for pro-democratic dissidents.
#9
Have to agree with Anguper on this one. If you're going to die anyway you might as well go down fighting.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/09/2008 12:28 Comments ||
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#10
I agree with LH. The Treaty of Westphalia continues to bite the modern world in the hind end.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/09/2008 12:51 Comments ||
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#11
I see no evidence that the regime's Chicom benefactors are stepping up to the plate. Maybe they should run the Olympic torch through the area, as an uplifting gesture.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/09/2008 15:15 Comments ||
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#12
FREEREPUBLIC > THE CASE FOR INVADING MYANMAR [Asia Times]; + US HALTS SHIPMENTS AS MYANMAR GENERALS CONFISCATE AID.
DREAM > "EARTH CHANGES" + FUTURE GUAM-WESTPAC > US-CHINA MILPOL STANDOFF over US [mostly Naval] efforts to remove Guam and Pacific Islanders to new homes.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Actor and comic Tommy Chong says he is linked to FBI raids Wednesday in Newport and Clermont County's Union Township. Chong tells Local 12 federal agents were after thousands of DVD copies of a documentary he recently made. Tommy Chong, 30 years ago, appeared in the movie that made him famous, "Up In Smoke."
A decade before Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton admitted fudging the truth during the presidential campaign, federal prosecutors quietly assembled hundreds of pages of evidence suggesting she concealed information and misled a federal grand jury about her work for a failing Arkansas savings and loan at the heart of the Whitewater probe, according to once-secret documents that detail the internal debates over whether she should have faced criminal charges.
As if the divisions between race and gender in the Democratic Party hadn’t been further exposed through Tuesday night’s exit polls — and by a very heated exchange on CNN between Donna Brazile and Paul Begala — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s interview with USA Today on Wednesday is further mining those tense depths. 
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan on Thursday successfully test-fired an air-launched cruise missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads, the military said. The launch of the Ra'ad missile, which has a range of 350 kilometres, was carried out at an undisclosed location, the military said, and came a day after India said it successfully test-launched its longest-range nuclear-capable missile.
The United Nations will break ground today on a three-story, purposefully ugly building that will serve as temporary space for the international body while its East River headquarters gets refurbished, according to an article today in Canada's Financial Post.
Israel's prime minister Ehud Olmert has admitted taking cash from an American businessman, but says he will resign if he's indicted. Olmert made a statement late Thursday at his official residence after a gag order was lifted from the case. 
