Grinnell, Ia. – America needs to reconsider its punitive approach to “the so-called war on drugs,” presidential candidate John Edwards said here today.

“We’re not going to build enough prisons to solve this problem,” he told a crowd of about 800 at Grinnell College.

The former North Carolina senator grinned when a young man sitting behind him on stage asked about drug policy. “Only on college campuses,” Edwards joked before answering.

He said he’s especially concerned about mandatory minimum sentences for first-time drug offenders, which he said should be reconsidered. He added that too few drug offenders get treatment.

“You go to jail, you come out of jail, and a lot of people go right back to the environment that got them in trouble to begin with,” he said. “…We need to get them the help that they need; if they need education, if they need job training, if they need drug rehabilitation.”

Unlike state prison systems, the President and Congress have direct control of the federal prison population. Under President Reagan's eight year term, the number of prisoners under federal jurisdiction rose from 24,363 (1980) to 49,928 (1988), and under President George Bush's four-year term, the federal system grew to 80,259 (1992).

However, under President Bill Clinton, the number of prisoners under federal jurisdiction doubled, and grew more than it did under the previous 12-years of Republican rule, combined (to 147,126 by February, 2001).

As of December 31, 1999, a year prior to the completion of his term in office, the Clinton Administration already well outstripped the Reagan and Bush Administrations with a federal incarceration rate of rate of 42 per 100,000. This was more than double the federal incarceration rate at the end of President Reagan's term (17 per 100,000), and 61% higher than at the end of President George Bush's term (25 per 100,000). ... Fifty-eight percent of these inmates (63,448) are serving time for drug offenses--a 62% increase since 1990.

Fastidiously casual in black blazer, untucked slate-colored shirt, and jeans, the comedian exudes composure rather than ease. Is there a component in the Seinfeld hard-wiring that accounts for his Zenlike equilibrium?

"Any actor, writer or comedian is a close observer of human behavior," he says, more amused than appalled. "I am so offended by so much I see that I try not to do it."

To his professional answer he appends a personal one: "I've been practicing Transcendental Meditation most of my life. I think that does something to your nervous system," the eternal observer observes. "It has given me a calmness I don't think I had at 19."

We knew "Thought Crimes" was in danger of becoming law back when it passed Congress in 2007, but thankfully, President Bush kept his promise to veto it. But, tragically, Hillary signed that most dangerous bill in America – ushering in the criminalization of Christianity. And now, even my book, "The Criminalization of Christianity," has been banned as "hate speech" just as I predicted when I wrote it back in 2005.

When the "Employment Non-Discrimination Act" ("Thought Crimes" for the Workplace) became law, businesses and ministries were targeted by homosexual activists and were forced to close when they wouldn't comply with a law forcing them to hire those opposed to their beliefs on moral issues.

When they canceled my program, banned my book and targeted my ministry, I knew it was only a matter of time before I'd be forced into "prison ministry" against my will. Unfortunately for our nation, that ministry is growing fast. A homeschooling mom was assigned the cell next to me. I try to comfort her, but she cries constantly at the thought of her kids being raised in government foster care.

Lynch, whose new-age beliefs are sometimes as quirky as his movies, is touring Europe to help establish a network of so-called "invincible universities" to teach the philosophy of transcendental meditation. The idea is to engender world peace. But at a meeting this week at a culture center in Berlin, Lynch triggered a less than peaceful exchange with German onlookers when Emanuel Schiffgens, his partner for establishing such a "university" in the German capital, suddenly veered into dangerous waters.

"We want an invincible Germany!" intoned Schiffgens, the self-styled Raja of Germany. The flap those words created, with their echoes of the Third Reich, reveals both the deadly seriousness with which Germans view their wartime past and the gulf separating Lynch's new-age agenda from that of some hard-bitten Berliners with a more historical mind-set.

"What do you mean by this concept of invincibility," asked an onlooker from the audience, made up mainly of film students with a smattering of meditation devotees. "An invincible Germany is a Germany that's invincible," replied a Delphic Schiffgens, who was dressed in a long white robe and gold crown. "Adolf Hitler wanted that too!," shouted out one man. "Yes," countered Schiffgens. "But unfortunately he didn't succeed." At that the crowd began shouting epithets at the speaker: "You are a charlatan! This is bad theater!" Lynch, who does not speak German, looked on in incomprehension.

Bush national security advisor Frances Townsend today delivered to President Bush a three-page handwritten resignation letter on White House stationery. At its core was this heart-rending tribute:

1937, the playwright Maxwell Anderson wrote of President George Washington: There are some men who lift the age they inhabit, til all men walk on higher ground in their lifetime.

Mr. President, you are such a man.

Abortion on demand is the ultimate State tyranny; the State simply declares that certain classes of human beings are not persons, and therefore not entitled to the protection of the law. The State protects the "right" of some people to kill others, just as the courts protected the "property rights" of slave masters in their slaves. Moreover, by this method the State achieves a goal common to all totalitarian regimes: it sets us against each other, so that our energies are spent in the struggle between State-created classes, rather than in freeing all individuals from the State. Unlike Nazi Germany, which forcibly sent millions to the gas chambers (as well as forcing abortion and sterilization upon many more), the new regime has enlisted the assistance of millions of people to act as its agents in carrying out a program of mass murder.

Q: When can people expect to see you in Kazakhstan again?

A: "I already in Kazakhstan, living very happilys with my new wife. This morning, I was awoke by my clock-radio (electronic LED), after which I remove my wife from her cage and she make me delicious breakfast of western cereal 'Frosties', which I have with delicious fresh milk from her chests. I then attach her to her plough and send her into the fields before returning to my bed until she come back at lunchtimes to feed me again. Life is very nice for us."

Additionally, I've been told that Steve Carell informed NBC he is unable to report to work because he is suffering from “enlarged balls.”

Paul supports elimination of most federal government agencies, such as the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Emergency Management Administration, and the Interstate Commerce Commission, calling them unnecessary bureaucracies.

In 2005, Paul introduced the We the People Act, which would have removed "any claim involving the laws, regulations, or policies of any State or unit of local government relating to the free exercise or establishment of religion" from the jurisdiction of federal courts. If made law, this provision would permit state, county, and local governments to decide whether to allow displays of religious text and imagery.

Thought I would have personal time with Obama, with maybe 30 other heavy hitters, but, no, they used the extra time for photos. Yup, had my photo taken with him (hopefully they'll mail it to me), shook his hand a couple of times, told him I didn't envy what he had to go through, but that maybe it would be worthwhile if his dream came true. He replied that he's doing it to make other people's dreams come true. Pretty good reply.