RAVE BILL HAS NO PLACE RIDING AMBER ALERT INTO LAW

The mere mention of Democratic Sen. Joe Biden's name should send partygoers
everywhere into paroxysms of sputtering rage for hours. He's the decrepit
brain behind the putrid RAVE Act, which bizarrely tried to equate a crack
house with a rave and threatened anyone who sponsored a rave where drugs
were used with up to 20 years in prison.

Ravers everywhere thought Biden got the hint last year when the RAVE (that's
an acronym for "Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy") Act basically
died the graphic, explosive death of a hamster in a microwave. His pet
legislation violated people's rights to party and Americans let him know
that they didn't appreciate his efforts.

Now, Biden is back at his dastardly machinations, trying desperately to make
his draconian RAVE Act and the AMBER Alert legislation odd bed fellows.

Here's the deal: After the high-profile abductions of several children
punctured the nation's consciousness this past year, legislators decided to
author the National AMBER Alert Network Act of 2003 to help law enforcement
officials deal with kidnapping cases. Basically everyone thinks that the
AMBER Alert bill is a good idea. It's already been passed in the Senate and
the House.

Enter Biden, a sinister, sneaky senator trying to befoul the AMBER Alert
bill while it's in conference by attaching it to his RAVE Act. If Biden
succeeds, the RAVE act might slip undetected into the legal atmosphere
before you can say, "Let's roll."

The Drug Policy Alliance has heard that Biden has been spouting lies to
other members on the conference committee for the AMBER bill. He's
whispering that the American Civil Liberties Union no longer objects to the
RAVE Act, despite the fact that he's made no significant changes to the
oppressive legislation. In his self-aggrandizing delusions, he believes that
nightclub owners no longer oppose the bill because a single club owner came
out in favor of it.

In short, Biden is a raving maniac and he's got to be stopped.

The last time Biden tried to force his RAVE Act on an unwilling populace,
Americans sent more than 35,000 faxes opposing the legislation to their
respective members of Congress. More than 500 protesters turned out in front
of the Federal Building in Westwood for a five-hour dance-a-thon to voice
their displeasure with the bill.

But more importantly, groups such as the Drug Policy Alliance and the ACLU
voiced their adamant opposition to the bill, along with the thousands of
nightclub and business owners who cried that the act holds them responsible
for the crimes of their customers.

Under the terms of the RAVE Act, anyone who organizes or owns a venue for a
rave, concert or nightclub where anyone uses an illegal drug can be held
responsible for any harm that results from the illegal drug use. In other
words, a nightclub owner could be fined $250,000 or thrown in jail for 20
years if someone drops "E" in his club and then drives off a cliff.

Oh, but it gets worse. If my boyfriend's hippie mom and I decided to smoke a
fat bowl at her house and some belligerent bastard called the cops, she
could be fined $500,000. If we were smoking pot on an Amtrak train, the
owner of Amtrak could also be held liable under the terms of the act.
Therefore, the government could be legally responsible for drug use.

Can it get more hideous than that? You betcha. The RAVE Act also holds
concert promoters liable for the drug use of concertgoers. So yeah, the Dave
Matthews Band would basically never have a concert ever again.

The RAVE Act should be used as congressional toilet paper and flushed into a
sewer of forgettable legislation. Biden's attempts to use AMBER Alert
legislation to force this ridiculous act into the books without proper
debate is utterly reprehensible.