It was a notable the other day when Attorney General Eric Holder announced that he would not devote federal resources to pursuing marijuana dispensaries in the many states that have legalized medical marijuana.

On the heels of that announcement, several members of Congress introduced H.R. 3939, the Truth in Trials Act. The bill would provide an affirmative defense against federal prosecution for the medical use of marijuana in accordance with state law.

There have been federal drug prosecutions in which defendants have been unable to introduce evidence that they were complying with state laws permitting medical use of marijuana.

Related bills include H.R. 2835, the Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act and H.R. 2943, the Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act of 2009.

In the last Congress, H.R. 5843, the Act to Remove Federal Penalties for the Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults was one of the most visited bills here on WashingtonWatch.com, and it set a record for most visits on a single day that still stands.

So are medical marijuana and marijuana decriminalization on a roll? That’s for you to decide.

Here’s the current vote on H.R. 3939, the Truth in Trials Act. Click to vote, comment, learn more, or edit the wiki article about the bill.

Part of the reason for collecting earmark requests and mapping them is to gather the input of the public. Exposing earmark requests to light will let the public decide what is good government spending and what is not.

More than a few earmarks are getting supportive comments and votes from people who would benefit from the money. Fair enough. Make your case. (Amusingly a commenter called “And I’m Santa C.” thinks that one such earmark is getting astroturf support, not grassroots.)

When I was on their network last week, the folks at Fox Business Network picked an earmark requested by Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) to talk about. It was for the WATCH D.O.G.S. (”Dads Of Great Students”) program. Now we’ve heard from someone familiar with that program who doesn’t think very highly of it.

As a Kansas dad who has been in the WatchDOGS program, count me out! I’ve been on the receiving end of their lack of customer service, their delayed shipments and complete lack of support. It is crystal clear to us that NCF only wanted us for our money. We have NOT renewed our program and do not plan to.

That shouldn’t be the last word on this earmark, but it’s great to see people who know something about potential recipients of federal dollars having their say.

Yesterday, House Resolution 431 was introduced to impeach Samuel B. Kent, a judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

On Monday, he was sentenced to 33 months in prison. He pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice charges in February, but the origins of the case are in sexual harassment complaints brought against him by court workers.

It isn’t too often that a federal judge is impeached. Kent is the first federal judge in history to be indicted for sexual crimes.

Kent apparently will retire or already has retired from the bench. Impeaching him may be just for show, or it may strip him of retirement benefits that he would otherwise receive.

Here’s the vote on the resolution to impeach Kent. Click to vote, comment, learn more, or edit the wiki article about the resolution.

People have looked more than 1,000 times at the wiki article about H.R. 1475, the Federal Prison Work Incentive Act of 2009.

If you know a little more about the bill than the average person, and you want others to know what you know, you should be editing that wiki article. Here’s how.

Just in time to be too late for this week’s email newsletter, the Congressional Budget Office has come out with cost estimates for two of the bills being debated this week.

H.R. 1913, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 comes in at about nine cents per U.S. family.

And H.R. 627, the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights Act of 2009 costs about $1.35 per family. That credit card bill is undoubtedly quite low. (yuk yuk) Most of the costs from the bill are costs imposed on the private sector, and CBO estimates of private-sector costs tend to be very vague.

Here are the current votes on the two bills. Click to vote, comment, learn more, or edit the wiki articles about the bills.

An enthusiastic welcome to everyone visiting H.R. 1475, the Federal Prison Work Incentive Act of 2009 this week.

By your numbers, you have toppled the equine cruelty issue from the top of the “active bills” list. Bills float to the top of this list based on the number of visits, and the horse people have kept their bills at the top for weeks now as they debate back and forth and back and forth. (And did I mention “back and forth”? 4,000+ comments at this point.)

Let’s hope you have better success with your debate than they have. Their thousands of comments have produced an incredible amount of useful arguments on both sides of their issues, but there have been only four wiki edits and the information they have remains obscure.

The audience that matters – new visitors to the site – will not review hundreds and hundreds of comments to learn about issues. They will review the wiki article for a bill. Advocates on both sides should put their arguments in the wiki articles if they want their side to be heard. (Here’s how to edit the wiki.)

To edit the article about the Federal Prison Work Incentive Act, click here and (once logged in) flesh out the wiki article with solid information about the issue, the bill, and why it should or should not pass.

With your bill at the top of the heap, you’re in a unique position to educate new visitors about it. But you can’t do that (very well) if you don’t edit the wiki!

A bill recently introduced in Congress would designate certain counties in the State of Arizona as high-intensity drug trafficking areas. The bill is H.R. 1871.

According to its Web site, the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program “enhances and coordinates drug control efforts among local, State, and Federal law enforcement agencies. The program provides agencies with coordination, equipment, technology, and additional resources to combat drug trafficking and its harmful consequences in critical regions of the United States.” Translation: Federal goodies flow to Arizona, and hopefully violence and drug trafficking fall.

Is this the right way to deal with the violence in the border region? Say your piece in the comments here or on the page for the bill. In the meantime, here is the current vote on the bill. Click to vote, comment, learn more, or edit the wiki article on the bill.

When a commenter uses the handle “BrokenHearted Dad,” you can’t help but care about his story. He doesn’t tell it, but for him we should all take a second look at H.R. 1529, The Second Chance for Ex-Offenders Act.

Here’s the current vote on the bill. Click to read the comments, learn more, comment yourself, vote, or edit the wiki article about the bill.

So far: Kansas, South Carolina, California, Oklahoma, Colorado, Georgia, and North Carolina.

Oh, and the whooole country.

Update: Arizona, too!

Update II: And Florida.

Update III: Virginia too!

Update IV: Also Minnesota.

Update V: Found another! Ohio!

Word on the street is that Congress will come back in on November 17th to do some post-election business. The respite gives us time to look at some of the bills hustled across the House floor while we were concentrating on the big stuff.

Though there might be more silliness when Congress comes back, this is the final one in this set of “Silly Season” posts. Here are the previous installments: Silly Season on Capitol Hill; Silly Season, Part Deux; Silly Season, Part C; and Silly Season, Part IV.

Here are some of the bills that saw action on the House floor Thursday and Friday last week. It wasn’t the silliest period compared to a few days earlier but, again, these bills could have been debated at any time, not just the last two days of the regular session:

H.R. 5159
The Capitol Visitor Center Act of 2008
Costs: $1.51 per family

S. 3641
A bill to authorize funding for the National Crime Victim Law Institute to provide support for victims of crime under Crime Victims Legal Assistance Programs as a part of the Victims of Crime Act of 1984

H.R. 7221
The Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act of 2008

S. 3197
The National Guard and Reservists Debt Relief Act of 2008
Costs: $0.00 per family

H.R. 5714
The United States Army Commemorative Coin Act of 2008

H.R. 6867
The Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2008

S. 602
The Child Safe Viewing Act of 2007
Costs: $0.00 per family

H.R. 6469
The Organ Transplant Authorization Act of 2008

S. 3197
The National Guard and Reservists Debt Relief Act of 2008
Costs: $0.00 per family

H.R. 7222
To extend the Andean Trade Preference Act, and for other purposes