Latest SPECTRE News!

In SPECTRE it's tough not being Number 1 like Ernst Blofeld, er, George Soros. I mean he gets to run his own international organization with tentacles around the world and is always in the news for trying to overthrow some government or other. If you're not number 1, all you get to do is sit around the conference table in the obligatory SPECTRE executive meetings and occasionally get to participate in an op with the big boy.

That's why I thought it was really swell of the Atlanta Journal Constitution to do a profile on one of SPECTRE's USA honchos, Peter Lewis - Pot fan puts up cash to help defeat Bush:

A chief contributor to a Democratic shadow campaign to defeat President Bush is a 70-year-old marijuana enthusiast who made a fortune selling car insurance to so-so drivers.

Peter Lewis now spends much of his time cruising international waters in a $16 million converted oceangoing tugboat named "The Lone Ranger."

Be still my heart!

He is also:

• A fitness fanatic who barely slowed his regimen of swimming and weightlifting after losing part of a leg to a circulation ailment.

• A former chief executive who tolerated office romances and admitted indulging in such affairs himself.

• A generous patron with an estimated worth of more than $1 billion whose interests include liberal politics, modern art and his alma mater, Princeton University.
...
Lewis, the retired head of the Progressive group of insurance companies, has given about $3 million to America Coming Together and pledged $10 million to the anti-Bush organization, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group that studies money in politics.
...
"His two big issues are getting Bush out of office and regulating marijuana," said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, a group dedicated to decriminalizing adult pot use and placing it under regulations. Lewis has given $340,000 to the organization, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
...
"Based on the experience I've had with Scotch whisky, which is plenty, and the experience I've had with marijuana, which is plenty, I think it should be regulated the same way alcohol is," Lewis told The Princetonian, the student newspaper of his alma mater.

According to Kampia, Lewis believes "there is no downside to regulating marijuana. If you want to improve the world, it's the easy way to go. No one is going to get hurt."

Woohoo! Don't bogart that joint, Peter!

But saving the best for last:

Meanwhile, he cruises the world's waters on "The Lone Ranger,' attended by a crew of 18.

"You have no idea how easy and luxurious it is," Lewis told The Plain Dealer. "Because these 18 people on the boat have only one objective: To make me happy."

And he'll be even happier after he and the rest of SPECTRE buy this country.