From Show Me the Facts;
So as the world slowly but surely begins to freak out about the new swine flu going around, I came across an interesting article about Cannabis Science Inc. reporting on a “prospective life saving treatment for H1N1 Swine Flu and H5N1 Bird Flu”.
Marijuana: A Potential Treatment for “Swine Flu”?
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Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Today's quotes...
I ran into a few cool quotes I had stored at Windows Live Spaces, and thought I would share a few that I feel apply to life as I know it.
Change
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
~Margaret Mead~
Life
"My life consists in my being content to accept many things."
~Ludwig Wittgenstein~
Love & Patience
"With love and patience, nothing is impossible."
~Daisaku Ideda~
Peace
"Peace is much more precious than a piece of land."
~Anwar al-Sadat~
"He who saves one life, it is as if he has saved the entire world."
~The Talmud~
Reality
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."
~Phillip K. Dick~
Change
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
~Margaret Mead~
Life
"My life consists in my being content to accept many things."
~Ludwig Wittgenstein~
Love & Patience
"With love and patience, nothing is impossible."
~Daisaku Ideda~
Peace
"Peace is much more precious than a piece of land."
~Anwar al-Sadat~
"He who saves one life, it is as if he has saved the entire world."
~The Talmud~
Reality
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."
~Phillip K. Dick~
Monday, April 27, 2009
Medical Cannabis PSA - PTSD
Video found at: MySpace.com Blogs - Medical Mary Jane MySpace Blog
A public service announcement about the benefits of marijuana for those of us that suffer from PTSD.
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A public service announcement about the benefits of marijuana for those of us that suffer from PTSD.
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Brasscheck TV: Avian bird flu scam
From BrasscheckTV;
This was posted by Bloomberg, a major business news network over the weekend:
"The World Health Organization is set to declare the deadly swine flu virus outbreak in Mexico and the U.S. a global concern...potentially prompting travel advisories...
An emergency committee of the WHO in Geneva will declare the outbreak "a public health event of international concern" in a teleconference that began at 4 p.m. today, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting is confidential."
If you're over 40, you've seen the "swine flu" routine before.
It came out of the blue. The government created hysteria over it and tried to herd everyone into mandatory vaccinations.
The vaccinations killed and disabled numerous people before they were discontinued.
Here's some material about ANOTHER government/media created hysteria-hoax, avian bird flu.
The mechanics are the same.
This video starts slow, but is worth watching and studying.
Details:
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/609.html
or watch below;
Prototype for all mandatory mass vaccination schemes
Study the timeline
All the things discussed in the video were laid down during the pharmaceutical industry-friendly Bush administration.
They're all still in place and Obama has shown no signs of dismantling or looking at the legal structures that make is possible for the US to:
1. Declare a pandemic
2. Use this declaration as grounds for arrest and imprisonment without charge, without representation and for an undetermined amount of time
3. Compel vaccination
4. Remove any liability from the drug companies involved if their products kill and maim
Study the timeline and see how an administration that could not get anything of value accomplished was a model of efficiency and speed in creating the infrastructures to make this happen.
Note that in a previous video, local law enforcement are already being commanded by FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security to submit plans and run practice drills for vaccinating the entire US population in 48 hours or less.
Fortunately, this is a logistic impossibility if people are informed and don't cooperate.
Unfortunately, few are informed and a combination of draconian laws, garbage science, and a corrupt/incompetent media are working together to make "voluntary" acceptance a real possibility.
Technorati Tags: video,BrasscheckTV,avian bird flu,swine flu,flu,CDC,government,pandemic,propaganda,vaccinations,health
MA: Next week's Town Meetings and City Council Meeting on local marijuana laws
Pertinent NORML meetings in Massachusetts on local marijuana laws. The meetings are to stop the state from raising penalties form $100 to $300 for using marijuana.
If you live and Massachusetts and can attend any of these meetings please do and stand up for smokers rights!
Dear NORML Supporters in MA,
Town meeting season is heating up.
Next week there are eight town meetings and one city council meeting involving local bylaws/ordinances that increase the penalties for using up to $300.
-Do you live in one of these communities?
-Do you live near these communities?
-Do you know people in these communities?
Please spread the word, it is our turn to JUST SAY NO!
Canton (Open) ATM, Monday, April 27 (Fin. Comm. informed that Article was being withdrawn p. 86 .) Concord (Open) ATM , Monday, April 27 (no motion expect )
Hingham (Open) ATM, Monday, April 27 (passage is recommended by Finance & Advisory)
Reading (Representative), ATM , Monday, April 27 (Fin. Com. no report, By-Law Com. recommends passage!)
Wareham (Open) ATM , Monday, April 27
Truro (Open) ATM , Tuesday, April 28 (Selectmen by a vote of 2 - 3 refused to recommend its passage)
Braintree City Council, April 28, Pot Patriots please attend .
Wenham (Open), Saturday, May 2 (Selectmen saved it a place )
Wilmington (Open), ATM, Saturday, May 2
There will be eighteen town meetings the week of May 3 - 10 and eight more that we know about before the end of May. City council agenda's are set with less advance notice.
Being vocal is having an effect. In the cities of Everett, Quincy and Revere it has been placed on the back burner, if not forgotten. We have identified 65 towns, who have held or are holding Town Meetings without the issue being on the warrant and as you will note above in both Canton and Concord no motion is expected.
Worcester and West Newbury REJECTED such proposals.
Auburn, Topsfield and Walpole decided NOT to put it on the ATM Warrant.
Although Plymouth's police chief mentioned it in January Plymouth selectmen the selectmen didn't discuss it at all nor did they put it on the warrants for April 4 Special and Annual Town Meetings.
Wellesley Town Meeting 4/7 NO MOTION!
Provincetown Town Meeting 4/6 Motion failed to carry!
Manchester Town Meeting 4/6 amended to place it before voters at town election and to refer it to Board of Health .
For more details visit: http://www.masscann.org/legal-reform/60-politics/176-cities-and-towns-considering-their-own-laws-updated-42209-at-626-am
Attorney Steven S. Epstein Treasurer and Database Manager 978-352-3300
Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition\NORML A State Affiliate of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
Proud Sponsor of Freedom Rally XX, Sept. 19, 2009 on the Boston Common P.O. Box 0266, Georgetown, MA 01833-0366 781-944-2266 -http://www.masscann.org/
Monday, April 20, 2009
4/20 Screening: HIGH - The True Tale of American Marijuana
Director John Holowach is staging a special free 4/20 online screening of this great drug war documentary! Warning: This movie, though unrated, contains some explicit language, footage of a disturbing nature, and mature discussion of the use and regulation of various narcotics. Happy 4/20 everyone!
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5 Tips for Calling Congress on Marijuana Policy Reform
Watch as MPP's Aaron Houston walks through the things you should know before calling Congress to express your opinions and support for marijuana policy reform. Help end the war on drugs and get active by following these easy steps.
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For Marijuana Advocates, Not-So-Secret Holiday Hints @Change
By JESSE McKINLEY
SAN FRANCISCO — On Monday, somewhere in New York City, 420 people will gather for High Times magazine’s annual beauty pageant, a secretly located and sold-out event that its sponsor says will “turn the Big Apple into the Baked Apple and help us usher in a new era of marijuana freedom in America.”
They will not be the only ones partaking: April 20 has long been an unofficial day of celebration for marijuana fans, an occasion for campus smoke-outs, concerts and cannabis festivals. But some advocates of legal marijuana say this year’s “high holiday” carries extra significance as they sense increasing momentum toward acceptance of the drug, either as medicine or entertainment.
“It is the biggest moment yet,” said Ethan Nadelmann, the founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance in Washington, who cited several national polls showing growing support for legalization. “There’s a sense that the notion of legalizing marijuana is starting to cross the fringes into mainstream debate.”
For Mr. Nadelmann and others like him, the signs of change are everywhere, from the nation’s statehouses — where more than a dozen legislatures have taken up measures to allow some medical use of marijuana or some easing of penalties for recreational use — to its swimming pools, where an admission of marijuana use by the Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps was largely forgiven with a shrug.
Long stigmatized as political poison, the marijuana movement has found new allies in prominent politicians, including Representatives Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Ron Paul, Republican of Texas, who co-wrote a bill last year to decrease federal penalties for possession and to give medical users new protections.
The bill failed, but with the recession prompting bulging budget deficits, some legislators in California and Massachusetts have gone further, suggesting that the drug could be legalized and taxed, a concept that has intrigued even such ideologically opposed pundits as Glenn Beck of Fox News and Jack Cafferty of CNN.
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SAN FRANCISCO — On Monday, somewhere in New York City, 420 people will gather for High Times magazine’s annual beauty pageant, a secretly located and sold-out event that its sponsor says will “turn the Big Apple into the Baked Apple and help us usher in a new era of marijuana freedom in America.”
They will not be the only ones partaking: April 20 has long been an unofficial day of celebration for marijuana fans, an occasion for campus smoke-outs, concerts and cannabis festivals. But some advocates of legal marijuana say this year’s “high holiday” carries extra significance as they sense increasing momentum toward acceptance of the drug, either as medicine or entertainment.
“It is the biggest moment yet,” said Ethan Nadelmann, the founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance in Washington, who cited several national polls showing growing support for legalization. “There’s a sense that the notion of legalizing marijuana is starting to cross the fringes into mainstream debate.”
For Mr. Nadelmann and others like him, the signs of change are everywhere, from the nation’s statehouses — where more than a dozen legislatures have taken up measures to allow some medical use of marijuana or some easing of penalties for recreational use — to its swimming pools, where an admission of marijuana use by the Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps was largely forgiven with a shrug.
Long stigmatized as political poison, the marijuana movement has found new allies in prominent politicians, including Representatives Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Ron Paul, Republican of Texas, who co-wrote a bill last year to decrease federal penalties for possession and to give medical users new protections.
The bill failed, but with the recession prompting bulging budget deficits, some legislators in California and Massachusetts have gone further, suggesting that the drug could be legalized and taxed, a concept that has intrigued even such ideologically opposed pundits as Glenn Beck of Fox News and Jack Cafferty of CNN.
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Los Angeles: Homeless Capital of America.
by Ina Jaffe - Los Angeles is sometimes called the homeless capital of the nation. More than 40,000 people in this city have no permanent place to live. The highest concentration of homeless is on Skid Row. In less than 1 square mile, on the edge of downtown L.A., you can see hundreds of people sleeping on the sidewalks.
Unlike other depressed neighborhoods around the country, Skid Row is not a faded remnant of a neighborhood fallen on hard times. It's long been a destination for low-wage, transient workers coming off the nearby railroad tracks to work in the city's factories and warehouses. They were mostly men staying in cheap hotels with tiny rooms and a shared bath.
You can still get a glimpse of that history from a sign on the roof of the Rosslyn Hotel. Like many hotels back then, the Rosslyn sign faces away from downtown and toward the railroad tracks. All a newcomer had to do was get off the train and look up, to see where a room could be found.
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Unlike other depressed neighborhoods around the country, Skid Row is not a faded remnant of a neighborhood fallen on hard times. It's long been a destination for low-wage, transient workers coming off the nearby railroad tracks to work in the city's factories and warehouses. They were mostly men staying in cheap hotels with tiny rooms and a shared bath.
You can still get a glimpse of that history from a sign on the roof of the Rosslyn Hotel. Like many hotels back then, the Rosslyn sign faces away from downtown and toward the railroad tracks. All a newcomer had to do was get off the train and look up, to see where a room could be found.
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Happy 4/20! The True Story Behind Stoners' Favorite Number
by Ryan Grim, Huffington Post -
Where does 420 come from?
Warren Haynes, the Allman Brothers Band guitarist, routinely plays with the surviving members of the Grateful Dead, now touring as The Dead. He's just finished a Dead show in Washington, D.C. and gets a pop quiz from the Huffington Post.
Where does 420 come from?
He pauses and thinks, hands on his side. "I don't know the real origin. I know myths and rumors," he says. "I'm really confused about the first time I heard it. It was like a police code for smoking in progress or something. What's the real story?"
Depending on who you ask, or their state of inebriation, there are as many varieties of answers as strains of medical bud in California. It's the number of active chemicals in marijuana. It's teatime in Holland. It has something to do with Hitler's birthday. It's those numbers in that Bob Dylan song multiplied.
The origin of the term 420, celebrated around the world by pot smokers every April 20th, has long been obscured by the clouded memories of the folks who made it a phenomenon.
The Huffington Post chased the term back to its roots and was able to find it in a lost patch of cannabis in a Point Reyes, California forest. Just as interesting as its origin, it turns out, is how it spread.
It starts with the Dead.
It was Christmas week in Oakland, 1990. Steven Bloom was wandering through The Lot - that timeless gathering of hippies that springs up in the parking lot before every Grateful Dead concert - when a Deadhead handed him a yellow flyer.
"We are going to meet at 4:20 on 4/20 for 420-ing in Marin County at the Bolinas Ridge sunset spot on Mt. Tamalpais," reads the message, which Bloom dug up and forwarded to the Huffington Post. Bloom, then a reporter for High Times magazine and now the publisher of CelebStoner.com and co-author of Pot Culture, had never heard of "420-ing" before.
The flyer came complete with a 420 back story: "420 started somewhere in San Rafael, California in the late '70s. It started as the police code for Marijuana Smoking in Progress. After local heads heard of the police call, they started using the expression 420 when referring to herb - Let's Go 420, dude!"
Bloom reported his find in the May 1991 issue of High Times, which the magazine found in its archives and provided to the Huffington Post. The story, though, was only partially right.
read more digg story
Where does 420 come from?
Warren Haynes, the Allman Brothers Band guitarist, routinely plays with the surviving members of the Grateful Dead, now touring as The Dead. He's just finished a Dead show in Washington, D.C. and gets a pop quiz from the Huffington Post.
Where does 420 come from?
He pauses and thinks, hands on his side. "I don't know the real origin. I know myths and rumors," he says. "I'm really confused about the first time I heard it. It was like a police code for smoking in progress or something. What's the real story?"
Depending on who you ask, or their state of inebriation, there are as many varieties of answers as strains of medical bud in California. It's the number of active chemicals in marijuana. It's teatime in Holland. It has something to do with Hitler's birthday. It's those numbers in that Bob Dylan song multiplied.
The origin of the term 420, celebrated around the world by pot smokers every April 20th, has long been obscured by the clouded memories of the folks who made it a phenomenon.
The Huffington Post chased the term back to its roots and was able to find it in a lost patch of cannabis in a Point Reyes, California forest. Just as interesting as its origin, it turns out, is how it spread.
It starts with the Dead.
It was Christmas week in Oakland, 1990. Steven Bloom was wandering through The Lot - that timeless gathering of hippies that springs up in the parking lot before every Grateful Dead concert - when a Deadhead handed him a yellow flyer.
"We are going to meet at 4:20 on 4/20 for 420-ing in Marin County at the Bolinas Ridge sunset spot on Mt. Tamalpais," reads the message, which Bloom dug up and forwarded to the Huffington Post. Bloom, then a reporter for High Times magazine and now the publisher of CelebStoner.com and co-author of Pot Culture, had never heard of "420-ing" before.
The flyer came complete with a 420 back story: "420 started somewhere in San Rafael, California in the late '70s. It started as the police code for Marijuana Smoking in Progress. After local heads heard of the police call, they started using the expression 420 when referring to herb - Let's Go 420, dude!"
Bloom reported his find in the May 1991 issue of High Times, which the magazine found in its archives and provided to the Huffington Post. The story, though, was only partially right.
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A younger Barack Obama on the War on Drugs and marijuana
Barack Obama says the War on Drugs has been an utter failure and advocates the decriminalization of marijuana.
This clip will be blogged about at http://2parse.com/?p=2648
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This clip will be blogged about at http://2parse.com/?p=2648
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Saturday, April 18, 2009
Want to Have Great Sex? Smoke a Joint
Marijuana has been used as an aphrodisiac for thousands of years. So what exactly is it about weed that turns people on?
By Josey Vogels, My Messy Bedroom.
Marijuana has been used as an aphrodisiac for thousands of years.
The ancient Indian Ayurvedic medicine systems used cannabis to increase libido, produce long-lasting erections, delay ejaculation, facilitate lubrication and loosen inhibitions.
Some Tantric sex practitioners drink a substance called bhang, a sort of spiced marijuana milkshake to enhance the sexual experience. According to one source, Indian prostitutes eat bhang sherbet to help them feel sexually aroused.
In 19th century Serbia, female virgins were given mixtures of lamb's fat and cannabis on their wedding night to make sex less painful. Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon and other Middle Eastern and Northern African cultures used cannabis for sexual purposes in a potent form known at kif as recently as the early 20th century.
So what exactly is it about weed that turns people on?
Besides the obvious: it heightens your senses, relaxes you and makes you feel hyper connected, there are also physiological effects.
Along with an increased heart rate, changes in blood flow and respiration, according to William Novak, author of the 1980 tome, High Culture: Marijuana in the Lives of Americans, "Neurochemistry, hormonal systems and brain regions such as the temporal lobe are affected by both marijuana and sexual arousal."
That's because THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), the active ingredient in pot, not only releases dopamine in the brain -- causing the "high" -- it actually replicates the effects of a sexy little naturally occurring neurochemical called anandamide.
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By Josey Vogels, My Messy Bedroom.
Marijuana has been used as an aphrodisiac for thousands of years.
The ancient Indian Ayurvedic medicine systems used cannabis to increase libido, produce long-lasting erections, delay ejaculation, facilitate lubrication and loosen inhibitions.
Some Tantric sex practitioners drink a substance called bhang, a sort of spiced marijuana milkshake to enhance the sexual experience. According to one source, Indian prostitutes eat bhang sherbet to help them feel sexually aroused.
In 19th century Serbia, female virgins were given mixtures of lamb's fat and cannabis on their wedding night to make sex less painful. Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon and other Middle Eastern and Northern African cultures used cannabis for sexual purposes in a potent form known at kif as recently as the early 20th century.
So what exactly is it about weed that turns people on?
Besides the obvious: it heightens your senses, relaxes you and makes you feel hyper connected, there are also physiological effects.
Along with an increased heart rate, changes in blood flow and respiration, according to William Novak, author of the 1980 tome, High Culture: Marijuana in the Lives of Americans, "Neurochemistry, hormonal systems and brain regions such as the temporal lobe are affected by both marijuana and sexual arousal."
That's because THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), the active ingredient in pot, not only releases dopamine in the brain -- causing the "high" -- it actually replicates the effects of a sexy little naturally occurring neurochemical called anandamide.
read more digg story
Former Miss New Jersey Speaks Out For Medical Marijuana
From MikeCann.net
A former Miss New Jersey has put down her tiara and is ready to fight for the legalization of medical marijuana.
Georgine DiMaria, 24, said as a child her asthma was so severe that it left her bedridden, forcing her to be homeschooled. “When you can’t breathe, nothing else matters,” she said.When DiMaria learned that her uncle in South Carolina had used marijuana as part of his treatment for cancer, DiMaria investigated it herself. It helped her immensely, she said. Because of law enforcement taken against people that have used marijuana for medicinal purposes, DiMaria would not say when she used marijuana or how she obtained it, but she did say it was medically beneficial to her.
DiMaria also said she kept her usage under wraps while serving as Miss New Jersey, due to the controversy surrounding the drug and its potential to be abused. DiMaria became Miss New Jersey pageant and competed in the Miss America pageant in 2006. Since then, she has served as a national spokeswoman for the American Lung Association. DiMaria emphasized that she does not condone smoking.
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Thursday, April 16, 2009
Medical Marijuana Lies Must Not Stand!
From New York Medical Marijuana Society
But what happens when they do not? What and where is the accountability when politics is allowed to extinguish the flame of truth, when propaganda rather than sound science is allowed to rule the day, dictate policy and shape public perception? Propaganda is a strong word, and therefore one I wish to define...from my perspective, for the purpose of this article, Propaganda is selectively omitting or employing facts to persuade members of the general public to hold a specific view point. All this may not make sense if you are unaware of ASA's (Americans for Safe Access) court case in the Ninth Circuit Court that was heard yesterday. At question...the Federal Government's wrongful position in public discourse that there are no Medical Benefits to be found in Cannabis (marijuana).
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But what happens when they do not? What and where is the accountability when politics is allowed to extinguish the flame of truth, when propaganda rather than sound science is allowed to rule the day, dictate policy and shape public perception? Propaganda is a strong word, and therefore one I wish to define...from my perspective, for the purpose of this article, Propaganda is selectively omitting or employing facts to persuade members of the general public to hold a specific view point. All this may not make sense if you are unaware of ASA's (Americans for Safe Access) court case in the Ninth Circuit Court that was heard yesterday. At question...the Federal Government's wrongful position in public discourse that there are no Medical Benefits to be found in Cannabis (marijuana).
read more digg story
Pentagon Closes Office Accused of Propaganda Under Bush.
By THOM SHANKER
WASHINGTON — A Pentagon office responsible for coordinating Defense Department information campaigns overseas has been abolished in an effort by the Obama administration to distance itself from past practices that some military officers called propaganda, senior officials said Wednesday.
Military and civilian critics said the office, the Defense Department office for support to public diplomacy, overstepped its mandate during the final years of the Bush administration by trying to organize information operations that violated Pentagon guidelines for accuracy and transparency.
Pentagon officials said the position of deputy assistant secretary of defense for support to public diplomacy had been eliminated, with the staff members reassigned and the office closed.
Senior Pentagon officials said the decision to close the office was made by Michele A. Flournoy, the new under secretary of defense for policy, and was meant to ensure that global communications efforts by the Defense Department and military would be aligned with the rest of the government.
“Because of the history of the office, we needed a fresh start in how we integrate the critical function of strategic communications across the board,” said a senior Pentagon official, who spoke anonymously to discuss a change that has not been publicly announced.
The office was created in 2007 to be the central point within the vast Pentagon bureaucracy and far-flung military to coordinate the Defense Department’s overseas information efforts with the rest of the government, in particular the White House, the State Department and American embassies.
But American military officers in Afghanistan in particular were angered last year by sets of “talking points” provided by the office for use in responding to queries on matters like civilian casualties. Officers who received the talking points predicted that the information would be seen by the Afghan public as blatant propaganda, and they refused to use them.
Officials said the Pentagon would now play a supporting role to the White House and the State Department in communicating government messages to foreign audiences, with the efforts no longer centralized in one place but assigned to each Pentagon policy office and regional military combatant commander.
Questions over the proper role of the Pentagon in public diplomacy have lingered since it was disclosed in 2002 that the Defense Department had created the Office of Strategic Influence; that office, a forerunner of the Pentagon public diplomacy office, was shut down after members of Congress expressed concerns that its behind-the-scenes efforts to shape public sentiment in wartime might undermine the military’s credibility.
Even in a supporting role, the Defense Department has far greater resources in money, trained communications personnel and broadcast and print technology than any other government agency or department.
read more digg story
WASHINGTON — A Pentagon office responsible for coordinating Defense Department information campaigns overseas has been abolished in an effort by the Obama administration to distance itself from past practices that some military officers called propaganda, senior officials said Wednesday.
Military and civilian critics said the office, the Defense Department office for support to public diplomacy, overstepped its mandate during the final years of the Bush administration by trying to organize information operations that violated Pentagon guidelines for accuracy and transparency.
Pentagon officials said the position of deputy assistant secretary of defense for support to public diplomacy had been eliminated, with the staff members reassigned and the office closed.
Senior Pentagon officials said the decision to close the office was made by Michele A. Flournoy, the new under secretary of defense for policy, and was meant to ensure that global communications efforts by the Defense Department and military would be aligned with the rest of the government.
“Because of the history of the office, we needed a fresh start in how we integrate the critical function of strategic communications across the board,” said a senior Pentagon official, who spoke anonymously to discuss a change that has not been publicly announced.
The office was created in 2007 to be the central point within the vast Pentagon bureaucracy and far-flung military to coordinate the Defense Department’s overseas information efforts with the rest of the government, in particular the White House, the State Department and American embassies.
But American military officers in Afghanistan in particular were angered last year by sets of “talking points” provided by the office for use in responding to queries on matters like civilian casualties. Officers who received the talking points predicted that the information would be seen by the Afghan public as blatant propaganda, and they refused to use them.
Officials said the Pentagon would now play a supporting role to the White House and the State Department in communicating government messages to foreign audiences, with the efforts no longer centralized in one place but assigned to each Pentagon policy office and regional military combatant commander.
Questions over the proper role of the Pentagon in public diplomacy have lingered since it was disclosed in 2002 that the Defense Department had created the Office of Strategic Influence; that office, a forerunner of the Pentagon public diplomacy office, was shut down after members of Congress expressed concerns that its behind-the-scenes efforts to shape public sentiment in wartime might undermine the military’s credibility.
Even in a supporting role, the Defense Department has far greater resources in money, trained communications personnel and broadcast and print technology than any other government agency or department.
read more digg story
West Bank a Time Bomb Waiting to Explode - IPS
West Bank a Time Bomb Waiting to Explode, IPS, Analysis by Mel Frykberg, Apr 16, 2009
RAMALLAH, Apr 16 (IPS) - Tension between Israel and Palestinians is rising sharply as reflected in a number of increasingly bloody and violent confrontations since Israel's devastating war in Gaza at the beginning of the year.
While Gaza, which the Islamic organisation Hamas controls, has been a powder-keg for several years, recent attacks in the West Bank, which is under the control of the secular Palestinian Authority (PA) that is Israel's peace partner, are causing alarm.
"The West Bank is a ticking time-bomb waiting for the right time and the right conditions to explode," Dr Samir Awad from the political science department at Birzeit University near Ramallah in the West Bank told IPS.
Last week a 16-year-old settler boy from the illegal Israeli Bat Ayin settlement, situated between Bethlehem and Hebron in the southern West Bank, was axed to death by a Palestinian. Another seven-year-old settler boy was hospitalised with a fractured skull in the same incident.
Earlier in the year two Israeli policemen were shot dead at point blank range after they stopped to help what appeared to be a broken down car with a flat tyre in the northern West Bank.
Even more serious was the discovery of a car laden with explosives in the parking lot of a large shopping centre in the northern Israeli city Haifa last month. The bomb was deactivated in time.
It is believed that West Bankers or possibly Israeli-Arabs were behind this, again pointing to increasing militancy from the West Bank or even within Israeli's own borders.
Suicide attacks or bombings against Israeli civilian targets within Israel's borders have over the last few years largely become a thing of the past.
However, settler attacks on Palestinians, leading to serious injuries and numerous deaths as well property destruction, have risen. Over the years these attacks have been meticulously recorded by Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem.
read more digg story
RAMALLAH, Apr 16 (IPS) - Tension between Israel and Palestinians is rising sharply as reflected in a number of increasingly bloody and violent confrontations since Israel's devastating war in Gaza at the beginning of the year.
While Gaza, which the Islamic organisation Hamas controls, has been a powder-keg for several years, recent attacks in the West Bank, which is under the control of the secular Palestinian Authority (PA) that is Israel's peace partner, are causing alarm.
"The West Bank is a ticking time-bomb waiting for the right time and the right conditions to explode," Dr Samir Awad from the political science department at Birzeit University near Ramallah in the West Bank told IPS.
Last week a 16-year-old settler boy from the illegal Israeli Bat Ayin settlement, situated between Bethlehem and Hebron in the southern West Bank, was axed to death by a Palestinian. Another seven-year-old settler boy was hospitalised with a fractured skull in the same incident.
Earlier in the year two Israeli policemen were shot dead at point blank range after they stopped to help what appeared to be a broken down car with a flat tyre in the northern West Bank.
Even more serious was the discovery of a car laden with explosives in the parking lot of a large shopping centre in the northern Israeli city Haifa last month. The bomb was deactivated in time.
It is believed that West Bankers or possibly Israeli-Arabs were behind this, again pointing to increasing militancy from the West Bank or even within Israeli's own borders.
Suicide attacks or bombings against Israeli civilian targets within Israel's borders have over the last few years largely become a thing of the past.
However, settler attacks on Palestinians, leading to serious injuries and numerous deaths as well property destruction, have risen. Over the years these attacks have been meticulously recorded by Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem.
read more digg story
Pictures of the Day
A statue is saved after Italy’s earthquake, Tibetans protest a Chinese court ruling, the annual White House Easter Egg Roll and more...
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My personal favorite...
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My personal favorite...
A British boy posed with a water gun in front of Thai soldiers in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said the military campaign to end antigovernment protests at the Government House is “nearly complete.” (Vincent Yu/Associated Press)
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
FOX News Says Marijuana Activists are Just Internet Trolls
Good reply to FOX News' failure to admit defeat in the elections so they attack people with a purpose thinking they'll break them down...activists are the bleeding heart liberals that the GOP made fun of for sooooooo many years....nothing will break us after the last 8 years of hell...nothing! Boo-Yah!
Peace to those that believe everything is possible!
soul
Posted in Speakeasy Main by Scott Morgan
Really, FOX News? You are so incapable of understanding our argument that you would dismiss us as saboteurs? If the mere mention of reforming marijuana laws is such a grand affront to civil discourse, let me introduce you to a few more "trolls" out there on the internet spreading crazy ideas about not arresting people for marijuana:read more digg story
There's Joe Klein at Time, David Sirota at The Nation, Kathleen Parker at the Washington Post, Paul Jacob at TownHall.com, Hendrik Hertzberg at The New Yorker, Andrew Sullivan at The Atlantic, Glenn Greenwald at Salon, Debra Saunders at the San Francisco Chronicle, Leonard Pitts at Miami Herald, John Richardson at Esquire, Margery Eagan at Boston Herald and many more. If these names sound familiar to you, it's becaue they aren't trolls at all, rather they are respected journalists who are joining the national conversation about the harms of our vicious marijuana laws.
In one of Obama's recent online forums, I saw this question: "How many donuts can I fit on my dong?" That was a troll, and it got deleted. This is a movement, and it isn't going away. Our issue is bigger than the organizations backing it. It didn't win Obama's forum because marijuana reformers know something about online organizing that other interest groups don't. It won because it is this defining question that quickly separates petty hypocrites from bold leaders, that distinguishes self-evident truths from antiquated propaganda, and that pits common sense against the mindless drug war hysteria that maintains a frigid stranglehold on our political culture, rendering impotent the promise of change that inspired so many hopeful Americans to lay their hopes and dreams at the steps of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
90% Of CNN Viewers Want Marijuana Legalized!
Two talking heads (both part of government anti-drug programs) take on the tough issues of how to solve the violence at the US/Mexican border. SURPRISE! 90% of CNN viewers want it legalized!
read more digg story
read more digg story
The big business of marijuana
From CNN’s Jeanne Meserve - And all this week we’re breaking down America’s drug addiction and examining how it’s helping fuel the violence spilling over the border. Today we’re looking at the 8.5 billion dollar business being made off marijuana. How do you stop the supply when there’s such a massive demand?
read more digg story
read more digg story
Monday, April 13, 2009
In Calif., Medical Marijuana Laws Are Moving Pot Into the Mainstream
By Karl Vick
Washington Post Staff Writer
LOS ANGELES -- With little notice and even less controversy, marijuana is now available as a medical treatment in California to almost anyone who tells a willing physician he would feel better if he smoked.
Pot is now retailed over the counter in hundreds of storefronts across Los Angeles and is credited with reviving a section of downtown Oakland, where an entrepreneur sells out classes offering "quality training for the cannabis industry." The tabloid LA Journal of Education for Medical Marijuana is fat with ads for Magic Purple, Strawberry Cough and other offerings in more than 400 "dispensaries" operating in the city.
Los Angeles officials say applications for retail outlets surged after Feb. 26, when U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced that the Drug Enforcement Administration will no longer raid such stores. Those pressing for change in drug laws regard the announcement as a watershed in a 40-year battle against marijuana's official listing as a dangerous drug -- a legal fight that, in California, is being waged on ground that has shifted dramatically toward acceptance.
read more digg story
Washington Post Staff Writer
LOS ANGELES -- With little notice and even less controversy, marijuana is now available as a medical treatment in California to almost anyone who tells a willing physician he would feel better if he smoked.
Pot is now retailed over the counter in hundreds of storefronts across Los Angeles and is credited with reviving a section of downtown Oakland, where an entrepreneur sells out classes offering "quality training for the cannabis industry." The tabloid LA Journal of Education for Medical Marijuana is fat with ads for Magic Purple, Strawberry Cough and other offerings in more than 400 "dispensaries" operating in the city.
Los Angeles officials say applications for retail outlets surged after Feb. 26, when U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced that the Drug Enforcement Administration will no longer raid such stores. Those pressing for change in drug laws regard the announcement as a watershed in a 40-year battle against marijuana's official listing as a dangerous drug -- a legal fight that, in California, is being waged on ground that has shifted dramatically toward acceptance.
read more digg story
Mexican Congress debates legalizing marijuana
By E. EDUARDO CASTILLO
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's Congress opened a three-day debate Monday on the merits of legalizing marijuana for personal use, a policy backed by three former Latin American presidents who warned that a crackdown on drug cartels is not working.
Although President Felipe Calderon has opposed the idea, the unprecedented forum shows legalizing marijuana is gaining support in Mexico amid brutal drug violence.
Such a measure would be sure to strain relations with the United States at a time when the two countries are stepping up cooperation in the fight against drug trafficking. The congressional debate — open to academics, experts and government officials — ends a day before President Barack Obama arrives in Mexico for talks on the drug war.
Proponents had a boost in February when three former presidents — Cesar Gaviria of Colombia, Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico and Fernando Cardoso of Brazil — urged Latin American countries to consider legalizing the drug to undermine a major source of income for cartels.
The congressional discussion takes on a subject "that had been taboo" in our country, said opposition lawmaker Javier Gonzalez, adding that his Democratic Revolution Party supports legalizing personal marijuana consumption.
"What we don't want is to criminalize youths for consuming or possessing marijuana," he said.
read more digg story
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's Congress opened a three-day debate Monday on the merits of legalizing marijuana for personal use, a policy backed by three former Latin American presidents who warned that a crackdown on drug cartels is not working.
Although President Felipe Calderon has opposed the idea, the unprecedented forum shows legalizing marijuana is gaining support in Mexico amid brutal drug violence.
Such a measure would be sure to strain relations with the United States at a time when the two countries are stepping up cooperation in the fight against drug trafficking. The congressional debate — open to academics, experts and government officials — ends a day before President Barack Obama arrives in Mexico for talks on the drug war.
Proponents had a boost in February when three former presidents — Cesar Gaviria of Colombia, Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico and Fernando Cardoso of Brazil — urged Latin American countries to consider legalizing the drug to undermine a major source of income for cartels.
The congressional discussion takes on a subject "that had been taboo" in our country, said opposition lawmaker Javier Gonzalez, adding that his Democratic Revolution Party supports legalizing personal marijuana consumption.
"What we don't want is to criminalize youths for consuming or possessing marijuana," he said.
read more digg story
We Tried A War Like This Once Before...
By Mike Gray
Sunday, April 12, 2009
In 1932, Alphonse Capone, an influential businessman then living in Chicago, used to drive through the city in a caravan of armor-plated limos built to his specifications by General Motors. Submachine-gun-toting associates led the motorcade and brought up the rear. It is a measure of how thoroughly the mob mentality had permeated everyday life that this was considered normal.
Capone and his boys were agents of misguided policy. Ninety years ago, the United States tried to cure the national thirst for alcohol, and it led to an explosion of violence unlike anything we'd ever seen. Today, it's hard to ignore the echoes of Prohibition in the drug-related mayhem along our southern border. Over the past 15 months, there have been 7,200 drug-war deaths in Mexico alone, as the government there battles an army of killers that would scare the pants off Al Capone.
Now U.S. officials are warning that the vandals may be headed in this direction. Too late: They're already here. And they're in a good position to take over organized crime in this country as well.
After decades of trying to stem the influx of illegal narcotics into the United States, it's clear that the drug war, like Prohibition, has led us into a gruesome blind alley. Drugs are cheaper than ever before and you can buy them anywhere. As Mexico's cash-starved government struggles to keep up the good fight, the drug barons rake in more than enough to buy political protection and military power while still maintaining profit margins beyond imagining. And what's driving this desperate struggle may be the ubiquitous weed: Southwestern lawmen say that marijuana accounts for two-thirds of the cartels' income.
At last, the spectacular violence in Mexico has captured everybody's attention, and in an eerie replay of the end of alcohol prohibition, we may at last be witnessing the final act in the war on drugs.
One hint of a shifting wind came in February, when a state legislator from San Francisco introduced a bill to tax, regulate and legalize adult use of cannabis. This sort of grandstanding is always met with derision, and this was no exception. But then something strange happened: California's chief tax collector said that the measure would bring in $1.3 billion a year and save another $1 billion on enforcement and incarceration. In a state facing an $18 billion deficit, suddenly nobody was laughing.
Four days later Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, who's no legalizer, said that he, too, thinks we should take another look at marijuana prohibition. "The most effective way to establish a virtual barrier against the criminal activities is to take the profit out of it," he told a U.S. Senate subcommittee.
The next day, U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced a minor policy shift with enormous implications: The federal government would no longer go after groups that supply medical marijuana in the 13 states where it is legal. The Drug Enforcement Administration had been raiding dispensaries routinely, and dozens of patients and growers are behind bars today despite their legal status in California's eyes. Now that threat has vanished for those who comply with state law. For California, this amounts to de facto legalization.
At his recent cyberspace town hall meeting, President Obama fielded a question about whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy. "No," he replied as the audience giggled. But that answer sheds no light on his actual thinking. Obama has already called the drug war an "utter failure." And since he himself is an admitted ex-toker, it's hard to believe that he'd cancel some kid's college education over a crime he got away with.
Of course, resistance to marijuana legalization remains rock solid in Washington among those who can't face the failure of prohibition. But that has more to do with politics than science. The Department of Health and Human Services says that there are 32 million drug abusers in the country, but that includes 25 million marijuana smokers. If you strike them from the list, how do you justify spending $60 billion a year in this economy trying to stop 2 percent of the population from being self-destructive? It would be dramatically cheaper to follow the Swiss example: Provide treatment for all who want it, and supply the rest with pure drugs under medical supervision.
When we erected an artificial barrier between alcohol producers and consumers in 1920, we created a bonanza more lucrative than the Gold Rush. The staggering profits from illegal booze gave mobsters the financial power to take over legitimate businesses and expand into casinos, loan sharking, labor racketeering and extortion. Thus we created the major crime syndicates -- and the U.S. murder rate jumped tenfold.
Fortunately, the Roaring '20s were interrupted by the Crash of '29, and when the money ran out, the battle against booze was a luxury we could no longer afford. Prohibition was repealed in 1933, and over the next decade the U.S. murder rate was cut in half.
Today it's back up where it was at the peak of Prohibition -- 10 per 100,000 -- a jump clearly connected to the war on drugs. And anyone who's watching what's going on south of the border can see that we're headed for an era of mayhem that would make Meyer Lansky and Frank Costello weak in the knees.
Profits from the Mexican drug trade are estimated at about $35 billion a year. And since the cartels spend half to two-thirds of their income on bribery, that would be around $20 billion going into the pockets of police officers, army generals, judges, prosecutors and politicians. Last fall, Mexico's attorney general announced that his former top drug enforcer, chief prosecutor Noe Ramirez Mandujano, was getting $450,000 a month under the table from the Sinaloa cartel. The cartel can of course afford to be generous -- Sinaloa chief Joaquin Guzmán recently made the Forbes List of Billionaires.
The depth of Guzmán's penetration into the United States was revealed a few weeks ago, when the DEA proudly announced hundreds of arrests all over the country in a major operation against the "dangerously powerful" Sinaloa cartel. One jarring detail was the admission that Mexican cartels are now operating in 230 cities inside the United States.
This disaster has been slowly unfolding since the early 1980s, when Vice President George H.W. Bush shut down the Caribbean cocaine pipeline between Colombia and Miami. The Colombians switched to the land route and began hiring Mexicans to deliver the goods across the U.S. border. But when the Mexicans got a glimpse of the truckloads of cash headed south, they decided that they didn't need the Colombians at all. Today the Mexican cartels are full-service commercial organizations with their own suppliers, refineries and a distribution network that covers all of North America.
As we awaken to the threat spilling over our southern border, the reactions are predictable. In addition to walling off the border, Congress wants to send helicopters, military hardware and unmanned reconnaissance drones into the fray -- and it wants the Pentagon to train Mexican troops in counterinsurgency tactics.
Our anti-drug warriors have apparently learned nothing from the past two decades. A few years ago we trained several units of the Mexican army in counterinsurgency warfare. They studied their lessons, then promptly deserted to form the Zetas, a thoroughly professional narco hit squad for the Gulf cartel, which offered considerably better pay. Over the past eight years, the Mexican army has had more than 100,000 deserters.
The president of Mexico rightly points out that U.S. policy is at the root of this nightmare. Not only did we invent the war on drugs, but we are the primary consumers.
The obvious solution is cutting the demand for drugs in the United States. Clearly, it would be the death of the cartels if we could simply dry up the market. Unfortunately, every effort to do this has met with resounding failure. But now that the Roaring '00s have hit the Crash of '09, the money has vanished once again, and we can no longer ignore the collateral damage of Prohibition II.
Writing last month in the Wall Street Journal, three former Latin American presidents -- Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, César Gaviria of Colombia and Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico -- declared the war on drugs a failure. Responding to a situation they say is "urgent in light of the rising levels of violence and corruption," they are demanding a reexamination of U.S.-inspired drug policies.
Two weeks ago, a conservative former superior court judge in Orange County told the Los Angeles Times that legalization was the only answer, and of 4,400 readers who responded immediately, the Times reported that "a staggering 94 percent" agreed with him.
This is another pivotal moment in U.S. history, strangely resonant with 1933. The war on drugs has been a riveting drama: It has given us great television, filled our prisons and employed hundreds of thousands as guards, police, prosecutors and probation officers. But the party's over.
read more digg story
Sunday, April 12, 2009
In 1932, Alphonse Capone, an influential businessman then living in Chicago, used to drive through the city in a caravan of armor-plated limos built to his specifications by General Motors. Submachine-gun-toting associates led the motorcade and brought up the rear. It is a measure of how thoroughly the mob mentality had permeated everyday life that this was considered normal.
Capone and his boys were agents of misguided policy. Ninety years ago, the United States tried to cure the national thirst for alcohol, and it led to an explosion of violence unlike anything we'd ever seen. Today, it's hard to ignore the echoes of Prohibition in the drug-related mayhem along our southern border. Over the past 15 months, there have been 7,200 drug-war deaths in Mexico alone, as the government there battles an army of killers that would scare the pants off Al Capone.
Now U.S. officials are warning that the vandals may be headed in this direction. Too late: They're already here. And they're in a good position to take over organized crime in this country as well.
After decades of trying to stem the influx of illegal narcotics into the United States, it's clear that the drug war, like Prohibition, has led us into a gruesome blind alley. Drugs are cheaper than ever before and you can buy them anywhere. As Mexico's cash-starved government struggles to keep up the good fight, the drug barons rake in more than enough to buy political protection and military power while still maintaining profit margins beyond imagining. And what's driving this desperate struggle may be the ubiquitous weed: Southwestern lawmen say that marijuana accounts for two-thirds of the cartels' income.
At last, the spectacular violence in Mexico has captured everybody's attention, and in an eerie replay of the end of alcohol prohibition, we may at last be witnessing the final act in the war on drugs.
One hint of a shifting wind came in February, when a state legislator from San Francisco introduced a bill to tax, regulate and legalize adult use of cannabis. This sort of grandstanding is always met with derision, and this was no exception. But then something strange happened: California's chief tax collector said that the measure would bring in $1.3 billion a year and save another $1 billion on enforcement and incarceration. In a state facing an $18 billion deficit, suddenly nobody was laughing.
Four days later Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, who's no legalizer, said that he, too, thinks we should take another look at marijuana prohibition. "The most effective way to establish a virtual barrier against the criminal activities is to take the profit out of it," he told a U.S. Senate subcommittee.
The next day, U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced a minor policy shift with enormous implications: The federal government would no longer go after groups that supply medical marijuana in the 13 states where it is legal. The Drug Enforcement Administration had been raiding dispensaries routinely, and dozens of patients and growers are behind bars today despite their legal status in California's eyes. Now that threat has vanished for those who comply with state law. For California, this amounts to de facto legalization.
At his recent cyberspace town hall meeting, President Obama fielded a question about whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy. "No," he replied as the audience giggled. But that answer sheds no light on his actual thinking. Obama has already called the drug war an "utter failure." And since he himself is an admitted ex-toker, it's hard to believe that he'd cancel some kid's college education over a crime he got away with.
Of course, resistance to marijuana legalization remains rock solid in Washington among those who can't face the failure of prohibition. But that has more to do with politics than science. The Department of Health and Human Services says that there are 32 million drug abusers in the country, but that includes 25 million marijuana smokers. If you strike them from the list, how do you justify spending $60 billion a year in this economy trying to stop 2 percent of the population from being self-destructive? It would be dramatically cheaper to follow the Swiss example: Provide treatment for all who want it, and supply the rest with pure drugs under medical supervision.
When we erected an artificial barrier between alcohol producers and consumers in 1920, we created a bonanza more lucrative than the Gold Rush. The staggering profits from illegal booze gave mobsters the financial power to take over legitimate businesses and expand into casinos, loan sharking, labor racketeering and extortion. Thus we created the major crime syndicates -- and the U.S. murder rate jumped tenfold.
Fortunately, the Roaring '20s were interrupted by the Crash of '29, and when the money ran out, the battle against booze was a luxury we could no longer afford. Prohibition was repealed in 1933, and over the next decade the U.S. murder rate was cut in half.
Today it's back up where it was at the peak of Prohibition -- 10 per 100,000 -- a jump clearly connected to the war on drugs. And anyone who's watching what's going on south of the border can see that we're headed for an era of mayhem that would make Meyer Lansky and Frank Costello weak in the knees.
Profits from the Mexican drug trade are estimated at about $35 billion a year. And since the cartels spend half to two-thirds of their income on bribery, that would be around $20 billion going into the pockets of police officers, army generals, judges, prosecutors and politicians. Last fall, Mexico's attorney general announced that his former top drug enforcer, chief prosecutor Noe Ramirez Mandujano, was getting $450,000 a month under the table from the Sinaloa cartel. The cartel can of course afford to be generous -- Sinaloa chief Joaquin Guzmán recently made the Forbes List of Billionaires.
The depth of Guzmán's penetration into the United States was revealed a few weeks ago, when the DEA proudly announced hundreds of arrests all over the country in a major operation against the "dangerously powerful" Sinaloa cartel. One jarring detail was the admission that Mexican cartels are now operating in 230 cities inside the United States.
This disaster has been slowly unfolding since the early 1980s, when Vice President George H.W. Bush shut down the Caribbean cocaine pipeline between Colombia and Miami. The Colombians switched to the land route and began hiring Mexicans to deliver the goods across the U.S. border. But when the Mexicans got a glimpse of the truckloads of cash headed south, they decided that they didn't need the Colombians at all. Today the Mexican cartels are full-service commercial organizations with their own suppliers, refineries and a distribution network that covers all of North America.
As we awaken to the threat spilling over our southern border, the reactions are predictable. In addition to walling off the border, Congress wants to send helicopters, military hardware and unmanned reconnaissance drones into the fray -- and it wants the Pentagon to train Mexican troops in counterinsurgency tactics.
Our anti-drug warriors have apparently learned nothing from the past two decades. A few years ago we trained several units of the Mexican army in counterinsurgency warfare. They studied their lessons, then promptly deserted to form the Zetas, a thoroughly professional narco hit squad for the Gulf cartel, which offered considerably better pay. Over the past eight years, the Mexican army has had more than 100,000 deserters.
The president of Mexico rightly points out that U.S. policy is at the root of this nightmare. Not only did we invent the war on drugs, but we are the primary consumers.
The obvious solution is cutting the demand for drugs in the United States. Clearly, it would be the death of the cartels if we could simply dry up the market. Unfortunately, every effort to do this has met with resounding failure. But now that the Roaring '00s have hit the Crash of '09, the money has vanished once again, and we can no longer ignore the collateral damage of Prohibition II.
Writing last month in the Wall Street Journal, three former Latin American presidents -- Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, César Gaviria of Colombia and Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico -- declared the war on drugs a failure. Responding to a situation they say is "urgent in light of the rising levels of violence and corruption," they are demanding a reexamination of U.S.-inspired drug policies.
Two weeks ago, a conservative former superior court judge in Orange County told the Los Angeles Times that legalization was the only answer, and of 4,400 readers who responded immediately, the Times reported that "a staggering 94 percent" agreed with him.
This is another pivotal moment in U.S. history, strangely resonant with 1933. The war on drugs has been a riveting drama: It has given us great television, filled our prisons and employed hundreds of thousands as guards, police, prosecutors and probation officers. But the party's over.
read more digg story
In case the bailout doesn't work...Plan B
The US has a Plan B.
If it's not possible to paper over the vast multi-trillion dollar looting that took place during the changing of the guard (Bush to Obama), then the US will be ready with an iron fist for its own people.
Battle hardened troops are in place in the US being trained to "deal" with disgruntled Americans - in a "non-lethal" way of course.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Hemp for Victory
Bring back industrial hemp
Eighty years ago, using a dizzying barrage of propaganda dirty tricks, the chemical company DuPont with the help of newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst succeeded in having the cultivation and possession of hemp criminalized.
The reality is that industrial grade hemp cannot be used to get high and it's one of the most useful plants in human history.
Two US Congressmen, Barney Frank and Ron Paul, have introduced the Industrial Hemp Farming Act to change this sorry state of affairs. Eight other Congressmen from both parties have co-sponsored it.
Currently, about 99% of marijuana that is being eradicated by the "heroic" efforts of the DEA and other publicly funded layabouts is "ditchweed," completely unsmokable biological material descended from hemp plants that used to provide America and the world with cloth, fiber, paper, industrial lubricants, and even food (the seeds are as nutritious as milk.)
Perhaps sanity will prevail.
Technorati Tags: hemp,congress,Barney Frank,Ron Paul,Industrial Hemp Farming Act,video,BrasscheckTV,DEA,government
What the drug wars cost
Isn't this obvious?
Drug abuse is a bad thing.
But giving a big slice of the world economy to criminals is utterly insane.
I never heard the case stated so clearly.
Technorati Tags: drugs,drug reform,opinion,video,BrasscheckTV,war on drugs,marijuana,marijuana prohibition
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Drug Decriminalization in Portugal
From Drug WarRant by Pete Guither
Reminder: Glenn Greenwald will be at the Cato Institute tomorrow (Friday) at noon Eastern to talk about his paper: Drug Decriminalization in Portugal: Lessons for Creating Fair and Successful Drug Policies. Peter Reuter will be responding, and Tim Lynch, moderating.
If you can't get to the Cato Institute, you can watch the event live here.
The paper itself is now available to read online at Cato or you can download the pdf.
It's a fascinating paper.
It's amazing how little we have discussed Portugal and their drug policies in the states. I would imagine that is, in part, a function of how unfamiliar we are with the language. Fortunately, Glenn is fluent and bridges that gap for us.
Decriminalization in Portugal really works. It's certainly not what I would wish for an end goal here - I want to see regulated legalization, not merely decriminalization. Yet what Portugal has in place is far superior to our criminalized approach. It's more effective, it's smarter, and it's more... human. We can learn a lot. In particular, we can learn that moving away from criminalization will not result in the social breakdown that is the warped fantasy of prohibitionists.
read more digg story
Reminder: Glenn Greenwald will be at the Cato Institute tomorrow (Friday) at noon Eastern to talk about his paper: Drug Decriminalization in Portugal: Lessons for Creating Fair and Successful Drug Policies. Peter Reuter will be responding, and Tim Lynch, moderating.
If you can't get to the Cato Institute, you can watch the event live here.
The paper itself is now available to read online at Cato or you can download the pdf.
It's a fascinating paper.
It's amazing how little we have discussed Portugal and their drug policies in the states. I would imagine that is, in part, a function of how unfamiliar we are with the language. Fortunately, Glenn is fluent and bridges that gap for us.
Decriminalization in Portugal really works. It's certainly not what I would wish for an end goal here - I want to see regulated legalization, not merely decriminalization. Yet what Portugal has in place is far superior to our criminalized approach. It's more effective, it's smarter, and it's more... human. We can learn a lot. In particular, we can learn that moving away from criminalization will not result in the social breakdown that is the warped fantasy of prohibitionists.
read more digg story
Marijuana ingredient may reduce tumors: study-420friendly.ca
LONDON (Reuters) - The active ingredient in marijuana appears to reduce tumor growth, according to a Spanish study published on Wednesday.
The researchers showed giving THC to mice with cancer decreased tumor growth and killed cells off in a process called autophagy.
"Our findings support that safe, therapeutically efficacious doses of THC may be reached in cancer patients," Guillermo Velasco of Complutense University in Madrid and colleagues reported in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
The findings add to mixed evidence about the effects of marijuana on human health. Studies have suggested the drug can raise a person's risk of heart attack or stroke and cause cancer.
Other research has shown benefits, such as staving off Alzheimer's, and many doctors view THC as a valuable way to treat weight loss associated with AIDS, and nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy in cancer patients.
Velasco and his team's study included an analysis of two tumors from two people with a highly aggressive brain cancer which showed signs of autophagy after receiving THC.
read more digg story
The researchers showed giving THC to mice with cancer decreased tumor growth and killed cells off in a process called autophagy.
"Our findings support that safe, therapeutically efficacious doses of THC may be reached in cancer patients," Guillermo Velasco of Complutense University in Madrid and colleagues reported in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
The findings add to mixed evidence about the effects of marijuana on human health. Studies have suggested the drug can raise a person's risk of heart attack or stroke and cause cancer.
Other research has shown benefits, such as staving off Alzheimer's, and many doctors view THC as a valuable way to treat weight loss associated with AIDS, and nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy in cancer patients.
Velasco and his team's study included an analysis of two tumors from two people with a highly aggressive brain cancer which showed signs of autophagy after receiving THC.
read more digg story
'Nuclear Weapons Put World's Future At Stake'
The future of mankind is at stake and all nations must strive to rid the world of nuclear arms, the US President has said.
As North Korea launched a long-range rocket over Japan, Barack Obama dismissed those who warned the proliferation of nuclear weapons could not be checked.
"This fatalism is a deadly adversary," he told a crowd of 20,000 in Prague. "For if we believe that the spread of nuclear weapons is inevitable, then we are admitting to ourselves that the use of nuclear weapons is inevitable."
President Obama said his goal of "a world without nuclear weapons" won't be reached soon, "perhaps not in my lifetime," but he said his country, with one of the world's largest arsenals and the only nation to have used an atomic bomb, had a "moral responsibility" to start taking steps now.
Addressing his American audience, President Obama said surrendering nuclear weapons must be a global "all for one" endeavour.
"Make no mistake: As long as these weapons exist, we will maintain a safe, secure and effective arsenal to deter any adversary, and guarantee that defense to our allies."
He also gave his most unequivocal pledge yet to proceed with a missile defence system in Europe.
The shield will be based in the Czech Republic and Poland, on Russia's doorstep.
read more digg story
As North Korea launched a long-range rocket over Japan, Barack Obama dismissed those who warned the proliferation of nuclear weapons could not be checked.
"This fatalism is a deadly adversary," he told a crowd of 20,000 in Prague. "For if we believe that the spread of nuclear weapons is inevitable, then we are admitting to ourselves that the use of nuclear weapons is inevitable."
President Obama said his goal of "a world without nuclear weapons" won't be reached soon, "perhaps not in my lifetime," but he said his country, with one of the world's largest arsenals and the only nation to have used an atomic bomb, had a "moral responsibility" to start taking steps now.
Addressing his American audience, President Obama said surrendering nuclear weapons must be a global "all for one" endeavour.
"Make no mistake: As long as these weapons exist, we will maintain a safe, secure and effective arsenal to deter any adversary, and guarantee that defense to our allies."
He also gave his most unequivocal pledge yet to proceed with a missile defence system in Europe.
The shield will be based in the Czech Republic and Poland, on Russia's doorstep.
read more digg story
Joe Rogan on Anti Pot Commercials
From MikeCann.net - Video of Joe Rogan live and the ONDCP video he savagely beats to the ground.
read more digg story
read more digg story
North Korea launches rocket over Japan…
North Korea just fired their missile right over Japan, isn’t that against the rules or something?
‘Provocative act,’ U.S. says; Japan calls for emergency U.N. meeting
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea defied international warnings and sent a rocket hurtling over the Pacific on Sunday, a launch President Barack Obama called an illicit test of the regime's long-range missile technology that threatened the security of nations "near and far."
Obama and European Union leaders meeting in Prague condemned the move and said North Korea's dangerous defiance demanded an international response. Diplomats at the United Nations scheduled an emergency Security Council session for later Sunday to discuss what Obama called a clear violation of U.N. resolutions.
"North Korea broke the rules once more by testing a rocket that could be used for a long-range missile," Obama said. "This provocation underscores the need for action — not just this afternoon at the U.N. Security Council, but in our determination to prevent the spread of these weapons."
Listen to what the people of North Korea think all this is about…
Four hours after the launch, North Korea declared it a success. An experimental communications satellite reached outer space in just over nine minutes and was orbiting Earth, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said from Pyongyang.
"The satellite is transmitting the melodies of the immortal revolutionary paeans 'Song of Gen. Kim Il Sung' and 'Song of Gen. Kim Jong Il' as well as measurement data back to Earth," it said, referring to the country's late founder and his son, its current leader.
Kim Jong Il’s brainwashing and human rights violations of his own people are reminicent of a cult. Actually, he reminds me of Jim Jones but on a much larger scale. With that, I say to the poor people of North Korea, “don’t drink the kool-aid!”
North Korea launches rocket over Japan - North Korea- msnbc.com
Has America become numb to tragedy?
Recent mass shootings have left 43 dead and many asking why…
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
PITTSBURGH - Does the name Byran Uyesugi ring a bell? Odds are not. What about Robert A. Hawkins? Or Mark Barton? Terry Ratzmann? Robert Stewart?
Each entered the national consciousness when he picked up a gun and ended multiple lives. Uyesugi, 1999, Hawaii office building, seven dead. Hawkins, 2007, Nebraska shopping mall, nine dead. Barton, Ratzmann and Stewart — 24 dead among them in 1999 (Atlanta brokerage offices), 2005 (Wisconsin church service) and last week (North Carolina rehab center).
Each has been largely forgotten as the parade of multiple killings in America melts into an indistinguishable blur. We bemoan, we mourn, we move on.
Has America become numb to tragedy? - Crime & courts- msnbc.com
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Change.org: Videos -War on Drugs in 100 Seconds
Excerpts from Michael Pollan's book "The Botany of Desire: A Plant's Eye View of the World."
Criminal Justice - Change.org: Videos
Technorati Tags: war on drugs,drug reform,marijuana legalization,video,Marijuana Policy Project,marijuana
Why Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated
Today is the birthday of Martin Luther King.
Had he not been murdered, he and his family
would have celebrated his 80th birthday today.
Who killed him?
A lone nut with a vague grudge?
Yeah, right.
The FBI vs. Social Justice
Every year, Martin Luther King's contribution to the moral character of the United States becomes clearer and clearer.
What also becomes clearer is the power and ruthlessness of the forces he was opposing.
The probability that King was killed by forces within the US government becomes clearer every day too.
The elite's worst fear is that people will overlook minor racial and social differences and not only understand how they're being screwed but also join together to do something about it.
No one had a clearer voice on this subject than King which is why his life was snuffed out.
Bail Out the People Movement
Demand the Release of ALL arrestees from the Friday Apr 3 March on Wall Street!
To: Mayor Michael Bloomberg, NYC City Council, NYPD
CC: NY Congressional Delegation, Congressional Leaders, the NY Legislature, President Obama, Attorney General Holder, members of the media
I am writing to demand the release of all individuals who were arrested at the Friday April 3 protest in the financial district.
It is not a crime to demand that our money be spent on meeting people's needs, not for massive corporate bailouts.
The real criminals are in the boardrooms and executive offices on Wall Street, not the people marching for jobs, healthcare, and a moratorium on foreclosures.
Release ALL arrestees!
Drop the Charges!
Arrest Bankers Not Workers!
Send a message by clicking here!
Bail Out the People Movement
Solidarity Center
55 W. 17th St. #5C
New York, NY 10011
212.633.6646
www.BailOutPeople.org
Friday, April 3, 2009
Carlos Santana Tells Obama to Legalize Marijuana
By Marcela Isaza - WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — President Barack Obama brushed off a question about legalizing marijuana in his online town hall last month, but guitar god Carlos Santana says he wishes he would seriously consider it.
"Legalize marijuana and take all that money and invest it in teachers and in education," Santana said in an interview this week. "You will see a transformation in America."
During his online town hall on March 26, Obama fielded a question about whether legalization of the illicit drug would help pull the nation out of recession. Obama said he didn't think it was good economic policy, and also joked: "I don't know what this says about the online audience."
But Santana said making pot legal is "really way overdue, like the prohibition with the alcohol and stuff like that.
"I really believe that as soon as we legalize and decriminalize marijuana we can actually afford a really good governor who won't keep taking money away from education and from teachers and send him back to Hollywood where he can do 'D' movies and we can get an 'A' governor," referring to former movie action hero and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Santana made the comments as he was promoting his upcoming rock residency in Las Vegas at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. The show debuts May 27 and runs through 2010.
read more digg story
"Legalize marijuana and take all that money and invest it in teachers and in education," Santana said in an interview this week. "You will see a transformation in America."
During his online town hall on March 26, Obama fielded a question about whether legalization of the illicit drug would help pull the nation out of recession. Obama said he didn't think it was good economic policy, and also joked: "I don't know what this says about the online audience."
But Santana said making pot legal is "really way overdue, like the prohibition with the alcohol and stuff like that.
"I really believe that as soon as we legalize and decriminalize marijuana we can actually afford a really good governor who won't keep taking money away from education and from teachers and send him back to Hollywood where he can do 'D' movies and we can get an 'A' governor," referring to former movie action hero and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Santana made the comments as he was promoting his upcoming rock residency in Las Vegas at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. The show debuts May 27 and runs through 2010.
read more digg story
The Million Man Marijuana March
March on the White House 4/20/09
Hey all. As some of you may know, this idea originated at GrassCity, one of the biggest and best marijuana forums on the web. GC members, we are asking for your support in this rally. If you are not a part of the GrassCity community, stop by, check it out, tell 'em where you came from.
If you are part of the City, please keep spreading the word.
Also, check out the group on Facebook.
read more digg story
Hey all. As some of you may know, this idea originated at GrassCity, one of the biggest and best marijuana forums on the web. GC members, we are asking for your support in this rally. If you are not a part of the GrassCity community, stop by, check it out, tell 'em where you came from.
If you are part of the City, please keep spreading the word.
Also, check out the group on Facebook.
read more digg story
Begin discussion on legalizing drugs - Leonard Pitts Jr.
By LEONARD PITTS JR.
lpitts@miamiherald.com
Maybe we should legalize drugs.
I come neither eagerly nor easily to that maybe. Rather, I come by way of spiraling drug violence in Mexico that recently forced Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to acknowledge the role America's insatiable appetite for narcotics plays in the carnage. I come by way of watching Olympian Michael Phelps do the usual public relations song and dance after being outed smoking weed, and knowing the whole thing was a ritualized farce. Most of all, I come by way of personal antipathy: I don't like and have never used illegal drugs.
But yeah, I'm thinking maybe we should legalize them.
Or at the very least, begin the discussion.
I find myself in august -- and unexpected -- company. Ronald Reagan's secretary of state, George Schultz, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, the late Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman and the late conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr. have all said much the same thing.
And then, there is Jack A. Cole, who spent 26 years with the New Jersey State Police, 12 of them as an undercover narcotics officer. In 2002, he founded LEAP, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (www.leap.cc), which now claims 12,000 members -- FBI, DEA, cops, prosecutors and judges united in the belief that the War On Drugs has failed and that the solution to the drug problem is legalization, regulation and taxation.
read more digg story
lpitts@miamiherald.com
Maybe we should legalize drugs.
I come neither eagerly nor easily to that maybe. Rather, I come by way of spiraling drug violence in Mexico that recently forced Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to acknowledge the role America's insatiable appetite for narcotics plays in the carnage. I come by way of watching Olympian Michael Phelps do the usual public relations song and dance after being outed smoking weed, and knowing the whole thing was a ritualized farce. Most of all, I come by way of personal antipathy: I don't like and have never used illegal drugs.
But yeah, I'm thinking maybe we should legalize them.
Or at the very least, begin the discussion.
I find myself in august -- and unexpected -- company. Ronald Reagan's secretary of state, George Schultz, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, the late Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman and the late conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr. have all said much the same thing.
And then, there is Jack A. Cole, who spent 26 years with the New Jersey State Police, 12 of them as an undercover narcotics officer. In 2002, he founded LEAP, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (www.leap.cc), which now claims 12,000 members -- FBI, DEA, cops, prosecutors and judges united in the belief that the War On Drugs has failed and that the solution to the drug problem is legalization, regulation and taxation.
read more digg story
Is Marijuana Legalization Politically Risky? Not Anymore.
Posted in Chronicle Blog by Scott Morgan
Over and over again, you hear that same justification, "Well, politicians can't publicly support legalizing marijuana or they'll get voted out of office." It's the first thing casual observers point out to me when I tell them I work on this issue. Everyone's gotten so used to saying it and yet no effort is ever made to support the argument. The idea that "marijuana reform is political suicide" survives on little more than its own presumed legitimacy.
Thus I was disappointed, but not at all surprised, to find Joe Klein at Time magazine saying this same stuff in an otherwise positive piece on marijuana reform:
It sounds so familiar and yet it makes no sense. Talk radio doesn’t rule our politics. If it did, the top questions in Obama's online forums would be about his citizenship, not about legalizing marijuana. Heck, Obama wouldn’t even be president.
Where is Joe Klein getting this stuff from? Obama openly supported several reforms to our drug policy on the campaign trail and no one, not even Rush Limbaugh, said a harsh word about it.
Obama was "caught" on video advocating marijuana decriminalization in 2004 and he got elected president. Once in office, Obama ordered the DEA to respect state medical marijuana laws and it's easily one of the least controversial things he's done.
I challenge Joe Klein or anyone else to prove that supporting marijuana policy reform is politically risky. I can only think of two instances that even approach validating any of this: 1) Michael Dukakis's failed presidential bid in 1988 in which he was successfully portrayed as "soft on crime," and 2) The controversy that arose following Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders' statement about considering drug legalization. That was 15 years ago.
It's 2009 and reforming marijuana policy is the most popular idea on the president's own website. Voters are passing state marijuana reform initiatives by incredible margins. Polls show that a majority of both democrats and republicans agree that the drug war is a failure.
read more digg story
Over and over again, you hear that same justification, "Well, politicians can't publicly support legalizing marijuana or they'll get voted out of office." It's the first thing casual observers point out to me when I tell them I work on this issue. Everyone's gotten so used to saying it and yet no effort is ever made to support the argument. The idea that "marijuana reform is political suicide" survives on little more than its own presumed legitimacy.
Thus I was disappointed, but not at all surprised, to find Joe Klein at Time magazine saying this same stuff in an otherwise positive piece on marijuana reform:
…the default fate of any politician who publicly considers the legalization of
marijuana is to be cast into the outer darkness. Such a person is assumed to be
stoned all the time, unworthy of being taken seriously. Such a person would be
lacerated by the assorted boozehounds and pill poppers of talk radio.
It sounds so familiar and yet it makes no sense. Talk radio doesn’t rule our politics. If it did, the top questions in Obama's online forums would be about his citizenship, not about legalizing marijuana. Heck, Obama wouldn’t even be president.
Where is Joe Klein getting this stuff from? Obama openly supported several reforms to our drug policy on the campaign trail and no one, not even Rush Limbaugh, said a harsh word about it.
Obama was "caught" on video advocating marijuana decriminalization in 2004 and he got elected president. Once in office, Obama ordered the DEA to respect state medical marijuana laws and it's easily one of the least controversial things he's done.
I challenge Joe Klein or anyone else to prove that supporting marijuana policy reform is politically risky. I can only think of two instances that even approach validating any of this: 1) Michael Dukakis's failed presidential bid in 1988 in which he was successfully portrayed as "soft on crime," and 2) The controversy that arose following Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders' statement about considering drug legalization. That was 15 years ago.
It's 2009 and reforming marijuana policy is the most popular idea on the president's own website. Voters are passing state marijuana reform initiatives by incredible margins. Polls show that a majority of both democrats and republicans agree that the drug war is a failure.
read more digg story
Thursday, April 2, 2009
A New Campaign: Indict Bush Now!
Hold Bush and His Joint Co-Conspirators Criminally Accountable!
You can join the movement to indict Bush Administration officials who committed war crimes, "legalized" torture, and engaged in massive illegal spying and wiretapping against the American people. Click this link if you support the indictment of George W. Bush and other high officials.
The rule of law, justice, and basic integrity require the indictment for criminal wrongdoing of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, and other high officials of the former Bush Administration. 
The media establishment is surprised by the ground swell of support from the grassroots for the pursuit of individuals who committed grievous crimes during the Bush era.
We are not surprised that the people are demanding accountability for those who committed wars of aggression, torture, and subverted the Constitution and thus violated not only their oaths of office but domestic and international law.
These crimes are not abstract nor can they be ignored as belonging to a distant past. Millions of people have suffered and continue to suffer because of the criminal invasion of Iraq.
The vital resources of the country have been drained in a criminal enterprise benefiting war profiteers. The people know of and are outraged by the billions of dollars in profit made by Dick Cheney's Halliburton and that is only the tip of the iceberg.
The pressure is building. President Obama said at his press conference this week, "My view is also that nobody's above the law, and if there are clear instances of wrongdoing, that people should be prosecuted just like any ordinary citizen," when asked about the pursuit of Bush Administration officials for criminal wrongdoing.
In a new poll, an astounding 2/3 of the American public favors investigating whether the Bush Administration broke the law. "A majority of respondents said a probe should be launched into allegations that the Bush team used torture...[and] investigators also should look into the former President's program of wiretapping U.S. citizens without first securing court-issued warrants." (AFP 2/12/09)
The Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, John Conyers, and the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy, are both proposing to launch investigations into the possibilities of criminal conduct by high officials in the Bush Administration.
Six years ago, Ramsey Clark launched the movement to Impeach Bush. You and more than a million other people came forward to demand the impeachment of Bush and other high ranking officials at VoteToImpeach and ImpeachBush. It was this movement with its principled and primary demand for accountability that changed the political climate in the United States. It broke open the media blockade with newspapers ads calling for impeachment. Community organizing, person to person outreach, and demonstrations shifted the debate and helped turn the tide against the impunity of Bush's crimes. He has been forced to leave office in disgrace.
A Criminal Indictment is Necessary
Now we are taking the next step in the pursuit of protecting and saving the Constitution. Justice will have no meaning without the prosecution of Bush, Cheney and others for their criminal acts. It would also have a resounding effect on all those who would dare to subvert the Constitution of the U.S., take the country into a war of aggression and trash the economy and the fundamental human rights of people in the U.S. and around the globe.
Sign the new petition demanding that Bush and Co. be indicted now. Get everyone you know to sign. We had to fight an uphill battle to bring articles of impeachment to the floor of Congress - but we did it! If you signed for impeachment and you believe indictment is a necessity - please take one moment to sign now! We need everyone's voices, coming together to be heard. Now is the time to act.
We have launched a major new initiative that will include grassroots pressure on Congress, press conferences, petitions, newspaper ads, rallies and mass demonstrations in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere
We can force the prosecution of Bush, Cheney and the other criminals. Please take action to make it happen.
The Police Code of Silence - The problem and the solution
From, "Blue Must be True" - The police Code of Silence is a self-perpetuating danger to public safety.
The only way it will be overcome is when laws requiring complete transparency of all police conduct and training are in place and the public is allowed, by law, its inherent right to oversee law enforcement. That is the only way to significantly change the police culture which fosters the Code of Silence.
In order for that to occur, many people, civilians and ethical law enforcement officers, need to get on board. For some civilians, it may mean getting off the couch. For some police, it may mean growing a backbone.
read more digg story
The only way it will be overcome is when laws requiring complete transparency of all police conduct and training are in place and the public is allowed, by law, its inherent right to oversee law enforcement. That is the only way to significantly change the police culture which fosters the Code of Silence.
In order for that to occur, many people, civilians and ethical law enforcement officers, need to get on board. For some civilians, it may mean getting off the couch. For some police, it may mean growing a backbone.
read more digg story
Marijuana Re-crim Protest With Senator Scott Brown Video
Senator Scott Brown and the press. MA GOP Ferrari.
Subscribe to MikeCann.net
Marijuana Re-crim Protest With Senator Scott Brown Video Part 2
If you want to catch up on what led to this video, protest, a review if you will, of Senator Scott Brown vs. The People and MikeCann.net, check this link.
Two newspaper stories on last night's protests.
Sun Chronicle
Milford Daily News
read more digg story
Subscribe to MikeCann.net
Marijuana Re-crim Protest With Senator Scott Brown Video Part 2
If you want to catch up on what led to this video, protest, a review if you will, of Senator Scott Brown vs. The People and MikeCann.net, check this link.
Two newspaper stories on last night's protests.
Sun Chronicle
Milford Daily News
read more digg story
It's High Time
Legalizing marijuana may be politically risky. But the economic benefits are becoming difficult to ignore.
By Joe Klein - For the past several years, I've been harboring a fantasy, a last political crusade for the baby-boom generation. We, who started on the path of righteousness, marching for civil rights and against the war in Vietnam, need to find an appropriately high-minded approach to life's exit ramp. In this case, I mean the high-minded part literally. And so, a deal: give us drugs, after a certain age — say, 80 — all drugs, any drugs we want. In return, we will give you our driver's licenses. (I mean, can you imagine how terrifying a nation of decrepit, solipsistic 90-year-old boomers behind the wheel would be?) We'll let you proceed with your lives — much of which will be spent paying for our retirement, in any case — without having to hear us complain about our every ache and reflux. We'll be too busy exploring altered states of consciousness. I even have a slogan for the campaign: "Tune in, turn on, drop dead."
A fantasy, I suppose. But, beneath the furious roil of the economic crisis, a national conversation has quietly begun about the irrationality of our drug laws. It is going on in state legislatures, like New York's, where the draconian Rockefeller drug laws are up for review; in other states, from California to Massachusetts, various forms of marijuana decriminalization are being enacted. And it has reached the floor of Congress, where Senators Jim Webb and Arlen Specter have proposed a major prison-reform package, which would directly address drug-sentencing policy. (See pictures of stoner cinema.)
There are also more puckish signs of a zeitgeist shift. A few weeks ago, the White House decided to stage a forum in which the President would answer questions submitted by the public; 92,000 people responded — and most of them seemed obsessed with the legalization of marijuana. The two most popular questions about "green jobs and energy," for example, were about pot. The President dismissed the outpouring — appropriately, I guess — as online ballot-stuffing and dismissed the legalization question with a simple: "No." (Read: "Can Marijuana Help Rescue California's Economy?)
read more digg story
By Joe Klein - For the past several years, I've been harboring a fantasy, a last political crusade for the baby-boom generation. We, who started on the path of righteousness, marching for civil rights and against the war in Vietnam, need to find an appropriately high-minded approach to life's exit ramp. In this case, I mean the high-minded part literally. And so, a deal: give us drugs, after a certain age — say, 80 — all drugs, any drugs we want. In return, we will give you our driver's licenses. (I mean, can you imagine how terrifying a nation of decrepit, solipsistic 90-year-old boomers behind the wheel would be?) We'll let you proceed with your lives — much of which will be spent paying for our retirement, in any case — without having to hear us complain about our every ache and reflux. We'll be too busy exploring altered states of consciousness. I even have a slogan for the campaign: "Tune in, turn on, drop dead."
A fantasy, I suppose. But, beneath the furious roil of the economic crisis, a national conversation has quietly begun about the irrationality of our drug laws. It is going on in state legislatures, like New York's, where the draconian Rockefeller drug laws are up for review; in other states, from California to Massachusetts, various forms of marijuana decriminalization are being enacted. And it has reached the floor of Congress, where Senators Jim Webb and Arlen Specter have proposed a major prison-reform package, which would directly address drug-sentencing policy. (See pictures of stoner cinema.)
There are also more puckish signs of a zeitgeist shift. A few weeks ago, the White House decided to stage a forum in which the President would answer questions submitted by the public; 92,000 people responded — and most of them seemed obsessed with the legalization of marijuana. The two most popular questions about "green jobs and energy," for example, were about pot. The President dismissed the outpouring — appropriately, I guess — as online ballot-stuffing and dismissed the legalization question with a simple: "No." (Read: "Can Marijuana Help Rescue California's Economy?)
read more digg story
Jon Stewart to Rush Limbaugh: GTFO
For years New Yorkers have done everything in their power to get Rush Limbaugh to leave town.
read more digg story
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M - Th 11p / 10c | |||
| Rush Limbaugh Leaves New York | ||||
| ||||
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