Getting ready for 4/20, and other News.

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Tuesday April 19, 2011 · 1:34 PM PDT

2011/04/19 · 13:34

And by getting ready, I mean mostly highlighting some news and happenings tomorrow. Long gone are the college days where we'd wander over to Patel's dorm room on April 20th, using his handheld sports click-counter to track how many collective bong tokes were being dispensed in the room. [The goal was to eventually reach four hundred twenty on the counter while simultaneously acquiring James Franco-faces].

Via drcnet.org:

Maine legislator will introduce a bill on April 20th co-sponsored by Republicans to re-legalize, tax, and regulate cannabis.

She said her bill also has bi-partisan support in the Legislature, where it's co-sponsored by Rep. Richard Cebra, R-Naples; Rep. Aaron Libby, R-Waterboro; Rep. Wayne Mitchell, who represents Penobscot Nation; Rep. Andrew O'Brien, D-Lincolnville, and Rep. Frederick Wintle, R-Garland.

Also, Obama scheduled his Facebook townhall for 4/20.

Officially billed as a “Town Hall Meeting,” can this be any less than attempt to bring the cannabis community back into the Obama fold? Otherwise why pick 4/20 to have an event when the previous 3 similar events brought the massive online cannabis law reform movement flooding to whatever page it was on? There is no voting this time, but there is also no doubt the online cannabis community will dominate the discussion once again.

Also, congratulations to the Vermont State Senate for passinga medical mj dispensary bill, which has the backing of the Democratic Governor. Real Democrats will show leadership on this issue, instead of clinging to an eroding Prohibitionist policy. When there is bi-partisan support for an issue, as there is with this, the only thing a politician has to lose is contributions from prison guard/law enforcement lobby. [which is significant $$, no doubt about that at all. See: California, which spends as much on prisons as higher education 4/11/11]

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Monday April 18, 2011 · 3:03 PM PDT

2011/04/18 · 15:03

crossposted to nothing, because I only blog here. Huffington won't pay me!

In Last Night's Friday News dump, WA Gov Gregoire made her move. In Overnight News Digest, we were discussing how this Democratic Governor was disingenuously using the DOJ as political cover for threatening veto of the legislation. Many activists are asking questions not only about the DOJ, but also about Gov. Gregoire. [She has fewer political problems to battle than POTUS, it's worth pointing out]

The ACLU has called shenanigans. Also, a simple Google search shows that this is NOT the first time Gregoire has misled the public on this issue....in Washington, no less, where a state-approved medical cannabis law was passed 13 years ago. Municipal govts, activists, and law enforcements agencies were looking to this bill as a way to regulate the statewide boom in dispensaries.

56% of Washingtonians, according to Survey usa, supported re-legalization 14 months ago. The number has probably edged higher, given the trendlines on this issue.

Seattle's only daily newspaper says: Legalize It.

Every Member of Seattle's Legislative Delegation Goes on the Record in Favor of Legalizing Pot [that's what courage looks like ]

Sweet democracy on a stick. As of yesterday evening, every member of Seattle legislative delegation to Olympia—all ten representatives and all five senators from the 34th, 36th, 37th, 43rd, and 46th Districts—had gone on the record to say that they support taxing, regulating, and legalizing marijuana. They join every elected official at City Hall (the mayor, the city attorney, and all nine members of the city council) and King County Executive Dow Constantine.

However, a bill in the state legislature that would have done just that (and probably been threatened with veto) died this past month.
More below the DK4 fold...

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Friday April 15, 2011 · 9:20 PM PDT

2011/04/15 · 21:20

Perhaps Gov. Gregoire didn't feel brave enough to claim the veto as her own, which must be why she publicly dragged the DOJ into the state legislative process.

The question, oft asked and bound to be repeated again, is: didn't the WH already issue guidelines for when to interfere with states' policy on MMJ? Over in Montana, a Democratic Gov vetoed a repeal of the state's MMJ program.

Today, a Democrat is taking credit for a step backwards, because there's nothing moral or constructive or logical about having a medical cannabis program, but an inadequate supply system for patients.

In fact, that very shortcoming is the reason that an Ontario judge struck down Canada's MMJ law.

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Thursday April 14, 2011 · 4:36 PM PDT

2011/04/14 · 16:36

After seeing the issue of sponsorship and corporate ad placement featured on the Colbert Report last night, it was doubly nauseating to see this headline via time.com. Instead of helping out homeless vets, we're ramping up our advertisements to kids to join the Army. [Army and National Guard sponsor Nascar]

Unfortunately, in the recent round of intense budget cuts in Congress, this small funding for the homeless-shelter project was slashed, along with a total of $75 million in homeless-veteran benefits. As both a veteran and an American, I don't believe that veterans' programs should ever be isolated from budget cuts. After all, if the nation is hurting, it is we veterans who have sacrificed and will sacrifice first to protect her. But when I turn the pages of the budget to find a $7.4 million guaranteed commitment to fund a U.S. Army NASCAR sponsorship — and $20 million more from the National Guard to do the same — my blood begins to boil.
Read more: http://www.time.com/...

This is truly shameful. What happened to "support the troops" ? We weren't allowed to protest the misadventure in Iraq because of the existence of an empty slogan: "support the troops".

Meanwhile, Rethuglicans didn't hesitate to accuse Dems of wanting to cut off paychecks for the 'troops' during this recent govt shutdown debate.

**UPDATE:

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/...

That is a story from two months ago, in which a Democrat in Minnesota proposed we cut NASCAR Sponsorship. She received "threats", according to this TPM story.

Harper said he found it "ironic" that McCollum's amendment, which he said is the exact kind of government waste-cutting the new Republican majority has championed, is riling up NASCAR fans to the point of calling McCollum's office.
"We've heard innumerable times that the Republicans were elected to send a message from the people that we should stop spending money," he said. "And yet the people who sent that message want us to spend $7 million for a sticker on a NASCAR."

update 2:

Obama and General Eric Shinseski announced a major push on this policy in 2009. Progress was made! Take a look at what teabaggers want to cut: [DoD link]

Shinseki has become even more forward-leaning on the issue, vowing to achieve those aims a year ahead of schedule.
“As the president has said, ‘We’re not going to be satisfied until every veteran who has fought for America has a home in America,’” he told the Marine Corps League in February. “If you wonder what I will be working on for the next several years, this is it. We will end veteran homelessness in 2014.”

Also last month, Shinseki told the Disabled American Veterans that major progress has been made. The number of homeless veterans has dropped from about 195,000 six years ago to about 76,000, he reported. VA is working to bring that figure below 59,000 by the end of June 2012, and ultimately, to zero.

VA’s fiscal 2012 budget request includes $939 million – up more than $140 million from last year -- for programs to support this mission and build on progress made.

A comprehensive review is under way to identify vacant or underused buildings in VA’s inventory that could house homeless and at-risk veterans and their families, Shinseki told the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee earlier this month.

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Wednesday April 13, 2011 · 10:50 AM PDT

2011/04/13 · 10:50

Republicans hate regulatory agencies, mostly because they hate the rule of law. It's an impediment to their "He who has gold makes rules", also known as their "Golden Rule".

They hate all regulatory agencies- EPA, MMS, SEC, you name it. Republicans have the same attitude about regulatory agencies that crack cocaine dealers have towards anti-narcotic task forces.

And just like crack peddlers, Republicans get busted. Except not nearly as often, even though their white-collar crime nets sums of money on a much higher order of magnitude.

Hanlon is well known in political circles as CEO and contributor to the Red County website, that covers political and financial news. It is well-read in Republican political circles.

I'd never heard of it until today, but apparently there is a red blog started by some d-bag here in Orange County by the name of Chip Hanlon. Chip writes regularly about his good friend in Costa Mesa, Jim Righeimer. [That's the guy that helped lay off half the public employees in Costa Mesa, and where a public employee jumped to his death off of Costa Mesa City Hall. See Seneca Doane's diary here. And read the follow-up: Costa Mesa's budget crisis made up]

This "Red County" site features exclusive recent interviews from John Bo(eh)ner, and a laughably titled feature : "Oregon Tea Party Protest Promises to Meet Violence with Non-Violence". (No, that's not snark. Does this mean teabaggers stopped headstomping people?) So, it's no hyperbole to say that 'Red County' , which started out in the OC but now has a national chapter, regional chapters, and multiple California chapters, is a giant turd. Meg Whitman even spent six figures to get Chip Hanlon and "Red County" services. [That's the same Meg Whitman who got less votes than marijuana in last year's election]

The local newspaper here, the hard-right OC Register, is usually useless. But they actually reported this story:

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil fraud charges Thursday against high-profile Orange County money manager and political activist Charles “Chip” Hanlon, alleging that Hanlon “vastly overstated” the size of his Delta Global Advisors financial advisory and the financial health of the business.

http://lansner.ocregister.com/...

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Canadian Judge Strikes Down Cannabis Laws (expanded)

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Tuesday April 12, 2011 · 9:25 PM PDT

2011/04/12 · 21:25

What headlines don't detail is that this ruling appears to only apply to Ontario.

In any case, however, the government has 90 days to respond or cannabis Prohibition is effectively stricken. [update: given the fact that the Conservatives/wingers are leading in the polls right now in Canada, shouldn't the NDP/liberals in Canada jump on this issue? This could be electoral gold. I just did a bit of research, and every poll I've found from past three years shows majority support for legalization in Canada. Plus, it's been SEVEN YEARS since the Canadian Liberals have proposed decrim laws. Sounds like it's time to step game up.]

But this is big news:

Ontario is one step closer to the legalization of marijuana after the Ontario Superior Court struck down two key parts of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act that prohibit the possession and production of pot.
The court declared the rules that govern medical marijuana access and the prohibitions laid out in Sections 4 and 7 of the act "constitutionally invalid and of no force and effect" on Monday, effectively paving the way for legalization.

If the government does not respond within 90 days with a successful delay or re-regulation of marijuana, the drug will be legal to possess and produce in Ontario, where the decision is binding.

The ruling stemmed from the constitutional challenge of Matthew Mernagh, a man who relies on medical marijuana to ease pain brought on by fibromyalgia, scoliosis, seizures and depression.

The Ontario Court of Appeal had previously recognized that to deprive someone with a serious illness of medical marijuana if it relieves their pain is a violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/...

Canada: one step ahead, as usual. What with Bush-lite aka Stephen Harper and his cronies being knocked out temporarily, there are questions about how the Canadian govt will rush to counter this ruling.

Also: the charges made by the judge in this ruling could EASILY be applied to all but 2-4 of the States here in the USA with medical marijuana programs. And even in the states that have it, there are still DEA raids going on in 2011: California, Colorado, Montana, and Michigan have all seen DEA raids this year.

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Friday April 08, 2011 · 9:32 PM PDT

2011/04/08 · 21:32

Take a peek into the looking-glass, and on the other side is a land where things are a bit more reasonable.

http://www.mercurynews.com/...

I don't want to send traffic there, but read the WSJ linkif you must [there are some conflicting figures in these two articles, FYI]

As part of measures to close their budget gap, the Netherlands is cutting 12,000 military jobs, scaling down a jet program with Lockheed Martin, and reducing amounts of military hardware. In 2010, the Dutch govt collapsed over the issue of troops in Afghanistan, which have since been pulled out of that conflict.

We could take lessons from the Dutch here on Afpak, military spending, and cannabis policy (for good measure).

[In October, the UK cut 8% from its military budget. ]

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Friday April 08, 2011 · 5:55 PM PDT

2011/04/08 · 17:55

2nd one ever in L.A. You can take a train into Union Station [which went from eerily quiet to bustling with Starbucks, etc thrown in there].

That’s when the city closes seven-and-a-half miles of streets to cars and opens them to cyclists and pedestrians.
"For five hours, seven-and-a-half miles of L.A. streets will be car free," said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, standing behind a bicycle on the steps of City Hall. The line drew applause from many city officials and bicycle activists

The idea was born more than 30 years ago in Bogota, Colombia, and it happens every Sunday there. Auto-packed L.A. only got around to trying it last October.

More than 100,000 Angelenos filled the carless streets on bikes, skateboards and on foot. Many shops and restaurants stayed open.

Link

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Thursday April 07, 2011 · 1:16 AM PDT

2011/04/07 · 01:16

Yesterday, I came across a story about plans for a march today in Mexico. It touched my soul. Often, I forget or disbelieve that I even have one left.

“We have had it up to here because the corruption of the judicial institutions generates the complicity with crime and the impunity to commit it, because in the middle of that corruption that demonstrates the failure of the State, each citizen of this country has been reduced to what the philosopher Giorgio Agamben called, using a Greek word, “zoe”: an unprotected life, the life of an animal, of a being that can be violated, kidnapped, molested and assassinated with impunity. We have had it up to here because you only have imagination for violence, for weapons, for insults…”

-Javier Sicilia

[Pity is, by definition, a feeling of sympathy. I do not pity Sicilia, for it is empathy I feel instead. To see someone put into words a feeling that I feel but cannot express, though I've tried, is something that reaches your soul and affects you. Only those of us who participated in the drug war, us soldiers and victims, truly understand the reality behind Sicilia's words. But his gift as a poet puts the intangible into language, as only an artist can. On so many levels, modern society has become a violent orgy of Predation, Control, and Hatred. Who but a Poet could respond to those things, both abstract and very real with the death of his son....]

Here is the story of an emerging movement, and a personal story. The story of a poet whose son was slain in Mexico's Drug wars last month. Javier Sicilia is his name.

In the time since, he has become a leader in the anti-drug war movement. Today, an estimated 10,000 took to the streets of Mexico at Javier's urging. While so many of us are mired in apathy and political hopelessness, Javier Sicilia has in one month helped galvanize a movement, and TODAY the cowardly president of Mexico, Calderon himself, granted an audience to this Poet and Revolutionary, Javier Sicilia.

Since his son's death, Javier Sicilia has urged Mexicans to take a stand against the violence, generating enough publicity to earn him an audience with Calderon on Wednesday.

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Tuesday April 05, 2011 · 6:14 PM PDT

2011/04/05 · 18:14

Via ThinkProgress:

Today, the Associated Press reported that the Candie’s Foundation released its 2009 tax information, revealing that Bristol was paid a salary of $262,500.
But a closer examination of the tax form by ThinkProgress shows that the group disbursed only $35,000 in grants to actual teen pregnancy health and counseling clinics: $25,000 to the Mt. Sinai Adolescent Health Center and $10,000 to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.

http://thinkprogress.org/...

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Friday April 01, 2011 · 9:19 AM PDT

2011/04/01 · 09:19

Marijuana Policy Project posted a diary recently about Delaware and the good chance we have of making progress there.

First step: Senate. 18-3, now on to the House.

The Delaware Senate voted 18-3 today to legalize marijuana for limited medical purposes.
The legislation decriminalizes parts of the state’s drug laws and allows individuals with debilitating diseases to get permission from their doctor to purchase marijuana from a state-licensed dispensary.

Fifteen other states and the District of Columbia have already legalized marijuana possession and use for medicinal purposes. Pennsylvania and Maryland lawmakers are currently considering similar legislation.

This comes after Delaware, as I wrote about here after it was reported, took a big step forward in reforming its laws two weeks ago [drcnet.org]:

The Delaware House of Representatives Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a comprehensive drug sentencing reform bill. The bill, House Bill 19, would, most notably, make simple drug possession offenses misdemeanors. Drug possession is currently a felony.

Meanwhile, Maryland is considering a bill to allow affirmative defense for medical mj.

The Drug War has reached a wonderful milestone:

Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, told an audience at the Pasadena Branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, "More African-American men are in prison or jail, on probation or parole than were enslaved in 1850, before the Civil War began."

A quote I've used here and elsewhere before, is the lyric from Guru's track dedicated to Donald Byrd: "They're building more jails/It's the new plantation...." (see: Georgia prison strikes and arrest of prison guards for retaliatory beating)

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Thursday March 31, 2011 · 5:48 PM PDT

2011/03/31 · 17:48

And they will always win, over and over again, as long as the lazy Traditional media keeps covering their events. It's a combination of institutional bias as well as lazy, repetitious reporting. No wonder Colbert had Al-Jazeera English on his show. It's about the only source online right now that I can find that isn't breathlessly repeating the Lie: that there was a "rally" by anybody at all today in D.C. One hundred to three hundred people? I scanned the online news articles published today about budget talks, and they all parrot the fake concept of a 'rally' by teabaggers.

Dailykos's frontpage today seemed to be the only place prominently pointing out: the rally in DC today is a figment of Boehner's imagination.

Try five thousand people today in New Hampshire. Or another five thousand people rallying against the Class War in New York City last week, which I only saw because of Al-jazeera.. But unlike the Tea Party fake rally in D.C. today, when I go to Google News to see coverage of the "Day of Rage" in NYC last week, it's nothing but crickets. And TV coverage is generally worse than online, so there you go.

I'm not a member of the 'professional left', and I don't need to be to see something very troubling in the cacophony of statements being released today by Reid and Boehner.

I have yet to see much coverage at all of the New Hampshire rallies. See diary on rec list right now...http://www.dailykos.com/...

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Getting ready for 4/20, and other News.

Gov. Gregoire Has History of Lying; ACLU Enters the Fray

WA Dem. Gov. threatens veto of medical marijuana bill w/cover from DOJ

$75 million cut from homeless vets, $27.4 million more given to NASCAR sponsorship (update x2)

"Elite" and "Powerful" winger blog CEO hit with fraud charges

Canadian Judge Strikes Down Cannabis Laws (expanded)

Dutch withdraw from Afpak, slash militay spending to tackle budget hole

Los Angeles: CicLAvia on Sunday/ 7.5 miles bikes only

A Poet Now Leads The Movement In Mexico-update

Candie's foundation paid Bristol 7x amount spent on actual pregnancy prevention

Delaware Senate passes Medical Marijuana 18-3, and other News.

March 31st, 2011: The Day the Tea Party Won...Again