I now have another blog - As It StandsII

Can't get enough of my opinions, sometimes bizarre posts, interesting photos, news, and entertaining columns?

No problem.

Click here to visit As It Stands II, an imperfect mirror to this blog.

Marijuana Legalization Progress: Pot activists file state ballot measure

From The Associated Press today

Posted: 07/28/2009 02:12:13 PM PDT

Oakland pot activists fresh off a victory at local polls on the taxing of medical marijuana took their first official step Tuesday toward asking California voters to legalize pot.

A proposed ballot measure filed with the California attorney general's office would allow adults 21 and over to possess up to an ounce of pot. Homeowners could grow marijuana for personal use on garden plots up to 25 square feet.

The measure's main backer is Oakland medical marijuana entrepreneur Richard Lee, who helped push a first-of-its-kind tax on city medical marijuana dispensaries that passed with 80 percent of the vote last week.

The statewide measure needs nearly 434,000 signatures to make the November 2010 ballot.

”It's one more pretty amazing element in the momentum toward ending statewide prohibition,” said Stephen Gutwillig, California director of the pro-legalization Drug Policy Alliance.

His group would rather wait until 2012 to build more support for a ballot initiative but would be happy with an earlier victory, he said.

A similar but less restrictive pot legalization initiative was filed two weeks ago by a group of Northern California criminal defense lawyers.

The Tax, Regulate and Control Cannabis Act of 2010 would set no specific limits on the amount of pot adults could possess or grow for personal use. The measure would repeal all local and state marijuana laws and clear the criminal record of anyone convicted of a pot-related offense.

Both ballot measures would be competing with a bill introduced by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol.

The San Francisco Democrat is pushing legalization as a way to generate revenue for the cash-starved state from California's massive marijuana industry. He plans to hold hearings on the legislation this fall.

image via Google Images

Say hi to eavedroppers and ruin their world!

So the U.S. government wants to scan our e-mail, blogs & websites for “our own protection”
I say let’s give them something good to read! Let’s overload their systems.

I think every e-mail that is sent, every website and every blog should include a sentence or two that will trigger an alert.

We should never say (or do) anything threatening but we should say things that can be misinterpreted by a computer. Add a trick line to every e-mail. Make it your signature. Here are some examples:

• My garden is so overcrowded that I think we will have to kill a bush or two this weekend to make room for our veggies.
• We are way behind in our paperwork but my staff is planning to attack this problem immediately.
• We were going to get married in a civil ceremony but my spouse is planning to have a mass. She wants the altar boys to wear black capes. They will look like a murder of crows!

At the end of your trick sentence you can include the phrase: “How are you doing Big Brother? Nice to see you.”

Click here to read the rest at TvNewsLies

The links below will take you to pages on my website where information on the ECHELON system can be found. Visitors can obtain a list of the keywords used by the system along with some of the IP addresses it uses.

You can also discover how to protect your PC from being eavesdropped upon, and how to throw a spanner in the works of ECHELON.

The government does not have the manpower to spy on everyone simutaneously, and if enough of us bombard the system we can inflict chaos on those who seek to monitor us.

http://planetquo.net/References/ECHELONKeywords.html

http://planetquo.net/References/ECHELONIPAddresses.html

Get the real news and subscribe to our free daily newsletter: http://tvnewslies.org

image via R.T.D.

Here's a funny parody of Liberals

A liberal (also leftist) is someone who rejects logical and biblical standards, often for self-centered reasons. There are no coherent liberal standards; often a liberal is merely someone who craves attention, and who uses many words to say nothing. Liberalism began as a movement for individual liberties, but today is increasingly statist, and in Europe even socialistic.
A liberal generally supports many of the following political positions and practices:
Click here to read the rest at Conservapedia
grahic via ThePeople'sCube

Home prices increase from April to May

AP

6:24 AM PDT, July 28, 2009

A widely watched index shows home prices posted their first monthly increase since the summer of 2006, indicating prices may be stabilizing.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index of 20 major cities released today rose 0.5% from April, but was still 17.1% below May a year ago.

Click here for the rest of this article.

GOP Headache:
The birther issue:
My recent column on
Obama being my 11th
cousin stirred some
interesting feedback.
They came from so-called "Birthers" who wanted me to know I was wrong about saying Obama was born in the USA. Conspiracies and facts clash in this controversy:
By LISA LERER & DANIEL LIBIT
When lawmakers return home for recess in August, they can expect to hear tough questions from constituents on the economy, health care and government spending.

But Republicans are preparing for something else: the birthers.

As GOP Rep. Mike Castle learned the hard way back home in Delaware this month, there’s no easy way to deal with the small but vocal crowd of right-wing activists who refuse to believe that President Barack Obama was born in the United States.

Photo via AP of Rep. Mike Castle giving a speech during a press conference.

Read more of this article from Politico

Your Share of The National Debt

U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK

The Outstanding Public Debt as of 27 Jul 2009 at 04:06:54 PM GMT is:

The estimated population of the United States is 306,625,074
so each citizen's share of this debt is $37,897.13.

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of
$3.91 billion per day since September 28, 2007!
Concerned? Then tell Congress and the White House!

Squatters in paradise say it's job from hell!

Staking a claim on isolated Pagasa Island for the Philippine government, inhabitants eventually 'go crazy.'

Philippine air force personnel unload supplies for inhabitants of isolated Pagasa Island in the South China Sea.The happiest day on Pagasa is when the boat comes to take you off, says one former resident. (Jim Gomez / Associated Press)
By John M. Glionna

Reporting from Puerto Princesa, Philippines - Roel Robles had been on Pagasa Island for less than a week when he found himself wondering, with something like despair: Is it possible for one white-beached, palm-studded place to be both heaven and hell, paradise and prison?

"When you first get there, you see this little island resort," said the 30-year-old sergeant in the Philippine National Police. "Then after about five days, something snaps. You begin telling yourself, 'I have to get out of here -- now, today.' "

Pagasa plays tricks with your mind.

Its few dozen inhabitants can walk around the pint-sized perimeter in 30 minutes. From its highest point, nine feet above sea level, they gaze out at turquoise seas all around.
It's a stunning view. But it's the same view, day after day.

Click here to read the rest of this article in the Chicago Tribune today.

Sarah Palin's parting shots:

Criticism and advice for the media in the former Alaska governor's farewell speech

Best opinion: Financial Times, Scared Monkeys, Wash. Post

From The Week

Sarah Palin's farewell speech was "an astonishing performance," said Gideon Rachman in the Financial Times, "and not in a good way." Her "inarticulate," unscripted opening was bad enough, but then Palin scolded her media critics by saying, "In honor of the American soldier, you quit making things up." She was saying that reporters are abusing press freedom and therefore betraying troops fighting to protect the American way of life—that's twisted, and "faintly sinister."

"Not to disappoint," said the blog Scared Monkeys, the liberal media are lashing out at Sarah Palin for lashing out at them. Palin spoke from the heart when she asked reporters to "stop making things up." (watch Sarah Palin's parting criticism of journalists) Let's hope this is the end of the unfair coverage that has dogged Palin since she was nominated as the Republican vice presidential candidate.

This is definitely the end of a "tumultuous chapter" in Sarah Palin's life, said Dan Balz in The Washington Post. Now that she has voluntarily relinquished power as Alaska's governor—"in classic Palin style"—Palin is free to do what she wants, whether it's writing her memoirs, hitting the lecture circuit, or preparing for a 2012 presidential bid. The question is, "does she have a second act in her repertoire?"

Photo: A frame grab of Sarah Palin's resignation speech

(STR/Reuters/Corbis)

Whistleblower tells of America's hidden nightmare for its sick poor

When an insurance firm boss saw a field hospital for the poor in Virginia, he knew he had to speak out.

By Paul Harris

Wendell Potter can remember exactly when he took the first steps on his journey to becoming a whistleblower and turning against one of the most powerful industries in America.

It was July 2007 and Potter, a senior executive at giant US healthcare firm Cigna, was visiting relatives in the poverty-ridden mountain districts of northeast Tennessee. He saw an advert in a local paper for a touring free medical clinic at a fairground just across the state border in Wise County, Virginia.

Potter, who had worked at Cigna for 15 years, decided to check it out. What he saw appalled him. Hundreds of desperate people, most without any medical insurance, descended on the clinic from out of the hills.

Potter resigned shortly afterwards. Last month he testified in Congress, becoming one of the few industry executives to admit that what its critics say is true: healthcare insurance firms push up costs, buy politicians and refuse to pay out when many patients actually get sick.

In chilling words he told a Senate committee: "I worked as a senior executive at health insurance companies and I saw how they confuse their customers and dump the sick: all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors."

Click here to read the rest of the article at the Guardian

(Photo Above: Patients without health insurance get dental care at a free clinic in Wise, Virginia, held every July for the past three years. More than 25,000 were treated in a weekend Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images

Study says swearing helps reduce pain
By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 07/26/2009 01:37:22 AM PDT

Did you know swearing is common in all cultures? OK, that might not be too surprising. Did you know swearing can help you withstand pain? Got your interest now?

Before you assume I had a revelation one day when I hurt myself, let me introduce you to a guy who spent a lot of hours on this subject: Dr. Richard Stephens. He recently conducted a study on the relationship between swearing and pain at Keele University's School of Psychology, U.K. He thinks he knows why swearing is so universal.

Results of his study were recently published in the journal NeuroReport. It involved 64 students who were willing to suffer pain in the name of science. Or maybe they wanted the opportunity to swear in front of a lot of people without repercussions!

Click here to read the rest in the Times-Standard