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

WHERE DID THE TERM BLUE DOG DEMOCRATS COME FROM?


First, you should know that Blue Dog Democrats are the ones who are tend to embrace some conservative ideology.

You might call them right of the center of the democratic party. Typically, they tend to be more universally conservative on fiscal issues and have less consensus on social issues.

So now that you know who the term refers to, let’s digg a little into exactly why the term “Blue Dog” is used to describe them. For starters, the term derived from the earlier reference to “Yellow Dog” Democrats. The term “Yellow Dog Democrat” arose in the 1800s to describe people in the South who would vote for a yellow dog before they voted for a Republican.

So the term “Blue Dog Democrats” was derived from this earlier usage, but why the term blue? Well, the idea is that conservative democrats for the longest time have been choked out of the party by the left extreme. When you get choked, you turn blue. So the idea is that the Blue Dog Democrats have been choked blue by the extreme left and have now formed a coalition to fight back.

Text and photo via Dog Reflections

'Organ trafficking': Rabbis arrested over massive crime ring

US agents have arrested 44 elected officials and Jewish rabbis in New Jersey in a huge anti-corruption sweep across the state.

Charges of extortion, bribery, money laundering and human organ trafficking were stunning even for a state long notorious for official corruption and organised crime.

Five rabbis were among suspects, along with the mayors of Hoboken, Secaucus and Ridgefield, the Jersey City deputy mayor and council president, two state assembly members, and numerous other politicians, prosecutors said.

Acting US Attorney for the district of New Jersey Ralph Marra told a press conference the sweep demonstrated "the pervasive nature of public corruption in this state".

"The politicians willingly put themselves up for sale," he said, while "clergymen cloak their extensive criminal activity behind a facade of rectitude."

Raids began shortly after dawn on Thursday, officials said, targeting a who's who of state leaders.

Click here to read the rest from The Age

Ten things you don’t know about the Earth

Here are ten facts about the Earth — They’re all real. But how many of them do you know? Be honest.

1) The Earth is smoother than a billiard ball.

Maybe you’ve heard this statement: if the Earth were shrunk down to the size of a billiard ball, it would actually be smoother than one. When I was in third grade, my teacher said basketball, but it’s the same concept. But is it true? Let’s see. Strap in, there’s a wee bit of math (like, a really wee bit).

Click here to read the other nine facts from Discover.

The dandelion is a healthful, great tasting weed you can eat

By Carol Williams
Want to eat a weed? One that’s easy to find and tastes great? Just start hunting for those first spring dandelions.The dandelion’s true name is Taraxacum Officinale, which means “the official remedy for disorders.”
Legend has it that the people of Atlantis used the dandelion as a food and a tonic. The early colonists brought the dandelion to America from Europe. They used all parts of the plant, even the roots, which they roasted and ground for a coffee-like drink. We know that frontier healers often recommended dandelion greens as a spring tonic. They are full of vitamins unavailable to pioneers during the winter. There is no doubt dandelions have saved lives.
Click here to read the rest in Back Woods Home

Real-Life Sci-Fi Discovery of the Day: Scientists Make LED Bulbs From Salmon DNA

BY Ariel SchwartzFri Jul 24, 2009 at 8:10 AM

Where can science fiction possibly go when real-life headlines proclaim that researchers have created LED lightbulbs from salmon DNA? University of Connecticut researchers have added fluorescent dye to salmon DNA and spun the DNA strands into nanofibers to create a brand new material that gives off a bright white light. A LED light is coated with the DNA nanofibers, and voila, a salmon DNA lightbulb is born.

While other scientists have experimented with materials like silica nanoparticles and block copolymers to alter the color of light given off by a LED bulb, salmon DNA has proven most successful. Tuning the light quality from cool white to warm white is just a matter of tweaking the ratio of dyes because, according to researchers, "the DNA fibers orient the dyes in an optimum way for efficient [fluorescence energy transfer] to occur." So salmon DNA bulbs could overcome at least one hurdle for LEDs--complaints about brightness.

Click here to read the rest of the article at Fast Company

More health care controversy...

Mike Luckovich, copyright 2009 Creators Syndicate

FBI corruption probe involves two NJ mayors and 30 people

Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano (right) is led into FBI Headquarters in Newark after being taken into custody.

(Below) Mayor Dennis Elwell at FBI Headquarters. Both photos by Robert Sciarrino 

Morning Rush: Hoboken City Mayor Peter Cammarano arrested by FBI

by Paul

Thursday July 23, 2009, 7:51 AM

• Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano has been arrested by the FBI as part of a wide-reaching investigation that is swooping up dozens of people, including other politicians and rabbis, according the WNBC-TV, Hudson County Now is reporting. The IRS is also involved, according to the report.

• A controversial ordinance that would give the Hoboken City Council the power to name people to the Zoning Board -- instead of the mayor -- was not voted on last night at the council meeting and was put into sub-committee instead. The ordinance was put into the Zoning and Planning subcommittee after nearly two hours of heated debate, from both the Council and the public.

• Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano's picks for directors was put on hold to allow City Council President Dawn Zimmer time to review the candidates. Cammarano submitted a letter to the council at last night's meeting, responding to the delay.

• After an empty suitcase was found in front of her home prompting a call to the police, 2nd Ward Councilwoman Beth Mason said today that she has received threatening letters off and on since she was first elected to the City Council two years ago, and was even threatened on the street in Hoboken once.

 2 N.J. mayors, lawmaker arrested in corruption case

By Jean Mikle, USA TODAY

NEWARK — The mayors of two New Jersey cities and a state legislator are under arrest Thursday as part of a major corruption and international money laundering conspiracy probe.

Federal prosecutors say about 30 people have been arrested. They include Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt, Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano III, Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell and Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini. Federal prosecutors say several rabbis in New York and New Jersey are also arrested.

The mayors of two major New Jersey cities and an assemblyman have been arrested in a major corruption and international money laundering conspiracy probe, the Associated Press reports.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says approximately 30 arrests have occurred in the two-track investigation.

They include Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt, Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano III and Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell, the AP says.

Update at 9:40 a.m. ET: The Star-Ledger, of Newark, says the feds have been probing alleged money transfers involving rabbis in Syrian Jewish enclaves in Deal and Brooklyn. The paper says those arrested include key religious leaders in the tight-knit, wealthy communities.

Update at 10:30 a.m. ET: Law enforcement officials will give a news conference at noon ET on the arrests.

Posted by Doug Stanglin at 09:37 AM/ET, July 23, 2009 in Crime, Politics | Permalin

Oakland leads the way - it's the first city nationally to impose Marijuana tax

I received this press release today from Dale Gieringer, Cal NORML:

  "Last night's landslide victory for Oakland's cannabis business tax, Measure F,  by 79.9%  mirrors  the historic 79.6% victory of  San Francisco's  path-breaking medical marijuana initiative, Prop. P, in 1991.  Like Prop P, Measure F seems destined to serve as a model for cannabis reform elsewhere in the state and country.

   Measure F would impose a 1.8% tax on the city's medical cannabis businesses, raising an estimated $300,000 for the city.

   Kudos to James Anthony for having proposed and authored this measure;  to  Rebecca Kaplan for having shepherded it through City Council;   and to  medical cannabis  collective directors Steve DeAngelo, Richard Lee, and Keith Stephenson for their enlightened support of this landmark measure.

  Thanks too to the voters of Oakland, who approved Measure Z to "tax and regulate" marijuana in 2004 and have kept their city on the forefront of cannabis law reform."

The Christian Science Monitor ran this article today:

Oakland voters approve marijuana tax
It is the first US city to assess such a tax, which could raise almost $300,000 in revenue next year. Opponents of the measure say it opens the door to more crime and heavier drug use.

Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday became the first city in the US to assess a tax on marijuana.
    State and national advocates of the tax say the victory is a significant turning point in the history of cannabis use, paving the way for taxation in other communities and states and establishing more social acceptance of marijuana use.
    Opponents say an irreversible threshold has been crossed, opening the door to more crime and heavier drug use.
     By a wide margin of 80 percent to 20 percent, Oakland voters said "yes" to Measure F, which asked: "Shall City of Oakland's business tax, which currently imposes a tax rate of $1.20 per $1,000 on 'cannabis business' gross receipts, be amended to establish a new tax rate of $18 per $1,000 of gross receipts?"
  "The voters of Oakland have sent a message to the nation that cannabis is better treated as a legitimate, tax-paying business than as a cause of crime and futile law-enforcement expenditures," says Dale Gieringer, California state coordinator for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
     The city estimates that the measure will raise $294,000 in additional tax revenue in 2010 and more in future years. Some say the measure will provide funds to help offset the city's current $83 million deficit as well as allow police to direct their limited resources to more serious crimes and drug offenses.
   "The public is more interested in having money to preserve social services and fight more important crimes," says Sam Singer, a Berkeley resident and well-known PR consultant.
Mr. Singer and others say that since the passage of Proposition 218 in 1996 - which made marijuana available by prescription to relieve pain and nausea - marijuana use in California has existed behind a "false front": Users can go to a doctor, complain of symptoms, and for about $100, get the doctor to write them a prescription for the drug. A state-issued card lasts for one year.
   "It's so easy to get a card that it's almost as if physicians will help lead you to your story of chronic pain, insomnia, fatigue, etc.," says John Diaz, editorial page editor of the San Francisco Chronicle.
   Oakland has not so much cleared up the marijuana issue so much as found a way to contain it, Mr. Diaz says. The city is giving permits to only four clubs, compared with a few dozen in San Francisco and about 800 in Los Angeles.
   Federal law still prohibits the use and sale of marijuana, although US Attorney General Eric Holder has said that federal law enforcement will no longer conduct raids in the states that have legalized medical-marijuana use. Nationwide, about 775,000 people were arrested for marijuana possession in 2007.

   "It takes a lot of time, attention, and money to bust, prosecute, and then incarcerate marijuana users," Singer says. "Given the economy, this is a move that will be welcomed not just in Oakland, but most likely in major urban cities across the nation."

Here's a very unusual fish story that ends well for the fish!

A Fish Story
Bill Driver, who lives in Wichita, KS, saw a ball bouncing around kind of strange in the lake and went to investigate.
It turned out to be a flathead catfish who had obviously tried to swallow a basketball which became stuck in its mouth!!
The fish was totally exhausted from trying to dive, but unable to because the ball would always bring him back up to the surface.
Bill tried numerous times to get the ball out, but was unsuccessful. He finally had his wife, Pam, cut the ball in order to deflate it and release the hungry catfish.

You probably wouldn't have believed this, if you hadn't seen the following pictures...

Click here to see the rest of these amazing pics at JeffBridges.com

Photo by Pam Driver