Saturday, October 31, 2009

MSM Monitor Has Empty Bag on Halloween

This is what the kids brought home:

"Confidence takes a fall in October; Bleak job picture hits outlook for holiday shopping" by Ashley M. Heher, Associated Press | October 28, 2009

CHICAGO - Consumers’ confidence about the US economy fell unexpectedly in October as job prospects remained bleak, a private research group said yesterday, fueling speculation that an already gloomy holiday shopping forecast could worsen....

See: Sweets Made Me Sick

Yeah, so I ate a couple walking around, so what?

Recent economic data, from housing to manufacturing, have offered mixed signals but some evidence that an economic recovery might be slow.

WTF?

But yesterday, the figures showed that shoppers have a grim outlook for the future, the board said, expecting a worsening business climate, fewer jobs, and lower salaries.

Unless you are a bankster!

Also see: Banks Back to Doing What They Do Best

That’s particularly bad news for retailers who depend on the holiday shopping season for a hefty share of their annual revenues.

Yeah, the UNEMPLOYED BLOKE isn't important!

“Consumers also remain quite pessimistic about their future earnings, a sentiment that will likely constrain spending during the holidays,’’ said Lynn Franco, the director of the board’s Consumer Research Center. Economists expect holiday sales to be at best flat from a year ago, which saw the biggest declines since at least 1967, when the Commerce Department started collecting the data....

Which means ever!

--more--"

Related: New home sales take surprise tumble

New jobless claims climb more than expected

Consumer confidence slips unexpectedly

You notice a pattern?

"Flat incomes suggest weak spending ahead" by Martin Crutsinger, Associated Press | October 31, 2009

But NOT for the TOP!


WASHINGTON - Flat incomes suggest more weakness ahead in consumer spending, reinforcing concerns about a ho-hum holiday shopping season and a sluggish economic recovery.

Bah-humbug!

Interestingly, when I was a kid, "A Christmas Carol" was on all over the dial like a Dickens on Christmas eve. Now you can barely find it on any channel the whole season.

And even I am doing it! Not even Thanksgiving yet, and I'm talking Xmas. Saw the decorations and aisle merchandise at the CVS today. Big stack of Globes, too.


“This recovery is going to be very weak. Consumers are in no position or mood to spend. Their wages are down and they can’t get credit,’’ said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University’s Smith School of Business. Concerns about the economy sparked by disappointing government data on spending and incomes sent stocks down yesterday, erasing the previous day’s big gains.

Which means it is WORSE than they are saying!

See:
U.S. Government Lied About Economy

Commerce Department Lies About Economy

Government Continuously Lying About Economy

The Dow Jones industrial average lost about 250 points, and broader indexes also fell. The Commerce Department reported that personal incomes were stagnant in September while the all-important wage and salary category dropped 0.2 percent, as unemployment rose.

Which means it is worse!

Consumer spending - which accounts for 70 percent of economic activity - dropped 0.5 percent, the first decline in five months and the biggest since December. The spending retreat reflected a sharp falloff in auto sales following a spike in August from the government’s Cash for Clunkers program.

Yeah, did you finally get to drive those clunkers off the lot (and notice the MSM left you hanging after it broke down)?

The overall economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, grew at a 3.5 percent rate from July through September, signaling an end to the longest recession since the 1930s.

Except it is NOT OVER and the GOVERNMENT NUMBER is OVERSTATED!

But analysts said the income and spending report underscored fears about a weak recovery. The most pessimistic worry the nation could be headed for a double-dip recession as consumers, concerned about further job losses and their tattered investment holdings, refrain from spending.

Related: From Recession to Depression

Yeah, but DON'T LISTEN TO US!!

And HOW COME YOUR PORTFOLIOS aren't coming back with the banks and market, 'murka?

Some analysts believe that GDP growth, which received a big boost from the government’s stimulus programs in the third quarter, will slow to 2 percent or less in the current quarter.

One day they say they have a lot more money in the pipeline, the next day they say its almost gone. They lie about that like they lie about the job figures.

David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor’s in New York, said a recent spike in energy prices and other problems will depress sales in coming weeks.

Yeah, the ENERGY COSTS are RISING because the DOLLAR is DYING. DEMAND is DOWN so there is NO OTHER REASON!

--more--"

Well, it has been a long, fun day, but I'm tired and cold.

Good night, readers.

See you tomorrow morning.

Slow Saturday Special: Banker's Bag of Goodies

Thing is busting at the seams -- even with all the loopholes!

"Financial bill under attack over loopholes; Package lacks adequate oversight, critics say" by Michael Kranish and Alan Wirzbicki, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent | October 31, 2009

WASHINGTON - As Representative Barney Frank nears his goal of pushing a massive financial regulation package through the House Financial Services Committee, parts of the legislation are coming under blistering assault from consumer groups as well as key Democrats, who say it contains loopholes that could set the stage for another financial meltdown.

Yeah, they are back to the same old s***.

ONE YEAR after ALL THOSE TRILLIONS in BAILOUT and NO HELP for HOMEOWNERS and NOT ONE REGULATORY OVERSIGHT REFORM! Not one!

Senator Maria Cantwell, a Washington Democrat, is among those who said they have watched with dismay as Frank’s committee has passed provisions that they say would enable much of the controversial trading in derivatives to continue without adequate oversight....

Related: Bankers' Best Friend

And she is surprised?

Derivatives are complex financial instruments whose value is based on underlying assets, such as real estate, and are used to bet or hedge on how those assets will change in value. It was the collapse of one form of derivatives, an insurance product for subprime mortgages known as credit-default swaps, that deepened the financial crisis last year.

See: Lying Looters Large and Small: Derived Debt

Wall Street Back the Way It Was

Bankers' Bark Worse Than Bite to State

Frank defended his bill.... “.... My job is to make the best deal I can.’’

Yeah, but FOR WHO, you glib glob!?

The Newton congressman said he is convinced that corporations that need to hedge against cost increases shouldn’t be put in the same category as banks and other financial institutions that speculate on derivatives.

Answers my question.

The derivatives measure is part of a landmark legislative package that would mark the greatest change in financial rules since the Great Depression and would be one of Frank’s premier legislative accomplishments.

I wouldn't be boasting if I were him.

The package calls for creating an agency to protect consumers against shady lending practices, granting federal regulators new powers to take over businesses that are “too big to fail,’’ and putting hedge funds under more oversight.

Fascism! I say let them fail!

Republicans object to much of the package, while fellow Democrats support Frank. But now, with his committee expected to finish its work in the next week or so, some elements - such as the rules on derivatives and the jurisdiction of the consumer protection agency - have come in for harsh criticism as details emerge about them. Some consumer groups said they had little chance for input when the committee discussed the exemptions on derivatives trading.

Frank adopted the position of the US Chamber of Commerce and other business lobbies and “walked away from the concerns of the major unions, consumer groups, and environmental groups,’’ said Michael Greenberger, the former director of trading and markets of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, who now advises Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition of 200 organizations, including consumer groups and unions.

Meet the REAL BARNEY FRANK!

Frank acknowledged that “we made a mistake that we did not have broad enough testimony’’ from consumer groups, saying that he believed their views were echoed by administration officials....

That's WEAK! What if he said that to his gay frie.... never mind, he already did!

Several other members of Congress said in interviews that the bill is fundamentally flawed because of the way it treats derivatives trading. Representative Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat, said he plans to try to amend the bill when it reaches the House floor, which is expected in mid-November....

Senator Bernard Sanders, the Vermont independent, said “[Frank] has got some political issues on the committee of some people not wanting to go as far as we should.’’

Cornelius Hurley, director of the Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law at Boston University, said the fault lies not only with Frank, but also with the Obama administration. “They have pretty much wasted the crisis,’’ Hurley said, calling the legislation that has emerged so far timid.

That's spooky talk.

Rice: 9/11 an “enormous opportunity”

Rumsfeld: "Why Not another 911"

We don't need those kinds of opportunities!


Some consumer groups are also complaining that the committee has weakened the role of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, one of the other signature items in the president’s proposal. The agency is intended to police financial products such as credit cards, loans, and mortgages, but is widely opposed by business groups. In response to pressure, the committee exempted retailers, small banks, and some other categories from the agency’s direct oversight.

“Everybody seems to have their local hometown industry and they think, ‘Well, my industry wasn’t the problem.’ But this agency isn’t designed to address yesterday’s problems,’’ said Lauren K. Saunders, managing attorney of the National Consumer Law Center in Washington.

But....

Objections have also been raised to Frank’s decision to drop from the bill an administration proposal that would have given the new agency power to enforce a 1977 law mandating that banks serve low-income communities. “In the interests of Barney trying to create consensus, he has cut out the limbs and we’re left with the torso,’’ said John Taylor, president of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, which dropped its support of the bill as a result of the changes.

Frank said he did not believe that enforcement of the Community Reinvestment Act belonged under the purview of an agency focused on protection of individual consumers. Representative Michael E. Capuano, a Somerville Democrat, who favored including the CRA in the bill, nonetheless strongly backed Frank’s handling of the legislation.“The fact the bill is moving at all is a pretty good thing.’’

I'm not surprised: The War Pimps of PMA

--more--"

Also see: Halloween not just a kids' event

I feel violated.

Slow Saturday Special: Taxpayer's Take

You got cleaned out.

"US says stimulus created, saved 650,000 jobs; Critics question whether price tag was worth it" by Matt Apuzzo and Brett J. Blackledge, Associated Press | October 31, 2009

WASHINGTON - Nearly 650,000 jobs have been saved or created under President Obama’s economic stimulus plan, the government said yesterday, and the White House declared the nation on track to meet the president’s goal of 3.5 million by the end of next year.

That can happen when you use a multiplier of 10.

New job numbers from businesses, contractors, state and local governments, nonprofit groups, and universities were released, showing 640,329 positions credited to the stimulus, according to the independent federal board monitoring the program’s progress....

Not like they would have a self-serving interest to over-inflate.

Earlier this week, Governor Deval Patrick claimed that the Massachusetts had created or retained 23,533 jobs as a result of spending $1.9 billion in federal stimulus spending over the past eight months. Those individual jobs amounted to 8,792 full-time positions, according to the administration’s calculations.

Related: How to Make the Stimulus a Success

Believe it or not, the math doesn't add up.

The federal report released yesterday counted 12,374 full-time jobs created or retained in Massachusetts. Patrick administration officials said that the federal estimate also included the jobs that came as a result of federal funds going to nonprofits, businesses, and municipalities....

Government recovery plans - everything from the $787 billion stimulus to tax credits for buying new homes to government deals on new cars - are credited with helping the economy grow again after a long and deep recession.

Yeah, the GOVERNMENT BORROWED MONEY -- at interest, taxpayer-- so they could PUMP MONEY INTO the ECONOMY and CLAIM the RECESSION ENDED because of an ARTIFICIAL and COSTLY INFLATION -- just so THEY COULD LOOK GOOD to YOU, 'murka, as they swipe your wallet!

But the job market has yet to show signs of recovery, putting pressure on the White House to show that the stimulus was worth its hefty price. The economy has shed millions of jobs since Obama signed the stimulus in February....

Then THERE IS NO RECOVERY! Not until JOBS GROW!!

The White House said the latest report bolstered its case that the recession would have been far worse without the stimulus - a package of government spending, tax cuts, state aid, and social programs.

I don't see how BORROWING MONEY for a PHONY, PORK-PROJECT BILL that will COST MORE in the long run helps.

The numbers released yesterday have limitations, since calculating “jobs saved’’ will always produce an inexact estimate, and collecting data from so many sources is certain to produce errors.

Yes, I NOTICED THIS FOLLOW UP PIECE MINIMIZING THAT!

White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein said the figures show that, when adding in jobs linked to $288 billion in tax cuts, the stimulus has created or saved more than 1 million jobs.

That guy is wired up on candy, isn't he?

Bernstein said there’s not a huge distinction between jobs “saved’’ and jobs “created’’ by the stimulus money. Either way, he said, “it’s an unemployed person avoided.’’

But THAT IS NOT STIMULUS so THERE IS a HUGE DISTINCTION!!!

--more--"

"That's not stimulus. Stimulus means starting a company that will CONTINUE to sell products and provide jobs after that stimulus money runs out. Like the road patching operations being funded with stimulus money, once the initial project is over, those people are out of work again, the stimulus money is gone, and there are no operating businesses making products for sale." -- Wake the Flock Up

Yeah, these guys are using it to pay off banks and budget deficits!

Slow Saturday Special: Turning Off the Porch Light

(Ding-dong.... sound of door opening)

"Trick or Treat!"

I'm sorry I
don't have candy left.... ladies???

"For these women veterans, a home to call their own" by Brian MacQuarrie, Globe Staff | October 31, 2009

NORTHAMPTON - Tinamarie Polverari, a 38-year-old Army veteran, lives in a duplex cottage run by the nonprofit group Soldier On. A victim of repeated rapes during the Gulf War, she returned in 1993 to an unhinged civilian life of heroin, crack cocaine, and desperate homelessness.

She is among a growing legion of female veterans who have turned to the street after a failed transition from military to civilian life. At a time when women are assuming an ever-expanding role in the armed forces, the number of homeless female veterans is rising....

DISGRACEFUL!

Related: The Fighting Females of Camp Homeless

Maybe they could form a platoon, huh?

The gender restriction - male visitors are announced with a declaration of “man on the floor’’ - has healing power at a place where most of the residents have been sexually abused, many of them during military service, said Laurie McGrath, the women’s program director.

It does amaze me that the only thing you really can't celebrate is Christian white or anything Muslim. All the other exclusions, discrimination, enclaves, and special labels are considered healing and good.

“I don’t have to look over my shoulder and wonder whether I’ll feel that tap on my leg,’’ sighed Polverari, who said she was raped repeatedly by a fellow soldier during the Gulf War run-up in Saudi Arabia.

Hard to believe seeing as those are our best, huh?

"Green shot and killed the teenager's mother, father, and sister, then became the third soldier to rape the girl before killing her."

Yeah.

Afraid to complain to her superiors, Polverari said, the abuse continued with impunity during her deployment. After her discharge in 1993, Polverari said, her life cascaded into self-destructive, addictive behavior....

Last year, 26.9 percent of female veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan reported to the VA Boston Healthcare System that they had been victims of “military sexual trauma.’’

MORE HIDDEN COSTS of MILITARISM, 'murka!

And it is ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE for DECADES!!

It's OVER, America!

The EMPIRE is OVER and the SOONER you SEE that the BETTER!

Compounding the problem for the victims, veterans advocates said, is that sexual abuse can make women vulnerable to other devastating issues.... “I think because we’ve been dealing with male issues for so long,’’ McGrath said, “I’m not sure people are aware there are so many women vets and the issues they are having.’’

Why must they PLAY EACH OTHER AGAINST OURSELVES?

How about ENDING the WARS first?

Then maybe LESS RAPES and s*** will happen!

The Department of Veterans Affairs is working to address the problem, but public awareness is lagging, said Tom Hameline, senior vice president of HELP USA, a nonprofit group that develops housing and services for homeless and low-income populations.

“The VA, until very recently, saw themselves as an organization that served male soldiers,’’ Hameline said. “Like any large organization, it takes some time to shift.’’

And WE ARE ALWAYS LECTURING OTHERS about WOMEN'S RIGHTS!!!

On Tuesday, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki will convene a homeless “summit’’ in Washington at which 1,200 service providers and advocates for homeless veterans will gather to discuss how to end the problem within five years.

You know, BANKS and WARS get PROMPT CARE, so WTF?!!!!

DISGRACEFUL!

SHAMEFUL!

OUTRAGEOUS!!!

Dr. Kate Chard, who directs the VA’s implementation of a new program to identify and treat post-traumatic stress disorder, said the agency is acutely aware of the effects of sexual trauma within the military. As a result, she said, every VA medical center in the nation now has a staff member to deal with victims of such abuse.

In Northampton, the problem is being addressed one day at a time. The veterans cook for themselves, shop for groceries, engage in therapy, and lean on one another for emotional support. No men are allowed in the home without permission, and the veterans are free to leave the campus in their cars. However, they do have a nightly curfew. The clients can stay for two years, working to bolster their self-esteem and sense of responsibility, before reentering a world that nearly crushed them.

Kim Tougas, 46, an Air Force Reserve veteran from Chicopee, is one of three women who make up the managing committee at Jackie K’s House. Tougas has been in the program for 18 months; for her, it has been a slow, incremental, confidence-building experience to reset her life compass. Without the help, Tougas said, “I probably would have ended up dead’’ from a downward spiral of daily drinking. Now, she has been given a job distributing medication to her fellow veterans.

Maria Oltjenbruns, 48, an Army veteran from Springfield, is still in the “crying stage’’ of therapy, she said. After being sexually abused in the Army, Oltjenbruns said, her superiors simply told her to stay away from the perpetrator. As the veterans spoke of the torturous paths they had traveled to Jackie K’s House, they stopped occasionally to reflect on the empowerment they feel in their women-ruled domain.

Why does the Globe have to push a confrontational, war-like agenda with everything -- or at least give it that context?

Bad enough the women were raped, do you have to open up the whole chasm, you divisive, agenda-pushing piece of ****hit paper?

The transformation was noted by Jack Downing, president of Soldier On, who said a previous program that mixed women with their homeless male counterparts, some of whom continued to harass them, had been frustrating and flawed.

“You never saw looks like this in their faces before,’’ Downing said, referring to the smiles and calmness of the residents. “Before, they were broken.’’

That's what a WAR will do to you!

--more--"

Sweets Made Me Sick

Too much candy. Happens every year.

Good thing that new healthcare is coming throu.... not again.

"House Dems unveil health bill, cheered on by Obama" by David Espo, AP Special Correspondent | October 29, 2009

WASHINGTON -- F
resh questions that went to the heart of their ambitious drive to remake the nation's health care system. Congressional budget experts predicted the controversial government insurance option would probably cost consumers somewhat more than private coverage....

NOPE!! NOT the "reform" we were LOOKING FOR, no sir!!!!!


There was no official estimate on the total cost of the legislation, which ran to 1,990 pages....

And they have, what, a week to read it?

That is 285 pages a DAY!!!
That would take me about a week, give or take a couple of days, depending on other variables.

I'd say they would need 14 staffers reading it each day and making a summary, sending it through, etc, etc. No Congressman ever reads it, he's just told to vote for it... or else.


Most individuals would be required to carry insurance....

Yup, and your choices?

Choice A: A crappy, overpriced, price-gouging, profit-padding scheme from some insurance conglomerate

OR

Choice B:
A crappy, overpriced, price-gouging, MORE EXPENSIVE government scheme that will skim dollars off the top then funnel the rest to insurance conglomerates.

That's why the PUBLIC OPTION is MORE EXPENSIVE!!

Are YOU SURE YOU GUYS are DEMOCRATS down there?


One of the bill's major features is a new national insurance market, in which private companies could sell policies that meet federally mandated benefit levels, the government would offer competing coverage and consumers could shop for the policy that best met their needs.

Well, if they are pretty much both the same, but one's cheaper, I guess I'll go with the health conglomerate.

LAST TIME I'm gonna say it: SINGLE-PAYER HEALTHCARE!!!

PICK a COUNTRY, PICK a PLAN!!!

We are AMERICAN! WE CAN DO ANYTHING!

We can INVADE NATIONS and TURN THEM INTO POWDER!

You telling me we can't devise a decent health plan?

All them other blokes smarter than us, huh?


In a bow to moderates, Democrats decided....

I'm not the one dissing you liberals; the leadership of your own party is shitting in your face.

The Congressional Budget Office said for consumers, government-backed plans "would typically have premiums that are somewhat higher than the average premiums for private plans" sold in competition. As a result, it said enrollment would be only about 6 million.

So the GOVERNMENT would be MANDATING and DIRECTING YOU to PURCHASE CRAP INSURANCE from... oh, I think I'm going to need the healthcare because I just got sick in my mouth.

While Democrats touted new benefits for seniors, the bill relies on more than $400 billion in cuts from projected Medicare spending over the next decade. Much of the money would come from the part of the program in which private companies offer coverage to seniors.

It's called a SHELL GAME, seniors, and I'm always surprised if you fall for it.

The bill's other major new source of revenue is from a proposed income tax surcharge of 5.4 percent on wealthy earners, individuals making at least $500,000 a year and couples $1 million or more.

Yeah, good luck with that. The Senate will surgically scalpel that out -- just as my MSM article did here:

The bill also keeps alive the Medicare end-of-life provision that 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said tantamount to "death panels" for seniors.

I'm a bit surprised, MSM!

So the IDEA LIVES ON even though they claim it went away. Sigh!

Sounds like a PENTAGON PROP-OP that gets a NEW NAME -- or not.

They NEVER GO AWAY, either -- same as a "pilot" program or a government database!

--more--"

Maybe she was in
here but I didn't look at the update (sigh).

Meanwhile, that Massachusetts Model you keep hearing so much about?


"Small firms pay more on health care, data say; State to hold hearings on rate disparities" by Kay Lazar, Globe Staff | October 30, 2009

New data compiled by the state show small businesses and their employees are frequently charged more for the same health insurance coverage than large employers and their workers - a practice small business owners said they long suspected but could never prove.

The numbers show that this was especially true for plans sold by the state’s largest insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts, which charged smaller companies between 9 and 10 percent more than large businesses this year for the same products. Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, the state’s second largest insurer, charged between 2.9 and 8.3 percent more....

Yeah, that is what you have to look forward to, small business owners across the nation.

--more--"

Related:

(Ding-dong. Who could that be. I'm out of candy)

Slow Saturday Special: MIC Captures Marcy Kaptur

(Ding-dong... sound of door opening)

"Trick or Treat!"

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!

FILE - These various dated file photos shows some of House members exposed in an extraordinary, Internet-era breach of security involving the secretive process by which Congress polices lawmaker ethics. Top row, from left are, Rep. James Moran, D-Va., Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., Rep. Peter Visclosky, D-Ind., and Rep. Nancy Kaptur, D-Ohio. Bottom row, from left are, Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Calif., Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., Rep. C.W. Young, R-Fla., and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif.
FILE - These various dated file photos shows some of House members exposed in an extraordinary, Internet-era breach of security involving the secretive process by which Congress polices lawmaker ethics. Top row, from left are, Rep. James Moran, D-Va., Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., Rep. Peter Visclosky, D-Ind., and Rep. Nancy Kaptur, D-Ohio. Bottom row, from left are, Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Calif., Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., Rep. C.W. Young, R-Fla., and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif. (AP Photo/FILES)

"Ethics panel scrutinizing dozens of House members" by Larry Margasak, Associated Press Writer | October 30, 2009

WASHINGTON --Dozens of lawmakers have drawn scrutiny from their ethics monitor this year for everything from financial dealings to travel and campaign donations, according to a leaked account showing an active House panel secretly at work.

Seven of the lawmakers -- four not previously known -- serve on a defense appropriations subcommittee that divvies up money for Pentagon contractors....

Committee Chairman Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., and ranking Republican Jo Bonner of Alabama, were examining the conduct of some lawmakers on the defense panel.Members of the House Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee had steered targeted appropriations called earmarks to clients of a now-defunct lobbying firm -- PMA -- and received contributions from the firm and its clients.

Related: The War Pimps of PMA

The names of defense subcommittee chairman John Murtha, D-Pa., and Democratic members Jim Moran of Virginia and Peter Visclosky of Indiana had previously surfaced in connection with the inquiry.

An allegedly antiwar Dem.

Related: War Looter's Wednesday: The Mirth of Murtha

Pfft!

The document adds the names of Norm Dicks, D-Wash.; Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio; ranking subcommittee Republican C.W. Bill Young of Florida and Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan. All four have received campaign contributions from PMA's political action committee and employees.

Oh, Marcy!!!!

The Pentagon budget panel had such an allure for Kaptur -- who represents a Toledo-anchored Rust Belt district -- that in 2005 she gave up her party's top seat on the agriculture subcommittee to claim a rare open seat on Murtha's subcommittee.

She would have become one of a dozen Appropriations subcommittee chairmen had she stayed put. A spokesman for Kaptur, Steve Fought, said she expected to be cleared. "She's saying there was no quid pro quo."

Oh, Marcy!!!

Related: Meet Your Antiwar New England Liberals

Is there NO ONE BUT RON PAUL and DENNIS KUCINICH worth a spit down there?

The most prominent lawmaker under investigation, House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., has been interviewed about his personal finances, the document showed. However, it revealed less than the committee's public announcements about the ever-expanding investigation of Rangel's travel, financial deals, fundraising and financial disclosures....

Yeah, MSM has kept that REAL QUIET!

Related:
Obama Takes Care of Grandma

And Chucky takes care of himself!

That is where my printed paper whacks it.

Subpoenas were authorized to the Justice Department and National Security Agency for intercepted communications in an inquiry involving Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif. News stories have reported she was heard in a 2005 conversation agreeing to a request to seek lenient treatment for two pro-Israel lobbyists accused of illegally disclosing national defense secrets.

Related: Harman's Huff

I can see why the Glob picked up the Times rewrite, too!

Sure TOOK a LOT of NAMES OUT!!!

Charges were dismissed against the lobbyists at the request of prosecutors.

See: Slow Saturday Special: Zionist Spies Set Free

Harman has denied she had contacted anyone seeking favorable treatment for the lobbyists, and she has asked the Justice Department to release any transcripts of her recorded conversations.

Then she is a TREASONOUS LIAR!

--more--"

One of them tried to come back for seconds!

"Rep. Waters facing ethics probe" by Todd Wallack, Globe Staff | October 30, 2009

A congressional ethics committee is proceeding with its investigation of California Representative Maxine Waters, who is accused of helping a troubled Boston bank with ties to her husband obtain $12 million in government aid.

See: California Bank of Waters

Black Bank Robbers in Suits and Suites

She's looking out for the little guy?

The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct said it voted unanimously to establish an investigative subcommittee to look into the matter. The committee also confirmed the subject of the investigation - whether Waters violated any rules to help the National Bankers Association or OneUnited Bank. Waters’ husband, Sidney Williams, served on the bank’s board of directors and owned at least $250,000 stock in the institution.

Waters reportedly helped arrange a meeting between regulators and OneUnited executives in September 2008 without disclosing her husband’s ties to bank. OneUnited, which says it is the largest US black-owned bank, later received $12 million. Waters, a Democrat, has acknowledged she helped to arrange the meeting but....

I'm not interested in her excuses!

--more--"

They left my bag empty!!!

Bathroom Break

"Democrats.... talk of opening more waters to oil drilling, support for nuclear energy"

Excuse me, readers.


"Congress urged to pass greenhouse gas limits; Democrats wary of climate bill’s economic fallout" by H. Josef Hebert and Dina Cappiello, Associated Press | October 28, 2009

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration warned yesterday that the United States could slip further behind China and other countries in clean energy development if Congress fails to pass climate legislation, as early signs of a rift emerged among Democrats over the bill’s costs.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a Senate panel that the United States has stumbled in the clean energy race and to catch up Congress must enact comprehensive energy legislation that puts the first-ever limits on the gases blamed for global warming....

PFFFFFFFTTTTTTTTT!!!!

With weeks remaining before 192 nations gather in Copenhagen in December to negotiate a new global treaty to slow climate change, time is running out for the Senate to pass a climate bill. While the legislation is likely to clear the environment panel, as many as five other committees have jurisdiction over the bill before it goes to the floor, and more than a dozen Democrats have voiced serious concerns about the potential economic fallout from shifting away from fossil fuels to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.

They finally woke and smelt the fart mist, 'eh?

The leader of one of those panels, Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, told the hearing yesterday he had “serious reservations.’’

Related: National Health Care: The Baucus Raucous

Baucus' Lead Balloon

“Montana can’t afford the unmitigated impacts of climate change,’’ Baucus said. “But we also cannot afford the unmitigated effects of climate change legislation.’’

The bill’s chief author, Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, acknowledged that the bill would raise energy prices, but said the savings from reducing energy and the money to be made in new technologies were far greater.

I'm SICK of FALSE PROMISES form LOOTING LIARS, and THIS GUY is a TOP CONTENDER!

He got some much-needed backup from President Obama, who made a stop at a solar energy site in Florida yesterday....

Globe didn't trumpet this one: Slow Saturday Special: Evergreen Turns Brown

Slow Saturday Special: Obama Pimps For Patrick

An Environmental Protection Agency analysis released Friday said the average household would pay an additional $80 to $111 a year to power their homes and fuel their cars if the bill becomes law and businesses pass on the cost of reducing pollution to consumers.

Translation: It's more. Whatever it will be, it will be more than EPA.

Republicans questioned the validity of the EPA study. And Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the panel’s top Republican and a skeptic of the science behind global warming, said Americans would not stomach the expense.

Well, when you don't have a summer and the last two winters were brutal, well.... you'd be a skeptic, too!

--more--"

Wow, stinks in here now, too.

(Ding-dong.... WhoTF could that be?)

Kids' Costumes

(Ding-dong.... blog editor grabs a candy)

"Trick or Treat!"

Wow, look at what great costumes!!!!


Count Dooku

"Arise, Sir Dracula! Actor is knighted" by Associated Press | June 13, 2009

LONDON - Christopher Lee, whose sonorous voice and burning black eyes made him a memorable arch-villain: "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith."

Among the others receiving royal honors:

Tony-award winning actor Alan Cumming, for his work in films such as "X2: X-Men United" and his gay rights advocacy; celebrity hairdresser Vidal Sassoon, who lent his name to a worldwide brand of shampoos and salons....

Hey, they get candy, too!!!

--more--"

I have a full Darth Vader outfit (with helmet and mask), and people love it.

I'll be wearing it tonight, but not for long because it gets hot and stuffy in the suit.

Now if I only had the same ability with the Force....

:-)


Titanic Princess

"Millvina Dean, 97; was last survivor of Titanic disaster" by Meera Selva, Associated Press | June 1, 2009

Millvina Dean was 2 months old when the Titanic hit an iceberg on the night of April 14, 1912. She was one of 706 people - mostly women and children - who survived.
Millvina Dean was 2 months old when the Titanic hit an iceberg on the night of April 14, 1912. She was one of 706 people - mostly women and children - who survived. (Nancy Palmieri/Associated Press/File 1998)

LONDON - Millvina Dean, who as a baby was wrapped in a sack and lowered into a lifeboat in the frigid North Atlantic, died yesterday, the last survivor of the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic.

She was 97, and died where she had lived - in Southampton, England, the town her family had tried to leave behind when it took the ship's ill-fated maiden voyage, bound for America.

She died in her sleep early yesterday, said her friend Gunter Babler. It was the 98th anniversary of the launch of the ship that was billed as "practically unsinkable."

I know it's real life, but it does bring up those feelings from the end of that darn movie. You see its rank on the right!

Also see: Naomi Watts' Next Movie

Miss Dean was 2 months old when the Titanic hit an iceberg on the night of April 14, 1912. The ship sank in less than three hours. Miss Dean was one of 706 people - mostly women and children - who survived. Her father was among the 1,517 who died. The pride of the White Star line, the Titanic had a mahogany-paneled smoking room, a swimming pool, and a squash court. But it did not have enough lifeboats for all of its 2,200 passengers and crew.

Miss Dean's family were steerage passengers setting out from the English port of Southampton for a new life in the United States. Her father had sold his pub and hoped to open a tobacco shop in Kansas City, Mo., where his wife had relatives. Initially scheduled to travel on another ship, the family was transferred to the Titanic because of a coal strike. Four days out of port and about 380 miles southeast of Newfoundland, the ship hit the iceberg. The impact buckled the Titanic's hull and sent seawater pouring into six of its watertight compartments.

Miss Dean said her father's quick actions saved his family. He felt the ship scrape the iceberg and hustled the family out of its third-class quarters and toward the lifeboat that would take them to safety. "That's partly what saved us - because he was so quick. Some people thought the ship was unsinkable," Miss Dean told the BBC in 1998.

This is better than a movie, and I have the tears to prove it.

Wrapped in a sack against the Atlantic chill, Miss Dean was lowered into a lifeboat. Her 2-year-old brother Bertram and her mother, Georgette, also survived. "She said goodbye to my father and he said he'd be along later," Miss Dean said in 2002. "I was put into lifeboat 13. It was a bitterly cold night and eventually we were picked up by the Carpathia."

Maybe I need to smoke a joint now.

The family was taken to New York, then returned to England with other survivors aboard the rescue ship Adriatic. Miss Dean did not know she had been aboard the Titanic until she was 8 years old, when her mother, about to remarry, told her about her father's death. Her mother, always reticent about the tragedy, died in 1975 at age 95.

She beat out the old lady by two years, huh?

Born in London on Feb. 2, 1912, Elizabeth Gladys "Millvina" Dean spent most of her life in the English seaside town of Southampton, Titanic's home port. She worked as a secretary and never married, retiring in 1972 from an engineering firm. She moved into a nursing home after breaking her hip about three years ago.

That didn't help her; she probably could have kept sailing well past 100 if not for that.

She had to sell several Titanic mementos to raise funds, prompting her friends to set up a fund to subsidize her nursing home fees.

WTF?

Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, the stars of the film "Titanic," pledged their support to the fund last month. For most of her life, Miss Dean had no contact with Titanic enthusiasts and rarely spoke about the disaster. She said she had seen the 1958 film "A Night to Remember" with other survivors, but found it so upsetting that she declined to watch any other attempts to put the disaster on celluloid, including the 1997 blockbuster "Titanic."

What I will say is this: When the computer graphics turned the end of that boat perpendicular to the sea before it sank you felt the awesome terror of what must have occurred. When you wrap the accurately-researched film around the love story script....

I did not expect myself to react to Titanic that way, either, readers, just as King Kong caught me by total shock. Sith was the pinnacle. How could anything be better than that, and so soon after?

She began to take part in Titanic-related activities in the 1980s, after the discovery of the ship's wreck in 1985 sparked renewed interest. She opposed attempts to raise the wreck 13,000 feet from the sea bed....

*****************************

Charles Haas, president of the New-Jersey based Titanic International Society, said Miss Dean was happy to talk to children about the Titanic. "She had a soft spot for children," he said. "I remember watching as little tiny children came over clutching pieces of paper for her to sign. She was very good with them, very warm."

She was active well into her 90s, but missed the commemoration of the 95th anniversary of the disaster in 2007 after breaking her hip. The last survivor with memories of the sinking was Lillian Asplund of Worcester, Mass., who was 5 at the time. She died in May 2006 at age 99.

--more--"

Their hearts will go on, won't they?

What a sappy, weepy old man I am!

"Titanic survivor’s ashes put into sea" by Associated Press | October 25, 2009

LONDON - The ashes of the last Titanic survivor have been scattered at Southampton, the English port where the ship began its voyage in 1912. Millvina Dean, who was 9 weeks old when her parents took her aboard the ship, died May 31 at age 97. Her ashes were scattered on the water yesterday by her partner.

Gay, straight, who cares? Not me.

That is a good CODA, though.

--more--"

No candy for this clown.

Good costume, though!

Bernie Madoff

"GREENFIELD -- A woman from Gill is facing felony charges in the alleged theft of about $100,000 from Temple Israel.

Hey, Greenfield's own Bernie Madoff !

You got enough candy already!

Trying to get a second-helping! What chutzpah!

Theresa M. Peffer, 52, of 20 Oak St., Gill, has been charged with embezzlement, forgery of a check and passing bad checks. Peffer has not yet appeared before the court. The police complaint next goes before a district court magistrate for a probable cause hearing. If the magistrate finds probable cause a crime was committed, the case goes on to district court for trial.

According to Greenfield Police detective Lt. Joseph Burge, his investigation indicates that the misappropriation of funds at Temple Israel went back to 2001, he said. Burge says that, before the matter was brought to the police, the governing board of Temple Israel had worked out a deal with Peffer that she would make restitution of $131,000, but she paid only part of the amount and so the board called in the authorities. ''She was the accountant for Temple Israel for many years,'' he said.

Jews really are in a different class when it comes to cop treatment.

The lieutenant said that Peffer also worked for the Gill Water District and is being investigated by other agencies for alleged discrepancies in accounting there.

--more--"

Okay, let's get going little ones, and get your bags filled -- and BE CAREFUL!

Lot of PERVERTS running around....

"DA seeks to alter offender laws; Wants process for civil commitments in hands of juries" by Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff | October 27, 2009

Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. plans to urge lawmakers today to change the state law for civilly committing individuals as sexual dangerous persons, five days after a convicted sex offender freed from jail over prosecutors’ objections allegedly attacked a woman at Massachusetts General Hospital.

I don't see "conspiracy" here; however, it does show you how authorities RUSH RIGHT IN to TAKE ADVANTAGE of ANYTHING!

Leone, in a previously scheduled appearance before a legislative committee, intends to promote a bill he helped craft that would make it more likely that juries rather than judges would decide whether to indefinitely commit sex offenders to a treatment center. He says Middlesex judges are more lenient than juries in such cases, which involve keeping offenders locked up after they have completed their prison sentences.

Now, I don't want to be seen a defender of perverts, but there is something called the RULE of LAW in this nation! IF you SERVED YOUR TIME you should be LET GO!! WTF is with the LIBERAL FASCISM in this state? It shocks you!

Of course, if I post a guillotine or something that is some sort of hate or incitement, right? Pffft!

Michael F. Farrington, the Mattapoisett lawyer who recently persuaded a judge to not civilly commit the man who was arrested in Thursday’s attack at Mass. General, characterized Leone’s measure as cynical grandstanding. He said most convicted sex offenders who overcome prosecutors’ efforts to have them civilly committed do not commit new sex crimes, regardless of whether it is a judge or jury that determined they were not sexually dangerous.

Unless they are a politician, priest, rabbi....

“The United States Congress and our state Legislature are all under the false impression that these fellows have a high rate of recidivism, and it’s just the opposite, but they don’t want to listen to that,’’ Farrington said....

Well, I KNOW THAT FEELING!!! Not on this issue, far from it, but I KNOW the FEELING of NOT BEING LISTENED TO!!

Leone’s measure may gain more traction after last week’s attack on an unidentified 27-year-old female employee at Mass. General.

Cui Bono?

At 3 p.m., David Flavell, a 40-year-old homeless man who is designated a Level 3 sex offender because of a long history of exhibitionism and other sex offenses, allegedly grabbed a woman he followed into the women’s bathroom at the hospital. Boston police said he threw her to the floor, punched her in the face, repeatedly slammed her head against the floor, and ripped her pants before she managed to escape. Police arrested him moments later....

********************

John G. Swomley, a Boston lawyer, said he has defended about 15 convicted sex offenders in such hearings, and he almost always prefers juries to determine his clients’ fate. Contrary to conventional wisdom, he said, Swomley has found that juries are less apt to be swayed by fears of freed defendants committing new sex offenses than judges.

Ah, pass his law then. I love backfires when it comes to authorities. It exposes them for the filth they are.

“The reality is that everybody [on juries] does actually believe that when you’ve done your time, you shouldn’t be put in jail prospectively for something you haven’t done,’’ he added.

Yeah, I'm one of 'em sitting there!

He said the disparity in Leone’s statistics might reflect the fact that many court-appointed lawyers in such cases are inexperienced, which can be a particular liability in jury trials.

Yeah, ANYTHING the STATE DOES SUCKS!

--more--"

Marijuana: From Maine to Mexico

Okay, the movies are out and the newspaper is no good.

What else can you do in Massachusetts?

Oh, yeah, you can smoke pot!


See you in about, what, 15 minutes?


(Blog editor did contemplate leaving this up all day with a blank underneath as a joke --

:)

-- but I don't need a smoke break --

:(

-- so.... )

(Sound of match strike and light)

The Many Votes of Maine

Woweeeeeee, cough, cough, cough!!!

I'm IMPRESSED (good weed?), and AT LEAST ONE FOLLOWER should have an EXCITING TIME at the POLLS this year -- and it is
not me!

Related:
Around New England: Remember Maine!

Same-sex marriage fight roils Maine

SOMEONE is smoking, though, because this never made my printed paper. I found it searching for a Sunday article from my local, but when the terms came up, I was given a Glob website.

The censorship is stunning, unless they are burning a bone -- do they still call it that, or...? -- down there.


"Mainers to vote on medicinal pot dispensaries" by Clarke Canfield, Associated Press Writer | October 23, 2009

PORTLAND, Maine --A decade ago, Maine voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum allowing people to legally possess marijuana for medicinal purposes. On Nov. 3, voters will decide whether to allow dispensaries from which the drug could be distributed to patients.

Under the current law, doctors in Maine can recommend pot to patients with certain debilitating conditions such as glaucoma, cancer and AIDS. But many of those patients don't have a legal way to obtain marijuana, said Jonathan Leavitt, coordinator of the Maine Citizens for Patients' Rights, which is spearheading the referendum. "This is what was lacking in the last law," Leavitt said.

This is what is NUTS about AMERIKA!!!!

We are TALKING ABOUT SICK PEOPLE for GOD'S SAKE!!!!!

WHO CARES about the "POLITICS!!"

We can ARGUE THAT further down.

But Question 5 on the ballot is drawing opposition from law enforcement and drug prevention officials.

AS USUAL! SELF - ($$$$) -SERVING INTEREST at WORK AGAIN!

And I'M SURE WE WILL hear a bunch of HORROR STORIES and WHAT ABOUT the CHILDREN s***?

Yeah, WHAT ABOUT the KIDS GOING OFF to WARS based on LIES and the FARAWAY BROWN PEOPLE STANDING UNDER THOSE BOMBS?!!!

What about THOSE KIDS?!!!!

Guy Cousins, director of the Maine Office of Substance Abuse, said setting up a distribution network would only increase the availability of marijuana to people not authorized to have it. Compounding the matter, he said, is the lack of control over the dosage and potency of the pot that's being distributed. "We have tremendous compassion for people with terminal illnesses who are seeking to use this as alternative medication," Cousins said. "The concern is a larger public safety and public health issue."

(Sound of blog editor inhaling)

What you say?

In 1999, Mainers by a 61-39 margin approved a referendum to legalize the medical use of marijuana. Maine is one of 14 states with medical marijuana laws on the books.

In Maine, people are allowed to possess up to 2 1/2 ounces of marijuana and up to six marijuana plants if a doctor recommends that it would help with their sickness. But most patients don't grow their own plants, forcing them to get the drug illegally from dealers or other patients, said 31-year-old Seamus Maguire, a medical-marijuana user from Portland who suffers from a rare form of lymphoma. The new law will give sick people a legal and convenient way to buy marijuana, Maguire said. "It's horrible that people that need it as medicine are unable to get it without worrying about going to jail," Maguire said.

Yeah, AND THAT is ANOTHER THING!

The CIA/MOSSAD CRIME CABAL RUNS the DRUGS, the BANKS that GOT BILLIONS in BAILOUT LOOT LAUNDER the PROCEEDS, and then KICK SO JOE- and JANE SICK-PACK (sic) into a CAGE for USING!!!

Starts making you wonder WHO is SMOKING what around here!!!

If the referendum is approved, dispensaries would have to operate as nonprofits and couldn't be within 500 feet of schools. They would be regulated by the Department of Health and Human Services.

But it IS OKAY here in Massachusetts to have a LIQUOR STORE WITHIN that BOUNDARY!!!!! How about that, huh?

Also see: Mass. Lawmaker Boozes Up On Bathroom Break in New Hampshire

Be careful trick or treating, kids!!!!

They might operate in storefronts, in office parks or under the roofs of existing nonprofit organizations that already provide care for sick people, Leavitt said. Besides allowing for dispensaries, Question 5 would create voluntary ID cards for people who are allowed to legally possess marijuana and expand the medical conditions under which people could be prescribed the herb.

I smell something that stinks, readers, and it ain't the weed!

I just caught a WHIFF of PROFIT-MAKING FASCISM! The SPECIAL INTERESTS and TYRANNY always have to get there cuts in, don't they?

I LIKE the EXPANSION of PRESCRIPTION AILMENTS, but WHY the "voluntary" ID? WTF is with that? First voluntary, THEN MANDATORY! Go ask an NFL player who BLOWS OFF the "voluntary" work-outs.

The law now allows doctors to recommend marijuana for people who have persistent nausea, vomiting, wasting syndrome or loss of appetite because of AIDS or chemotherapy or radiation treatment used for cancer; who have heightened pressure on their eyes because of glaucoma; who have epileptic seizures; or who have persistent muscle spasms from a disease such as multiple sclerosis. The new law would expand the availability of marijuana to people to other conditions, including hepatitis C, Lou Gehrig's disease, Crohn's disease and Alzheimer's.

The thing is, if you start saying legalization here you are an agenda-pushing heretic with ulterior motives to the newspaper. It is ONLY THEIR AGENDA-PUSHING CAUSES that are to be PRAISED. I won't go there yet.

The Maine Chiefs of Police Association voted 32-0 at a recent board meeting to oppose the law, said Executive Director Robert Schwartz. Law officers are concerned the referendum, as currently written, does not provide the state enough control over who could dispense marijuana and where it could be distributed, he said.

Cough, cough, cough, cough!!!

Of course, anything that might actual help you stay alive, government opposes.

"Study: Smoking Pot Doesn't Cause Cancer--It May Prevent It! Smoking Cannabis Does Not Cause Cancer Of Lung or Upper Airways, Tashkin Finds; Data Suggest Possible Protective Effect"


It's a CULTURE of DEATH country and ALL ABOUT STATE CONTROL, huh?!!!

And they WONDER why WE DON'T TRUST THEM?????????????

Marijuana dispensaries, he said, should be subject to the same strict controls as pharmacies. "It just appears there are a lot of issues we aren't prepared to deal with at this point," Schwartz said.

Schwartz said Maine police are keeping an eye on California, which has thousands of pot dispensaries, many that advertise freely and offer daily specials and discount coupons.

Yeah, it is called BUILDING an ECONOMIC BASE of AGRICULTURE!!

It is NOT JUST FOR SMOKING, you know!!!

HEMP MAKES FUELS, CLOTH, and FOOD PRODUCTS -- and don't think the "privacy" the founding fathers wrote about wasn't part of it.

What do YOU THINK HAPPENED when the FIELDS CAUGHT FIRE and they had to RUSH and PUT IT OUT?!!! You STILL HAVE TO BREATH, right?!!

Oh, wait, I'm sure Washington or Jefferson had an oxygen tank like the firefighters battling the forest and plain fires.

Speaking of which, I think I need some air. Putting down that joint.

Prosecutors in Los Angeles, which has more than 800 marijuana dispensaries, have vowed to crack down on stores that are selling to people who don't qualify for medicinal marijuana.

--more--"

Don't forget to vote!

All right, let's fly out there (man, I'm floating. That was good weed):

Laughing in L.A.

Good buzz, man!

"Battle brewing in LA over marijuana stores; City has too many, advocates and officials agree" by Solomon Moore, New York Times | October 18, 2009

LOS ANGELES - There are more marijuana stores here than public schools. Signs emblazoned with cannabis plants or green crosses sit next to dry cleaners, gas stations, and restaurants.

Yeah, so?

There are A LOT of BUSINESSES that OUTNUMBER SCHOOLS in areas all across this nation.

What's your poi.... oooooooohhh?

The dispensaries range from Hollywood-day-spa fabulous to shoddy storefronts with hand-painted billboards. Cannabis advocates say that more than 800 dispensaries have sprouted here since 2002; some law enforcement officials say it is closer to 1,000. Whatever the actual number, everyone agrees there are too many.

Yeah, WHO CARES about ACCURATE FACTS, 'eh, NYT?!!!!!!

Maybe someone should test them!

And so this, too, is taken for granted: Crackdowns on cannabis clubs will soon occur in this city, which has more dispensaries than any other. For the first time, law enforcement officials in Los Angeles have vowed to prosecute medical marijuana dispensaries that turn a profit, with police officials saying they expect to conduct raids.

What, NO VIOLENCE or DRUG-DEALING GANGS for the L.A. COPS to BEAT, 'er, LOOT, 'er, you know what I mean!!!

UN-FLIPPIN-REAL!

That buzz wore off quick because now I'm angry!!!!

Their efforts are widely seen as a campaign to sway the City Council into adopting strict regulations after two years of debate. It appears to be working.... The new proposal calls for dispensaries to have renewable permits, submit to criminal record checks, register the names of members with the police, and operate on a nonprofit basis.

But WAR LOOTERS and BANKSTERS -- no problem!!!

I SMELL L.A. TRYANNY!!!!!

If enacted, it is likely to result in the closing of hundreds of marijuana dispensaries.

Yeah, F*** what CALIFORNIA VOTERS WANT and WHAT SICK PEOPLE NEED!

Because the STATE ain't MAKING a BUCK of it!!!

Then LEGALIZE and ADD a TAX like BOOZE and CIGARETTES!

Or PROHIBIT THEM!! I'm ALL FOR THAT!!!

NO MORE BOOZE and CIGARETTES?!!

We'll have a REVOLUTION on our HANDS!!!!!

American people don't care about blood, death, and looting, but TAKE AWAY THEIR BOOZIE and SMOKIE and ARRRRGHH!!!

Carmen A. Trutanich, the newly elected city attorney, argued that state law permits the exchange of marijuana between growers and patients on a nonprofit and noncash-basis only.

And HOW MUCH do they OVERLOOK all over the place with their LOBBYIST KICKBACKS and SELF-SERVING STOCK INTERESTS!!

This is an OUTRAGE!!!

Good think pot-smokers are sleepy souls who don't get angry because they don't know what is going on!!!

Marijuana advocates say that interpretation would regulate dispensaries out of existence and thwart the will of voters who approved medical cannabis in 1996.

That was 13 YEARS AGO and they are STILL FIGHTING the SAME BATTLE?!!

What is it about democracy that these groups don’t understand?’’

Yeah, I THINK YOU SAID IT!!!

Whatever happens will be closely watched by law enforcement officials and marijuana advocates across the country who are threading their way through federal laws that still treat marijuana as an illegal drug and state laws that are increasingly allowing medicinal use. Thirteen states have laws supporting medical marijuana, and others are considering new legislation.

Ever hear of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the Constitution?

Go give 'em a read, and then see if you can find the word "marijuana" in the Constitution.

Woah, that thing is on fire here in AmeriKa, and it wasn't me!

No state has gone further than California, often described by drug enforcement agents as a “source nation’’ because of the vast quantities of marijuana grown here.

Oh, so California is NOW IT'S OWN NATION, huh?

Not PART of the UNITED STATES? What, they secede or something?

You threaten to do that in some parts of this nation and, well, you know....

So the FEDS are SMOKING DOPE? They DON'T KNOW California is a STATE?

And no city in the state has gone further than Los Angeles. This has alarmed local officials, who say dispensary owners in California took unfair advantage of vague state laws....

Yeah, but IF YOU PAD YOUR OWN POCKET and are some influence-peddling politician, then no problem!!!

Don Duncan, spokesman for Americans for Safe Access, a leader in the medical marijuana movement, said over-the-counter cash purchases should be permitted but dispensaries should be nonprofit organizations. He said marijuana collectives needed more regulation and called for a “thinning of the herd.’’

That's SCARY TALK! I guess I must be "paranoid" 'cause of the weed, huh?

--more--"

I can't move, readers.

California Crop

"US marijuana cuts into traffickers’ profits" by Steve Fainaru, Washington Post | October 11, 2009

ARCATA, Calif. - Stiff competition from thousands of mom-and-pop marijuana farmers in the United States threatens the bottom line for powerful Mexican drug organizations in a way that decades of arrests and seizures have not, according to law enforcement officials and pot growers in the United States and Mexico.

This is such agenda-pushing garbage!

Oh, right, Washington Post is the CIA 's newspaper!

Why do you want to KILL the NEW ECONOMY, WaPo?

Mom-and-pop honing in on YOUR TURF, huh?

Illicit pot production in the United States has been increasing steadily for decades. But recent changes in state laws that allow the use and cultivation of marijuana for medical purposes are giving US growers a competitive advantage, challenging the traditional dominance of the Mexican traffickers, who once made brands such as Acapulco Gold the standard for quality.

I guess that's why they are lighting their own fields on fire, huh?

After a while, even if you were stoned you can still smell the MSM lies over that pungent stink!

Almost all of the marijuana consumed in the United States once came from Mexico or Colombia. Now as much as half is produced domestically, often by small-scale operators who painstakingly tend greenhouses and indoor gardens to produce the more potent, and expensive, product, according to authorities and marijuana dealers on both sides of the border.

Translation: The AUTHORITIES and the DEALERS are ONE in the SAME!

The shifting economics of the marijuana trade have broad implications for Mexico’s war against the drug cartels, suggesting that market forces, as much as law enforcement, can extract a heavy price from criminal organizations that have used the spectacular profits generated by pot sales to fuel the violence and corruption that plague Mexico.

It's the LEAST PROFITABLE ONE to MOVE!

It's BULKY, it STINKS.

They THINK WE ARE IDIOTS OUT HERE!

Meanwhile, some ****** kid can make ecstasy in his bathtub!

And WHEN was the last time you heard about Mexico, eh?

While the trafficking of cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine is the main focus of US law enforcement, marijuana has long provided most of the revenue for Mexican drug cartels. More than 60 percent of the cartels’ revenue - $8.6 billion out of $13.8 billion in 2006 - came from US marijuana sales, according to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Well, since the CIA is working with them I guess they would know.

Now, to stay competitive, Mexican traffickers are changing their business model to improve their product and streamline delivery. Well-organized Mexican cartels have also moved to increasingly cultivate marijuana on public lands in the United States, according to the National Drug Intelligence Center and local authorities. This strategy gives the Mexicans direct access to US markets, avoids the risk of seizure at the border, and reduces transportation costs.

So WHAT are the PARK RANGERS, DEA AGENTS, and ALL the OTHER SPY TOOLS doing?

Just KEEPING an EYE on the CROP, huh -- when the Mexicans aren't burning them down!!

The government thinks we are all stoned in one form or fashion, and the MSM farts in our faces thinking we can't smell it if they expect us to BELIEVE SUCH LIES!

Unlike cocaine, which the traffickers must buy and transport from South America, driving up costs, marijuana has been especially lucrative for the cartels because they control the business all the way from clandestine fields in the Mexican mountains to the wholesale dealers in US cities such as Washington. “It’s pure profit,’’ said Jorge Chabat, an expert on the drug trade at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics in Mexico City.

And WE KNOW WHO is drawing in the dough!

The exact dimensions of the US marijuana market are unknown....

You read so many articles that have bullshit qualifiers in them like this.

The smell isn't the weed, it's the paper.

Mexico produced 35 million pounds of marijuana last year, according to government estimates. On a hidden hilltop field in Mexico’s Sinaloa state, a pound of pot might earn a farmer $25. The wholesale price for the same pound in Phoenix is $550, and so the Mexican cartels could be selling $20 billion worth of marijuana in the US market each year.

“Marijuana created the drug trafficking organizations you see today. The founding families of the cartels got their start with pot. And marijuana remains a highly profitable business they will fight to protect,’’ said Luis Astorga, a leading authority on the drug cartels at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Yup, SOMEHOW EVERYONE KNOWS ALL ABOUT IT and NOTHING IS DONE, huh? I guess the FBI, et al, is TOO BUSY SETTING UP FAKE TERRORIST PLOTS, huh?

Led by California, 13 US states now permit some use of marijuana. In many cities, marijuana is one of the lowest priorities for police.

AS IT SHOULD BE (but not in Mass)!

To some authorities, the new laws are essentially licenses to grow money.

Sort of like the SELF-GENERATING PROFITS made of STOCK-TRADING, right?

Why aren't you OUT THERE DEALING WITH THAT!

Remember, readers, we are TALKING SICK PEOPLE HERE!!!!

With a $100 investment in enriched soil and nutrients, almost anyone can cultivate a plant that will produce two pounds of marijuana that can sell for $9,000 in hundreds of medical marijuana clubs or on the street, according to growers.

Yeah, they inflate the numbers at the end to justify all the warring.

High-end marijuana grown under such special conditions often fetches 10 times the price of poor-quality Mexican pot.

WAIT a MINUTE!!

It's POOR QUALITY POT but they MAKE MUCH DINERO?

Oh, the STINK of the MSM SHIT is overwhelming the ganja!

--more--"

I need some air. Feeling light-headed. Must have been the s***-Mexican weed.

And again, my local carries, Globe ignores in print, and yet the Glob provides the link? What are they smoking over there?

Rocky Mountain High

"Marijuana clinic staged near Montana cop shop" by Matt Gouras, Associated Press Writer | October 23, 2009

GREAT FALLS, Mont. --Jason Christ lit a bowl of homegrown marijuana outside the Great Falls Civic Center, not worried that the police station was right around the corner.

Christ was taking a break Friday from teaching hundreds of people inside the center how to get state-issued medical marijuana cards. It was one of the many pot clinics he has held throughout Montana as founder of the Montana Caregivers Network aimed at easing fears and letting people know medical use of marijuana is legal.

"They need to know that," said Christ, who suffers from chronic pain. "No one knows the law, no one knows what it is. We help with that."

Everything about the event was meant to make marijuana users feel at ease. Songs by Bob Marley, Creedence Clearwater Revival and other rock favorites played on a boom box, and two marijuana plants stood at the entrance of the reserved room down the hall from the city clerk's office. There was even a doctor to help people certify they have a medical condition, and some attendees were schooled about growing pot for themselves or others and becoming a state-sanctioned caregiver.

I can see why the Globe missed this one. If it's not illegals, gays, global-warmers, or an agenda-pushing, controlled opposition outfit, protests are not any fun.

For those with certain debilitating medical conditions such as cancer, glaucoma, AIDS, severe muscle spasms or chronic pain, such clinics are their ticket to legally obtaining pot. And the demand is high. Clinics held by Christ in different cities almost every week are sold out a month in advance, he said. In Great Falls, the only walk-ins accepted were people with a terminal disease. Christ began his one-stop clinics a few months ago after seeing that many people were too intimidated to figure out the law or find a doctor to certify a medical condition.

Interest in medical marijuana cards has spiked in Montana, in part due to such clinics, according to the Department of Public Health and Human Services, the agency that issues the pot cards. The number of permit-holders has almost quadrupled since the start of the year. About 4,500 people now hold the cards, and there are 1,429 registered caregivers statewide. Christ is a caregiver, meaning he can legally possess up to an ounce of pot for each of his six patients and one for himself. He can also grow as many as six plants for each patient and six for himself.

Wow, GOOD AIR out in MONTANA!

A person holding just a pot user permit is restricted to having six plants and one ounce of smokeable marijuana at any given time. On Friday, Christ carried four ounces of pot in his backpack. The clinic was held just a few days after the Obama administration loosened guidelines on federal prosecution of medical marijuana cases....

Did he STOP the RAIDS?

Montana is one of 14 states that allow some use of marijuana for medical purposes. The others are Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

But, but, where's Massachusetts?

Where is liberal, tolerant, compassionate, same-sex marriage Massachusetts?

Missed the boat on that one, huh?

In Montana, it was a popular idea with voters -- easily passing as a ballot initiative in 2004 after the Legislature rejected the notion.

You see? YOU CAN'T DEPEND on POLITICIANS for ANYTHING no matter where they are from!

Even though it's legal, there is still a stigma attached to smoking pot.

And WHY WOULD THAT BE, MSM?

And watching someone pull out a bag in broad daylight on busy Central Avenue in Great Falls makes a person start looking over their shoulder.

If you are an obedient fascist, yeah.

The Montana Caregivers Network has been asked by some convention centers where clinics were held to not bother coming back. At Friday's clinic, the onsite doctor and most of those in attendance didn't want their names used.

Think of them as anonymous sources agreeing only to speak on condition of confidentiality, MSM.

Some worried their parole officer would hassle them or the Department of Veterans Affairs would take issue. They also didn't want to reveal they have a bunch of marijuana plants growing at their house.

Why?

The paper talks to illegal immigrants all the time, and they are never reported.

Not everyone was afraid of coming out publicly. Rob Mathews sees the situation as an inevitable step toward society fully recognizing the benefits of marijuana.

I want to marry a pot plant, how is that?

He believes, like many, that a taxed and regulated marijuana trade would fill government coffers and end much of the illegal drug trade.

And since ILLEGAL DRUGS PROP UP BANK PROFITS, that won't be happening -- in addition to all the chemical and pharmaceutical companies that would be out of business.

"They just need to legalize it, man. It's time," he said, adding he suffers from chronic pain. "They just need to do it and be done with it."

Yeah, we NEED the TAX LOOT!

--more--"

And about as far away from there as you can be in the U.S.

Downtown D.C.

"US issues new policy on medical marijuana" by Devlin Barrett, Associated Press | October 19, 2009

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws, under new policy guidelines to be sent to federal prosecutors today.

Two Justice Department officials described the new policy to the Associated Press, saying prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state laws. The new policy is a significant departure from the Bush administration, which insisted it would continue to enforce federal antipot laws regardless of state codes....

Yes, PLEASE REMEMBER we are TALKING SICK PEOPLE here!!!

That SEEMS to get LOST in the "debate," huh?

At the same time, the officials said, the government will still prosecute those who use medical marijuana as a cover for other illegal activity. The memo particularly warns that some suspects may hide drug dealing or other crimes behind a medical marijuana business....

Oh, like a CIA FRONT COMPANY providing NON-OFFICIAL COVER?!!!

Related: U.S. Government Brings Drug War to U.S. Cities

Oh, that is why they are crawling all over the place and setting up shop here, huh?

Being threatened by Mom and Pop?


--more--"

(Yawn)


Napping In New Hampshire

That's usually what happened after smoking, from what I remember.

"Medical marijuana bill fails in New Hampshire" by Norma Love, Associated Press | October 29, 2009

And I thought you guys were libertarians up there!

You had a chance to be better than us and you blew it!

CONCORD, N.H. - New Hampshire fell two votes short yesterday of becoming the 14th state to legalize marijuana use by severely ill people after the state Senate failed to override Governor John Lynch’s veto....

Lynch cited concerns over cultivation, distribution, and the potential for abuse. He also said the bill did not clearly restrict marijuana use to people with severe pain, seizures, or nausea. The bill would have established three nonprofit “compassion centers’’ to dispense 2 ounces of marijuana every 10 days to severely ill patients whose doctors approve the drug’s use. The state would have licensed the centers and issued identification cards to their staff, approved patients, and care- givers.

Doesn't matter what government you have. They are all the same.

Supporters said that the bill would provide relief to people with chronic or terminal illnesses.

“This is a bill about compassion. It is about using a drug that is relatively safe,’’ said Senator Peggy Gilmour, Democrat of Hollis. “It is up to 16 of us to look at those who suffer and say, ‘I understand and I will help.’ ’’

Unlike that PHARMACEUTICAL PRESCRIPTION they keep PUSHING on your kids!

Opponents said the bill would invite abuse. “This is a terrible message to send to our children,’’ said Senator Robert Letourneau, Republican of Derry.

I told you they would bring that up.

Add it to the list of 10 million bad messages they get every day.

Critics in the House contended that a provision prohibiting workplace discrimination against users created a public safety issue for firefighters, police, and others.

Oh, so NOW DISCRIMINATION is NO BIG DEAL!!!

Tell it to gay crowd, hanh!!!!!!????

“We should err on the side of caution,’’ said Representative Shawn Jasper, Republican of Hudson.

How about RESPECTING the PEOPLE'S WILL!!!!!!

After the vote, the bill’s prime sponsor, Representative Evalyn Merrick, said she will refile the bill for the 2011 legislative session after next year’s election, which will change the makeup of both chambers.... Lynch, who is expected to run for reelection, reiterated his opposition last week after US Attorney John Kacavas said he would not prosecute people using small amounts for pain or to improve their appetite. Kacavas said his office would focus on drug dealers.

Yeah, AS THEY SHOULD BE!!!

--more--"

And what do you know?

I NEVER LEFT the COUCH at HOME!

(Ding-dong! Uh-oh!! Whose that?!!

Blog editor scurries around with air spray from bathroom)