Friday, September 3, 2010
LA sheriff says almost all pot clinics criminal
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County's sheriff has launched a war of words against California's medical marijuana dispensaries, saying almost all of the businesses operate as criminal enterprises.
Sheriff Lee Baca is claiming some pot shops get their marijuana from Mexican drug cartels and most are doling out pot to people who have no medical need for it.
Baca says up to 97 percent of clinics have been criminally compromised, though he produced no hard evidence to support his claim.
His comments coincide with an announcement that he would lead efforts against a November ballot measure to legalize marijuana for personal use. Critics say his claims are politically motivated and untrue.
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Can Legalizing Marijuana Save California, Our Republic?
Sheriff Lee Baca is claiming some pot shops get their marijuana from Mexican drug cartels and most are doling out pot to people who have no medical need for it.
Baca says up to 97 percent of clinics have been criminally compromised, though he produced no hard evidence to support his claim.
His comments coincide with an announcement that he would lead efforts against a November ballot measure to legalize marijuana for personal use. Critics say his claims are politically motivated and untrue.
RELATED ARTICLES:
Can Legalizing Marijuana Save California, Our Republic?
Christchurch devastated by 7.4 earthquake
Jarrod Booker
New Zealand Herald  |
| Photo by Colin Cross |
The quake was at a depth of 33km and was centred near Darfield, and has left large parts of the area without power, water or telephones.
Roads have been blocked by debris after the several buildings collapsed onto the streets, leaving their interiors visible and the central city resembling a war zone.
Large groups of onlookers have gathered to survey the damage and take pictures with their cameras and mobile phones.
Several large aftershocks have already struck the region, and wardens dressed in high-visibility gear are asking people to stay well clear of buildings because of the high risk of further collapses.
Traffic lights are still not working in several places around the central city, creating gridlock as the traffic flow increases.
Mayor's advice for people affected by the quake
Mayor Bob Parker has just warned residents to conserve water after fears the water infrastructure of Christchurch may have been affected by the 7.4 magnitude quake.
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No Safe Harbor on Gulf Coast; Human Blood Tests Show Dangerous Levels of Toxic Exposure
Huffington Post
Even as BP and US government officials continue to declare the oil spill over at Mississippi Canyon 252 and the cleanup operation an unqualified success, for the first time blood tests on sickened humans have shown signs of exposure to high levels of toxic chemicals related to crude oil and dispersants. Some of the individuals tested have not been on the beaches, were not involved in any cleanup operations or in the Gulf water -- they simply live along the Gulf Coast. Several of them are now leaving the area due to a combination of illness and economic hardship. As the media's attention has moved on and the public interest wanes, the suffering and hardship for people along the entire Gulf Coast of the United States from Louisiana to Florida continues to worsen. While BP and the government are scaling back cleanup operations and distancing themselves from legal liability for the environmental destruction, economic hardship, sickness and death resulting from the largest environmental disaster in our nation's history, the situation continues to deteriorate.
The use of the Corexit dispersant 9500 and the highly toxic 9527 by BP, with the approval and assistance of the US Coast Guard and EPA, has been the subject of intense scrutiny and criticism. Never before has such a huge quantity of the toxic compound been used anywhere on the planet. Most countries including NATO allies ban it's use and will only grant approval as a last resort after other methods have failed. Britain has banned its use altogether. The NOAA provided extensive information summarizing other nation's policies in regards to Corexit after Senator Barbara Mikulski demanded the information from EPA administrator Lisa Jackson during congressional hearings in July. While the dispersant serves to break down crude oil on the surface and thus makes the oil invisible from the air, it is highly toxic and bioaccumulates in the marine food chain. In humans it is a known carcinogen and its use was widely condemned after Exxon/Valdez and the horrifying health effects on the populations exposed to it there. As it evaporates and becomes airborne, the toxic compounds have moved on shore, creating health impacts that, although apparently large from the numbers of people affected, the full extent is unknown. BP and the US government have effectively been performing the largest chemical experiment in history on a civilian population without their knowledge or consent.
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Is "The Day After Tomorrow" Happening Today -- Ice Age Imminent?
Activist Post
In the movie The Day After Tomorrow
, the North Atlantic Current essentially shuts down, which prevents warm equatorial waters from reaching Northern Europe and Northeast United States. The result is an immediate climate shift into an Ice Age. For dramatic cinematic effect the Ice Age unfolds rapidly with a massive storm. Indeed, there is evidence that some Ice Ages in history did occur nearly overnight due to cataclysmic events like the oceans conveyor belts grinding to a halt -- animals and cavemen were frozen nearly in an instant.On August 29th, Lord Stirling issued a scary report warning that, "The North Atlantic Current is gone." We were hesitant to post the article before checking with sources to confirm its validity. After such research, many of the claims that Lord Stirling makes do indeed have some scientific evidence behind them. However, his claims that the North Atlantic Current is "gone," and that the cause is primarily the Gulf oil disaster and subsequent dispersant spraying, are slightly premature. Despite these assumptions, Stirling's report has enough supporting evidence to cause alarm:
Up to 90% of Gulf oysters dead in reef sample
Sun Herald
PASS CHRISTIAN — Officials from the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources took oyster fishermen out on the reefs off the Pass Christian Harbor on Wednesday to give them a preview of what to expect from the upcoming oyster season.
Catches resulting in an abundance of empty oyster shells led some fishermen to doubt the viability of the season, which typically begins in September or October.
“We’ve lost this season,” oyster dredger Loe Nguyen said.
Nguyen said he’s also a shrimper, but that shrimping season hasn’t been good, either, since the oil spill.
He said he had a negative feeling about the upcoming oyster season when DMR officials dredged for oysters and pulled up catches with about 80 to 90 percent of the oysters dead.
“It’s bad news for the oyster fishermen,” Nguyen said.
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Conspiracy Theories Spread Violence, Claim Government Propagandist
Demos member who authored report calling for conspiracy websites to be infiltrated in order to “increase trust in government” tries to belittle online backlash, but only serves to reinforce the fact that Demos is a PR firm for the British state
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
One of the authors of a report which called for the authorities to infiltrate conspiracy websites in a bid to “increase trust in the government” has responded to an online backlash by claiming conspiracy theories, and not the government, are responsible for spreading lies and distrust which ultimately lead to violence.
As we highlighted on Monday, a report published by the UK think tank Demos called The Power of Unreason encouraged the government to “fight back” against conspiracy theories by infiltrating websites in an effort to restore confidence in the state and discredit evidence of government complicity in the 7/7 and 9/11 terror attacks.
Appearing on a website for activists involved in the Liberal Democrat Party, one of the members of the new coalition government in Britain, an article by Demos’ Carl Miller attempts to diffuse criticism of the report by belittling the backlash as “an interesting micro-study” into how dangerous “conspiracy theories” have a harmful social influence.
Miller characterizes “conspiracy theories” as dangerous ideas that “demolish trust between government and communities”. He later claims that conspiracy theories spread, “lies, distrust, bigotry, intolerance and ultimately violence.”
The delicious irony about this is that Miller’s terms of reference do not fit the “conspiracy theory” mould whatsoever, and yet they characterize precisely the effect that government lies and propaganda, the type that Demos routinely helps transmit, have on society.
Read Full Article
Prison Planet
One of the authors of a report which called for the authorities to infiltrate conspiracy websites in a bid to “increase trust in the government” has responded to an online backlash by claiming conspiracy theories, and not the government, are responsible for spreading lies and distrust which ultimately lead to violence.
As we highlighted on Monday, a report published by the UK think tank Demos called The Power of Unreason encouraged the government to “fight back” against conspiracy theories by infiltrating websites in an effort to restore confidence in the state and discredit evidence of government complicity in the 7/7 and 9/11 terror attacks.
Appearing on a website for activists involved in the Liberal Democrat Party, one of the members of the new coalition government in Britain, an article by Demos’ Carl Miller attempts to diffuse criticism of the report by belittling the backlash as “an interesting micro-study” into how dangerous “conspiracy theories” have a harmful social influence.
Miller characterizes “conspiracy theories” as dangerous ideas that “demolish trust between government and communities”. He later claims that conspiracy theories spread, “lies, distrust, bigotry, intolerance and ultimately violence.”
The delicious irony about this is that Miller’s terms of reference do not fit the “conspiracy theory” mould whatsoever, and yet they characterize precisely the effect that government lies and propaganda, the type that Demos routinely helps transmit, have on society.
Read Full Article
Moving into Bonds: From Frying Pan to Fire
David Galland and Kevin Brekke
Casey Research
The other day, I came across an article that said, while individuals may be moving their money out of equities, they have been moving into bond funds – and in a big way.
It’s called jumping from the frying fan into the fire.
Based on my experience as a co-founder of a mutual fund group, I can tell you that if there is one sure thing in this world, it’s that when investors rush en masse into an investment category, it is invariably at almost exactly the wrong time to do so. Is that the case with today’s rush into bonds?
To shed some light on that point, Casey Research Switzerland-based editor Kevin Brekke volunteered to look into the correlation between bond flows and performance. Here’s his report…
Casey Research
It’s called jumping from the frying fan into the fire.
Based on my experience as a co-founder of a mutual fund group, I can tell you that if there is one sure thing in this world, it’s that when investors rush en masse into an investment category, it is invariably at almost exactly the wrong time to do so. Is that the case with today’s rush into bonds?
To shed some light on that point, Casey Research Switzerland-based editor Kevin Brekke volunteered to look into the correlation between bond flows and performance. Here’s his report…
Paying actual drug costs could plunge you and millions of others into poverty
Jonathan Benson
Published in the journal Public Library of Science Medicine (PLoS), the study evaluated the status of low- and middle-income people from 16 different countries to see how purchasing four popular branded drugs would affect their incomes and living statuses. These drugs included salbutamol, an inhaler used for asthma, glibenclamide, a diabetes drug, atenolol, a high blood pressure beta-blocker, and amoxicillin, an common antibiotic.
What's Killing the Babies of Kettleman City?
Maybe it's the toxic waste dump. Maybe the pesticides, or the diesel fumes, or the arsenic. How a small-town mystery could change the way we look at pollution.
 |
| Photo by Justin Maxon |
THE FIRST BABY'S NAME was America. She was born in September 2007, with Down syndrome, two heart murmurs, and part of her upper lip missing. She couldn't suck from a nipple, so her mother, Magdalena Romero, would stay up through the night to feed her with a special tube. America showed pleasure in music and delighted in being held by her four siblings. Magdalena thinks they felt a special tenderness for her because of her vulnerability.
Hospital officials told Magdalena that the baby wouldn't live a year, but she didn't want to believe it. Then, one morning when America was nearly five months old, her lips turned purple. Concluding that paramedics would consider a rescue futile, Magdalena drove the baby to the hospital herself and insisted that all efforts be made to save her. For a few days, America survived, tethered to machines. Then she died in her mother's arms.
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Photo Essay Here
IMF warns over UK debt in call for global fiscal reform
The International Monetary Fund has warned that long-term fiscal reforms will be required among advanced economies as it projected the UK's gross debt to gross domestic product would rise to 90.6pc in 2015.
Angela Monaghan
Telegraph
The Washington-based fund said that while some countries - including the UK - had made a start on the reform process, more action would be needed to address the "formidable challenge" of reducing debt ratios over the coming years.
It said the UK gross debt to GDP ratio would more than double by 2015 from 44.1pc in 2007. In the US it forecast a rise to 109.7pc from 62.1pc over the same period.
"Fiscal policy will need to react more strongly to debt than past behaviour would suggest, and governments will need to engage in reforms that place debt on a sustainable footing," the IMF said.
"In the last three and a half decades, public debt has been the shock absorber in advanced economies - going up in bad times and not coming down in good times."
It said in a report that the fiscal challenges facing advanced economies would require "growth-friendly structural reforms", involving gradual adjustment, stronger fiscal institutions, and spending and revenue reforms.
Read Full Article
Telegraph
The Washington-based fund said that while some countries - including the UK - had made a start on the reform process, more action would be needed to address the "formidable challenge" of reducing debt ratios over the coming years.
It said the UK gross debt to GDP ratio would more than double by 2015 from 44.1pc in 2007. In the US it forecast a rise to 109.7pc from 62.1pc over the same period.
"Fiscal policy will need to react more strongly to debt than past behaviour would suggest, and governments will need to engage in reforms that place debt on a sustainable footing," the IMF said.
"In the last three and a half decades, public debt has been the shock absorber in advanced economies - going up in bad times and not coming down in good times."
It said in a report that the fiscal challenges facing advanced economies would require "growth-friendly structural reforms", involving gradual adjustment, stronger fiscal institutions, and spending and revenue reforms.
Read Full Article
California Cops Taser Senior Citizen in His Own Home
Kurt Nimmo
Senior citizen Peter McFarland of Marin County, California, discovered this after he fell down the stairs outside his home last year. On June 29, 2009, McFarland tumbled down the stairs and after his wife called paramedics the cops showed up. They entered McFarland’s home and tasered him because they claimed he was suicidal.
“We want to take you to the hospital for an evaluation, you said if you had a gun, you’d shoot yourself in the head,” a deputy can be heard saying on a video of the incident captured on a taser mounted camera. McFarland said the comment was hyperbole made because he was in pain.
“Stand up, put your hands behind your back or you’re going to be tased,” the deputy commanded. McFarland refused, told the police in no uncertain terms to get out of his house, so the cop tased him not once, but three times, as his wife looked on in horror and pleaded with the cops to stop because her husband has a heart condition.
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Man Arrested For Holding"Impeach Obama" SignCOAST GUARD: Mile Long Oil Sheen From Latest Gulf Rig Explosion
Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS – Unlike the blast that led to the massive BP spill, the latest oil platform fire in the Gulf of Mexico killed no one and sent no crude gushing into the water.
The Mariner Energy-owned platform that erupted in flames Thursday was just 200 miles west of the spill site, but everything from the structures to the operations to the safety devices were different.
Yet when word of the latest mishap spread, residents along the coast could think only of the three-month spill that began after the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers.
"It's unbelievable," said Sophie Esch, 28, a Tulane graduate student from Berlin. "They should finally stop drilling in the Gulf. They should shut down all the drilling out there and not give permission to do any more. They've shown that it's just unsafe."
North Carolina governor suspends gun rights
Examiner
State of emergency order makes criminals of concealed handgun permit-holders, sport shooters and hunters.
[Raleigh] Yesterday, North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue signed Executive Order No. 62, declaring a State of Emergency in advance of Hurricane Earle. In doing so, Perdue suspended the right of state residents to use or carry firearms outside their premises.
At issue is N.C. General Statute 14-288.7, which prohibits transporting a “dangerous weapon” during a state of emergency:
§ 14 288.7. Transporting dangerous weapon or substance during emergency; possessing off premises; exceptions.
(a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, it is unlawful for any person to transport or possess off his own premises any dangerous weapon or substance in any area:
(1) In which a declared state of emergency exists;
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Unemployment rate rises for the first time in 4 months
WASHINGTON — The unemployment rate rose in August for the first time in four months as weak hiring by private employers wasn't enough to keep pace with a large increase in the number of people looking for work.
The Labor Department says companies added a net total 67,000 new jobs last month, down from July's upwardly revised total of 107,000. Wall Street analysts expected a smaller gain, according to Thomson Reuters.
Overall, the economy lost 54,000 jobs as 114,000 temporary census positions came to an end. State and local governments shed 10,000 positions. The jobless rate rose to 9.6 percent from 9.5 percent in July.
More than a half-million Americans resumed their job searches in August, which drove up the jobless rate. When the unemployed stop looking for work, they are no longer counted in the jobless rate.
The True Cost of the War
Prison Planet
Obama’s “end of Iraq war” speech must have shattered any remaining belief in him. Forced to appease both his supporters and the warmonger right-wing, who denounce him as a Muslim and a Marxist, Obama resorted to Orwellian DoubleSpeak. He could only announce an end to the war by praising the president who started it and the troops who fought it. Yet, as most earthlings, if not Americans, surely know by now, the war was based on a lie and on intentional deception. The American troops died for a lie.
President Obama spoke of the cost to Americans of liberating Iraq, but is Iraq liberated or is Iraq in the hands of American puppet politicians and still occupied by 50,000 American troops and 200,000 private mercenaries and “contractors,” governed out of the largest embassy in the world, essentially a fortress?
President Obama did not speak of the cost to Iraqis of being “liberated.” The uncounted Iraqi deaths, estimates of which range from 100,000 to 1,000,000, most being women and children, were not mentioned. Neither were the uncounted orphaned and maimed children, the four million displaced Iraqis, the flight from Iraq of the professional middle class, the homes, infrastructure, villages and towns destroyed, along with whatever remained of America’s reputation.
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Thursday, September 2, 2010
Fears grow over global food supply
Javier Blas in London, Courtney Weaver in Moscow and Simon Mundy in Johannesburg
The announcement by Vladimir Putin came as the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation called an emergency meeting to discuss the wheat shortage, and riots in Mozambique left seven dead.
The unrest in Maputo, in which 280 people were also injured, followed the government’s decision to raise bread prices by 30 per cent. Police opened fire on demonstrators after thousands turned out to protest against the price hikes, burning tyres and looting food warehouses.
Although agricultural officials and traders insist that wheat and other crop supplies are more abundant than in 2007-08, officials fear the deadly Mozambique riots could be replicated.
The 2007-08 food shortages, the most severe in 30 years, set off riots in countries from Bangladesh to Mexico, and helped to trigger the collapse of governments in Haiti and Madagascar.
Oil sheen spreading from Gulf platform explosion
Alan Sayre
Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS, La. – A mile-long oil sheen spread Thursday from an offshore petroleum platform burning in the Gulf of Mexico off Lousiana, west of the site of BP's massive spill.
Associated Press
Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Coklough said the sheen, about 100 feet wide, was spotted near the platform owned by Houston-based Mariner Energy Inc.
He said Mariner had deployed three firefighting vessels to the site and one already was in place fighting the blaze.
The Coast Guard says no one was killed in the explosion and fire, which was reported by a commercial helicopter flying over the site around 9 a.m. CDT. All 13 people aboard the rig were rescued as they floated in the nearby water in survival outfits called gumby suits.
The platform is in about 340 feet of water and about 100 miles south of Vermilion Bay on the central Louisiana coast. It's location is considered shallow water, much less than the approximately 5,000 feet where BP's well spewed oil and gas for three months after an April rig explosion.
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