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Newest Blog Entries:
NYT (6): National News
"STATES RIGHTS" ARE BACK IN A BIG WAY; Vanishing Internet privacy; Poorest in PA socked with huge insurance rate increase; Violence may lead to new policies re medical marijuana; Monserrate soundly defeated - but may run for Assembly (!); and NYC eateries must post cleanliness grades.Posted by Ian Alterman, Wednesday, March 17, 2010
NYT (5): International Affairs
A vicious murder of U.S. citizens in Mexico; The Israel-U.S. kerfuffle growing into major incident; Sarkozy's center-right party losing to Socialists in regional elections; Thai protesters are restive, shut down parts of Bangkok; and a "War of the Worlds" moment in Georgia.Posted by Ian Alterman, Tuesday, March 16, 2010
How the war on drugs gave rise to a permanent American undercaste
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Wednesday, March 10, 2010NYT Editorial & Op-Eds (6)
"Attacking lawyers who take on controversial causes makes it harder for unpopular people to get representation — and weakens all Americans’ constitutional rights" (Editorial); "The financial crisis in Ireland offers clues about our own, and about how to prevent another one" (Krugman); "As the varieties of religious experience in America multiply, will true faith suffer?" (Douthat); "There’s no case for giving a cost-of-living adjustment to Social Security recipients on either equity or stimulus grounds" (Guest Op-Ed); "Congress should scrap a plan to grant biologic drugs 12 years of protection from generic competitors" (Guest Op-Ed); "President Obama should focus high-speed rail investment on Acela" (Guest Op-Ed)Posted by Ian Alterman, Monday, March 8, 2010
Gary Greenberg: “Manufacturing Depression – The Secret History of a Modern Disease”
Democracy NowPosted by Mike Blaxill, Tuesday, March 2, 2010
NYT Op-Eds (2)
Bob Herbert on Paterson's possible cluelessness ("Now that the bottom has fallen out of Gov. David Paterson’s election bid, the question remains: Is he still suited to be governor?); Charles Blow on "Precious," Tyler Perry, and racial stereotyping ("Recent data do not support the ubiquity of black crack-mom characters in the movies").Posted by Ian Alterman, Saturday, February 27, 2010
AlterNet: Why Growing Numbers of Baby Boomers and the Elderly Are Smoking Pot
Posted by Michael Butler, Friday, February 26, 2010NYT (6): National News
PATERSON WITHDRAWS FROM GOVERNOR'S RACE; House admonishes Rangel for gifts; Labor-green alliance to clear air at ports; Wal-Mart adds new seriously green policy; Mexican drug kingpin gets 25 years after "secret" trial; and a ridiculous, bizarre nutrition policy is approved for NYC school fundraisers.Posted by Ian Alterman, Friday, February 26, 2010
AlterNet: The GOP Should Look in the Mirror When Talking About Obama’s Drug Use
Posted by Michael Butler, Sunday, February 21, 2010David Sirota: Rogues Gone Wild
this is flying below the radar ..Recall that one year ago, Obama instructed the DEA to follow his campaign pledge and respect local statutes legalizing medicinal marijuana. When the DEA kept raiding pot dispensaries in states that had passed such laws, Attorney General Eric Holder reiterated the cease and desist decree, stating that "What (Obama) said during the campaign is now American policy." As even more raids nonetheless continued, the Justice Department then issued an explicit memo ordering federal agents to refrain from prosecuting those who are in "compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana." And yet the DEA has recently intensified its crackdown... read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Sunday, February 21, 2010
The Winter of America’s Discontent
Posted by Michael Butler, Monday, February 8, 2010AlterNet: Obama Wants More Money for the Failed Drug War?
Posted by Michael Butler, Sunday, February 7, 2010Greg Grandin: Muscling Latin America
Grandin in The Nation ...Responding to criticism from South America on the Colombian [military base] deal, the White House insists it merely formalizes existing military cooperation between the two countries under Plan Colombia and will not increase the offensive capabilities of the US Southern Command. The Pentagon says otherwise, writing in its 2009 budget request that it needed funds to upgrade one of the bases to conduct "full spectrum operations throughout South America" to counter, among other threats, "anti-U.S. governments" and to "expand expeditionary warfare capability." That ominous language, since scrubbed from the budget document, might be a case of hyping the threat to justify spending during austere times. But the Obama administration's decision to go forward with the bases does accelerate a dangerous trend in US hemispheric policy... read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Saturday, February 6, 2010
“In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts”: Dr. Gabor Maté, Physician at Vancouver Safe-Injection Site, on the Biological and Socio-Economic Roots of Addiction and ADD
This guy Mate is amazing .. Democracy NowPosted by Mike Blaxill, Thursday, February 4, 2010
AlterNet: Michael Douglas’s Son Faces More Time Than a Murderer or a Rapist for a Nonviolent Drug Charge
This lad, like so many others, needs rehab not incarceration. mbPosted by Michael Butler, Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Foreign Policy Magazine (6)
Obama's "Carter Syndrome"; Lies of the Mexican drug war; China's economic future re-evaluated; Reports from "fake" countries; The future of nuclear weapons; And just how successful is political Islamism?Posted by Ian Alterman, Monday, February 1, 2010
Afghanistan’s corruption poses dilemma for US military
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Sunday, January 31, 2010NYT (8): National News
ACORN-BASHING JOURNALIST AND FRIENDS ARRESTED IN WATERGATE-STYLE FELONY AGAINST SEN. LANDRIEU; As advocates of climate bill "scale down" goals in wake of new populism, courts emerge as battlefield over climate change; IRS to go after corporate tax shelters; In a huge step backward, LA City council to force most marijuana dispensaries to close; In face of Congressional rejection, Obama will create debt panel by executive order; and as Gillibrand finds her voice and lashes out at Ford (nicely, I might add), a newcomer takes on Carolyn Maloney.Posted by Ian Alterman, Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Is Pot a Cancer Cure?
Bruce Mirken in TruthOut ...In his 1971 State of the Union speech, President Richard Nixon declared war on cancer ... four years later, scientists from the National Cancer Institute published a study demonstrating that a group of compounds taken from a common, widely cultivated plant shrank lung tumors that had been implanted in mice, extending their survival. In a world that made sense, this plant and the anticancer drugs it produced would have been rushed into further testing .. Instead, research proceeded at a glacial pace ... What got in the way was Nixon's other war, the "war on drugs." The plant in question was cannabis sativa -- marijuana -- public enemy number one in that other war.. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Tuesday, January 26, 2010
The overuse of antibiotics in livestock feed is killing us
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Tuesday, January 26, 2010Marijuana in the Classroom? Sometimes It’s Legal
Brad Knickerbocker in the Christian Science Monitor ...doctors have become more inclined to prescribe marijuana (as an alternative to Ritalin) for children diagnosed with ADHD. It’s a controversial trend among medical practitioners. “It’s safer than aspirin,” Dr. Jean Talleyrand told the New York Times. Dr. Talleyrand is a marijuana advocate who founded a network of 20 clinics in Oakland, Calif. which dispense medical marijuana – including to teenagers diagnosed with ADHDjust goes to show you can pretty much prescribe anything for anything .. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Sunday, January 24, 2010
NYT (4): National News
In wake of possible G.O.P. win in MA, Dems look to push through health bill before change-over; Fed not taking Obama lead on medical marijuana research; DiBlasio takes on Bloomberg over homeless situation; and a new book by uber-economist Joseph Stiglitz is not kind to Obama.Posted by Ian Alterman, Tuesday, January 19, 2010
NYT (7): National News
Obama will stump for Coakley, as it becomes clear her loss will mean end of health care bill; As expected, Obama gives temporary protections to illegal Haitian-Americans; In wake of Prop 8 case, SC to rule on privacy for signers of referendum petitions; For some churches, environment is more important than tax write-offs; and even as Johnson & Johnson widens recall on some drugs, it is accused of paying kickbacks on others.Posted by Ian Alterman, Saturday, January 16, 2010
NYT Editorial & Op-Eds (4)
The Times strongly supports medical marijuana ("The legalization of medical marijuana in New Jersey is a welcome show of compassion for the chronically ill and should become a model for other states"); Questions for the "Big Bankers" ("Financial experts offer questions that they would like the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to ask"); Tom Friedman on the Enron/China comparison ("Two notes of caution for anyone who is thinking about betting on China’s boom going bust"); and Maureen Dowd on Jeff Zucker and the Peter Principle ("How does the president of NBC keep rising while the fortunes of the network keep falling?").Posted by Ian Alterman, Wednesday, January 13, 2010
NYT (8): National News
NJ approves medical marijuana; Prop 8 trial opens on "personal" note, as Supreme Court bars webcasts; White House still meddling in U.S. Senate race in NYS; Financial Crisis Commission begins its inquiry; Detroit Auto Show features energy savers; McGwire finally admits to steroid use; and Palin will become paid talking head on Fox.Posted by Ian Alterman, Tuesday, January 12, 2010
