Emery says he did it all for the movement, not for profit.He claims to have funneled more than $3 million to marches, candidates, lawsuits and ballot drives over a decade. He says he paid taxes and kept very little. He lives modestly in his fiancee's apartment. He doesn't own a car or a house, investments or fancy jewelry, he says. [...] "I'm interested in whatever would legalize pot fastest," he says. "Part of me believes that going to jail will accelerate that process. And part of me believes that if I die in jail it will accelerate it even faster." [...]
"I'm very interested to see what happens to me, because I think I am a person of destiny," he says, with no trace of modesty. "I haven't been fearful since the moment I was arrested. I just felt my time has finally come. [...]
"I've already got this grand-scale epic going in my head. I am out to destroy the DEA and defeat them. And they are out to destroy me."
They're trying to destroy us too for trying to bring common sense policy that would put them out of business to the table. Leaving the inexcusable waste of tax dollars aside, when the long arm of US drug law insanity can reach over borders to create a crime in order to silence political opponents, it's everyone's problem.
Ironically, this could backfire on the DEA. They want to silence his message so they give the man a microphone? What are they thinking? Marc is a made for MSM defendant. Despite the horribly unflattering photo MSNBC managed to dig up, the camera loves him. He could galvanize the US reform movement with this case because he's so honest about his intentions and he's charismatic. He's never off message and even in that compromising shot, he looks respectable.
He'll get more exposure with this case than he ever could have afforded to buy and it will be hard for our government to paint him as a raging lunatic drug lord. I think Marc is right. His personal misfortune is the reform movement's gain.
Students for Sensible Drug Policy are working overtime to bring exciting new developments to the forefront of drug policy reform. Kris Krane, formerly with NORML, and who recently came on board as SSDP’s new executive director will be debating the issue of marijuana legalization with former Drug Enforcement Administration official Bob Stutman this Monday at the University of Central Florida. It's rare to find a prohibitionist willing to defend the practice in a debate. This should be a hot ticket event. Wish I could get away to attend it.
SSDP students have also been busy campaigning to make marijuana penalties similar to alcohol penalties by running “SAFER” initiatives on campus, with the latest campaign being waged at The University of Maryland. One looks forward to seeing UofM join the other progressive institutions that have already passed initiatives, making sure students are not punished more severely for marijuana offenses than they are for alcohol violations.
A high school chapter of SSDP meanwhile, raised awareness about random drug testing in high schools with a demonstration in Chicago. Wearing sandwich boards with signs saying “Got Pee? Oppose Suspicionless Student Drug Testing!” students walked up and down the streets in the blistering cold to spread the message to Chicago’s citizens and tourists that drug testing hurts schools and students and destroys trust between students and their teachers.
And speaking of this outrageous practice of warantless peeking at teen's pee, our guy Tom Angell has been representing the voice of sanity at the drug czar's national drug testing summits. John Walters has been trotting his dog and pony show all over the country (on the taxpayer's dime) to shill for his corrupt cronies in the drug testing kit industry. Tom has been holding their feet to the fire, boldly confronting their lies with on the scene proof that makes the prohibs look like the self-serving idiots they are.
I lived in Winsted for a couple of years in the late 60s. It was a very hippie town in those days. It's an old New England mill town with a really long Main Street. There were three gas stations on the main drag and they used to get into price wars. I remember paying 13 cents a gallon. In those days we used to drive around the countryside -- it was so undeveloped then -- and try to get lost. We often succeeded.
Overall it was kind of an ugly place but it had a beautiful green on one end and it had a nice little lake a few blocks outside of town. I lived on the lake in a couple of different cottages, as did many of my friends but eventually most of us ended up on Main Street. We took over an apartment building, ironically called the White House. It was across the street from the green and next door to a tiny Dairy Queen. What could be more perfect for a stoned flower child?
The drugs I took there I couldn't begin to count. I doubt I spent a single minute straight in that house but boy did I have some visions. I did a lot of psychedelics in those days.
The heads and the townies didn't mingle much but we co-existed peacefully. The townies would drive their hopped up Trans Ams, and 'Stangs and GTOs up and down Main Street all day and night long, while the hippies took over the green, lounging on the lawns around the fountain, dropping acid and smoking pot and having existential conversations.
Ah, those were golden days. Hiking in the People's Forest. Skinny dipping in the Barkhamstead Reservoir. And music. There was music everywhere and everybody had a band or at least a guitar. There was one band, I can't quite remember their name but I loved them and went to all their gigs. And they loved me. Every time I arrived they would launch into Little Queenie. It was "our" song.
Five months after Christopher Seekins was arrested and charged with cultivating marijuana in his home, neighbors have complained about the giant marijuana leaves he has spray-painted on the outside of his home on High Street.
"There’s no reason anybody should have a problem with it," Seekins said Wednesday.
He's not violating any zoning laws and you get arrested for pictures of pot -- yet -- so town officials say the giant leaves can stay.
Seekins says the large leaves are in support of the cause of the legalization of marijuana. He believes firmly in the usefulness of hemp, the coarse fiber of the cannabis plant, from textiles to paper products.
I don't know, I think the graffiti is little too "in your face" to be productive but don't you love that the kid lives on High Street?
I've reached the limits of my outrage tolerance too early today and I just can't face the drug war news so you're getting flower blogging instead. Raking the yard has taken on a new urgency now that the wildflowers started blooming in the yard. I have to do it myself now because I'm the only idiot I know that will spend an extra six hours raking around the flowers. The violets are tough. You can rake right over them without damaging them much.
The bluets are the other hand are a lot less forgiving. I couldn't get a clear shot of these because it was so windy and they're so tiny. They don't call them quaking ladies for nothing. I've dislodged a few but so far I've managed to rake around them because there's not that many yet. I'm hoping to to get it done before they really get going. Last year they covered the yard so much it looked like snow.
The trout lilies are downright fragile. I hand pick the leaves from the periphery around them. It hardly seems worth effort because they're not that long lived but I really like them. They remind of living on the farm. The woods were always full of them and they were so cheering after the long New England winters.
I don't have much hope I'll get the raking done before they're gone past though. I have yet another new system to avoid putting out my back and or reinflaming the rotator cuff injury that flared up again recently. I only work an hour an day on it and bag the leaves while I'm sitting on a lawn chair. I need to get a stool instead that's a little bit lower but it's working out okay so far. And long time readers who remember by new-found bug-o-phobia since I moved here will be suitably impressed that I forged on even when I noticed spiders crawling around in the middle of the pile.
I've about given on burning the leaves although I still have to collect the branches for a bonfire. I have a separate basket for that and I pick those up by hand. G-d knows what the neighbors must think. Hopefully, that I'm such a brave old girl for trying so hard to clean up the yard and not that I'm completely crazy for inventing such an elaborate method for getting it done.
Rob Smith, aka Acidman, is really sick and in the hospital being treated for peritonitis apparently caused by a perforated ulcer. The stubborn old cracker is lucky to be alive having ignored my excellent advice, and that of about 300 other people over the last week, to call a doctor right away. This after he had already suffered a week with the symptoms thinking it was a simple case of "traveler's sickness" from his Costa Rica trip.
In any event, having become rather fond of the cantankerous curmudgeon, I'm glad he got to the hospital in time, even though the Viking funeral he asked for sounded kind of cool. I've always thought I would like one of those myself ever since I saw that Kirk Douglas movie. But they apparently did immediate surgery and he's going to be all right. The only thing holding him back now is he can't pass gas.
Now this is a sublime irony. Acidman is a professional gas passer. The man blogs about farts at least once a week. He barely has a single story about his life that doesn't feature the foulest, loudest, gale force breaking of wind. To hear him tell it, he could launch ships and level barns on a good day. And yet he's stuck in a hospital bed because he can't manage even a wimpy little gut rumble.
So to help the guy out, I'm organizing a food drive to send him a a case of this stuff. It comes with a guarantee to generate a legendary blast able to clear tall buildings with a single sound.
I don’t remember that specific one myself but it's just like ones readers of a certain age will remember sitting through in the classroom. The narrator is the same guy who narrated the fractured fairy tales on the Bullwinkle and Rocky show. I always loved his voice.
Federal Prison Industries Inc. plans to greatly increase its sales of technology services to federal agencies both directly and by joining teams of other vendors over the next two years, according to the Bureau of Prisons.
Who is the Federal Prison Industries Inc., you ask? According to this site it's a large and diverse corporation.
Some businesses benefit from captive audiences; this company benefits from captive employees. Federal Prison Industries (FPI), known by its trade name UNICOR, uses prisoners to make products and provide services, mainly for the US government. More than 19,300 inmates (about 13% of the total eligible inmate population) are employed in more than 100 FPI factories at 71 prisons. UNICOR, which is part of the Justice Department's Bureau of Prisons, manufactures products such as office furniture, clothing, beds and linens, electronics equipment, and eyewear. It also offers services including data entry, bulk mailing, laundry services, printing, recycling, and refurbishing vehicle components.
UNICOR is an indispensable component of the Federal Prison System and maintains first priority for production of supplies to the federal government. Products manufactured by UNICOR for DSCP are listed in their "Schedule of Products". Any new product line to be manufactured by UNICOR is listed in the Commerce Business Daily prior to production. For a copy of their catalog call 800-827-3168. When UNICOR lacks production capacity authorization is granted for DSCP to acquire products from the commercial sector.
It's fiscal year-end September 2004 sales (mil.) were $879.4, with 1-Year sales Growth of 21.8%. Net Income was (mil.) $63.6. Maybe I'm missing something here. I'm told UNICOR is paying the inmates $.23 to $1.15 per hour for prison labor. Why is a government agency even bidding for contracts, much less turning a profit? Shouldn't they simply be providing needed goods to the government at cost? That would save the taxpayers some money. The added layer of bureaucracy to manage profits, costs us more in overhead and what's the point? The profits don't go back to the government, they go back solely to UNICOR.
As a result of Federal law enforcement efforts and new legislation that dramatically altered sentencing in the Federal criminal justice system, the 1980s brought a significant increase in the number of Federal inmates. The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 established determinate sentencing, abolished parole, and reduced good time; additionally, several mandatory minimum sentencing provisions were enacted in 1986, 1988, and 1990. From 1980 to 1989, the inmate population more than doubled, from just over 24,000 to almost 58,000. During the 1990s, the population more than doubled again, reaching approximately 136,000 at the end of 1999 as efforts to combat illegal drugs and illegal immigration contributed to significantly increased conviction rates.
Staffing levels also have risen dramatically in recent years. In 1980, the Bureau had approximately 10,000 employees. That number almost doubled in 10 years to just over 19,000 in 1990. As of June 2003, there were about 34,000 employees in the Bureau.
About half of the inmate/employees of UNICOR are in prison for drug charges. The BOP gets a lot more staff because there's more warm bodies to administer. Seeing a connection here to our government's incomprehensible insistence on pouring money into the War on Some Drugs' programs that do nothing to solve the problems of drug abuse? When common sense fails, money provides the answer. They don't want to solve it, they want to fight it -- forever.
Rice told Morales, "I'm a musician you know," and strummed the instrument, a typical Bolivian lacquered handicraft with five pairs of strings.
It was unclear whether she immediately realized what adorned it.
As you can see from the photo, it's inlaid with coca leaves, a rather ballsy move on Evo's part I thought, but in keeping with his position on the coca plant, that being, "Yes coca, no cocaine!" He's paying the price for standing on his principles. US anti-drug aid has been reduced to Boliva in response to his refusal to allow the US to foist off Plan Colombia style eradication campaigns on his people.
"We don't want the drug fight to be a political tool to defend geopolitical interests," Morales said last month. "We don't want a drug fight that is a pretext for the U.S. or other powers or governments ... to simply control (Bolivia's) government, blackmail or place conditions."
Meanwhile, it remains to be seen whether Condi will be able to get her present through US customs.
I missed last week, so I'm posting double this Sunday. The year of my first balloon flight in Glens Falls, I met legendary balloonist Tony Fairbanks at the rally. He brought this balloon La Coquette with him. He didn't fly it but they inflated it for the rally. It took all night to fill it with helium.
Tony was trying to put together an all girl team to take a gas balloon cross country. He invited me to join. I don't know if he ever did it. I was married with a young child and had to opt out. I still have the enameled pin he gave me though.
Colombia seized another submarine "that may have been used by drug traffickers to haul over 4 tons of cocaine for transshipment to the United States."
Adm. Barrera said the submarine brought drug shipments to the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where they would be received by speedboats bound for Central America, and then dispatched to the U.S. by land.
Of course they didn't find any actual drugs in this bust, but I feel certain our drug war warriors will claim they prevented 4 tons from reaching our shores.
LETLHAKANE - Shortage of paediatric rooms at Letlhakane Primary Hospital has caused congestion of children in the ward.
The health facility has one childrens ward that could only accommodate three patients, according to the hospitals Senior Medical Officer, Dr Daman Marijuana.
With the outbreak of diarrhoea, he said, more children were accommodated in the room thus causing overcrowding, which made it difficult to offer them the necessary care.
Heck, if he ever gives up medicine, with a name like that he could become a famous baseball player.
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The Navy’s last two squadrons of F-14 Tomcats are heading home, ending the final combat deployment of the Cold War-era fighter jet that flew into the danger zone with Tom Cruise in “Top Gun.” The Tomcats are to be replaced by F/A-18 Super Hornets later this year.
