Graham: Climate bill needs business

By JEANNE CUMMINGS

The energy reform bill to be released next week will include $54 billion in government-backed loan guarantees for the nuclear industry, roughly a threefold increase, as well as regulatory reforms to ease legal and permit issues that slow new plant construction, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Tuesday.

The measure will put a price on carbon emissions through penalties tailored to specific economic sectors, which is "far more business friendly" than a nationwide emissions cap-and-trade system that was in the energy bill passed by the House, Graham, a co-sponsor of the legislation, told POLITICO in an interview for the video series "The Green Divide."

The bill would also expand offshore drilling and — for the first time — permit states to share revenue from it, offer tax breaks for big manufacturers to make their facilities more energy efficient and encourage development of more hybrid automobiles and trucks fueled by natural gas.

Finally, the proposal would remove the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to regulate carbon, choking off an emerging debate between the White House and Congress.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0410/35968.html#ixzz0llL87DHA

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These financial blogs are worth your time

A guide to some of the best -- and often little-known -- websites to help manage your finances

by Kathy M. Kristof

After spending the bulk of my career writing solely for newspapers, I stepped into the blogosphere a year ago and discovered a whole new world of financial advice.

The World Wide Web is host to hundreds of financial bloggers, who provide everything from solid counsel to something of a support group for the budget-challenged.

The advice you get in the blogosphere is different from what you see in the newspaper for a variety of reasons. It's sometimes profane and often directed toward a single topic -- including such things as student debt or frugal living. And the bulk of bloggers base their advice on personal experience, rather than straight reporting.

You've got to be careful too, because some bloggers make money by promoting products.

That said, much of it is wonderful, helpful, encouraging and uniquely well-suited to the just-graduated set, who are still trying to get a toehold on their financial lives.

If you haven't stepped into the Web's wonderful world of money blogs, here's a guide to some of the best -- and often largely unknown -- sites.

Jesse Michelson is a 22-year-old computer programmer from Utah who writes a blog called the Personal Finance Firewall ( www.pffirewall.com). Recently out of college and helping support his wife through graduate school, Michelson recently wrote one of the clearest explanations you could find anywhere about how to use the government's income-based repayment plan to pay your student loans.

Trent Hamm, at www.thesimpledollar.com, grew up certain that the only thing to do with money was to spend it on something that gave you immediate gratification -- such as a video game or a giant television.

This led to his economic ruin and subsequent revival as a born-again budgeter. His financial Armageddon became a cautionary tale for his blog, showing where he went wrong and what he'd do differently.

Brad Chaffee, www.enemyofdebt.com, aims to promote financial responsibility and, not surprisingly, the importance of paying off debt.

Among his more engaging posts is "How I Lost $60 in Three Seconds," which explains why you ought to have an emergency fund -- even when you're broke.

The consistently delightful blog at www.budgetsaresexy.com is written by twentysomething J. Money (his pen name), who recently wrote a funny post about the intricacies of real estate pricing.

The short version: He hopes some "spendthrift" will pay an exorbitant price for his neighbor's home, which could save home values in the whole neighborhood.

I've become a Facebook fan of the Frugal Dad (http://frugaldad.com) for words of wisdom, such as "If you need the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit to afford a home, you can't afford a home."

The $8,000 will be gone in a flash, he says. But the mortgage will last 30 years. Even better is his recent post explaining the mental process you ought to go through before buying more stuff.

 

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-perfin18-2010apr18,0,5043864.column

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Cancellation signs at Paris airport today

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Times Square Ad: NYC Pot Busts

 

The NORML Foundation will debut its second-ever digital ad Tuesday, April 20, on the CBS Super Screen in New York Citys Times Square. The animated billboard advertisement highlights the dramatic increase in New York Citys rate of marijuana possession arrests, which increased from fewer than 1,000 annually in 1992 to more than 46,000 in 2009.

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Urge the Department of Education to Respect Medical Marijuana Rights

by  Andrew Marantz

As Matt Kelley wrote last week, and as any American with a pot prescription knows, marijuana laws in this country are far from cut and dry. Medical marijuana is legal in 14 states, but "legal" is defined differently from state to state, from county to county, and sometimes even from day to day. No matter what states say, marijuana is still illegal under federal law, and there is intense debate about whether state law can trump federal law in this case.

Case in point: Last year the University of Montana punished a disabled student for growing marijuana in his dorm room. Medical marijuana is legal in Montana, and the student had a state-issued card allowing him to grow pot for personal use, but the university insisted: no drugs on campus. Though they have not revised this policy, they have since allowed medical marijuana users to opt out of university housing. "We're not unsympathetic to the medical conditions of these people, but we don't have the authority to do anything about it," said David Aronofsky, UM chief legal counsel, told the Missoulian: "State medical marijuana laws can't override the federal laws."

Aronofsky's interpretation is debatable, of course; many legal scholars argue that state laws can override federal ones. In fact, though President Obama has literally laughed at the prospect of legalizing marijuana at the federal level, Attorney General Eric Holder has stated that his office will not bother states that choose to legalize the drug for medical purposes. (The DEA still slips up and raids dispensaries occasionally, but they've gotten better.) Though the legal debate over the supremacy of state law may never be resolved, this is as close as we can get in practice: as long as the relevant federal agencies agree not to contradict a given state law, that state law has more or less trumped federal law.

So where does that leave the University of Montana?

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US Permits On-site Pot Smoking For the First Time

by Prakash Sharma

 

The International Cannabis and Hemp Expo, the first trade show of its kind in the U. S. to permit on-site pot smoking, reportedly grabbed an estimated 15,000 enthusiasts to Daly City over the weekend.

"We're exercising our rights as patients to peacefully gather", posted Bob Katzman, Chief Operating Officer, as he stood near the designated puffing area. "We're here to talk about changing some of the existing laws, but we're not here to break the law".

In addition, he uncovered that it took four years for the organizers to negotiate an approval with a venue that would officially allow marijuana consumption.

Dr. Daniel Susott posted that he hoped to sign-off on 1,600 people by the end of the weekend. He said a portion of the fees would be diverted for charity.

http://topnews.us/content/217285-us-permits-site-pot-smoking-first-time

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Using cannabis to treat health problems

By Adam Baer

Adam Baer at the Sunset Junction Organic Medicine dispensary

There was a time when I despised the smell of marijuana; inconveniently, it coincided with my college years. So it would probably surprise those who knew me then as a violin-playing, straight-A student to discover that today, at 33, I cruise the streets of Los Angeles with a pot prescription. Then again, maybe it wouldn't. But it surprises me.

As the child of pianists who took trips to Carnegie Hall while others tripped out to The Doors, I always thought of marijuana as a "gateway drug", a bad weed that could only lead to suicide or, worse, failure in the arts. When I gave it more of a chance in my late twenties, it wasn't to boost "creativity". In fact, I don't even know if I like cannabis yet, given all of its strains and forms. Late last year, I simply began to experiment with it in search of relief for some vexing medical symptoms.

I was living in the right city at the right time, to be sure, but I lacked the positive – and extensive – marijuana history that so many of my peers enjoyed. In 1999, I took my first hit as a college junior from a pipe that belonged to my younger brother. At the time, I was feeling even more invincible than other young men: I had recently survived Hodgkin's disease and a stem-cell bone marrow transplant, following sub-lethal chemotherapy and a failed romance with an engineer. If I could endure such objective toxicity, I reasoned, something natural couldn't cause too much harm. I was right, but all I remember is coughing like an emphysema patient and obsessing about (imagined) cockroaches on my walls. A few years later, I tried pot again, while working in Manhattan as a music writer. But after a similarly bad experience at a Radiohead concert, with my undead pal the Maharishi, I ended the relationship.

Then my life changed dramatically: in 2005, after I moved to Los ­Angeles, I began to experience the onset of mysterious after-effects from my "cured" cancer, including peripheral nerve damage and a potentially malignant lesion in the base of my skull, something that few doctors could make sense of, much less treat.

Fortunately, California life proved to be therapeutic in itself: I found solace in the sylvan hills, the surf, the Pacific dolphins. My new crowd included more creative, fewer type-A people. And of course drugs were every­where. The first day in my new apartment, I "lunched" at a neighbouring rocker's pad. In a scene like something out of Annie Hall, he offered me a dent out of a miniature Matterhorn of cocaine. Later that winter, I attended a Christmas party at the home of a wannabe-dancer-turned-television production assistant. Instead of the usual ornaments, her Christmas tree dangled bags of weed, joints and hash. "How'd she get all that stuff?" I asked a studio musician. "She goes to one of those, like, medical places. She's 'sick' with 'insomnia'."

At the Sunset Junction Organic Medicine dispensary

"Opposite world" is how my New York-based brother described my new dimension. He was on to something. Not only did everyone seem to survive in this city without a job, but the green crosses on storefronts with signs reading "Compassionate Care Collective" weren't advertising chemists. It was a new century, and these were a new breed of "legal" medical ­marijuana dispensaries – stores that sold medically approved weed in California even though the drug was proscribed under US federal law.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/b6ca6848-4764-11df-b253-00144feab49a.html

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Hemp: the farming of the future

by Liina Flynn

Klara Marosszeky has a vision for the future that involves revamping of the local farming industry to produce industrial hemp crops. Working with farmers, she has just harvested her first commercial crop of industrial hemp and is looking for innovators who want to utilize the product.

Industrial hemp has a low-THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) content and produces the longest, strongest plant fibres in the world. It is used in many countries in the manufacture of plastics, fiberglass, fabrics, food and building materials.

"In the UK, a major car manufacturer, Lotus, is making whole cars out of hemp," Klara said. "Everything but the engine is hemp. Henry Ford would be grinning in his grave."

Klara currently teaches sustainability courses at TAFE and envisions hemp as the solution to many of the sustainability issues that are affecting Australia today. Not only is she trying to create a hemp industry in NSW and open the way to using hemp seed as a food product, but she is out to make housing materials affordable. After looking around for alternative products to replace our current dependence on timber, Klara spent years experimenting with hemp masonry as a building material, with very successful results. Two years ago, she was a finalist for the Northern Rivers Regional Development Board's innovation award for her hemp masonry.

"When I was first researching hemp, I found an article that said ancient hemp masonry from 750 AD was found in southern France," Klara said. "The use of hemp in building has been around for a very long time."

In 1999, after applying for a special license to grow hemp under the Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act, she began growing experimental trial crops in the Hunter Valley. She then conducted experiments with the hemp stems at the University of NSW, using both the whole and separated stems as building materials.

"I now work with the whole hemp stem," Klara said. "It's expensive to separate the inside fibre or 'hurd' from the stronger outside fibre or 'bast'."

One of her first building projects with hemp masonry was retro-fitting a wall on her own house at Corndale. The process involved building a wooden framework with spacings between, then laying wooden planks 60cm high on the inside and outside of the wall to shape the mix. This shape was then in-filled with a mixture of chopped-up hemp and a lime-based binder to create a concrete-like structure. Once the mix was dry, the planks were moved up and more mix was poured in, building the wall higher every day.

Hemp masonry is a more sustainable, organic material than concrete and 'breathes' much like a wooden structure. This means that allergy-causing moulds won't form on it, creating a healthy environment in which to live.

"Building with hemp masonry is an example of cradle to cradle technology," Klara said. "If you decide to change your house, you can break up the hemp masonry and re-combine it to build a new wall.

http://www.echonews.com.au/story/2010/04/19/hemp-crops-the-farming-industry-of-the-future/

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Legalize Industrial Hemp

By A.S. Kinser

Legalize Industrial Hemp for American Jobs and Prosperity
America is confronted today with a plethora of problems, many of which can be solved by ending a sixty-year-old policy rooted in racism and corporate greed. We are speaking, of course, of the industrial growing of hemp, also known as cannabis, for industrial purposes as well as medicinal and recreational uses. The medicinal uses of cannabis (in this form known as marijuana) are well-documented, from AIDS and cancer patients using the plant's effects to reduce nausea, to Mr. Joe Average on the street using it for muscle pain and even enjoyment. We will not deal with that in this leaflet. Rather instead we will focus on the industrial and consumer uses of cannabis.

Fiber
When the U.S. was in its infancy in 1776, one plant was considered so important to national independence that it was required that a set amount of acreage be given to it. That crop? Was it wheat? No. Cotton? No. Corn? No. Tobacco? Certainly not. That crop was hemp. Even back then, humans knew the value of the long, strong fibers that this plant produces. In fact, these fibers are the strongest natural fibers known to mankind. They are perfect for ropes, cords and caulking. The United States Navy imports "manila" fiber from the Philippines. This "manila" fiber is nothing more than imported hemp fibers, grown on land which would be more appropiately used for growing food for Filipinos. Fibers which could be grown in the U.S., supporting U.S. farmers and U.S. workers to process it!

That is not all—the very best art and writing paper is made from hemp. The long fibers of the plant make it superior to wood in paper-making. That also means hemp paper-making requires less chemicals to produce. Indeed, the Constitution and Declaration of Independence both were originally drafted on hemp paper. These same long, strong fibers can be used to make clothes. Hemp clothes used to be coarse, but thanks to new processes for hemp it is now possible to make hemp shirts and pants as comfortable and absorbent as cotton, using less than 1% of the oil, fertilizers and pesticides to produce.

Food
Hemp seeds provide an excellent source of protein and fats for humans. In fact, hemp has been eaten and used by humans to feed themselves and their livestock for at least 6000 years. The Hindu religion attributes hemp to the god Shiva. The oil of the hemp seed is very high in Omega-3 fatty acids, which are instrumental in healthy brain development and cholesterol control.

Fuel
The hemp seed is useful for food and for making bio-diesel. Research in other countries has lead to breakthroughs in bio-diesel. Hemp seed oil is superior to all other forms of vegetable oils and it requires no solvents to be released from the hemp seed. The only other such vegetable oil is olive oil, the use of which is limited to waste stream reclamation due to its comparatively lower total global production limits. Hemp is also the most efficient means known to man to turn sunlight into biomass, which is critical to the production of ethanol and methanol for fuels. Given the uses in food, fiber and fuel alone, even if we ignored the medicinal properties of this plant, we have every reason to demand in this world where food is scarce, where fiber is needed for paper and clothes and where oil, our primary fuel is running out, to demand that American farmers be allowed to grow this useful product.

http://theredphoenix.wordpress.com/2010/04/18/legalize-industrial-hemp/

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A Journey from Prohibition to Courageous Action

– an editorial from Efficacy

The Policy Shift

All evolving technology has a leading edge, even for social technology. For humankind's drug struggle, the "War on Drugs" is no longer that edge. It is now drug legalization and related policies. A call is building for all drug sales to come under government control to eliminate the market for drug dealers and to end the vast culture of criminality surrounding illegal drugs. Even Walter Cronkite is in the fray, saying in 2006, "...nothing will change until someone has the courage to stand up and say ... the war on drugs has failed." Efficacy and other like-minded organizations are at the beginning of that new courage, a courage to create a dramatic shift on how we take responsibility for illicit drugs.

There is much in this site that reveals how drug prohibition, A.K.A "War on drugs," is not effective and even destructive of our society. It damages race relations. It packs our prisons. It breeds police corruption and abuse. It drains funds best used for urban renewal and educational programs. Please read the Efficacy material at this site or explore the many links we provide. You may find yourself deeply impacted. For the founders, staff and supporters of Efficacy, our initial exposure to the dark side of our society has,

• moved us to see the alarming extent to which criminality feeds off our current drug policy
• moved us to help our nation get beyond our anxieties and fears
• moved us to appreciate the drug problem as a natural struggle for a civilized world.

The New Journey

In the voice of one sheriff,

Controlling the drug supply is like holding water in a fist, it just leaks out and goes on to something else... Eventually, we will realize a fist won't work against what is fundamentally a spiritual problem.

- Bill Masters, San Miguel County Sheriff, Colorado

In Humanity's quest to conquer drugs, the journey is not from drug war to peace, but from prohibition to courageous-action; from eradication policy to public-health policy. The need for a new direction in how we take responsibility for illicit drugs has already gained recognition in law enforcement (see related video) and the clergy (see related video). It's Efficacy's mission to expand such recognition with the goal of reducing the societal damage caused by drug-war policies, without worsening—at the very least—the actual abuse of drugs. It is a new approach — one no longer based on blind faith in the power of law but a new journey based on spiritual faith in the strength of a civilized society.

http://www.efficacy-online.org/

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Jack Herer RIP: A tribute to the marijuana-legalization icon by one of last writers to interview him

 

By Michael Roberts

 

 

​Latecomers to the marijuana-legalization movement may never have heard of Jack Herer, who died yesterday at age seventy. But veterans of the cause cite his 1985 book The Emperor Wears No Clothes as the manifesto that launched a campaign that continues to gather steam.

Herer died from complications related to a heart attack he suffered last September. That makes the interview he granted a few months earlier to Gregory Daurer, a longtime local activist and freelance writer (visit his website to learn more) who works as the office coordinator for marijuana attorney Warren Edson, one of his last.

Read it below -- and check out Daurer's observations about Herer in the wake of his passing.

Daurer's interview with Herer appeared in the May/June 2009 issue of Medical Marijuana News and Directory. It's not officially online, but Daurer kindly sent us PDFs of the article. Click on the links for page one, page two, page three, page four and page five to read the piece in its entirety. But to get a sense of Herer's passionate (and often profane) style, sample the concluding section:

What do you think has been the most significant thing that's happened sine you've started promoting hemp?

I thought change would happen 25 years ago, 30 years ago, 35 years ago. It's getting better, but it's not getting better fast enough. If I had to do it over again, I would make nothing illegal about hemp.

You live two years longer if you smoke it every day. And people who don't smoke anything and who don't drink anything live two years less than people who smoke cannabis every day. I don't make a mistake. I do all my homework.

What tips do you have for raising consciousness?

Get out everybody to vote. You have to vote. You have to vote the bastards out! If they don't vote for hemp, vote the fucking bastards out of office, right now! Like Bush. And Obama: I don't understand, either he doesn't know...

Jack, is there anything else that you want to add?

I believe that all forms of things have to be natural. 50 percent of chemicals in agriculture are used on cotton in the United States. What the fuck is that about?

Go natural. That's the Jack Herer theme?

The best thing in the world and it's against the law.

I'll tell ya, I'm getting mad at all the fucking silliness. Even the good guys -- Ron Paul and Barney Frank -- they're fucking chicken. I have to speak. Other people have to speak. They are good guys, but they just don't know. Everybody needs to write these guys. Hemp will save the world, and nothing else will.

http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2010/04/jack_herer_rip_a_tribute_to_th.php

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JACK HERER: Cannabis Message from the 2002 update of "The Emperor Wears No Clothes"

Prove us wrong! Prove us wrong! Prove us wrong! And we hereby extend our $100,000 challenge to prove us wrong!

 

If all fossil fuels and their derivatives, as well as trees for paper and construction, were banned in order to save the planet, reverse the greenhouse effect and stop deforestation; then there is only one known annually renewable natural resource that is capable of providing the overall majority of the world's paper and textiles; meet all of the world's transportation, industrial and home energy needs, while simultaneously reducing pollution, rebuilding the soil and cleaning the atmosphere all at the same time... and that substance is the same one that has done it before... Cannabis/Hemp/Marijuana!

 

CANNABIS HEMP is the only known plant that can be grown from the Equator to the Arctic Circle and to the Antarctic Circle; from the mountains to the valleys, from the oceans to the plains, including arid lands and everywhere in between. CANNABIS HEMP is the healthiest plant for the ground out of the 3 1/2 million plants on Earth, because it has a root system that grows 10-12 inches in 30 days compared to one inch for rye or barley grass. The roots penetrate up to 16 feet deep and after harvest it leaves a root system that is mulched into the ground. It is the King Kong of King Kongs of all plant life.

 

All of my information about CANNABIS HEMP has been taken from Federal and State Department of Agriculture reports, articles from Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Pulp & Paper Magazine, Scientific American, entries from encyclopedias and pharmacoepias, and studies from all over the world during the last 200 years. This is all public information. The United States government is hiding the fact that 125 years ago, and even as far back as 4000 BC, 80 percent of our economy was based on the use of CANNABIS HEMP for paper, fiber and fuel. Ten to 20 percent of our economy was based on CANNABIS HEMP medicines, 125 years ago.

 

CANNABIS HEMP was part of our everyday life. Every farm had a hemp patch growing. This cover-up outrages me and it should outrage you, too. I have been studying about CANNABIS HEMP for over 30 years, and I can't believe how the U.S. government, in 90 seconds in Congress, could outlaw "MARIJUANA" in 1937, without the people realizing they were outlawing CANNABIS HEMP, the most perfect plant for the planet! They even got other countries to outlaw it, too, after the Second World War. From 1840 to 1940, 80 percent of all the world's hemp was grown in, and imported from, Russia.

 

With the technology of the decorticator, CANNABIS HEMP would have taken over the cotton market, as it is far superior to cotton. I will again reiterate a few of the facts about CANNABIS/HEMP/MARIJUANA, which you already know.

 

CANNABIS/HEMP/MARIJUANA was the number ONE annually renewable natural resource for 80 percent of all paper, fiber and fuel. From 6000 years ago to 125 years ago, it was used for food, light, land and soil reclamation, and even 20 percent of all medicine. Everyone, from the educated to the uneducated, the farmer to the townsperson, the doctors and the scientists used hemp products and depended on them until about 125 years ago.

 

Seventy-five to 90 percent of all paper used from at least 100 AD to 1883 was made of CANNABIS HEMP. Books, including Bibles, money and newspapers all over the world have been mainly printed on CANNABIS HEMP for as long as these things have existed in human history. They were printed on hemp exclusively!

 

Seventy to 90 percent of all rope, twine, cordage and ship sails, 125 years ago, were made out of CANNABIS HEMP fiber, until it was replaced by petrochemical fibers in 1937 and 1938. By comparison, CANNABIS HEMP is four times softer than cotton, four times warmer, four times more water absorbent, has three times the strength of cotton, is many times more durable and doesn't use pesticides like cotton, and is flame retardant. Fifty percent of all pesticides are used on cotton, and cotton uses only one percent of the farmland.

 

Of all the 3 1/2 million plants on Earth, no other plant source can compare with the nutritional value of CANNABIS HEMP seeds. It is the only plant on Earth that has essential amino acids, essential fatty acids and protein and essential oils combined. It is the healthiest plant for human consumption.

 

Prior to the 1800s, HEMPSEED oil was the number ONE source for lighting oil throughout the world. As late as 1937, even paints and varnishes were 80 percent HEMPSEED oil. CANNABIS HEMP is non-toxic and has been used to make high-grade diesel fuel, oil, aircraft and precision oil and even the number ONE vegetable oil. HEMP is the best sustainable source of plant pulp for biomass fuel to make charcoal, gas, methanol, gasoline and electricity in a natural way.

 

As a medicine, the use of MARIJUANA goes back 6000 years. It has been found to be healthy and effective in the treatment of chronic pain, cancer, strokes, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, sickle cell anemia, AIDS wasting and many other illnesses, including simple nausea, appetite stimulant and anxiety. On September 6, 1988, the Drug Enforcement Administration's Chief Administrative Law Judge, Francis L. Young, ruled: "Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man," and asked the Drug Enforcement Agency to reschedule it. The DEA refused, keeping it as a Schedule I drug, which they say "has no known medical use" ? from 1937 to 2002! Nobody has ever died from marijuana in 6000 years... unless they were shot by a cop!

 

http://www.utopiasprings.com/vjack602.htm

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The trailer for Jack Herer's The Emperor Wears No Clothes

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No More Handouts!

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Now we know the truth. The financial meltdown wasn't a mistake – it was a con

Hiding behind the complexities of our financial system, banks and other institutions are being accused of fraud and deception, with Goldman Sachs just the latest in the spotlight. This has become the most pressing election issue of all

by Will Hutton

Goldman Sachs was in the spotlight last November when demonstrators protested outside its Washington offices against executive bonuses. Photograph: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The global financial crisis, it is now clear, was caused not just by the bankers' colossal mismanagement. No, it was due also to the new financial complexity offering up the opportunity for widespread, systemic fraud. Friday's announcement that the world's most famous investment bank, Goldman Sachs, is to face civil charges for fraud brought by the American regulator is but the latest of a series of investigations that have been launched, arrests made and charges made against financial institutions around the world. Big Finance in the 21st century turns out to have been Big Fraud. Yet Britain, centre of the world financial system, has not yet levelled charges against any bank; all that we've seen is the allegation of a high-level insider dealing ring which, embarrassingly, involves a banker advising the government. We have to live with the fiction that our banks and bankers are whiter than white, and any attempt to investigate them and their institutions will lead to a mass exodus to the mountains of Switzerland. The politicians of the Labour and Tory party alike are Bambis amid the wolves.

Just consider the roll call beyond Goldman Sachs. In Ireland Sean FitzPatrick, the ex-chair of the Anglo Irish bank was arrested last month and questioned over alleged fraud. In Iceland last week a dossier assembled by its parliament on the Icelandic banks – huge lenders in Britain – was handed to its public prosecution service. A court-appointed examiner found that collapsed investment bank Lehman knowingly manipulated its balance sheet to make it look stronger than it was – accounts originally audited by the British firm Ernst and Young and given the legal green light by the British firm Linklaters. In Switzerland UBS has been defending itself from the US's Inland Revenue Service for allegedly running 17,000 offshore accounts to evade tax. Be sure there are more revelations to come – except in saintly Britain.

Beneath the complexity, the charges are all rooted in the same phenomenon – deception. Somebody, somewhere, was knowingly fooled by banks and bankers – sometimes governments over tax, sometimes regulators and investors over the probity of balance sheets and profits and sometimes, as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says in Goldman's case, by creating a scheme to enrich one favoured investor at the expense of others – including, via RBS, the British taxpayer. Along the way there is a long list of so-called "entrepreneurs" and "innovators" who were offered loans that should never have been made. Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman's CEO, remarked only semi-ironically that his bank was doing God's work. He must wake up every day bitterly regretting the words ever emerged from his mouth.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/apr/18/goldman-sachs-regulators-civil-charges

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GE: 7,000 tax returns, $0 U.S. tax bill

By Annalyn Censky

General Electric filed more than 7,000 income tax returns in hundreds of global jurisdictions last year, but when push came to shove, the company owed the U.S. government a whopping bill of $0.

How'd it pull off that trick? By losing lots of money.

GE had plenty of earnings last year -- just not in the United States. For tax purposes, the company's U.S. operations lost $408 million, while its international businesses netted a $10.8 billion profit.

That left GE (GE, Fortune 500) with no U.S. profit left for Uncle Sam to tax. Corporations typically face a 35% federal income tax on their earnings. Thanks to its deductions and adjustments, GE reported an actual U.S. federal income tax rate of negative 10.5%. It got to add a "tax benefit" of $1.1 billion back into its reported earnings.

"This is the first time in at least decades that GE has reported negative U.S. pretax income and it reflects the worst economy since the Great Depression," Anne Eisele, GE's director of financial communications, said via e-mail.

But what about the $10.8 billion profit overseas? GE is "indefinitely" deferring income tax payments on those profits, Eisele said.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/16/news/companies/ge_7000_tax_returns/index.htm

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Rolling Stone, acme of counterculture, charges for website

Rolling Stone magazine, the US bible of 1960s counterculture and music that went on to launch some big names in journalism, is to charge for its website. With a new site on Monday, the fortnightly publication, founded in 1967 by Jann Wenner, will become one of the best-known magazines to place a "pay wall" around its content, in an attempt to make money from the web. The move is sure to be closely watched by media industry observers who are divided between those who believe that charging for content is the only way to sustain expensive, high-quality journalism and those who fear that asking readers to pay for online content will drive them straight into the arms of free rivals. The Times will start charging for access to its website in June.

Under the plans, the magazine's home page, with celebrity news, photographs, blogs, concert footage music previews, and behind the scenes videos from photo shoots, will remain mostly free. But readers wanting full access to the magazine's latest issue, as well as its entire archive and 43-year's worth of its famous covers, will have to pay $3.95 (£2.56) for a monthly pass or $29.99 (£19.47). Online subscribers in the US only will automatically get a free print subscription.

"We're taking control of our digital destiny," Mr. Schwartz told the Associated Press. "This is not, let's rush to the Web because print isn't strong. This is our brand's ability to tap into a new medium," he added.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article7100328.ece

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Why I'm Passing On Tea

 

The last week has seen a lot of analysis of the Tea Party Movement. It's a Republican rump, according to the NYT, and a national majority, according to Pat Caddell. My view is that it's so amorphous that you can slice it any which way. A minority of Americans seem enraged by the Obama administration in ways that are hard to explain. But many Americans also retain a healthy distrust of government and debt (even though they keep voting for lower taxes and more spending). They have a real point. Over the last decade, it is surely evident that big government has come back with a vengeance. And one has to grasp that part of the tea-party anger is pent up from the Bush years. Most of the rational tea-partiers accept that the GOP has been as bad - if not worse - than the Democrats on spending, borrowing and the size and scope of government in recent years. They repressed this anger during the Bush years out of partisan loyalty. Now, they're taking it all out on the newbie. It's both fair and also unfair.

It's fair because Obama is a liberal who believes government can and should help the poor and disadvantaged and has proven it by providing access to insurance for the working poor. But it's unfair because Obama's fiscal and governing record is massively distorted by the impact of the bank meltdown, the steep revenue-killing recession, and the stimulus. Until its last months, the Bush administration could claim no such excuses for its awful debt-management. The big Bush jumps in discretionary spending, the big leap in entitlements under the unfunded Medicare D program, the long nation-building wars put off-budget, and the huge claims for executive power dominant in the first term: all these are far more damning to my mind than Obama's pragmatism in grappling with an economic collapse or even the healthcare reform, which at least formally claims to reduce the deficit and pay for itself (unlike Bush's Medicare-D). Even the protests at the manner in which the health reform was passed are disingenuous. The Medicare-D process - involving holding the vote open for hours and brutal arm-twisting on the floor of the House - was far, far more cynical and brutal.

And this is why, despite my own deep suspicion of big government, I remain unmoved by the tea-partiers. Their partisanship and cultural hostility to Obama are far more intense, it seems to me, than their genuine proposals to reduce spending and taxation. And this is largely because they have no genuine proposals to reduce spending and taxation. They seem very protective of Medicare and Social Security - and their older age bracket underlines this. They also seem primed for maximal neo-imperial reach, backing the nation-building efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq, favoring war against Iran, etc. Only Ron Paul, peace be upon him, extends his big government critique to the military-industrial-ideological complex.

So they are truly not serious in policy terms, and it behooves the small government right to grapple with this honestly. They both support lower taxation and yet bemoan the fact that so many Americans do not pay any income tax. They want to cut spending on trivial matters while enabling the entitlement and defense behemoths to go on gobbling up Americans' wealth.  And that lack of seriousness is complemented by a near-fanatical cultural alienation from the modern world.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/04/why-im-passing-on-tea.html

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Kent State Anniversary Blues

 

How Can You Run When You Know?"

By PAUL KRASSNER

In my book, Magic Mushrooms and Other Highs: From Toad Slime to Ecstasy, Freddy Berthoff described his mescaline trip at a Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young concert in the summer of 1970 when he was 15. "Earlier that spring," he wrote, "the helmeted, rifle-toting National Guard came up over the rise during a peace-in-Vietnam rally at Kent State University. And opened fire on the crowd. I always suspected it was a contrived event, as if someone deep in the executive branch had said, 'We've got to teach those commie punks a lesson.'" Actually, President Nixon had called antiwar protesters "bums" two days before the shootings. While Freddy was peaking on mescaline, CSNY sang a new song about the massacre:

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming
We're finally on our own
This summer I hear the drumming
Four dead in O-hi-o…

Plus nine wounded. Sixty-seven shots – dum-dum bullets that exploded upon impact -- had been fired in 13 seconds. This incident on May 4, 1970 resulted in the first general student strike in U.S. history, encompassing over 400 campuses.

Arthur Krause, father of one of the dead students, Allison, got a call from John Ehrlichman, Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs, who said, "There will be a complete investigation." Krause responded, "Are you sure about that?" And the reply: "Mr. Krause, I promise you, there will be no whitewash."

But NBC News correspondent James Polk discovered a memo marked "Eyes Only" from Ehrlichman to Attorney General John Mitchell ordering that there be no federal grand jury investigation of the killings, because Nixon adamantly opposed such action.

Polk reported that, "In 1973, under a new Attorney General, Elliot Richardson, the Justice Department reversed itself and did send the Kent State case to a federal grand jury. When that was announced, Richardson said to an aide he got a call from the White House. He was told that Richard Nixon was so upset, they had to scrape the president off the walls with a spatula."

Last year, Allison Krause's younger sister, Laurel, was relaxing on the front deck of her home in California when she saw the County Sheriff's Deputy coming toward her, followed by nearly two dozen men. "Then, before my eyes," she recalls, "the officers morphed into a platoon of Ohio National Guardsmen marching onto my land. They were here because I was cultivating medical marijuana. I realized the persecution I was living through was similar to what many Americans and global citizens experience daily. This harassment even had parallels to Allison's experience before she was murdered."

What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?

Now, 40 years later, Laurel, her mother and other Kent State activists have been organizing the "2010 Kent State Truth Tribunal" scheduled for May 1-4 on the campus where the slaughter of unarmed demonstrators originally occurred. The invitation to participate in sharing their personal narratives has been extended to 1970 protesters, witnesses, National Guardsmen, Ohio and federal government officials, university administrators and educators, local residents, families of the victims. The purpose is to uncover the truth.

Laurel was 0nly 15 when the Kent State shootings took place. "Like any 15-year-old, my coping mechanisms were undeveloped at best. Every evening, I remember spending hours in my bedroom practicing calligraphy to Neil Young's 'After the Goldrush,' artistically copying phrases of his music, smoking marijuana to calm and numb my pain." When she was arrested for legally growing marijuana, "They cuffed me and read my rights as I sobbed hysterically. This was the first time I flashed back and revisited the utter shock, raw devastation and feeling of total loss since Allison died. I believed they were going to shoot and kill me, just like Allison. How ironic, I thought. The medicine that kept me safe from experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder now led me to relive that horrible experience as the cops marched onto my property."

She began to see the interconnectedness of those events. The dehumanization of Allison was the logical, ultimate extension of the dehumanization of Laurel. Legally, two felonies were reduced to misdemeanors, and she was sentenced to 25 hours of community service. But a therapist, one of Allison's friends from Kent State, suggested to Laurel that the best way to deal with the pain of PTSD was to make something good come out of the remembrance, the suffering and the pain. "That's when I decided to transform the arrest into something good for me," she says, "good for all. It was my only choice, the only solution to cure this memorable, generational, personal angst. My mantra became, 'This is the best thing that ever happened to me.' And it has been." That's why she's fighting so hard for the truth to burst through cement like blades of grass.

Paul Krassner is the editor of The Realist. His books include: Pot Stories for the Soul, One Hand Jerking and Murder at the Conspiracy Convention. He can be reached through his website: http://paulkrassner.com/

http://www.counterpunch.org/krassner04162010.html

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Man arrested at silo to face federal charges

By WHITNEY PANDIL-EATON

James Richard Sauder, 55, of San Antonio, Texas, was arrested after allegedly scaling the fence of the H-8 missile silo southwest of Parshall to conduct a peaceful protest against nuclear weapons. He was initially charged with criminal trespass, a Class C felony, and spent the night in the Mountrail County jail in Stanley.

Special Agent E.K. Wilson of the FBI said Sauder has been charged with one count of federal criminal trespass and was taken into federal custody Friday afternoon. Wilson said a criminal complaint filed Friday morning was pending, but would not speculate on any additional charges.

Dressed in a green plaid, button-up shirt and khakis, under which ankle shackles could be seen, Sauder made his initial court appearance Friday afternoon at the U.S. District Courthouse in Minot in front of Magistrate Judge Charles S. Miller Jr. via videoconference.

Throughout the 45-minute hearing, Sauder repeatedly interrupted Miller by raising issues of jurisdiction, intent and his right to trial by jury, all of which were rebuffed until the appropriate hearing.

Sauder was appointed a public defender and was placed in the custody of the Attorney General until a detention hearing is held on Monday. He'll remain in custody until then in the Ward County Jail. No trial date has been set.

http://www.minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/538544.html

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Health Insurers Hedge Bets With Fast Food Stock

Researchers Lambast Health Insurance Companies; Not All Convinced Investment Is Irresponsible

By TODD NEALE

Companies providing life and health insurance owned $1.9 billion worth of stock in the fast-food industry  Jack in the Box, McDonald's, Burger King, Yum! Brands (KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and others), and Wendy's/Arby's - as of June 11, 2009, researchers reported online in the American Journal of Public Health.

The investments were in the five largest fast-food corporations -- Jack in the Box, McDonald's, Burger King, Yum! Brands (KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and others), and Wendy's/Arby's, according to J. Wesley Boyd of Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Health Alliance in Massachusetts and colleagues.

"The insurance industry, ostensibly, appears to be concerned about people's health and well-being," Boyd said.

But, he said, "If the insurance industry is willing to invest in products known to be harmful and/or kill people then, prima facie, this is not an industry that actually cares about health and well-being."

Although Boyd acknowledged that fast food can be consumed responsibly, he said the aggregate evidence points toward a negative effect on public health.

"We argue that insurers ought to be held to a higher standard of corporate responsibility," he and his co-authors wrote in their paper.

All of the study authors are members -- and two are co-founders -- of Physicians for a National Health Program, a nonprofit organization advocating for universal, single-payer national health insurance.

"PNHP opposes for-profit control, and especially corporate control, of the health system and favors democratic control, public administration, and single-payer financing," the organization's mission statement reads.

Boyd said that the passage of healthcare reform makes the issue of owning stock in fast-food companies especially important.

"The health insurance industry is going to have a much bigger stake in providing healthcare, and what we're doing in our paper is reminding people that [the industry's] primary interests are in earning money and generating profit, not in insuring people's health," he said.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/w_DietAndFitness/health-insurance-companies-invest-billions-fast-food-stock/story?id=10392603

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Obama DoJ indicts NSA whistleblower...are you mad yet?

By Ross Levin

If you were mad at all about Bush's violations of civil liberties when he was president, this will get you fuming:

In a rare legal action against a government employee accused of leaking secrets, a grand jury has indicted a former senior National Security Agency official on charges of providing classified information to a newspaper reporter in hundreds of e-mail messages in 2006 and 2007.

The official, Thomas A. Drake, 52, was also accused of obstructing justice by shredding documents, deleting computer records and lying to investigators who were looking into the reporter's sources.

"Our national security demands that the sort of conduct alleged here -- violating the government's trust by illegally retaining and disclosing classified information -- be prosecuted and prosecuted vigorously," Lanny A. Breuer, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's criminal division, said in a statement.

This is not just a single instance of outrage. It is a microcosm of the Obama presidency, the political success of corporate America, and the failure of its opposition.

So the Obama Administration successfully indicted an important recent whistleblower, a man who revealed a lot about the secret (and very, very possibly unconstitutional, not to mention immoral) wiretapping programs at the NSA. This takes it one step further than the Bush Administration ever took the cat and mouse game they played with whistleblowers, since this is the first one who has actually been prosecuted.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Obama-DoJ-indicts-NSA-whis-by-Ross-Levin-100417-242.html

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Teabag teacher

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Socialism!

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The Hemperor, Jack Herer has Died

by Bonnie King

The global cannabis community mourns the loss of the great Jack Herer.

The one and only Jack Herer will be missed forever.

(SALEM, Ore.) - The sad news has been confirmed. Jack Herer, author of Emperor Wears No Clothes and renowned around the world for hemp activism, has died at 11:17 a.m. today, in Eugene, Oregon.

Jack Herer suffered a heart attack last September just after speaking on stage at the Portland HempStalk festival. The last seven months have proven to be a huge challenge to the man, with several health issues making his recovery complicated.

Jack Herer's health has been poor lately, this last week there have been reports of the severity, and an outpouring of prayers on his behalf.

"It's shocking news, even after these last seven, trying months," said Paul Stanford, THCF Executive Director.

"Jack Herer has been a good friend and associate of mine for over 30 years. I was there when he had the heart attack at our Hempstalk festival and I know he wouldn't appreciate the quality of life he's endured these last months. Still he will be greatly missed. I honor his memory."

"No other single person has done more to educate people all across the world about industrial hemp and marijuana as Jack Herer. His book is translated into a dozen different languages, it's a bestseller in Germany," added Stanford.

"The Hempstalk stage will forever be the Jack Herer Memorial stage. And, a Memorial is planned to be built where he fell that day," Stanford said.

"His legacy will continue to inspire and encourage for generations to come."

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/april152010/jack_herer_died.php

 

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Bayer admits GMO contamination out of control

 

by David Gutierrez

 

Drug and chemical giant Bayer AG has admitted that there is no way to stop the uncontrolled spread of its genetically modified crops.

"Even the best practices can't guarantee perfection," said Mark Ferguson, the company's defense lawyer in a recent trial.

Two Missouri farmers sued Bayer for contaminating their crop with modified genes from an experimental strain of rice engineered to be resistant to the company's Liberty-brand herbicide. The contamination occurred in 2006, during an open field test of the new rice, which was not approved for human consumption. According to the plaintiffs' lawyer, Don Downing, genetic material from the unapproved rice contaminated more than 30 percent of all rice cropland in the United States.

"Bayer was supposed to be careful," Downing said. "Bayer was not careful and that rice did escape into our commercial rice supplies."

The plaintiffs alleged that in addition to contaminating their fields, Bayer further harmed them financially by undermining their export market. When the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the widespread rice contamination, important export markets were closed to U.S. producers. A report from Greenpeace International estimates the financial damage of the contamination at between $741 million and $1.3 billion.

 

http://www.naturalnews.com/028585_GMOs_Bayer.html

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Immortal Jellyfish

From Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth to Dr. Douglas Grey's theory of Engineered Negligible Senescence¹, humans have always been fixated on immortality. Yet, in spite of all of our medical and genetic engineering advances, we have still not managed to achieve this feat. Mother Nature, however, has already beaten us to the punch, with an immortal jellyfish.

The turritopsis nutricula species of jellyfish may, in fact, be the only immortal creature in the world. It is the only one we have discovered thus far.

This jellyfish achieves everlasting life through the process of transdifferentiation: a process by which one type of cell transforms into another type of cell. Usually, animals can only use transdifferentiation in order to regenerate organs or limbs (e.g. salamanders). Turritopsis nutricula, however, transdifferentiates throughout its entire life, enabling it to cycle from an immature polyp stage, to a mature adult, and then back to its polyp stage again.

http://blogs.currentprotocols.com/2010/04/06/immortal-jellyfish/

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Crime Prediction Software Is Here and It's a Very Bad Idea

by Jesus Diaz

There are no naked pre-cogs inside glowing Jacuzzis yet, but the Florida State Department of Juvenile Justice will use analysis software to predict crime by young delinquents, putting potential offenders under specific prevention and education programs. Goodbye, human rights!

They will use this software on juvenile delinquents, using a series of variables to determine the potential for these people to commit another crime. Depending on this probability, they will put them under specific re-education programs. Deepak Advani—vice president of predictive analytics at IBM—says the system gives "reliable projections" so governments can take "action in real time" to "prevent criminal activities?"

Really? "Reliable projections"? "Action in real time"? "Preventing criminal activities"? I don't know about how reliable your system is, IBM, but have you ever heard of the 5th, the 6th, and the 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution? What about article 11 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? No? Let's make this easy then: Didn't you watch that scientology nutcase in Minority Report?

Sure. Some will argue that these juvenile delinquents were already convicted for other crimes, so hey, there's no harm. This software will help prevent further crimes. It will make all of us safer? But would it? Where's the guarantee of that? Why does the state have to assume that criminal behavior is a given? And why should the government decide who goes to an specific prevention program or who doesn't based on what a computer says? The fact is that, even if the software was 99.99% accurate, there will be always an innocent person who will be fucked. And that is exactly why we have something called due process and the presumption of innocence. That's why those things are not only in the United States Constitution, but in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights too.

http://gizmodo.com/5517231/crime-prediction-software-is-here-and-its-a-very-bad-idea

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To restore Haiti, reforest its denuded hills

A NASA satellite image shows bare dirt on Haiti's side of the border and greenery in the neighboring Dominican Republic.

Columbus found Haiti a place of lush plants. Exploitation destroyed that, and the population. Now, there's a chance to help the people and the environment by putting Haitians to work restoring the natural heritage.

By Tom Byers

The world has mounted a determined effort to relieve the immense human suffering in Haiti. It is a remarkable outpouring of compassion that includes grassroots efforts to solicit donations on handheld devices, giant military transport planes loaded with food and water, and the quiet heroism of thousands of non-governmental relief workers, and it now seems well on its way toward meeting the immediate needs. As that monumental task is accomplished, and the attention of the world's media shifts elsewhere, the challenge of creating a decent future for the people of Haiti will likely remain, because normal life in Haiti was unacceptably perilous even before the earthquake.

If there is to be any real hope for Haiti, a long-term and multi-faceted recovery effort must be mounted on a scale the world has rarely achieved. Fortunately, former President Clinton and many others are already looking ahead to that task, drawing up plans to rebuild the nation's homes, government buildings, ports, and roads. A group of us in Seattle and beyond, many from Federal Way-based World Vision, have suggested that the plan for rebuilding Haiti should also include a major campaign to put Haitians to work restoring the "natural capital" of their country — the once-verdant forests and clean rivers that were destroyed long ago, but ought to be restored as a birthright for future generations and a cornerstone of the nation's future prosperity.

http://crosscut.com/2010/04/15/environment/19743/

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Industrial State Dems Lay Out Climate Bill Demands



By Kate Sheppard

— Photo by Michael Cavén, via Flickr.

A key block of Democrats from industrial states signaled on Thursday that they could be willing to vote for a comprehensive climate and energy bill—if the three senators working on the measure include strong measures to protect manufacturers. The list of demands comes as the bill's authors scramble to gather votes ahead of an anticipated roll out in the coming weeks.

The bill, the senators write, should include measures that can keep and create jobs in America, particularly in the manufacture of things like wind turbines, solar panels, and advance vehicles. They call for new loans and tax credits for companies that manufacture clean technologies, and for funding for the research and development of new low-carbon technologies. They also call for a carbon cap that insulates energy-intensive industries from rising fuel prices by phasing them into a cap over time, limiting the price of emissions, making sure that companies can buy offsets, investing in carbon capture and storage technology, and creating a "regionally equitable distribution of allowances."

The senators called for a border adjustment, or a fee set on goods coming in from countries that don't have a cap on pollution. This is one of the more contentious issues on their list. These senators have made it clear that this is "necessary to promote comparable action from other countries and prevent carbon leakage," and they won't vote for a bill that lacks one. The House-passed climate bill gave the president the power to levy a fee on goods from countries that aren't abiding by an international climate agreement, but Obama criticized the measure as being too "protectionist."

They also ask for the bill to preempt state and local rules on carbon emissions, which may also be a sore spot in the debate.

Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Carl Levin (Mich.), Arlen Specter (Pa.), 
Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Debbie Stabenow -Mich.), Robert Casey (Pa.), Mark Warner (Va.), Kay Hagan (N.C.), Evan Bayh (Ind.) and Robert Byrd (W.Va.) all signed the letter.

Is this a good sign in the final days before a bill is to be released? I would venture to say yes. Several of these senators (like Bayh and McCaskill) have seemed unlikely to vote for any package that includes a cap on carbon. A clear wish-list is likely a good sign that they are considering supporting the bill the climate troika produces if these requests are met.

http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/04/industrial-state-dems-lay-out-climate-bill-demands

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RECORD STORE DAY 2010

The original idea for Record Store Day was conceived by Chris Brown, and was founded in 2007 by Eric Levin, Michael Kurtz, Carrie Colliton, Amy Dorfman, Don Van Cleave and Brian Poehner as a celebration of the unique culture surrounding over 700 independently owned record stores in the USA, and hundreds of similar stores internationally.

This is the one day that all of the independently owned record stores come together with artists to celebrate the art of music. Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made exclusively for the day and hundreds of artists in the United States and in various countries across the globe make special appearances and performances. Festivities include performances, cook-outs, body painting, meet & greets with artists, parades, djs spinning records and on and on. Metallica officially kicked off Record Store Day at Rasputin Music in San Francisco on April 19, 2008 and Record Store Day is now celebrated the third Saturday every April.

This just in: Watch a great video about some of this year's releases. Hosted by Chris Brown of the New England indie chain Bull Moose (and he's modest, but we're gonna give him some extra special props: Record Store Day? Yeah, that was his idea.)

It's getting crazy up in here. All kinds of releases are coming out of the woodwork, and we've tried to put together a comprehensive list download here. (and webpage here) A couple of things to keep in mind: There will most likely be additions to this list, and things even we don't know about yet. We'll add releases and details as we learn them. And if something is limited, we've listed that here as well. And yeah, most Record Store Day releases are limited. And some of them are super-CRAZY limited. Also, we don't tell a store what to bring in, nor do we sell the pieces ourselves. That is a relationship between store and distributor, and not all stores will have all pieces, and there are probably going to be some pieces that no store has enough of. That's what limited releases are all about. So talk to your favorite store: find out what they will have, tell them what you want. And here's hoping everyone gets what's on their list for Record Store Day. Follow us on Twitter for faster updates, in 140 characters or less.

http://www.recordstoreday.com/

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Celebrating 4:20 a little early - The International Cannabis & Hemp Expo comes to Cow Palace

by Carol Hilker 

Catch the International Cannabis & Hemp Expo this weekend at Cow Palace

The Cow Palace is notorious in these parts.  It's been the site of many events over the years, hosting everything from roller derbies to Dicken's fairs and even last years gun show.  

This weekend,  the Cow Palace in Daly City is about to put on its most controversial trade show up to date;  The International Cannabis and Hemp Expo is coming to the Cow Palace for the first time ever on April 17 and April 18. (Yes, the weekend before 4:20) from 10am to 6pm.

It's a chance for the public to learn about the medical marijuana trade from vendors and speakers and see 100,000-square feet of displays showing off products to grow and ingest marijuana.  The International Cannabis and Hemp Expo will also feature a patient area with the 1st ever approved on-site consumption space (for medical marijuana card carrying patients only), and feature The Connoisseurs Cup 2010 featuring Celebrity Judge, Ed Rosenthal (Cup tickets are available at the  HopeNet, Sonoma Patients Groups and others.)  All proceeds benefit the hemp industry and medical cannabis community.

Last July, Oakland law passed to tax all cannabis plants. Oakland's auditor estimates that based on annual sales of $17.5 million for the four legal cuts in the city, it will generate an estimated $294,000 for Oakland city revenue in its first year.

Be sure to visit the Oaksterdam University Booth to learn more about taxing cannabis.

http://www.examiner.com/x-26847-SF-Holidays-Examiner~y2010m4d15-Pot-Expo-coming-to-Cow-Palace-next-week

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The history of the dunce cap

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Happy Tax Day!

© Clay Bennett

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Tax Day 2010: Most of every dollar you pay in federal taxes is spent on...

by Gregory Patin

USS New Mexico, commissioned March 27, 2010. Cost: $2.3 billion. (AP Photo/US Navy - Seaman Scott Pittman).

Health care? Social Security? An economic stimulus bill? Wars? Bailing out Wall Street banks? Education? Our nation's infrastructure?  Each may be a good guess based on the issues that get attention in the mainstream media.

The correct answer may be that 53% of the federal tax being collected in 2010 has already been allocated for defense spending.

According to Philadelphia investigative journalist Dave Lindorff, writing for OpEdNews:

The 2011 military budget, by the way, is the largest in history, not just in actual dollars, but in inflation adjusted dollars, exceeding even the spending in World War II, when the nation was on an all-out military footing. Military spending in all its myriad forms works out to represent 53.3% of total US federal spending.

That would mean the military's share of the approximately $3 trillion 2011 budget is about $1.6 trillion.

On the other hand, anyone can find a handy fact sheet posted on the white house's web site that puts the department of defense's share of the budget at a "mere" $708 billion, seemingly bringing the cost down to about 24 cents on the tax dollar.

So, who's telling the truth? The answer is that both are, depending on how one looks at federal budget allocations.

http://www.examiner.com/x-38220-Orlando-Independent-Examiner~y2010m4d13-Tax-Day-2010-Most-of-every-dollar-you-pay-in-federal-taxes-is-spent-on

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