What is happening to the USA??? Give us your input.

[DiscoBiscuit]

Isn't Boyd Richard Boyd that poor little 13 year old with conservative disorder?

A few of Boyd's facebook interests and activities -

Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו, Tea Party Patriots, Glen Beck, Wake Up, America!, Citizens Against Progressive Socialism, Contract from America, Boycott the Glenn Beck Boycott, National Tea Party, Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, Olivia Munn, Sarah Palin, Exploit the Earth or Die, FreedomWorks, Capitalism, ANTI PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENTand 41 more

pass the Charmin

 

[trichrider]

pass the Charmin

did that bring you to tears?

i thought it was fairly accurate. you're going to claim your pablum is any less forcefully fed?

support for Whorebama provided by kickbacks from the mexican cartels...among others.

send in your donation already!

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

did that bring you to tears?

It's ok by me if you want to use butt-wipes on your face.

i thought it was fairly accurate. you're going to claim your pablum is any less forcefully fed?

poor guy

support for Whorebama provided by kickbacks from the mexican cartels...among others.

Line from here to Texas on that oval-office desk - whatta job.

send in your donation already!

How much do you charge for this baloney?

 

[monkey5]

"pass the Charmin" ~~~ No Charmin needed, brother! Enemma ~~~ Notice the thread title.."What is happening to the USA??? Give us your input.. and I did! Enough said! monkey5

 

[dagnabit]

Obama's Job: "The Failure of Our Country"
Read from the American Thinker:

Let's get something straight once and for all. Barack Obama knows exactly what he is doing. His presidency is turning into a repeat of the Carter years, malaise and all. However, Carter resembled a bumbling idiot. Obama, on the other hand, is no idiot.

The Anti-American President
By Boyd Richard Boyd

"Obviously something is rotten on Pennsylvania Avenue; no intelligent American president would do the things Obama has done. There has been talk of his inexperience, incompetence, or just plain stupidity to explain his Bizarro-administration. However, Obama is not incompetent; he is an intelligent anti-American president. Obama is not a failure at his job -- his job is the failure of our country.

Liberty-minded folk have several reasons why we assume another person is incompetent rather than malicious. One reason is our belief that a person is 'innocent until proven guilty'; another is the natural presumption others are similar to ourselves. Unfortunately, these ideas have been coupled with a pair of dangerously pragmatic moral equivalencies foisted upon us all: 'Who am I to judge?' and 'They couldn't possibly mean that.' As long as there is any possibility that Obama is just in over his head and doesn't mean what he says and does, many will excuse him on those grounds.

Every American must judge Obama and his ideas and understand he does mean what he says, and realize there is no excuse, save one -- Barack Obama is an anti-American in thought and deed.

Obama gets dreams from his socialist father. His mother was a fellow traveler. Obama lived in anti-American Indonesia as a child. Later, granddad decided Obama needed a Communist mentor. O got into Harvard on the recommendation of anti-Semitic Khalid al Mansour, an adviser to Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. In college O chose his friends carefully -- 'the more politically active black students, foreign students, Chicanos, Marxist professors and structural feminists.' As a professor he taught Marxist Saul Alinsky tactics, and as a constitutional scholar he believed that there are fundamental flaws in the Constitution, such as restraint on governmental power. As a community organizer and counsel he pushed sub-prime mortgages which helped buckle our economy.

He's a trench-mate with voter-fraudsters ACORN and quasi-commie SEIU. He had house parties and sat on boards with an unrepentant, revolutionary communist, who probably ghostwrote one of O's autobiographies. He attended the social-justice church of Jeremiah Wright, where he was preached at on collective salvation and black liberation. Illinois state senator and communism-lover Alice Palmer, picked O as her chief of staff. As a U.S. senator, he had the most leftist voting record. His wife's only source of American pride came in her 40s as a result of O's own success. He was endorsed by the Communist Party in 2004, and in 2008 Obama got CPUSA's endorsement again, basically running on the CPUSA platform. (And yes, CPUSA have endorsed him again for 2012!)

And this was before the campaign and presidency. Does his bio reflect incompetence or something more sinister? Does his journey sound like one of an all-American or an anti-American?"


Read the rest. It's absolutely unbelievable that Americans could elect such a man so hostile to our country.
Posted by Debra Moore at 9:00 PM
_________________________
"Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world." (John 1:29,36)
"Behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David.(Rev.5:5)-The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." (Rev.13:8) JESUS IS LORD!

what a pantload....

wanna take the big O to task you dont need this mindless drivel..

his continuation of his predecessor's policies almost to the letter coupled with his even less transparent administration and multiple scandals (of much more import than a blow job) his subsidiary status to goldman and citi and his utter failure economically...

well the "his daddy was a kenyan commie" bullshit just makes you look silly...

 

[monkey5]

Sorry~~ Those who voted "him" into office are looking very "silly" right now!! And will 4 history! Peace! monkey5

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

"pass the Charmin" ~~~ No Charmin needed, brother! Enemma ~~~ Notice the thread title.."What is happening to the USA??? Give us your input.. and I did! Enough said! monkey5

Fair enough. Charmin greatly underestimates messes worthy of a front-end loader.

So you really think a 13 year-old knows where it's at? Then let's give you two your due.

Obama's Job: "The Failure of Our Country"
Read from the American Thinker:

Let's get something straight once and for all. Barack Obama knows exactly what he is doing. His presidency is turning into a repeat of the Carter years, malaise and all. However, Carter resembled a bumbling idiot. Obama, on the other hand, is no idiot.

In other words - know your difference between nuclear physicist peanut-farmers and constitutional lawyers.

The Anti-American President
By Boyd Richard Boyd

"Obviously something is rotten on Pennsylvania Avenue; no intelligent American president would do the things Obama has done.

I doubt little Boyd yet knows the definition of subjective.

There has been talk of his inexperience, incompetence, or just plain stupidity to explain his Bizarro-administration. However, Obama is not incompetent; he is an intelligent anti-American president. Obama is not a failure at his job -- his job is the failure of our country.

Bizzaro. Ahh, we have a word that's quantifiable, if only in a bizzaro kinda way.

Liberty-minded folk have several reasons why we assume another person is incompetent rather than malicious. One reason is our belief that a person is 'innocent until proven guilty'; another is the natural presumption others are similar to ourselves. Unfortunately, these ideas have been coupled with a pair of dangerously pragmatic moral equivalencies foisted upon us all: 'Who am I to judge?' and 'They couldn't possibly mean that.' As long as there is any possibility that Obama is just in over his head and doesn't mean what he says and does, many will excuse him on those grounds.

So sayeth the 13 year-old peering through crystal ball. I love it when the narrative rings the bell, especially when the narrative is fiction.

Every American must judge Obama and his ideas and understand he does mean what he says, and realize there is no excuse, save one -- Barack Obama is an anti-American in thought and deed.

And if you want anything specific, you won't find it from a home schooled child, especially here.

Obama gets dreams from his socialist father. His mother was a fellow traveler. Obama lived in anti-American Indonesia as a child. Later, granddad decided Obama needed a Communist mentor. O got into Harvard on the recommendation of anti-Semitic Khalid al Mansour, an adviser to Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. In college O chose his friends carefully -- 'the more politically active black students, foreign students, Chicanos, Marxist professors and structural feminists.' As a professor he taught Marxist Saul Alinsky tactics, and as a constitutional scholar he believed that there are fundamental flaws in the Constitution, such as restraint on governmental power. As a community organizer and counsel he pushed sub-prime mortgages which helped buckle our economy.

He's a trench-mate with voter-fraudsters ACORN and quasi-commie SEIU. He had house parties and sat on boards with an unrepentant, revolutionary communist, who probably ghostwrote one of O's autobiographies. He attended the social-justice church of Jeremiah Wright, where he was preached at on collective salvation and black liberation. Illinois state senator and communism-lover Alice Palmer, picked O as her chief of staff. As a U.S. senator, he had the most leftist voting record. His wife's only source of American pride came in her 40s as a result of O's own success. He was endorsed by the Communist Party in 2004, and in 2008 Obama got CPUSA's endorsement again, basically running on the CPUSA platform. (And yes, CPUSA have endorsed him again for 2012!)

And this was before the campaign and presidency. Does his bio reflect incompetence or something more sinister? Does his journey sound like one of an all-American or an anti-American?"


Read the rest. It's absolutely unbelievable that Americans could elect such a man so hostile to our country.
Posted by Debra Moore at 9:00 PM
_________________________
"Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world." (John 1:29,36)
"Behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David.(Rev.5:5)-The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." (Rev.13:8) JESUS IS LORD!

Sorry, poking fun at a 13 year old who embellishes visions of bigotry, misogyny (and Newt Gingrich) quickly loses it's interest.

 

[monkey5]

Obama’s War on Weed
Posted by admin on October 28, 2011 under Cannabis, Constitution, Drug War, Government | Be the First to Comment

The president’s strange flip-flop on medical marijuana.
By Ray Stern
The new federal crackdown on medical marijuana announced on October 7 by four California U.S. Attorneys sent chills throughout the industry. It was a stunning reversal by the Obama administration.

Only two years ago, Deputy U.S. Attorney General David Ogden wrote his landmark “Ogden Memo,” announcing the feds wouldn’t bother businesses in compliance with their own state laws. It proved a dose of Miracle-Gro to California, where pot-selling stores have multiplied since voters approved the state’s 1996 medical-marijuana law. By late last year, California reportedly had more dispensaries than Starbucks.

Colorado also made it legal in 2000, seeing a similar explosion of new storefronts. The same thing happened to varying degrees in 16 other states, from Arizona to our very own Washington.

But the feds’ tolerance wasn’t quite what it seemed. While legal weed grew to an estimated $10 to $100 billion industry—no one’s quite sure of the exact figure—activists noticed an alarming undercurrent to the rhetoric: Raids on growers and dispensaries actually increased under Obama.

As hundreds of thousands of state-approved, doctor-recommended patients happily bought their medicine in well-lit stores from knowledgeable “budtenders,” the ire of cops and prohibitionists rose.

The first sign of Obama’s subterfuge came in late 2010, as California prepared to vote on a ballot proposition that would have legalized growing and possessing small amounts of marijuana for anyone over the age of 21 (Washington has a similar hopeful for the 2012 ballot). Under pressure from teetotalers—nine former Drug Enforcement Agency chiefs begged Obama to oppose the measure—Attorney General Eric Holder said that it didn’t matter what Californians thought. The feds would continue to bust people regardless of the election.

The measure got 46 percent of the vote—not enough to pass. Yet the medical side of things kept going strong. Too strong for Obama.

When the Oakland City Council prepared to authorize large-scale cultivation centers, Melinda Haag, the U.S. Attorney for California’s Northern District, issued the first of a series of letters from her fellow attorneys. She reminded residents that marijuana was still criminalized under federal law, considered equal to heroin or meth, irrespective of its medicinal value.

Nor did she care what California law said. Her “core priority” would be to prosecute “business enterprises that unlawfully market and sell marijuana” under federal law.

Over the next few months, U.S. attorneys from Maine to Washington wrote their own increasingly menacing letters. In Washington, the feds even threatened to arrest state workers who helped facilitate the industry.

Then the Obama administration released a new letter to “clarify” Ogden‘s memo. Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Cole verified the about-face: The only people safe from arrest were the “seriously ill” patients and their caregivers.

Everyone else? Be forewarned.

The letter didn’t just target those directly involved in the trade. Cole was also threatening supporting industries—read: banks—with money-laundering charges for dealing in the proceeds from marijuana. Obama had launched a full-on attack on the industries essential to any functioning enterprise.

Banks responded by canceling their weed-related accounts. “Perhaps there may be a few financial institutions here or there that are still accepting accounts,” says Caroline Joy, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Bankers Association. “Those facilities don’t want to reveal who they are.”

Then came a one-two punch.

On October 5, the IRS ruled that one of the largest California dispensaries, Harborside Health Center, owed $2.5 million in taxes because federal law precluded standard deductions for businesses engaging in illegal activity.

In other words, Obama was not only blowing off state laws. He was declaring that legal businesses were now nothing more than criminal rackets. And he was taking away every tool they needed to function.

Harborside’s owner said he’d go out of business if the IRS didn’t reverse course. Dispensaries nationwide saw it as a crippling decision.

Then came another blow two days later—the bombshell dropped by California’s four U.S. Attorneys. They were now going after people who leased stores and land to the pot industry. Violators were given 45 days to close doors, uproot plants, and kick out renters. The penalty for not acting: seizure of property and arrest.

Laura Duffy, the U.S attorney for California’s Southern District, went so far as to threaten media with prosecution for accepting pot advertising (as this paper does).

There was no doubt about it: Obama was intent on killing an entire industry—in the middle of a depression, no less. Left unexplained was why, especially since he was giving the finger to voters in 16 states just a year before he would face them in his own election.

Democratic strategists were perplexed. Roger Salazar, a California party consultant, believes the president may be trying to reach out to a broader base. But that doesn’t explain the attack on his own; Democrats support medical marijuana most. It doesn’t even make sense in luring conservatives. With the country in economic tatters, no one has weed high on their radar.

Except one group, says Salazar: “It’s a mystery, I think, it really is, where the pressure is coming from. My sense is it’s coming from law enforcement.”

Certainly Obama’s threats are real. He may be loath to jail landlords, bankers, or even dispensary owners. Arresting nonviolent, state-sanctioned businesspeople wouldn’t be popular. But his quieter war of chopping merchants off at the knees through credit and leasing would ravage the trade.

Still, the president has thrown himself into an uphill fight. There is reason to believe medical marijuana will persist, despite his betrayal.

The truth will prevail

Ignorance, false propaganda, and rank political posturing tend to be the foundation of the anti-marijuana argument. (Throw in bureaucratic turf protection as well. The DEA, for example, would need fewer agents if pot was decriminalized nationwide.)

A new Gallup poll shows that a record 50 percent of Americans believe marijuana—and not just the medical kind—should be legalized. The poll follows a continuing trend over the past several years of increasing support for legalization.

Obama has chosen to swim against the tide. But there’s reason to believe his fight is about politics, not public safety. If this were about safety, alcohol, not marijuana, whose effectiveness as a medicine has been well-documented, would be his primary target.

Politics make both sides fudge the truth. Yet prohibitionists and the government have been particularly egregious. The government is using taxpayer dollars to prop up its side, with the U.S. Justice Department‘s 64-page booklet, “Speaking Out About Drug Legalization,” a prime example.

The booklet, distributed in print and online, states that “smoked marijuana is not scientifically approved medicine.” Forget that by labeling it a drug on par with heroin, the DEA is curtailing the proper study of marijuana, since it prevents even scientists from possessing it for research. The publicly funded propaganda also flies in the face of the opinions of doctors who see pot’s potential as medicine.

It’s a strategy that’s trickled to states with functionaries unhappy about executing the voters’ will. Last December in Arizona, Will Humble, the state’s Department of Health Services director, held a press conference on the state’s new Medical Marijuana Act. He took a moment to remind reporters that more than 1,000 Arizonans died last year from accidental overdoses from prescription drugs.

But when asked how many of those died from marijuana, Humble refused to answer—to chuckles from the audience. He referred the question to his chief medical officer, Laura Nelson, who would only say she’d “have to do the research on that” before she could answer. Then Nelson began stammering about the danger of marijuana due to “car accidents”—though she had done no research on that, either.

The CMA’s new report, interestingly enough, sheds light on statements like Nelson’s. It says that prohibitionists often make unsubstantiated claims about car crashes or other purported harms. Studies disagree on its risks to motorists, though there’s no question that booze increases the chances of a crash, the report says. Moreover, simulated driving tests reveal that pot smokers overestimate their degree of impairment and “compensate effectively.”

Half-hearted crackdowns don’t work

The latest crackdown will be bad for the pot business. No question. But Obama could be doing much, much more.

He could go after patients. Over the summer, a federal judge ruled that the DEA could peek at the names on Michigan’s patient registry. Because marijuana is illegal under federal law, said Judge Hugh Brenneman Jr., patients can’t expect privacy.

Last week, the feds raided several growing operations in California and Oregon (a few months after a particularly brutal crackdown in Spokane), including one in Mendocino County that appeared to be playing by the state rules. But it seems safe to assume that few of the hundreds of other growers in Mendocino County did not uproot their crops in response—just as the hundreds of dispensaries in California did not immediately close their doors after the feds’ ominous warning on October 7.

The industry seems to be practicing a form of civil disobedience. And it has tens of thousands of seriously sick people behind it, who will holler loudly if they’re forced back to the black market.

Indeed, there are some signs that Obama’s crackdown will be a “passive-aggressive” strategy: Rather than offend Americans with news footage of police raids, Obama has launched a war of attrition.

Landlords, worried the feds will steal their property, will tell dispensaries to move out. Banks won’t handle money for pot-themed businesses. Dispensaries will be taxed so heavily they won’t be able to cover the payroll or pay the electric bill.

Yet it remains to be seen whether federal prosecutors, who undoubtedly have even more serious criminals with which to contend, are willing and able to carry out the threat. When Jack Gillund, Melinda Haag’s spokesman, was asked whether her office had the resources to go after every dispensary or grower who didn’t comply with the 45-day deadline, he offered a simple reply: “No comment.”

Lauren Horwood, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner in California’s Eastern District, says Wagner’s goal isn’t to shut down everything. He’s focusing on “large, professional, money-making operations—the commercial operations.”

Horwood also says that it’s wrong to call it “Obama’s crackdown.” She says the California U.S. Attorneys decided to take action on their own because the situation has grown out of control among recreational users. But she acknowledges that they received Obama’s blessing.

It’s a classic political strategy: Send the underlings out to take the heat while the bosses hide under their skirts.

Either way, the end result casts Obama as even more zealous than George W. Bush, who threatened owners of dispensary properties in 2007, but never followed up. Meanwhile, Colorado and other states have seen no similar crackdowns. Only time will tell whether Obama plans to destroy the entire medical-marijuana industry, or merely smack California around for a bit.

A million patients can’t be wrong

An estimated one million people in California have obtained a doctor’s recommendation to grow and use marijuana legally. Patient estimates in Washington are hazier, but the number is thought to be around 100,000.

If the feds shut down every dispensary in the country, all these people will still be able to legally possess marijuana—no matter where they bought it—under their state laws. The only difference is they’ll be forced to go back to buying their weed from Mexican drug cartels, rather than from Americans who provide jobs and pay taxes.

It’s akin to the feds saying that Anheuser-Busch can no longer sell beer; they’d prefer that people only buy from Al Capone.

Hey, wait—didn’t that already happen?

Tags: Drug War, Government

Ammiano Calls Medical Marijuana Crackdown ‘Pure Thuggery,’ Asks Senators and Citizens To Speak Out
Posted by admin on under Cannabis, Constitution, Drug War, Government, Legal | Be the First to Comment

By Dan Aiello
California Progress Report

Following yesterday’s press conference timed to coincide with the visit of President Barack Obama, San Francisco’s Democrat Assemblymember Tom Ammiano says he’s “pretty pissed off about this unwarranted attack,” referring to the multitude of federal raids orchestrated by the Administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) on California’s medical marijuana dispensaries, their landlords and patients.

The DOJ and federal prosecutors have said the raids are part of an effort to stop the proliferation of for-profit dispensaries and prescribe-for-pay doctor’s offices that have sprouted up in California communities with no local regulations for dispensaries of medical marijuana.

Ammiano is calling upon California’s congressional representatives and citizens to demand the Feds back off. “Nobody’s reining them in. Its un-Democratic and the worst case of thuggery.”

Assemblymember Ammiano says he expects to hear back from Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, who so far have remained publicly silent on the matter.

He also said he and his colleagues will respond with legislation to address the concerns raised by the feds, but first they need to hear what their arguments are. To date, the feds have made no attempt to coordinate the raids with state authorities.

“We want to meet with the Department of Justice, the Attorney General and the Governor because If I do come up with legislation to provide statewide regulations to address their concerns we need to know what they are thinking,” Ammiano told California Progress Report. “It’s not coordinated, it’s a mess, and we need answers and we need them yesterday.”

Ammiano, who is openly gay, is angered by what he sees as an attempt to destroy years of effort by the LGBT community to make medical marijuana available for compassionate use, which coincided with the AIDS epidemic. The Assemblymember sees the raids by the DOJ as an attack on those suffering from complications associated with HIV, assisting terminally-ill patients with appetite encouragement and relief from pain and nausea for those taking a litany of drug cocktails to thwart the virus.

“It’s a particular insult to our community, our involvement and all our efforts towards passing [proposition] 215,” said Ammiano, who noted that Dennis Peron, who led the campaign to legalize marijuana for compassionate use and Michael Goldstein, who was at San Francisco General yesterday as a result of complications from AIDS, are prime examples of the LGBT community’s close ties to the issue.

And Ammiano says that while he believes the use of Marinol by hospitals is not affected by the Fed’s crackdown, “I don’t know that anything is safe at this point,” he told CPR.

“Where are they going to go with this is not clear at this point. The Department of Justice is now leaning on banks about not financing dispensaries, telling them if they do they will be penalized.”

Ammiano flared at the apparent aggression of the DOJ’s efforts to close the state’s medical marijuana dispensaries statewide while the DOJ remains timid on issues more important to the state’s economic recovery, like bank foreclosures on California homes.

“They’re timid about foreclosures, giving no warnings to banks about them, but they warn banks that lending money to medical marijuana businesses will be punished. And sending letters to landlords saying we are going to put you in jail if you rent to dispensaries, that’s pure thuggery and un-Democratic.”

Ammiano challenged the statewide, indiscriminate nature of the raids, noting the abuses the department has identified are primarily in communities in Southern California like San Diego and Los Angeles that “brought chaos upon themselves by sticking their heads in the sand,” and failing to pass regulations regarding 215’s implementation anywhere during the last 15 years since passage of prop 215, as called for in guidelines by then-State Attorney General, Edmund G. Brown, Jr.

“Without regulations there are all kinds of people who will always take advantage. Without laws on the books it becomes the wild, wild west. And we want that to stop too. But we don’t want medical marijuana to be vitiated by thug mentality.”

Ammiano asks Californians to contact their congressional representatives and ask for accountability from the DOJ on the raids.

Tags: Drug War, Government

Calif.: Protest the attack on medical marijuana providers on November 9!
Posted by admin on under Cannabis, Constitution, Drug War, Government, Legal, Protests | Be the First to Comment

Are you upset with the recent decision by the California United States attorneys to crack down on medical marijuana providers? Looking for a productive way to push back against this misguided decision? Please consider joining a coalition of medical marijuana activist groups for a peaceful protest in opposition to the crackdown on Wednesday, November 9.

This protest will take place a mere four days after the 15-year anniversary of the passage of Prop 215, the country’s first medical marijuana law. Please send this alert to your friends and family across California so they can join us in solidarity.

What: Peaceful protest in opposition to the federal crackdown on medical marijuana providers.

When: Wednesday, November 9 at 12:00 p.m.

Where: Sacramento Federal Building, 501 I Street, Sacramento, CA 95814.

Finally, check out our tips for what you can do to oppose federal interference, including possible slogans for your protest signs and tips for urging your city council to stand up for patients. Thank you in advance for your advocacy.

Sincerely,



Robert J. Capecchi
Legislative Analyst
Marijuana Policy Project

Tags: Drug War, Government

Obama Not Implicated In California Medical Marijuana Crackdown, U.S. Attorney Claims
Posted by admin on under Cannabis, Constitution, Drug War, Government, Legal | Be the First to Comment

WASHINGTON — U.S. attorneys have a message for California’s medical marijuana advocates: Don’t blame Barack Obama. After it was announced that the crackdown on medical pot establishments in the Golden State was a collective decision by the four U.S. attorneys in California and not the result of any directive from Washington, spokeswoman Lauren Horwood emphasized that the administration never even green-lighted the ramped-up enforcement actions.

The only D.C.-based official with whom California U.S. attorneys coordinated, Horwood said, was Deputy Attorney General James Cole, who was chosen by Attorney General Eric Holder, an Obama appointee.

“He’s the one who provided the quote for our press release, and he’s chosen by Eric Holder,” Horwood told HuffPost in an interview. “But we didn’t have direct talks with Eric Holder — not that we wouldn’t, he’s been out and visited — but just the way the Department of Justice works, he’s not that hands-on on these kinds of details.”

An article by Phoenix Times reporter Ray Stern claimed Horwood acknowledged that California’s U.S. attorneys received “Obama’s blessing” in implementing the crackdown. But in an interview with The Huffington Post, Horwood, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner in California’s Eastern District, distanced herself from that language.

“What I said, or at least meant to say, was that the U.S. Attorneys in California saw the need for coordinated enforcement actions and spoke with folks in Main Justice in D.C. (not the Obama Administration),” she told HuffPost in an email.

Cole declined to attend any California press conferences on the issue not, Horwood insisted, because he was distancing himself from the crackdown, but because California is a long way to travel.

California voters approved the use of medical marijuana in 1996 with the passage of Prop. 215, later named the Compassionate Use Act, which allows patients to possess and cultivate cannabis with a doctor’s permission. The law has been interpreted many times since then. In City of Garden Grove v. Superior Court in 2007, the trial court sided with the patient, finding that it “is not the job of local police to enforce the federal drug law.” A California Supreme Court ruling in 2010 found that residents may grow or possess “reasonable amounts” of marijuana with a doctor’s permission.

But under federal law there are no such allowances.

Obama as a candidate promised to maintain a hands-off approach toward pot clinics that adhered to state law, with Attorney General Eric Holder publicly asserting that federal prosecutors would not initiate enforcement actions against any patients or providers in compliance with state law, deeming it an inefficient use of scarce government resources.

Such language didn’t stop federal prosecutors from launching an attack on medical marijuana shop owners earlier this month, vowing to shutter state-licensed marijuana dispensaries regulated by local governments and threatening landlords with property seizures.

State Senator Mark Leno (D) has joined Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) in requesting meetings with the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service to discuss the reasons behind the crackdown.

So far their requests have gone unanswered. “They’re talking amongst themselves,” said Ammiano of federal prosecutors, “and really causing tremendous, unnecessary chilling effects.”

Steve DeAngelo of Oakland medical cannabis club Harborside Health Center said such effects may be the end goal.

“Federal prosecutors are not trying to clean up the regulated medical cannabis industry, they are trying to destroy it,” he said at a Tuesday press conference in San Francisco. “Their real target is not criminal gangs, but rather the systems of licensing and regulation implemented by dozens of communities state-wide. This is destroying tens of thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of tax dollars in local, state and federal tax revenue.”

The crackdown comes even as 50 percent of Americans favor legalizing marijuana, according to a recently released Gallup poll, up from just 36 percent in 2006.

When asked to respond to the claim that the Obama administration isn’t implicated in the decision, Ammiano was indignant.

“Somebody’s going to have to fall on their sword about this,” he said. “This is becoming more of a mainstream issue. I mean, this was really a mistake.”

Related On The Huffington Post:
You seem un-willing to see the forrest 4 the trees, brother! Lol.. I am a patriot..not a fan of the "red or the blue" .. Here's how it is affecting us! Enjoy the read! monkey5

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

I am a patriot..not a fan of the "red or the blue" .

Oh, ok. Still can't help but get the impression you're no fan of black. In other words, no president has done what you're faulting the black guy for not doing.


And as far as "What's happening to the USA", the object of your affection didn't impose prohibition. But the apparent oversight of all other relative presidents shines the light only on the black one.

 

[greenmatter]

Sorry~~ Those who voted "him" into office are looking very "silly" right now!! And will 4 history! Peace! monkey5

that post would apply to every president for ........ what? going on 50 years?

each and every one has (with the help of congress and senate of course) driven us toward the cliff.

each and every one was bought and sold BEFORE they ran for office. look past headlines and they all worked against us. they are there to get reelected, nothing more, nothing less ...... what they are saying on good morning america has more impact on what a politician does than reality.

polls are more relevant than reality in a country where spin is king

 

[monkey5]

Hold up..I am no fan of Hitler or Stalin, neither of them were black!! The fact that he is a black president has nothing to do with his policys! He is in office right now..are you saying he could not have brought the "Hope & Change" for the better 4 our country like he promised? Fact is he is just as much a big bullshitter as Bush! monkey5

 

[monkey5]

Through all those "bum bitches" out of there! Ron Paul for president! Sorry, had to say that too! Lol.. monkey5

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

The only presidents that drove us over the economic cliff are starve-the-beast disciples. Managing revenues to expenditures is fundamental but far from rocket science. Economics itself is science but one side prefers the unscientific narrative "supply side" when what's actually working behind it is starve-the-beast. Any concept that seeks to obfuscate intent isn't worth considering but shouldn't be ignored to the point we find ourselves in the middle of it.

Do you consider sustained surpluses, projected to mitigate national debt in 11 years as cliff diving?

Do you get the impression that some don't want money out of politics because it makes the subjective narrative more objective?

 

[dagnabit]

sorry disco...

starve the beast and supply side actually are different principles.
but nice try.

you would not say that QE is really feed the beast would you?

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Hold up..I am no fan of Hitler or Stalin, neither of them were black!! The fact that he is a black president has nothing to do with his policys!

Fair enough. Might you then reference those particular policies that conjure comparison to Hitler and Stalin?

progressive taxes? - nothing new

health care reform? - born of the Heritage Foundation, care of Newt Gingrich and applied by Mitt Romney. Did these (now) nazi, communist manifestations (once) ring as personal responsibility?

He is in office right now..are you saying he could not have brought the "Hope & Change" for the better 4 our country like he promised? Fact is he is just as much a big bullshitter as Bush!

I'd say the idea of formidable opposition never entered your thought process. "Better" is a glass half-empty or half-full, depending on your disposition.

 

[monkey5]

What I said is "Let's try something new", Let's get back to the constitution! Ron Paul .. 4 real Hope & Change! Ron Paul has a voting record! monkey5

 

[monkey5]

health care reform? - born of the Heritage Foundation, care of Newt Gingrich and applied by Mitt Romney. Did these (now) nazi, communist manifestations (once) ring as personal responsibility?
~~Sorry again..I had an operation not too long ago..had no insurance..I paid all the bills myself .. was more than $16,000. worth! Dr. who operated saved my life! Reform that! Personal responsibility? I think so...I am sure my Dr. thinks so!! monkey5

 

[monkey5]

Cancer-specific Cytotoxicity of Cannabinoids
Posted by Bay on November 21, 2011 under Cancers, Cannabinoids, Disease, Healing | Be the First to Comment

First let’s look at what keeps cancer cells alive, then we will come back and examine how the cannabinoids CBD (cannabidiol) and THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) unravels cancer’s aliveness.

In every cell there is a family of interconvertible sphingolipids that specifically manage the life and death of that cell. This profile of factors is called the “Sphingolipid Rheostat.” If endogenous ceramide (a signaling metabolite of sphingosine-1-phosphate) is high, then cell death (apoptosis) is imminent. If ceramide is low, the cell is strong in its vitality.

Very simply, when THC connects to the CB1 or CB2 cannabinoid receptor site on the cancer cell, it causes an increase in ceramide synthesis which drives cell death. A normal healthy cell does not produce ceramide in the presence of THC, thus is not affected by the cannabinoid.

The cancer cell dies, not because of cytotoxic chemicals, but because of a tiny little shift in the mitochondria. Within most cells there is a cell nucleus, numerous mitochondria (hundreds to thousands), and various other organelles in the cytoplasm. The purpose of the mitochondria is to produce energy (ATP) for cell use. As ceramide starts to accumulate, turning up the Sphingolipid Rheostat, it increases the mitochondrial membrane pore permeability to cytochrome c, a critical protein in energy synthesis. Cytochrome c is pushed out of the mitochondria, killing the source of energy for the cell.

Ceramide also causes genotoxic stress in the cancer cell nucleus generating a protein called p53, whose job it is to disrupt calcium metabolism in the mitochondria. If this weren’t enough, ceramide disrupts the cellular lysosome, the cell’s digestive system that provides nutrients for all cell functions. Ceramide, and other sphingolipids, actively inhibit pro-survival pathways in the cell leaving no possibility at all of cancer cell survival.

The key to this process is the accumulation of ceramide in the system. This means taking therapeutic amounts of CBD and THC, steadily, over a period of time, keeping metabolic pressure on this cancer cell death pathway.

How did this pathway come to be? Why is it that the body can take a simple plant enzyme and use it for profound healing in many different physiological systems? This endocannabinoid system exists in all animal life, just waiting for its matched exocannabinoid activator.

This is interesting. Our own endocannabinoid system covers all cells and nerves; it is the messenger of information flowing between our immune system and the central nervous system (CNS). It is responsible for neuroprotection, and micro-manages the immune system. This is the primary control system that maintains homeostasis; our well being.

Just out of curiosity, how does the work get done at the cellular level, and where does the body make the endocannabinoids? Here we see that endocannabinoids have their origin in nerve cells right at the synapse. When the body is compromised through illness or injury it calls insistently to the endocannabinoid system and directs the immune system to bring healing. If these homeostatic systems are weakened, it should be no surprise that exocannabinoids are therapeutic. It helps the body in the most natural way possible.

To see how this works we visualize the cannabinoid as a three dimensional molecule, where one part of the molecule is configured to fit the nerve or immune cell receptor site just like a key in a lock. There are at least two types of cannabinoid receptor sites, CB1 (CNS) and CB2 (immune). In general CB1 activates the CNS messaging system, and CB2 activates the immune system, but it’s much more complex than this. Both THC and anandamide activate both receptor sites. Other cannabinoids activate one or the other receptor sites. Among the strains of Cannabis, C. sativa tends toward the CB1 receptor, and C. indica tends toward CB2. So sativa is more neuroactive, and indica is more immunoactive. Another factor here is that sativa is dominated by THC cannabinoids, and indica is predominately CBD (cannabidiol).

It is known that THC and CBD are biomimetic to anandamide, that is, the body can use both interchangeably. Thus, when stress, injury, or illness demand more from endogenous anandamide than can be produced by the body, its mimetic exocannabinoids are activated. If the stress is transitory, then the treatment can be transitory. If the demand is sustained, such as in cancer, then treatment needs to provide sustained pressure of the modulating agent on the homeostatic systems.

Typically CBD gravitates to the densely packed CB2 receptors in the spleen, home to the body’s immune system. From there, immune cells seek out and destroy cancer cells. Interestingly, it has been shown that THC and CBD cannabinoids have the ability to kill cancer cells directly without going through immune intermediaries. THC and CBD hijack the lipoxygenase pathway to directly inhibit tumor growth. As a side note, it has been discovered that CBD inhibits anandamide reuptake. Here we see that cannabidiol helps the body preserve its own natural endocannabinoid by inhibiting the enzyme that breaks down anandamide.

This brief survey touches lightly on a few essential concepts. Mostly I would like to leave you with an appreciation that nature has designed the perfect medicine that fits exactly with our own immune system of receptors and signaling metabolites to provide rapid and complete immune response for systemic integrity and metabolic homeostasis.
~~~ Big Drug companys want this kept against the law!! Paying O bummer off... maybe? monkey5

 

[greenmatter]

if the paygo laws from 1990 had stayed in effect for 100 years we could be on a different path. funny how "living within your means" just makes things work better in the long run. it would be nice if implementing fiscal sanity was something that every politician was willing to do ....... all the time (even if it made their team have to work to make it work).


but it has ALWAYS been at tag team match

 

[monkey5]

if the paygo laws from 1990 had stayed in effect for 100 years we could be on a different path. funny how "living within your means" just makes things work better in the long run. it would be nice if implementing fiscal sanity was something that every politician was willing to do ....... all the time (even if it made their team have to work to make it work).
~~~Agreed..monkey5