CONCORD - A move to decriminalize the use of marijuana tops the agenda as the New Hampshire Legislature begins to hear from the public on its 1,400 bills for the 2007 session.
A new group calling itself the Coalition for Common Sense Marijuana Policy has started collecting signatures in favor of the bill ( HB 92 ) through online petitions on its Web site, www.nhcommonsense.org. "Despite the threat of severe penalties, many responsible, productive New Hampshire citizens continue to use marijuana. As long as these individuals do not harm others, we believe it is unwise and unjust to continue persecuting them as enemies of the state," the group declares.
Attorney General Kelly Ayotte's office has traditionally opposed the move and a spokesperson said that position remains the same. Lobbies for the local police chiefs and county sheriffs are expected to weigh in against the bill as well.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Lawmakers Aiming to Legalize Pot
Friday, January 19, 2007
Doomsday Clock To Be Moved Foward
Scientists Prepare to Move Doomsday Clock Forward
The keepers of the "Doomsday Clock" plan to move its hands forward next Wednesday to reflect what they call worsening nuclear and climate threats to the world.The clock was last pushed forward by two minutes to seven minutes to midnight in 2002 amid concerns about the proliferation of nuclear, biological and other weapons and the threat of terrorism.
When it was created by the magazine's staff in 1947, it was initially set at seven minutes to midnight and has moved 17 times since then.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Judge: Bloggers Entitled to Immunity Under Communications Act
Shannon P. DuffyThe Legal Intelligencer
Bloggers cannot be hit with libel suits on the basis of anonymous postings on their Web sites because federal law grants them immunity by explicitly stating that they cannot be treated as the "publisher" of such comments, a federal judge has ruled.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Arabs killing Arabs , picking up the pace
January 16, 2007, 11:22 PM (GMT+02:00) Debkafiles
A car bomb followed by a suicide bomber kill 65 people, wound 110 at university in Baghdad, 25 more elsewhere in the capital
Almost all the victims were female students at Mustansiriya University in a predominantly Shiite area who were waiting for buses to take them home. A suicide bomber blew himself up outside the university catching students fleeing from the car bomb attack.
Why is the world community so quiet, no world condemnation from the UN ? No outrage from Arab nations ? Can one help but think that the the deafening silence is giving the signal that Arabs don't care very much for human lives, human females lives.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Hollywood Asks YouTube: Friend or Foe?
Mr. Shmuger said the studios need to embrace sites like YouTube because they are the future of movie marketing. “If you want to be involved in the cultural debate, you have to allow consumers to be more actively involved,” he said. “That’s a different world order which we are not used to.”
New York Times
Mortally Effective Chinese Justice
for clearer pictures go 5-years later
In five stages: arrest, the hand in the bag. Express train transport towards the hangar of the court (too many people for a simple room). Collective judgement, without lawyer,
The name and the crime written on a note attached to the neck, it is to go more quickly. Hop, hop, hop. No Blah. Something to add, not? , good, condemned to death, the family will refund the cartridge, everyone awaits its turn, not scuffle, in row by 300 please.
Post by 5 years later 8 comments
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Help Find Our Editor Cyber Bobo !
It's going to be slow posting recently, our editor Cyberbobo has been missing
and I am going to have to fill in for him, until he turns up
Monday, January 08, 2007
Sunday, January 07, 2007
The Suicide Of Our Civilizations
The Suicide Of Our Civilizations - video powered by Metacafe
Make sure your speakers on loud, screen full, sit back and enjoy the ride!
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Iran Peaceful Intentions Could Change
Iran opposes obtaining nuclear weapons and intends to use its nuclear technology for peaceful purposes under the framework of the Nonproliferation Treaty, Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said Friday.
"But," Larijani warned, "if we are threatened, the situation may change."
Friday, January 05, 2007
Arabs Killing Arabs in Palestine
by Steve Erlanger NY Times JERUSALEM, Jan. 5 — The Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniya, called today for an end to the internecine violence in Gaza, a day after members of his own Hamas militia surrounded the house of a Fatah commander, killed the man and his bodyguards and seriously wounded his wife and brother.
North Korea Preparing for Nuclear Test
Updated: 08:33 AM EST
"We think they've put everything in place to conduct a test without any notice or warning," a senior U.S. defense official told ABC News.
In October, the U.N. Security Council unanimously passed a resolution that imposed harsh sanctions against North Korea just six days after Kim Jong Il's regime declared that it conducted an underground nuclear test. The sanctions were designed to coerce North Korea into giving up its nuclear program.
Resolution 1718 specifically called for North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons completely and irreversibly, as well as to put an end to its biological and chemical weapons, weapons of mass destruction, and ballistic missile programs.
Caricature by Monte Wolverton
Ellison Uses Qur’an in Swearing-In Ceremony
WASHINGTON, 5 January 2007 — Congressman Keith Ellison, D-Minnesota, the first Muslim elected to Congress
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Pot is called U.S. Biggest Cash Crop
California is responsible for more than a third of the cannabis harvest, with an estimated production of $13.8 billion that exceeds the value of the state's grapes, vegetables and hay combined — and marijuana is the top cash crop in a dozen states, the report states.
The report estimates that marijuana production has increased tenfold in the past quarter century despite an exhaustive anti-drug effort by law enforcement.
Jon Gettman, the report's author, is a public policy consultant and leading proponent of the push to drop marijuana from the federal list of hard-core Schedule 1 drugs — which are deemed to have no medicinal value and a high likelihood of abuse — such as heroin and LSD.
He argues that the data support his push to begin treating cannabis like tobacco and alcohol by legalizing and reaping a tax windfall from it, while controlling production and distribution to better restrict use by teenagers.
"Despite years of effort by law enforcement, they're not getting rid of it," Gettman said. "Not only is the problem worse in terms of magnitude of cultivation, but production has spread all around the country. To say the genie is out of the bottle is a profound understatement."
The contention that pot is America's biggest cash crop dates to the early 1980s, when marijuana legalization advocates began citing Drug Enforcement Administration estimates suggesting that about 1,000 metric tons of pot were being produced nationwide. Over the years, marijuana advocates have produced studies estimating the size and value of the U.S. crop, most recently in 1998.
Gettman's report cites figures in a 2005 State Department report estimating U.S. cannabis cultivation at 10,000 metric tons, or more than 22 million pounds — 10 times the 1981 production.
Using data on the number of pounds eradicated by police around the U.S., Gettman produced estimates of the likely size and value of the cannabis crop in each state. His methodology used what he described as a conservative value of about $1,600 a pound compared to the $2,000- to $4,000-a-pound street value often cited by law enforcement agencies after busts.
In California, the state's Campaign Against Marijuana Planting seized nearly 1.7 million plants this year — triple the haul in 2005 — with an estimated street value of more than $6.7 billion. Based on the seizure rate over the last three years, the study estimates that California grew more than 21 million marijuana plants in 2006 — with a production value nearly triple the next closest state, Tennessee, which had an estimated $4.7-billion cannabis harvest.
California ranked as the report's top state for both outdoor and indoor marijuana production. The report estimates that the state had 4.2 million indoor plants valued at nearly $1.5 billion. The state of Washington was ranked next, with $438 million worth of indoor cannabis plants.
California also is among nine states that produce more cannabis than residents consumed, Gettman estimates. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the state's 3.3 million cannabis users represent about 13% of the nation's pot smokers. But California produces more than 38% of the cannabis grown in the country, the study contends.
Nationwide, the estimated cannabis production of $35.8 billion exceeds corn ($23 billion), soybeans ($17.6 billion) and hay ($12.2 billion), according to Gettman's findings.
* eric.bailey@latimes.com
The USS John C. Stennis strike group will this month join the USS Dwight Eisenhower aircraft carrier group and USS Boxer strike force in the Persian G
January 4, 2007 Debka file
The USS John C. Stennis strike group will this month join the USS Dwight Eisenhower aircraft carrier group and USS Boxer strike force in the Persian Gulf “as a warning to Syria and Iran” in face of acts seen as provocative, and to give commanders more flexibility in the region. Continuation of Iran’s banned nuclear activities would come under the heading of “provocative.”
This is the second buildup of US naval, air and marine strength in the strategic waterway in four months. Deployment of the Stennis group puts a total of 16,000 US sailors in the region as well as another nuclear carrier and 7 escort warships, 10 air squadrons, 2 submarines and helicopters to support amphibious landings on enemy soil.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Don't Shoot the Mesenger : Saddam execution video draws criticism
ANITA CHANG Associated Press
Grainy cell phone video of Saddam Hussein's execution triggered international criticism Tuesday, with Britain's deputy prime minister calling the leaked images "unacceptable" and the Vatican decrying the footage as a "spectacle" violating human rights.
British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said those who leaked the footage should be condemned.
"Frankly, to get the kind of recorded messages coming out is totally unacceptable and I think whoever is involved and responsible for it should be ashamed of themselves."
No Prime Minister, the reporters should not be condemmed , we have a right to know :
Those that behaved like dogs, and sharks at a feeding are the ones that should be condemmed. Don't shoot the messenger
Prosecutor accused of driving drunk
MIAMI BEACH Herald
Prosecutor accused of driving drunk
The veteran prosecutor who headed the case against the John Doe drug gang in the 1990s was charged with DUI after hitting two people on a motor scooter. The two suffered 'serious' injuries.
By DAVID OVALLE
dovalle@MiamiHerald.com
Is it expecting the people who enforce our laws, to abide by them, asking too much ?
This is a fine example to give to the police officers who look up to State Prosecuters and particularly to citizens who pay their salaries
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Iraqi government orders probe of Saddam hanging
Iraq's prime minister ordered an investigation Tuesday into Saddam Hussein's execution to try to uncover who taunted the former dictator in the last minutes of his life, and who leaked inflammatory footage taken by camera phone of the hanging.
JPost.com
BAGHDAD, 3 January 2007 — A senior Iraqi court official nearly halted Saddam Hussein’s execution when supporters of a militia leader taunted the former president as he stood on the gallows.
Many in Saddam’s Sunni minority, and moderate Shiites and Kurds, have been angered and embarrassed by the video. In it, observers chant “Moqtada, Moqtada, Moqtada!” for militia leader Moqtada Sadr. Saddam by contrast looks dignified on the gallows and replies: “Is this what you call manhood?”
Arab News
