Sometimes even major media outlets let a few silly typos slip by now and then, and you have to correct them. Take this New York Daily News article, which needed some fixing. I’m pretty sure they must have heard the feds wrong – maybe a garbled phone connection – so I’ve taken the liberty of fixing…
U.S. cocaine habit failed drug policy funding Mideast terror via Mexican drug gangs: Feds
WASHINGTON — America’s
cocaine habitdestructive drug war not only funds drug violence in the West, it also supports Iranian-backed terror and wars waged against Israel, prosecutors charge. […]Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who filed the suit, said it “puts into stark relief the nexus between
narcotics traffickingbad government policy and terrorism.â€
Joking aside, this is an ugly and scary thing, as the U.S. continues to suspend human rights and Constitutional rights merely upon the arbitrary invoking of the “terror” word, for the duration of a by-definition infinite “war.”
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Regarding media mistakes, Washington Post writer Courtland Milloy had an interesting article about the benefits of pot for athletes: For pro athletes, the risks of smoking pot are high — but so are the benefits.
One downside of the article was the casual mention: “The health risks cited are already pretty well known, including an increased risk of lung cancer and accidents and the potential for abuse and addiction.”
I wrote Mr. Milloy and pointed out the Washington Post’s own coverage of the study proving no lung cancer from marijuana use.
He was nice enough to write back:
Thanks for sharing this, Pete. I have recieved quite a few emails to that effect and may write another column exploring how a substance that chemists say has all of these carcinogens gets such a clean bill of heath regarding lung cancer. Courtland
I hope he does.
This does, of course, point out the perniciousness of the lies from the Drug Czar and NIDA. They know that they can’t say that marijuana causes lung cancer, so they regularly point out that marijuana smoke contains carcinogens (so do many commonly used substances including Johnson’s Baby Shampoo, Talcum Powder, Tide Laundry Detergent, Lysol, Oscar Meyer beef hot dogs, and whole milk). Then they let other people make the non-existent marijuana-lung cancer link for them.
And yes, they are deliberate lies by the Drug Czar and NIDA as they are intended to deceive.
Locally we have a public health officer, Dr. Andrew Deckert of Shasta County, who has played this role for the BOS and Planning Commission.
After this Tuesday’s meeting banning dispensaries and severely restricting cultivation of medical cannabis, I had to write to him for some clarifications.
I’m pretty sure I heard him say cannabis is associated with “increased risk of cancer” as well as schizophrenia.
The damage is already done, but I intend to bring some of these things into as bright a light as I can conjure, in the hopes of getting some accountability from these folks.
Speaking of fixed media stories, how about last night’s debate? All that complaining about wasted Federal dollars and freedom for the American People and not one word about their precious Drug War. Hypocritical or scared?
Local PDs commit home invasions, shoot pets, tie up residents (or just shoot them), medical patients are arrested, ATF supplies drug cartels with weaponry, DEA launders money for “Shorty,” and these facts are seemingly NOT important as not one question was asked by the press.
The “press” today is either “criminally stupid” or has their heads up someone’s…wallet. And they claim “fair and balanced…the spin stops here?”
Yeah, right.
I watched it also and the news reporter hinted at every commercial break that they would be asking the most important social topic question next,,and never did.
My guess would be the whole govt is one big lie.
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‎”You don’t have a democracy when you don’t have a free press.”
Minister Farrakhan Blasting Media & Reporters During Radio Interview Commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=4EKrXFcVyXE
My biggest media language peeve is “drug-related violence” as in “On Tuesday, Mexican authorities discovered an additional 47 decapitated corpses outside [Mexican town], adding to Monday’s find of 36. The once-quiet seaside village has been plagued by drug-related violence in recent years…” I guess “prohibition-related violence” would be asking too much?
Shirley you jest.
The Daily News page crashed before I could read it; no great loss.
Hey, Allan posted this to the previous thread, but it’s big so it bears repeating:
http://unionmmp.org/dhh-is-about-to-award-exclusive-rights-to-apply-marijuana-as-a-medical-therapeutic/
2011: The Year Corporations Attacked Democracy
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-burnett/2011-the-year-corporation_b_1153263.html#comments
For eighty years, Americans have feared robots, worrying they might one day rule the world. In 2011 we realized our real enemies are not robots, but multinational corporations, who have declared war on democracy.
I inserted the info into the above oped:
Want some icing on the cake?
LOS ANGELES, CA – Dec. 15, 2011–The Union of Medical Marijuana Patients has just discovered that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is about to award an exclusive license to KannaLife Sciences, Inc. of New York to develop medical therapeutiÂcs based on the chemistry of cannabis. According to the notice in the Federal Register, public comments will be accepted through Monday, December 19.
“”After years of spending billions of dollars to keep America thinking marijuana isn’t medicine,tÂhey sell their patents and a license to produce medicine from marijuana and still keep it as a schedule 1 drug so people can’t make their own medicine.
And,to top it off,they sell it to a “new” pharmaceutÂical company,owÂned by a banker.
Now if that isn’t corporate corruptionÂ,,please explain.””
Wow, click here to read the listing in the Federal Register.
“Applications for a license in the field of use filed in response to this notice will be treated as objections to the grant of the contemplated exclusive license. Comments and objections submitted to this notice will not be made available for public inspection and, to the extent permitted by law, will not be released under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552.Show citation box”
They intend to keep the process and the objections secret. This indicates to me they intend to knowingly violate the law in issuing this.
So, just as suspected, the US Gub’mint, in cahoots with corporations, is busily engaged in attacking the only (quasi)legal public source of cannabis medicines – the dispensaries in the various States that allow for them – with the express purpose of using the force of the Feds to remove any competition to Big Pharma’s eventual takeover of cannabis medicinals.
Just about everyone knows the definition of fascism: ““Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.” It happened with the Nazis, too. The first thing Hitler did after coming to power was to meet with the major industrialists and financiers; rather like what happens nowadays.
(Google the following: “Obama Clinton June 6 2008 Chantilly Virginia” to see what I mean.)
It cannot possibly get any plainer or simpler than that. And that is exactly what is happening; corporatism. And this Administration is the handmaiden of those same banksters that wrecked the economy. The same banksters who got filthy rich off of the drug trade by laundering its’ money…and thus don’t want a return to legalization.
yeah Kap… funny thing that corpocracy… it doesn’t live, never dies, yet participates in our elections. How cute.
I watch shit pretty good and what I don’t catch I’ll see sitting on the table in front of Pete’s couch that one of y’all dug up. I appreciate knowing we catch most… so when I saw this on KannaLife I sure recognized that Patent # and title because that’s the one I have bookmarked and frequently use. I knew there was something fishy here and prolly had some backroom stink to it.
I’m still confoosed tho’ about that whole it’s not medicine thing. I mean they’ve been trying to prove it isn’t medicine for 40 years and every time they dig… Doh!… they end up proving the opposite of that which they sought to prove (think Tashkin).
And a question I’ve been meaning to ask… and I think it’s important… whatever happened to Judge Francis Young?
Posted to Facebook, Digg and Twitter. Thanks for the second posting of this link, dc.
ttp://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2011/12/drug_quiz_show_could_get_25000.html The program is a product of the 80’s which students memorize talking points. I seems like a waste of time.
Christopher Hitchens (the good one) passed away today:
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2011/12/In-Memoriam-Christopher-Hitchens-19492011
Do you mean “the good one” as opposed to his conservative brother Peter Hitchens, or the curious doppelganger Chris who emerged in 2002 to cheer-lead for Bush and the neocons in Iraq? How ironic that he should die on the very day that the U.S. makes its tail-between-legs exit from the country he was so enthusiastic about invading. I don’t think many Iraqis are mourning.
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Take a look at the video attached to this piece:
http://www.wktv.com/news/local/Frankfort-man-facing-federal-drug-charges-after-more-than-3200-marijuana-plants-135687743.html
Are those agents police or soldiers? Perhaps that’s not the video intended to be attached but footage from Iraq?
Nope. That’s your fiendly neighborhood cop right there.
I think my typo should stand uncorrected in this case…
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What typo?
Damn DC, don’t you recognize an exercise in ironic stupidity as a rhetorical device? 😉
I think they are national guard.
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The site identifies them as “DEA and the New York State Police executed a federal search warrant…”
The pussy communist act may be on it’s last breath but still hasn’t been declared legally dead to the best of my knowledge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyK_ubfTwwE
Oh gawd…here’s another one from PoliceOne:
http://www.policeone.com/drug-interdiction-narcotics/articles/4780388-2011-in-Review-Issues-and-events-in-drug-enforcement/
That’s a new site to me. I wonder if there is a list of sites where prohibs get their, ahem, information?
…and don’t you forget, dc, that “Legalizing marijuana doesn’t stop bad people from doing bad things.”
He’s got a point there.
yeah…the point. That’s why he wears a funny polieman’s hat. Police one has popped up on the radar from time to time.
here’s another PoliceOne article y’all might find interesting (from Tom @ LEAP):
Legalizing marijuana: Police officers speak out
We conduct a fair number of member surveys and polls here on PoliceOne — some of which produce relatively predictable results. There are occasions, however, where we’re thoroughly and completely surprised by the vote tally. This, as you may have already figured out, is one of those occasions. A couple of weeks ago, we asked, “Should pot be legal?” and of the roughly 1,700 respondents, a full 44 percent said either ‘Yes, that’s where we’re headed.’ or ‘Maybe, depending on specifics.’ The other 56 percent came down on the side of either ‘No, legalization is a bad idea.’ or ‘Are you high? Of course not!’
That 12 percent margin may seem to be a wide chasm, but compared to a somewhat similar poll conducted here on PoliceOne about three years ago, the split was far greater — somewhere along the lines of a 65-35 margin.
Milloy also says cannabis increases accident risk and risk taking behavior. The way he casually perpetuates these lies is infuriating.
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The people on the outside regularly become confused when it comes to cause and effect. Just as they don’t seem able to grasp that the one thing just about every person that gives any recreational drug is a risk taker by nature, they further appear to be unable to see any possibility that the character trait of being a risk taker wasn’t caused by the use of recreational substances.
It’s truly absurd to think that risk adverse people will take risks in life. That’s almost as absurd as the fact that there are 3 Interstate highways in Hawaii.
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2011/12/drug_quiz_show_could_get_25000.html My apologies for a bad link earlier, this quiz contest just what is wrong with the media sometimes. I wonder if Michelle Leonhardt approves.
here’s an interesting story about joe arpaio: http://fuckthedrugwar.wordpress.com/tag/joe-arpaio/
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