Obama’s Drug Czar Continues to Live in a Fantasy Land

by Michael Boldin

As originally posted on: Tenth Amendment Center Blog
April 20, 2013

On Wednesday, April 17, 2013, the White House drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, announced his recognition of the nullification movement. “No state, no executive can nullify a statute that has been passed by Congress,” he said. As reported by RawStory – and many other sources – Kerlikowske made this statement at the beginning of his speech to the National Press Club in an effort to say that federal laws on marijuana will prevail regardless of state-level efforts to legalize.

But, Facts on the ground show that the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy is living some kind of lala land. Gil, I’ve got news for you. They states already ARE nullifying.

Fact: 18 states have already legalized marijuana, 16 for medical purposes only with Washington State and Colorado going the next step, full legalization.

Fact: Gil wouldn’t be wasting his time talking about how “states can’t” do this if it wasn’t having an effect.

Fact: Without state and local law enforcement cooperation, the feds are fighting a losing battle.

It’s not a matter of IF the states will fully and completely nullify the unconstitutional federal prohibition on marijuana. It’s only a matter of when.

And to back it up even further, alcohol prohibition came crumbling down by a similar process. By 1928, 28 states had stopped funding for alcohol prohibition enforcement and local police were sporadic in their enforcement efforts. In a 1925 address to Congress, Maryland’s Senator Bruce stated, “national prohibition went into legal effect upward of six years ago, but it can be truly said that, except to a highly qualified extent, it has never gone into practical effect at all.”

“Let’s be clear: law enforcement officers take an oath of office to uphold federal law and they are going to continue to pursue drug traffickers and drug dealers,” Gil said. But Gil, you know as well as I do – law enforcement officials take an oath to the Constitution, not “federal law.”

The American people – in a growing majority – support state nullification of federal marijuana “laws.” According to Pew Research earlier this month, “60% say that the federal government should not enforce federal laws prohibiting the use of marijuana in states where it is legal.”

Those people aren’t saying that states should be able to legalize if the feds change their laws. Nope. It’s the other way around. They believe that states should be able to make a decision on marijuana no matter what federal laws happen to exist.

We’re watching the biggest nullification effort in the history of the United States. Gil knows it. And he know he’s going to lose.

Michael Boldin [send him email] is the founder of the Tenth Amendment Center. He was raised in Milwaukee, WI, and currently resides in Los Angeles, CA. Follow him on twitter – @michaelboldin, on LinkedIn, and on Facebook.

I absolutely had to pick my chin off of my desk this morning when I read Jonathon Fowlie’s feature on the premier. In particular, the portion where her son ( I do hate bringing anyone’s child into politics,but damn it, … Continue reading →

Two men were apparently planning to derail a VIA train with the “guidance and support” of Al Qaeda in Iran.

At a press conference this afternoon RCMP officials announced that two men have been arrested and face charges in conjunction with an attack they were allegedly planning against a particular VIA rail route (though the RCMP would not confirm which one). Chiheb Esseghaier (30, Montreal) and Raed Jaser (35, Toronto) face multiple charges for “activities [...]

In the grand scheme of all things political, many would still consider me a political neophyte. I didn’t take political science – business and criminology is far more useful – and my experience working in politics is limited to handling … Continue reading →

And a happy 420 to all the beautiful stoners out there #StayHigh #stayLifted #stayhappy

by “Canadian Stoner Beb♥”

As originally posted on: Canadian Stoner Beb♥ (Stonerbeb420) on Twitter
April 19, 2013

Analyzing the many reports of sexual assaults on campus

Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter says the provincial government will give $50,000 to the MassGeneral Hospital for Children in response to the bombings at the Boston Marathon. Dexter rose in the provincial legislature today to express his condolences after Monday’s bombings killed three people and injured more than 170 others. He said Nova Scotians share [...]

  Well, it was a bit of a shocking reminder as I logged into my blog this morning and received a celebratory congratulations on my 6th year anniversary – it was on this date 6 years ago I registered my … Continue reading →

By Michael J.W. Stickings

With information still coming in and speculation running wild, I don’t have a great deal to say about the attack — criminal and possibly terrorist, but it is premature to comment — that occurred in Boston on Monday, near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. (It’s a city, and larger metropolitan area, that I love a great deal and feel a deep connection to, from my four years at Tufts.)

I spent much of the day and evening on Twitter, reading my feed and also tweeting myself, and re-tweeting others. Say what you want about it, Twitter is a great tool especially during challenging times. Sure, there’s a lot of reckless tweeting in response to any such situation, much of it quite disgusting, and there’s a lot of unsubstantiated commenting, much of it fearmongering, but all that is going on everywhere, not just in the Twitterverse. For me, Twitter is a place to hear from some truly thoughtful people saying truly thoughtful things, providing helpful links and otherwise coming together to share information and ideas. It has its limits, but it’s very useful, and while I’m not as avid a tweeter as many others, I like to join in, and especially today, as we were all trying to formulate our thoughts, it was a better place to post than this blog.

If you want to see what I tweeted and/or if you wish to follow me, go here (@mjwstickings). I’ll just single out this one:

It’s terrible what happened in #Boston, but can everyone just stop the fucking fearmongering and paranoia? Take a step back. #bostonmarathon
— Michael Stickings (@mjwstickings) April 16, 2013

Okay, that’s strong language, but I meant it. There has been all manner of speculation — there were five other packages with explosives, there was a third explosion at the JFK Library, a suspect is in custody — but really we know almost nothing beyond the obvious. I assume that law enforcement agencies, led by the FBI, know a lot more than we do and for obvious reasons aren’t going public, and apparently there’s something going on in the Boston suburb of Revere right now, but to me it seems irresponsible to take any of this speculation or any unsubstantiated reports seriously, even more so to participate in spreading them. This is not to say the media shouldn’t be doing their job, just that there isn’t much most of us can add to the story right now.

And by the way, at some point it’s important to turn away, if only temporarily, from Twitter, other social media, and even most traditional news outlets (the New York Post was especially awful in its reckless and irresponsible coverage, but I found CNN’s coverage lacking as well; MSNBC was fine; I didn’t bother with Fox News or any of the other right-wing media outlets — I read enough about their various transgressions on Twitter) and hear from the few news outlets that actually do their jobs really well and have the resources to provide excellent (and sober) reporting, and today, for me, that was The Boston Globe and The New York Times, as well as NBC, which aired an outstanding one-hour special from 10 to 11 hosted by Brian Williams — really well done.

Don’t get me wrong, we’re all entitled to our opinions, and to sharing them. I just think we should wait before drawing conclusions — makes sense, no? After all, it makes a huge difference whether al Qaeda or some homegrown right-wing group was being this attack — or some other group entirely, or even a lone individual. Because right now we don’t know anything — who it was, the motive, anything.

This was a vicious attack on innocent civilians, “an assault,” Derrick Jackson wrote at the Globe, “on our civic life.” It took place on an important day in Boston — the day of the marathon, Patriots’ Day, a civic holiday in Massachusetts (as well as Maine). And as President Obama said, “make no mistake, we will get to the bottom of this, and we will find out who did this, we’ll find out why they did this.” Those responsible will “feel the full weight of justice.”

That time, hopefully, will come. Fow now, let us focus on the victims and their loved ones, and on the heroic first responders and others at the scene who bravely rushed to help the victims, now knowing what else might be coming, even as our thoughts turn to the search for those behind this attack, and to the reasons for it, as we try to make sense of what seems to have been so utterly senseless.

**********

I generally do not post editorial cartoons, out of respect for the artist’s right to his or her work, but I wanted to post this one, by the Globe‘s Dan Wasserman, which is making the rounds and which so beautifully captures the essence of this horrendous incident and the incredible response to it in Boston — even with so much bloodshed, one can see in the response the humanity that binds us all together. Amid such ugliness, it is a truly wonderful thing.

A typically joyful day in Boston was marred by a terrorist bombing where two explosions killed multiple people, and injured at least 50 with injuries as serious as amputations.

It’s a grim reminder that peaceful life in North America is very much taken for granted, and our innocence will again be exploited by those who’ll seek to use this bombing as a means to remove more freedoms from the American people.

Reddit has more links than you’ll care to view. Following the attack on 9/11, I read everything I could, watched every video angle, probably searching for answers; Dreaming of way to turn back time to prevent it. There will never be a way to undo things like this. We need to make sure that our societies don’t create people willing to commit these crimes against humanity.

. . . → Read More: Saskboy’s Abandoned Stuff: Boston Marathon Attacked by Bombings

@anarchoantihero I have a job. All I want to do while I’m there is smash things.by “Anarchangel”As originally posted on: Anarchangel (brinaerin) on TwitterMarch 6, 2013

LAWYERS DESTROYING AMERICA ONE LIE AT A TIME, DEMAND ANNUAL POLYGRAPHS FOR THE COURTS?

by Robert Gettinger

As originally posted on: Ugly Judge
April 1, 2013

Ever watch a defense attorney MAKE A FORTUNE for getting a totally guilty person off? Why are attorney’s allowed to HELP guilty people to get away with crime? I don’t have a problem with getting a fair hearing however LYING and dishonesty at any cost is wrong. Law has been made into a complicated language, which only helps lawyers protect their jobs. Worse our courts are used by lawyers to abuse seniors, get unethical RICH people off, stop investigations and hinder justice. Lawyers are out of control in America. Look deeper America, its YOUR AMERICA being raped by your laws.

America MUST insure our justice system is based and run by HONEST, ethical and moral people. Lawyers and judges have been found to abuse law and ignore our constitutional rights. They swear to an oath and should respect our laws and constitution. Have you been victimized by an unethical lawyer who lies? Who will perjure a petition for profit?

TEXAS AS AN EXAMPLE OF NEEDED CHANGE

Some of the ugliest Lawyers in the World HERE

HOW OUR COURT SYSTEM IS USED AGAINST THE PUBLIC AND TO STOP JUSTICE AND HELP CRIMINALS

by Robert Gettinger

As originally posted on: Ugly Judge
April 1, 2013

Its all too common today for our court system to be used by the REAL CRIMINALS to abuse, hinder and stop JUSTICE. Did you know that a criminal with money can hire an unethical lawyer to go to court to bankrupt you (where the real goal is to stop you from bringing evidence of a crime to the public).? Fact is its done all the time, the bad guy may be able to OUTSPEND you, outlast you. Often the judge is aware of this and ALLOWS this to be done. The legal bar is informed and its business as usual. Its never about justice, constitutional rights, fairness or even life over death. Its about WHO HAS MORE MONEY. While American’s are seeing more and more unethical judges who will rule in favor of WHO PAYS them more rather than justice, the system fails.

EXAMPLE ONE

Crystal Cox Exposed big Business for crime and unethical behavior and went up against big money, with that money the judge was influenced as well as media to make up stories and twist the facts to make it appear Crystal was the problem. When in fact if you read all the facts of the case AND EVIDENCE the people Crystal is exposing are the REAL CRIMINALS. It shows you how MONEY can stop justice from taking place. How false media reports DON’T EXPLAIN the crimes, they just attempt to discredit the messenger which is Crystal.

THE FULL CRYSTAL COX STORY

EXAMPLE TWO

Sharon Noonan Kramer Who was terrorized by Judges in San Diego working with BIG BUSINESS used perjury and fraud to stop people from taking action against well know mold toxins. Imagine that, judges hiding the fact that Mold in your home (is not a threat to your health) when its been medically proven. Its about judges working with unethical people TO STEAL, to help them NOT pay for their crimes. JUDGES AND LAWYERS who swore to an oath.

HOW JUDGES AND LAWYERS HIDE HEALTH RISKS FROM THE PUBLIC FOR PROFIT

EXAMPLE THREE

Robert Gettinger I myself went to court when I found out my own sister had perjured a petition forcing our mother into a conservatorship behind my back. Not only had Sylvia Schmidt of San Marino CA done this to access our mother’s estimated 2 million dollars life savings, but to hide the fact she had stolen over $250,000 in bank account funds prior to the conservatorship. She did this by burglarizing our mothers home while she was at work. Armed with full evidence of the crimes, abuse and fraud by Sylvia Schmidt and her unethical lawyer Christopher Overgaard of Glendale CA who also perjured the petition I went to court. I quickly became aware of HOW THIS IS ALL POSSIBLE. Sylvia now had posession of over 2 million dollars and could hire the President of the Pasadena Bar Philip Barbaro Jr. of Chino Hills CA to surpress subpoenas, evidence, influence the judge (also by him having close ties to the presiding judge Aviva K. Bobb). Note that Barbaro now used the court to delay, extend and cause huge legal costs, in efforts of stopping the evidence from coming out about the abuse and theft from an 86 year old woman Gertrude Gettinger

MY ENTIRE STORY HOW MONEY HIDES CRIMINALS

What all the examples show beyond a doubt is how our court system is used against the HONEST, GOOD person who is helping the court and system to stop crimes. Yet big money is involved and used to hire lawyers who act unethically and stop justice.

The Counter Revolutionby T.L. DavisAs originally posted on: TL In ExileApril 11, 2013There is nothing left to wait for. The Feds have made their moves already and where federal legislation may not work, they have gone into the states, Missouri for exam…

Attack on Seattle “Green” Developmentby “Some Anarchists”As originally posted on: Puget Sound AnarchistsMarch 3, 2013Just before midnight, Monday Feb 25, we strolled over to the townhouses under construction on 24th and Norman in the Central District. …

Editorial cartoon via: The Chronicle Herald The Canadian Progressive recommends: Rehtaeh Parsons: Anonymous Says It Has Rape Confession War on women Scathing report accuses RCMP of raping, abusing B.C. Aboriginal women We recommend:Rehtaeh Parsons: Ano…

North Korea Pirates Spy Tools and Porn on BitTorrent

by “Ernesto”

As originally posted on: TorrentFreak
April 12, 2013

With only a few hundred IP-addresses North Korea’s Internet presence is rather limited. Only a choice few are able to connect to the World Wide Web and access all the free information that comes with it. TorrentFreak decided to take a deeper look at the BitTorrent downloads that can be traced back to North Korean IP-addresses and the results are intriguing, yet expected.

Over the past months we’ve discovered pirates in the most unusual places, from the FBI, through major record labels, to the Vatican.

Continuing down this path we decided to take a look at what’s being shared from North Korean IP-addresses, threats aside.

With full Internet connectivity limited to a tiny minority of the population there’s not much BitTorrent sharing going on, but the results are worth reporting.

A search in the database of BitTorrent monitoring company Scaneye returned 84 titles that were shared from North Korea. These file-sharers used a variety of BitTorrent clients and several IP-addresses that are officially registered to the dictatorial regime.

One of the titles that jumps out immediately is “Net Monitor for Employees Professional,” which seamlessly fits the country’s profile. Ironically, the downloader in question did very little to cover his or her own tracks.

There are also other needs for which BitTorrent can give a helping hand, on the adult entertainment front for example. The screenshot below shows a selection of the adult clips, including the work of Japanese porn actress Marica Hase and her U.S. colleague Alice Frost.

Aside from spy tools and porn there are plenty of less controversial titles listed as well. “The Complete Home Decorating Idea Book” for example, which may have been out of stock at the local book store.

American movies and TV-shows are also hard to obtain in North Korea it seems, but the pirated editions are easily accessible online.

“The Following” for example, a TV-show about a psychotic serial killer who leads a cult of serial-killing followers. Or the horror film Death From Above, which features several pro-wrestling stars in the cast.

The above reveals a bit more about the download habits of a few North Koreans. We have to note though, that North Korean IP-ranges have been vulnerable to hijacks in the past so you’re never 100% sure who might be using them. Nevertheless, even in these instances you wouldn’t expect the hijacker to use IP-addresses for casual downloading.

All in all it’s safe to conclude that pirates can be found anywhere in the world and that American entertainment knows no borders.

We’re all dishonouring Rehtaeh Parsons by being worse people for her passing.

If the suicide of a 17 year-old isn’t bad enough, our neglect of its causes certainly is.

Instead of trying to figure out how to make sure troubled young people get the help they need and don’t end their lives prematurely, Canadians are instead focused completely on vengeance. But vengeance has never stopped a young girl from committing suicide, and it’s Rehtaeh’s suicide that is the real tragedy.  

Our simple instinctual preference to focus on Rehtaeh’s rape is the easy way out. It allows us to justify basic instincts that demand retribution while allowing us to avoid having to solve the more complex problems that made this victim feel helpless and abandoned which directly caused her to take her own life.

Rehtaeh’s rape was a horrible crime, but it did not take her life away. For eighteen . . . → Read More: The Scott Ross: We’re All Dishonouring Rehtaeh Parsons

    Now You See Me pits an elite FBI squad in a game of cat and mouse against “The…

This is just an excerpt of the article. Please visit the site to read more!

Jennifer Pawluck Arrested For Instagram Photo Of Ian Lafreniere Graffiti

by Patrick Bellerose

As originally posted on: The Huffington Post Canada
April 8, 2013

A 20-year-old Montreal woman was surprised when police showed up at her home to arrest her for an Instagram photo she took of graffiti showing Montreal police spokesperson Ian Lafreniere with a bullet in his head.

Jennifer Pawluck took the photo in question in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighbourhood of Montreal last month.

“Many of my friends do not like the police,” Pawluck told the Huffington Post Québec, in French. “I thought it would be funny to put the picture on Instagram. I do not even know who he is, Ian Lafreniere.”

The police arrived at her home Wednesday morning with a warrant accusing her of uttering threats to the well-known spokesman for the City of Montreal Police Department (SPVM). She was brought to the police station and detained for nearly four hours, she said. The SPVM had not returned calls from Huffington Post Québec at the time of publication.

The arrest warrant alleges that Pawluck acted with intent to harass Lafreniere and gave him reason to fear for his safety.

While she awaits her trial date, Pawluck must not come within one kilometre of SPVM headquarters or Lafreniere’s home.

Pawluck was a familiar face during last year’s tuition protests by Quebec students. She was arrested three times during mass roundups, but says she has never been arrested under the Criminal Code before.

“I’m not a violent person,” she said. “I did not want to hurt anyone. “

Pawluck says the arrest took place peacefully and officers were “friendly.” She was read her rights, but not handcuffed.

Pawluck intends to plead not guilty when she appears in court on April 17.