Feds put damper on big pot farms

OAKLAND, Calif., July 2 (UPI) -- Plans to build a large marijuana-growing facility in Oakland, Calif., were stymied when the Obama administration clarified its position on the issue.
In a letter to federal prosecutors, U.S. Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole said plans some cities and states have for "multiple, large-scale, privately operated, industrial marijuana cultivation centers" are against the law.
In a Los Angeles Times report, Cole said Obama's hands-off policy on medical marijuana patients was "never intended to shield such activities from federal enforcement action and prosecution, even where those activities purport to comply with state law."
"Unfortunately, this is a step backward," said Joe Elford, chief counsel for Americans for Safe Access. "We kind of regard this as kind of the equivalent of 'don't ask, don't tell.' Obama made certain campaign promises, and he's not carrying through on them."
Cole's letter put a damper on one Oakland man's plan to convert 172,000 acres of aging and empty warehouse buildings into a medical marijuana-growing center.
Jeff Wilcox said he commissioned a report concluding his proposal would be worth $59 million annually, and could send up to $3.4 million to city coffers each year.
Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have legalized the use of medical cannabis for a wide range of conditions, from back pain to migraine headaches.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/07/02/Feds-put-damper-on-big-pot-farms/UPI-42481309613555/#ixzz1QxZic3L3

A 172 acre pot farm?  Wow!  I thought corn was the crop of the future what with ethanol and alternative fuels.  I am hoping to become a farmer some day and I have a new plan.  I am developing a new fuel based on the cannabis plant.  It’s called cannigas. You will be able to sit at a stop light and ease the migraine pain of the guy behind you.  Think about it!  Finally; there’s a fuel that’s good for the climate and eliminates headache pain.  When my new fuel hits the market there will be a lot less road rage.  With cannigas you can relieve aches and pains, drive a green car, and become a much happier commuter.  Your car will get 42 miles to the gallon, and if it doesn’t . . . . .  you won’t care.  You can throw your GPS away.  With cannigas if you get lost  . . . . . . you won’t care. They say that Americans are addicted to their cars. . . . . not anymore.  While cannigas may change your driving habit; it is not addictive! 

Michele Bachmann Defends Federal Funds To Husband's Clinic

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Republican presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann is deflecting questions about federally subsidized health dollars that have flowed to her husband's mental health clinic.
As the tea party hero tours the nation attacking the size of federal government, the Minnesota congresswoman has come under heightened scrutiny over public dollars flowing to family business interests. That includes $137,000 that Bachmann and Associates has received for treating patients in Medicaid-backed programs.
NBC's Michael Isikoff reports:

The previously unreported payments are on top of the $24,000 in federal and state funds that Bachmann & Associates, the clinic founded by Marcus Bachmann, a clinical therapist, received in recent years under a state grant to train its employees, state records show. The figures were provided to NBC News in response to a Freedom of Information request.

The Los Angeles Times reported last weekend:

Michele Bachmann lists the Lake Elmo, Minn.-based clinic — which aims to provide "quality Christian counseling in a sensitive, loving environment," according to its website — as one of her assets on her financial disclosure forms.

Bachmann press secretary Alice Stewart issued a statement Wednesday contending that it "would be discriminatory" for the clinic to turn away Medicaid patients. She says Marcus Bachmann's business has the responsibility to provide the care "regardless of a patient's financial situation."
Neither Michele nor Marcus Bachmann would respond to questions about the arrangement during a campaign stop in South Carolina.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/29/michele-bachmann-medicaid-funds_n_887107.html

Oooooohhhh watch the flameout begin.  OK; maybe this is on the up and up, but if you look in my front yard you will find that I have raised the bullsh*t flag.  I just can’t bring myself to trust a politician, and I think once the rocks are turned over we will see that there is more than moss.

GOODBYE GLENN

Glenn Beck stepped down from his Fox News show on Thursday after two-and-half tumultuous, controversial years at the network.
He kept the chalkboards to a minimum, and shed no tears. He also shied away from too many specific recollections about his show. Instead, he broadly reminisced about what he said he had learned from the experience, repeatedly praised Fox News for allowing his show to air and professed his excitement for his next step: the Web TV channel known as "GBTV."
Beck said that the reason for his departure from Fox News was simple: there was more that he wanted to do. The show, he said, was really a movement "that belongs in your home. It belongs in your neighborhoods. Not really television." He repeatedly directed viewers to his website, where the next chapter of his professional life will be centered.
The show featured many of the things that made Beck famous—long monologues, high emotion, mentions of God and Hitler—but, in some ways, was hardly representative of the show that made him, for a few years at least, a cultural icon and a lightning rod.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/30/glenn-beck-fox-news-last-show_n_888155.html

Well the day has finally come.  “The show, he said, was really a movement "that belongs in your home.”  I would agree that the GB show was in fact a movement that belongs in your home.  Now let me think what other movements might one have in their own home?  . . . . hhmmmmmm.  The report says that Glenn was a lightening rod.  Again I agree; a lightening “nimrod”.  GB stands for GoooooooodddddBbbbyyyeeeee!

Justice Ginsburg Worries About Supreme Court's Politicization

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg expressed concern over the increasing influence of politics on the Supreme Court in a recent interview with USA Today.


"What I care most about I think most of my colleagues do, too," the liberal leaning justice explained, "is that we want this institution to maintain the position that it has had in this system, where it is not considered a political branch of government."


While Ginsburg wouldn't say if her worries about the court's politicization pertained to the actions of any of her colleagues specifically, she did point to the growing divisiveness of the judicial nomination process as evidence that political leanings were working their way into the system.


From USA Today:
"It will take a real statesman to blow the whistle" to stop the pattern, she said. Ginsburg, who was nominated by President Clinton in 1993, was approved on a 96-3 vote. She said she doubted she would enjoy the same bipartisan support today.


Ginsburg went on to describe a particular case in which the court ruled -- 5-4, along ideological lines -- to overthrow a $14 million judgment granted to a former death row inmate convicted of murder after New Orleans prosecutors withheld evidence that might have proven his innocence.


USA Today relays her comments:
"It was an instance of extreme injustice. I thought that the court was not just wrong but egregiously so," she said. She said she decided not simply to let the written statement speak for itself, as is the usual practice, to bring attention to a criminal justice system that "had misfired."


"I was doing it to influence my colleagues and (lower court) judges who could stop this kind of thing," she said of prosecutors' concealing exculpatory evidence.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/01/ruth-bader-ginsburg-supreme-court_n_888861.html

Now you’re worried?  Now?  It hasn’t occurred to you before that perhaps this might be a problem with the Supreme Court?  The High Court it seems; is not-so-much about justice as it is about deciding who is right.  The more political it becomes the less it checks and balances the other two branches.  Justice is not about being right or wrong.  When two attorneys from opposing sides of the question argue, believe me; they both believe they are right. It is the duty of the court to decide; “what” is right; not “who” is right; according to the law.  When politics is at play the decisions become too easy and more importantly these decisions will be unjust.  The courts should not decide who is wrong and who is right.  The courts are called upon to decide whether or not the law was broken or it wasn’t.  We are a land of laws, but more and more we are a land of politicians.  What happened to our compass, and how did we get so far off course?

Pippa Middleton Apparently Not 100 Percent Single

While Prince Harry dispelled rumors about his love life late last week, telling reporters, "I'm 100 percent single," best friend Pippa Middleton took a different route.
She stepped out to Wimbledon on Wednesday to watch the men's single quarter final between Andy Murray and Feliciano Lopez.
The bad news -- she was seated between her parents, Michael and Carole, and her supposed boyfriend Alex Loudon. The pair was rumored to have split earlier this month after Duchess Catherine's sister had been spotted out with her ex, George Percy. But it appears that the Divine Miss P is still off the market.
And the worse news: so is her dress. InStyle.com reports that the NW3 by Hobbs linen shift with a square neckline and gold buttons has already sold out on Hobbs.co.uk and JohnLewis.com.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/29/pippa-middleton-alex-loudon_n_887162.html

Ahhh the Divine Ms. P enjoys tennis and the company of her parents and boyfriend; just your average day at the court with 30 or 40 photographers snapping your every move.  Leave the girl alone and let her enjoy herself!  It’s not like she’s playing the freaking game.  She is a spectator; a mere member of the audience.  Did your tripod break and your lens just happened to swing toward the lovely Ms. Middleton?

Another Politician Caught Sending Racy Pictures

A Louisiana politician admitted to sending a picture of himself in his underwear to a city employee, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.
"I had an inappropriate but consensual relation (sic) with an adult female and we exchanged improper electronic communications which ended (in) 2009," Kenner City, La. City Councilman Joe Stagni said in a statement.
According to location station Fox 8:

Stagni sent the picture via text message to a Kenner employee back in 2009. That text message was forwarded through Kenner's email system to at least one other employee.

WWL.com reports that the local official didn't mean for the image in question to turn up a city computer server.
Fellow City Council member Brenda Amaya criticized the behavior demonstrated by Stagni as outrageous, according to local station WDSU. "It's his own private business, but since he's an elected official, it's not acceptable," she told the New Orleans-based outlet.
The Times-Picayune reports that Stagni issued an apology for his actions in a statement, noting that he's "asked for God's mercy and forgiveness" along with that of his wife and family.
Stagni's admission comes in the wake of ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) resigning after racy photos surfaced of him on Twitter and subsequently in reports online.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/28/joe-stagni-photo-underwear_n_886450.html

You know; I was really thinking about texting a photo of me in my underpants to all my friends.  I had it all planned actually; I would wear my best drawers, use my best camera and stand in front of the mirror and then “click”; I would snap the picture that would make history.  What could be the harm?  I mean you know; it’s just a picture.  Now there is a problem.  Everyone is doing it.  Now it’s just too passé; too cliché, too overdone.  For me to stand in front of the mirror and take a picture in my Sundays best undergarments would make me just like all the rest of these fruit of the looms! 

I stand in front of a mirror and I wonder.

Would you like to see what I wear down under?

I have boxer briefs and I have a Kodak

If only I had a worthy six pack

I push the button and I hear a click

Oh my gosh you can see my Schick

I left my razor out in clear view

This is something I never do.

I push the button and I hear a click

Oh my gosh you can see my tick

I must have got it from the nearby woods

It had to of bit me where I stood.

I give up now, I’m having bad premonitions

This kind of thing is only for politicians.

Access to House Gym One of Many Perks for Ex-Rep. Weiner

Rep. Anthony Weiner can still get his demons out at the House gym, though he resigned from Congress a week ago in the wake of a lurid Twitter scandal. 

As an ex-member of Congress, the New York Democrat will enjoy certain perks in the nation's capital for the rest of his life -- in addition to a pension that could easily be worth $1 million over the next several decades. 

On the list of facilities he'll have access to is the House gym, the location where several photos of Weiner in various states of disrobe may have been taken. He'll also be allowed to use the Library of Congress, eat in House restaurant facilities and park on the House side of the Capitol -- space permitting. And in case he has a hankering to deliver a thunderous speech, former members typically are afforded floor privileges while Congress is in session. 

For the time being, Weiner is working on honing his mental state more than his abs. The New York Post reports that Weiner is about to enter an "intensive" rehab program, as he and wife Huma Abedin try to salvage their marriage. 

Abedin is pregnant, and Weiner has said they have no intention of splitting up. A former colleague told the Post the ex-congressman is "headed next" to the rehab program. 

Weiner resigned after admitting to sending lewd photos over the Internet to several women.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/06/29/access-to-house-gym-one-many-perks-for-ex-rep-weiner/#ixzz1QiZ198qH

You know . . . . . . I’m not as concerned about the fact that he still has access to these perks as I am that the perks exist in the first place for all the members of congress.  Do you really think they pay for the food in the restaurants or the use of that gym?  Do you think they pay for parking or for their dry cleaning?  You know that gym isn’t some ordinary 24 hour fitness either. I hear there’s a sauna and steam room, restroom facilities with extra wide stalls for people who need a wide stance.  I am told the mirrors are heated so they won’t fog up because that would make it more difficult to take a decent photo of your towel clad body; and those towels; they’re 800 thread-count so that your private parts will look plush.  Cologne and other assorted toiletries are complimentary and so are the workout clothes.  What a great job; makes you wish you were a congressman.