Can More Arrests Ever Stop Marijuana?
Source/Links:
Since the founding of the Drug Enforcement Administration in 1973, 15 million Americans have been arrested for marijuana.
That is more people than live in California’s 25 largest cities – millions more than live in Ohio, Pennsylvania or Illinois.
The DEA has led an aggressive national law enforcement effort that results in a marijuana arrest every 38 seconds, propelling the U.S. to become the biggest incarcerator on the planet, housing one out of four of the world’s prisoners. Despite mass arrests, incarceration and the tearing apart of millions of families, the war rages on with no end in sight.
Since the DEA’s founding, approximately 90% of youth have described marijuana as easy to get in annual federal surveys. It is easier for young Americans to buy marijuana than it is to buy alcohol or prescription drugs which are legally regulated and controlled.
Is there any reason to think that millions more arrests – with costs running into the billions – will win the marijuana war?
Last week every former U.S. DEA head came out against Proposition 19 which would end possession arrests and allow local jurisdictions in California to make marijuana legal. No surprise that drug enforcement bureaucrats want to defend their marijuana enforcement budgets. They even oppose medical marijuana for people suffering and dying. But, more important for the voter, this is an opportunity to look at the big picture. Voters should ask themselves:
Has the marijuana war, with more than 800,000 arrests each year, worked?
Will more arrests stop marijuana?
If not, isn’t it time to consider alternatives that could better control marijuana?
Thankfully, the DEA is not the only law enforcement voice. Recently the National Black Police Association came out in support of Prop. 19, following a slew of endorsements from unions, faith leaders and the NAACP. On Monday, simultaneous press conferences will be held at Oakland City Hall and in West Hollywood Park to announce a letter of endorsement signed by dozens of law enforcers across California.
Joseph McNamara, former police chief in San Jose, CA and Kansas City, MO, an active member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, describes the marijuana laws as much worse than ineffective: “they waste valuable police resources and also create a lucrative black market that funds cartels and criminal gangs with billions of tax-free dollars." Federal researchers find marijuana to be safer than many legal drugs, so why waste precious law enforcement resources on it?
These officers, judges and prosecutors support Proposition 19 because it:
*
Stops wasting police on non-violent marijuana offenders and enables them to focus on preventing violent crime,
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Cuts off funding to violent gangs and drug cartels,
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Reduces marijuana access to children by instituting strict age-limits and public safety controls,
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Protects the lives of police officers now at risk in the "drug war," and
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Restores mutual respect and good relations between law enforcement and communities bearing the brunt of the current marijuana laws.
These police views are shared by the California Legislative Analyst which says Prop 19 would enable California to put our police priorities where they belong saying it "could result in savings to the state and local governments by reducing the number of marijuana offenders incarcerated in state prisons and county jails, as well as the number placed under county probation or state parole supervision. These savings could reach several tens of millions of dollars annually. The county jail savings would be offset to the extent that jail beds no longer needed for marijuana offenders were used for other criminals who are now being released early because of a lack of jail space."
Proposition 19 is a cautious reform that keeps in mind public safety. It empowers local jurisdictions to decide whether to bring adult use of marijuana within the law and how to regulate it. It maintains strict criminal penalties for driving under the influence, increases the penalty for providing marijuana to a minor, expressly prohibits consumption in public, forbids smoking while minors are present, and bans possession on school grounds.
In addition to being good policy that sets common sense police priorities and regulates marijuana so it is more difficult for children to get, it will generate $1.4 billion in tax revenue each year according to California's tax collector, the Board of Equalization.
California voters should thank the federal drug enforcement bureaucrats for showing that – despite their best efforts over nearly four decades - the marijuana war cannot be won and it is time for voters to do what politicians refuse to do: tax and control marijuana.
Kevin Zeese is president of Common Sense for Drug Policy and executive director of Prosperity Agenda.
A href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=21007
Monday, September 13, 2010
9/11 Questions Remain Unanswered
Summary: Peter Dale Scott: "I do know for a certainty that there has been a cover-up of 9/11"
9/11. The Mother Of All Coincidences.
“America’s strategic and economic interests in the Mideast and Muslim world are being threatened by the agony in Palestine, which inevitably invites terrorist attacks against US citizens and property.” Eric Margolis. Sun Media. 2 September, 2001.
Ever since 9/11, readers keep asking me my views on these attacks. I have been barraged with emails until my head spins with engineering studies about melting steel, controlled explosions, claims about nefarious plots, and wreckage analysis.
One of the most colorful theories comes from Gen. Hamid Gul, former director of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, ISI. He insists that 9/11 was staged by Israel’s Mossad and a cabal of rightwing US Air Force generals.
I inspected the ruins of the New York’s Twin Towers, atop which I often dined, right after the attack. Downtown Manhattan was enveloped by a hideous, stinking miasma from the attack. I have never smelled anything so awful. It took me days to scrub the foul odor off my body. As a native New Yorker, I was shaken to the core by 9/11 – but hardly surprised, as I had predicted a major attack on the US nine days earlier.
While visiting the Pentagon to consult on the Mideast, I also inspected its outside wall hit by the third hijacked aircraft.
I saw photos of the impact site and could not understand what had happened to all the aircraft wreckage. There was almost none.
In 1993, I was hijacked over Germany on a Lufthansa flight bound for Cairo. The Ethiopian hijacker took us all the way back to New York City. The hijacker was threatening to crash our A310 jumbo jet into Wall Street.
Our flight was shadowed by US F-15 fighters that had orders to shoot, if necessary. Where, then, was US air defense on 11 Sept. 2001?
A day after 9/11, I was asked on CNN if Osama bin Laden was behind the attack. ‘We have yet to see the evidence,’ I replied. I maintain this position today.
Bin Laden denied he or al-Qaida was behind 9/11 and the death’s of nearly 3,000 people. The plot was hatched in Hamburg, Germany and Madrid, Spain, not in Afghanistan. A Pakistani, Khaled Sheik Mohammed, claimed he was the mastermind – after being tortured by near-drowning 183 times by the CIA.
While denying involvement, Osama bin Laden did say he believed the attack on New York was in part motivated by Israel’s destruction of downtown Beirut during its 1982 invasion of Lebanon that inflicted some 18,000 civilian deaths.
Tapes that appeared to confirm bin Laden’s guilt were clumsy fakes. They were supposedly “found” in Afghanistan by the anti-Taliban Afghan Northern Alliance, which was created and funded by Russian intelligence.
I had met Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and told CNN viewers that he was not the man in the tapes.
After 9/11, Secretary of State Colin Powell promised Americans the State Department would issue a White Paper detailing bin Laden’s guilt. Afghanistan’s Taliban government asked for this document before it would extradite bin Laden, as the US was demanding. The White Paper was never produced, and the US ignored proper legal procedure and invaded Afghanistan. We still wait for evidence.
I remain uncertain that Osama bin Laden was really behind the attacks. Much circumstantial evidence points to him and al-Qaida, but conclusive proof still lacks. One thing is certain: the attacks were planned and mounted from Germany, not Afghanistan. Of the 19 hijackers, 15 were Saudis, two from the United Arab Emirates, one an Egyptian and a Lebanese.
By the way, I’ve said ever since 9/11 that the danger and size of al-Qaida has been vastly exaggerated – as an explosive report this week by the London’s esteemed International Institute for Strategic Studies has just confirmed. Al-Qaida, dedicated to fighting the Afghan Communists, never had more than 300 members at its peak.
Today, according to CIA chief Leon Panetta, there are no more than 50 al-Qaida men in Afghanistan. Yet President Barack Obama has tripled the number of US troops in Afghanistan to 120,000 because of what to calls the al-Qaida threat. What is going on?
Many people abroad believe al-Qaida is an American invention used to justify foreign military operations. I do not share this view. Osama bin Laden was never a US agent, though his group indirectly received funds from CIA to fight the Communists.
Back to 9/11. I still cannot understand how amateur pilots could manage to maneuver in low to hit the World Trade Center and Pentagon. As a Pakistani intelligence agent told me, “if they were really amateur Arab pilots, they would have crashed into one another, not the World Trade Center!”
The arrest of Israeli “movers” filming the attack and dancing with joy, and the subsequent arrest of groups of Israeli “students” supposedly tracking the would-be hijackers remains a deep mystery. So does the immobilization of US air defenses.
The US 9/11 Commission was a whitewash, as are all such government commissions. They are designed to obscure, not reveal, the truth.
A 2006, a Scripps Howard/Washington Post poll found that 36% of the 1,000 Americans sampled believed the US government was behind 9/11. Many Americans still do not believe the official version of 9/11.
Neither do many Europeans. The entire Muslim world believes 9/11 was the work of Israel and far right American neocons, led by Dick Cheney.
If the official story about 9/11 is true, the attacks caught the Bush administration asleep on guard duty. Bush’s incompetent national security advisor, Condoleeza Rice, brushed off serious warnings of the impending attack and actually cut spending on anti-terrorism just before 9/11.
The White House and media were quick to blame Muslims who hated America’s lifestyle and values, launching the concept of “Islamic terrorism” – i.e. that the Muslim faith, not political issues, prompted the attacks.
This dangerous canard has infected America, leading to a rising tide of Islamophobia. This week’s continued uproar over a Muslim community center in downtown New York, and a Florida preacher’s threat to burn Korans, are the latest doleful example of cultivated religious hatred.
The suicide team that attacked New York and Washington made clear its aim was: a. to punish the US for backing Israel’s repression of Palestinians; and b. what they called US “occupation” of Saudi Arabia. Though they were all Muslims, religion was not the motivating factor.
As the CIA’s former bin Laden expert Michael Scheuer rightly observed, the Muslim world was furious at the US for what it was doing in their region, not because of America’s values, liberties or religion.
These motives for the 9/11 attack have been largely obscured by the whipping up hysteria over “Islamic terrorism.” The planting of anthrax in New York, Florida and Washington soon after 9/11 was clearly designed to promote further anti-Muslim furor. The perpetrators of this red herring remain unknown. But the anthrax attack hastened passage of the semi-totalitarian Patriot Act that sharply limited the personal freedoms of Americans and imposed draconian new laws.
Faked bin Laden videos and audio tapes. Planted anthrax. An intact Koran implausibly found at ground zero. Evidence in a hijacker’s bag that had somehow failed to make his ill-fated flight. Immediate claims that al-Qaida was behind the attacks. Those amateur kamikaze pilots and collapsing towers.
Perhaps most damning, tapes taken in London of meetings between President George Bush and PM Tony Blair revealed a sinister proposal by the US president to provoke war with Iraq by painting US aircraft in UN colors, then buzzing Iraqi air defenses until they fired on them, thus providing a “casus belli.” Bush also reportedly told Blair that after Iraq, he would “go on” to attack Saudi Arabia, Syria and Pakistan.
In 1939, Nazi Germany dressed up soldiers in Polish uniforms to provoke a border fire-fight to justify Berlin’s ensuing invasion of Poland. Bush’s plan was of the same ilk. A president who would contemplate such a criminal operation might go a lot further to achieve his imperial dreams.
As a veteran journalist, to me, all this smells to high heaven. There are just too many unanswered questions, too many suspicions, and that old Roman legal question, “cui bono” – “to whose benefit?”
On 28 February, 1933, fire, set by a Dutch Jew, ravaged the Germany’s parliament, the Reichstag. While the Reichstag’s ruins were still smoking, Adolf Hitler’s government declared a war against “terrorism.” A “Decree for the Protection of People and State” was promulgated suspending all legal protections of speech, assembly, property, and personal liberties. The Reichstag fire allowed the government to round up “terrorism” suspects without due process of law and made police powers near absolute.
Sound familiar? Here’s another startling coincidence. Two years before 9/11, a series of mysterious apartment building bombings in Russia killed over 200 people. “Islamic terrorists” from Chechnya were blamed.
Panic swept Russia and boosted former KGB agent Vladimir Putin into full power. Russian security agents of FSB were caught red-handed planting explosives in another building, but the story was hushed up. A former FSB agent, Alexander Litvinenko, who tried to reveal this story, was murdered in London by radioactive polonium.
Similarly, the Bush administration’s neocons shamelessly used 9/11 to promote the invasion of Iraq. Just before the attack, polls showed 80% of Americans erroneously believed Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11. Dr. Goebbels would have been proud.
So what, in the end, can we conclude? 1. We still do not know the real story about 9/11. 2. The official version is not credible. 3. 9/11 was used to justify invading strategic Afghanistan and oil-rich Iraq. 4. The attacks plunged America into wars against the Muslim world and enriched the US arms industry. 5. 9/11 boosted pro-Israel neoconservatives, formerly a fringe group, into power, and with them America’s totalitarian far right. 6. Bush’s unprovoked war against Iraq destroyed one of Israel’s two main enemies. 7. 9/11 put America in what may turn out to be a permanent state of war with the Muslim world – a key goal of the neoconservatives .
But I’ve seen no hard evidence to date that 9/11 was a plot by America’s far right or by Israel or a giant cover-up. Just, perhaps, the Mother of All Coincidences. In the end, it may just have been 19 angry Arabs and a bumbling Bush administration looking for someone else to blame.
Fear Campaign Continues: Obama Extends 9-11 National Emergency for a 10th Year
Dear Madam Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)
Section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act, 50 U.S.C. 1622(d), provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless, prior to the anniversary date of its declaration, the President publishes in the Federal Register and transmits to the Congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the anniversary date. Consistent with this provision, I have sent to the Federal Register the enclosed notice, stating that the emergency declared with respect to the terrorist attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001, is to continue in effect for an additional year.
The terrorist threat that led to the declaration on September 14, 2001, of a national emergency continues. For this reason, I have determined that it is necessary to continue in effect after September 14, 2010, the national emergency with respect to the terrorist threat.
Section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act, 50 U.S.C. 1622(d), provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless, prior to the anniversary date of its declaration, the President publishes in the Federal Register and transmits to the Congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the anniversary date. Consistent with this provision, I have sent to the Federal Register the enclosed notice, stating that the emergency declared with respect to the terrorist attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001, is to continue in effect for an additional year.
The terrorist threat that led to the declaration on September 14, 2001, of a national emergency continues. For this reason, I have determined that it is necessary to continue in effect after September 14, 2010, the national emergency with respect to the terrorist threat.
Clinton resuming 'last chance' Mideast peace talks
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is shepherding Mideast talks this week that she says may be the last chance for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Clinton and former Sen. George Mitchell, President Barack Obama's special envoy to the region, planned to be in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, for talks Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
They're scheduled to shift to Jerusalem for a second day of talks Wednesday, and it's likely that Obama will resume negotiations with Abbas and Netanyahu in New York the following week on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
The most immediate obstacle for negotiators is a Palestinian demand that Israel extend a curb on new housing construction in the West Bank – a constraint that Israel says will expire Sept. 26.
The Palestinians have insisted that without an extension, the peace talks will go nowhere.
Raising the pressure, Obama said Friday that he has urged the Israeli leader to extend the partial moratorium as long as talks are making progress. Obama also said he's told Abbas that if he shows he's serious about negotiating, it will give political maneuver room for Netanyahu to take the domestically unpopular step of extending the limits on settlements.
Abbas knows "the window for creating a Palestinian state is closing," Obama said.
Clinton's task, he said, is to get the Israeli and Palestinian leaders to "start thinking about how can they help the other succeed, as opposed to how do they figure out a way for the other to fail."
Previewing the upcoming talks, Clinton said "there is a certain momentum" after an initial round in Washington on Sept. 2., which marked the first direct Israeli-Palestinian talks in nearly two years.
In an appearance this past week at the Council on Foreign Relations, Clinton was asked why those who see little chance of reaching a settlement in the one-year deadline Obama has set are wrong.
"I think they're wrong because I think that both sides and both leaders recognize that there may not ever be another chance," she replied.
The "last chance" notion is based in part on the knowledge that Abbas is living on borrowed time, in a political sense. His electoral mandate expired in 2009 and he fears a Hamas takeover of the West Bank, which is supposed to make up the bulk of an independent Palestinian state.
Time is a motivating factor for the Israelis, too. Some Israelis believe the longer that Israel occupies the West Bank and its growing Arab population, the more Israel's future as a Jewish state is imperiled. Creating a sovereign Palestine would get Israel out of the occupation business.
More broadly, the status quo is a drag on U.S. interests. The wars and grievances that flowed from Israel's 1948 founding as a Jewish state have divided the Middle East, and U.S. officials have argued that the conflict begets hatred and suspicion of the U.S. as Israel's principal ally.
Obama wants a deal within a year; Israelis are deeply skeptical after decades of failed efforts.
Netanyahu acknowledges the widespread doubts.
"There are many obstacles, many skeptics, and many reasons for skepticism," he said in a Jewish new year address last Tuesday. He called the resumed negotiations "an important step in an attempt" to make peace, but added that it "is an attempt because there is no certainty of success."
One concern of all the parties to the talks is Hamas, the militant Islamist movement that refuses to negotiate and opposes Israel's very existence. Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, which is supposed to be part of a negotiated Palestinian state along with most of the West Bank.
Michele Dunne, a Mideast expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said it appears the talks will go nowhere until the two sides, with Clinton's help, can find a compromise solution to the settlements issue.
"That's probably going to have to be the first item on the agenda," she said in a telephone interview. "The first priority is to make sure that the talks don't collapse at the end of September."
She gives the current format for negotiations about six months before the U.S. will have to either give up or put forth its own peace plan and try to rally support for it from moderate Arab states. Labels: Abbas, Hillary Clinton, Israel, last chance, Mideast peace negotiations, Netanyahu, Palestinian, peace talks
Clinton and former Sen. George Mitchell, President Barack Obama's special envoy to the region, planned to be in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, for talks Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
They're scheduled to shift to Jerusalem for a second day of talks Wednesday, and it's likely that Obama will resume negotiations with Abbas and Netanyahu in New York the following week on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
The most immediate obstacle for negotiators is a Palestinian demand that Israel extend a curb on new housing construction in the West Bank – a constraint that Israel says will expire Sept. 26.
The Palestinians have insisted that without an extension, the peace talks will go nowhere.
Raising the pressure, Obama said Friday that he has urged the Israeli leader to extend the partial moratorium as long as talks are making progress. Obama also said he's told Abbas that if he shows he's serious about negotiating, it will give political maneuver room for Netanyahu to take the domestically unpopular step of extending the limits on settlements.
Abbas knows "the window for creating a Palestinian state is closing," Obama said.
Clinton's task, he said, is to get the Israeli and Palestinian leaders to "start thinking about how can they help the other succeed, as opposed to how do they figure out a way for the other to fail."
Previewing the upcoming talks, Clinton said "there is a certain momentum" after an initial round in Washington on Sept. 2., which marked the first direct Israeli-Palestinian talks in nearly two years.
In an appearance this past week at the Council on Foreign Relations, Clinton was asked why those who see little chance of reaching a settlement in the one-year deadline Obama has set are wrong.
"I think they're wrong because I think that both sides and both leaders recognize that there may not ever be another chance," she replied.
The "last chance" notion is based in part on the knowledge that Abbas is living on borrowed time, in a political sense. His electoral mandate expired in 2009 and he fears a Hamas takeover of the West Bank, which is supposed to make up the bulk of an independent Palestinian state.
Time is a motivating factor for the Israelis, too. Some Israelis believe the longer that Israel occupies the West Bank and its growing Arab population, the more Israel's future as a Jewish state is imperiled. Creating a sovereign Palestine would get Israel out of the occupation business.
More broadly, the status quo is a drag on U.S. interests. The wars and grievances that flowed from Israel's 1948 founding as a Jewish state have divided the Middle East, and U.S. officials have argued that the conflict begets hatred and suspicion of the U.S. as Israel's principal ally.
Obama wants a deal within a year; Israelis are deeply skeptical after decades of failed efforts.
Netanyahu acknowledges the widespread doubts.
"There are many obstacles, many skeptics, and many reasons for skepticism," he said in a Jewish new year address last Tuesday. He called the resumed negotiations "an important step in an attempt" to make peace, but added that it "is an attempt because there is no certainty of success."
One concern of all the parties to the talks is Hamas, the militant Islamist movement that refuses to negotiate and opposes Israel's very existence. Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, which is supposed to be part of a negotiated Palestinian state along with most of the West Bank.
Michele Dunne, a Mideast expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said it appears the talks will go nowhere until the two sides, with Clinton's help, can find a compromise solution to the settlements issue.
"That's probably going to have to be the first item on the agenda," she said in a telephone interview. "The first priority is to make sure that the talks don't collapse at the end of September."
She gives the current format for negotiations about six months before the U.S. will have to either give up or put forth its own peace plan and try to rally support for it from moderate Arab states. Labels: Abbas, Hillary Clinton, Israel, last chance, Mideast peace negotiations, Netanyahu, Palestinian, peace talks
The Green Police
Is someone out behind your house digging through your trash? Don't worry, it is probably just the government. When Audi ran their now famous "Green Police" commercial during the Super Bowl last year, most Americans laughed it off and thought that nothing like that could ever happen in America. Well, it turns out that it is happening in America. A growing number of U.S. cities are actually putting RFID tracking chips in trash cans and recycling bins and are starting to fine residents who do not recycle "properly". This kind of thing has been going on over in the U.K. for some time now, but very few people expected those living in "the land of the free" to be subjected to RFID trash tracking so quickly. But it is here. In many areas, government RFID tracker chips will now be monitoring what you throw away, how much you throw away and if you are recycling properly. Rather than spending money on things that will actually get the U.S. economy headed in the right direction, government officials across America seem obsessed with forcing the "green agenda" down the throats of the American people - even if it means chasing factories, jobs and economic activity out of their communities.
Not that there is anything wrong with recycling. I personally recycle large amounts of trash each week. But there is a huge difference between recycling as a free individual and being coerced by law to adhere to the sustainable development policies of the United Nations. The truth is that "Agenda 21" is being pushed down all of our throats whether we like it or not. It is all part of the Big Brother police state control grid which is being implemented in the name of "saving the environment" and which is being paid for by "economic stimulus" money in many areas.
That's right. Government snooping on your trash apparently meets the definition of "economic stimulus" in 2010. Perhaps this is what Barack Obama meant when he talked about creating "green jobs". Local governments are going to need a lot of "trash snoopers" to make certain that we are all recycling acceptably.
In fact, John McCain almost flipped his lid when he found out that Dayton, Ohio was given a half million dollars in "stimulus funds" to put RFID tracking chips in recycle bins. Not that McCain is a friend of liberty and freedom either. The truth is that the vast majority of the politicians in Washington D.C. have been helping to advance the "sustainable development" agenda in one way or another.
But can you imagine spending "economic stimulus" money to spy on the trash of the American people?
No wonder all of the "stimulus packages" didn't do that much good for the economy. In fact, the amount of waste in the stimulus packages was absolutely mind blowing.
But those "green jobs" must be created one way or another, eh?
Even if it means spying on Americans.
So now even though we are in the midst of a horrific economic downturn, lots of communities from coast to coast have plenty of money to track our trash with RFID microchips.
Cities that are now using these chips to spy on our trash include....
*Cleveland, Ohio
*Charlotte, North Carolina
*Alexandria, Virginia
*Boise, Idaho
*Dayton, Ohio
*Flint, Michigan
Now how in the world does Flint, Michigan have money for anything?
Flint, Michigan is one of the poster children for the deindustrialization of the United States. It is a crime-infested war zone where thousands upon thousands of Americans live in desperate poverty.
And yet somehow they have money to monitor trash with RFID tracking chips?
It is almost as if we have stepped into "Bizarro America" where everything is the opposite of what it should be.
Unless the American people speak up and renounce this militant green agenda it is going to continue to be forced down our throats.
The scenes in Audi's "Green Police" commercial are not going to be so "funny" when they start becoming real....
So far, the worst city of all for snooping on the trash of citizens is Cleveland, Ohio. The truth is that Cleveland should be worried about how to put hundreds of thousands of people without jobs in the region back to work, but instead city officials seem obsessed with enforcing the radical green agenda of the United Nations. The new RFID chips being installed will allow Cleveland officials to monitor exactly how often residents roll their carts out to the curb for collection.
According to news reports, if an RFID tracking chip signals that a recycle bin has not been brought out to the curb within a certain period of time, a "trash supervisor" will actually sort through the trash produced by that home for recyclables.
Yes, this is now going on in America.
So what will the penalties be?
Well, according to Waste Collection Commissioner Ronnie Owens, trash bins that contain over 10 percent recyclable material will be subject to a $100 fine.
How ridiculous is that?
I recycle constantly, but I am sure that if I lived in Cleveland they could get me for being over the "10 percent limit" at least half the time.
Is there anyone who could honestly say that they will be able to stay under the 10 percent limit each and every time?
But that isn't the only fine in the new system.
If you set out an "excessive" amount of trash you will be fined between $250 and $500.
In addition, residents of Cleveland are also fined for putting out their trash too early and for failing to bring in their garbage cans from the curb in a timely manner.
Meanwhile, the city of Cleveland has hordes of unemployed workers and it is literally falling apart.
How completely and utterly ridiculous can one city possibly be?
But a city that is broke has to raise money some how.
In 2009, the city of Cleveland has issued 2,900 tickets for trash violations, which was almost five times more tickets than in 2008.
In 2010, the city of Cleveland is on track to issue over 4,000 tickets for trash violations.
One of the bizarre aspects of Cleveland's trash regulations is that it is always the property owner that receives the ticket.
That means that landlords in Cleveland are now forced to become spies in order to ensure that their tenants follow the law.
It is almost as if we are back in East Germany once again.
Has everyone simply forgotten that we have something called the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution?
According to the Fourth Amendment, the American people are guaranteed the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.
But these RFID tracking chips spy on us and our trash 24 hours a day.
What has happened to America?
As more insane measures like this are implemented across the United States, more factories, more jobs and more economic activity will continue to be chased overseas.
Meanwhile, the "smart growth" agenda is about to get a big boost by the U.S. Congress. Retiring Senator Christopher Dodd's last major piece of legislation, the Livable Communities Act, will create a new federal bureaucracy to make sure that "sustainable development" principles are being followed on every inch of land in the United States.
This new bureaucracy, the Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities, would be given approximately $4 billion in federal money to pressure local governments to implement a more "green" agenda.
Not that the federal government has an extra $4 billion to throw around and waste, but that has never stopped them before.
The truth is that the U.S. is absolutely drowning in debt and the economy is coming apart at the seams. That is what the Congress and the White House should be worried about.
Instead, most of our "representatives" in Washington D.C. seem to have no trouble using "Big Brother tactics" to enforce the green agenda that so many of them are so obsessed with.
Sadly, most Americans actually still believe that we are "free".
But we are not free. The government controls and regulates us in tens of thousands of different ways, and each year the controls and the regulations just get tighter and tighter. It's just that we have lost our freedoms so slowly that most Americans have not become alarmed.
It is like the old story of the frog in the kettle. If you put a frog right into boiling water it will hop right out.
However, if you put a frog into water that is cool and then turn up the heat little by little it will sit there until it has boiled to death.
America, you are that frog.
It is time to hop out of the water.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-green-police
Not that there is anything wrong with recycling. I personally recycle large amounts of trash each week. But there is a huge difference between recycling as a free individual and being coerced by law to adhere to the sustainable development policies of the United Nations. The truth is that "Agenda 21" is being pushed down all of our throats whether we like it or not. It is all part of the Big Brother police state control grid which is being implemented in the name of "saving the environment" and which is being paid for by "economic stimulus" money in many areas.
That's right. Government snooping on your trash apparently meets the definition of "economic stimulus" in 2010. Perhaps this is what Barack Obama meant when he talked about creating "green jobs". Local governments are going to need a lot of "trash snoopers" to make certain that we are all recycling acceptably.
In fact, John McCain almost flipped his lid when he found out that Dayton, Ohio was given a half million dollars in "stimulus funds" to put RFID tracking chips in recycle bins. Not that McCain is a friend of liberty and freedom either. The truth is that the vast majority of the politicians in Washington D.C. have been helping to advance the "sustainable development" agenda in one way or another.
But can you imagine spending "economic stimulus" money to spy on the trash of the American people?
No wonder all of the "stimulus packages" didn't do that much good for the economy. In fact, the amount of waste in the stimulus packages was absolutely mind blowing.
But those "green jobs" must be created one way or another, eh?
Even if it means spying on Americans.
So now even though we are in the midst of a horrific economic downturn, lots of communities from coast to coast have plenty of money to track our trash with RFID microchips.
Cities that are now using these chips to spy on our trash include....
*Cleveland, Ohio
*Charlotte, North Carolina
*Alexandria, Virginia
*Boise, Idaho
*Dayton, Ohio
*Flint, Michigan
Now how in the world does Flint, Michigan have money for anything?
Flint, Michigan is one of the poster children for the deindustrialization of the United States. It is a crime-infested war zone where thousands upon thousands of Americans live in desperate poverty.
And yet somehow they have money to monitor trash with RFID tracking chips?
It is almost as if we have stepped into "Bizarro America" where everything is the opposite of what it should be.
Unless the American people speak up and renounce this militant green agenda it is going to continue to be forced down our throats.
The scenes in Audi's "Green Police" commercial are not going to be so "funny" when they start becoming real....
So far, the worst city of all for snooping on the trash of citizens is Cleveland, Ohio. The truth is that Cleveland should be worried about how to put hundreds of thousands of people without jobs in the region back to work, but instead city officials seem obsessed with enforcing the radical green agenda of the United Nations. The new RFID chips being installed will allow Cleveland officials to monitor exactly how often residents roll their carts out to the curb for collection.
According to news reports, if an RFID tracking chip signals that a recycle bin has not been brought out to the curb within a certain period of time, a "trash supervisor" will actually sort through the trash produced by that home for recyclables.
Yes, this is now going on in America.
So what will the penalties be?
Well, according to Waste Collection Commissioner Ronnie Owens, trash bins that contain over 10 percent recyclable material will be subject to a $100 fine.
How ridiculous is that?
I recycle constantly, but I am sure that if I lived in Cleveland they could get me for being over the "10 percent limit" at least half the time.
Is there anyone who could honestly say that they will be able to stay under the 10 percent limit each and every time?
But that isn't the only fine in the new system.
If you set out an "excessive" amount of trash you will be fined between $250 and $500.
In addition, residents of Cleveland are also fined for putting out their trash too early and for failing to bring in their garbage cans from the curb in a timely manner.
Meanwhile, the city of Cleveland has hordes of unemployed workers and it is literally falling apart.
How completely and utterly ridiculous can one city possibly be?
But a city that is broke has to raise money some how.
In 2009, the city of Cleveland has issued 2,900 tickets for trash violations, which was almost five times more tickets than in 2008.
In 2010, the city of Cleveland is on track to issue over 4,000 tickets for trash violations.
One of the bizarre aspects of Cleveland's trash regulations is that it is always the property owner that receives the ticket.
That means that landlords in Cleveland are now forced to become spies in order to ensure that their tenants follow the law.
It is almost as if we are back in East Germany once again.
Has everyone simply forgotten that we have something called the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution?
According to the Fourth Amendment, the American people are guaranteed the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.
But these RFID tracking chips spy on us and our trash 24 hours a day.
What has happened to America?
As more insane measures like this are implemented across the United States, more factories, more jobs and more economic activity will continue to be chased overseas.
Meanwhile, the "smart growth" agenda is about to get a big boost by the U.S. Congress. Retiring Senator Christopher Dodd's last major piece of legislation, the Livable Communities Act, will create a new federal bureaucracy to make sure that "sustainable development" principles are being followed on every inch of land in the United States.
This new bureaucracy, the Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities, would be given approximately $4 billion in federal money to pressure local governments to implement a more "green" agenda.
Not that the federal government has an extra $4 billion to throw around and waste, but that has never stopped them before.
The truth is that the U.S. is absolutely drowning in debt and the economy is coming apart at the seams. That is what the Congress and the White House should be worried about.
Instead, most of our "representatives" in Washington D.C. seem to have no trouble using "Big Brother tactics" to enforce the green agenda that so many of them are so obsessed with.
Sadly, most Americans actually still believe that we are "free".
But we are not free. The government controls and regulates us in tens of thousands of different ways, and each year the controls and the regulations just get tighter and tighter. It's just that we have lost our freedoms so slowly that most Americans have not become alarmed.
It is like the old story of the frog in the kettle. If you put a frog right into boiling water it will hop right out.
However, if you put a frog into water that is cool and then turn up the heat little by little it will sit there until it has boiled to death.
America, you are that frog.
It is time to hop out of the water.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-green-police
Save the Banks and Kill the Economy
source/links:
“The problems we face today cannot be solved by the minds that created them.”
Albert Einstein (1879-1955), Physicist and Professor, Nobel Prize 1921
“I don’t see (subprime mortgage market troubles) imposing a serious problem. I think it’s going to be largely contained.”
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, April 20 2007
“Providing assistance to banks and their borrowers can be counterproductive, resulting in increased losses to banks, which often … take unproductive risks at government expense. The typical result … is a deeper hole in the net worth of banks, crippling tax burdens to finance bank bailouts, and even more severe credit supply contraction and economic decline.”
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), (Study of financial crises from 1970 to 2007)
“The dirty little secret … is that every Republican in this country wants Obama to fail, but none of them have the guts to say so; I am willing to say it.”
Rush Limbaugh, radio activist, February 27, 2009
It has become a truism to say that the Democrats and the Obama administration now “own” the crucial issue of the economy. Justly or unjustly, voters are bound to hold them accountable for the poor state of the U.S. economy. This is not an enviable political position to be in just before an election, at a time when disgusted voters are most angry and very anxious about the economy and their economic future. Recent polls [] indicate that nearly two-thirds of Americans think their nation is in a state of decline and that the economy will remain in the same recessionary state or get worse next year.
Contrary to what President Franklin D. Roosevelt did in the 1930s, President Barack Obama did not confront the banking industry head-on after fraudulent practices caused one of the worst financial crises in U.S. history. In particular, he did not reverse the blanket financial deregulation that the Clinton and Bush administrations engineered in 1999 , in 2000, in 2004, in 2005 and in 2007 [] that allowed for creating mortgage-linked synthetic subprime securities and for betting against them. Instead, his economic operatives (Geithner, Summers, Bernanke, Orszag, Emanuel, (L.A.) Sachs, Romer, Bair,..etc.) threw trillions of public dollars to the largest banks, allowing top bankers to keep enjoying hundreds of million of dollars in yearly bonuses, at a time when some 300,000 Americans are losing their homes through foreclosures every month. [] Such a persistent epidemic of home foreclosures is creating a tremendous drag [] on the economy, besides being a social disaster. —The system that is responsible for so many home foreclosures has not been fixed, although valiant attempts [] have been made to mitigate the process.
Meanwhile, also with the intention of saving the largest banks, regulators began pressing the banks to raise capital asset ratios and to shrink their risk assets. The Bernanke Fed went so far as to lend money to the largest banks at zero interest rate, while paying interest on the excess reserves the banks kept at the Fed, a practice that resulted in an outright gift to the banks.
All these policies have resulted in tightening credit availability and in provoking the largest plunge in the M3 money supply [] since the Great Depression. As long as this condition endures, there won’t be any substantial economic recovery in the United States.
Just as Obama did for the wars, when he kept in position and even promoted Bush operatives Gates and Petraeus, Obama kept or brought back as his economic team some of the very Wall Street-connected people who were responsible for creating the conditions that led to the financial crisis in the first place.
Now, at mid-term, President Barack Obama is saddled with the devastating image of a defender and promoter of Bush’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and is viewed by many as having sided with Wall Street bankers against Main Street folks, just as George W. Bush did with his Goldman Sachs-connected Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and his banking bailouts. To many Americans, indeed, the Obama administration looks more and more like a third-term Bush II administration. For many Americans, it’s a nightmare.
The biggest mistake that President Barack Obama seems to have made, at the beginning of his mandate, was to not disassociate himself more clearly from the previous Bush administration. Now, it’s too late, and unfortunately for him and the divided Democrats, they are poised to suffer the wrath of an enraged and disillusioned electorate.
Indeed, with U.S. real unemployment rate hovering around 17 percent, with 3 out of 4 workers telling pollsters that they doubt that their wages will increase next year, with many American households’ financial situation deteriorating, with home foreclosures approaching 10 million, [] with huge fiscal deficits and future tax hikes likely, with the Bernanke Fed adopting third-world monetary policies in monetizing the public debt, [] and with an overall anemic economic growth, the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress are going into the November 2 midterm elections with many monkeys on their backs and very little public confidence.
The only thing that runs in their favor is the poor quality and vision of their Republican opponents who have followed an obstructionist strategy and have sided time and again with lobbyists, thus blocking most attempts to straighten things up. Only a credible campaign to persuade the electorate in extremis that Democrat incumbents are “less worse” than their Republican opponents, coupled with a high turnout at the polls could prevent a Democratic bloodbath in the U.S. Congress, especially in the House of Representatives, next November. —If not, President Barack Obama will officially become a lame-duck president after November 2, and Congress will be paralyzed at a very crucial time when strong leadership is required to get out of the economic mess. This is a most unappealing perspective.
Rodrigue Tremblay is professor emeritus of economics at the University of Montreal. He is the author of the book “The Code for Global Ethics” at: Dr tremblay is a regular contributor to Opinion Maker.
http://www.opinion-maker.org/2010/09/save-the-banks-and-kill-the-economy/
“The problems we face today cannot be solved by the minds that created them.”
Albert Einstein (1879-1955), Physicist and Professor, Nobel Prize 1921
“I don’t see (subprime mortgage market troubles) imposing a serious problem. I think it’s going to be largely contained.”
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, April 20 2007
“Providing assistance to banks and their borrowers can be counterproductive, resulting in increased losses to banks, which often … take unproductive risks at government expense. The typical result … is a deeper hole in the net worth of banks, crippling tax burdens to finance bank bailouts, and even more severe credit supply contraction and economic decline.”
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), (Study of financial crises from 1970 to 2007)
“The dirty little secret … is that every Republican in this country wants Obama to fail, but none of them have the guts to say so; I am willing to say it.”
Rush Limbaugh, radio activist, February 27, 2009
It has become a truism to say that the Democrats and the Obama administration now “own” the crucial issue of the economy. Justly or unjustly, voters are bound to hold them accountable for the poor state of the U.S. economy. This is not an enviable political position to be in just before an election, at a time when disgusted voters are most angry and very anxious about the economy and their economic future. Recent polls [] indicate that nearly two-thirds of Americans think their nation is in a state of decline and that the economy will remain in the same recessionary state or get worse next year.
Contrary to what President Franklin D. Roosevelt did in the 1930s, President Barack Obama did not confront the banking industry head-on after fraudulent practices caused one of the worst financial crises in U.S. history. In particular, he did not reverse the blanket financial deregulation that the Clinton and Bush administrations engineered in 1999 , in 2000, in 2004, in 2005 and in 2007 [] that allowed for creating mortgage-linked synthetic subprime securities and for betting against them. Instead, his economic operatives (Geithner, Summers, Bernanke, Orszag, Emanuel, (L.A.) Sachs, Romer, Bair,..etc.) threw trillions of public dollars to the largest banks, allowing top bankers to keep enjoying hundreds of million of dollars in yearly bonuses, at a time when some 300,000 Americans are losing their homes through foreclosures every month. [] Such a persistent epidemic of home foreclosures is creating a tremendous drag [] on the economy, besides being a social disaster. —The system that is responsible for so many home foreclosures has not been fixed, although valiant attempts [] have been made to mitigate the process.
Meanwhile, also with the intention of saving the largest banks, regulators began pressing the banks to raise capital asset ratios and to shrink their risk assets. The Bernanke Fed went so far as to lend money to the largest banks at zero interest rate, while paying interest on the excess reserves the banks kept at the Fed, a practice that resulted in an outright gift to the banks.
All these policies have resulted in tightening credit availability and in provoking the largest plunge in the M3 money supply [] since the Great Depression. As long as this condition endures, there won’t be any substantial economic recovery in the United States.
Just as Obama did for the wars, when he kept in position and even promoted Bush operatives Gates and Petraeus, Obama kept or brought back as his economic team some of the very Wall Street-connected people who were responsible for creating the conditions that led to the financial crisis in the first place.
Now, at mid-term, President Barack Obama is saddled with the devastating image of a defender and promoter of Bush’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and is viewed by many as having sided with Wall Street bankers against Main Street folks, just as George W. Bush did with his Goldman Sachs-connected Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and his banking bailouts. To many Americans, indeed, the Obama administration looks more and more like a third-term Bush II administration. For many Americans, it’s a nightmare.
The biggest mistake that President Barack Obama seems to have made, at the beginning of his mandate, was to not disassociate himself more clearly from the previous Bush administration. Now, it’s too late, and unfortunately for him and the divided Democrats, they are poised to suffer the wrath of an enraged and disillusioned electorate.
Indeed, with U.S. real unemployment rate hovering around 17 percent, with 3 out of 4 workers telling pollsters that they doubt that their wages will increase next year, with many American households’ financial situation deteriorating, with home foreclosures approaching 10 million, [] with huge fiscal deficits and future tax hikes likely, with the Bernanke Fed adopting third-world monetary policies in monetizing the public debt, [] and with an overall anemic economic growth, the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress are going into the November 2 midterm elections with many monkeys on their backs and very little public confidence.
The only thing that runs in their favor is the poor quality and vision of their Republican opponents who have followed an obstructionist strategy and have sided time and again with lobbyists, thus blocking most attempts to straighten things up. Only a credible campaign to persuade the electorate in extremis that Democrat incumbents are “less worse” than their Republican opponents, coupled with a high turnout at the polls could prevent a Democratic bloodbath in the U.S. Congress, especially in the House of Representatives, next November. —If not, President Barack Obama will officially become a lame-duck president after November 2, and Congress will be paralyzed at a very crucial time when strong leadership is required to get out of the economic mess. This is a most unappealing perspective.
Rodrigue Tremblay is professor emeritus of economics at the University of Montreal. He is the author of the book “The Code for Global Ethics” at: Dr tremblay is a regular contributor to Opinion Maker.
http://www.opinion-maker.org/2010/09/save-the-banks-and-kill-the-economy/
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