Fight building over judges redoing mortgages

By LARRY MARGASAK

The Associated Press
Sunday, January 25, 2009; 1:06 PM

WASHINGTON — Most congressional Democrats say the quickest way to save homeowners like Troy Butler of Saginaw, Mich., is to let them declare bankruptcy and allow judges to dictate new mortgage terms.

Easy, except the lenders that would absorb the pain _ and lose control of any deals to ease the terms _ do not want to get dragged into bankruptcy court by millions of overextended borrowers.

Judges to dictate new mortgage terms. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)

Butler, 40, is a laid-off General Motors worker who has filed for bankruptcy. But the bankruptcy court has no authority to change the terms of his $90,000-plus mortgage that is more than double the value of his home.

A bill to give judges authority to alter loan terms for primary residences may be the quickest way to arrest the housing market’s collapse. Most Democrats in the House and Senate support that plan. President Barack Obama told Democratic leaders Friday he also backs it, according to a Senate aide who was not authorized to be quoted by name.

But 10 groups representing the lending industry and other businesses are fighting back fiercely. Several have engaged portions of their lobbying machines to stop the legislation. The groups spent $83 million in lobbying on multiple issues in 2008, a figure that shows the power of the banking and investing industry and their business supporters.

One Democratic backer of the bankruptcy proposal, Rep. Maxine Waters of California, said the banking industry “has owned this Congress far too long.”

Butler, the GM worker, and an industry lobbyist see things much differently.

“I’m living from day to day, hoping to make it through the day. I worry about my family, where we’re going to live, how we’ll survive,” said, Butler, who has a disabled wife and two children, ages 15 and 11.

With the housing market still crashing, will bankruptcy court judges be able to help people keep their homes?

The chief lobbyist for the Mortgage Bankers Association, Steve O’Connor, said new homebuyers would end up paying higher interest and bigger down payments if lenders are saddled with the risk that a judge could change mortgage terms.

“We’re going to defend the industry” against “bad public policy,” O’Connor said.

The association’s 23-member government affairs team is trying to persuade lawmakers to kill the bankruptcy legislation. The team includes six lobbyists and nine policy experts who double as lobbyists, said O’Connor, senior vice president of government affairs.

The bankruptcy solution would not cost taxpayers money, as would mortgage modification programs that could become part of the government’s huge economic bailout package. But it certainly would harm the bottom line for lenders and investors holding mortgages.

The lending industry has voluntary programs in place to change mortgage terms. But Butler’s lawyer, Peter Bagley, said it was a nightmare trying to contact his client’s lender.

First, he was told the application for a loan modification would take at least 30 days to process. Bagley then called someone with authority to stop any sale of the home, but only received voice messages that the mailbox was full. The application never arrived.

The key to passage of the bankruptcy bill is the Senate, where Democrats need 60 votes to stop a possible filibuster. Ten Democrats _ all still in the Senate _ would not back the plan in a vote a year ago.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the chief Senate sponsor of the bill, said Obama persuaded him in a White House meeting Friday to remove the bankruptcy proposal from an economic recovery package _ to ensure it doesn’t jeopardize the stimulus bill. But Obama pledged his support for the bankruptcy solution, Durbin said.

Obama said he would work with Durbin to attach the proposal to other “must pass” legislation _ with the hope that supporters of the overall bill would not vote against it because of the bankruptcy provisions.

Of the 10 organizations that asked the House Judiciary Committee to oppose the bill, the largest is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It spent $57.9 million on lobbying in 2008, according to the Center For Responsive Politics, an organization that tracks lobbying expenditures and political donations.

The Mortgage Bankers Association, which represents 2,400 member companies in the real estate property industry, spent $3.8 million and the American Bankers Association totaled $6.8 million.

This bankruptcy option sounds like a good idea to me. No cost to the taxpayer and families get to stay in their homes. Of course the banks and mortgage companies are going to naysay it, this could seriously cut into their “profits”. Doesn’t it make more sense to keep people in their homes and making their monthly payments instead of putting them out onto the street? Even if the loan restructuring means lower profits in the short term, keeping the houses occupied and income-producing has to be better than them sitting empty for months, and even years, at a time.

Found this at Target: Freedom:

Who believes that this is true? You judge it for yourself.

I did not pass this along because I have no way of verifying that it is true. After the high level of interest that was expressed at the meetup, I have concluded that people should at least have the chance to judge it for themselves. These videos are presented WITHOUT ANY CREDITS BEING GIVEN. These videos are supposedly produced by someone on the inside; who found his OWN NAME on a list of people to be liquidated, and then decided to tell the public. The voice is electronically altered. You judge it for yourself.
Gee, why didn’t we see this on TV? (Duh?):

FOR WHATEVER IT IS WORTH;

Confession of a CIA Agent about FEMA - Important
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K9dgqKmJ50&NR=1

FEMA COFFINS & THEIR PLAN TO KILL 90% OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=1MPgpK0uHfk

Classified Intell On FEMA Camps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdYILnUyALs&feature=related

FEMA CONCENTRATION CAMPS: Locations and Executive Orders
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/camps.htm
Visit the concentration camps near you and see what you can learn.

U.S./ Foreign Troops Gearing Up for Martial Law In America
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNKMlhj4ARY&feature=email

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread59023/pg1

www.freedomfiles.org/war/fema.htm

Clinton Evades Question: FEMA Camps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQBiHVbOGvg&NR=1

Oliver North Questioned - Rex 84 Exposed During Iran Contra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug0IL7k3elQ&NR=1

Unhidden Agendas: Off To Camp FEMA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTvPljNxYTI&NR=1

Concentration Camps being built for U.S citizens
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJBxdRIQx7Y&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9Ut-t7k_zY&NR=1

Trains for Killing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t3vR2G7mig&NR=1

This has happened in many other places.

Of course, “It can’t happen here”. Right?

Personally, I am not going anywhere.

BUT if I wind up in a concentration camp, I am not going to have to remember a day when I should have done more to defend liberty.

I will save this country or die trying.

Murder of a gentle land: The untold story of a Communist genocide in Cambodia (Hardcover) by John Barron (Author), Anthony Paul

Source

Congressman warns plans for national youth service, military draft may see fruition 

Thursday, Jan 22nd, 2009

Say No to Cops: A Brief

Case for Reduction

and Elimination

http://www.lewrockwell.com/buppert/buppert16.html

by William Buppert

I am a police skeptic and a former Sheriff’s Deputy. I am increasingly ill at ease with the burgeoning police state, misbehavior of all levels of “law enforcement” and the willing complicity of united States subjects to an ocean of bad laws, both unconstitutional and foolish. What one could call willful submission to illegitimate authority. At every level of policing from local to FLEA (federal law enforcement agencies), the abuse gets exponentially worse with each passing decade and now the Wars on Drugs and Terror have literally loosened the restraints on any remaining (if tattered and threadbare) protections from police mischief. In the end, the robed government employees will, for the most part, excuse or rationalize the criminal or outrageous behavior of the thin blue line.

The increasing militarization of cops has worsened even more. Why do cops need to blouse military boots and wear the silly “high and tight” haircuts? I cannot watch an episode of “Cops” without an airsickness bag. Every show is a sordid chronicle of cops overreaching, overreacting and brutalizing people. If you start to think of cop behavior as occupation behavior, the parallels start to get even more eerie. David Kopel puts it succinctly:

“The militarization of law enforcement has created the equivalent of a standing army engaged against the American people – precisely what was feared by the Framers. The consequences have been just what the Framers expected from a standing army involved in domestic law enforcement (especially enforcement of laws against the possession of certain commodities): the erosion of the Bill of Rights, particularly the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches, and the deaths of innocent people.“

Cops or Soldiers?

Read more.

Flag of Israel

How to Sell “Ethical” Warfare

Israel’s Media Management is Not Just Impressive, It’s Terrifying

By NEVE GORDON

One of my students was arrested yesterday and spent the night in a prison cell. R’s offense was protesting the Israeli assault on Gaza. He joins over 700 other Israelis who have been detained since the beginning of Israel’s ruthless war on Gaza: an estimated 230 of whom are still behind bars. Within the Israeli context, this strategy of quelling protest and stifling resistance is unprecedented, and it is quite disturbing that the international media has failed to comment on it.

Simultaneously, the Israeli media has been towing the government line to such a degree that no criticism of the war has been voiced on any of the three local television stations. Indeed, the situation has become so absurd that reporters and anchors are currently less critical of the war than the military spokespeople. In the absence of any critical analysis, it is not so surprising that 78% of Israelis, or about 98% of all Jewish Israelis, support the war.

But eliding critical voices is not the only way that public support has been secured. Support has also been manufactured through ostensibly logical argumentation. One of the ways the media, military and government have been convincing Israelis to rally behind the assault is by claiming that Israel is carrying out a moral military campaign against Hamas. The logic, as Eyal Weizman has cogently observed in his groundbreaking book Hollow Land, is one of restraint.

The Israeli media continuously emphasises Israel’s restraint by underscoring the gap between what the military forces could do to the Palestinians and what they actually do. Here are a few examples of the refrains Israelis hear daily while listening to the news:

• Israel could bomb houses from the air without warning, but it has military personnel contact – by phone no less – the residents 10 minutes in advance of an attack to alert them that their house is about to be destroyed. The military, so the subtext goes, could demolish houses without such forewarnings, but it does not do so because it values human life.

• Israel deploys teaser bombs – ones that do not actually ruin houses – a few minutes before it fires lethal missiles; again, to show that it could kill more Palestinians but chooses not to do so.

• Israel knows that Hamas leaders are hiding in al-Shifa hospital. The intimation is that it does not raze the medical centre to the ground even though it has the capacity to do so.

• Due to the humanitarian crisis the Israeli military stops its attacks for a few hours each day and allows humanitarian convoys to enter the Gaza Strip. Again, the unspoken claim is that it could have barred these convoys from entering.

The message Israel conveys through these refrains has two different meanings depending on the target audience.

To the Palestinians, the message is one that carries a clear threat: Israel’s restraint could end and there is always the possibility of further escalation. Regardless of how lethal Israel’s military attacks are now, the idea is to intimidate the Palestinian population by underscoring that the violence can always become more deadly and brutal. This guarantees that violence, both when it is and when it is not deployed, remains an ever-looming threat.

The message to the Israelis is a moral one. The subtext is that the Israeli military could indiscriminately unleash its vast arsenal of violence, but chooses not to, because its forces, unlike Hamas, respect human life.

This latter claim appears to have considerable resonance among Israelis, and, yet, it is based on a moral fallacy. The fact that one could be more brutal but chooses to use restraint does not in any way entail that one is moral. The fact that the Israeli military could have razed the entire Gaza Strip, but instead destroyed only 15% of the buildings does not make its actions moral. The fact that the Israeli military could have killed thousands of Palestinian children during this campaign, and, due to restraint, killed “only” 300, does not make Operation Cast Lead ethical.

Ultimately, the moral claims the Israeli government uses to support its actions during this war are empty. They actually reveal Israel’s unwillingness to confront the original source of the current violence, which is not Hamas, but rather the occupation of the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem. My student, R, and the other Israeli protesters seem to have understood this truism; in order to stop them from voicing it, Israel has stomped on their civil liberties by arresting them.

Israel's Occupation by Neve Gordon

Neve Gordon is chair of the department of politics and government at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and author of Israel’s Occupation (University of California Press, 2008).

The U.S. Economy is being Marched to the Gallows

Gallows for the US Economy

Predictions of hyperinflation, dollar decline and civil unrest

by Andrew Hughes

Global Research, January 16, 2009
The upcoming Financial Stimulus package courtesy of the new Economic dream team has left numerous economists and analysts quaking in their boots.

We are seeing predictions of hyperinflation, the destruction of the dollar, the flight of U.S. creditors, the prospect of widespread civil unrest and a descent in to a Greater Depression.

Small business owners have stood up and discredited the tax incentives that were meant to convince them to ignore market reality and open the door to new employees. The measures that supposedly address the enormous foreclosure problem seem to change from day to day and only work to the advantage of the banks. Obama and Bush have just signed off on an additional $20 Billion in cash and $118 Billion in asset guarantees for Bank of America which already received $25 Billion last year and is now choking on Merrill Lynch’s losses. The President Elect and his new Stimulus Czars are not paying attention and are proceeding to continue the same destructive formula adopted by Paulson.

The media bombardment is in overdrive to convince the public that herein lies the path to salvation. First we had the guarantee that three million jobs would be created out of thin air only to be bumped up to four million. These are nice round media friendly numbers which have no basis in reality. With each passing day the sands are shifting on exactly how the money will be spent.

Ben Bernancke’ s speech at the London School of Economics on January 13, confirmed that the emphasis has now shifted to bailing out the banks one more time by buying more toxic assets to clean up their collapsing balance sheets. After seeing $8.2 Trillion vanish in to Insurance, Banking and a moribund auto industry with absolutely no concrete result except for the tightening of credit, the increasing losses of Big Banking and the GM chairman having to queue for his airline ticket, the Fed, backed by Obama, continues to beat the dead horse.

The scariest aspect of this is the speed at which this 18 wheeler disaster is being driven toward the rabbits in the headlights. We haven’t yet seen any senators or reps being threatened with the imposition of martial law, but we have seen Obama threaten to veto his own fellow democrats if they do not rubber stamp the proposals he has been instructed to deliver. Nobody has even taken a vote yet and already the gloves are off. Bailout Bill One and the Patriot Act were pushed just as hard. The only legislation that gets the hard sell seems to involve either stealing the taxpayer’s money or their rights.

Judging by his actions so far, Obama has done absolutely nothing but continue the transfer of wealth from the American taxpayer to his Wall St. campaign contributors.

There has been absolutely zero positive impact on the real economy as the increasingly horrific indicators continue to mount and the prospect of an unprecedented Depression continues to rise over the horizon. Economic reality was left on the back burner and the capital that could have paid for Obama’s fantastical “stimulus” plan 5 times over has been wasted on the imploding financial sector, who no doubt will be back for more.

Source

From PrisonPlanet.com:

Air defense officials heard joking, saying “We have smart terrorists today”

Steve Watson

NORAD thought 9/11 was a drill?

Newly uncovered audio from recordings of NORAD staff responding to the airliner hijackings on 9/11 may provide more evidence to suggest air defense officials were under the impression that the attacks were part of ongoing drills and exercises.

NORAD–the North American Aerospace Defense Command–is the military organization responsible for monitoring and defending the airspace of North America. Its Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS), based in Rome, New York, is responsible for monitoring and protecting 500,000 square miles of airspace above the northeast U.S., including the airspace over New York City and Washington, DC.

The recording in question contains the voices of staff at NEADS as they learn of the hijacking of United 175, the second plane to crash into the World Trade Center.

Firstly, the men are clearly heard laughing and joking about the hijackings, a very strange thing to do in the face of an all out terrorist suicide attack.

One officer says “That’s it, I’m not flying with United or American any more,” amongst the laughter another responds “I never thought I would have wished for ValuJet to come back.”

One of the officers later states “I’m glad I’m not flying today,” to which the answer is, “Don’t worry Jim, we’ll carjack you on the way home.” Two minutes later the men are talking about stock they own.

Listen to the audio

Another key part of the audio comes as the officers attempt to find a transponder signal for flight 175. One officer states “I’m looking for a squawk” — military jargon for a transponder signal from the aircraft — A second officer remarks “We have smart terrorists today, they are not giving them a chance to squawk”.

What does this officer mean?

His use of the word “today” indicates that terrorist hijackings of airliners are a daily occurrence. In this sense it is more likely that he is referring to previous drills of hijackings, which we know were ongoing in the days and weeks leading up to the attacks on 9/11, as well as on the actual day.

Furthermore, who is the “they” that the officer refers to? Are the terrorists “they”? — ie “They (the terrorists) are not giving them (the aircraft/pilots) the chance to squawk”.

Or are “they” another group, military officers running a drill perhaps, that are not giving the fictional terrorists the chance to squawk, thus making the drill harder?

Could these men, officers who were supposed to defend American airspace, have been under the impression that what they were seeing was a part of the annual “Vigilant Guardian” exercise, an air defense drill simulating a hijacking and an attack on the United States on the very day of 9/11?

It is not so hard to imagine, given that multiple personnel at NORAD and NEADS are on record as having admitted they originally thought the attacks were part of the drill.

Furthermore, according to Larry Arnold, who was the commanding general of NORAD’s Continental U.S. Region, the Vigilant Guardian exercise was only canceled after the second World Trade Center tower was hit at 9:03 a.m., a timeline which dovetails exactly with the above clip.

The recordings, which captured events on the operations floor at NEADS throughout the day of September 11, 2001, were made public In April 2006 as part of a Freedom of Information request.

I don’t know what happened on 9/11. At this point, there has been so many shady behaviors exhibited by so many different people, I don’t know that we’ll ever have the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

I do know that there are plenty of horrific acts and tragic loss of lives to go around. We Americans are not alone in our loss and fears. Some would say that 9/11 was our taste of what the world has been living with for generations, and our chickens are just coming home to roost. That may be true, but at this point in history I don’t think it matters who started what.

The important thing is how to do we as people (not americans, europeans, chinese, russian, iranian, or bolivians, but people of the world) stop it.

Interest Rate Drop Has Dire Results for Legal Aid

By ERIK ECKHOLM

Published: January 18, 2009

Pedro Luis Beato of a legal aid society, left, representing a client in Housing Court in Lynn, Mass.

BOSTON — Scores of legal aid societies that help poor people with noncriminal cases — like disputes over foreclosures, evictions and eligibility for unemployment benefits — are being forced to cut their staffs and services, even as requests for help have soared.

In an odd twist, the societies have been hit hard by the Federal Reserve’s steep reduction of its benchmark interest rate, which finally plunged last month to near zero.

The rate decline, though generally welcomed as a blow against the recession, has had an unplanned and severe effect on legal aid societies, which depend heavily on revenues that are tied to the federal funds rate. As recently as 2007, the rate was more than 5 percent and legal aid agencies reaped more than $200 million for their operations.

Now, for many legal aid groups across the country, cutbacks in staffing are expected to reach 20 percent or more over the coming months, even as requests for their services have risen by 30 percent or more.

Legal aid groups have long benefited from little-known programs that draw interest earned from short-term deposits that lawyers hold in trust for clients during, for example, real estate transactions or personal injury payouts. The interest is mainly donated to legal services for the poor.

But as the federal funds rate declined along with the number of real estate transactions, the payout has fallen precipitously. And beleaguered state governments are also curbing their aid.

The director of Connecticut Legal Services, Steven Eppler-Epstein, said that local agencies were already giving out pink slips and that 50 of 150 legal positions statewide might be lost.

Equal representation under the law is a myth. The poor have never had a fair shot when it comes to the law. We all know that the person who can afford the most or best lawyers always wins in this country.

Even when the world knows they did it, the rich get to walk away from the messes they make all the time. Hell, Cheney shot a guy in the face, and wound up being apologized to for it. I don’t care how rich and powerful you are, if you shot me anywhere, I would shoot your ass back and go to prison. It would be worth it.

I love that phrase, “media monkeys”. That’s the picture from Paul Craig Roberts in this piece from Rense.com.

News networks media monkeys.

Here are a few quotes from “Difficulty Of Being An Informed American”By Paul Craig Roberts:

…If people intend to be informed, they must turn to foreign news broadcasts, to Internet sites, to foreign newspapers available on the Internet, or to alternative newspapers…

…A person who sits in front of Murdoch’s Fox “News” or CNN or who reads the New York Times is simply being brainwashed with propaganda.

Before conservatives nod their heads in agreement, I’m not referring to “the liberal media.” I mean the propaganda that issues from the US government and the Israel Lobby.

…

It is the same propagandistic American print and TV media that have rationalized Bush’s illegal invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan based on seven years of lies and deception.

It is the same media that today provides only Israeli propaganda as “coverage” of the Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

It was the New York Times that spiked, for one year, the leaked information from the National Security Agency that the Bush regime, in violation of US law, was illegally spying on Americans without warrants. The “liberal” New York Times agreed to suppress the story so that Bush would not face re-election under the cloud of his outlaw behavior.

Conservatives think the Washington Post is “liberal media” despite the fact that the editorial and commentary pages are controlled by neocons and their sympathizers.

…

Conservatives still blame the “liberal” media for losing the Vietnam war, when in fact all the media did was to provide some truthful reports that opened some American eyes.

When the truth cuts against the position of the US government, conservatives see it as “liberal.”

When propaganda supports the government’s lies, conservatives see it as “patriotic.”

…

Journalists disappeared from media management and were replaced by corporate advertising executives

…

The function of editors is to make certain that no uncomfortable information reaches the public.

…People ask me where they can get reliable information. I tell them that their goal cannot be reached without their commitment of time.

…English language foreign broadcasts, such as Iran’s Press TV, Russia Today, or Al Jazeera, can get get news and insights from those parts of the world demonized by the US media.

The BBC World Service still reports facts while covering itself by providing the views of the US, UK, and Israeli governments.

Both the Asia Times and Israeli newspapers, such as Haaretz can be read online in English. There are other such newspapers, and all of them provide information that Americans will never see in their own media.

…

The free press Americans have today is online and in the alternative media.

The function of the “mainstream media” is to sell products and to brainwash the audience for the government and interest groups. By subscribing to it, Americans support their own brainwashing.

Paul Craig Roberts was associate editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, columnist for Business Week, and columnist for the Scripps Howard Newspapers.

Faux/Fox News logo

Even though we’re coming up on the inauguration of our first African-American POTUS, the state of our country, our freedoms and ideals continues to come under attack. If you think we live in a truly “free” country, you obviously aren’t paying attention.

For instance, did you know we were hiring ex-KGB personnel to serve in our Homeland Security? I didn’t know that, and I don’t think I like it. Here’s what Jim Kirwan had to say over at rense.com:

BART serves nine Bay-Area counties in Northern California that together comprise the fourth largest population center in this country. People in these nine counties are now under Martial Law; at least when they board a BART train. The Bay Area Rapid Transit District is not a transportation agency it is a commuter service, owned and operated by the federal government. Consequently BART’s rules for keeping order do not come from city or county officials, but from the State and from the Federal government. Bart Police have modeled themselves on the worst components of the thugs that work for HOMELAND Security. Peace officers are not “Troops.” Bart police have copied the Nazi SS in manner, in demeanor and now in their public behavior toward the American people.

The federal connection here is important: “It should be noted that on March 17, 2003 Bush hired “the former head of the KGB (the secret police of the former Soviet Union), General Yevgeni Primakov,” as a consultant to the US Department of Homeland Security.

Primakov with Madeleine Albright

Primakov joined another Russian, Oleg Kalugin, KGB (Ret) with the Department of State Security, also as a part of Homeland Security. On January 1, 2005 Kalugin was replaced with the infamous and sinister Silver Fox himself (his former CIA code name), Gen. Markus Wolf. “Wolf was the head of the  international intelligence gathering arm (HVA) of East Germany’s Ministry for State Security, or Stasi.”

This went a long way toward perfecting the spying and wiretapping of the entire USA, and insured that Americans would become the next victims of State Terrorism ala the USSR and Communist East Germany.”
(1) Read the rest of Jim’s article here.

Well now, isn’t that a nice warm blanket to wrap yourself up in on a cold night? Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, oh wait, maybe that’s the free kool-aid kicking in now.

help yourselves and your bosses is more likely

Just give me a minute, I'm sure it'll come to me...

An article on MSN’s Health and Fitness page had this to say:

Marijuana isn’t known for being a friend to memory; its short-term effects notoriously impair recall. And although the data is conflicting, some studies link cannabis with memory deficits in those who use excessive doses for long periods of time

But new research suggests that one of the active ingredients in marijuana—THC—and similar compounds could possibly prevent or even reverse one of the most devastating memory disorders of all: Alzheimer’s disease.

In a paper published in the December 2008 issue of the journal Neurobiology of Aging, researchers found that a compound that affects the same brain receptors as THC reduced brain inflammation and improved memory in older rats. (The rodents were the human equivalent of age 65 to 70.) Although there’s debate over the role played by inflammation in Alzheimer’s, many researchers believe it’s an important part of the process that causes dementia.

…

Rest assured, Wenk and his colleagues aren’t advocating a stoner lifestyle.

Because WIN-55,212-2, like THC, produces a high, the researchers looked for the lowest effective dose. They estimate that that dose is the equivalent to just one toke of marijuana. “A puff is enough,” Wenk says.

Though that dose wouldn’t get someone high, it could, admittedly, have some psychoactive effect. But this wouldn’t necessarily rule out medical use. The drug could be taken before bedtime, for example. And with long-term use, tolerance to these psychoactive effects can develop, so impairment might be minimal with a steady dose anyway.

As a person who lost 3 grandparents to cancer and has friends with parents suffering from Alzheimer’s, I can’t help but be thrilled every time I read of new research showing the benefits of marijuana. At the same time, I’m also enraged that our government continues to lie to the people, pretending that marijuana is this evil plant that only destroys lives. That is such bullshit.

So many medical uses.

There are literally thousands of studies of marijuana out there. In fact, marijuana is one of the most tested substances known to man. Yet our government continues to bury it’s collective head in the sand and ignore the vast benefits we could reap from the decriminalization, no, the legalization of marijuana and industrial hemp. It’s insane, completely illogical.

Many uses of Marijuana and Hemp.

The MSN article concluded by mentioning the problems with marijuana research:

Given the controversy that would likely arise if a protective effect were to be discovered, however, no one has funded the epidemiological studies that would be needed to show this.

It’s even hard to get experimental research published, according to Kim Janda, Professor of Chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute in California. In 2006, he published a paper demonstrating that THC interfered with another process implicated in the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease: the formation of amyloid-beta plaques and fibrils.

Janda’s THC research was rejected by several big-name journals and eventually published in the journal Molecular Pharmacology; it’s now one of his most frequently cited articles by fellow scientists. Unfortunately, the article was also denounced in the press by the likes of Rush Limbaugh as an example of politicized science by hidden supporters of legalization—despite the fact that Janda also works on anti-cocaine addiction vaccines.

Although Janda would like to investigate further, he currently does not have grants to enable him to do so.

Why further marijuana studies should be funded

Bill Thies, Ph.D., chief medical and scientific Officer of the Alzheimer’s Association, says of Wenk’s research, “The authors of the paper make the case that one way to modulate the inflammatory reaction is to activate cannabinoid receptors. I think that’s perfectly reasonable basic science.”

Thies notes, however, that it’s a long way from basic science to a usable drug, and pleads for a rational discussion. “The issue of marijuana is highly emotional and political and the minute it’s put in context of legalizing marijuana, the discussion loses all sensible aspects.”

Don Abrams, M.D., chief of hematology/oncology at San Francisco General Hospital, has studied medical marijuana use in people with HIV for more than a decade. He says, “I think the safety profile of marijuana compares very favorably to many other prescribed drugs,” noting that there have not been any reported overdoses, and that most research does not support a link between smoking the drug and lung cancer (which may be because marijuana users  tend to not smoke nearly as much as cigarette smokers).

“Cannabis is anti-inflammatory and it is also an antioxidant, and those are two things that we seek in treating neurodegenerative disorders,” he says, “It’s there, it’s in nature, if the research does find that it has these benefits, why not take advantage of it?”

With five million Americans currently living with Alzheimer’s and no highly effective treatment or prevention method known, any promising lead—even one as politically fraught as marijuana and related synthetics—could be worth following.

Comment: Do we need more research on marijuana’s potential medicinal effects?

I’m sure you can guess my opinion on research. We have tons of research already, but more is always helpful. We’ve already learned so much about marijuana that is beneficial, of course we should continue to explore all the potential benefits.

Should we or shouldn't we?

What do you think?

Texas Green Party's Bill Holloway

The Green Party of Texas mourns the tragic loss of Bill Holloway. Bill was a dedicated leader who was currently serving as the Co-Chair of the Travis County Green Party in Austin, TX. He will be missed as a mentor and a friend.

Through his kind-hearted activism, Bill touched the lives of so many people. He was an active Green Party contributor at the local, state and national levels. Bill served on numerous committees in the Green Party and in other organizations as well.

Bill Holloway passed away unexpectedly last weekend at his home in Austin, Texas. Given the unexpected nature of his death, we know many will have questions regarding details. Out of respect for Bill, his family, and his lengthy legacy of community service, we hope you understand our reluctance to speculate and request that others will also be circumspect in their communication.

Our heart-felt condolences go out to all of Bill’s friends and family. Bill was a very special person who will be sorely missed.

There will be a memorial service in Austin, TX, on Friday, January 16, and his funeral will be in Oklahoma City, OK, on Wednesday, January 14.

For the memorial, a book is being compiled for his parents. If you would like to contribute, please write down a story or memory of Bill, with a photo if you have one and send it to Sondra - lonestarsondra@gmail.com by January 15th. His family never met most of his friends and, we suspect, had no idea of the difference he made in so many lives. The book is being put together to let them know how many people were touched
by and loved him. If the photo and the text can be pasted onto one page, that would be ideal, but whatever people can contribute would be appreciated.

Whatever your beliefs, please keep Bill and his family and vast network of friends in your thoughts, prayers, and/or rituals.

In solidarity,

kat swift
co-chair
Green Party of Texas
210.471.1791 - txt okay
kat@txgreens.org

In memory...

…only if you’re Jack Bauer.

Human Rights First had this to say about good old Jack:

No character on TV uses torture more than Jack Bauer, the hero of the FOX program “24″ which begins its 7th season on Sunday night. In Bauer’s hands torture appears to be the perfect tool to fight terrorism.

As the The New York Times and Washington Post reported, this season of “24″ will make the debate over the use of torture central to the plot line. We are concerned about this development.

Two years ago Human Rights First began to investigate how “24,” which has shown 89 scenes of torture in its first six seasons, influenced the thinking and the actions of young people in the armed services.  We learned that some junior soldiers — even some interrogators at Guantanamo Bay — had copied abusive interrogation techniques they saw depicted on the program. And military educators told us that “24″ was the biggest problem they had in their classrooms.

… the words of real world interrogators who explain that Bauer’s tactics would never work in the field.

…

This season of “24″ will make the debate over the use of torture central to the plot line. To date torture has been a part of the action but its use and effectiveness has not been debated explicitly at length by the characters. Though we expect a more nuanced discussion of these tactics than has ever been broadcast before by the program we fear that the take home message of the series has been — and always will be — that torture is effective and can be justified.

More than 13 million people are likely to watch the first episode. The 7th season will also be broadcasted overseas in dozens of countries, including in the Middle East.

We believe “24″ will help set the tenor of the public debate over interrogation policy in this country and abroad.

Don't mess with Jack!

Of course it works for Jack. He’s a fictional character on a tv show. If it didn’t work for him the writers would get fired!

The thing is the writers use torture because it’s more dramatic and entertaining than the truth. Good intel requires years of boring, tedious, detail work building networks and establishing connections between various factions and individuals than would not make for good tv.

A lot of people wish for that “magic pill” that will fix all of our problems in one neat, easy solution. We like to think that real world problems can be fixed as easily as they are on television. Unfortunately, what you see on television has very little to do with what the world really is.

From NORML:

Boston, MA: A voter-approved initiative reducing penalties for the possession of marijuana in Massachusetts took effect last week, making it the thirteenth US state to eliminate criminal sanctions for adults who use cannabis.

Under the new law, police are authorized to issue $100 civil citations in lieu of making an arrest for adults found to be in possession of one ounce or less of marijuana or hashish. Under prior state law, minor marijuana possession was punishable by up to six months in jail and a $500 fine.

Sixty-five percent of state voters decided in November to liberalize the state’s marijuana laws.

Law enforcement personnel have expressed strong opposition to the law change, and some police have stated publicly that they do not intend to abide by the new law. State officials have also expressed interest in amending the new law to allow for stricter penalties for the use of cannabis in public.

Twelve other states, including Maine and Nebraska, have enacted similar laws – reducing pot possession to a civil violation punishable by a fine only. Approximately one-third of the US population now lives under some form of marijuana decriminalization.

For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, or Keith Stroup, NORML Legal Counsel, at (202) 483-5500. Additional information is available online.

This is good news. Whether local law enforcement abides by the new law is still an issue. How scary is it that Law Enforecement Personnel are publicly stating their intent to ignore the law? Did they forget what their job is?

Enforcing the law:

• Step one - know the law. (Which they clearly do.)
• Step two - obey the law. (??)
• Step three - make others obey the law. (By the rules.)

Note to Massachusetts Law Enforcement:

Obey the law, then enforce it. If you don’t like it, work to change it, but enforce the current law as it is.