Did you know that Oliver North once worked on a plan to suspend the constitution, dissolve congress, and ban all political activities. The scary thing is they were reportedly planning on implementing it if American citizens ever took to the streets in mass protest if it became public knowledge the full extent of their involvement in smuggling Cocaine into the USA to support the Contras. When it finally did become more widely known a full decade had already passed and the GOPS were no longer in power.
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I had largely forgotten about this story until I accidently ran across on old box full of NPR (National Public Radio) audio cassettes that date back to the days of Iran Contra. I even used some of it on the YOUTUBE video along with somesome additional material.
Joining the president in the Rose Garden was an unusual display of his high command. Along with Vice President Cheney were Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld; Secretary of State Colin L. Powell; Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser; Karen P. Hughes, an adviser to the president; and Laura Bush.
School children from both Colombia and neighboring Ecuador actually drew these pictures included in this diary. The United States government's primary strategy for combating the narcotics industry and the leftist FARC guerillas that control an area of Colombia the size of SWITERLAND involves aerial crop spraying with a deadly poison sold on the market as Roundup weedkiller. The spray not only kills coca plants, but any other, legal, crops in the vicinity. Sadly it also kills livestock and far worse it has also killed many children.
In the 1920's prohibitionists victorious in banning alcohol then pressured the federal government to pursue an anti drug maintenance policy which shut down the narcotics clinics which had been set up by the individual states to treat drug addicts.
Although these Narcotic Maintenance Clinics lasted from 1912-1925 unfortunately they were often shut down after only a few months in business. The constant harassment of the clinics and their patients was led by a moralistic combination of bureaucratic cops and Religious Right Holy rollers hell bent on putting drug addicts and the rebellious doctors who treated them in prison.
The government seems willing to pay anything for prisons, prosecutors, military , & drug agents, but nothing for education , housing, medical care or food. Is the purpose of police, courts & prisons to promote a safer society or to punish sin? The status quo of criminal justice answers that basic question with emphasis on protection of traditional morals through massive punishment of drug users. Denunciation of drugs & to lesser degrees pornography, prostitution, adultery, and homosexuality have dominated national rhetoric. Such crimes against morality far exceed each of the other two categories, crimes of property & crimes against persons, as the dominant cause of incarceration today. This state intervention into private life is moving us closer to a totalitarian government.
Nelson Mandela was freed from prison 18 years ago today. Nearly 2 years ago Barack Obama visited Robben's Island Prison which was South Africa's version of Devil's Island French penal colony or our Alcatraz penitentiary. Robben's Island Prison most famous inmate was Nelson Mandela who spent almost 30 years there. Barack Obama like Nelson Mandela did for his country brings a new more positive era to American politics while both Hillary Clinton & John McCainonly offer more of the same failed agenda. Senator Obama is the only candidate that offers any hope whatsoever for the people of this nation. I have supported Obama for president from the very beginning although I would have preferred Dennis Kucinich but I didn't want to waste my vote.
How can anyone rationalize the fact that the United States, with only 4 percent of the world's population, incarcerates one third of all those imprisoned on planet earth. In 1980 we had only 200,000 Prisoners yet in 2006 that figure had risen to 2.3 MILLION in the so called land of the free. This is a moral issue, and the government's mishandling is not only a national disgrace but also a very costly one.
If somebody doesn't put an end to this and very soon our government will have us all walking in chains. You can literally go to prison for almost anything in the USA if you think I'm kidding watch the video.
For one brief glorious moment, we thought Barack Obama supported marijuana decriminalization. He said so in 2004 and his campaign reiterated it yesterday, only to subsequently retreat and pledge support for current marijuana laws.
At first, Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said that the candidate had "always" supported decriminalizing marijuana, suggesting his 2004 statement was correct. Then after the Times posted copies of the video on its Web site today, his campaign reversed course and declared he does not support eliminating criminal penalties for marijuana possession and use.
It appears we jumped the gun on this one anyway it brings me great sadness to update this.
Nevermind, Barack Obama Wants to Arrest Marijuana Users After All For one brief glorious moment, we thought Barack Obama supported marijuana decriminalization. He said so in 2004 and his campaign reiterated it yesterday, only to subsequently retreat and pledge support for current marijuana laws.
At first, Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said that the candidate had "always" supported decriminalizing marijuana, suggesting his 2004 statement was correct. Then after the Times posted copies of the video on its Web site today, his campaign reversed course and declared he does not support eliminating criminal penalties for marijuana possession and use.
"If you're convicted of a crime, you should be punished, but that we are sending far too many first-time, non-violent drug users to prison for very long periods of time, and that we should rethink those laws," Vietor said. The spokesman blamed confusion over the meaning of decriminalization for the conflicting answers. [Washington Times]
In November 2007 the United Nations declared the use of Taser's a form of torture in direct violation of the U.N. Convention Against Torture. Unfortunately 300 our fellow citizens have been tortured to death by these supposed "Non Lethal" devices. It took the cops 4 years to murder the first 75 US citizens with TASERS yet 225 Americans have been TASERED to death in the past 30 months as the use of this torture device proliferates throughout the nations Police Departments.
A woman 8 months pregnant was TASERED by Police in Seattle over a speeding ticket if this wasn't bad enough cops have also TASERED the elderly and children as young as 6 years old. A Florida Bartender had her Breast tasered at work by Police after she became upset that they failed to arrest a customer who had thrown water in her face.
Religious leaders from many faiths have joined together in releasing a strong condemnation of our nations brutal failed War on Drugs. I would normally say what took them so long but I applaud their action because we need their help in a very bad way. I'm not a very Religious person so obviously I've always been a firm believer in the total separation of Religion and State. Yet under the current conditions when the state rejects science by legislating morality perhaps a divine intervention by religious leaders is the only way out of this drug war nightmare that is destroying this nation from within. When you remove the whole moral and religious basis for the drug war then in the end we will have fewer laws governing personal behavior. If religious leaders are the only group that can successfully purge the fanatics and moralists out the drug war then that's a good thing.
Would it not reasonable to assume that the unrestricted sale of dynamite would pose a far greater threat to the public safety than Marijuana. I'll go further than that cocaine , methamphetamine , and heroin while indeed dangerous to the user are nothing compared to dynamite. I came across this story by pure accident and what I found shocked me to say the very least.
In 1986 Reagan Drug Czar Carlton Turner ridiculously claimed that Marijuana leads to homosexuality and ultimately to AIDS. Three years earlier the Reagan White House had quitely launched what basically amounts to a Nationwide Ignorance Breeding Scheme.
In 1983 Reagan Officials purged our nations Libraries of any Drug Literature prior to 1980. They removed all medical & scientific literature that defined addiction as a disease instead of a crime. Dan Baum reporter with Wall Street Journal & Rolling Stone as well as the author of Smoke & Mirrors: The War on Drugs & the Politics of Failure comments on the GOP Book Purging in this 38 second video.
As temperatures dip into the single digits this weekend, nearly 2,000 poor Pike County households may be left without heat.
A Pike County program that helps low-income families pay their heating bills has been out of money since last Thursday. But emergency money handed down by the state yesterday might help the situation.
Energy Programs Director Dan McKenzie of Community Action Kentucky said the reason why 18 of the 23 programs are out of funds is two-fold. The program has received more than $20 million each of the past three years, McKenzie said, compared to the nearly $7.5 million in federal funding this year.
“The other side is the more need with the economic situation as higher prices for fuel, food and medicine all combined pose economic difficulty for people already poor,” McKenzie said.
Republican Congressman Mark Souder is leading a Boycott against Gas Stations in his district. Has GOP Congressman Mark Souder finally decided to do something beneficial for his constituents ? Remember this is the same Representative Souder that voted against cracking down on big oil companies price gouging. Mark Souder also voted for the GOP energy bill that gave billions to the petroleum industry. Representative Souder has received thousands of dollars from big oil over the years so why would he bite the hand that feeds him ? It's all about a cute little flower being sold in a couple of Fort Wayne gasoline stations.
If the cops aren't busy killing innocent people they are lying about Marijuana. Last week I posted a diary about a Lima , Ohio SWAT team invading the home of 26 year old Tarika Wilson an innocent woman whom they shot and killed. The trigger happy cops also shot the index finger off of Sincere Wilson her 13 month old son whom Tarika was holding in her arms when they murdered her. Tarika Wilson also had her other 5 children ages 1 to 8 home during the deadly raid. Police arrested her boyfriend on a charge of suspicion of possession of crack cocaine & marijuana. The cops also used a stun hand grenade during the raid even though they were fully aware her children were in the home.
On 1/4/08, a Lima Ohio SWAT team invaded the home of 26 year old Tarika Wilson an innocent woman shot and killed her, and shot her one-year-old son. The Baby lost one of his fingers due to the trigger happy cops.
LIMA — Tarika Wilson was to begin college Monday to study business in hopes of making a better life for herself and her six children.
"She was supposed to start Monday with me," her sister, Tania Wilson, said.
Tarika Wilson will never have that chance.
A Lima Police Department SWAT team officer shot her to death Friday inside her home at 218 E. Third St. during an evening drug raid. The circumstances remained under investigation Saturday with police officials releasing few details about what happened inside the home.
APRIL KENTUCKY SNOW 
COAL MINE POLLUTION
