Could Taxing and Regulating the Sale of Recreational Marijuana Help Us Out of Our Economic Misfortunes?

Why not? Cannabis can be used for everything from food to clothes to paper. I know plenty of responsible recreational smokers (who all shall remain nameless, no worries). We are now on our way towards cleaner, greener, technology and nothing is greener then Cannabis. Is it really that bad of an idea?

So why not? We can focus our police, government agencies and military resources on other crimes and higher classes of drugs. We can ease the burden on our judicial system and put a dent in the number of our citizens trapped in the prison-industrial complex. We can lessen the amount of gang turf violence over illegal marijuana in our urban communities. We can stop the violence on our boarders caused by the trafficking of marijuana. We can use cannabis for paper and other things that we currently destroy our forests for. I could go on and on…

So why not take advantage of this huge cash crop? Is it really any worst then cigarettes or alcohol? Is really that gateway drug that it’s been known as for years? With all this anti-socialist talk; should the government really be deciding these things for us anyway? What are all those people that work in our prison-industrial complex going to do? Will they be out of a job? What are all the gangs that are killing and making a living off of selling illegal marijuana going to do? Are they going to start robbing people instead? What about all the people in jail for the marijuana crimes? How are they going to be reintroduced into society after all those years in a prison system that has no interest in rehabilitation?

Just some things to think about…

Kas

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Taxing Pot Could Become a Political Toking Point
Tuesday 24 February 2009
by: Eric Bailey, The Los Angeles Times

Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-pottax24-2009feb24,0,7534269.story

An assemblyman from San Francisco argues that it's time to tax and regulate the state's biggest cash crop in the same manner as alcohol. Opponents say it would create new costs for society.

Sacramento - Could Cannabis sativa be a salvation for California's fiscal misfortunes? Can the state get a better budget grip by taxing what some folks toke?

An assemblyman from San Francisco announced legislation Monday to do just that: make California the first state in the nation to tax and regulate recreational marijuana in the same manner as alcohol.

Buoyed by the widely held belief that cannabis is California's biggest cash crop, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano contends it is time to reap some state revenue from that harvest while putting a damper on drug use by teens, cutting police costs and even helping Mother Nature.

"I know the jokes are going to be coming, but this is not a frivolous issue," said Ammiano, a Democrat elected in November after more than a dozen years as a San Francisco supervisor. "California always takes the lead - on gay marriage, the sanctuary movement, medical marijuana."

Anti-drug groups are anything but amused by the idea of California collecting a windfall from the leafy herb that remains illegal under federal law.

"This would open another door in Pandora's box," said Calvina Fay, executive director of Save Our Society From Drugs. "Legalizing drugs like this would create a whole new set of costs for society."

Ammiano's measure, AB 390, would essentially replicate the regulatory structure used for beer, wine and hard liquor, with taxed sales barred to anyone under 21.

He said it would actually boost public safety, keeping law enforcement focused on more serious crimes while keeping marijuana away from teenagers who can readily purchase black-market pot from peers.

The natural world would benefit, too, from the uprooting of environmentally destructive backcountry pot plantations that denude fragile ecosystems, Ammiano said.

But the biggest boon might be to the bottom line. By some estimates, California's pot crop is a $14 billion industry, putting it above vegetables ($5.7 billion) and grapes ($2.6 billion). If so, that could mean upward of $1 billion in tax revenue for the state each year.

"Having just closed a $42 billion budget deficit, generating new revenue is crucial to the state's long-term fiscal health," said Betty Yee, the state Board of Equalization chairwoman who appeared with Ammiano at a San Francisco news conference.

Also in support of opening debate on the issue are San Francisco Sheriff Mike Hennessey and retired Orange County Superior Court Judge James Gray, a longtime legalization proponent.

"I'm a martini guy myself," Ammiano said. "But I think it's time for California to ... look at this in a truly deliberative fashion."

He sees the possibility of an eventual truce in the marijuana wars with Barack Obama now in the White House.

A White House spokesman declined to discuss Ammiano's legislation, instead pointing to a transition website that says the president "is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana."

Several cities in California and around the nation have adopted laws making marijuana the lowest law enforcement priority, including Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, Denver and Seattle.

Oakland went even further in 2004, requiring pot to be taxed if it is legalized.

But where Ammiano sees taxes, pot foes see trouble.

They say easier access means more problems with drug dependency among adults, heavier teen use and an increase in driving while high.

"If we think the drug cartels are going to tuck their tails between their legs and go home, I think we're badly mistaken," Fay said.

"They're going to heavily target our children."

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5 New Reasons Why You Should Stop Eating Red Meat

I travel around the world to much in my job to be messing around with red meat anymore. I'm done... Throwing in my fork... Not gonna be able to do it! I will stick with my fish, chicken and pork (the other white meat)... I'm done! Read below...


K

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Spain reports fifth human death from mad cow disease

MADRID (AFP) — The Spanish government late Friday confirmed the country's fifth fatality from the human variant of mad cow disease, a woman who died in the northern city of Santander in January.

The health ministry said laboratory tests confirmed that the woman had Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) as the human variant of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, is known.

"The appearance of sporadic cases of the disease does not indicate new risks for the health of the public," it said in a statement.

The last death in Spain which was confirmed to have been due to the brain-wasting disease took place in August 2008 in the northwestern region of Castilla and Leon.

Spain recorded its first human death from mad cow disease in June 2005 when a 26-year-old woman succumbed to it in Madrid.

More than 200 people around the world are suspected to have died, most of them in Britain, from the human variant of the disease, which was first described in 1996.

Scientists believe the disease was caused by using infected parts of cattle to make feed for other cattle.

Authorities believe eating meat from infected animals can trigger the human variant of the fatal brain-wasting disease.

The 27-member EU, of which Spain is part, has banned high-risk materials such as spinal cord from use in feed and stricter labelling was also introduced.

Link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gAFZ583FrJLfABJMsHuJ1PhcU-cw Share

Stop Hatin’ On Terrell Owens… Geez!

By Kas

Alright… Alright… You haters in the sports media! Now I have to say something about this whole Terrell Owens “witch-hunt” I feel is going on. I get sick of reading article after article of hate on Terrell Owens. Though, I do feel some of his “supposed” off-field, on-field, locker room, antics might have been a tad divisive. He is still one of the most productive and entertaining wide receivers in the NFL today. The reason I say “supposed,” is because no one truly knows what goes on behind the closed doors of the NFL. The media is always looking for a story and the public loves drama; thus we will always have these types of players in professional sports.

Every professional sport has their T.O. type players. Tennis had McEnroe; Golf has Sergio, who changed his name just like the Bengals Chad Ocho Cinco. Hockey had Eric Lindros who whined his entire career and coincidently, played in Dallas as well. MLB has Manny, NBA has Artest (among others) and even the UEFA (European Football or “soccer”) has Cristiano Ronaldo; the best player Europeans love to hate. All of these athletes are/were top tier players in their respective sports and played integral parts to their teams’ success. Yet, these players are hated by many fans for different reasons and loathed by many sports writers for their off and on the field transgressions. But, sometimes the truth is in the eye of the beholder.



Take for instance the talk about T.O. being an aging wide-out who is losing a step. Many sports reporters and sports websites have made mention of how he dropped 33 balls this past season. They have also reported that the majority of NFL teams would be reluctant to sign Owens because he is poison in a NFL locker-room. But, Owens, at the age of 35, was 13th in the NFL in receiving yards (7th NFC), tied for 5th in receiving TD’s (4th NFC) and had only one fumble in 2008. He was arguably the Cowboys top offensive weapon and led the team in TD’s. It wasn’t T.O. that lost that pivotal week 17 game against the Eagles (6 rec. 103 yds.) or the week 16 defensive collapse against the Ravens (5 rec. 63 yds. 1 TD). Terrell Owens was never the problem in Dallas and I believe he was used as the scapegoat for an underachieving franchise. The Cowboys haven’t won a playoff game since 1996, which proves that they couldn’t win with T.O. or without him. The Buffalo Bills let Owens sit on the market for only two days after being released by the Cowboys. So much for that reluctant to sign T.O. attitude that everybody was been talking about.

Look, if you don’t like the man… Fine! But, you can not deny his talent and passion for the game. Stop hating in the media and report the facts. Stop fishing and making up stories from hearsay and give dude his proper’s for being the game changer he is. He is 35 years old and still has the swag to talk and back it up on the gridiron. I personal look at sports as entertainment and just a game. I want to see those 200 yd-3 TD games and crazy ass taunting celebrations. I want to see the passion of him blowing up on a dumb ass coach for not getting him the ball, when he is clearly the best player on the field. I want to see him call out his QB for getting tired in the Super Bowl and cry while defending a QB who just lost them a playoff game.

So, I’m sure T.O. will do just fine as a Bill and keep getting me silly points for my fantasy team.

Get your popcorn ready!

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Black Milk - Tronic: Album Review

Release Date: October 28, 2008
Record Label: Fatbeats
Featured Artists: Dwele, Royce Da 5’9", Pharoahe Monch, Sean Price, DJ Premier, Colin Munroe, Fat Ray, Melanie Rutherford, AB

Review by: Kas

I would best describe Hip Hop as stagnate right now. A whole genre saturated with auto-tuned, alien voiced, sing-song hooks and faux creativity. You can’t even look to your favorite artist to come with anything worth the customary, conformational, Hip Hop head-nod right now. Enter Black Milk’s Tronic to semi-crash this musical strip club year and get up on da main stage to make the people say “yeah!”

The title of the album mos-def describes what you will hear once you press IPod on your IPhone. WARNING: This is not Sound of the City and nowhere near what you heard on Popular Demand. We have taken-off from the skyscrapers of chopped-soul-sample city and landed on a skillfully crafted electronic landscape dotted with lyrical vacation homes. Again… I must reiterate… Sound wise… This is not Sound of the City or Popular Demand. Black has matured as a producer and his sound has progressed to a point where he can soulfully stake his claim to a portion of Hip Hop’s future. Yet at the same time, Tronic is nothing groundbreaking and doesn’t really come with anything to far away from the electronic trend of today’s Hip Hop. When listening to this album, you might think to yourself: “Self… I feel like I have heard this vibe before…” Well, you would be completely within your Hip Hop right to think that maybe J. Dilla (R.I.P.) was looking down over this project. We lost arguably the best Hip Hop producer to ever do it, when Dilla lost his battle with lupus in 2006. But, his impact on Hip Hop lives on through Black Milk and Tronic is a Hip Hop symphonic eulogy in some ways. I have always felt that Black Milk’s production is built from the same frame as Dilla (which he has never denied) and Tronic is a confirmation of this for me. It’s as if he channels Dilla on a few cuts, e.g. Bond 4 Life, Hold It Down, Hell Yeah and Overdose, just to name a few. Though Dilla’s genius will never be duplicated; Black is doing his best to keep that “your favorite producer's, favorite producer” vibe alive and well. Is he the heir? I don’t think so… I believe it is more of him just making good Hip Hop music that we Dilla fans really enjoy.

The futuristic boom-bap beat universe that Milk has constructed is furthermore enhanced with that recognizable, syllable hostage-holding flow we have all become accustomed to coming out the “D.” Detroit is known for their lyrical terrorist, who spit Jihad on Hip Hop for their city and Black brings his vocal bomb laden vest on Tronic. Black Milk is known throughout Hip Hop for his beats, yet I believe he is underrated as an Emcee. Most producers that rhyme in today’s Hip Hop to often come off inexperienced or lazy on the lyrical side. Lyrical laziness has never really been a factor for Black Milk. He proves he is a formidable Emcee on joints like Losing Out, where he is paired with Royce Da 5’9 and The Matrix where he holds his own with Sean Price and Pharoahe Monch.

As you look back on this year in Hip Hop, don’t be so quick to banish 2008 to the auto-tune gamma quadrant of our musical universe. True, good music was hard to locate and didn’t seem to want to make contact with us; if you listened closely, it was still out there. Tronic landed on this planet formally known as Hip Hop in an effort to terraform its martian landscape. Though I’m not sure it fully succeeded, it did make 2008 Hip Hop a little more habitable for me. It was breath of, if not fully fresh air, then 100% oxygen from a rebreather. If you haven’t already, do yourself a favor and go cop this album. It makes a nice addition to any Hip Hoppa’s library.


The highpoints of the album are:

Give The Drummer Sum: The lead single with dope snares, kicks and an ill Quasimoto influenced hook.

Without U (feat. Colin Munroe): Nice commercial sounding record… Feeling the message of the whole song… Munroe comes correct on the hook, as well… Can you say Matthew Santos on Lupe’s Superstar??? Mos def could hear this one on the radio, TRL, 106 & Park… Blah… Blah… I don’t know if it is the indie label thing or whatever… But, I just don’t understand why records like this don’t get shine???

Hell Yeah: Hard Hip Hop record that Black says originally was a remix to Overdose (HipHopDX Interview)... Drum programming is crazy and has an ill horn hit sample throughout the record that sets the vibe for the lyrical onslaught.

Overdose: Banger!! DJ Dez kills the hook with a M.O.P. sample…

Try: Classic Black Milk… It’s the only record where he utilizes those soul samples that he is known for… Dope record.

The Matrix (feat. Pharoahe Monch, Sean Price, & DJ Premier): Another banger! Milk, Price and Premo do their thing and it was really nice to hear Monch finally spit again, instead of all that singing… Yuck!

If I had to say that the album staggers, it would be on one track…. Bounce, but solid word-play makes the record listenable. That’s just my opinion though….

I give Black Milk’s Tronic a 4.5 out of 5

One

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Wazzup 2000 vs. Wazzup 2008

True... True...



Good look Andy... Share

Al Quaida Leader Calls Obama a House Negro

So now we have Al-Qaida calling our president elect a house nigga... LOL... Are you kidding me? See now, I know there is a part of the black community that may think the same way. Just like there are those in the black community that feel as if he isn't black enough (e.g. not of slave blood, half white and half black, etc...). There are also those that have said the same thing about any black person in a power position or black person who isn't the stereotype... Ball-player, drug-dealer, entertainer, cook, janitor, etc... Is this all we are relegated too?

There have always been those that feel that if you are black, successful and in a position of authority.... Then you Sir, are a house negro. You must be that "liked one" that they allow to live among them. I have always been at odds with this flawed ideology. The house negro was created by the white slave owner... It was just another mind-game to keep us hating each other. It was ploy that kept control over us.... The field negroes hated those slaves that worked in the house, because they were treated better then the field negroes. Most of the house negros were fair-complected (lighter skin tone) or had the slave owners blood running through them. We hated them and envied them at the same time. But what we failed to realize, is that at the end of the day, we were still all slaves. We were slaves that would never unite and rise up against the slave owners, because we hated each other. This self-hatred still manifest itself today in our "hater" mentality. We still like to hate on anyone who we feel gets ahead or finally "makes it"... The "Neo" that doesn't fit the stereotype. That is the slave mentality that has kept us in chains for thousands of years. That way of thinking has to change... It is nothing more then psychological warfare that was used by slave owners and now being employed by Al-Qaida.


Mr. Al-Zawahri,

Here is some F.Y.I. homey,

There are no more house niggas.... Because there are no more slaves...

Church

Kas

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Al-Qaida No. 2 insults Obama with racial epithet

CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida's No.
2 leader used a racial epithet to insult Barack Obama in a message posted Wednesday, using a demeaning racial term implying that the president-elect is a black American who does the bidding of whites.


The message appeared chiefly aimed at persuading Muslims and Arabs that Obama does not represent a change in U.S. policies.
Ayman al-Zawahri said in the message, which appeared on militant Web sites, that Obama is "the direct opposite of honorable black Americans" like Malcolm X, the 1960s African-American rights leader.


In al-Qaida's first response to Obama's victory, al-Zawahri also called the president-elect - along with secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice - "house negroes."

Speaking in Arabic, al-Zawahri uses the term "abeed al-beit," which literally translates as "house slaves." But al-Qaida supplied English subtitles of his speech that included the translation as "house negroes."

The message also includes old footage of speeches by Malcolm X in which he explains the term, saying black slaves who worked in their white masters' house were more servile than those who worked in the fields. Malcolm X used the term to criticize black leaders he accused of not standing up to whites.


The 11-minute 23-second video features the audio message by al-Zawahri, who appears only in a still image, along with other images, including one of Obama wearing a Jewish skullcap as he meets with Jewish leaders. In his speech, al-Zawahri refers to a Nov. 5 U.S. airstrike attack in Afghanistan, meaning the video was made after that date.


Al-Zawahri said Obama's election has not changed American policies he said are aimed at oppressing Muslims and others.


"America has put on a new face, but its heart full of hate, mind drowning in greed, and spirit which spreads evil, murder, repression and despotism continue to be the same as always," the deputy of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden said.


He said Obama's plan to shift troops to Afghanistan is doomed to failure, because Afghans will resist.


"Be aware that the dogs of Afghanistan have found the flesh of your soldiers to be delicious, so send thousands after thousands to them," he said.


Al-Zawahri did not threaten specific attacks, but warned Obama that he was "facing a Jihadi (holy war) awakening and renaissance which is shaking the pillars of the entire Islamic world; and this is the fact which you and your government and country refuse to recognize and pretend not to see."

He said Obama's victory showed Americans acknowledged that President George W. Bush's policies were a failure and that the result was an "admission of defeat in Iraq."

But Obama's professions of support for Israel during the election campaign "confirmed to the Ummah (Islamic world) that you have chosen a stance of hostility to Islam and Muslims," al-Zawahri said. Share

Shorty Lo and TI's camps Rumble at Awards Show

SMH.... Nigga moment

Please Hip Hop... WAKE UP!

Kas

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Shorty Lo and TI's camps Rumble at Awards Show

By Tai Saint Louis

http://www.allhiphop.com/.../2008/11/24/20722485.aspx

Radio One's fourth annual Dirty Awards ended abruptly this evening when two separate altercations erupted reportedly between rapper Shawty Lo and members of the Grand Hustle camp tonight (November 24). An eye witness told AllHipHop.com that the tension between the two crews mounted during Shawty Lo's performance, which included a diss version of Grand Hustle artist Yung LA's song "Ain't I."

As Lo performed his version with a chorus "Don't I," an audience member identified by an eyewitness as Capitol recording artist Alfamega, allegedly threw a chair onto the stage. At that point, witnesses say another artist signed to the T.I.-helmed label stormed the stage, at which point authorities proceeded to break a fight.

T.I. himself took the stage shortly after the fight to accept an award following, a reported private conversation with Shawty-Lo, in which the Grammy Award-winning rapper/actor allegedly insisted once again, that the two end their long-running beef. He proceeded to denounce the violence and negativity and assured the Dirty Awards audience that he did not condone the fighting.

Shortly thereafter, however, a second fight broke out as T.I. performed his verse from "Ain't I," allegedly substituting some lyrics with verbal jabs at Shawty Lo, with whom he has had an unpleasant relationship throughout the year.

Towards the end of the performance, another member of the Grand Hustle camp allegedly jumped off stage and assaulted a man witnesses said was Shawty Lo's brother. Police officers then halted the awards show, using pepper spray to end the fight. While the Dirty Awards audience was immediately evacuated, witnesses say other altercations may have occurred outside of the event. More details as this story develops. Share