I have been focusing my energy on more positive things since I last blogged (a philosophical countenance upon monetary issues, since then a devaluation of the dollar, and a credit downgrade for the USA).
Many of the negative things we citizens have been enduring are in part due to congressional incompetence!
D for CONGRESS
1. Disappointing. Anyone who thought a fresh crop of outspoken freshmen would shift the paradygm should now see that (a) freshmen need to make small committee level type mistakes before getting to run with the big dogs, because the weak Speaker unable to whip the Teaparty group specifically has been a joke; (b) sometimes our system allows legitimate "tails," or minority views, to wag the dog of the center; yet (c) our system is about compromise, and the center has won out in most of the debates. The absurdity of the House of Representatives has been amateur hour.
2. Disrespect. Yes, the Pubs are the "party of No," actively defending their point of view and loudly hoping for the CEO of the USA to fail... except We The People are represented by all branches of government-- that throughputs into hoping against the USA itself, and seems highly disrespectful no matter how rosy the economy. So these red herrings and ad hominems look to be much fiddling whilst Rome Burns! What ever happened to respect for the office of the President?
3. Delay, Distract, and Derail. Between both parties the lack of civil dialogue has led to endless tactical maneuvers that have ultimately kept the American people riding in the rumble seat, while we watch some falsetto reality show about idiots sent somewhere to compromise and lead, but instead doing everything except what has been needed-- and so much needs doing!
4. Democrat. The Dems have been playing chicken, too. What ever happened to civil discourse? Both sides show they dont know how to get things done with fact, consensus, and logic. Keynesian theory, like climate change, is scientifically verifiable, so why do Dems somehow have a big issue explaining that massive cuts at the heart of a recovery will ensure a new downturn in economic activity. What small and large businesses and investors REALLY await is ANY final say on tax codes, securities regulation, and others of the many chickens that came home to roost in 2006 ~ 2008 (under the Bush Administration) still clucking along with us. Not too many care who is to blame, but await the issues to be addressed, solved, and a long term track set up so calculations can be made. We want chicken salad and have been served a lot of chicken $#!+. The whipsaw markets and the inconstant congress have made planning as much of a hunch as a calculation, and this is not right to do to potential employers during the worst job crisis since Ronald Reagan!
C-flat for Obama.
We are really seeing a tin ear on many things, particularly juxtaposed against the congressional reality from the President.
He has fallen flat on many issues that his populist core group, of which I count myself as formerly one, would have imagined his administration could have tackled in his sleep.
1. Habeas Corpus. To me this is the only issue of the 2012 election if this doesnt get handled, very soon. Don't get me wrong, I am sure there are some very bad people out there trying to do very bad things to the USA,, but at what cost are we willing to proceed? Still unsettled is the rejection of the initial human rights of the landholder found in the Magna Carta, enshrined by our civilization, and repealed under the harsh justice of Bush the Lesser. Yet Obama three years in unwilling to re-establish ancient Rule of Law?? Straight up F on this one.
2. Tax. Dear Mr. President, under similar constraints, your hero, Reagan, also raised taxes. What economist is telling you to not generate revenues by simplifying government, tax codes, and regulations-- a net tax increase? Maybe Geithner is the least of our worries, but there is not really a debate amongst scholars as to what is needed stimulatively by the Buyer and Seller of last resort. You are trying to run the largest economy without proper income. Would any millionaire or billionaire also seek to run an operation with expenses exceeding income? No, they would pass the cost on. D+ on economy.
3. Negotiating. Before I consider voting for you again, I need you to show me that you wouldn't be hustled by a car dealer. In the real world, you see, people close deals all day long. I guess its a lawyers in Washington DC thing to expect that you acceed to the oppositions positions before they show willingness to engage in earnest horse trading. Practice by playing poker with your staff or something, because this is getting embarrassing to watch. Then the endless tactical back and forth. Next time, print out your hard and fast deal points and let congress work around you -- not the other way around! Congress is only popular to the tune of their family and friends networks now, so why would you let them have the first or last word ever again? D- on negotiation.
4. Everything else. Obama has been remarkably productive in the first couple of years, but it seems has been caught flat footed. His administration has gotten many remarkable things accomplished while fighting two wars they didnt start. I remember watching Nixon flying away from the White House lawn on TV when I was three, so I have no short term memory issues to somehow imagine that much of our problems stem from the horrible administrative decisions by the prior CEO.
Yet, I tried to bite my tongue about Bush, because I knew (a) he was only a person, (b) tens of thousands of others worked around him to create the millions of bad choices, least of which was Cheney, and (c) barring the previous administrations refusal to leave office without a coup, we are Americans, and even the quasi-fascist neo-cons left when the People spoke. So, yes, comparatively Obama has been a fresh start, but now we are into the quagmired reality of hard choices--regardless of who started what (My argument is that it's Nixons fault for taking us off the Silver Standard, but who cares, right? How will that argument get anything accomplished today??).
I give Obama a B- drifting into a C+ were it not for the key issues above, to combine for a very flat C-.
I can only pray we are restored our rights, and that the people who will be going back to Washington DC in the fall decide to take seriously the multitude of issues that have befallen the American peoples-- for surely this wont do!
Showing posts with label Election 2010. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Election 2010. Show all posts
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Silly Season: Open for Hunting
Dems have always had constituent group politics: gays, latinos, blacks, labor, etc.
Those groups, or factions, dont always agree, and often dont get everything they wanted, either.
This flexibility is something the Pubs are not known for; if anything they are know as being in lock-step, on-message, and in-synch-- a real machine. Except now, they really dont agree with one another on how best to proceed, and Boehner may risk (political) life and limb trying to get the stump out of the thresher-- to use a farming metaphor.
In other words, they now actually have sub-groups!
How Boehner deals with the transition to a group process format for these expressed interest will be measured by the body count in the 2012 elections. Try focusing on that instead of screwing Obama, and by the transitive property the nation as well-- First reason, it's what you guys did last time you were "in power."
Lest we should forget that neither party wants to talk about the real pain points, and so most of what is being fed as the primary proceedings of the political dialogue in DC really amounts to irrelevant misdirection to keep the interested confused and the rest of us bored with all of the lying!
Those groups, or factions, dont always agree, and often dont get everything they wanted, either.
This flexibility is something the Pubs are not known for; if anything they are know as being in lock-step, on-message, and in-synch-- a real machine. Except now, they really dont agree with one another on how best to proceed, and Boehner may risk (political) life and limb trying to get the stump out of the thresher-- to use a farming metaphor.
In other words, they now actually have sub-groups!
How Boehner deals with the transition to a group process format for these expressed interest will be measured by the body count in the 2012 elections. Try focusing on that instead of screwing Obama, and by the transitive property the nation as well-- First reason, it's what you guys did last time you were "in power."
Lest we should forget that neither party wants to talk about the real pain points, and so most of what is being fed as the primary proceedings of the political dialogue in DC really amounts to irrelevant misdirection to keep the interested confused and the rest of us bored with all of the lying!
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Learning from 19
Well, I am disappointed that Prop 19 didn't pass, but my eyes are opened up to where things stand.
I am also disappointed that the opposition created no effort at a cogent rhetorical argument against -- everything I heard, saw, or read was an appeal to emotion (mostly Fear) at the end of the day. No real debate of logic or reason.
What then would it take to be so reasonable as to shut out the opposition entirely:
Firstly, the measure failed in all the major growing areas! Also it failed in LA and SD, where I sense that had the Proposition somehow not stepped on fewer toes, then this may have passed without the support of the growers.
In his article, John Walker points out that exit polling found 30% of "NO" voters supported legalization-- just not 19!
That would suggest that a simple ballot proposal which only focused on the idea of making legal cannabis (in all its forms, including industrial) will pass.
Next, the simple folk wisdom that at the end of the day Prop 19 was a proposal to tax people, and I feel old when I think back to all the very good ideas I have seen, or helped put onto ballots, and even voted on, that dont pass for one basic fact-- the idea to raise taxes is a bad starting position.
Dont get me wrong, Prop 19 was well past deficit neutral, but it certainly appears that the 60-40 rule (when if you propose a tax it has the default position, regardless of issue, of being down 20%-- so to vote in a tax you need a virtual super-majority of enthusiasm, just to get to 51%!) was in full effect here.
So, then that suggests we need to legalize cannabis without creating taxes through referendum.
Finally, at the end of the day, it is certain that those people who operate directly or indirectly with the less than legal aspects of the current #1 Cash Crop, were overwhelmingly against the proposition for a wide range of hallucinations: market prices would drop (making this less profitable); medical marijuana laws would be hampered (which it wouldn't, but for certain operators the same issue of profitability would have potentially come into play); and claims of being poorly crafted (which would not have been as much of an issue because Ammiano would have reintroduced Bill to Legalize, Tax Marijuana, and thus harmonized and cleaned up any outstanding or unclear issues) seems to have been code for "let's not kill the goose laying golden eggs."
To summarize, the initiative that will pass sooner than later, must (a) be simple, clear, and complete; (b) should not prohibit, nor prescribe any taxes or fees; and (c) must be supported by the over ~60% of eligible voters who actually support an end of prohibition-- growers, suppliers, medical marijuana-ists, law enforcement, unions, churches, civic organizations, and maybe even another party (besides the Libertarians) that fully backs the initiative.
To whit the simplest proposal available for every state in every election year until prohibition is ended:
Shall Cannabis, its cultivation, harvest, products, by-products, use, sale, and distribution remain illegal?
Full text of the initiative;
A yes vote shall change nothing.
A no vote shall render all state and local laws against Cannabis void. If so voided, then the people will by force of this vote recommend the matter to state and local governments to establish regulation, tax, and control.
That simple, really.
I think the strategists, movers and shakers are well to get something as simple as this proposal onto a couple of 2011 ballots (maybe CA?).
If this issue can get onto the 2012 ballot in say a dozen or two of the major states where the movement is strong (WA, OR, CA, NV, CO, NM, MT, NE, MN, MS, OH, NC, NY, ME, HI, et. al.), then I imagine there will be an end of prohibition-- doesn't matter if it's 2 months, two years or two decades later-- we are very close to the beginning of the end of prohibition.
This strategy is a simple existentialist dilemma, which is designed only to jeopordize the continuation of Prohibition.
Finally, as I may not write another pro-Hemp article for fifteen days, months, or maybe another 15 years (hopefully not), I would like to re-iterate and respond to the question of why I support legalization:
Our founders had declared that the innate disposition of the character of the American Citizen is a free person who reserves and is granted by the Almighty an inherent right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness. Further, the right to privacy is implied within the bounds of social order and safety of the state.
To have something, a plant, literally something that can grow as a weed, a volunteer, that has been misrepresented as in the same category as Heroine, when in fact it is less harmful than Alcohol, and has outstanding benefit to the industry and health of humanity, then as stewards of this little blue marble, we earthlings, must make free that plant, animal, or being. This is the ethical implication.
To arrest people for an activity that human beings have engaged in since the dawn of history itself is madness. This the moral implication.
The definition of Liberty may be argued in massive volumes, but put simply: "the right of the individual to live and pursue happiness within lawful means without infringing upon an other's liberties, nor antagonism towards the state."
As such, so long as we perpetuate false myths, rumors, and stories about reality itself and facts as such, we create a society of suspicious minds (to quote Elvis) that is in genuine conflict with the ideals of Freedom and a right to Pursue happiness.
So long as another American's reasonable expectations of ordinary individual Liberties are being infringed upon, then this implicates us each and all as fellow citizens to understand that some element from our own choices in life may be also similarly put asunder arbitrarily and capriciously by the government. This is the philosophical argument.
And finally, like any good red-blooded capitalist from America, the most important issue is that of making dark markets bright, fair, and regulated places, and spreading the benefits of what is basically a TRILLION DOLLAR industry back unto the populace from whence its also is gainful of those basic services taxpayers provided for these outlaws (yes, as in "when freedom is Outlawed, then only Outlaws will be free!") to be benefitted from the roads, services, and infrastructure whereby the goose may so continue to lay golden eggs, and all of us are granted a right to have geese! Revenues gained by the States and Municipalities from all the new profits would have probably exceeded estimates over time.
***
California just missed a multi-billion dollar chance at a major fifteen to twenty year first-mover advantage!
I am also disappointed that the opposition created no effort at a cogent rhetorical argument against -- everything I heard, saw, or read was an appeal to emotion (mostly Fear) at the end of the day. No real debate of logic or reason.
What then would it take to be so reasonable as to shut out the opposition entirely:
Firstly, the measure failed in all the major growing areas! Also it failed in LA and SD, where I sense that had the Proposition somehow not stepped on fewer toes, then this may have passed without the support of the growers.
In his article, John Walker points out that exit polling found 30% of "NO" voters supported legalization-- just not 19!
That would suggest that a simple ballot proposal which only focused on the idea of making legal cannabis (in all its forms, including industrial) will pass.
Next, the simple folk wisdom that at the end of the day Prop 19 was a proposal to tax people, and I feel old when I think back to all the very good ideas I have seen, or helped put onto ballots, and even voted on, that dont pass for one basic fact-- the idea to raise taxes is a bad starting position.
Dont get me wrong, Prop 19 was well past deficit neutral, but it certainly appears that the 60-40 rule (when if you propose a tax it has the default position, regardless of issue, of being down 20%-- so to vote in a tax you need a virtual super-majority of enthusiasm, just to get to 51%!) was in full effect here.
So, then that suggests we need to legalize cannabis without creating taxes through referendum.
Finally, at the end of the day, it is certain that those people who operate directly or indirectly with the less than legal aspects of the current #1 Cash Crop, were overwhelmingly against the proposition for a wide range of hallucinations: market prices would drop (making this less profitable); medical marijuana laws would be hampered (which it wouldn't, but for certain operators the same issue of profitability would have potentially come into play); and claims of being poorly crafted (which would not have been as much of an issue because Ammiano would have reintroduced Bill to Legalize, Tax Marijuana, and thus harmonized and cleaned up any outstanding or unclear issues) seems to have been code for "let's not kill the goose laying golden eggs."
To summarize, the initiative that will pass sooner than later, must (a) be simple, clear, and complete; (b) should not prohibit, nor prescribe any taxes or fees; and (c) must be supported by the over ~60% of eligible voters who actually support an end of prohibition-- growers, suppliers, medical marijuana-ists, law enforcement, unions, churches, civic organizations, and maybe even another party (besides the Libertarians) that fully backs the initiative.
To whit the simplest proposal available for every state in every election year until prohibition is ended:
Shall Cannabis, its cultivation, harvest, products, by-products, use, sale, and distribution remain illegal?
Full text of the initiative;
A yes vote shall change nothing.
A no vote shall render all state and local laws against Cannabis void. If so voided, then the people will by force of this vote recommend the matter to state and local governments to establish regulation, tax, and control.
That simple, really.
I think the strategists, movers and shakers are well to get something as simple as this proposal onto a couple of 2011 ballots (maybe CA?).
If this issue can get onto the 2012 ballot in say a dozen or two of the major states where the movement is strong (WA, OR, CA, NV, CO, NM, MT, NE, MN, MS, OH, NC, NY, ME, HI, et. al.), then I imagine there will be an end of prohibition-- doesn't matter if it's 2 months, two years or two decades later-- we are very close to the beginning of the end of prohibition.
This strategy is a simple existentialist dilemma, which is designed only to jeopordize the continuation of Prohibition.
Finally, as I may not write another pro-Hemp article for fifteen days, months, or maybe another 15 years (hopefully not), I would like to re-iterate and respond to the question of why I support legalization:
Our founders had declared that the innate disposition of the character of the American Citizen is a free person who reserves and is granted by the Almighty an inherent right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness. Further, the right to privacy is implied within the bounds of social order and safety of the state.
To have something, a plant, literally something that can grow as a weed, a volunteer, that has been misrepresented as in the same category as Heroine, when in fact it is less harmful than Alcohol, and has outstanding benefit to the industry and health of humanity, then as stewards of this little blue marble, we earthlings, must make free that plant, animal, or being. This is the ethical implication.
To arrest people for an activity that human beings have engaged in since the dawn of history itself is madness. This the moral implication.
The definition of Liberty may be argued in massive volumes, but put simply: "the right of the individual to live and pursue happiness within lawful means without infringing upon an other's liberties, nor antagonism towards the state."
As such, so long as we perpetuate false myths, rumors, and stories about reality itself and facts as such, we create a society of suspicious minds (to quote Elvis) that is in genuine conflict with the ideals of Freedom and a right to Pursue happiness.
So long as another American's reasonable expectations of ordinary individual Liberties are being infringed upon, then this implicates us each and all as fellow citizens to understand that some element from our own choices in life may be also similarly put asunder arbitrarily and capriciously by the government. This is the philosophical argument.
And finally, like any good red-blooded capitalist from America, the most important issue is that of making dark markets bright, fair, and regulated places, and spreading the benefits of what is basically a TRILLION DOLLAR industry back unto the populace from whence its also is gainful of those basic services taxpayers provided for these outlaws (yes, as in "when freedom is Outlawed, then only Outlaws will be free!") to be benefitted from the roads, services, and infrastructure whereby the goose may so continue to lay golden eggs, and all of us are granted a right to have geese! Revenues gained by the States and Municipalities from all the new profits would have probably exceeded estimates over time.
***
California just missed a multi-billion dollar chance at a major fifteen to twenty year first-mover advantage!
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
My World and the rest of the world....
Wow, Just found an old Newsletter I sent out at the end of Winter 2005 ~ 6, which recommends a heavy and long investment into the reintroduced thirty year T-Bill:
Starting January 2006
Date 2 yr 3 yr 5 yr 7 yr 10 yr 20 yr 30 yr
02/06/06 4.62 4.57 4.51 4.52 4.55 4.69 N/A
02/07/06 4.61 4.57 4.52 4.54 4.57 4.73 N/A
02/08/06 4.64 4.61 4.55 4.55 4.56 4.75 N/A
02/09/06 4.66 4.62 4.55 4.55 4.54 4.72 4.51
02/10/06 4.69 4.67 4.59 4.59 4.59 4.76 4.55
02/13/06 4.68 4.66 4.58 4.58 4.58 4.76 4.56
02/14/06 4.69 4.68 4.61 4.61 4.62 4.80 4.60
02/15/06 4.71 4.68 4.60 4.60 4.61 4.78 4.58
02/16/06 4.69 4.67 4.59 4.59 4.59 4.77 4.57
02/17/06 4.66 4.64 4.55 4.54 4.54 4.71 4.51
02/21/06 4.71 4.68 4.59 4.58 4.57 4.72 4.53
02/22/06 4.68 4.66 4.57 4.55 4.53 4.68 4.48
02/23/06 4.72 4.70 4.63 4.58 4.56 4.70 4.51
02/24/06 4.74 4.70 4.64 4.60 4.58 4.71 4.52
02/27/06 4.74 4.71 4.66 4.61 4.59 4.74 4.55
02/28/06 4.69 4.67 4.61 4.57 4.55 4.70 4.51
03/01/06 4.71 4.68 4.63 4.60 4.59 4.74 4.56
03/02/06 4.72 4.72 4.68 4.66 4.64 4.80 4.62
03/03/06 4.76 4.75 4.71 4.69 4.68 4.84 4.66
03/06/06 4.77 4.77 4.76 4.74 4.74 4.91 4.72
03/07/06 4.77 4.79 4.76 4.75 4.74 4.91 4.72
03/08/06 4.72 4.77 4.75 4.74 4.73 4.91 4.72
03/09/06 4.72 4.77 4.75 4.74 4.74 4.91 4.72
03/10/06 4.74 4.80 4.77 4.76 4.76 4.93 4.74
03/13/06 4.74 4.81 4.78 4.78 4.77 4.95 4.77
03/14/06* 4.66 4.72 4.68 4.69 4.71 4.89 4.71
03/15/06 4.69 4.72 4.69 4.70 4.73 4.93 4.75
03/16/06 4.62 4.62 4.60 4.61 4.65 4.86 4.70
03/17/06 4.65 4.64 4.62 4.63 4.68 4.89 4.72
Postmark on returned newsletter.
Source: Federal Reserve.gov ; http://bit.ly/asBCk9
***
(4.75% interest tax free for thirty years is a good bet even right now....)
~~~
If I was right about that fun fact about the economy four years ago, then trust me when I say, HEMP is right for the Economy Today!
There have been no new actual arguments brought up by the opposition since my last Post, or Original Argument from 1993~4. Mostly we have seen the same old tired out retread Arguments of "Fear," and to much lesser extent "Greed," because actually YES wins the conversation about jobs, taxes, and the economy.
The fearful bits about elections, is one of the key reasons why I am actually sick of our political system. Washington was as Cincinnatus a citizen - soldier - then politician - then citizen, and the (low) level of discourse in our modern politics disenfranchises ordinary citizens.
So, Fear is something, but the reason we are given privacy to punch our ballot is that the vote must not be made under duress. That category then is hard to define once we take impersonal effects from the citizen... does not the economy itself pose a certain duress upon the perceptions of voters today?
Thus, even though there are legitimate problems in our economy, government, and state budgets, we must look past fear and ask simply, "Will this Proposal (proposition 19) actually help?" Make a positive impact on my life and the future of our State and Economy!
With an estimated $1.8BB in savings by redirection of Peace Officer efforts and incarceration, this can certainly be redistributed at a savings to governments, and then more than make up any potential slack posed by people doing more or less what they are already doing (and government make fewer or no taxes from it).
With an estimated $1.4BB in revenues to state and local governments, this is a real solution for today's issues-- INCLUDING JOBS!
I am glad, although unaffiliated with, have often voted Libertarian, as well as other third parties, that the Libertarians recognized and endorsed Prop 19, without waiver or condition.
This will get the beginning of the end of a failed Prohibition and a failed social "drug" war mentality.
Peace.
THANK YOU.
Go out and Vote today November 2nd, 2010.
Please vote YES on 19!
Starting January 2006
Date 2 yr 3 yr 5 yr 7 yr 10 yr 20 yr 30 yr
02/06/06 4.62 4.57 4.51 4.52 4.55 4.69 N/A
02/07/06 4.61 4.57 4.52 4.54 4.57 4.73 N/A
02/08/06 4.64 4.61 4.55 4.55 4.56 4.75 N/A
02/09/06 4.66 4.62 4.55 4.55 4.54 4.72 4.51
02/10/06 4.69 4.67 4.59 4.59 4.59 4.76 4.55
02/13/06 4.68 4.66 4.58 4.58 4.58 4.76 4.56
02/14/06 4.69 4.68 4.61 4.61 4.62 4.80 4.60
02/15/06 4.71 4.68 4.60 4.60 4.61 4.78 4.58
02/16/06 4.69 4.67 4.59 4.59 4.59 4.77 4.57
02/17/06 4.66 4.64 4.55 4.54 4.54 4.71 4.51
02/21/06 4.71 4.68 4.59 4.58 4.57 4.72 4.53
02/22/06 4.68 4.66 4.57 4.55 4.53 4.68 4.48
02/23/06 4.72 4.70 4.63 4.58 4.56 4.70 4.51
02/24/06 4.74 4.70 4.64 4.60 4.58 4.71 4.52
02/27/06 4.74 4.71 4.66 4.61 4.59 4.74 4.55
02/28/06 4.69 4.67 4.61 4.57 4.55 4.70 4.51
03/01/06 4.71 4.68 4.63 4.60 4.59 4.74 4.56
03/02/06 4.72 4.72 4.68 4.66 4.64 4.80 4.62
03/03/06 4.76 4.75 4.71 4.69 4.68 4.84 4.66
03/06/06 4.77 4.77 4.76 4.74 4.74 4.91 4.72
03/07/06 4.77 4.79 4.76 4.75 4.74 4.91 4.72
03/08/06 4.72 4.77 4.75 4.74 4.73 4.91 4.72
03/09/06 4.72 4.77 4.75 4.74 4.74 4.91 4.72
03/10/06 4.74 4.80 4.77 4.76 4.76 4.93 4.74
03/13/06 4.74 4.81 4.78 4.78 4.77 4.95 4.77
03/14/06* 4.66 4.72 4.68 4.69 4.71 4.89 4.71
03/15/06 4.69 4.72 4.69 4.70 4.73 4.93 4.75
03/16/06 4.62 4.62 4.60 4.61 4.65 4.86 4.70
03/17/06 4.65 4.64 4.62 4.63 4.68 4.89 4.72
Postmark on returned newsletter.
Source: Federal Reserve.gov ; http://bit.ly/asBCk9
***
(4.75% interest tax free for thirty years is a good bet even right now....)
~~~
If I was right about that fun fact about the economy four years ago, then trust me when I say, HEMP is right for the Economy Today!
There have been no new actual arguments brought up by the opposition since my last Post, or Original Argument from 1993~4. Mostly we have seen the same old tired out retread Arguments of "Fear," and to much lesser extent "Greed," because actually YES wins the conversation about jobs, taxes, and the economy.
The fearful bits about elections, is one of the key reasons why I am actually sick of our political system. Washington was as Cincinnatus a citizen - soldier - then politician - then citizen, and the (low) level of discourse in our modern politics disenfranchises ordinary citizens.
So, Fear is something, but the reason we are given privacy to punch our ballot is that the vote must not be made under duress. That category then is hard to define once we take impersonal effects from the citizen... does not the economy itself pose a certain duress upon the perceptions of voters today?
Thus, even though there are legitimate problems in our economy, government, and state budgets, we must look past fear and ask simply, "Will this Proposal (proposition 19) actually help?" Make a positive impact on my life and the future of our State and Economy!
With an estimated $1.8BB in savings by redirection of Peace Officer efforts and incarceration, this can certainly be redistributed at a savings to governments, and then more than make up any potential slack posed by people doing more or less what they are already doing (and government make fewer or no taxes from it).
With an estimated $1.4BB in revenues to state and local governments, this is a real solution for today's issues-- INCLUDING JOBS!
I am glad, although unaffiliated with, have often voted Libertarian, as well as other third parties, that the Libertarians recognized and endorsed Prop 19, without waiver or condition.
This will get the beginning of the end of a failed Prohibition and a failed social "drug" war mentality.
Peace.
THANK YOU.
Go out and Vote today November 2nd, 2010.
Please vote YES on 19!
Monday, September 6, 2010
Republished: The Ten Healing Reasons for Hemp Legalization
Endorsement: VOTE YES ON PROP 19 - #Prop19
(Originaly Broadcast on K.A.O.S. 89.3 FM in 1994)
Hemp, Cannabis Sativa, termed Maihuana or Marijuana by 1930's "yellow journalists," is possibly the most versatile plant product, which can be grown by humans.
The following shall allude to hard facts and evidence, without exceeding the bounds of these, and without harking directly upon said truths in a statistical manner.
Cannabis species have been coincidentally developed to serve humanity throughout the ages, have fortified historical societies in all matters of evolutionary progression, and shall lightly be referred to hereafter, as such.
The purposes of this article is to appropriately direct attention to the pertinent sequential argumentation in favor of the disbandment of laws which outlaw the Cannabis species.
I pray that I have served well.
First Reason: Air.
Next to Papyrus, Hemp is one of the oldest paper products utilized by humankind, tree forests have been overdrawn from, and have been relegated to the higher role of species resource banks.
The depletion of mature trees has caused a twenty to one-hundred year deficit in the oxygen cycle in terms of total potential (oxygen/carbon ratio). The poisoning of seas and oceans is strangulating the algae, plankton, and other sea weeds, which compose up to 70% of our oxygen supply. These are common facts.
The ability of Hemp species to easily grow in marginal and fertile soils alike, can, in principle, compensate partially for current oxygen cycle deficits by converting otherwise non (low) oxygen interactive bioregions into fixing nitrogen into soils, while creating oxygens.
The cycling, and break-down, of polluted air and soils, on lands otherwise fallowed out as "contaminated," is expediated when Hemp is set to meadow on these. Hemps have rapid cycles, bearing seed annually and semi-annually, and therefore process at proportionate rates of consumption. Of course the products raised on soil are characteristic to the soil, and, thus, are not recommended for use, until soil has mended.
Second Reason: Soil.
A hypothetical meadow growing on marginal, contaminated, or poor soil will not only extract and break-down toxins form both air and soil, but will fix nitrogens at similar rates as a legume while building humus.
Humus is essentially the most biologically active element, which composes soil as we know it.
Hemp when cultivated into soils, or left to rot, not only improves the soil by adding humus, but the roots of many Hemp varieties have the capability of rooting three to ten feet, or more, into the earth. This action loosens many strata of soil layers, fixing nitrogen therein, setting down pathways for water percolation to occur, and thus extracting otherwise locked-up minerals and elements towards the surface. When left to rot, vital microbial activities can occur as deep as the roots set.
With all these factors put into consideration, it is evident that Hemps are a vital agricultural option in the process of soil activation, restoration, and purification. Especially, when one considers the density that Hemp as a monoculture has the capability tto provide in conjunct with many varieties having two, three, and four season fruition capacity. This is one dynamic crop to enhance soil tilth!
Reason Three: Water.
When water percolation rates are increased, soils improved, and vegitation masses, hence transpiration, are increased, or improved, the water cycle is facilitated in manifold ways.
In the scenario where a soils rate of percolation, water table depth, and purity are increased, as in my "contaminated meadow" scenario, water that falls on the land is purified by the percolatory actions, depth improved retention, which in turn produces a complex effect on the water cycles as a whole. Suffice it to say, that waters lodge in the purer soil for longer amounts of time improves water quality.
In areas where land was destroyed by settlement, disasters, or other natural occurrences in which desertification has progressed, when high density crops are procured, the effect of mass transpiration, the breathing of many plants, stimulates winds, attracts humidity, and thus when humidity condenses creates rain. There is no direct evidence to say Hemp will increase rainfall.
However, many Hemp varieties have been reported to successfully cycle with less than ten inches of rainfall and no regular irrigation annually. Hemps are a vital tool in the prevention of desertification worldwide!
Fourth Reason: Fire.
At present, the species homo sapiens is faced with the realization that a lack of carbon dioxide recycling, where carbons are held in check by plant species, is increasing the overall temperatures of our common Earth's functioning.
There is the further problem posed by our contaminantions depleting our tertiary ooxygen cycle, called the Ozone layer, which provides deflection of ultra-violet, among other, spectrums of solar radiation. As I write this article (1994), I believe we have only twelve percent of hard ozone remaining, with the capacity to restore seventy-percent of this ancient shield.
Hemp can reverse these effects by acting as a scaffold forest. The primary cause of this effect is removal of trees, poisoning of waters, and pollution of air supplies. Hemp fields, where nothing else might grow, will increase our oxygen supply, and thus create tertiary oxygens for the increase of our common ozone layer. Hemp will fix nitrogens and hold carbons at a more rapid pace than a forest, but if this is occurring on lands on which no forest is predominant, for whatever reasons, this will be a real improvement. All of this occurs, while poisons are broken down, and forests re-grown -- a scaffold towards common healing.
Fifth Reason: Insects.
Without insects the Earth is dead. This is common agricultural knowledge.
Insects are among the most misunderstood creatures on this planet, yet their evolutionary capacities are extraordinary.
We are slow to realize that the more poisons we throw at a species the more resistant that species becomes. This lack of acknowledgment of the Darwinistic reality of evolutionary progression, has led to penicillin resistant virus strains, virtually immune insects and rodents resistant to our poison traps.
The Native Americans would plant half their crops for the tribe, with a similar or equal proportion of crop for the spirits of nature.
It is thus that I propose the extreme regulation of poisons, in conjunction with mass planting of Hemps on marginal, contaminated, and/or poor soil as offerings for the insects that they become fat-- less resistant.
Sixth reason: Birds.
Within the aforementioned proposal is the inherent understanding that species avian would also gain substantially from these scaffold forests.
Hemp seeds are second only to the soybean in protein content, and are high in what is called healthy cholesterol. This means that as food stuff, the seeds of cannabis species are very popular among avians, or birds.
The procurement of such masses of Hemp, where human activities are limited or restricted, would create huge encampments for all manner of songbird.
The primary deficit to this is in the case of soils being restored from toxins, in which case measures would be required to prevent the addition of these toxins into bird cycles. Hemp fibers make strong, durable, biodegradable netting, and thus might serve this end, too.
The increase in bird populations would stimulate other aspects of the food chain, and simultaneously keep the increased "fat insect" population in check.
Seventh Reason: Starvation.
There were several organizations founded throughout the nineteen-sixties, seventies, and even eighties, which sought to alleviate world wide "hunger," or what I am calling starvation, by some targeted date-- commonly in the Twenty-First Century.
I believe this goal is still possible if the following steps were implemented;
The saturation of marginal lands leaning towards desertification with Hemp Seeds, that able populations might harvest leaves for greens and half of seed harvest as food, with the other half sent back to earth with the stocks for subsequent harvest. Regional collectives might best accomplish these goals.
Hemp plant matter is a healthful animal feed for green eaters, and the seeds are excellent for both plant and seed eaters alike. This is true of humans as well, and thus higher efficiency occurs when human directly eat the Hemp vegetable.
Starvation would be prevented particularly when distribution of supply is facilitated, and so far as I see it, is the real geo-political cause of "hunger."
Eighth Reason: Economics.
It is estimated, were Hemp legalized, over ten thousand industries would be created! Further, it is assumed that the Hemp plant has over fifty-thousand production possibilities.
Hemp can be used as paper, plastic, fuel, rope, fiber, resin, pulp fiber for building products, cloth, food, medicine, and so much more!
Taxes generated by the regulation, licensing, and envigoration of commerce created by Hemp legalization would create a virtual rekindling of the industrial revolution.
The small-farm economy would be revitalized, every paper mill shut down in the past twenty years could re-open, entire houses could be built with Hemp products alone, ships could be fabricated entirely out of Hemp, and clothing made from Hemp would last much longer.
Medical research would be free to find relief, and potentially lead to the curing of diseases, such as, but not limited to, glaucoma, cancer, and HIV/AIDS.
The de facto number on cash crop of the Pacific West could revitalize, stimulate, and expand our legitimate economy, if "legalization" were enacted.
Ninth Reason: Faith.
According to the bible, "And the Earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind; and God saw that it was good." (Gen 1:12)
Also, "Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith." (Pro 15:17)
With these two quotations much speculation can occur, but it appears evident that no human was meant to outlaw the growth of any plant under our common husbandry.
The first Christians, in the Hebraic traditions, were known to have utilized cannabis for spiritual meditations.
In fact, cannabis has been used for this similar, or same, spiritual purpose wherever it was able to grow, for millennia.
Why, now, do we assume ourselves superior, in the exclusion of one of the most vital and powerful crops available to humankind?
I believe the answer is as simple as the biblical notion of greed.
If we as a society are to "not bear false witness" upon an agent of the Earth, then we must avail our guilt in the case of Hemps. The power of big oil, and corrupt government caused the outlaw of cannabis in America.
Tenth Reason: Earthly Salvation.
The Earth, as we know it, would be resuscitated to a state, which resembled, "how we found it," that our progeny might be less encumbered by the legacy of our industrial forbearers, were the actions, parallel, or equal, to the ones I have alluded to in this article, taken.
The Ozone cycle might be revitalized by the addition of what I have termed Hemp Fields; the "greenhouse effect" might be staved off were what I call Scaffold Forests implemented; soil and air would be detoxified; and all Life cycles would be benefited by these strategies.
Were marginal lands planted up world-wide, distribution of the protein-rich Hemp seed facilitated, and water cycles improved through land reclamations, then mass starvation could potentially be alleviated.
The experimentation of anti-desertification on lands where desertification is pending, is also one of the possibilities with Hemp.
The restoration of our economy, now considered relatively unified world-wide, and the creation of innumerable jobs is potential in the legitimization of the Hemp species and products.
The illegalization of Hemp is an effort not worthy of continuing, due to the outstanding circumstances that humanity now faces.
(Origially written for ISBN-- Independent Student Broadcast Network)
(Originaly Broadcast on K.A.O.S. 89.3 FM in 1994)
Hemp, Cannabis Sativa, termed Maihuana or Marijuana by 1930's "yellow journalists," is possibly the most versatile plant product, which can be grown by humans.
The following shall allude to hard facts and evidence, without exceeding the bounds of these, and without harking directly upon said truths in a statistical manner.
Cannabis species have been coincidentally developed to serve humanity throughout the ages, have fortified historical societies in all matters of evolutionary progression, and shall lightly be referred to hereafter, as such.
The purposes of this article is to appropriately direct attention to the pertinent sequential argumentation in favor of the disbandment of laws which outlaw the Cannabis species.
I pray that I have served well.
First Reason: Air.
Next to Papyrus, Hemp is one of the oldest paper products utilized by humankind, tree forests have been overdrawn from, and have been relegated to the higher role of species resource banks.
The depletion of mature trees has caused a twenty to one-hundred year deficit in the oxygen cycle in terms of total potential (oxygen/carbon ratio). The poisoning of seas and oceans is strangulating the algae, plankton, and other sea weeds, which compose up to 70% of our oxygen supply. These are common facts.
The ability of Hemp species to easily grow in marginal and fertile soils alike, can, in principle, compensate partially for current oxygen cycle deficits by converting otherwise non (low) oxygen interactive bioregions into fixing nitrogen into soils, while creating oxygens.
The cycling, and break-down, of polluted air and soils, on lands otherwise fallowed out as "contaminated," is expediated when Hemp is set to meadow on these. Hemps have rapid cycles, bearing seed annually and semi-annually, and therefore process at proportionate rates of consumption. Of course the products raised on soil are characteristic to the soil, and, thus, are not recommended for use, until soil has mended.
Second Reason: Soil.
A hypothetical meadow growing on marginal, contaminated, or poor soil will not only extract and break-down toxins form both air and soil, but will fix nitrogens at similar rates as a legume while building humus.
Humus is essentially the most biologically active element, which composes soil as we know it.
Hemp when cultivated into soils, or left to rot, not only improves the soil by adding humus, but the roots of many Hemp varieties have the capability of rooting three to ten feet, or more, into the earth. This action loosens many strata of soil layers, fixing nitrogen therein, setting down pathways for water percolation to occur, and thus extracting otherwise locked-up minerals and elements towards the surface. When left to rot, vital microbial activities can occur as deep as the roots set.
With all these factors put into consideration, it is evident that Hemps are a vital agricultural option in the process of soil activation, restoration, and purification. Especially, when one considers the density that Hemp as a monoculture has the capability tto provide in conjunct with many varieties having two, three, and four season fruition capacity. This is one dynamic crop to enhance soil tilth!
Reason Three: Water.
When water percolation rates are increased, soils improved, and vegitation masses, hence transpiration, are increased, or improved, the water cycle is facilitated in manifold ways.
In the scenario where a soils rate of percolation, water table depth, and purity are increased, as in my "contaminated meadow" scenario, water that falls on the land is purified by the percolatory actions, depth improved retention, which in turn produces a complex effect on the water cycles as a whole. Suffice it to say, that waters lodge in the purer soil for longer amounts of time improves water quality.
In areas where land was destroyed by settlement, disasters, or other natural occurrences in which desertification has progressed, when high density crops are procured, the effect of mass transpiration, the breathing of many plants, stimulates winds, attracts humidity, and thus when humidity condenses creates rain. There is no direct evidence to say Hemp will increase rainfall.
However, many Hemp varieties have been reported to successfully cycle with less than ten inches of rainfall and no regular irrigation annually. Hemps are a vital tool in the prevention of desertification worldwide!
Fourth Reason: Fire.
At present, the species homo sapiens is faced with the realization that a lack of carbon dioxide recycling, where carbons are held in check by plant species, is increasing the overall temperatures of our common Earth's functioning.
There is the further problem posed by our contaminantions depleting our tertiary ooxygen cycle, called the Ozone layer, which provides deflection of ultra-violet, among other, spectrums of solar radiation. As I write this article (1994), I believe we have only twelve percent of hard ozone remaining, with the capacity to restore seventy-percent of this ancient shield.
Hemp can reverse these effects by acting as a scaffold forest. The primary cause of this effect is removal of trees, poisoning of waters, and pollution of air supplies. Hemp fields, where nothing else might grow, will increase our oxygen supply, and thus create tertiary oxygens for the increase of our common ozone layer. Hemp will fix nitrogens and hold carbons at a more rapid pace than a forest, but if this is occurring on lands on which no forest is predominant, for whatever reasons, this will be a real improvement. All of this occurs, while poisons are broken down, and forests re-grown -- a scaffold towards common healing.
Fifth Reason: Insects.
Without insects the Earth is dead. This is common agricultural knowledge.
Insects are among the most misunderstood creatures on this planet, yet their evolutionary capacities are extraordinary.
We are slow to realize that the more poisons we throw at a species the more resistant that species becomes. This lack of acknowledgment of the Darwinistic reality of evolutionary progression, has led to penicillin resistant virus strains, virtually immune insects and rodents resistant to our poison traps.
The Native Americans would plant half their crops for the tribe, with a similar or equal proportion of crop for the spirits of nature.
It is thus that I propose the extreme regulation of poisons, in conjunction with mass planting of Hemps on marginal, contaminated, and/or poor soil as offerings for the insects that they become fat-- less resistant.
Sixth reason: Birds.
Within the aforementioned proposal is the inherent understanding that species avian would also gain substantially from these scaffold forests.
Hemp seeds are second only to the soybean in protein content, and are high in what is called healthy cholesterol. This means that as food stuff, the seeds of cannabis species are very popular among avians, or birds.
The procurement of such masses of Hemp, where human activities are limited or restricted, would create huge encampments for all manner of songbird.
The primary deficit to this is in the case of soils being restored from toxins, in which case measures would be required to prevent the addition of these toxins into bird cycles. Hemp fibers make strong, durable, biodegradable netting, and thus might serve this end, too.
The increase in bird populations would stimulate other aspects of the food chain, and simultaneously keep the increased "fat insect" population in check.
Seventh Reason: Starvation.
There were several organizations founded throughout the nineteen-sixties, seventies, and even eighties, which sought to alleviate world wide "hunger," or what I am calling starvation, by some targeted date-- commonly in the Twenty-First Century.
I believe this goal is still possible if the following steps were implemented;
The saturation of marginal lands leaning towards desertification with Hemp Seeds, that able populations might harvest leaves for greens and half of seed harvest as food, with the other half sent back to earth with the stocks for subsequent harvest. Regional collectives might best accomplish these goals.
Hemp plant matter is a healthful animal feed for green eaters, and the seeds are excellent for both plant and seed eaters alike. This is true of humans as well, and thus higher efficiency occurs when human directly eat the Hemp vegetable.
Starvation would be prevented particularly when distribution of supply is facilitated, and so far as I see it, is the real geo-political cause of "hunger."
Eighth Reason: Economics.
It is estimated, were Hemp legalized, over ten thousand industries would be created! Further, it is assumed that the Hemp plant has over fifty-thousand production possibilities.
Hemp can be used as paper, plastic, fuel, rope, fiber, resin, pulp fiber for building products, cloth, food, medicine, and so much more!
Taxes generated by the regulation, licensing, and envigoration of commerce created by Hemp legalization would create a virtual rekindling of the industrial revolution.
The small-farm economy would be revitalized, every paper mill shut down in the past twenty years could re-open, entire houses could be built with Hemp products alone, ships could be fabricated entirely out of Hemp, and clothing made from Hemp would last much longer.
Medical research would be free to find relief, and potentially lead to the curing of diseases, such as, but not limited to, glaucoma, cancer, and HIV/AIDS.
The de facto number on cash crop of the Pacific West could revitalize, stimulate, and expand our legitimate economy, if "legalization" were enacted.
Ninth Reason: Faith.
According to the bible, "And the Earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind; and God saw that it was good." (Gen 1:12)
Also, "Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith." (Pro 15:17)
With these two quotations much speculation can occur, but it appears evident that no human was meant to outlaw the growth of any plant under our common husbandry.
The first Christians, in the Hebraic traditions, were known to have utilized cannabis for spiritual meditations.
In fact, cannabis has been used for this similar, or same, spiritual purpose wherever it was able to grow, for millennia.
Why, now, do we assume ourselves superior, in the exclusion of one of the most vital and powerful crops available to humankind?
I believe the answer is as simple as the biblical notion of greed.
If we as a society are to "not bear false witness" upon an agent of the Earth, then we must avail our guilt in the case of Hemps. The power of big oil, and corrupt government caused the outlaw of cannabis in America.
Tenth Reason: Earthly Salvation.
The Earth, as we know it, would be resuscitated to a state, which resembled, "how we found it," that our progeny might be less encumbered by the legacy of our industrial forbearers, were the actions, parallel, or equal, to the ones I have alluded to in this article, taken.
The Ozone cycle might be revitalized by the addition of what I have termed Hemp Fields; the "greenhouse effect" might be staved off were what I call Scaffold Forests implemented; soil and air would be detoxified; and all Life cycles would be benefited by these strategies.
Were marginal lands planted up world-wide, distribution of the protein-rich Hemp seed facilitated, and water cycles improved through land reclamations, then mass starvation could potentially be alleviated.
The experimentation of anti-desertification on lands where desertification is pending, is also one of the possibilities with Hemp.
The restoration of our economy, now considered relatively unified world-wide, and the creation of innumerable jobs is potential in the legitimization of the Hemp species and products.
The illegalization of Hemp is an effort not worthy of continuing, due to the outstanding circumstances that humanity now faces.
(Origially written for ISBN-- Independent Student Broadcast Network)
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