His people are quite nice there. I got a rather more conciliatory letter from him also. (Maybe the Norml affiliation caused him to be more bellicose?).

Last year, in fact, he joined Republican Senator Grassley in calling for Walters, drug czar, to resign, for misplaced focus on medical marijuana interdiction to the detriment of methamphetamines which are the true scourge of the plaines.

Also, please note that in the runup to the Iraq invasion, he made a stirring diatribe on C-Span about how ALL WARS ARE STARTED WITH DECEPTION, including the "Remember the Saratoga" incident-where we bombed our own ship in Havana Harbor to claim the Spaniards did it-to start that war where Teddy Roosevelt got the good photo op up San Juan Hill. Further, of course, is the potential for FDR to have allowed the Pearl Harbor attack-to get us into that big war and out of isolation (it worked swell, didn't it?).

Then there was the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that formally got us into that informal war-"Remember the Maddox & Turner Joy?" (those were two ships supposedly attacked by the North Vietnamese-not-we only claimed they did it-we really did). And then there was that "Yellow Cake" frosting on the cake that Bush whipped up, eh?

I did a big editorial 3/25/03 or so about it-anybody that wants to see it let me know and I will bring it in on disk.

Harkin, it seems, is as scared of the political ramifications of seeming too liberal about marijuana laws right now-what with the livid vicious law enforcement mania about this subject right now. He is running for reelection and deserves a chance. Last summer when I met him face to face and said I respected him for stating "some wars" are started with deception-he looked me deep in the eyes and said strongly: "ALL WARS ARE" with conviction that runs deep.

I then mentioned to him that his Democratic collegue, Dick Durbin, of Illinois, has become the lead sponsor of federal medical marijuana legislation in the Senate! (It took me a few years to get that done, but it's done now). Harkin said something like "good, it takes someone to get it started". So don't count him out just because of a letter which he surely knows would be published.

And by the way, Republican Senator Grassley is no spring chicken about medical marijuana issues, either-he got one of the IND patients approved for marijuana for MS-back in 1991, before the program got shut down flat. In other words, I know there may be closet supporters out there, waiting for the groundswell to get to critical mass. (and his office people in Sioux City, Iowa have bee cordial and open to my inputs as well).

Incidently, Republican Congressman Steve King-Mr. build the Mexican border wall himself-has a really nice person in the Storm Lake, Iowa office that has been most open to my updates about medical marijuana research-like a dozen times in the past four years. He sounds bigotted-but he also would be willing to join forces if we get that close to a quorum vote thing happening in the house.

And hey-with Mr. Ron Paul of Texas-our open medical marijuana leader in the Republican house-making some real good waves in the Presidential sweepstakes right now-like being the darkhorse winner of both debates-who knows-maybe the tide is turning, eh?

Just checking in from behind enemy lines in Northwest Iowa. Now I have nixed three judges off a variety of small criminal charges I have picked up from 1) attending a church service and doing a saucy "heresy" editorial, 2) trying to settle that charge with the husband of a brain cancer patient that should be tried with THC (another "trespass charge") and 3) for delivering some research treatises from Senior Manuel Guzman, the emminent Spanish researcher that has proven THC can safely be injected into the brains of living cancer patients (and extend their lives) also for breast cancer and now PANCREATIC CANCER-to Storm Lake City Hall (a "disorderly conduct charge")-this is really called a "political defendant strategy", where I draw retaliatory prosecution for really inane charges-to keep them from trying to entrap me in more serious gulog drug war charges.

Liberty exists on our money and in a Statue. Both dead things, one with the power over people's livelihood and necessities of life. One with the power to inspire dreams. Go figure.

Libel : a written or oral defamatory statement or representation that conveys an unjustly unfavorable impression.

As the government is fond of calling us diseased lazy stupid idiots in commercials, print and pubic statements, a class action suit is warranted.

anybody see it yet?

Sunday, May 13 -- 08:00 PM

Monday, May 14 -- 12:00 AM

Saturday, May 26 -- 05:00 PM

Running Time: 120 minutes

The Hippie movement was the most controversial and influential of modern times. Free love, the peace movement, drugs, Eastern religions and communes are explored. Meet the figures whose words and actions inspired it and destroyed it. See how the vibrations from that era are still resonating today in almost every aspect of American life, from the clothes we wear, to the Personal Computer and the Internet. Finally, historic footage, stills and period graphics are interwoven with expert commentary and eyewitness testimony.

Rating: TVPG

http://www.history.com/shows.do?action=detail&episodeId=221518

Legally speaking, there is a much greater and risky situation of abuse going on. It's called, 'abuse of power.'

Power if used incorrectly can result in multiple fatalities ranging from enforcement agencies to armies, from war to war. Death and suffering of millions. Children who end up lost in a cold calculating system of checks and balances. People who live their entire lives without a glimmer of joy, because the power to posess it (joy)is being abused and held exclusively by the 'special'few.

Abuse of power is illegal. The fact that those who wield that power do it without any concern for any consequences except theirs, and their fellow power users status, position, and payment, ought to be a defined condition in our constitution. If the 'supreme court' was a true representative of the True Law, which is based on the First Premise; "The Existence and Imminence of 'God'", then the immoral actions of the political elite would have been condemned for the violation that they are.

Not 'putting power in the hands of the wrong people' should be the responsiibility of the people, in a people-run state, but if the people cannot understand that, it is not the right and responsibility of the 'leaders' to do it for them, it is their responsibility to teach the people how to do it for themselves.

dongenero asks "Why vote stupid people into office?"

Unfortunately I think there are too many answers to that seemingly rhetorical question.

The controls that are pressed down upon us are all compromises between right, and wrong. It is right that the people have the freedom to decide and control their own destiny, it is wrong that our leaders have the power to veto our liberty. The compromise is material reward for service to the beast-which is materialism.

Power corrupts, and the more the power, the more the corruption. I smoke cannabis, but no one has died or suffered because of it, they have only suffered and died because of the abuses of power that are revealed around this unique gift of God.

When a lie can drown the truth, it can only mean that there are more liars than honest people in positions of power. Simple logic that seems to escape most americans, if not most of humanity.

Why put power into the wrong hands? Because folks, contrary to the lipservice belief in our 'constitutional rights' and all the hoopla about 'democracy and freedom', the power has been in the wrong hands from the beginning, which is probably why the constitution is ambiguous on people's rights to begin with, after all it was written by the rich land owning secrety society members of the day.

My Word. Is the man not lying, or deceived, or delusional, or all?

courtesy of www.iowanorml.org

From United States Senator Tom Harkin - Tuesday, May 1, 2007 May 1, 2007 Mr. Thomas O'Connor MBA

Dear Thomas:

Thank you for contacting me. I am always glad to hear from you.

I do not believe the answer in solving this country's problem of drug abuse and the violence associated with drug trafficking is to make drugs legal. I have seen too much of the ill effects of these illegal drugs on our nation's young people, as well as this country's law enforcement officers, to believe the solution is to make these drugs more readily available by legalizing them.

Marijuana is often the drug singled out for legalization. However, marijuana is not the recreational drug that many believe it to be.

In a study completed by the Drug Abuse Warning Network, the number of marijuana related emergencies has nearly reached the level of cocaine related emergencies. As this statistic indicates, marijuana use often has fatal consequences.

I was deeply troubled when I learned of another recent study which found that nearly one-third of all eighth graders had tried marijuana. As the father of two daughters, it greatly disturbs me that children are exposed to drugs at such a young age. I am concerned that legalization of this drug will only increase the number of children who gain access to its harmful effects.

The victims of the drug war are many - the small child whose parents are so addicted to illegal drugs that they sell everything including perhaps their own children to obtain a fix; the innocent bystander killed during the crime spree of a drugged-out individual shooting randomly with an Uzi on a public street; the police officer's family which must now learn to cope with the loss of their loved one as a result of a violent drug bust gone awry. These are the people I think of when I say that drugs pose the number one threat to the security of this nation.

In addition to helping to double federal funds for Iowa's anti-drug programs, I am an active supporter of the Smoother Sailing Programs in the Des Moines public schools. This program is designed to help children cope with the violence, confusion and trauma associated with the abuse of drugs in our society.

Legalizing drugs is equivalent to declaring surrender in the war on drugs. However we may differ in tactics, I am hopeful that we can work together to fight drugs in our communities and to make Iowa drug free.

Again, thanks for sharing your views with me. Please don't hesitate to let me know how you feel on any issue that concerns you.

"I don't think sick people should be treated like criminals. If a doctor believes that medical marijuana is more useful, less toxic and less expensive than a traditional, man-made medicine, than we ought to take a long, hard look at moving in that direction," he said.

and the nay.................

"My concerns are the abuses. I would have loved to have helped people out, but there's got to be a medication out there that can help," she said. "It's illegal. You don't want it in the hands of the wrong people."