From an MPP email today:

“Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit.”
– White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske, at a Fresno, Calif., press conference yesterday (http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/1553061.html )

Not again.

In fact — and it’s getting a little tiresome to keep repeating it — the esteemed Institute of Medicine, American Nurses Association, American Public Health Association, American Academy of HIV Medicine, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Lymphoma Foundation of America, American Academy of HIV Medicine, and dozens of other medical organizations recognize marijuana’s medical value.

What’s more, President Obama’s own statements on the campaign trail about marijuana’s medical efficacy run counter to his new drug czar’s statements yesterday.

We need to stop this in its tracks. Would you please speak out against this ridiculous, outdated argument:

1. Please use MPP’s online action center at http://control.mpp.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=SplashPage&id=358 to e-mail the president about the drug czar’s statement.

2. Please call the drug czar’s office at (202) 395-6700 to politely complain that we’re still hearing this sort of nonsense.

We need to make sure the drug czar receives the message loud and clear that the anti-science Bush era is over.

Thank you,

Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.

P.S. As I’ve mentioned in previous alerts, a major philanthropist has committed to match the first $2.35 million that MPP can raise from the rest of the planet in 2009. This means that your donation today at http://control.mpp.org/site/Donation2?idb=0&df_id=1180&1180.donation=form1&s_src=NA_072309 will be doubled.

http://arstechnica.com/…

The Pirate Bay “spectrial” has ended in a guilty verdict, prison sentences for the defendants, and a shared 30 million kronor ($3.5 million) fine. According to the Swedish district court, the operators of the site were guilty of assisting copyright infringement even though The Pirate Bay hosted none of the files in question and even though other search engines like Google also provide direct access to illegal .torrent files.

These two points formed the basis of The Pirate Bay’s defense, but the court found them ultimately unpersuasive in its 107 page verdict. “By providing a site with, as the district court found, sophisticated search functions, easy upload and storage, and a website linked to the tracker,” the defendants were guilty of assistant copyright infringement, the court said.

In an Internet press conference this morning, defendant Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi compared the whole trial to (of all things) The Karate Kid, a movie in which the good guy is roughed up by bullies, goes through a long training process, learns to “wax on, wax off,” encounters his bully again in the final round of a karate tournament, and kicks him in the face with his “crane technique.” Kolmisoppi sees parallels. In the end, he insists, “we’ll kick their ass.”

Read More…

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Funny that McCain people are still trying to get Paul to endorse him. Don’t they understand he simply will not do so?

The missing Bob Barr really annoys me. He had a press conference in the same building at 12PM. Why wasn’t he there? Some are saying he blew them off, some think perhaps he was just running late. Given that Austin Peterson (who I know) was tossed out by an angry Jesse Benton it seems there was definitely some crossed signals. At least between the Barr people and the LP, but if what Don Rasmussen says is true the Barr campaign has serious explaining to do. At this point I’ve still not heard what Barr’s conference was about.

UPDATE:

According to a fellow Manhattan LP member:

Barr’s folks say Barr didn’t want to “dilute the libertarian message” or
some shit and didn’t want to be on stage with greens, crazy baldwin, or
crazy mckinney. The person I spoke with said that instead Barr had his own
press conference and that he also has written a private letter to Ron
offering ron the VP spot (and that wayne is okay with it).

Now I’m not too sure what to make of it, but my 2 working hypotheses are:
1) it’s legit and Barr intended well
2) Barr offered the “private letter” to Paul knowing Paul wouldn’t accept
and that it could be leaked out to hardcore paul fans and probably wouldn’t
make the mainstream media. This way Barr has it both ways: in the eyes of
the mainstream Republicans who he is trying to impress, he can continue to
be a mainstream Republican who isn’t really a “crazy libertarian” and has
managed to keep his distance from Paul and those loons. But to hardcore
Paullers, he offered Paul a VP spot and may gain their respect (which he
doesnt care about) and their moneybombs (which he does care about).

UPDATE 2:

Here’s the answer.

Barr may have just lost my already reluctant vote.