Tumblr has become slowly and increasingly stingy recently with the amounts of daily and hourly posts and messages that it allows its' members to make. This is our way of getting our posting limits either raised significantly or back to unlimited.

To pass this resolution into law so that corporations will not be considered as people. This resolution was passed in Los Angeles. The People’s fundamental and inalienable right to self-govern, and thereby secure rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness is guaranteed in the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and;
 
 free and fair elections are essential to democracy and effective self-governance, and; 
 
 persons are rightfully recognized as human beings whose essential needs include clean air, clean water, safe and secure food, and;
 
corporations are not people....

bigotry, fear, racism, hate, stupidity

The corporate money unleashed onto our political process through the Citizens United decision from the Supreme Court is another nail in the coffin for our democracy. President Obama was right to call out The Court at the State of the Union address and Justice Alito was arrogant in his dismissal of it.

*Congressional Reform Act of 2011* 1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office. 2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose. 3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do. 4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%. 5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people. 6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people. 7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work. If each person contacts a minimum of ten people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S.) to receive the message. Maybe it is time."You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election.

The D65 School Board will vote Monday, December 19th on whether to send referenda language to the Cook County Clerk for the March 20, 2012 elections. The referenda as drafted is for $48.2 million in capital building and improvements. Improvements to existing schools are blended with $20.1 million to build a new 18-classroom school in Evanston's Fifth Ward.

Colorado has seen a unprecedented boom in gas drilling, much of this using potentially risky production techniques such as fracking. Living communities all across the state have been significantly impacted and many heavily damaged by these activities. The North Fork Valley is famous for its agriculture, viticulture, cheese production and ranching, much of an organic nature. 30,000 acres are slated to be leased all around this beautiful valley, including in its vital watersheds and directly above many viable agricultural areas. We demand that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recognize the unique characteristics of this valley and place a moratorium on leasing in and around it at least until the BLM completes the full Resource Management Plan for the region.

It was a long forgotten '70s disco show, filled with a lot of clean disco dancing, which is good exercise to prevent health problems that occur in the world of today, hosted by the late Gerry Bledsoe, so we need all of you to bring all of the episodes back on DVDs for a cause. The reason why those people have to get the petition signed is because it should be part of Dance For The Cure.

Republicans in the Michigan Senate and the House of Representatives continued their assault against the public schools by passing a bill that will eliminate the caps on charter schools. There is no accountability in the bill for the charters. It is simply another raid on public school funds.

New York University wants to build an additional 2.5 million square feet of space – the equivalent of the Empire State Building! – in the blocks south of Washington Square Park. They need the City to overturn zoning protections, open space requirements, and urban renewal agreements, and give away public land used as parks, in order to do so. There are better alternatives for NYC, like the Financial District, which is accessible to other NYU hubs and where such growth would be contextual and welcome.

Transportation is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gases in the United States. Biking, walking, taking the train or bus, and using other, more sustainable forms of transportation are healthier and more affordable than driving, and will reduce our contribution to climate change and global food insecurity. We are pledging to leave our cars at home and use sustainable transportation at least once a week. We are also calling on Governor Malloy to join us by supporting and funding sustainable transportation options. *WalkBikeTransit is a grassroots campaign dedicated to reducing local contributions to global climate change and food insecurity. For more information see www.newhavenleon.org/earthathon. To volunteer, email [email protected].

Government-sponsored study destroys DEA’s classification of marijuana By Stephen C. Webster Tuesday, July 3, 2012 9:46 EDT Share on facebookShare on redditShare on diggShare on twitterShare on farkShare on stumbleupon2.1K Topics: DEA ♦ medical marijuana A government-sponsored study published recently in The Open Neurology Journal concludes that marijuana provides much-needed relief to some chronic pain sufferers and that more clinical trials are desperately needed, utterly destroying the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s (DEA) classification of the drug as having no medical uses. While numerous prior studies have shown marijuana’s usefulness for a host of medical conditions, none have ever gone directly at the DEA’s placement of marijuana atop the schedule of controlled substances. This study, sponsored by the State of California and conducted at the University of California Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research, does precisely that, driving a stake into the heart of America’s continued war on marijuana users by calling the Schedule I placement simply “not accurate” and “not tenable.” Reacting to the study, Paul Armentano, director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), told Raw Story that the study clearly proves U.S. drug policy “is neither based upon nor guided by science.” “In fact, it is hostile to science,” he said. “And despite the Obama Administration’s well publicized 2009 memo stating, ‘Science and the scientific process must inform and guide decisions of my Administration,’ there is little to no evidence indicating that the federal government’s ‘See no evil; hear no evil’ approach to cannabis policy is not changing any time soon.” Schedule I is supposedly reserved for the most inebriating substances that the DEA believes have no medical value, including LSD, ecstasy, peyote and heroin.* As the DEA describes it: “Drugs listed in schedule I have no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States and, therefore, may not be prescribed, administered, or dispensed for medical use. In contrast, drugs listed in schedules II-V have some accepted medical use and may be prescribed, administered, or dispensed for medical use.” And that’s the problem, the study’s authors portend. “The classification of marijuana as a Schedule I drug as well as the continuing controversy as to whether or not cannabis is of medical value are obstacles to medical progress in this area,” they wrote. “Based on evidence currently available the Schedule I classification is not tenable; it is not accurate that cannabis has no medical value, or that information on safety is lacking. It is true cannabis has some abuse potential, but its profile more closely resembles drugs in Schedule III (where codeine and dronabinol are listed). The continuing conflict between scientific evidence and political ideology will hopefully be reconciled in a judicious manner.” They add that their evidence showed marijuana reliably reduced chronic neuropathic pain and muscle spasticity due to multiple sclerosis versus trials where a placebo was used. They also specifically tested marijuana’s effects when smoked, calling the delivery method “rapid and efficient” but noting that vaporization is a better choice because it produces less carbon monoxide. The study adds that, like all medicines, there are negative side effects associated with marijuana, such as dizziness, fatigue, lightheadedness, muscle weakness and pain and heart palpitations — all of which can pose a risk in some chronic pain patients with co-occurring conditions like cardiovascular disease or substance abuse disorders. However, they call these side effects “dose-related” and “of mild to moderate severity,” adding that they “appear to decline over time, and are reported less frequently in experienced than in naïve users.” Researchers also noted that “fatal overdose with cannabis alone has not been reported.” Authors additionally found that marijuana does cause withdrawal symptoms within 12 hours of use, noting the symptoms are mild in experienced users and typically abate within 72 hours. They added that ingesting marijuana “can acutely impair skills required to drive motor vehicles,” but noted that the data on marijuana and traffic accidents is “inconclusive.” Ultimately, they concluded that more clinical trials are needed to determine which individual components of the marijuana plant are causing the medicinal effects, and whether the plant can be used to treat a host of other ailments. “Medical marijuana is mostly used for chronic pain, and has enabled countless patients to either reduce or eliminate their pharmaceutical drug regimen,” Kris Hermes, a spokesman for Americans for Safe Access (ASA), one of the nation’s leading medical marijuana advocacy groups, told Raw Story. “However, it can also be used for: arthritis, nausea or as an appetite stimulant for people living with HIV/AIDS or cancer, gastrointestinal disorders, and movement disorders (not just for people with multiple sclerosis). That is only a sampling of health conditions for which cannabis has been found helpful in alleviating symptoms. Other health conditions include: [post-traumatic stress disorder], [attention deficit disorder], [attention deficit hyperactivity disorder] and other mental health conditions, glaucoma, and migraines.” In hopes of forcing recognition of marijuana’s medical value, ASA sued the federal government last year after a long-running appeal for the reclassification of marijuana was shot down nearly a decade after it was filed. That case should go before the U.S. Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit later this year. “The federal government’s strategy has been delay, delay, delay,” ASA chief counsel Joe Elford said in an advisory. “It is far past time for the government to answer our rescheduling petition, but unfortunately we’ve been forced to go to court in order to get reso...