Six months after two states became the first in the nation to fully legalize recreational marijuana use the federal government has yet to articulate an official response to the historic voter-approved measures while simultaneously authoring a vast pot crackdown and refusing to accept even far less sweeping state-based marijuana laws as legitimate. The juxtaposition between [...]
TOO BIG TO PUNISH: U.S. SHIP DAMAGES WORLD HERITAGE CORAL REEF IN THE PHILIPPINES AND BARELY SAYS “EXCUSE ME.” The commander and 3 other sailors are “relieved of their duties” after they ignored warnings and slammed their minesweeper ship into the Tubataha Reef. The $1.5 million fine against U.S. government is castigated as a loose-change “slap [...]
Americans are more tolerant than ever of marijuana use, with a majority believing that it should be legalized and that using the drug should not be considered a “moral” issue. National sentiment is trending alongside many states, with new laws allowing medical pot or decriminalizing most marijuana use altogether being passed or prevailing in voter [...]
Tough gun control is dead in Congress as the assault weapons ban dies on the political vine despite strong public support. Senate Democrats have pulled the plug on the most sweeping reforms proposed following the Newtown tragedy, a little more than three months after one of the worst mass shootings in American history had seemingly [...]
The scene is set for a legal showdown between the federal government, at least two states, and activist groups in the wake of the success of landmark votes to legalize marijuana in the 2012 election. And for the first time, public opinion on pot is overwhelmingly against the feds. Plenty of coverage was generated after [...]
THE U.S. IS ENGAGED IN PLENTY OF “NATION BUILDING”; IT’S JUST NOT THE AMERICAN NATION THAT ITS GOVERNMENT IS BUILDING. Nick Turse notes the stark contrast between rhetoric and reality in President Obama’s words that the U.S. is not interested in “nation building” abroad but in “freeing resources” from investment in foreign development to [...]
Unparalleled victories at the ballot box in the 2012 election have elevated the debate over marijuana policy in ways that were unimaginable only a decade ago, setting up an inevitable showdown over authority between states and a federal government intent on whether “weed” should be treated like alcohol or a more dangerous substance. The looming [...]
Pundits and political experts contend that the nation’s growing number of Hispanic voters may decide many of this November’s crucial election battles, including the race for the White House. But unprecedented restrictions on voting access for minorities could leave nearly half of the 23 million registered Latino voters in the United States unable to cast [...]
“EVEN THEIR YACHT DIDN’T WANT TO PAY TAXES.” As part of its “shadow convention” project to show what vital issues are being avoided at the Republican and Democratic national conventions, Huffington Post runs a piece describing wherein lies the real policitical “action” around the GOP event in Tampa. While Romney intones the usual “morning [...]
LAWMAKERS FIGHT ASSAULT WEAPONS AND MASS MURDER WITH WISTFUL VERSE DEDICATED TO “SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHTS.” Nearly 20 Americans have been killed and dozens more injured in two of the worst mass shootings in the nation’s history, both occurring within days of each other in Aurora, Colorado and at a Sikh religious center outside Milwaukee. [...]
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