What happens when you're a republican official who got caught putting together a fake press conference? You get promoted!
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Thursday, November 01, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
More from the Family Values Crowd
Medical marijuana advocate kills herself
By MICHAEL MOORE of the Missoulian
Robin Prosser, a Missoula woman who struggled for a quarter century to live with the pain of an immunosuppressive disorder, tried years ago to kill herself. Last week, she tried again. This time, she succeeded.
After her earlier attempt failed, Prosser wound up in even more trouble after investigating police found marijuana in her home. She used the marijuana to help cope with pain.
That marijuana charge was eventually dropped in an agreement with the city of Missoula, and Prosser had reason to rejoice in 2004 when Montanans passed a law allowing medical use of the drug.
*
She was a high-profile campaigner for the Montana Medical Marijuana Act, and like others, she was dismayed when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that drug agents could still arrest sick people using marijuana, even in states that legalized its use.
The ruling came to haunt Prosser in late March, when DEA agents seized less than a half ounce of marijuana sent to her by her registered caregiver in Flathead County.
At the time, the DEA special agent in charge of the Rocky Mountain Field Division said federal agents were “protecting people from their own state laws” by seizing such shipments.
“I feel immensely let down,” Prosser would write a few months later, in a guest opinion for the Billings Gazette published July 28. “I have no safety, no protection, no help just to survive in a little less pain. I can't even get a job due to my medical marijuana use - can't pass a drug test.”
Federal prosecutors declined to charge Prosser, but fear spread through the system of marijuana distribution set up in the wake of the medical marijuana act. Friends said Prosser turned to other sources for marijuana, but found problems nearly everywhere she turned.
“Most recently, she had found some people who said they could get her what she needed, but it didn't go well,” said her friend Jane Byard.
Without the relief that marijuana delivered to her, Robin Prosser killed herself at home last week. She was 50.
Prosser suffered from an autoimmune disease that gave her allergic and dangerous reactions to most pharmaceutical painkillers. So she turned to marijuana. When that was no longer available she had no where else to turn.
“She just said she couldn't take it all anymore,” Byard said.
In her guest opinion, Prosser wrote that: “I'm 50 years old, low-income and sick. I spend most days in my apartment in bed, with no air conditioning, unable to go outside because I can't tolerate the sun.”
Beset by financial problems, troubled by depression, unable to find a reliable source of pain relief, she took her own life three months after the piece was published.
“Give me liberty or give me death,” she wrote in July. “Maybe the next campaign ought to be for assisted-suicide laws in our state. If they will not allow me to live in peace, and a little less pain, would they help me to die, humanely?”
Before being disabled by her disease, Prosser was a concert pianist and a systems analyst. After the disease hit her, she became a tireless advocate for legalized use of marijuana in medical situations.
“She had so many difficulties, but she was a wonderful person,” Byard said. “She was kind and funny and just as smart as a whip. She was a very good friend to me, and it's a very sad story what happened to her.”
Reporter Michael Moore can be reached at 523-5252 or by
e-mail at mmoore@missoulian.com
By MICHAEL MOORE of the Missoulian
Robin Prosser, a Missoula woman who struggled for a quarter century to live with the pain of an immunosuppressive disorder, tried years ago to kill herself. Last week, she tried again. This time, she succeeded.
After her earlier attempt failed, Prosser wound up in even more trouble after investigating police found marijuana in her home. She used the marijuana to help cope with pain.
That marijuana charge was eventually dropped in an agreement with the city of Missoula, and Prosser had reason to rejoice in 2004 when Montanans passed a law allowing medical use of the drug.
*
She was a high-profile campaigner for the Montana Medical Marijuana Act, and like others, she was dismayed when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that drug agents could still arrest sick people using marijuana, even in states that legalized its use.
The ruling came to haunt Prosser in late March, when DEA agents seized less than a half ounce of marijuana sent to her by her registered caregiver in Flathead County.
At the time, the DEA special agent in charge of the Rocky Mountain Field Division said federal agents were “protecting people from their own state laws” by seizing such shipments.
“I feel immensely let down,” Prosser would write a few months later, in a guest opinion for the Billings Gazette published July 28. “I have no safety, no protection, no help just to survive in a little less pain. I can't even get a job due to my medical marijuana use - can't pass a drug test.”
Federal prosecutors declined to charge Prosser, but fear spread through the system of marijuana distribution set up in the wake of the medical marijuana act. Friends said Prosser turned to other sources for marijuana, but found problems nearly everywhere she turned.
“Most recently, she had found some people who said they could get her what she needed, but it didn't go well,” said her friend Jane Byard.
Without the relief that marijuana delivered to her, Robin Prosser killed herself at home last week. She was 50.
Prosser suffered from an autoimmune disease that gave her allergic and dangerous reactions to most pharmaceutical painkillers. So she turned to marijuana. When that was no longer available she had no where else to turn.
“She just said she couldn't take it all anymore,” Byard said.
In her guest opinion, Prosser wrote that: “I'm 50 years old, low-income and sick. I spend most days in my apartment in bed, with no air conditioning, unable to go outside because I can't tolerate the sun.”
Beset by financial problems, troubled by depression, unable to find a reliable source of pain relief, she took her own life three months after the piece was published.
“Give me liberty or give me death,” she wrote in July. “Maybe the next campaign ought to be for assisted-suicide laws in our state. If they will not allow me to live in peace, and a little less pain, would they help me to die, humanely?”
Before being disabled by her disease, Prosser was a concert pianist and a systems analyst. After the disease hit her, she became a tireless advocate for legalized use of marijuana in medical situations.
“She had so many difficulties, but she was a wonderful person,” Byard said. “She was kind and funny and just as smart as a whip. She was a very good friend to me, and it's a very sad story what happened to her.”
Reporter Michael Moore can be reached at 523-5252 or by
e-mail at mmoore@missoulian.com
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Friday, October 26, 2007
Anti Immingrant Sites Link To Fake CNN Story Claiming Hispanics Started Wilfires
From HuffingtonPost.com
At first look, "Separatists Claim Responsibility For California
Wildfires" appears to be like any other story on CNN.com. The article claims that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger confirmed aradical Hispanic organization has taken responsibility for the fires that raged through southern California this week. The article even says there's photographic proof "of individuals holding Molotov cocktails, then throwing them into dry brush."
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At first look, "Separatists Claim Responsibility For California
Wildfires" appears to be like any other story on CNN.com. The article claims that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger confirmed aradical Hispanic organization has taken responsibility for the fires that raged through southern California this week. The article even says there's photographic proof "of individuals holding Molotov cocktails, then throwing them into dry brush."
After the initial shock of the report, it then becomes obvious that
it's a hoax. To start with, the site's URL is http://www.cnnheadlienews.com (note the headlie instead of headline). CNN's url is cnn.com and the url for its sister network, Headline News, is http://www.cnn.com/HLN/.
Anti-immigrant websites picked up on the story and ran it as fact (follow this url). Before realizing it was a hoax, the author of the site "Americanandproud" declared, "I am going to wait until all the facts are in, but it appears the first major shot of the next Mexican/American war has just been fired."
A domain name search for "cnnheadlienews" shows the site is
registered to a company with a Nashville, Tennessee address called Bleachboy Heavy Manufacturing Concern. The website associated with Bleachboy, BBoy.net, is a homepage that cycles through four different logos. There's no other information on the site except for a warning on sweatshop products, a note that says "thank you for the traffic," and the ever-banal phrase, "spring is in the air."
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Thursday, October 25, 2007
Maria Shriver won't return to NBC News
From the Democratic Underground
LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) -- Maria Shriver said she won't resume her TV news career and the late Anna Nicole Smith is the reason why.
Shriver, speaking Tuesday at a conference on women, said the media circus surrounding Smith's accidental drug overdose death last February led to her decision.
"It was then that I knew that the TV news business had changed and so had I," Shriver said. "I called NBC News and told them I'm not coming back."
Read more
LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) -- Maria Shriver said she won't resume her TV news career and the late Anna Nicole Smith is the reason why.
Shriver, speaking Tuesday at a conference on women, said the media circus surrounding Smith's accidental drug overdose death last February led to her decision.
"It was then that I knew that the TV news business had changed and so had I," Shriver said. "I called NBC News and told them I'm not coming back."
Read more
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Wal-Mart donates a total of $1 million to assist with wildfire relief efforts
The Wal-Mart Foundation announced Wednesday it donated an additional $750,000 to the American Red Cross to assist with relief efforts in the Southern California wildfires, bringing the retailer’s total donation to $1 million.
The Red Cross confirms it is the largest contribution it has received to date for wildfire relief efforts.
The foundation donated $250,000 to assist the Red Cross in providing food and shelter on Tuesday.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and Sam’s Clubs in the state continue to donate water, clothing, blankets and other merchandise. Over 20 trucks with more than $400,000 worth of merchandise have been given to relief efforts. Collection sites have been set up in each of Wal-Mart’s 208 California-based stores and Sam’s Clubs where customers can make cash donations.
Read more
The Red Cross confirms it is the largest contribution it has received to date for wildfire relief efforts.
The foundation donated $250,000 to assist the Red Cross in providing food and shelter on Tuesday.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and Sam’s Clubs in the state continue to donate water, clothing, blankets and other merchandise. Over 20 trucks with more than $400,000 worth of merchandise have been given to relief efforts. Collection sites have been set up in each of Wal-Mart’s 208 California-based stores and Sam’s Clubs where customers can make cash donations.
Read more
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Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Socialized Medicine
As soon as the subject of health care is concerned, the right wing usually hauls out the socialized medicine charge. While this has the intended effect of scaring people, it's just not true. Socialized medicine means that the government owns it. The hospitals and medical facilities in Canada are private. They claim, falsely, that people in Canada have to wait years for elective surgery. They try to paint the Canadian health care system as something that's inferior, something that Canadians are stuck with. But any attempt by politicians in Canada to modify their universal health care is met with resistance by most Canadians. So either they're a nation of brainwashed people or they really do feel that they have a health care system that they don't want politicians to mess with.
Some of the most advanced surgery techniques have been performed in Canada. When intricate surgery has to be done, Canada is advanced as any developed nation. Here's a recent story from the CBC.
Read more
Some of the most advanced surgery techniques have been performed in Canada. When intricate surgery has to be done, Canada is advanced as any developed nation. Here's a recent story from the CBC.
Year-long treatment at Toronto hospital
The Vietnamese boy first came to Canada in June after workers with the Ontario charity noticed him at an orphanage north of Hanoi during a trip.Hoang Son Pham hopes that doctors can remove his facial tumour, which is caused by a buildup of blood vessels.Hoang Son Pham hopes that doctors can remove his facial tumour, which is caused by a buildup of blood vessels. Vietnamese doctors lacked the expertise and technical equipment to treat the boy's tumour, which is caused by a buildup of blood vessels and is slowly ballooning over his mouth. So the group brought him to Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children to be assessed for treatment.
Read more
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It's Easy to be fooled by a phishing site
I didn't think I could be fooled by a bogus email claiming to ask for some information about an eBay auction, but I almost did. It arrived in my email the other day and since I recently had a couple of auctions end for my son, I thought it was somebody wanting some information from the time that the auction was active. Have a look at this link and you'll see how the Firefox browser saved the day.
A phishing demo
A phishing demo
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