Crackdown on Medical Marijuana, 420, Legalization, WH vs. MJ, War on Drugs, Mexico, Anonymous

Crackdown on Medical Marijuana

• US: California pot crackdown targets large dispensaries
• Feds to target newspapers, radio for pot ads
• 16 Sacramento pot shop landlords put on notice--"Federal prosecutors are warning 16 Sacramento-area landlords they could lose their buildings for renting to marijuana dispensaries."
• Medical marijuana legal efforts are being crushed by the DEA - who benefits?
• Marijuana Crackdown By Obama: Yes, It's Big Pharma
• Medical marijuana advocates sue federal prosecutors over crackdown
• Medical Marijuana Crackdown in California by Feds Blasted by Golden State Lawmakers Leno, Ammiano
• As Feds Crack Down on Medical Pot, Groundbreaking Lawsuit Fights Back

420

• Marijuana: Public Enemy #1
• Judge Rules that the Operating With Any Presence of Marijuana Statute is unconstitutional
• Chicago's pot dilemma: Should marijuana users just be ticketed?--"The police union griped that officers would lose the overtime they earn from going to court on pot cases."
• New details emerge in Houston police pot brownies case--"When the officers showed up at the city jail to book Hill a short time later and turn in their evidence, the five pounds of marijuana they bragged about an hour earlier somehow had become a pound and a half."
• Prague: The New Amsterdam?

Legalization

• Record-High 50% of Americans Favor Legalizing Marijuana Use
• Study: Legal Medical Marijuana Doesn’t Encourage Kids to Smoke More Pot
• Marijuana should be legalized worldwide: Santos--"Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos said that legalization of soft drugs, such as marijuana, would allow the war on drugs to move forward by shifting focus to harder drugs and helping to stop international violence and drug trafficking."
• Chicago lawmakers: It’s time to decriminalize possession of pot
• California Medical Assn. calls for legalization of marijuana
• Cannabis' impact on health justifies its legalization, not its criminal prohibtion

WH vs. MJ

• What We Have to Say About Legalizing Marijuana
• White House Rejects Petition To Legalize Marijuana
• White House turns down 75,000 signature petition to Obama's "We the People" project to legalize and regulate marijuana "in a matter similar to alcohol."

War on Drugs

• The War on Drugs Has Become the War on the American People
• SWAT Teams, Flash-Bang Grenades, Shooting the Family Pet: The Shocking Outcomes of Police Militarization in the War on Drugs
• Obama Starts A Civil War On Drugs
• Why did President Obama appoint Gil Kerlikowske?--"A brief look at the personal history of Kerlikowske reveals shocking misconduct that ought to render him unfit for his office. That he was appointed by President Obama is, at best, evidence of remarkable hypocrisy on the part of the administration.
• Scalia: Federal Drug Laws Were a Mistake
  
• The NRA guns for Holder--Not happy over the ATF debacle. Salon
• U.S. Drug Policy Would Be Imposed Globally By New House Bill

Mexico

• Mexico Deals a Blow to a Cartel but Warns of Continued Drug-Related Violence NYT
• Mexico captures 'top Sinaloa drug boss' Limon Sanchez
• Abuses seen in Mexico's war on cartels
• Mexico fires nearly 1,000 police in Gulf state--"Tuesday's announcement comes four days after Mexican President Felipe Calderon said Veracruz state had been turned over to the brutal Zetas drug cartel."
• Former Mexican president: 'US must legalise drugs to stop violence'
• Mexico City mayor calls drug policy 'schizophrenic'
• Mexico Border War--On the ground footage.

Anonymous vs. the Mexican cartels

• Online hackers threaten to expose cartel's secrets
• Anonymous retreats from Mexico drug cartel confrontation
• Anonymous force Mexican drug lords to release their kidnapped member
• Gangsters decapitate Mexican blogger
• Anonymous spokesman flees over safety concerns

SOPA, E-PARASITE, PROTECT IP, Copyright, Shooting Themselves in the Foot, Righthaven, Trademark

SOPA, E-PARASITE, PROTECT IP

• Remember the "borderless" Internet? It's officially dead
• Looks like Congress has declared war on the internet
• The Stop Online Piracy Act: Big Content's full-on assault against the Safe Harbor
• Why Can't PROTECT IP Supporters Just Admit That It's About Censorship?
• PROTECT IP Renamed E-PARASITES Act; Would Create The Great Firewall Of America
• URGENT ACTION NEEDED: New Internet Blacklist Bill Could Shut Down Twitter And Youtube!
• Domestic reality does not match bold words on Internet freedom of expression
• White House Petition Against E-PARASITE/SOPA
• WIPO boss: the Web would have been better if it was patented and its users had to pay license fees
• Republican Bid to Kill Internet Openness Rules Fails--At least Net Neutrality is safe for now.

Copyright

• Copyright czar cozied up to Big Content, e-mails show
• Worst Kept Secret Now Confirmed: Government Was Very Involved Helping RIAA/MPAA Negotiate Six Strikes
• RIAA Law Lets Law Enforcement Ignore 4th Amendment, Search Private Property With No Warrants
• UK Government Admits That It Has No Evidence (Zip, Zilch, Zero) To Support Its Claims For Draconian Copyright Law
• MPAA Helped Police Seize 'Pirated' DVDs That Were Actually Fully Authorized
• US signs ACTA
• Free Bieber: campaign to kill proposed law that would send you to prison for 5 years for singing copyrighted music on YouTube
• "Trolling the Stream" (Be Jailed for Streaming?)
• Copyright law turns kids into criminals - Reform will enrich artists and the public

Shooting Themselves in the Foot

• Adult Swim, Cartoon Network Piss Off Fans By Removing Free iPad Streams; Now Only For Cable Subscribers
• Digital Monopolies A Bigger Threat Than Piracy, Says Miramax CEO
• UK Music Retailers Ask Why They Should Pay Performance Licenses To Play Music When They're Trying To Sell The Music
• BMI Hurting Artists, Yet Again
• Discovery Channel Forcing Deadliest Catch Fan Site Offline; Claims Embedding Official Videos Infringes

Righthaven

• Judge: copyright troll Righthaven has no standing to sue
• Righthaven’s Secret Contract Revealed: Will Its Strategy Collapse?
• Righthaven loses second fair use ruling over copyright lawsuits
• Righthaven hit with class-action counterclaim
• Lawyer to Judge: I Swear My Browser Ate My Homework
• Copyright Troll Righthaven Goes on Life Support
• Righthaven ordered to pay nearly $120,000 in attorney fees, court costs
• Creditor Moves to Dismantle Copyright Troll Righthaven

Trademark

• Louis Vuitton Wins Lawsuit Supressing Artwork About LV-ish Bag -- Or Genocide, Maybe
• European Court: Freedom Of Expression About Darfur More Important Than Louis Vuitton's Trademark
• Trademark Troll Tim Langdell pounded in court
• Yes, He Sold Fakes. They Are Supposed to Be Fake.--"The store [...] sells traditional objects of mourning, mostly copies of luxury objects. The items are made of cardboard, paper and plastic, to be used at funerals as symbolic gifts for the deceased. The cardboard models are burned as part of traditional Chinese funeral practices. " NYT
• Apple Threatens Small, Family-Run Café Over Trademark

Occupy Movement, Bad Cops, NYPD, Corruption, Surveillance

Occupy Movement

• Occupy and the militarisation of policing protest--"Why, when protesters are peaceably exercising first amendment rights, is the machinery of counter-terrorism being mobilised?"
• Police clash with 'Occupy Cal' group at UC Berkeley--Protestors were bludgeoned with batons and have called for a general strike on November 15.
• Paramilitary Policing From Seattle to Occupy Wall Street
• #OccupySanDiego: Detained Protesters Forced to Urinate, Defecate in Bus
• THP went undercover among Occupy Nashville protesters
  
• Man Outed As Undercover Cop At Occupy Oakland Condemns Police Brutality, Supports The Movement
• Occupy protesters start march from NYC to DC
• Occupy World: Chileans take to the streets 
• Private security considered to evict Dunedin protestors
• Occupy Vancouver death dooms protest camp

Bad Cops

• Cops With Machine Guns: How the War on Terror Has Militarized the Police
• The People Versus The Police
• GA. Cop Who Shot and Killed Man Who Supposedly Ran Through a Stop Sign Didn't Even Have Power of Arrest
• 14-Year-Old Shot, Killed By Police Officer Identified--The cop had been already suspended 4 times before.
• Harrisburg man sues city and police over seized money--"In August 2010, while searching for an officer's stolen handgun, Harrisburg police seized tens of thousands of dollars in cash from Antoine Black's home on Logan Street. Black is claiming in a federal lawsuit that the cops should have left that money alone, especially since they didn't find the missing gun in his house or charge him with a crime."
• Six police officers who used baseball bats to smash up a suspect's car WILL keep their jobs
• Miami Police Officer Caught Driving 120 mph--The goods news is that a fellow police offier reported him; the bad news is that the head of the local police union is castigating her.
• Thompson Found GUILTY On Both Counts--"A jury has found Spokane police officer Karl Thompson guilty of using excessive force in the 2006 death of Otto Zehm in a north Spokane convenience store. Thompson was also found guilty of lying to investigators about the fatal confrontation."
• Spokane leaders decry officers' actions at hearing--"As the 64-year-old Thompson left the courtroom in the custody of U.S. marshals, fellow officers stood and saluted him."
• Public strip search costs ex-Oakland cop $40K--" A former Oakland police officer must pay $40,000 out of his own pocket to two men who were illegally strip-searched in public and have already been awarded at least $100,000 apiece in damages."

NYPD

• Experts Say N.Y. Police Dept. Isn’t Policing Itself NYT
• NYPD arrests college student and keeps her in jail for 36 hours for not carrying ID. NYT
• The NYPD Tapes: Inside Bed-Stuy's 81st Precinct
• Cops Mock Poor People, Calls Prosecutors "Pieces Of S--t," Claim Ticket-Fixing Is Just The Way It Is
• Ticket-fixing case brings out the worst in NYPD's potty-mouthed supporters of scandal
• Brooklyn judge 'shocked' by 'cowboy culture' of narcotics cops
• A Bullet in the Leg, and Five Days in Handcuffs

Corruption

• Tales from America's meanest streets: An extract from Kelvin Sewell's book 'Why Do We Kill?'
• Former cop says his lies sent people to prison--"A former undercover police officer has confessed his lies in court more than 30 years ago may have sent 150 people wrongfully to prison."
• Sir Hugh Orde says corrupt police should be locked up--"Corrupt police officers should be locked up and the key 'thrown away'..."
• Ex-cop's thefts from disabled 'an act of extreme hypocrisy'--"Former Granite Falls police chief stole $626K from Seattle-area residents."
• Lehrmann Says He Helped Cover Up Katrina Shootings
• 23 D.C. cops charged with crimes in 2011
• Superior police officer keeps job, faces suspension after admitting to theft

Surveillance

• Too Much Information - What does an artist do when the F.B.I. takes an interest in him? He tracks his every move & floods them with “intelligence” NYT
• Busted! Two New Fed GPS Trackers Found on SUV
• High Court Troubled by Warrantless GPS Tracking--"So your answer is yes, you could tomorrow decide that you put a GPS device on every one of our cars, follow us for a month; no problem under the Constitution?"

Hacking, Inequality, Corruption, World News, Italy and the Eurozone, China

Hacking

• James Murdoch called back to U.K. parliament over hacking scandal
• Met finds secret phone at centre of NI hacking--"Specialist detectives from the Metropolitan Police have discovered the existence of a secret mobile phone within News International's east London headquarters that was used in more than 1,000 incidents of illegal hacking."
• Lies, damned lies and News International
• New Documents Shows News Corp. Approved $1.2 Million Payoff After Learning of 'Fatal' Evidence
• Murdoch’s paper may have hacked nearly 5,800 celebrities, politicians, athletes, more
• Murdoch writes off $91m for shutting News of the World in hacking scandal
• Fomer News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks received $2.7 million payout  

Inequality

• Focus: Brazil--"Over the last two decades, thanks largely to government policy, the poverty rate in Brazil has halved. With this, income inequality (measured by the Gini coefficient) has also fallen sharply, declining on average by 1.2% a year."
• Formula 1 Meets Poverty--"India undoubtedly needs its billionaires. But at the same time, it’s troubling that so many of India’s wealthy businessmen are forsaking their social responsibilities."
• Britain's top directors condemned as "elite greedy pigs" after a 49% pay rise last year, while average workers failed even to keep up with inflation

Corruption

• Corruption Scandals in Austria: A Web of Sleaze in Elegant Vienna
• Brazil Takes Hard Line On Corruption Salon
• UP cop calls Mayawati govt corrupt, dumped in mental asylum--"A senior police officer was on Friday night allegedly manhandled and forcibly dumped into a mental asylum after he took on Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati by alleging massive corruption in the state."

World News

• Strauss-Kahn sex case: French inquiry dropped--And the one who brought up the charges says she will not pursue a civil case. Successful hatchet job.
• Leaked document reveals plans to 'eliminate' Russia's enemies overseas
• Stolen data to be used to prosecute tax dodgers
• Uruguay overturns amnesty for military-era crimes
• US double standard: Gaddafi bad, Karimov good--"[T]here are two sets of ethical standards in America's dealing with other countries. Enemies are held to the strictest standards. Allies get a pass. This double standard is the number-one cause of anti-Americanism in the world."

Italy and the Eurozone

• Italians rally against Berlusconi
• Italy's Berlusconi Agrees To Resign After Passing Austerity Bill
• Italy Pushed Closer to Financial Brink NYT
• Italy's debt crisis: 10 reasons to be fearful
  
• European debt crisis spiralling out of control
  

China

• Donations flood in as Ai Weiwei faces hefty fine
• Mother's fight to exonerate executed son galvanizes China
• Anger in China as bodies 'fall from carriages' during train crash clean-up
• 700 metres of the Great Wall of China collapses due to excessive mining
• Chen Xianmei’s Tragedy--"China seems to have become so utilitarian that it can’t understand or even tolerate people who do things for altruistic reasons." And even more tragic is that the girl has died.

Elections 2011, Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Oakland, Corporations, Banks, Fund Transfer

Elections 2011

• Ohio voters repeal law limiting union rights, CNN projects--A stunning rebuke to Gov. Kasich, and it's nice to know Citizens United wasted six figures supporting this bill.
• Mississippi rejects Personhood Amendment--Another religious right tactic to outlaw abortion (NYT).
• 'Peoples Veto:' Maine keeps same-day registration--"The state Republican Party, in a widely circulated pre-election ad, even claimed that same-day voter registration works in favor of gay and lesbian political goals."

Occupy Wall Street

• Chicago Trader Dumps McDonald’s Applications on The 99%
• Goldman Sachs Threatens Small Community Bank For Banking With OWS Protestors
• Mike Bloomberg's Marie Antoinette Moment--And One Last Note on Michael Bloomberg
• Occupy Wall Street Gets Its Generators Back
  
• Dylan Ratigan On Occupy Wall Street And Tim Geithner: "Everybody Knows That Our Government Is Bought! Democrats & Republicans Are Owned By The Banks!"

Occupy Oakland

• Army veteran injured in Oakland clashes with police
• Protester shot by cops at Occupy Oakland General Strike
• 100,000+ Occupy Oakland, NOT 7,000 as Government Reports--Or was it?
• At least 2 of the "Black dressed masked protesters" were COPS
• ACLU to OPD: No Seriously, Hand Over the Info--"The ACLU of Northern California and the National Lawyers' Guild sent a public records request about OPD's use of force on the night of October 25, 2011 on demonstrators supporting Occupy Oakland" but the "OPD was refusing to provide almost all the information that we had requested."
  

Corporations

• The Corporatocracy is the 1%
• We May Be Witnessing the First Large Global Conflict Where People Are Aligned by Consciousness and Not Nation State or Religion--"They're fighting a 'corporatocracy' that has bought governments, created armed enforcers, engaged in systemic economic fraud, and plundered treasuries and ecosystems."
• Supreme Court To Hear The Mother of All Corporate Immunity Cases
• Senators Introduce Constitutional Amendment To Overturn Citizens United
• 30 Major Corporations Paid No Income Taxes In The Last Three Years, While Making $160 Billion
• Study: Big corporations use loopholes, dodge taxes--"Many of this country’s biggest companies paid no federal taxes — or even made money through credits and refunds from the government — over the past three years by using an array of loopholes and tax breaks...."
• From Top to Bottom--Trickle down economics at work.

Banks,

• Too Big to Jail
• Gingrich Admits Deregulation Of Wall Street In The '90s Was 'Probably A Mistake'
• Wall Street's resurgent prosperity frustrates its claims, and Obama's--"They earned more in the first 2½ years of the Obama administration than they did during the eight years of the George W. Bush administration...."
• Bailed out Fannie/Freddie issue 7 figure bonuses to executives
• US Bank President Richard Davis to disillusioned country: "Get over it"
• Bank of America dropping planned $5 debit card fee
• Wells Fargo 125% Fee Hike

Fund Transfer

• The Credit-Union Stampede--"The Credit Union National Association reports that more than 650,000 customers have transferred some $4.5 billion from big banks to credit unions in the last four weeks."
• Billions of dollars moved in bank transfer demonstrations
• National Bank Transfer Day: Does it make sense to transfer your money to a credit union?--"The feel-good movement to punish corporate banks, and why it will probably increase bank profits."
• Goodbye, Wells Fargo; Hello, Credit Union
• 650,000 Americans Joined Credit Unions Last Month -- More Than In All Of 2010 Combined
• 14,000 Coloradans move $100 Million into credit unions 
• Tens of Thousands Flow Into Texas Credit Unions
• Another Weapon for OWS: Pull Your Money Out of BofA
• People Are Ditching Their Banks and Shredding Their Cards
• 4 Simple Steps for Taking Your Money Out of the Vampire Banks

Net Neutrality, Netflix, RIM, Twitter, Apple

Net Neutrality

• Senate Set to Vote on Neutering Net Neutrality--They were set to to take effect on November 20, and, unsurprisingly, Verizon sued to halt FCC's net neutrality rules. Looks like the corporations win again. Update: Obama threatens to veto Net neutrality repeal
• Make a documentary about Net Neutrality and this is what you get: "We had a huge problem programming you because Comcast is a major sponsor."
• The Netherlands first country to anchor net neutrality in law

Netflix

• 800K fewer subscribers humbles Netflix
• Netflix lost 800,000 U.S. subscribers in third quarter
• Netflix Abandons Plan to Rent DVDs on Qwikster --And gets its customers angry again.
• Netflix's folly and the imperial consumer Salon
• Report: Netflix hogs 32 percent of peak Internet bandwidth
• What’s Really Behind The Netflix/Qwikster Split?
• The Angry Drunk: It's the Content Providers, Silly.
• How Netflix is Destroying Blockbuster--Those were the days.

RIM

• Apple and Android, the slow pall bearers to RIM's eventual demise
• BlackBerry Outage Made Roads Safer for Everybody
• RIM, you're dead to me now

All A-Twitter

• Decoding Our Twitter Chatter
• New Twitter Algorithm Could Out Dudes Pretending to Be Lesbians
• Remember When Twitter Was A Joke? No One Is Laughing Anymore
• The Twitter Hulks
• Twitter Movie Trailer

Apple

• "Wolf!"--Proclaiming Apple's impending failure these days is almost a surefire to draw hits.
• Apple patents mobile camera that other people can shut off--Nope, this "feature" will never ever ever be abused.
• How I learned to stop worrying and love the App Store

Elizabeth Warren, Voter Suppression, Gerrymandering, Vote Machinations, Wisconsin Recall

Elizabeth Warren

• Elizabeth Warren is scary!
• Elizabeth Warren’s winning formula
• Watch Elizabeth Warren handle a Tea Party heckler Salon

Voter Suppression

• Voter Suppression 101
• The truth about voter suppression--"The GOP is pushing restrictive voting legislation unlike anything since the Voting Rights Act of 1965." Salon
• Opinion: GOP's voter suppression--"A massive Republican campaign likely to suppress minority and low-income voting is under way. If it works, the GOP may be able to prevent many millions of Americans, largely Democrats, from voting — potentially affecting 171 electoral votes."
• Restrictions Could Keep Five Million Traditionally Democratic Voters From The Polls In 2012
• Democrats ask all 50 states to oppose newer voter identification laws
• Judge Rules That Alabama Republicans Acted With Racist Intent to Suppress Voter Turnout
• Colorado secretary of state bars overseas soldiers from voting
• 96-Year-Old Tennessee Woman Denied Voter ID Because She Didn’t Have Her Marriage License
• 91-Year-Old Who Can’t Stand Unable To Get Voter ID In Tennessee
• Student IDs Unacceptable As Voter Identification Under New Tennessee Law
  

Gerrymandering

• Court ruling throws 2012 elections into chaos--"The Ohio Supreme Court's decision to allow Democrats to go forward with a petition drive to stop the Republican congressional redistricting plan has thrown the 2012 congressional elections into chaos."
• Judges Say Texas Can't Move Forward With Redistricting Plans The Feds Say Are Discriminatory
• Arizona GOP Removes Redistricting Board Chair For Making Elections Too 'Competitive'

Vote Machinations

• The war on voting continues apace
• Congress is corrupted by a system of privately funded elections.
• The Republican 'voter fraud' fraud--"All over the US, GOP lawmakers have engineered schemes to make voting more difficult. Well, if you can't win elections fairly… "
• "There Is Almost No Voter Fraud in America."
• Judge Finds Manipulation in Recall Vote in Arizona--Spurious candidacy discovered. NYT

Wisconsin Recall

• Scott's misdirection on voting rights
• Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's Last-Ditch Schemes to Prevent Recalls
• Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker recall effort off to a surprise start--"A recall committee formed by one of his own supporters will give Gov. Scott Walker a valuable fundraising head start on his main recall opponents."

Occupy Oakland, Occupy Europe, Confrontations, Greece, Palestine and UNESCO

Occupy Oakland

• California protesters shut down Oakland port
• Oakland Police Officers Write An Open Letter To The City: 'We, Too, Are The 99 Percent'
• Proof That the Police Attack on Occupy Oakland Violated the Law
• Police chief visits Scott Olsen in hospital--Scott Olsen tells protestors to stay non-violent in the face of police brutality.
• Occupy Oakland: Protesters vandalize banks, grocery store
• Occupy Oakland Witness: Mercedes Driver 'Got Frustrated And Hit The Gas'
  
• Occupy Oakland Protesters Tear Gassed by Police

Occupy Europe

• Occupy Europe: How a generation went from indifferent to indignant
• Occupy London protesters allowed to stay at St Paul's until the new year
• Germany's 'Occupy' protesters return to voice anger
• Spanish Indignados a Force in Global Movement--"Millions turned out for Spain's Occupy protests and inspire others abroad."
• Occupy Italy: Police raid homes after riots
• Occupy the Champs Elysees? Non, merci!

Confrontations

• Journalist Arrested at Occupy Nashville While Performing Job Duties
• Recapping A Clash Between Denver Police and Occupy Protesters
• New York Police Are Redirecting 'Drunk'’ And 'Aggressive' People To Occupy Protest
• A NY police officer’s union put Occupy Wall Street on notice; says they will pursue legal claims against any protesters who injure any of its members
• Mayor Villaraigosa: Occupy L.A. 'cannot continue indefinitely'

Greece

• Euro Referendum: Papandreou Is Right to Let the Greeks Decide
• Greek military leadership changes spark opposition outcry
• G20 leaders to meet amid Greek fears

Palestine and UNESCO

• U.S. cuts UNESCO funding after Palestinian membership vote
• Palestinians hit by cyber-attack following success at UNESCO
• Israel rushes settlement growth after Unesco accepts Palestinians