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DEA Backs Down in Face of Imminent Court Action
ARLINGTON, VA -- The Drug Enforcement Administration handed a victory to the multimillion-dollar-a-year hemp food industry last night when they told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit they will extend the "grace period" for hemp food products that contain "any THC." The extension reassures retailers stocking and selling hemp food products that, for the next 40 days, the DEA will not commence enforcement action. Ultimately, the hemp food industry expects to prevail against the DEA's attempt to ban hemp foods because Congress exempted nutritious hemp seed and oil from regulation (see 21 U.S.C. §802(16)), and the trace infinitesimal THC in hemp seed and oil is not psychoactive and does not interfere with workplace drug-testing (see http://www.TestPledge.com).
ARLINGTON, VA -- The Drug Enforcement Administration handed a victory to the multimillion-dollar-a-year hemp food industry last night when they told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit they will extend the "grace period" for hemp food products that contain "any THC." The extension reassures retailers stocking and selling hemp food products that, for the next 40 days, the DEA will not commence enforcement action. Ultimately, the hemp food industry expects to prevail against the DEA's attempt to ban hemp foods because Congress exempted nutritious hemp seed and oil from regulation (see 21 U.S.C. §802(16)), and the trace infinitesimal THC in hemp seed and oil is not psychoactive and does not interfere with workplace drug-testing (see http://www.TestPledge.com).
AUSTIN, Texas -- Enron, the biggest financial failure in U.S.
history, is bigger than Enron. It's also bigger than Global Crossing and all
the earn ings restatements headed our way, too.
"Systemic," "structural" and "epidemic" are the key words here. Take, for example, the gladsome tidings that Enron paid no taxes whatever during four of the past five years by cleverly transferring its assets to 881 subsidiaries in tax-shelter countries. (Also take the item that Enron would have gotten a $254 million tax rebate under the Republican "economic stimulus" package -- please. The bill is now mercifully defunct.)
Enron's tax practices are so common that the Center for Public Integrity estimates they cost the country $195 billion a year, which means the rest of us have to make up that missing tax money. That comes to $1,600 per taxpayer. See? Your very own stake in the Enron fiasco.
"Systemic," "structural" and "epidemic" are the key words here. Take, for example, the gladsome tidings that Enron paid no taxes whatever during four of the past five years by cleverly transferring its assets to 881 subsidiaries in tax-shelter countries. (Also take the item that Enron would have gotten a $254 million tax rebate under the Republican "economic stimulus" package -- please. The bill is now mercifully defunct.)
Enron's tax practices are so common that the Center for Public Integrity estimates they cost the country $195 billion a year, which means the rest of us have to make up that missing tax money. That comes to $1,600 per taxpayer. See? Your very own stake in the Enron fiasco.
LANSING, Mich -- Here in the home of the Lansing Lugnuts, the
local baseball team named after the town's premier product, is also to be
found a unique work of art -- a statue of a lugnut on a tall column. Just
further evidence of America's greatness.
Speaking of Americana, you can't have a scandal in this country without some special input from Texas, that famous je ne sais quoi for which we are so noted. We offer the following delicious details for your delectation.
Last June, Gov. Rick "Goodhair" Perry (he has very good hair) appointed an Enron executive to be chairman of the state Public Utilities Commission, because this is Texas and whom else would you put on the commission that regulates energy companies but an energy company executive?
Speaking of Americana, you can't have a scandal in this country without some special input from Texas, that famous je ne sais quoi for which we are so noted. We offer the following delicious details for your delectation.
Last June, Gov. Rick "Goodhair" Perry (he has very good hair) appointed an Enron executive to be chairman of the state Public Utilities Commission, because this is Texas and whom else would you put on the commission that regulates energy companies but an energy company executive?
Right till the end of January, Dita Sari, an Indonesian in her
late twenties, was preparing to fly from her home near Jakarta, Indonesia,
to Salt Lake City. She would bask Feb. 7 in the admiration of assorted
do-gooders and celebrities mustered by the public relations department of
Reebok for the thirteenth annual Human Rights Awards, overseen by a board
including Jimmy Carter and Kerry Kennedy Cuomo. Reebok is a company that
dukes it out each year with Adidas and New Balance for second place, far
behind the behemoth of the business, Nike, in the world of sports shoes and
apparel.
Make no mistake, the folk -- usually somewhere between four and six recipients -- getting these annual Reebok awards have all been fine organizers and activists, committed to working for minorities, the disenfranchised, the disabled, the underdogs in our wicked world.
Dita Sari's plan was to accept the ticket from Reebok, proceed to the podium in the Capitol Theater in downtown Salt Lake City, where the world's winter athletes are now assembled, and then, when offered the human rights award by either Desmond Tutu or Robert Redford, reject it.
Make no mistake, the folk -- usually somewhere between four and six recipients -- getting these annual Reebok awards have all been fine organizers and activists, committed to working for minorities, the disenfranchised, the disabled, the underdogs in our wicked world.
Dita Sari's plan was to accept the ticket from Reebok, proceed to the podium in the Capitol Theater in downtown Salt Lake City, where the world's winter athletes are now assembled, and then, when offered the human rights award by either Desmond Tutu or Robert Redford, reject it.
AUSTIN, Texas -- Excuse me, but the Bush administration's
"internal contradictions," as the communists used to say, are showing like a
dirty slip. On Jan. 25, the administration ordered federal agencies to
review their contracts with Arthur Andersen and Enron, saying the scandal
swirling around the companies raise doubts about whether they should
continue to receive taxpayer money.
This would be well and good if the same administration had not, on Dec. 27, repealed a Clinton-era rule that prevents the government from awarding federal contracts to businesses that have broken environmental, labor, tax, civil rights or other laws. What we have here is not so much hypocrisy as complete incoherence. Shouldn't they have to wait at least a month before they contradict themselves? Or maybe the Bush doctrine is that you can give government contacts to chronic lawbreakers as long as they're not in the headlines.
This would be well and good if the same administration had not, on Dec. 27, repealed a Clinton-era rule that prevents the government from awarding federal contracts to businesses that have broken environmental, labor, tax, civil rights or other laws. What we have here is not so much hypocrisy as complete incoherence. Shouldn't they have to wait at least a month before they contradict themselves? Or maybe the Bush doctrine is that you can give government contacts to chronic lawbreakers as long as they're not in the headlines.
There has always been a fundamental struggle for the "soul" of hip hop
culture, represented by the deep tension between politically-conscious and
"positivity" rap artists versus the powerful and reactionary impulses toward
misogyny, homophobia, corporate greed, and crude commodification.
The most recent example of this struggle for hip hop's "soul" was vividly expressed at the recent West Coast hip hop conference. Respected rappers such as Mike Concepcion and the D.O.C., and Def Jam founder and conference leader Russell Simmons, emphasized the need to mobilize artists around progressive goals, such as supporting voter education and registration campaigns. Solidarity was expressed for progressive feminist poet/artist Sarah Jones, who is suing over the Federal Communications Commission's fine imposed against an Oregon radio station's playing of her song, "Your Revolution." Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, in his keynote address, urged the hip hop community to renounce lyrics promoting violence and social divisiveness. "From the suffering of our people came rap," Farrakhan observed. "That should make you a servant of those that produced you."
The most recent example of this struggle for hip hop's "soul" was vividly expressed at the recent West Coast hip hop conference. Respected rappers such as Mike Concepcion and the D.O.C., and Def Jam founder and conference leader Russell Simmons, emphasized the need to mobilize artists around progressive goals, such as supporting voter education and registration campaigns. Solidarity was expressed for progressive feminist poet/artist Sarah Jones, who is suing over the Federal Communications Commission's fine imposed against an Oregon radio station's playing of her song, "Your Revolution." Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, in his keynote address, urged the hip hop community to renounce lyrics promoting violence and social divisiveness. "From the suffering of our people came rap," Farrakhan observed. "That should make you a servant of those that produced you."
A new media tic -- likening George W. Bush to Franklin D.
Roosevelt -- is already so widespread that it's apt to become a
conditioned reflex of American journalism.
By now, countless reporters and pundits have proclaimed GWB and FDR to be kindred inspirational leaders -- wildly inflating the current president's media stature in the process.
Hammering on the comparison until it seems like a truism, the Washington press corps is providing the kind of puffery for the man in the Oval Office that no ad budget could supply. But the oft-repeated analogy doesn't only give a monumental boost to Bush's image. It also -- subtly but surely -- chips away at FDR's historic greatness, cutting him down to GWB's size.
Ever since Roosevelt's death in April 1945 after more than 12 years as president, many Republican leaders have sought to move the United States out from under the enormous political umbrella created by the New Deal -- bitterly opposed by most wealthy interests and the well-heeled press.
By now, countless reporters and pundits have proclaimed GWB and FDR to be kindred inspirational leaders -- wildly inflating the current president's media stature in the process.
Hammering on the comparison until it seems like a truism, the Washington press corps is providing the kind of puffery for the man in the Oval Office that no ad budget could supply. But the oft-repeated analogy doesn't only give a monumental boost to Bush's image. It also -- subtly but surely -- chips away at FDR's historic greatness, cutting him down to GWB's size.
Ever since Roosevelt's death in April 1945 after more than 12 years as president, many Republican leaders have sought to move the United States out from under the enormous political umbrella created by the New Deal -- bitterly opposed by most wealthy interests and the well-heeled press.
The politics of hip hop culture took an important step forward recently with
the Russell Simmons-founded Hip Hop Summit Action Network's hosting of the
historic West Coast Hip-Hop Summit. Organized by Summit President Minister
Benjamin Muhammad, hundreds of influential performance artists, music
executives, grassroots activists, public leaders, and others gathered to
address key issues and to establish a progressive political agenda.
Prominent participants included rappers Kurupt, DJ Quik, the Outlawz, Mack
10, Boo-Yaa Tribe, Mike Concepcion and the D.O.C., and radio
personality/comedian Steve Harvey. Significantly, the keynote address was
delivered by the leader of the Nation of Islam, Minister Louis Farrakhan,
who also keynoted the first national hip-hop summit, staged last summer in
New York City.
AUSTIN -- The State of the Union was fairly surreal Tuesday
night. We won the war against Afghanistan, but we're still at war with Al
Qaeda, so we have to go attack North Korea.
The big paper-shredders at Enron are finally coming to a halt, so we should go ahead and pass huge corporate tax cuts to help all the other companies that use aggressive accounting practices and need the dough. They especially need the rebates on the taxes they didn't pay. We're a better people than we were on Sept. 10, so let's all donate 4,000 hours to the country, except for those who are too busy stashing their loot in offshore banks so they won't have to pay taxes.
To further this noble scheme, the taxpayers will pony up to fund volunteers with religious groups. Does this mean Mormon missionaries will get paid to knock on our doors and persuade us that Joseph Smith and Brigham Young are the light and the way?
The big paper-shredders at Enron are finally coming to a halt, so we should go ahead and pass huge corporate tax cuts to help all the other companies that use aggressive accounting practices and need the dough. They especially need the rebates on the taxes they didn't pay. We're a better people than we were on Sept. 10, so let's all donate 4,000 hours to the country, except for those who are too busy stashing their loot in offshore banks so they won't have to pay taxes.
To further this noble scheme, the taxpayers will pony up to fund volunteers with religious groups. Does this mean Mormon missionaries will get paid to knock on our doors and persuade us that Joseph Smith and Brigham Young are the light and the way?
Dear Editor,
It was heartening to read that our government is pledging almost $300 million to aid in the reconstruction of Afghanistan. This is a large number but it hardly compares with the amount of money that we are spending to make war. The war in Afghanistan costs US taxpayers $1 to $2 billion per month, and since Sept. 11 the defense budget has been increased by $50 billion to fund weapons programs (like the F22 fighter and the Crusader artillery system) that the Pentagon doesn't want because they are outmoded. This looks to me like war profiteering pure and simple. I'm opposed to terrorism, but I pay taxes too!
p.s. the spending figures come from an article in The Nation (Jan 28, 2002) "Making Money on Terror" by William D. Hartung, a senior research fellow at the World Policy Institute at the New School University.
It was heartening to read that our government is pledging almost $300 million to aid in the reconstruction of Afghanistan. This is a large number but it hardly compares with the amount of money that we are spending to make war. The war in Afghanistan costs US taxpayers $1 to $2 billion per month, and since Sept. 11 the defense budget has been increased by $50 billion to fund weapons programs (like the F22 fighter and the Crusader artillery system) that the Pentagon doesn't want because they are outmoded. This looks to me like war profiteering pure and simple. I'm opposed to terrorism, but I pay taxes too!
p.s. the spending figures come from an article in The Nation (Jan 28, 2002) "Making Money on Terror" by William D. Hartung, a senior research fellow at the World Policy Institute at the New School University.