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The Peyote Road to Religious Freedom

The use of peyote has been at the core of Native quest for spiritual guidance and community for thousands of years in MesoAmerica. In North America, some 300,000 members belong to the Native American church, which also holds peyote at its core.

But the epic struggle to win legal acceptance in a nation that prides itself on "freedom of religion" has been noble, complex, largely successful, and extremely instructive to those who would finally end the "war on drugs."

In fact, practitioners of the practice insist peyote is NOT a drug at all. As of 1994, the sacramental use of peyote for members of federally recognized tribes is totally legal. But the route to that reality comprises one of the most fascinating chapters in all US history.

NATO air strikes increase in Tripoli - Wayne Madsen Reporting from Day Three in Tripoli

TRIPOLI, LIBYA - Sunday afternoon and evening (June 5) saw heavy NATO air strikes on Tripoli. A quiet Sunday night was punctuated by the sound of NATO jets flying over the city followed by loud explosions heard from WMR's vantage point at a seaside hotel in central Tripoli.

Although NATO claims it is striking military targets, WMR has confirmed reports of explosions from NATO bombs in residential areas of Tripoli.

WMR has also been informed of recent top-level defections form the Libyan rebel coalition to the government of Muammar Qaddafi. A number of former Libyan opposition leaders, who were never affiliated with the armed wing of the rebel movement, say that diving Libya and seeing Libyan irregulars, NATO and U.S. bombs, and foreign mercenary forces killing Libyans was never a goal of the moderate opposition, which wanted change through dialogue and reform.

Wayne Madsen reports from Libya - Western Libya portrait is not what is being painted by the Western media

June 4-5, 2011 -- TRIPOLI, LIBYA. WMR Exclusive.
Western media reports continue to indicate that Libyan rebels trying to oust Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi from power, backed by daily NATO air strikes, are gaining ground in western Libya. During a six-hour drive from the Tunisian border to Tripoli, the Libyan capital, this reporter saw no signs of Libyan rebel successes in western Libya. In fact, I witnessed a spontaneous pro-Qaddafi demonstration on the main Tunisia-Tripoli highway in a town about one and a half hours west of Tripoli.

The green flag of the Libyan Arab Jamahiryah not only adorn flag poles in towns from Tripoli to the Tunisian border, but a number of private residences are flying the green flag from their rooftops, on flag poles, and even from outside of top floor windows in medium size and small towns alike along the main highway.

Why the marijuana renaissance is here to stay: We are not far from a time when pot will be hailed as a "wonder drug"

The following is the text of a speech by Lester Greenspoon, M.D. recently delivered to the 2011 NORML conference.

Libyan rebels using Western arms, looting Libyan Central Bank in Benghazi; Evidence of NATO war crimes - Wayne Madsen Reports from Libya

June 5, 2011, TRIPOLI, LIBYA - Shortly after Libya's rebel Interim Transitional National Council (ITNC) seized control of Benghazi, the second-largest Libyan city, they discovered the two keys for the cash vaults of the Libyan Central Bank in the city. However, because of control mechanisms, the cash vault required a third key held at the Libyan Central Bank in Tripoli, the capital. The rebel movement brought in a professional safe cracker from the United Arab Emirates who successfully opened the cash vault safe. The rebels had their hands on $900 million in Libyan dinars and $500.5 million in U.S. dollars.

According to Central Bank officials in Tripoli, the rebels have now spent or siphoned to their offshore bank accounts the entire Benghazi Central Bank cash reserves. In addition, the rebel movement has squandered millions of euros provided by the Euriopean Union. The rebel's theft of money is so great, the U.S. Treasury has refused to provide frozen Libyan central government funds to the rebel movement.

Take action against the proposed AT&T merger

The Media Action Grassroots Network is asking you to sign our petition to stop the AT&T and T-Mobile merger.
If AT&T takes over T-Mobile, it will be a disaster for all mobile phone users -- especially people of color and low-income rural and urban communities. Sign our petition telling the FCC and Department of Justice to block this takeover
The takeover will stifle information, choice and innovation, and lead to higher prices and fewer jobs nationwide. Our communities cannot afford higher prices and fewer choices. We need the FCC and the Department of Justice to block this takeover! The loss of a low cost wireless carrier like T-Mobile will limit affordable mobile broadband access, threaten the openness of the mobile Internet and stifle competition in the broadband market. Our communities cannot afford these outcomes!

A woman may win Thailand's "Clone" versus "Puppet" election

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Yingluck Shinawatra may become Thailand's first female prime minister next month, so Thais are focusing on her face, gender, inexperience and relationship to her "clone" brother, Thaksin, a popular premier who was overthrown by the U.S.-trained military in a bloodless 2006 coup.

But even if all goes well for Mrs. Yingluck in a nationwide election on July 3, her victory could create fresh strife in this troubled, Buddhist-majority Southeast Asian nation which is a non-NATO U.S. ally.

Thailand's top generals are concerned that her government would purge -- and possibly punish -- officers involved in toppling Thaksin Shinawatra, including current Army Chief Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha who was promoted after helping to orchestrate the coup.

Mrs. Yingluck insists her goal is "reconciliation," but many people either do not believe her or worry that scores of current political and military leaders will be allowed to escape justice in a trade to exonerate her wealthy brother.

The Ohio Estate Tax should not be repealed

Dear Editor :
Ending the Tax would do little to balance the State Budget or decrease the deficit since only 20% of the revenue goes to the Ohio Treasury. The remainder goes to townships, counties and municipalities. These sub state entities would lose $ 277 million each year. Local sales tax, property tax and/or flat income tax would have to make up the $227 million lost, or necessary services would have to be cut. The middle class and poor would pay most of these regressive taxes. Our regressive tax code is eliminating the middle class. Legislators voting to eliminate the Tax will lose votes in coming elections.

Only those with an estate above $ 338.333 after deductions, pay Ohio Estate Tax. The wealthy should be willing to pay their fair share of taxes. Although the Farm Bureau has a big campaign to end what they call the “Death Tax”, few farm families are affected.

Senator Bill Seitz proposes a modification of the Ohio Estate Tax would not be a hardship on poor townships, farmers or the wealthy who allegedly retire outside Ohio so their heirs avoid the Tax.

Sincerely,

Albert A. Gabel
Professor Emeritus

Is that even legal?

If the U.S. Constitution says one thing, a treaty ratified by the United States says another, a law passed by Congress yet another, and another law passed by Congress another thing still, while a signing statement radically changes that last law but itself differs with an executive order, all of which statements of law conflict with a number of memos drafted by the Office of Legal Council (some secret and some leaked), but a President has announced that the law is something completely different from all of this, and in practice the government defies all of the above including the presidential announcement . . . in such a case, the obvious but possibly pointless question arises: what's legal?

The above theoretical example of legal confusion sounds extreme, but it is not far off the actual situation with regard to some of our most important public policies. Take the example of U.S. warmaking in Libya. Is that legal?

In Memoriam: Gil Scot Heron

I just learned that one of my favorite musicians, Gil Scot Heron has died.
Gil. and his band performed on the 7th episode of Saturday Night Live ( the one with Richard Pryor), and their music so moved me that I ran out the next day and bought their album, "From South Africa to South Carolina" -- the first LP I ever owned. A student of African master drummer Babatunje Olatunde and a prodigy of the New Harlem Renaissance movement in music, Gil brought traditional African Rythms and instruments of a new contemporary style of soulful, folksy jazz, infused with both African and American history in a way that politically pulled no punches. Gil took a bold stand against Nuclear Power with his ("alternative") hit, "Shut 'em Down."

He performed at numerous political rallies and benefits and incorporated "spoken word" (political poetry) into his work, and he served as an inspiration to a generation of Afrocentric "guerilla poets." Gil contributed significantly to the Sun City project, a collaborative recording of American ad international musicians including Bruce Springstein, Miles Davis, Peter Gabriel.

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