HEY!!! Why not bring back tabbing Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) . . .

Re: Forcing ADHD Treatments on 'Norms': I get better results and way less bad effects from two B-100's daily than any of the drugs that I had been scripted over the last three and a half decades. This is yet another attempt to suck bucks outta folks' wallets while screwing up their health so Pharma can sell them more drugs to correct the next syndrome caused by legal drug abuse.

Decades ago, common wisdom was that playing music helped plants grow. That's about the time that Stevie Wonder produced his "Secret Life of Plants" album.

When I was in college (3 decades ago), I played music for my plants, talked to them, cleaned and polished their leaves with milk, plus the usual feeding and watering. They were the healthiest plants I ever had.

Of course, good care of anything helps it to thrive. Not like the thinking of MO state senator Cynthia Davis, who doesn't want the state to pay for meals for the 1 in 5 undernourished children in her state. ("Hunger is a great motivator.") She was Keith Olbermann's "Worst Person in the World" last night:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#31496805

Thom,

1) I think it's interesting that the "Republics" are so outspoken regarding the "stolen" election in Iran. (I guess they know one when they see one!) Have they no shame?

2) There's a good article in the June 22 issue of Newsweek: "The Insurgents - The Secret Battle to Save Capitalism." It's very short and worth reading the entire thing:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/201936

Please ask Bernie about this group and whether he thinks they will be successful. Here are some excerpts:

"...in late March, Cantwell and her confederates—Carl Levin of Michigan, Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, Dianne Feinstein of California, Jim Webb of Virginia and Vermont's Bernard Sanders—met with Obama and members of his economic team in the White House. "I told the president I was concerned that the administration had people in charge who had missed all this before," she says. It was an awkward moment: two of the officials that Cantwell and her allies came to complain about—Obama's chief economic adviser, Larry Summers, and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner—were sitting right there.

...one by one, the other senators echoed Cantwell's concerns. Obama's appointed officials and nominees were products of the system that had brought us this economic grief; they would tinker but in the end leave Wall Street mostly intact. "Some of the people around the president needed to be given a push," says Levin.

For their part, administration officials reject this view.

(However) the Senate pressure seems to have paid off. (See the article for details.)

Much remains unaddressed, say Cantwell and other critics. Now that the financial markets are beginning to stabilize and the big Wall Street players pledge to pay back their bailout billions, they are digging in against fundamental change. Recently, a group of big banks including Citigroup, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs formed a new lobby to fight controls on over-the-counter derivatives. Cantwell is skeptical that the Obama team will hold the line against the Wall Street lobby. "Do I think they've become true believers? No, I don't." She says Gensler is already "whining" about how hard it is going to be to get new regulation past Wall Street. Gensler insists he and the Obama administration are determined to rein in the financial industry once and for all. "We need to regulate all derivatives, standard or customized, by regulating the dealers," he said. Gensler is clearly under a lot of pressure. The question is, who is he more worried about: Wall Street or fellow Democrats like Maria Cantwell?

Lancaster, Pennsylvania, home of the oldest public market in the U.S., has double the state’s poverty rate, and according to an LA Times story, almost a thousand children who are homeless in its public schools—out of a total city population of 55,000. The city’s “solution”? Support an effort by a coalition of business owners and “civic boosters”—with mostly taxpayer money—to establish a privately-run network of closed-circuit surveillance cameras, peering into every nook and cranny in the city, at a cost of $3 million. The “coalition,” which has no public oversight or accountability, deploys camera operators who, based on whatever criteria they personally deem fit, “can pretty much tell right away if someone’s up to no-good” as one operator put it. If they see “suspicious” activity, the operators call 9-1-1. That this surveillance is ripe for abuse can be deduced by the fact that they can zero-in on a face or a license plate from a block away—or perhaps through the creases of someone’s window drapes unbeknownst to them. This is yet another example how the solution to poverty and homelessness is creating a police state to keep the impoverished and have-nots from being a problem for the well-off and haves.

Meanwhile, as politicians and xenophobes keep the public’s eye on Latino immigrants and the lower-rung jobs that they are allegedly preventing the “natives” from enjoying, the state of Washington recently approved something called the “Microsoft Subsidy Bill” which allows foreign students who are working for companies like Microsoft on work visas, and who have been in the country one year, to pay in-state tuition fees at state colleges. It is one thing that high-wage technical jobs in this country are being filled by importing workers, but it is quite another thing to require that they only pay much lower (relatively speaking) in-state tuition instead of even what out-of-state American students must pay. With economic hardships that so many people find themselves in, and less tax revenue to put into the education system, skyrocketing tuitions fees have put more and more people beyond the reach of a college education. And now the state gives special breaks to those—very likely from well-to-do and upper-rung families—who companies like Microsoft wants to employ. Rather than be so generous with taxpayers’ money, Microsoft should be paying difference itself.

To remain on a "foreign" track, it appears likely that Mexico’s president, Felipe Caulderon will sign a law decriminalizing the possession and use of small amounts of most presently illegal drugs, in order to “focus” on drug violence being perpetrated by the drug cartels. The Obama administration has kept quiet about this, unlike the previous efforts at decriminalization which ground to a halt after the hysterical reactions of the Bush administration. Whether this is a good idea or not remains to be seen; since selling is still illegal, the problems associated with drug-trafficking will continue. But if in fact it can be shown that decriminalization has little effect on the level of use, or doesn’t lead to further social dislocation or criminal activity—even a lessening of it—then the U.S. might take note and begin to examine its own policies.

I hope nobody believes Carrie Lucas of the "Independent Women's Council" is a feminist. She is about as far removed from a feminist as you can get. Why does Thom always give so much of our precious air time to the enemies of the progressives?

Thom, I love you but you are driving me nuts. Day after frustrating day you reiterate the problems facing the country. Each time somebody suggests what to do about it, you knock it down by pointing out the difficulties. Today, it was the cost of getting to DC for a mass rally. I'm thinking: did the cost of getting to DC deter the veterans who camped out in the nation's capitol, in the middle of the Great Depression, protesting their unpaid benefit? How did all those poor black Americans make it to the Dr. King Rally, or the Million Man March? What ever is suggested, you say no to all of it, all except your favorite mantra, take the democratic party from the characters who currently run it. I know a group who has tried to do this for 30 years and still hasn't managed to bring it off! It is my belief that control of the democratic party is passed along from father to son, it's an inherited thing. This makes more sense to me when you consider that the US has a live class war going and the wealthy class is winning. If there are statistics on this sort of thing, I think it can be found that the widest inequality and injustice of any developed country in the world is found here. A class war needs to be fought with organization, a well-thought out strategy and a clear objective, seize power from the elite class who are trying to destroy us. How about lending a hand?

I need an explanation of the idea that "rising health care costs will bankrupt the health care system". I ask for this because the other thing said about the health care system is that the corporations in it are making huge profits. Therefore the "bankrupting" can't refer to them. Is it rather the populace that will be bankrupted?

Thom,

This opinion piece appeared in Saturday’s (June 20, 2009) op-ed pages of the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune. The writer, Jay Walljasper, a fellow and editor at OnTheCommons.org, is working on a book about the concept of the commons. Are you familiar with him?

Here is an excerpt from the opinion piece:

More than just an activist cause, the commons is becoming a model for thinking differently about how we make decisions, manage resources and think about responsibilities. Some people now envision a commons-based society where shared wealth compounds our individual assets in “the pursuit of happiness.”

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentary/48629832.html?elr=KArksUUU...

Anyone here watch the McLaughlin Group on Sunday Morning? Yesterdays edition ticked me off BIG TIME! Even after Pat Robertsom stateed that Obama's public statements on the Iran elections and subsequenrt unrest have been nearly perfect, Monica Crowley took the positon that he was MORALLY OBLIGATED to take a position more in favor of the protesters. When she was asked "what, exactly, would you have had him say?" she babbled the usual talking points for a few moments, but completely avoided answering the question. As we all know, she'd have come out against WHATEVER statement he made.

Later, whan they were "discussing" (really, spreading more misinformation about) the Health Care issue, Crowley once again lied through her teeth about the plan that the CBO reported on, which did NOT include a public option, but she said it proved that the public option would bankrupt the nation - and McL. allowed that to be the last word on the topic!

How do we combat this nonsense??

If the existing heavily subsidized industrial farm system is allowed to continue, diet and environment related diseases - including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, influenza, and cancer - will likely bankrupt the entire health care system within a decade. While in 1970, US health care spending totaled $75 billion, or $356 per person, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services project that by 2016 health care spending will soar to over $4.1 trillion, or $12,782 per resident, representing a crushing 19.6% of GDP.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/newsletter/ov09spring.cfm

Last estimate I read, we pay 2 Trillion a year, and the Republicans were bitching about 1 trillion the other day and CBS took the trillion dollar figure without stating the current or projected figures.

thom mentioned if the united states could become a police state. i recomend to everyone to read naomi wolfs' the end of america. ms. wolf explains the structure for a police state has been set up in the united states. there is also a video of the end of america.