Get your medical marijuana… from a vending machine

Yo, dude, 24-hour access: Need some medical marijuana? The Los Angeles Times reports that patients approved for use of the drug can access it at vending machines around the city, much to the chagrin of the DEA.

Yikes: Thirty minutes. That’s how much warning we’ll have if the spy satellite falls, as expected, somewhere over North America sometime between now and the end of March, Breitbart.com reports.

Yessiree: The Christian Science Monitor has a good article on seven things that will keep most employees happy at work. Unfortunately, most of them — that would require a basic compassion for the employee — are missing from corporate America.

Yuck: Hershey’s plans to raise the prices of its candy about 3 percent across the board, Reuters (via Forbes) reports.

You don’t want to know: Express India tells the tale of a doctor who preyed on poor laborers to steal one of their kidneys and did so, successfully, at least 500 times.

♣ Nation/world news tally in my local paper today: 1¾ pages

And then there were…

Election 2008: After a little more than a tenth of the states have held primaries, the presidential candidate field has been winnowed dramatically. Today’s shocker: John Edwards is dropping out on a day when it was expected that Rudy Giuliani would drop out, too. This takes much of the wind out of Tsunami Tuesday, essentially turning it into a McCain (who won Florida handily)/Romney vs. Obama/Clinton match.

World: The New York Times has a report that portends of trouble ahead for pre-Olympics China. A dissident advocating for human rights was arrested as he chatted on the Internet via Skype on Dec. 27. Legal expert Teng Biao tells the Times, “All the troublemakers — including potential troublemakers — are being silenced before the Olympic Games.” So much for Olympic spirit.

Nation: The Washington Post reports on a battle brewing on whether the monument over the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington Cemetery should be repaired or outright replaced. The monument has two large cracks in it, the report says.

Environment: You may not have realized this, but Exxon is still appealing an award made in 1994 for the oil spill of the Valdez in Alaska’s Prince William Sound. The Anchorage Daily News reports that Alaska’s Attorney General Talis Colberg filed a friends-of-the-court brief on behalf of 30,000 who have claims against Exxon with the Supreme Court. Next month, the Supreme Court will begin hearing Exxon’s appeal to throw out the award.

Life: “Laissez les bon temps rouler,” say hotel and motel owners in New Orleans. According to The Times Picayune, rooms are expected to be at about 92 percent occupancy for this year’s Mardi Gras next week — “the earliest Carnival since 1983.”

O P I N I O N

It appears the next presidential election is anyone’s game. All the predictions of experts a few months ago have been thrown out. Unless a definitive contender comes out of Tsunami Tuesday on either side, the conventions could be very interesting for the first time in decades.
     In such an environment, the slightest news bite sways the fickle voters. On Monday, Sen. Barack Obama was riding high on the key endorsement of three high-profile Kennedys. But later that evening at the State of the Union address, Obama seemed to snub Sen. Hillary Clinton when she extended her hand to greet Sen. Ted Kennedy and Obama would have been next. If you look at the photos, it’s obvious he knew she was heading his way and he turned away to speak with Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, who clearly had her eyes on Clinton.
     Some would argue that focusing on such minutiae is a waste of time. But is it? In a race so close, voters are looking for every hint they can to the candidates’ character. Who knows how many votes Obama might have lost by simply not extending his hand? He might not have snubbed her at all, but the whole world was watching and an extended handshake of good will would have spoken well for him. No candidate can afford to miss such opportunities as they arise.

♣ Nation/world news tally in my local paper today: 1½ pages

Coronation Day in D.C.

Nation: NPR reports that the Army told “representatives from the Department of Veterans Affairs not to help disabled soldiers at Fort Drum Army base with their military disability paperwork last year.” Why? According to the report, “Army officials saw soldiers from Fort Drum getting higher disability ratings with the VA’s help than soldiers from other bases. The Army told the VA to stop helping Fort Drum soldiers describe their army injuries, and the VA did as it was told.” Reminds me of that line from “God Bless the Child”: “You can help yourself, but don’t take too much.” 

World: Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf said Monday that terrorism in the UK was homegrown, not an import from his nation, The Guardian reports. Musharraf said that his country has a five-point plan that targets homegrown terrorism. It includes “curbing the propagation of extremism in mosques; restricting the publication of extremist literature; banning extremist organisations; stopping the teaching of militant Islam in schools; and bringing madrasas (religious schools) into the mainstream.”

World: Agence France-Presse (via spacewar.com) reports that Iran is warning of “serious consequences” if the United Nations passes a resolution of new sanctions for it refusal to halt uranium enrichment.

Election 2008: The Hill reports one of John Edwards senior campaign officials is hinting that the former senator is expecting a brokered convention in Denver and that he’s viewing himself as holding the key (make that needed delegates) that could sway the nomination to Clinton or Obama.

World: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is facing questions about what his country is doing with detainees in Afghanistan, The Toronto Star reports. “Harper cited national security as the reason for his government’s refusal to answer questions like: Where are they? Who has them? How many are there? How many have disappeared? How many are actually enemy combatants, and how many are civilians accused of helping the Taliban?” Hmm, sound familiar?

O P I N I O N

A coronation in Washington on Monday stole the thunder from President Bush’s final State of the Union address.Three Kennedys — Sen. Ted, Rep. Patrick and Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg — vowed their fealty to the presidential campaign of Sen Barack Obama in front of an auditorium at American University filled with  exuberant students.
     The symbolism of the setting might have been lost on the young students. During a commencement address at American University on June 10, 1963, President John F. Kennedy talked about the importance of maintaining world peace.
     JFK said that day, “What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children — not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women — not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.”
     Pax Americana, of course, is the dark direction the neocons have tried to drag this nation toward. It is an agressive concept embraced by the likes of Paul Wolfowitz and Vice President Cheney. Senator Obama, of course, rejected their plan for the war in Iraq and this setting emphasized subliminally Obama’s change from the old “new order” while taking a symbolic swipe at Sen. Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton for questioning Obama’s record on Iraq.
     JFK also said that day “let us not be blind to our differences — but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved.” Again, a recurring theme in Obama’s campaign is bridging the gulf between red and blue states with thoughts of what we have in common. The Kennedys obviously wanted to highlight the parallels between Obama and JFK.
     Toward the end of his speech that day in 1963, JFK said ” The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war. We do not want a war. We do not now expect a war.”
     Sigh… remember what it was like to live in a world without neocons?

♣ Nation/world news tally in my local paper today: 1 3/5 pages

◊ Quit tally: As a new feature that will be updated from time to time, here is the tally of people who have quit the newsroom of my local paper in the past three months: 5

Money for nothing, MP3s for free

Cool: In a move that will revolutionize the music industry, The Guardian reports that major labels are embracing a concept in which music can be downloaded for free with revenue coming in from advertisements that are shown with each MP3 selected. Labels would in turn give artists a share of that advertising money. On Sunday, Qtrax announced its foray into this experiment by offering 25 million tracks for free.
  UPDATE: Attempting the free downloads from Qtrax was a nightmare today, between its software and licensing issues from major labels. See this story in thisislondon.co.uk. Thanks for the tip, Brad!

Scary: In an update on the terror threat posed to Europe during Pervez Musharraf’s visit, Northeast Intelligence Network reports that uncovered plans included “large-scale, coordinated bombings” triggered with cell phones on the transportation systems in Germany, France, Portugal and Great Britain.

Freaky: Henny Pennys of the world unite. Sometime between February and March a U.S. spy satellite “the size of a bus” and weighing 10 tons will plummet to earth, The Scotsman reports. This lovely space junk is one of 600,000 orbiting our planet. UK odds-makers place the chances of getting hit on the noggin by the dying spy at 20 billion to one, the Scotsman says.

Plain weird: Don’t drive your car in the shadow of the Empire State Building. According to a story by United Press International, cars within five blocks of the Manhattan landmark have been suddenly stalling out. Citywide Towing manager Isaac Leviev said “We get about 10 to 15 cars stuck near there every day. You pull the car four or five blocks to the west or east and the car starts right up,” UPI reports.

Just Plain Wrong: The Associated Press (via Breitbart.com) reports on an ASPCA raid of a home in East Texas where more than 200 animals were being housed. Rescued: “(26 hissing) cockroaches and (two) bearded dragons, … 68 dogs, 16 rabbits, 15 guinea pigs, 13 gerbils, seven doves, two dwarf hamsters, two hedgehogs, an opossum and a pink toe tarantula.” Hmm, bet that home smelled lovely on a nice hot day in July.

♣ Nation/world news tally in my local paper today: 1¾ pages

Is Obama the next JFK?

Nation: Huntingtonnews.com (West Virginia) reports the theft of electronic equipment from transmitting towers in Charleston. Ten break-ins occurred at three sites. The FBI was called after it was learned that the equipment could be used “to jam emergency frequencies,” the report says.

World: The gruesome ethnic violence in Kenya has wreaked an awful toll in one month’s time — almost 800 lives, Breitbart.com reports.

Journalism: For an insight into what’s going on in America’s newsrooms, read Nashville Scene’s “Desperately seeking the news”.

Health: New York state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has issued a subpoena to Merck & Co and Schering-Plough Corp to see whether testing results for the controversial cholesterol drug Vytorin were hidden, Reuters reports. “Drug companies are on notice that concealing critical information about life-saving prescription drugs, profiting at the expense of patients’ health, and wasting taxpayer dollars, is simply unacceptable,” Cuomo said.

Health: A study published in New Scientist magazine suggests that through their exposure to manure, farmers might experience a lower incidence of lung cancer, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

O P I N I O N

Does Sen. Barack Obama have what it takes to inspire this nation back to its past greatness?Caroline Kennedy thinks so. Coming off a resounding victory in South Carolina, Obama must have been buoyed even higher by Kennedy’s op-ed piece in today’s New York Times — “A President Like My Father.”
  Kennedy writes, ” All my life, people have told me that my father changed their lives, that they got involved in public service or politics because he asked them to. And the generation he inspired has passed that spirit on to its children.” Citing the fact that the “candidates goals are similar,” Kennedy says “Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible.”
  There is a big generational issue at play this election. While older women may be keen on seeing the first woman president, younger women look past the need for that hallmark in favor of getting rid of the old guard and setting a new direction for our future. They specifically say they don’t want the Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton pattern to continue.
  Kennedy notes that Obama “has demonstrated a special gift for inspiring young people — known for a willingness to volunteer, but an aversion to politics — to become engaged in the political process.” Forget soccer moms. If Obama is successful in engaging a coalition of young voters to come out to the polls in record numbers, he could indeed change this nation dramatically.
  “There is a generation coming of age that is hopeful, hard-working, innovative and imaginative,” Kennedy writes. “But too many of them are also hopeless, defeated and disengaged. As parents, we have a responsibility to help our children to believe in themselves and in their power to shape their future. Senator Obama is inspiring my children, my parents’ grandchildren, with that sense of possibility.”
  Kennedy goes on to say that Obama has run his campaign with dignity. Is that a slam at Sen. Hillary Clinton, whose husband and campaign handlers of late have made one faux pas after another? Perhaps. The Democratic Party is concerned about this, too. And on Monday another Kennedy, Sen. Ted, will announce his endorsement of Obama.
  Caroline Kennedy writes that Obama could be the first president like her father, one who can inspire “a new generation of Americans.” That’s quite an endorsement coming from America’s political royalty.

♣ Nation/world news tally in my local paper today: 2½ pages

Swamp gas might be more believable to UFO witnesses

Nation: When the military owned up that it had been flying F-16s on maneuvers near Stephenville, Texas, on Jan. 8 — the night many people saw UFOs, it fueled more speculation on the topic instead of quieting it down, The Dallas Morning News reports. According to the paper, “Witnesses generally described what they saw as silent, apparently changing speeds and passing over populated areas.” That doesn’t gibe with the official report, aviation consultant Jay Miller told the paper. “For one thing, any jet that dumps flares would also be trying to get away as fast as possible. ‘He’s going to be in full afterburner,’ Mr. Miller said, and that’s very loud. But the jets wouldn’t be the only noise associated with flares. ‘Flares don’t burn silently. They actually burn quite loudly,’ he said.”

Nation: The Associated Press (via The Baltimore Sun) reports that Vice President Dick Cheney asked Congress to “extend and broaden an expiring surveillance law, saying ‘fighting the war on terror is a long-term enterprise’ that should not come with an expiration date.”

Health:A study by a university in New Zealand finds pot smokers develop serious bullous lung disease 20 years earlier than cigarette smokers, the New Zealand Herald reports.

Journalism: Pope Benedict XVI is calling the media to embrace “info-ethics” by doing more to promote the “dignity of the human being,” the BBC reports. The pope raised concerns about the media that “in order to attract listeners and increase the size of audiences, it does not hesitate at times to have recourse to vulgarity and violence, and to overstep the mark.”

Science:An analysis of the data recovered from the 2004 mission of NASA’s Stardust spacecraft that flew through the tail of the comet 81P/Wild 2 shows that the comets and asteroids share more in common than previously thought, the Los Angeles Times reports.

O P I N I O N

Is the pool of experts really that small that Paul Wolfowitz, one of the chief architects of the Iraq War, is the best choice for Chairman of the Secretary of State’s International Security Advisory Board?
     Let’s rewind a little. Lord of the neocons, Wolfowitz wrote a draft for a document called “Defense Planning Guidance” — dubbed the Wolfowitz Doctrine — in 1992 in which he mentions the following:
♦     “The U.S. must show the leadership necessary to establish and protect a new order that holds the promise of convincing potential competitors that they need not aspire to a greater role or pursue a more aggressive posture to protect their legitimate interests.”
♦     “In the Middle East and Southwest Asia, our overall objective is to remain the predominant outside power in the region and preserve U.S. and Western access to the region’s oil.”
♦     “While the U.S. cannot become the world’s policeman, by assuming responsibility for righting every wrong, we will retain the preeminent responsibility for addressing selectively those wrongs which threaten not only our interests, but those of our allies or friends, or which could seriously unsettle international relations.”
     This document inspired one written in 2000 called  Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategies, Forces, and Resources For a New Century for the Project for the New American Century. The focus of the document was to lay groundwork for exerting U.S. presence in the Middle East to preserve oil interests and boost America’s military might around the globe. The document mentions the so-called axis of evil — Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Syria and Libya — long before President Bush coined the term.
  Here’s a sample from the document’s text: “as the leader of a global network of alliances and strategic partnerships, U.S. armed forces cannot retreat into a ‘Fortress America.’ Thus, while long-range precision strikes will certainly play an increasingly large role in U.S. military operations, American forces must remain deployed abroad, in large numbers.”
     This is a scary time for an uber-hawk such as Wolfowitz to return to our government in an advisory position. January 2009 and a new administration cannot get into the White House fast enough!

♣ Nation/world news tally in my local paper today: 1¼ pages

Forget Waldo, where’s bin Laden?

Arts: Documentary director Morgan Spurlock discusses the adventure of filming his latest work, “Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?” with Britain’s Guardian.

Nation: After frightening rides on Wall Street this week, Republican and Democratic Congress members appear to have struck a tentative deal on tax rebates to boost the economy, the Associated Press (via Breitbart.com) reports. The plan includes rebates between $300 to $1,200 per household plus some incentives to help business.

Nation: Court case shows the danger of radical networks springing up on the Internet, The Washington Post reports. The case involves two “ultraconservative Muslims” on trial for making surveillance videos of key sites in Washington, D.C. (“the World Bank headquarters, the Pentagon, fuel tanks and the George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria”) and uploading them to radical sites on the Web.

Business: The designer of Toyota’s hybrid Prius warns “The car-based culture, the business-as-usual of building cars and trucks, is going to change dramatically,” Bloomberg.com reports. The interview with Bill Reinert says that “automakers are endangering themselves by basing sales and profits on the big, fast cars that many U.S. customers say they want in 2008.”

Health: An official in India warns that a bird flu outbreak affecting seven of 19 districts in West Bengal could spiral “out of hand if it’s too late,” expressindia.com reports.

♣ Nation/world news tally in my local paper today: 1¼ pages

That’s one big pack of lies

Nation: The Center for Public Integrity has created a database in which you can search 935 false statements the Bush Administration made about Iraq in the two years following Sept. 11. (No mention if a similar accounting of statements about Iran is being done.)

World: Britain’s Daily Mail reports on Russia’s sabre rattling in the skies over its Atlantic Coast.

World: The New Zealand Herald reports that a document drafted by five senior military officers (including U.S. General John Shalikashvili) says the West must be prepared to carry out “pre-emptive nuclear strikes to halt the spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.” The documents says “The first use of nuclear weapons must remain in the quiver of escalation as the ultimate instrument to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction.”

Science: Here’s an energy source you might have missed — power generated by falling raindrops, Physorg.com reports.

Nation: The number of Army recruits who are high school graduates dropped in 2007, reaching 71 percent instead of the armed service’s goal of 90 percent, the Associated Press (via Stars and Stripes) reports. It’s a trend that has worsened since the Iraq War started, and in the past three years alone, the number of “high-quality” recruits “fell from about 61 percent to nearly 45 percent.”

O P I N I O N

RIP, Heath Ledger. It’s heartbreaking to read of yet another talented young star meeting an untimely demise. Such a shame, such a waste.

♣ Nation/world news tally in my local paper today: 1 1/5  pages

Kids: Pass the echinacea; sniff salt water instead

Health: Reuters reports a Czech study has found “A nasal spray made from Atlantic Ocean seawater eased wintertime cold symptoms faster and slowed cough and cold symptoms from returning among children ages 6 to 10.”

World: Hours before the U.S. stock market opened Tuesday, global exchanges were plummeting as the bear market roared back to life. In Australia, according to news.com.au, $150 billion has been lost in the market this year alone, with $32.8 billion lost on Monday.

Sports: According to The Kimery Report two weeks away from the Super Bowl, terrorism-wary authorities in Phoenix have been warned by the Department of Homeland Security that more than 300 “thefts of government and law enforcement property that could be used to facilitate unauthorized entry have been reported in Arizona.” According to the DHS report, “the list of stolen equipment includes access cards; ammunition; body armor; firearms; Kevlar helmets; marked and unmarked emergency services, fire, and police vehicles; official badges and credentials; radios; raid shirts and jackets; rifles; uniforms; and weapons.”

World: Xinhua reports that France’s al-Qaida “black widow” — Fatiha Mejjati (whose husband was suspected of planning the terror attack in Spain on March 11, 2004), is saying France will be “punished soon” for “its fidelity to the United States.”

World: Dutch politician Geert Wilders plans to release a film portraying the Koran as a book promoting intolerance and violence this Friday on the Internet if no theater will show it, Der Spiegel reports. The “10-minute film, ‘Submission,’ was written by Ayaan Hirsi-Ali,” the magazine says, and it has spurred protests “that called Wilders an extremist and ‘harmful to Dutch society.’”

O P I N I O N

So here’s an example of my concern about the dearth of nation/world news in local papers. Yesterday the wires and other media were abuzz about huge losses on Japan’s, Australia’s and several European markets in response to recession fears in the United States. Several markets were at levels unseen since the Sept. 11 attacks.
     There was no mention of any of this in the local paper this morning, however. Nada. Zip. This despite the fact that the news was so upsetting the Federal Reserve made a rare move and started the day by cutting the interest rate ¾ of a percentage point. Some experts fear we’re on the verge of a “financial 9/11″. You wouldn’t know that by reading some local newspapers.
     What a huge disservice to readers!

♣ Nation/world news tally in my local paper today: 1¼ pages

The night the lights went out in Sydney

World: When residents of Sydney, Australia, turned off their lights at 7:30 p.m. for an hour last March 31, “Energy usage dropped by 10.2 per cent across the business district, more than double what organizers were aiming for, representing a reduction of 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide – the equivalent of taking 48,613 cars off the road for an hour,” The Toronto Star reports. This year as Sydney reprises its Earth Hour at 8 p.m. on March 29, it will be joined by at least 16 cities in seven countries including Toronto and Chicago. For more information on this year’s Earth Hour, visit here.

World: The Times of London reports that the FBI is being accused of denying a file exists that contains explosive evidence in the investigation of high-ranking U.S. officials selling nuclear secrets to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. FBI whistle-blower Sibel Edmonds had referred to the file in a story two weeks ago in the Sunday Times. Although the FBI responded to a Freedom of Information Act request on the file that it did not exist, the Times “has obtained a document signed by an FBI official showing the existence of the file.”

Tech: The Department of Homeland Security is pursuing a Big Brother-like technology that “interprets your gestures and facial expressions, analyzes your voice and virtually probes your body to determine your temperature, heart rate, respiration rate and other physiological characteristics — all in an effort to determine whether you are trying to deceive,” Computerworld reports.

World: Agence-France Presse reports that Israel’s blockade of Gaza in retaliation for rocket fire, is preventing fuel from reaching its only power plant and has plunged Gaza City’s 600,000 resident into darkness.

Arts: A Dutch architect has the solution to housing in the age of global warming when flooding risks are rising — watervillas, the Guardian reports.

O P I N I O N

Recently a friend of mine who was suffering from a kidney stone waited hours in his hospital room writhing in pain as the nurses waited for confirmation from his doctor that painkiller could be administered. It didn’t help that it was New Year’s Eve. That said, even though he’d already been given a dose earlier, why was this man allowed to suffer for hours when the cure for his pain was just around the corner?
     In the age of modern health care, common sense is tossed out the window for fear of whether a patient has proper insurance coverage or might file a malpractice suit. Something is terribly wrong when a patient in horrific pain is ignored like this. The sad thing is, I don’t think my friend’s case was an anomaly. If you went into any hospital across this land, you’d encounter similar or worse cases.
     This nation could, and should, do much better. We the patients should be the ones controlling our health care system, not the insurance and pharmaceutical companies. It’s another shining example of how greed is undermining this nation.

♣ Nation/world news tally in my local paper today: 1¼ pages