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You heard it here first. More on this later, but first all need to work to make hemp completely legal… Hemp is God’s gift to America, and I don’t mean when it goes up in smoke. I am speaking of fibers…
Begin educating those who won’t vote for hemp legalization….
The hemp plant is a renewable resource..
Hemp enriches the soil it grows in. …
Hempseeds and hemp oil are highly nutritious and delicious…
Hemp is the only plant that contains all of the essential fatty acids and amino acids required by the human body… (stop over-fishing).
It is an excellent option for vegetarians.
It’s quite high in some essential amino acids, including gamma linoleic acid (GLA), a very rare nutrient also found in mother’s milk.
Fishermen sprinkle hempseed on the water as an effective bait..
Songbirds will pick it out of the mix as they prefer it over other seeds.
Hemp is becoming a common ingredient in lotions and many other skin, hair, and cosmetic products.. (compared to toxic chemicals).
Hemp is an ideal material for making paper. It regenerates in the field in months (unlike trees which can take 30 years or more to become harvestable after planting.)…
It makes a fine quality paper that is naturally acid free and does not become yellow and brittle or disintegrate over time like conventional paper.
Hemp is also excellent for making rugs and other textiles. Levi Strauss’ original denim jeans were made of hemp.
Hemp is the traditional rope making fibre due to its flexibility, strength, and resistance to water damage..
Hemp oil can be used to create biofuels to replace gasoline for diesel engines. Unlike fossil fuels, biofuels are renewable and produce less of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Diesel built his original engine to run on hemp oil.
Alternatives to plastic can be made from hemp… Hemp based materials can replace wood and other materials used to build homes and other structures including foundations, walls, shingles, paneling, pipes, and paint.
Hemp may look like marijuana, however it does not contain the active chemicals that cause mind-altering effects. Politics have kept this gift from us. When Dupont made nylon, it influence was used to suppress hemp production….
“58,000 tons of hemp seeds were imported into America for paint products in 1935″ — Sherman Williams Paint Co.
Hemp produces the same amount of oxygen while it’s growing that it would use in carbon dioxide if burned as a fuel. Also, due to it’s leaf/root ratio (this can often be 10% roots vs 30% leaves), hemp can produce between 20% – 40% more oxygen than will be polluted.
Thomas Jefferson himself said, “Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth and protection of the country.”
The draft of the Declaration of Independence was made on hemp paper….
The first American Flag was made of hemp.
If hemp cross-pollinates with marijuana, it creates a lower THC marijuana, not a smokable hemp… Illegal growers will not grow near hemp farms because it practically destroys the effectiveness and marketability of their product.
Fabrics made of at least one-half hemp block the sun’s UV rays more effectively than other fabrics..
The US Drug Enforcement Agency classifies all C. sativa (hemp) varieties as “marijuana.” Hemp was grown commercially (with increasing governmental interference) in the United States until the 1950s. It was doomed by the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which placed an extremely high tax on marijuana and made it effectively impossible to grow industrial hemp…
While Congress expressly expected the continued production of industrial hemp, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics lumped industrial hemp with marijuana…
Because of its low lignin content, hemp can be pulped using less chemicals than with wood…
It is naturally resistant to most pests, precluding the need for pesticides. It grows tightly spaced, out-competing any weeds, so herbicides are not necessary. It also leaves a weed-free field for a following crop…
Today it is clear that these beginnings of “the war on drugs” were pushed into being by the newspaper, cotton, and petroleum industries, all of which had much to fear over being competitive with hemp…..
Finally, a word of wisdom from our founding father…. “Make the most you can of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere.” — George Washington 1794
Courtesy of Western Pennsylvania Healthcare News
I haven’t been paying attention. Thank Goodness Steve has.
Congress is budged $1.248 billion a year… there are 52 weeks in each year… The cost of congress per week is $24 million. (How can that be?)
Since the Tea Party entered the scene, there have been 34 votes to repeal Obama Care, all passing the House and all dying in the Senate. These are feel good bills being proffered by Congresspeople to satisfy their most ardent critics back home. If Congressperson “A” proffers a bill to abolish Obamacare, … Congressperson “B” does exactly the same copy two weeks later. Congressperson “C” then follow up with the same copy the next month.
These votes are not free. They take time away from other duties. If this time were spent on something that would pass the Senate, all of us might be better off.
CBS estimated these bills took up an average of 2 and a half hours each. If added they amount to roughly 80 hours or two weeks…
At $24 million a week, these silly votes of posturing have cost the American taxpayers $48 million dollars… $48 million would pay for 960 $50,000 jobs for a full year…
America can’t afford Republicans any more.
Today Governor Scott, Florida Tea Party who rode into the statehouse itself upon the promise he was going to abolish the abomination of Obamacare in the state of Florida.
He threw in the towel and now supports it. His state is joining the Federal exchange. His reason? He saw with his mother that it was a really super great plan full or wonderfulness, and that not buying in, would be very bad for Florida.
Go figure.
Republican Governors have thrown in the towels one by one. It is such a great plan, they can’t refuse… Without it, balancing a state budget is impossible. Ironically Republicans who supposedly hate bigger government, are all lining up for the Federal exchange.
It is the best and will be the closest best thing to single payer.
Furthermore, more great Obama care news.
Because of Obamacare, the Medicare expense projected for the rest of this decade, has just in this past year alone, fallen half a trillion dollars. $511 billion dollars to be exact! Obamacare is cutting the deficit right in the entitlement belt….
Half a trillion dollars.
This is not new news. It was out there when the bill first got passed. It has been out there ever since. But for some reason the American media chose to focus on those who were against it, long before they understood it… Once understanding, everybody is coming aboard.
Where was the communication breakdown? Why wasn’t this positive news rolled out int he beginning? Just think, it could have save a lot of drama had these facts been picked up and extolled by the media, and had the right wing been excoriated for their stupidity.
Good things win out in the end, and Obamacare, as one can see by the Republican Governors coming aboard one by one, is a good thing.
Just think how horrible it would have been if on day one, Romney had signed a bill to abolish Obamacare?
Fortunately for all of us, America always knows best.
Unfortunately, sadly, heartbreakingly so, there is a dire shortage of medication to treat Childhood Leukemia. … All five pharmaceutical companies that make the injection drug methotrexate, which treats acute lymphoblastic leukemia by slowing the growth of cancer cells, have either slowed and stopped manufacturing of the drug, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The companies have cited “high demand” or “manufacturing delays” as reasons for the shortage.
Where have we seen this before? In the oil industry. “Shut down that refinery until the price rises sky high.”
We have a shortage of life giving medication, one that is isolated to children, one that will tug at the heart-stings of parents.
There is no shortage of raw materials. There is no shortage of manufacturing space. There is no shortage of labor. There is only a shortage, because 5 major pharmaceuticals, all at the same time, chose “not to make” that certain drug….
Now according to Dr. Michael Link, pediatric oncologist and president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, some hospital pharmacies have reported having only a couple weeks of supply left.
Which means that kids start dying in 14 days…….
To counter this, President Obama on October 31, signed an executive order, instructing the Food and Drug Administration to broaden its reporting of potential drug shortages, expedite regulatory reviews that can help prevent shortages, and examine whether potential shortages have led to price gouging. The drug shortage has compromised or delayed care for some patients and may have led to otherwise preventable deaths.
This caused Christopher W. Hansen, president of the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network, to applaud the signing of the order, saying in a statement that it would “allow government, industry, providers and the public to more systematically analyze and understand the causes of specific drug shortages as they occur, and to develop real-time solutions that are also needed to address the acute problems that cancer patients live with daily.”
But the order does not go far enough.
While the FDA can oversee imports of drugs that are in short supply, it cannot regulate how much a company can make. In fact, manufacturers are not required to report shortages to the FDA.
Isn’t that what Romney touts? Isn’t that Gingrich’s modus operandi, Isn’t that what Santorum lavishs, WE NEED LESS GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION???
Don’t all of them recommend that government needs to slim down, cut back, and get off the backs of business in general to create jobs?
WELL…..
Here is a direct case of that policy in action. There is no government on the backs of Pharmaceuticals. They are completely independent, private, not regulated, and free to decided what drugs to make, and when to make them….
“Oh gee, let’s see… we make 89 cents per pill on our placebos…. and only 64 cents on each bottle of methotrexate…. Let’s close down the meth lab, and instead, make placebos instead….”
Mitt Romney’s philosophy in action…
Because of it, there is now a shortage of highly necessary medications… Ones that have to be had, to maintain life…
(There is no end to the number of Sudafed knockoffs on drugstore shelves)….
Just a look at the top ten prescribed medicines in America, only one, Lipitor, is still under patent. All the others, have lapsed into generic….
The apparent problem is rather simple. In order to chase after profits for your stockholders, for the analysts of CNBC to mention your stock on their show, … you have to sell the top 15 drugs helping 100% of the population, and the 4000 or 5000 people needing your specialty drugs, are simply sick with the wrong disease…
Remember the death panel controversy made up and disseminated by Michelle Bachmann? Well, now, we see the real death panel….
“I’m sorry (not). I know he is your child; I know we have the medicine to keep him normal, I know he will die if he doesn’t get it; I know we could easily makes some in less than 5 days; I know we could have never run short if we had wanted; I know all these things. But, we arbitrarily choose not to make it; your son is out of luck and will be dead in less than two weeks…”
Why?
Because you voted for Republicans…. Seriously, if you hadn’t, what would have happened?
In an all Democratic Congress, when this shortage was brought up, legislation would be passed levying extensive fines if the drugs did not reach market by a certain date. The price would include only a ten percent markup. Meaning the pharmaceutical company would not lose on the proposition. How do I know this would work? It was the law of the land for 70 years, until Republicans began selling the concept that letting the market place settle everything, and the FDA got gutted.
Interestingly,…. due to the shortage, black market drugs have materialized…. As soon as a drug hits a shortage level, unreliable distributors pop up offering supplies of suspect origin at highly inflated prices, said Denver based Porter Adventist Hospital pharmacy director, Ryan Stice.
Premier Healthcare Alliance, which published data on drug price-grouging practices last week, said nearly 2,000 sales offers from “gray market” distributors amounted to an average price markup of 650 percent for drugs used to treat cancer and other critical illnesses, as well as sedate patients for surgery, that have been in short supply in recent months.
When pressed, it appears there is little knowledge over where these “grey market” drugs come from. Most speculate that those drugs which are currently being dispensed on the “grey market” come with a majority of their kickback returning to the pharmaceutical companies. It was as if someone in the pharmaceutical business figured out: why sell this drug for $25 dollars when we can create a shortage and sell it for $1200 instead?
“Greed is good”, if you remember the movie Wall Street.
Ironically, the similarities between both Mitt Romney’s hairstyle and philosophy and those in that movie, are extremely uncanny.
If it is your son who is dying, obviously the market place is not where we want to take health-care. Their death panels are far more crooked than any other panel that would occur if we had any other system of medical insurance.
One must wonder why in any debate, not one panalist has yet brought up the question… “Mr. Republican, about your market philosophy…. when it comes to cancer drugs and others that are necessary for life,… there seems to be a problem….”
Then follow up with: “No, it appears you’re wrong there, Mr. Republican Candidate. The obvious solution is for America not to vote for any Republican candidate…”
Beginning next Jan. 1, in most cases, women will have access to birth control at no additional charge through their job-based coverage, as part of a package of preventive services that also includes HIV screening and support for breast-feeding mothers.
This is going to happen: Free birth control. Free HIV screening, and free support for breast-feeding mothers…..
Obviously, only a man would think “Obamacare” is a bad idea…..
Right click to open full image… Pictograph Courtesy of Viral..
So, can someone tell me again, why we shouldn’t tax the rich, and instead, balance the budget on the backs of everyone else?…….
I seem to be missing that little detail where that all makes sense……
President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul provides Medicare recipients in the coverage gap called the “doughnut hole” with a 50 percent discount on brand-name drugs this year, and a smaller break on generics. Giving insight into the number of medicined prescribed to this cost segment, that saved seniors $1 billion just in this year alone.
(Which means if a majority of Republicans succeed in being voted in, Seniors themselves will be the ones who need to come up with that $1 billion out of their own pockets.)
Officials said Friday about 2 million people with Medicare saved more than $1.2 billion on prescriptions through the end of September, averaging $550 per person.
So get ready Grandma and Grandpa! If you both are living, together you’ll be paying $1100 more EACH YEAR if Republicans get elected.
$1100 a year….
The biggest category accounting for the savings was diabetes medications. Cholesterol drugs and medications for asthma and other lung diseases came next.
Next year, seniors will get the same 50 percent discount on brand drugs, and a bigger one on generics.
When your mom gets cancer. You don’t hate your mom. You hate the cancer.
Likewise, it was hard not to like the German people during WWII. It was easy to hate the fact that they were trying to kill you.
And so it is with Republicans… 99% of them are just like us. They too love their country; they too want it fixed; they too are angry, frustrated that events are not moving at fast-forward..
They are wonderful people; who also, happen to be Americans. We can never forget that if we were together in a bar with beer, wine, and spirits flowing like milk and honey, we’d all have a “gay ole time” (Flintstones’ reference) …
We want the same things, and we should be working together on fixing America… but we can’t….
Because of the Cancer…..
That cancer is not necessarily the Republican Party, but it is, the force that IS currently manipulating the Republican Party. That cancer is not a single person in the Republican hierarchy… It is instead that revision of the old cancer, that originally was against recognizing new states into the Federal Union. It is that old cancer that kept slavery legal for thirty years beyond when it should have been eliminated. It is the revision of that old cancer that kept blacks as second class citizens across the South. It is the cancer that fought against giving the Negro their Civil Rights. It is that cancer that denied Tobacco caused cancer. It was the same cancer that encouraged the killing of 4 students at Kent State, to teach those dirty hippies who listened to the Doors, a lesson they wouldn’t forget. It is the same cancer that denied the process of evolution, denied birth control, denied NPR, and ran rampant against all evidence of global warming…… Each time; they were wrong.
It is the same cancer that blew up a building in Oklahoma City.
It is the same cancer that fired bullets into working men and women who were refusing to work, until they got a raise…
It is the same cancer that took out Gabby Gifford……
With all these offenses, it is easy to point your finger and say, “Damn you Republicans..” It is in fact, way too easy.
But is not the people voting Republican who are to blame… They, like the German people, are bystanders. often gaping wide eyed when shown the truth, of what their support for the force of evil did to innocent men and women.
It is easy to turn all Republicans into demons if you don’t talk to them. But listening to them talk, (and we’re talking real people here, not their David Korsch’s) it is very easy to find common ground.
That common ground is this: sure, you tax the wealthy, and we’ll cut spending and together we’ll have high revenue with less expense, and be out of this mess in no time….
This is what every card carrying Republican is telling me, that is of course, if they don’t subscribe to the “cult-like” Republican meetings…. They say: “tax the fuckin’ wealthy; it won’t affect me; Just make sure that extra money is not wasted but is used to pay down the waste we already spent!”
Democrats have already offered to cut Medicare, Social Security, Defense Spending, all those things dear to their heart… So the problem isn’t them.
The problem is with the Republicans, who have balked on the tax issue, especially when it comes to raising taxes on millionaires… yet they have no qualms raising taxes on the middle class and poor. Republicans have shut down the Federal Government four times this year. Four times! They did so each time because the obvious was about to happen. WE were about to get a consensus among the rational members of both parties on how we were going to raise taxes and cut expenses (at the same time) which would bring us into line.
They pulled out of negotiations and said: we will not raise taxes one penny… and also, we will not do any business either in the House or Senate, until the Bush Tax Cuts are permanent.
And that,in one sentence, is why nothing gets done.
It’s as if a terrorist broke into your workplace. Under gunpoint he straps C4 to several of your firm’s employees, and starts firing his gun out the window to get everyone’s attention….
Rule Number 1: You don’t negotiate with terrorists.
That is the problem Obama and the rest of America is faced with, raising this question:
Do we attack (shut down government) and later clean up, or do we negotiate something we can both live with?
What do you do with cancer… Leave it? live with it?
There’s your answer to today’s political gridlock.
Removing all Democrats will be like having the Brits flee France across the channel, leaving the Nazi’s to run France without contention….
Removing all Republicans will be like marching triumphantly into Berlin.
It is pretty obvious who is the cancer and who is not. WE, THE PEOPLE, can’t let it linger any longer. The cancer must go, preferably without killing its host in the process…
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