The NYT (New York Times), does some decent journalism, but is basically a mouthpiece of the neolib empire - and you have to know that, as you study the journalism that gets done there.

So it's interesting to see a big editorial on the injustice of Obama's personal war on medical marijuana states, with a (non-embeddable, those DRM-lovers) video that is actually pretty good. A short video, easy and fun to watch, I guarantee you it's worth the click.

If the NYT does a serious piece, with a movie, asking if the federal persecution of medical marijuana states makes sense - perhaps a new day is finally dawning. We shall see.

The Fight Over Medical Marijuana

And federal drug laws are unjustifiably extreme. Consider the case of Chris Williams, the subject of this Op-Doc video, who opened a marijuana grow house in Montana after the state legalized medical cannabis. Mr. Williams was eventually arrested by federal agents despite Montana’s medical marijuana law, and he may spend the rest of his life behind bars. While Jerry Sandusky got a 30-year minimum sentence for raping young boys, Mr. Williams is looking at a mandatory minimum of more than 80 years for marijuana charges and for possessing firearms during a drug-trafficking offense. Read more »

This is probably the funniest and most astute political website that appeared in the final days...

Is Nate Silver A Witch?

Click the link to find out, is Nate Silver a Witch.

This is what the "Is Nate Silver A Witch?"

website said earlier today...

Now this is funny...

Romney-Ryan Staffers Falsely Imprison Freezing PA rally attendees?

"Rightwingers on twitter are being their usual selves, basically saying "so we held people against their will without cause, what's the big deal?" ("It wasn't even that cold!" being an actual quote against a mom who was concerned about her kid getting frostbite).

But, in fact, this IS a big deal. You see, rightwingers, you're not allowed to restrain people without their consent except under very limited circumstances---its called "false imprisonment.

False imprisonment is generally defined as the unlawful restraint of a person against her will by someone without legal authority or justification.

Generally, false imprisonment is both a civil and criminal offense. For the civil offense, all that is needed is the following elements:

There must have been a willful detention;
The detention must have been without consent; and
The detention was unlawful.

All of these are met here.

It gets even worse for the staffers because they detained kids. Pennsylvania criminal law specifically notes that this a felony offense. Read more »

It's true, I take a moment of schadenfreude (the pleasure one takes in the downfall of others, especially snooty jerks who were mean to you in the past) from this news.

Voices was told many times, thru the gossip grapevine that thrives at Penn State (like all non-transparent institutions that abuse their people in power games), that Graham Spanier didn't like us, and that he punished people who did support us, or wanted to advertise with Voices. We lost a lot of advertising income, which we depend on to survive, because we dared to speak out against Spaniers policies - something, by the way, that you will never see the CDT do.

For example, because we dared to publish articles critical of the Penn State loan game, - passing off hundreds of millions in State-backed borrrowed money to a select group of contractors to build expensive new buildings, and then raise tuition ten percent a year, instead of focusing on providing a good and affordable education for young Pennsylvania residents, as specified in the PSU charter. And other articles over the years critical of Spanier's leadership of Penn State.

Anyway - look at Spanier now - fired, driven from town in shame - and now he's going to be charged with felonies.

http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/01/14852918-former-penn-state-president-graham-spanier-charged-in-child-sex-abuse-scandal?lite Read more »

Stevieslaw: No Accusation

Governor Romney, speaking at a campaign stop in Florida said today “I am not accusing President Obama of conspiring with climate scientists to construct this devastating hurricane, no matter what other smart and rational people are saying. Fair and Balanced News also stopped short of accusing the President. They did note, however, that the storm was “much too late in the season” and that “its shape reminded them of a map of Kenya.”  Two of the Superpacs, somehow associated with Mitt, did run the story.  When questioned, they would only say, “Of course it’s not true---so what?”