N.Y.: Ask your state senator to co-sponsor groundbreaking medical marijuana bill.

N.Y.: Ask your state senator to co-sponsor groundbreaking medical marijuana bill!

Dear New Yorker:

For the first time, "same as" (or identical) medical marijuana bills are being introduced by members of the majority party in both the Assembly, by Health Committee chair and longtime sponsor Asm. Richard Gottfried (D), and the Senate, by Health Committee chair Sen. Tom Duane (D). While the New York Assembly has passed medical marijuana legislation twice in the last two years, the bills died in the Senate. With new Senate leadership, this could finally be the year New York protects medical marijuana patients. Help us make sure this opportunity doesn't slip away.

Please call to urge your state senator to co-sponsor Sen. Duane's bill. Then, ask your friends and family to do the same. The bill will be introduced by the middle of next week, so don't delay!

If you are a patient with a serious medical condition, a physician, or a clergy member, please e-mail me at NMamber@mpp.org if you would be willing to speak out.

Numerous studies show that medical marijuana can be an effective treatment for patients with serious illnesses like cancer, multiple sclerosis, and AIDS. 76% of New Yorkers support allowing medical marijuana, as does the vast majority of the state's medical community. Yet, thousands of patients continue to suffer, living in fear of arrest, and sometimes facing prosecution and conviction. Others will not break state law and suffer needlessly because the medicine they know would work best is not allowed in their state. You can read and, in some cases, watch 17 New York patients' stories.

In this year of change, please call to urge your senator to join the growing national consensus and co-sponsor this legislation so that medical marijuana patients from Buffalo to Montauk can live their lives without fear of prison.

Thank you for supporting the Marijuana Policy Project. And please pass this on to friends and family in New York so that even more voices for compassion can be heard.

Sincerely,

Noah Mamber
Legislative Analyst
Marijuana Policy Project

LET THE REVOLUTION BEGIN!

Thanks for all you do! Live your values. Love your country. And, remember: TOGETHER, We can make a DIFFERENCE!

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Obama 'gearing up for a fight'

Posted: Politico

by JONATHAN MARTIN | 2/28/09 12:05 PM EST

President Barack Obama is beginning the salesmanship of his far-reaching $3.6 trillion budget with a populist blast at powerful interests he says will fight it – all but challenging his opponents to bring it on.

“I know these steps won’t sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they’re gearing up for a fight as we speak,” Obama said in his weekly radio address Saturday.

“My message to them is this: So am I.”

It’s a return to the sort of rhetoric he deployed in his anti-status-quo presidential campaign, and it reflects the pivot Obama has made since spending his first few weeks in office reaching for bipartisan consensus.

Having faced almost unanimous Republican opposition to his stimulus plan, the president is now embracing confrontation over conciliation. Republicans already are tagging him with the “tax and spend” label, for his proposed $1.3 trillion in higher taxes over 10 years and broad expansion of a government role in health care and other areas.

But Obama made clear he doesn’t consider it merely a partisan fight, taking on some of the capital’s most politically muscular groups in some of his most pugilistic rhetoric, a preview of battles ahead.

“I know that the insurance industry won’t like the idea that they’ll have to bid competitively to continue offering Medicare coverage, but that’s how we’ll help preserve and protect Medicare and lower health care costs for American families,” he said.

“I know that banks and big student lenders won’t like the idea that we’re ending their huge taxpayer subsidies, but that’s how we’ll save taxpayers nearly $50 billion and make college more affordable. I know that oil and gas companies won’t like us ending nearly $30 billion in tax breaks, but that’s how we’ll help fund a renewable energy economy that will create new jobs and new industries.”

It’s a strategy undergirded by the poll-reinforced assumption that Americans are inclined to side with the popular new president over not only the weakened GOP but also entrenched interest groups.

As if to remind people he believes he won a mandate last year, Obama told listeners on the broadcast that his proposals represent “the change I promised as a candidate for president.

“It is the change the American people voted for in November. And it is the change represented by the budget I sent to Congress this week.”

His language was a departure from his past radio addresses, which have usually been more restrained. But Obama making his case for the budget struck an unmistakable us-versus-them tone.

“The system we have now might work for the powerful and well-connected interests that have run Washington for far too long, but I don’t,” he said. “I work for the American people.”

Obama’s plans to expand health care coverage, develop cleaner energy and spend more on education by raising taxes on the wealthy and businesses are unmistakably bold, at least the most ambitious since President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society.

Though his rhetoric is carefully calibrated to blur such big government activism, Obama was candid about his audacious goals.

“I didn’t come here to do the same thing we’ve been doing or to take small steps forward, I came to provide the sweeping change that this country demanded when it went to the polls in November,” he said.

WE SHALL SEE...

LET THE REVOLUTION BEGIN!

Thanks for all you do!
Live your values. Love your country.
And, remember: TOGETHER, We can make a DIFFERENCE!

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Obama’s 2010 Federal Budget Explained in Plain English

Onlineforextrading.com
Posted: February 26, 2009.

by Rebekah Manning

The US Federal Budget for 2010 was released today, February 26, 2009. Overall, roughly half of spending goes to the US Department of Defense with the remaining money divided among 22 other departments. As one of a very small number of Americans who have read through the 140 page docket outlining the plan, I have analyzed and detailed it below. Overall, Departments like Agriculture show great detail while other departments like that of State use broad language and provide few clues into what programs will actually receive the billions. Unsurprisingly the National Intelligence Agency has no details about either total budget nor allocation.

2009 Federal Budget Breakdown

Overall, close to half of the federal budget goes to the Department of Defense. When the funds from the Recovery Act are added in, The Department of Education is allocated a vast amount of money to help improve public school and increase access to higher education. The Department of Transportation also see a great deal of money for programs that will improve air traffic control and create an efficient and green fast interstate rail system.

To better understand the allotment of funds, the following chart shows the distribution of capital in the 2010 Federal budget.

LET THE REVOLUTION BEGIN!

Thanks for all you do!
Live your values. Love your country.
And, remember: TOGETHER, We can make a DIFFERENCE!

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.