In Egypt, thousands of pro and anti-Morsi demonstrators have gathered in Cairo – ahead of Saturday’s referendum on the new constitution. Protesters opposed to the president have breached the barricades of the Presidential Palace, amid fears that the proposed draft would lead the country towards an Islamic dictatorship. For more on this RT talks to journalist Bel Trew, who’s in Cairo.
RT (Russia Today) is a global news network broadcasting from Moscow and Washington studios. RT is the first news channel to break the 500 million YouTube views benchmark.
“A gunman wearing camouflage and a mask opened fire Thursday in a busy Portland mall, leaving the gunman and two others dead and forcing the mall’s Santa Claus and hundreds of Christmas shoppers and employees to flee or hide among displays.”
Here are some clips from the live stream I recorded as it was happening, followed by the another excerpt from the HuffPo article:
“Austin Patty, 20, who works at Macy’s, said he saw a man in a white mask carrying a rifle and wearing a bulletproof vest. He heard the gunman say, “I am the shooter,” as if announcing himself. A series of rapid-fire shots in short succession followed as Christmas music played. Patty said he ducked to the ground and then ran.
His Macy’s co-worker, Pam Moore, told The Associated Press the gunman was short, with dark hair. Witnesses said the gunman started firing in the mall’s food court, just outside Macy’s.
Brance Wilson, the mall Santa, said he heard gunshots and dove for the floor. By the time he looked up, seconds later, everyone around him had cleared out. Merchandise was scattered in some stores as he made his way to the door.
“Santa will be back,” Wilson said. “It’s not going to keep Santa away from the mall.”
“Police identified the gunman but would not release his name or give any information on a possible motive. Officials said a woman was also shot and was in serious condition at a Portland hospital.
Wednesday December 5th 2012: Today was the first court date for Comer Vs The Bank of Canada. The crown attorney is attempting to strike down the case (routine first step), and the judge decided to take some time to review the facts.
Employees put a sign forbidding people to smoke cannabis. (AFP Photo / Marcel Antonisse)
Amsterdam is to become the first city in the Netherlands where students will be formally banned from smoking marijuana at school. The city’s mayor introduced the law after receiving complaints from teachers that students showed up to class stoned.
Under the current ‘policy of tolerance’ towards drugs, marijuana is considered a soft drug and though it is technically illegal, there is no active prosecution against the individual using it. Police cannot prosecute people for possession of small amounts, with up to five grams being deemed acceptable for personal use.
Some schools have already had prohibited smoking but done so as individual institutions, rather than city ordained legislation.
“This year we have introduced a ban on smoking. We have since become a smoke-free school,” Jolanda Hogewind, head of the Calvijn met Junior College, was quoted by Dutch national newspaper, Volkskrant, as saying. “If a student still smokes on the schoolyard, we warn once. In a second time we send a letter, and if the student persists in his behavior, we invite parents to a meeting,” said the director.
When the law is put in force, schools will be able to involve the police if teenagers are caught smoking on school premises.
However, some supporters of the initiative, like Hogewind, say that schools must be free to maintain their own rules.
All previous attempts to ban marijuana from schools have not succeeded, as the Council of State insisted that it was technically impossible to ban something which is illegal. But recent changes in drug law make this possible. The city will now be able to declare starting January 1 “no toking zones” – areas like schools and playgrounds where weed-smoking will be forbidden.
The law may also affect tourists as some 44 of the city’s 220 cannabis cafes – Amsterdam’s popular attraction among guests of the city – will have to close because they are less than 250 metres from a school.
Earlier there have been calls to introduce a national “weed pass” that would have blocked tourists from buying marijuana. But the initiative was widely opposed by Amsterdam.
Last month, the city major Van der Laan allowed coffee shops to stay open for tourists.
The capital will still have more coffee shops than The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht put together, local Parool newspaper reported.
The government is also planning to raise the age at which teenagers can buy cigarettes to 18.
Colorado and Washington pot smokers are lighting up in celebration after having achieved a stunning decriminalization victory at the ballot box.
Inhale while you can, my brothers and sisters, because Obama is already plotting how to re-criminalize your swag and nullify states’ rights.
Marijuana decriminalization, you see, was a states’ rights victory that more or less flipped Washington D.C. the finger.
From Obama’s point of view, this simply cannot be allowed to stand because it would set a precedent of the tyrannical federal government “allowing” states to decide their own laws, separate from federal law.
While the U.S. Constitution clearly encourages precisely such a structure, the U.S. federal government that exists today operates like a power-hungry gang of thugs who seek to crush anyone and anything that threatens to stand against it.
There does not even exist the facade of respecting the limitations of federal government described in the Constitution.
Mark my words: Obama, who is himself an admitted pot smoker, is coming after YOUR right to smoke pot.
It will start with polite-sounding lawsuits. The federal government will claim total control of all individual activity under the “commerce clause” of the U.S. Constitution and pressure a few key federal judges to overturn state decriminalization laws.
If, for some reason, that fails, the DEA — which operates much like a pack of hungry wolves barely restrained on a short leash — will be given the green light to start conduct armed federal raids in Washington and Colorado.
The point of the raids? To send the message that the feds are still in charge, regardless of what the voters say.
A lesson in power
All the pot smoking voters in Washington and Colorado are about to receive a valuable lesson in power. They think they have won a permanent victory for liberty, even if they don’t describe it in those words.
In reality, all they have done is antagonize federal forces of evil which are already planning a powerful counter-assault that will remind the slaves of America (the voters) who is really in charge.
And why? Because if marijuana decriminalization is not crushed by the political forces in Washington D.C., then its very existence might encourage other states to decriminalize things like industrial hemp farming, holistic medicine or even raw milk.
For God’s sake, states might behave under the misimpression that they control their own destiny!
. Each of these fives things would require states to assert their Tenth Amendment rights to nullify the power of the federal government within the state’s own borders. This is precisely what Colorado and Washington have done with marijuana decriminalization laws. They may not call it a “Tenth Amendment” initiative, but that’s exactly what it is.
Make no mistake that the federal government will use any means necessary to reverse this: Lawsuits, armed raids, false flag attacks, propaganda campaigns and so on. The federal government in America today is run by truly maniacal power-hungry criminals.
Ron Paul calls Washington bureaucrats “psychopathic tyrants.” There is absolutely nothing they won’t do to enforce their fabricated authority over the states and the People.
If it means marching into Colorado with federal troops and shoving rifles in the faces of small-time pot growers, that’s exactly what they will do. For those of you in Colorado and Washington right now, do not suffer under the delusion that you are now free to smoke pot with impunity.
You have merely achieved a reversible ballot victory that was only allowed to take place because the vote fraudsters were too busy stealing other elections (Prop 37!) to effectively defeat your marijuana decriminalization ballot measures.
It is good that you did achieve that victory, of course, because now the real lessons in liberty will be realized. At this point, Obama has no choice but to show his vindictive double standard where it’s okay for the President to campaign on the “coolness” of having smoked pot and inhaled, but his own voters who do the same thing will be arrested at gunpoint and incarcerated in federal prisons.
And if you’re black like Obama, by the way, your prison sentence will be double or triple that of white offenders.
That’s real tyranny, and that’s the real Obama. Those of you voted for Obama and are enjoying your temporarily-legalized pot in Colorado or Washington are about to learn a very costly lesson in federal tyranny.
Within a year, your states will be under assault by the feds, and your freedoms will be even further stripped away by the very President who campaigned on the idea that the government would listen and respond to the needs of the voters.
Obama lied. The federal government doesn’t want liberty in America; it wants CONTROL.
DEA agents are right now salivating at the thought of identifying, targeting and raiding small-time pot gardens in Colorado.
Those who flaunt their growing, harvesting or smoking will be the first who are targeted. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
To learn more about state nullification of federal tyranny, visit: www.NullifyNow.com
And then there were two. On Monday, December 10, 2012, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper signed an executive order certifying last month’s Amendment 64 victory and legalizing the use, possession, and limited cultivation of marijuana by adults 21 and over.
Colorado now joins Washington as states where voters approved marijuana legalization last month and where the will of the voters has now become law. In both states, it is only the possession (and cultivation in Colorado) parts of the new laws that are now in effect. Officials in Denver and Olympia have a matter of some months to craft and enact regulatory schemes for commercial marijuana cultivation and distribution — provided the federal government does not seek to block them from doing so.
While the federal government may seek to block implementation of regulations, it cannot make the two states recriminalize marijuana possession. And the states have no obligation to enforce federal marijuana laws.
In both states, however, it remains illegal to sell marijuana or cultivate it commercially pending the enactment of regulatory schemes. Still, pot possession is now legal in Washington and Colorado.
“Voters were loud and clear on Election Day,” Hickenlooper wrote. “We will begin working immediately with the General Assembly and state agencies to implement Amendment 64.”
In addition to the executive order certifying the election results, Hickenlooper also signed an executive order establishing a 24-person task force charged with coming up with a way to implement Amendment 64’s taxation and regulation provisions. The task force consists of government officials and other stakeholders, including representatives of medical marijuana patients producers and non-medical consumers, and will make recommendations to the legislature on how to establish a commercial marijuana market.
“All stakeholders share an interest in creating efficient and effective regulations that provide for the responsible development of the new marijuana laws,” the executive order said. “As such, there is a need to create a task force through which we can coordinate and create a regulatory structure that promotes the health and safety of the people of Colorado.”
Issues that will be addressed include: the need to amend current state and local laws regarding the possession, sale, distribution or transfer of marijuana and marijuana products to conform them to Amendment 64’s decriminalization provisions; the need for new regulations for such things as security requirements for marijuana establishments and for labeling requirements; education regarding long-term health effects of marijuana use and harmful effects of marijuana use by those under the age of 18; and the impact of Amendment 64 on employers and employees and the Colorado economy.
The task force will also work to reconcile Colorado and federal laws such that the new laws and regulations do not subject Colorado state and local governments and state and local government employees to prosecution by the federal government.
“Task force members are charged with finding practical and pragmatic solutions to the challenges of implementing Amendment 64 while at all times respecting the diverse perspectives that each member will bring to the work of the task force,” the executive order emphasized. “The task force shall respect the will of the voters of Colorado and shall not engage in a debate of the merits of marijuana legalization or Amendment 64.”
Marijuana legalization supporters cheered the issuance of the executive orders.
“This is a truly historic day. From this day forward, adults in Colorado will no longer be punished for the simple use and possession of marijuana. We applaud Gov. Hickenlooper for issuing this declaration in a timely fashion, so that adult possession arrests end across the state immediately,” said Mason Tvert, one of the two official proponents for Amendment 64 and newly appointed communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project.
“We look forward to working with the governor’s office and many other stakeholders on the implementation of Amendment 64,” Tvert continued. “We are certain that this will be a successful endeavor, and Colorado will become a model for other states to follow.”
Not everyone was as thrilled as Tvert. Both US Attorney for Colorado John Walsh and Colorado State Patrol James Wolfinbarger issued statements Monday warning respectively that marijuana is still illegal under federal law and that driving while impaired by marijuana is still a crime.
“The Department of Justice is reviewing the legalization initiatives recently passed in Colorado and Washington state,” Walsh said in his statement. “The Department’s responsibility to enforce the Controlled Substances Act remains unchanged. Neither states nor the executive branch can nullify a statute passed by Congress. In enacting the Controlled Substances Act, Congress determined that marijuana is a Schedule I controlled substance. Regardless of any changes in state law, including the change that will go into effect on December 10th in Colorado, growing, selling or possessing any amount of marijuana remains illegal under federal law. Members of the public are also advised to remember that it remains against federal law to bring any amount of marijuana onto federal property, including all federal buildings, national parks and forests, military installations, and courthouses.”
“The Colorado State Patrol would like to remind motorists that if you chose to consume marijuana and make the decision to drive that you are taking a huge risk,” Wolfinbarger said. “Drivers must realize that if you are stopped by law enforcement officials and it is determined that your ability to operate a motor vehicle has been affected to the slightest degree by drugs or alcohol or both, you may be arrested and subjected to prosecution under Colorado’s DUI/DUID laws. It is imperative that everyone takes responsibility for public safety when driving on Colorado’s highways.”
While the implementation of regulations for marijuana commerce in Colorado and Washington is by no means assured, the legalization of pot possession in the two states is a done deal. And with it, a huge hole has been blown through the wall of marijuana prohibition. Since the election last month, public opinion polls have shown increasing support — and in three out of four cases, majority support — for marijuana legalization, as well as little patience for federal interference in states that have legalized.
Marijuana prohibition may not be dead yet, but voters in Colorado and Washington have delivered a mortal blow. The clock is ticking.
By Mike Adams
PN 